Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 October 1890 — The Sex Are Queer. [ARTICLE]

The Sex Are Queer.

There were four passengers of us who got off at a country junction to wait two hours for the train on the o her line—two men add two women. None of us had ever seen each other before. The station was a little better than a barn, with no house nearer than a quarter of a mile. The women gave each other a look and entered the wait-ing-room, where they sat down as far apart as possible. “Well, old boy,” remarked the strange man to me. “Have a smoke?” “You bet,” And in five minutes we were well acquainted, and playing euchre under the shadow of a box-car. He didn’t take me for a thief, and I never suspected him of murder, and the two hours went by in a hurry. Not so in the depot, however. For the first half hour the two women glared at each other. Neither would speak first. Each was afraid of the other. One looked out into a turnip field, and the other into a swamp. Now and then one or the other mustered up courage to approach the door and look out, but always to return to her seat figain. Only one had a watch. She consulted it every five minutes, but the other dared not ask her what time it was. As an offset, however, a wooden pail, half full of warm water, stood near her. and though the other lady was dying for a drink she dared not go over to the pail. One had a novel, and the other had a bundle of shells and curiosities, and they could have chatted and visited and read and had a good time. But they dared not. They had not been introduced. What an awful thing if they had spoken and acted civilized, and then one had found out that the other was only a hired girl.— New York Sun.