Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 273, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 November 1912 — THAT AMERICAN RUSH [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THAT AMERICAN RUSH

SOMETHING OF A PUZZLE TO THE VISITING ENGLISHMAN. ■ ■ Couldn’t Understand What to Him Appeared an Insane Idea to Escape From the Train as Stations Drew Near. “Panic on a suburban train” —that sounds like the heading of a railroad

horror wherein countless lives have been lost, children trampled and strong men driven mad with fear.' Such is the typical picture called forth by the word “panic,” and yet, according to an English student of

psychology visiting here, Chicago is the scene of hundreds of panicß daily —the modern city, in fact, is made up of elements strongly conducive to inexplicable actions outside the zone of reason and custom. A striking example of city panics occurs every time a suburban train arrives at a station. The English psychologist thus relates the resulting phenomenon: “After we had passed several stations I began to watch the passengers and discovered that as the train drew near the station at which they wished to descend from the cars they invariably grew nervous and preoccupied. Conversations which a moment before had flowed along with ease seemed to halt and hesitate as the train checked its onward rush. Persons buried in books and papers actually seemed to feel the proximity of their destination although it was minutes away. Books' were closed, papers folded and all preparations for an instantaneous departure from the train were made.

“Then an extraordinary thing occurred. Instead of waiting further these uneasy passengers arose and, swaying back and forth recklessly, made their way to the end of the car, passed out, and went on through the train to the rear end, where they waited standing. All the while they peered anxiously forth as though something whispered to them that the train was about to be wrecked and that the sooner they left it the better. "I was strangely interested and I also arose and followed them to the rear coach. There I found a line of them reaching all down the aisle and I took my station there and waited — I knew not why. “At last the first signs of the station appeared and the line pushed forward, 'making the dituationf of the men on the platform perilous indeed. I saw then that there was to be a rush from the car. It seemed-'' that some great danger was at hand and was only to be escaped by promptness in leaving the train. At last the engine flashed by the platform and the brakes were applied strenuously. But tne men on the platform dared not wait for the full stop. One after another they leaped from the speeding train and more than one of them came near pitching off the far side. By the time the train had slackened its speed and come to .a standstill it was empty. The passengers meanwhile nad turned and started their mad flight toward the steps which led up to the street “Since then I have watched many times and always the same thing happened. There was always the anxiety as the station approached—always the line of those waiting for the train to slow up slightly and always the tempestuous rush up the stairs—followed in every case by the quiet and demure anti-climax as the street was reached. It was pure panic.”—Chicago Daily News.