Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 November 1875 — About an Assertion. [ARTICLE]

About an Assertion.

I have great respect for Miss Anna Dickinson. True, she can’t bake a loaf of bread, darn a sock, put down a carpet or sift pumpkin, but, on the other hand, she refuses to wear a bustle, is not affected and agrees with me that goats are a great nuisance in cities. t I saw, the other day, an assertion by Miss Dickinson that the present generation of men, both married and single, was a terribly selfish generation, and she added a complaint of a general lack of civility toward unprotected females. I don’t want to deny that I am a man, nor yet deny Miss Dickinson’s assertion. I want to explain. When I got into an omnibus in Chicago one evenin'* not long ago, to.change over to another depot, someone’s maiden aunt was my fellow-passenger. She had three or four bundles and a trunk to come by the baggage-wagon, and she was not a handsome woman nor a young woman. If I was to be put on bath I’d swear that she was one of homeliest women I ever saw, and I’ve been all over New Jersey and Indiana. I knew’ the woman had to change cars, and I knew she ought to be glad of a little help, so I slid along the seatand asked: “ Going East?” She didn’t reply and, thinking she might be a little deaf, I called out again: “ Going East?” She whirled around, gave me a look of rage and contempt, and hissed out: “ I know you, young man! and if you speak to me again I’ll have you jailed!” There I was, trying to be civil and obliging and to disprove Miss Dickinson’s ■assertions, and the woman took me for a pickpocket or a murderer! I made another effort when we reached the depot, saying: “ Madam, I am going East, and if you take the same train I’ll cheerfully show you to the ticket office and help you to get your baggage checked.” “ I’ll help you if you don’t go away from me!” she snarled, and she added that if justice were done I’d be in State Prison. She got confused in the crowd, failed to find her trunk, and when the train went out she was cantering around the depot w’ith a certainty of having to wait there eight long hours for another train. I could have had her aboard the train with five minutes to spare, but she wouldn’t let me; and I expect she will some day publish an assertion that men are uncivil and selfish. When the clouds gathered the other night and the rain came pouring down I had an umbrella. This may seem incredible to umbrella-owners, but I am on oath. Remembering Miss Dickinson’s assertion, and overtaking a lady with a new hat and choice raiment on, I said: “ Madam, I shall be glad to loan you my umbrella. You can send it to me in the morning.” “ Yes, I know you would! ” she snarled in reply. “ Take it, please, and save your new hat.” She halted, turned around and then and there remarked as follows: “It’s none o’ your business about my hat and if you aon’t leave me I’ll havs you arrested.” Now I may be ugly in look but she couldn’t have seen it on account of the darkness, and no one has a right to j udge of people’s motives by a high-keyed or a low-keyed voice. I wanted to be civil and obliging and would cheerfully have suffered rheumatic twinges in order to save herraiment, but she wouldn’t let me. Two or three w’eeks ago I sat in a pas-senger-coach with a young lady in* the seat next ahead. I suddenly remembered that the magazine which I had finished an hour before might help to relieve the monotony of her journey. I passed it over with the remark: “ Perhaps this may help you to while away the time.” She turned square around, her eyes flashed and she spitefully hissed: “ How dare you speak to me?” There I had it, but I am naturally obstinate and I replied: “ I merely wished to be courteous.” She turned around again and again her eyes flashed as she said: “If you speak to me again I’ll tell the conductor.” Now, then, I assert on my solemn oath that the girl had over 700 freckles on her face, a stub nose, red hair, along, bony neck and two of her front teeth were gone. She couldn’t have reasoned that I was struck with her beauty, or was about to propose an elopement, or intended to fol low her and carry her off to some cave, just as novelists have pirates and brigands do. I’d like Miss Dickinson to explain why she wouldn’t let me be obliging snd civil. ’ These are not the only cases. I’ve been rebuffed so often that now when I see a woman galloping around the depot to fall over sachels and run over trunks in her wild efforts to find her missing bundles I’m secretly glad and earnestly hope she’ll miss the train. If I sit in a car and hear them anxiously asking each other if it is the right train I hope it isn’t—hope they’ll get carried a thousand miles out of their route. If I notice one trying to pub down the ear-window and it refuses to budge I look the other w av, and hope the cold stream of air will give her the quick consumption and devastate a happy hearthstone. Let Miss Dickinson remember that I wanted to be courteous, civil and obliging, but that her sex drove me’ into being selfish and mean.—“ M. Quad,” in N. i. Graphic.