I had seen it coming on, and the final
break was made when I was called to Indianapolis by the railroads
for the Special Session. She left the day after I did. This time
she thought she would go by coach, paying her own fare, because
in this emergency I have refused to ask for passes. The day I
left she told me her intentions, and knowing how trains are
crowded, next day I went to the station at Indianapolis to see
how she was faring. I found her standing, and she had been
standing all the way to Indianapolis and was bedraggled already,
and with only about one-twenty-fifth of her journey completed. . .
We got back to the Pullman conductor, stated our troubles, and
he made the usual reply: "I have just one lower to New York, and
she can have that". . . The coaches and aisles were crowded with
soldiers, sailors, baggage, dirty newspapers, pop bottles, paper
cups, lunch boxes and kids . . . and the last I saw of that day's
first section of No. 12, the conductor was shepherding her back
through the Pullmans . . . .
The Special Session brought out a holocaust of patriotism--if I
am using the right term. The purpose was to make it possible for
the members of "our armed forces" to vote next Fall.
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