all taken, did you not?' 'Yes, five minutes ago!'
snapped the fellow, whom I had already heard swearing, on the edge of
the circle. 'Well, they are all taken, just as they were the first time
I told you they were,' he said, and opened a despatch given him by his
porter, a tall, black, elderly negro with gray hair. I pushed my way in
and asked him, in my most dulcet tone, if I could get an upper berth to
New Orleans. I called him 'Captain', thinking him a pompous old fellow.
He was just beginning to speak to someone else, but I caught him and
he looked across the crowd and said 'New Orleans!' My heart sank at the
tone, and he went on talking to some other man. 'I told you that I would
give you a lower berth, sir, I can give you one now, I have just got a
message that the person who had "lower two" will not want it.' 'Hold on,
then, I'll take that lower,' called the man who had spoken before, over
the crowd, 'I spoke for it first.' 'No you won't,' said the Captain,
who went on writing. The man pushed his way in angrily, a big,
self-assertive fellow; he was evidently smarting from his first repulse.
'What's that? I did, I say. I was here before that man got here, and
asked you for a lower berth, and you said they were all taken.' The
Captain stopped and looked at him. 'My dear sir, I know you did; but
this gentleman has a lady along.' But the fellow was angry. 'I don't
care,' he said, 'I engaged the berth and I know my rights; I mean to
have that lower berth, or I'll see which is bigger, you or Mr. Pullman.'
Just then a lady, who had come out on the steps, spoke to the Captain
about her seat in the car. He turned to her: 'My dear madam, you are all
right, just go in there and take your seat anywhere; when I come in I
will fix everything. Go straight into that car and don't come out in
this cold air any more.' The lady went back and the old fellow said,
'Nick, go in there and seat that lady, if you have to turn every man out
of his seat.' Then, as the porter went in, he turned back to his irate
friend. 'Now, my dear sir, you don't mean that: you'd be the first man
to give up your berth; this gentleman has his sick wife with him and has
been ordered to take her South immediately, and she's going to have a
lower berth if I turn every man in that car out, and if you were Mr.
Pullman himself I'd tell you the same thing.' The man fell back, baffled
and humbled, and we all enjoyed it. Still, I was without a berth, so,
with some mis