Page:Morley--Travels in Philadelphia.djvu/63

 play and so quicken our curiosity and civic pride or shame, as the case may be.

Another public clubhouse which the marooned business man finds delightful and always full of good company is the railroad terminal. A big railroad station is an unfailing source of amusement and interest. From news-stand to lunch counter, from baggage room to train gate, it is rich in character study and the humors of humanity in flux. People are rarely at their best when hurried or worried, and many of those one meets at the terminal are in those moods. But, for any rational student of human affairs, it is as well to ponder our vices as well as our virtues, and the statistician might tabulate valuable data as to the number of tempers lost on the railway station stairs daily or the number of cross words uttered where commuters stand in line to buy their monthly tickets. The influence of the weather, the time of year and the time of day would bring interesting factors to bear upon these figures.

There is just one more pastime that the castaway of our imagination finds amusing, and that is acting as door-opener for innumerable cats that sit unhappily at the front doors of little shops on cold evenings. They have been shut out by chance and sit waiting in patient sadness on the cold sill until the door may chance to open. To open the door for them and watch them run inside, with tail erect and delighted gesture, is a real pleasure. With a somewhat similar pleasure does the