The Project Gutenberg EBook of With The Eyes Shut, by Edward Bellamy

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Title: With The Eyes Shut
1898

Author: Edward Bellamy

Release Date: September 21, 2007 [EBook #22713]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITH THE EYES SHUT ***

Produced by David Widger

WITH THE EYES SHUT

By Edward Bellamy

1898

Railroad rides are naturally tiresome to persons who cannot read on the
cars, and, being one of those unfortunates, I resigned myself, on taking
my seat in the train, to several hours of tedium, alleviated only by
such cat-naps as I might achieve. Partly on account of my infirmity,
though more on account of a taste for rural quiet and retirement, my
railroad journeys are few and far between. Strange as the statement may
seem in days like these, it had actually been five years since I had
been on an express train of a trunk line. Now, as every one knows, the
improvements in the conveniences of the best equipped trains have in
that period been very great, and for a considerable time I found myself
amply entertained in taking note first of one ingenious device and then
of another, and wondering what would come next. At the end of the first
hour, however, I was pleased to find that I was growing comfortably
drowsy, and proceeded to compose myself for a nap, which I hoped might
last to my destination.

Presently I was touched on the shoulder, and a train boy asked me if I
would not like something to read. I replied, rather petulantly, that I
could not read on the cars, and only wanted to be let alone.

"Beg pardon, sir," the train boy replied, "but I 'll give you a book
you can read with your eyes shut. Guess you have n't taken this line
lately," he added, as I looked up offended at what seemed impertinence.
"We 've been furnishing the new-fashioned phonographed books and
magazines on this train for six months now, and passengers have got so
they won't have anything else."

Probably this piece of information ought to have astonished me more than
it did, but I had read enough about the wonders of the phonograph to
be prepared in a vague sort of way for almost anything which might b