Signal Service

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Time-table! Terrible and hard
  To figure! At some station lonely
We see this sign upon the card:
[Footnote Asterisk: Train 20: Stops on signal only.]

We read thee wrong; the untrained eye
  Does not see always with precision.
The train we thought to travel by
[Footnote Dagger: Runs only on North-west division.]

Again, undaunted, we look at
  The hieroglyphs, and as a rule a
Small double dagger shows us that
[Footnote SmallDoubleDagger: Train does not stop at Ashtabula.]

And when we take a certain line
  On Tues., Wednes., Thurs., Fri., Sat., or
  Monday,
We're certain to detect the sign:
[Footnote SectionMark: $10 extra fare ex. Sunday. ]

Heck Junction--Here she comes! Fft! Whiz!
  A scurry--and the train has flitted!
Again we look. We find it--viz.,
[Footnote DoubleBar: Train does not stop where time omitted.]

Through hieroglyphic seas we wade--
  Print is so cold and so unfeeling.
The train we wait at Neverglade
[Footnote Paragraph: Connects with C. & A. at Wheeling.]

Now hungrily the sheet we scan,
  Grimy with travel, thirsty, weary,
And then--nothing is sadder than
[Footnote PointingHand: No diner on till after Erie.]

Yet, cursed as is every sign,
  The cussedest that we can quote is
This treacherous and deadly line:
[Footnote TripleAsterisk: Subject to change without our notice.]

© Franklin Pierce Adams