Tales of Love and Loss (Translated by Robert Ferguson 1997) by Knut Hamsun

Author:Knut Hamsun [Hamsun, Knut]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature, Stories
ISBN: 9780285633834
Publisher: Souvenir Press
Published: 1897-01-01T16:00:00+00:00

A WOMAN’S TRIUMPH

I was a conductor on a tram-car in Chicago. My first job was on the Halstead line, the line that goes from the middle of town all the way down to the cattle-market. Those of us working the nightshift never felt particularly safe on that line because of all the dubious types who used it. We weren’t allowed to shoot and kill people, in case the company was held responsible and made to pay compensation; as for me, I never carried a revolver anyway, I just trusted to luck. But in any case it’s rare that a man is completely unarmed, and there was always the crank for the brake which could be removed in an instant and would make a very handy weapon. Even then, I only had to use it once.

in 1886 I worked every night over the Christmas period without anything special happening. A gang of Irishmen got on at the cattle-market and filled up the car, they were drunk and had bottles with them and began to sing loudly and were reluctant to pay, even though we’d already set off. They said they had been paying the company five cents every morning and night and now it was Christmas and they weren’t going to pay. It seemed a reasonable enough attitude to take, but I daren’t let them off because of the company spies who travelled about checking on the honesty of the conductors. A policeman boarded. He stood for a few minutes, passed some remark about Christmas and the weather and then got off again because we were so full. I knew quite well that it would only have taken a couple of words in his ear and all of them would have had to pay their five cents; but I said nothing. ‘Why didn’t you report us?’ someone asked. I answered that I didn’t think it was necessary, since I knew I was dealing with gentlemen. At this some of them burst out laughing at me; but one or two others sided with me and they paid for the rest.

By next Christmas I was working on the Cottage line. Here things were very different. Now I had a train of two and sometimes three wagons, operated by an underground electric cable. The public in this part of town were gentry and I had to collect my five cents with gloves on. But nothing exciting ever happened, and one soon got bored with seeing and hearing these people from the big houses.

And yet something odd did happen that Christmas of 1887.

On Christmas Eve morning I drove the tram downtown; I was working the dayshift at the time. A gentleman gets on and begins talking to me. When I had to pass inside through the wagons he waited until I came back to my place on the platform at the rear and again began talking to me. He was about thirty, pale, with a moustache, very well dressed, but not wearing an overcoat in spite of the cold.

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