Hooking Watermelons - Edward Bellamy - Bog

The train slackened, a brakeman thrust his head in at the door and shouted "Bah,"-a mysterious formality observed on American trains as they enter towns, -and an elderly lady, two drummers, and a young man with a satchel got out, followed by the languid envy of the other passengers, who had longer or shorter penances of heat and dust before them. The train got under way again, while the knot of loafers about the station proceeded to eye the arrivals as judicially as if they were a committee of safety to protect the village from invasion by doubtful characters