"Now it had been arranged that several ladies should join the excursion at this place, and when the train stopped in front of the Depot Hotel quite a bevy appeared on the platform. As they approached the steps of the parlor car their progress was arrested by a black puddle left by the recent rains.
'Let me run for a chair,' said one gallant escort.
'Get a dry board,' suggested another.
Gentle Sirs, you are slow: this is no time nor place for laggard courtesy. Quick as thought Captain Rawlings stepped forward, and gracefully dropping on one knee in the water, made a stepping-place of the other, firm and steady as an arch of limestone. With smiling acknowledgments the fair Martinsburgers skipped over, and reached the car with unsoiled slippers."
Part of the article "Artists' Excursion Over The Baltimore & Ohio Rail Road."