Humility Speaks in Silence

For one traveller, it was a surprisingly pleasant train journey from New York to Philadelphia as there was only one more passenger beside her. Her co-passenger was a rather heavyset man. But her comfort was disturbed when the man lit a cigar and started smoking. The lady deliberately coughed and made a face to show her displeasure. Nothing worked. He continued to smoke. Then she blurted out, “You might be a foreigner. But don’t you know that there is a smoking car ahead? Smoking is prohibited here.”

The man quietly threw his cigar out of the window and maintained his equanimity.

When the conductor came to examine the tickets, the lady passenger realized with horror that her co-passenger was the famous General Ulysses Grant. She had boarded his private car by mistake! As the lady made a hasty exit, the General did not even look at her, so as not to embarrass n He turned his head and smiled only after the woman was out of sight.