The story begins with the description of our protagonist who with his “roving eye” reads, or more to say “skips” through his breakfast newspaper. The contents of the morning paper is boring as usual— the enumeration reflects the lifelessness of these news: “Home Rails, Questions in the House, and Three—Piece Suits”, so we see the boredom of his morning. The situation changes when he tumbles on some unusual article, he becomes interested and his “eye roved no more”. Reading the article he turns his attention to some facts, the author point them out with the enumeration “the blue smoke rising from a heated axle, the engine—driver sprinting along the lines like a madman, soldiers jumping out on the line and playing a concertina, a nervous woman—passenger wondering what had happened, the blue mountains, the blue sky, "the hay—making damsels in white sunbonnets and hayforks on their shoulders"”. So the article seems to present an ordinary, but unusual story but suddenly he reads the headline of the paragraph “A Minor Mystery” and after reading this paragraph he answers the journalist’s questions. The answer seems very simple for him.
The inner speech of Anthony, or the author’s discourse follows, presenting in the following paragraph the very essence of the railroads to the reader. Here we see the contrast between the pleasure of railroads and their drawback, some unknown places “with no names and no stations”, “to which no tickets are issued” are presented, and moreover compared to the Heavens. By this subconscious comparison the speaker tries to persuade us that these “Heavens” is the escape when you fed to the teeth with the big cities. The phrase “That is where I really wanted to go — that is where I would like to get out!” with italicized words stresses and underlines the mental condition of such persons – tired, bored, seeking for a shelter. The enumeration “That valley of flowers, that cottage in the birch—glade, that buttercup field with the little river and a kingfisher” exhibits the impressions that one could get from only a glimpse of the carriage window.
The next scene abruptly changes from Anthony who laughs at his morning newspaper to Anthony who finds himself in the stuffy carriage. The scene shows the contrast between hammerhead persons whose only concern is that broken train, Anthony, who is really interested in that odyssey and people from the outside. Describing the firsts and the third ones, the author uses numerous epithets, which underline their deep nature: “the nervous lady, a fat millionaire, his fat wife” and contrary to them “a fresh young voice”. Anthony’s sight is filled with colors “A hedgerow bowed with blossom, beyond it a meadow in full flower, long flowering grass, threaded with flowering stems, lace—white, chicory—blue flowers, a profusion of flowers shimmering in the long grass” – flowers, they are everywhere, flowers that one could not find in the gray, industrial city. In almost every sentence, we can see the opposition of the nervous train inhabitants and the blooming youth of the countryside residents. The enumeration again displays their attitude towards the life “A few girls stood and stooped in the long grass, picking the flowers; some wore wreaths of the blue and white flowers, some were laughing under their white sunbonnets, some used, some rested on their rakes, all were sweet and fresh and frank”. And there is one person to whom the author gave his individual place in the story— “One tall young fellow, splendid as a god, stood edgeways in the sunlight”.
But as the story continues the nervousness tends to grow: “We are held up!" "We have broken down!" "Bandits! — these dreadful foreign parts!" "The engine is on fire!" "The engine—driver has gone mad!” these exclamatory phrases once again underline the feral nature of townsmen who found themselves in an unusual situation, though the gay young voices still sound in the air as if nothing had happened. The author through a simile compares the Blue Mountains to a dream, and even to a paradise. The picturesque description of soft dim woods, of a tiny cottage, of meandered little paths and a little stream makes us believe that the very person who describes all that, found his own paradise. The nerves are red—hot, the paradise is beckoning and Anthony finally decides. He gets his little bag from the rack and opens the carriage door. At last, nothing is going to change his mind, the repetition, or maybe the sound of the concertina "Late! late! late!" drops the curtain of his previous life. Leaving behind himself “the dancing laughing flower—gatherers, the young god mowing, the peasants drinking, the soldiers playing, the Blue Alsatian Express” – some kind of symbols, Anthony gets closer and closer to a new period in his life. The author used a question in the narrative here: “the millionaire who would be late — for what? For what could one be late?” – its purpose is to reveal that such moneymakers could never understand what a romantic life is.
So the new phase of his life begins. Even the ordinary hay—shaker appears as a “lovely grey—eyed child” whose laugh is comparable to the music, she treats him some milk and honey pie and makes a simple gesture. And he stays there, and the Blue Alsatian Express wents on without him.
Anthony stirs his tea—cup. In the next column was an account of Last Night's Debate on…
He skips it.
