Baton-Rouge gazette. [volume] (Baton-Rouge, La.) 1819-1856, 1843-05-13

would GO at the rate Of ten English miles al
hour, without dr. az or pause, up hill or do"'
he is continually alighting and putting on o't
or both of his ,lrags, alighting and as
eending with a pa 'ience and perseverance
that amazes you. F,Tay, in many states, TIM
caution 10 evinced a lso by the government
and IL forced on the driver, particularly III ba
varia, Wurteinburu ard Austria, by a post oy
the way side, s~tandin,T at the top OF every
slope on The road, having painted on a board
O black and conspicuous 81 ag, and announcing
a fine, of commonly six fol ms ten shiliiilgs3
on any loaded carriage wll,m shal' nesceno
without the drag on. In ever thing they arc
continually guarding against / dose acciaents
which result from hurry or elig h tness Oh con
struction .''-HouiH's Moral IN DoHe&t'e
Life IN Germany" ~s #ts
The stage in which we travelled across,
''the AIIerany's''' was one OF the,n eeallea
"t1'ransit Line 1t was AS the driver 9fthea
| it a crushing affair.", and managed by a re aned
| cruelty to dumb beasts, 10 keep a little aheao
Of the "Opposition," that seemed to come o. "
terinr in Our rear Ike euine i'll timed sp'Tlf%
| never destined exactly to reach Us. ne
drivers of our different changes all seemed
to be made on the 60 a head principles and
Looked upon nothing as really diFgraeeiul but
being behind The stage which so perseverll'gly
pursued It's, Unfortunate ~, loo, Tor our safely,
we went IN an extra and managed by a freak
| Of fortune, to arrive at the different stations,
when drivers and horses were changed Just as
the former had got comfortably to bed and 1t
was the least interesting portion OF my
thoughts that every one of these leaus made
| the most solemn prntestatlon that they would
upset us over some precipice, not less than
three hundred and sixty-tive feet high, and
knock us into siofI n perfect nonen'iy, that 1t
would save the coroner the trouble ot calling
a Jury TO sit upon our remains.
1t liz nine years since. and 1t the Wlhtcr OF
| that wear Is not set down as remarkably Geld
in the almanacs, it shows a want of care in
those useful ANNALS. We say 1t WINS n'ne
wears since we crossed the Allegbany's. At
the particular time we allude, the oldest IN
| habitant' of the country, and we met him on
The road side, informed us that he had no re-
collection of such a severe season. How we
lived through it has puzzled liz quite as much
AZ it did Captain Roas. after his return to
England from his trip to the north pole. The
| fire il, every house we passed smoked like a
a pit,sburg furnace, and around it's genial
warmth were crowds of men women and child
rem that locked as if they might have been
born in the workshop Of Vulcan. The road
! over which we travelled, was McAdar'lizcd
| and then frozen it was it was as hard MS ma
ture will permit, and the tratnpling OF the hor-
ses feet upon II, souhdtd,in the frosty air as II
they were rushing across a continuous bridge.
The inside Of a stage coach is a wonder, 1T
IL a perfect denial TO Newton's theory, that
two things or twenty cannot occupy the same
| place at the same time. The one we travelA
led in was perfectly full Of seats and their
backs, straw, buffalo robes, hat boxes, rifles,
flute cases, small parcels, aud vet nine men,
the very nine muses. at times, Gall the cider
along the road was frozen and we drank the
heart of it.) slowed themselves away within
it's bowels, but how, we leave TO the Inventor
of exhausted air pumps and hydraulic presses.
We all, of course, froze more or less, but 1t
was in streaks the curtains OF the stage
were fastened down, and made tight, and then
like pigs we quarrelled ourselves into the
snuggest possible position and place, it being
considered fortunate to be most In The middle,
as we then parted with the least heat, TO sd
tiefy the craving appetite of Jack frost, who
penetrated every little hole and nook, and de-
lighted himself in painting fantastic figures
upon the different objects exposed to bis i'll
~fuence, out of our misery and breath.
BY one of those extraordinary phenomena
exhibited in the climate Ct our favored cou11-
try, we unexpectedly found ourselves travel
ling over a road that was covered with a frozen
sleet cold MS was the season there was no
snow, the horses shoes had no corks on them
worth noticing, and the iron bound wheels on
this change in the surface OF the earth, SEEM
cd to have SO little hold upon the road, that
| we almost expected they would make an eff
fort to leave it, and break our necks as a re-
ward for their aspirations. CHI we went,hoW-
ever, and as night came on, the darkness en-
yeloped lis in a kind of cloud, the ice glazed
surface of the ground rejecting a dull mystic
rious light upwards. Our whereabouts never
troubled us, all places between the one we
were anious to reach and where we were
made no impression upon us, and perhaps we
would never have known d single particular
place, but for the incident we are about TO de-
tail.
Think that all my companions as we'll as
myself were asleep, when | was awakened by
that peculiar saving motion a stage body
makes upon the springs when suddenly stop
ped. "Nvhat's the matter now ~ was the ge-
neral exclamation of the "insIdes,n to the dri-
yer, who was discovered through the glass
window on the %grouud, beating his arms
around his body with a vehemence that almost
| raised him into the air. "Matter," he en-
claimed, sticking bis nose. above a wooden
blanket that was tied around his face, which
from the cold and his breath was frosted like a
| welded cake, Matter! matter enough, here
we arc on the top of Ball Mountain, the drag
chain broken, and AIN so internal cold, |
could not tie a Knot i'll a rope IL had eighteen
thousand hands"
II was a rueiul situation truly, | jumped
out Of the stage, and contemplated the pros
pect near and at a distance with mixed feel
lnrs. So absorbed did | soon become, that |
lost sight of the unpleasant situation IN which
we were placed, and regarded only the ap-
p~earance of things about me disconnected with
my personal happiness. There stood the
stage upon the very apex OF the mountain, the
hot stealning breath Of my half smothered ira
vellers pouring out Of its open door in puffs
like the respirations Of a mammoth. The drl-
yer, poor fellow, was limping about, more than
half frozen, growing, swearing and threaten
my. The poor horses look about twenty years
older than when they started, their heads be-
ING whitened with the frost. They stamped
| with impotence on the "hard ribbed ice," the
| polished iron of their shoes looking as if it
| would penetrate. their flesh with biting cold.
But such a landscape of beauty, all shrouded
| in death, we never saw or conceived, and one
like it is seldom presented to the eye. Down
the mountain could be traced the broad road
in serpentine .w~lndings,f lessening in the dis
lance until it appeared no. wider than a foot
path, obseured by the ravines and torres; trees
through which. it ran. On either side were
deep yawning chasals, at the bottom OF which
the hardy pines sprung upward a hundred and
fifty feet, and yet they looked from Where1