Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1848-09-14
AN OLD TRAVELLER.

AN OLD TRAVELLER.
! am on the top of southern mail, and
know the man beside me is an cold travel
ler." How indelibly craven on my obser-
WALTON are the signs and tokens of this class.
Your real sold traveller" is never very
young, and seldom above the middle height
son of Anak can hardly be bona fde old
traveller, being generally so lost in admira-
ton of his large proportions, that he has no
time to hive The wisdom and deep expert
ence peculiarly belonging to The character.
Neither is your old traveller a. handsome
fellow-his head is generally bald or fast
verging TO that condilion-his forehead
broad and wrinked, and lransversely mark
ed by Sigh. line, which shows where his
faithful companion, the hat or cap, has rest
ed for hours on its intellectual support. The
eyebrows are square, grizzed, bushy; and
the eye. underneath, has a gray sharpness
that battles all attempts to look it down.
An old traveller may have Grecian or Ro
man nose; but, with so classic nasal or
gan, he can never attain to the highest ranks
among those sons of genius. Julius Caesar
wrote commentaries, and conquered king
doms; but he was no great old traveller, OF
he would not have weiled himself 10 the
skin crossing the Rubicon. The lips Of the
old traveller are characteristic also, and are
applied closely together when their owner
is not speaking; for your old traveller can
always breathe nasally; he is too cautious
to know any thing of colds in either head
or chest. An ambitious coxcomb wraps
himself in as many coats and cloaks as
HamIel's philosophic gravedigger sports
wais'coats, and then supposes he is aulho-
rized to assume The name of old traveller
vain and impotent conclusion! Your real
old traveller never descends TO the puppy
ism Of external ostentalion. His coats and
! overals are more remarkable for quality
than quantity; and when he has wrapped
himself therein, the winds of heaven may
roar in the fury Of their power; the "big
drops" may come spelling from the sky"
bu, firm and impene,rable as the hoary
strength of your everlasting hills, is the ex-
ternal man of your old traveller. He is not
confined to any particular vehicle-you may
meet him in the steam coach, on the blaz-
oned mail. or on the humble side Of Bian
coni's humbIest car. He is more partial to
the outside of the conveyance-not alto
gelher from economical molives-but it is
situation not SO liable as the inside to sew
eral little annoyances; such as sqnalling
babies, and spi,etul bachelors pinching them;
or hys,erlcaI young ladies who want the
windows up when the res. Of the party wish
them down, and rice versa.
When your old traveller dismounts at a
'changing' stage, it is not to plunge into a
pol-house, to consume porter or whlskey :;
he has his proper pocket pistol, temporarily
charged with grog, and from this he takes
moderate draught, then looks keenly a,
the springs Of the vehicle, and resumes his
seat Follow him to the breakfast Stage
he never waits to help down trembling
fair one, who has sat beside him for some
fifteen miles; and when, by the assistance
of person belonging to another class Of
travellers, the said fair one has entered the
cuf1ee-room, she finds the old traveller deep
in his third egg, or sloully and silently as
sailing his second helping of beefsleak. A
large cup of tea stands near the more sub
slantiAl viands, in order that the cool air Of
heaven may fan it; after which the old trav-
eller consumes it rapidly, without any dan
ger of scaldng. Bulas the coach approaches
the more important dinner stage, observe
how he ,ivesls himself of his outer garments
before it stops, in order that no time may
be lost preparatory to the onslaught He
never carves for the company in general
not he-he leaves that TO some foolish po-
lite greenhorn, and sneers internally Iike
The monarch in ''lhe revolt Of IsIam'') }, even
while receiving plentiful supply from the
very person who forms the subject of his
contempt. "Like the ghost of Alonzo the
brave" he speaks not during the repast.
He directs his main assault on the joint of
fresh meat, and employs the light infantry
of digestion on the chikens, and why?-)
because the leg or shoulder of mutton costs
most, and the greater havoc the old travel
Ter can make in its substance, the less will
the in keeper gain at his expense. Mark,
too, how he disposes Of the chikens-lhc