Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1857-08-08
CHANCES AND pMANGEs.
= NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS..

= RA1IRoAV REMrnlscrNcE.
Tsay, Mr.. Conductor, when will the next
express train 60 out for st. Louisq'
sEleven O'Clock and thirty minutes, to !
night, SIR was the gentlemanly reply to the
rough inquiry.
Eleven o'clock and thirty miautesl Go to
Texas! Why it's zen this very minute! III
bet my boots against jack knife the norm
ing express is off,
'Yes, sir:it has been gone half an hour.
why in the nature didn't you get US here
soonerf' Fourteen hours in Chicager is
enough to break Teller oil to smash
Fourteen hours in Chicager, putting and
blowing! I've been told they keep hund-
red boss steam power all the while running
to blow themselves mp with, and pick the
pockets of every traveller to pay the engi-
neer and fireman.. Wall, Iguess can stand
it; Tve twenty that has never been broke;
l reckon that'll put me through. Why
didn't you fire up, old brag9-give your old
hoss another peck of oats. 1 tell ye, this
fourteen hours will knock my calculations
all into the middle of next week.
very sorry, sir-we've done our best,
but as we are not clerks of the weather,
hope you will not lay your misfortunes at
our account. Snow drifts and the thermom-
eter at sixteen below zero are enemies we
can't readily overcome
That's so,' said the first speaker, with a
broad emphasis and a good-natured, forgiv
ing SMILE 'Fuurt, en- hours in Chicager.'
The stentorian voice, sounding like a
trumpet, had aroused every sleeper from
elysian dreams into which he might have
fallen, after his long, tedious, cold nights
travel. Every head was turned, and every
eye fixed on the man who had thus broken
the silence. lie was standing by the stove,
warming his boots. To have warmed his
boots through such a mass of cowhide and
sole leather would have been fourteen
hours operation. Six foot four inches he
stood in, those boots, with shoulders EN-
cased in a fur coat. that looked more like
bearing up world than you will meet Or
dinarily in a,lifetime. His head Webster
ian, his shaggy hair black as jet, his whiskers
to match, his eye dark and piercing, and his
Jaws eternally moving with q rOusing quid
between them, while smile of cheerful
good humor, Notwithstanding his seeming
impatience, attracted every ones attention
Fourteen hours in Chicager, ell? Wall
1can stand it if the rest can. II twenty
dollars won't carry me through, Ill borrow
Of my friends. I've got the thing that'l
bring 'em. That's So
And lie thrust his hand, little less in
size than q common spade, down into the
cavernoas- depths ola broad striped, flashy
pair of pants, and brought up that great RED
hand, Us full rs it could possibly hold, o.
twenty dollar gold pieces.
'Don't.yer think can Stand these ere
Changers for one fourteen hours?'
A nod of assent from three or four, ant
smile of curiosity from the rest, answered
his question in the affirmative.
You must have been in luck, stranger,
said an envious looking little man. You've
moro than your share Of gold.'
i have, eh9 Well, reckon not. came
honestly by it, that's so. And there's them
living who can remember this child when he
went round these p'raries trapping p'rary
hens and the like to get him nights lodg-
ing, or pair of shoes to keep the nassau
gers from biting my toes I've hung myself
up more nor one night in the timber to
keep out of the way of wild varmintS; best
sleeping in the world in the crotch of tree
top! Now l reckon you would not believe
it, but I've gone all winter without shoe
to my foot; and lived on wild game, when |
could catch it. That's so.'
Didn't stunt oursgrowth any said avoice
near.
Not bit oft. 1t brought me up right.
These prairies are wonderful roomy. l
thought one spell would let myself out
entirely, but me and mother held corcaS,
and decided that as she was getting old, and
blind like, it took too long and cost too
much to sew the legs ofmy trowsers, and SO
l put a stop to it and concluded that six
foot five would do for Teller that couldn't
afford the expensive luxury OF a wife to
make his breeches. 1t was only my love
for my mother that stopped my growth.
Ii I'd had an idea of sewing machine,
there's no telling what Knight have done.'
you have so many gold pieces in your
pocket, you can afford to get your trowsers
made now. Why don't gu and your mother
hold another caucus, and see what you can
do? II she let you expand yourself, you
might sell out to Barnum and make for
tune by travelling with Tom Thumb, and
take the old woman along
Stranger said the rough, great man, and
his whole face doomed up with mingled
expression of pain and pride-stranger,
spoke word here didn't mean to; slight
word, like, about my mother. would give
all the gold in my pocket to bring her back
one hour to look upon this country as it is
now. She had her cabin here when Chica>
ger was nowhere; here she raised her boys:
she couldn't give 'em larnin', but she taught
us better than books can give: to be honest,
useful and INDUSTRIOUS She taught us to be
faithful and true; to stand by a friend and
be generous to an enemy. It's thirty years,
stranger, since we dug her grave by the
lake side here, with our own hands; and
with many tear and sob, turned away
from the cabin where we'd been ralsed-the
Indians had killed our father long befo e,
aud we'd nothing to keep us-and SO We
went cut to seek our fortunes. My brother,
he took down to st. Louis, and got married
down there somewhere and just went
where the wind blowed, and when had
scraped money enough together, cum back
and bought few acres of land around my
mothers old cabin, for the place where ia
lain her bones was sacred like. Well, in the
course of time it turned up right in the mid
die OF Chicager. l couldn't stand that
loved my old mother too we'll to let the ON
nibusses rattle over her grave, so 4 cum
back about fifteen years ago, and quietly
moved her away to the burying ground; and
then went away to Texas and wrote to an |
agent afterwards to sell my land. What
cost o few hundreds to begin on sold tor
over forty thousand-and if had kept 1t