The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1857-08-06
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
From The Knscxerbocker Nagazane-I
JOHN PHGNIX'S JOURNEY
FROM BOSTON TO NEW ORLEANS

From he Knlcterbocker Maganne.I
JOHN PHGNIX'S JOURNEY
FROM BOSTON TO NEW ORLEANS
On the 9th of January, at 8 A. NJ, l left
the fremont House in a hackney carriage,
the wheels whereof had turned into runners.
This method of progression, rendered neces-
sarv by the deep SHOWS, is considered a great
amusement in the North. Being particularly
dangerous to life and limb, and usually ter
minating in pulmonary consumption, the
pastime is very properly called ~sleighing.
With a th~rough-ticket for the great city of
Cain in my pocket, l took a seat in the cars
at the Worcester Railroad depot. After watt
ing half an hour, during which time my SYM
pathies were deeply interested by the perform
ances of an unhappy young couple, one OF
whom was going somewhere and the other
wasn't, and who IN consequence were slob-
bering over each other to a terrible extent, a
sudden harsh bark was heard from the engine,
a grating jar, which acted on my teeth like
lemon-juice, followed, and we were of. The
motion of a railroad car is of two kinds, which
may be called the " heave and set or whip
saw movement" and the ''tipand sitter" names
sufficiently expressive to require no farther ex-
PLANTATION. We started on the 'heave and set, y
which gradually merged into the ''tip and
SITTER as our velocity increased.
On entering a railroad car the first object of
the solitary traveller should be to secure an
entire seat to himself. This may generally
be done successfully by taking the outside
seat and skillfully disposing a small carpet
bag, great-coat, umbrella, and cane, so as to
cover the inner one. As the passengers throng
into the car, many will gaze earnestly at the
place thus occupied, but will usually prefer to
move on rather than give you trouble /; but If
the car is quite filed, the question will un-
doubtedly be asked, .Is that seat taken, sir?"
when you should reply with an irnperturable
countenance, "It IS, sir 20 and the inquirer,
with perhaps a slight glance of suspicion,
will move on. As a mans object should be
to make himself as comfortable as possible in
the world, that his mind may be IN a proper
frame to prepare for the next, a slight devia-
ton from the truth for the purpose of securing
this object, like the above, is p~ardonable.
Having made an arrangement In accordance
with these views, and being as comfortable
as circumstances would permit, the motion of
the cars being that of a small boat in a high
sea, and their noise like unto a steam saw
mill, / composed myself to the journey. At
birmingham, the usual nuisance of railroad
cars commenced First appeared a small boy
with the Boston newspapers, which had been
brought to him by our train then the dirty
boy with the parched corn, who, in the inter-
walls of trade, dabbles among his merchandise
with his sore hand, and devours so much of
that dry commodity, that you are fain to be-
lieve him to be his own best customer; then
the big boy with the fearful apples, ''three
for five cents - ard finally that well-known
and interchangeable wretch with the slozengers,"
who on this occasion actually sold a roll of
the description called "checkerberry' to an
elder individual of the Muggins family sitting
near me. who ate them. and, to my great JOY,
became wofully disordered in consequence.
But the boy with the ACCORDION was not there
Il think he has not yet got so far North.
Ii was but the week before that | had seen
him, however, on the Philadelphia cars. Il
was after eleven o'clock the train had passed
New Brunswick, and the passengers were
trying TO sleep (hai ha y when the boy en-
tered. He was a seedy youth, with a seal
skin cap, a singular dirty face, a grey Jacket
of the ventilating order, and a short, but
remarkably broad pair of 'corduroy-cordu-
roys." He wore an enormous bag OF haver-
sack about his neck and bore in his hand that
most internal and detestable instrument of
music. They pull the music out of it, and it
comes forth struggling and reluctant, like a
cat drawn by the tail from an ashhole, or a
squirrel pulled shrieking from a hollow log
with a ramrod. The u~nprincipled boy COM
menced pulling at his thing, and Mortified us
with the most awful version of that wretched
.Dog Tray" that l ever listened to-. Then he
walked around the car and collected forty-two
cents. Then he returned to the center of the
car and standing close to the stove, which
was red hottie night being cold-he es-
sayed to pull out "Pop Goes the Weasel
when suddenly pop went the boy; he dropped
the ACCORDION, burst into tears and clapping
his hands behind him, executed a frantic
dance, accompanied by yells of the most
agonizing character. / saw it all and felt
grateful to a retributive Providence. He had
stood too close to the stove and his corduroys
were in a light blaze /; a few inches below the
termination of his grey jacket was the seat of
his wo. After ne got on fire the conductor
put him out, and a sweet and ineffable calm
came over me. | realized that "whatever is,
is right" and | fell into a deep and happy
sleep.
The musical nuisance, fortunately, was
spared us on this occasion. A tourist travel
ing by railroad across the United States
would have but little opportunity to collect
notes for his forthcoming work. Thus nv
ideas of Albany. at which Dutch village we
arrived after dark, are, a hasty scramble down
a platform; then budding into a sled with
other bewildered and half-frozen passengers !.
then rapid f~oot-race of about a quarter of a
mile, encouraged by shouts of LEG it. the
cars are Off" mo they amt plenty of time"
Hi, Hi, there. round the corner, them's the
cars" etc. then more cars and we ground on.
1t was on this Albany and Buffalo train
that a little incident occurred which may be
worthy Of mention and serve as caution to
future innocent travellers. / had observed
that at each change of cars, and they were
frequent, when the general scramble took
place, one car was defended from the assault
by a stalwart man, usually of the Irish per-
s~uasion, who, leaf to menaces, unsoftened by
entreaty, and interrupted by brides, MAIN
fained his post for the benefit Of the ..leddies."