The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1857-05-22

A RAILROAD "REMINISCENCES.
ny FRANCES D. GAaE.

81 say, Mr.. Conductor, when viii the next
express train 20 out to st. Louis 7"
''Eleven O'Clock and thirty minutes, to-
night, sir" Was the gen;lemanly reply to the
rough query.
s'Eieven o'clock and thirty minutes Go
to Texas Why, it's ten this very minute
I'll bet my boots against jack knife the
morning express is off,"
"Yes, sir, it has been gone half an hour"
"Why in natnr' didn't you get us here
sooner Fourteen hours in Chicager is
enough to break Teller oil to smash. Four
teen hours in Chicager, putting and blowing |!
rve been told they keep regular six hun
dred boss steam power all the while run
ming, to blow themselves up with, and pick
the pockets OF every traveller to pay the Ere
men and engineers! Wall, guess | can
stand it; Pve twenty that's never been
broke, think that will put me through
Why didn't you FIRE up, old brag-give your
old hos another peck of oats. tell We, 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 10
our account. Snow-drifts and the thermom-
eter sixteen below zero, are enemies We can't
readily overcome.o
THAT'S So" said the first speaker, with
broad emphasis, and good natured, forgv-
ing smile. s'Fourtcen hours in Chicager !"
The stentorian voice, sounding like trum-
pet, had aroused every sleeper from elysian
dreams into which he might have fallen after
his long, tedious, cold nights travel. Every
head was turned, every eye was fixed on the
man who had broken the silence. He was
standing by the stove, warming his boots
To have warmed bis feet through such mass
of cow hide and sole leather, would have
been fourteen hours' operation. Six feet
four or FIVE inches he stood in those boots
with shoulders Ceased in fur coat) that
looked more like bearing up a world than
you will meet ordinarily, in half life 40.
His head Websterian, his shaggy hair black
as jet, his whiskers to match, his dark, pierre
ing eye, and his jaws eternally moving, with
arousing quid between them, while smile
OF cheerful good humor, Notwithstanding his
seeming impotence, attracted every ones at
tention.
Fourteen hours in Chicager, Ell? Wall,
can stand it il the rest can; il twenty dol
lars won't carry me through, Pll borry of my
friends. Pvegotthe things thst'll bring 'em.
That's So"
And he thrust hand little less in size
than common spade, down into the cavern
Gus depths of broad striped, fashy pair OF
pants, and brought up that great red hand,
full as it could hold, Of shining twenty dollar
gold pieces.
'Don't yer think can stand these ere
Chicagers for one fourteen hours?"
A nod Of assent from three or four, and a
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
more thin your share Of gold"
81 have, Ell? Wall reckon not. leone
honestly by it. 7hat'sss. And there's them
living who can remember this child when hs
went round the p'rairies trapping p'rairy
hens and the like, to get him nights lodg
ing, or pair Of shoes, to keep the massa.
ssugers from biting my toes; | have huns
myself up more nor one night in the timber
to keep out of the way of the wild varmints;
best sleeping in the world, in the crotch Of a
tree-top. Now, | reckon you wouldn't be-
lieve il, but Pve gone all winter without q
shoe TO my foot and lived on wild game,
when could ketch it. That's so -
"Didn't stunt your growth" said avoice
near.
"Nota bit of tt. 1t brought me up right
These p'rarries are wonderful roomy.
thought one spell would let myself out en-
tirely, but me and mother held q corcus, and
decided that she was getting old, and blind
like, it tux too long, and cost too much tc
sew up the legs of my trousers, and so pu,
u stop to it, and concluded that six foot fv.
do far fai bas A. r. II
expensive luxury Of wife to make his breech.
es. 1t was only my love for my mother thai
stopped my growth. II I'D had an idea OF
a sewing machine, there's no telling what
might have DONE"
"You have 80 many gold pieces 10 your
pocket, you can afford to get your trouser.
made now. Why don't you and your motl
er hold another caucus, and see what you ca,
do? IL she would let you expand yourself
you might sell out to Barnum, and make ,
fortune travelling with Tom Thumb, and tax,
the old woman along"
STRANGER" said the rough, great man
and his whole face doomed up with a mingled
expression Of pain and pride. "Stranger,
spoke word here didn't mean to a slight.
ly word, like, about my mother. | woulc
give all the gold in my pocket to bring he,
back for one hour, to look upon this country
ms it is now. She bad her cabin here wher
Chicager was nowhere; here she raised be,
boys-she couldn't give them larnin', butsh,
taught US better things than books can give
to be honest, and useful, and Industrious
She taught US to be faithful and true to
stand by friend, and DO generous TO an en-
envy. lbs thirty years, stranger, since ",
dug her grave by the lake side with our owr
hands aud with many tear and sob, turnec
ourselves away from the cabin where wee
been raised 1.-The Indians had killed our faith.
er long before, and we had nothing to keer
us-and 80 We went to seek our fortunes.
Ay brother, he took down to ST. Louis, and
got married down thar; and | just wen,
where the wind blowed, and when I'D got
money enough together, | cum back and
bought few acres Of land around my
mothers old cabin, for tho place where I'D
lain her bones was sacred, like. Well, in the
course Of time, it turned up in the middle OF
Chieager. could stand that, / loved nv
old mother too we'll to let omnibuses rattle
over her grave, 30 l cum back about fifteen
years ago, and quietly moved her away to the
buryin' ground; and then | went back to
Texas, and wrote to an agent to sell my land.
What cost few hundred to begin on, sold
for over forty thousand--if I'd kept it till
now, 'twonld have been worth ten times that;
that's 50, but got enough for it. soon
turned that forty thousand into eighty thou
sand, and that into twice as much, and 90
on, till DON'T know nor DON. care what Pm
worth thaPs 70. work hard, am the
same rough customer, remember every day
Of my life what my mother taught me !; new
er drink nor fight; w.shI didn't swear and
chaw; but tiem's got to be kind o. second
natur' like, and the only thing troubles me
is my money-haven't got no wife nor child
rem, and I'm going now to hunt up brother
aud his folks. II his boys is clever and in
dustrious, amt ashamed Of my big boots and