Bradford reporter. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1844-1884, 1857-06-25
I'll Mist&llanfOus.
CHANCES AND CHANGES.
BY FRANCIS D. GAGE.

1" ! say Mr.. Conductor, when will the next
express train go out TO St Louis ~
Eleven o'clock and thirty minutes, tonight,
sir" was the gentlemanly reply to the rough
question.
Eleven O'Clock and thirty inmates Go
to Texas Why, it's ten this very minute
I'll bet my boots against jacknife the morn
ing express is off"
Yes, sir, it has been gone half an hour
"Why in natur' didn't you get US here
sooner? Fourteen hours in Chicager is enough
to break a fellow all to smash. Fourteen
hours in Chcager, putting and blowing Eve
been told they keep a regular siX-hundred hoss
steam power all the while running to blow
themselves up with, and pick the pockets of
every traveller to pay the fireman and engi-
neerS WAL guess l can stand it I've
twenty that's never been broke, and | guess
that will put me through. Why didn't you
fire up, old brag-give your old hoss another
peck Of oats | 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, l hope
you will not lay your misfortunes to our ac-
count. Snow-drfts and the thermometer six
teen below zero, are enemies We can't readily
overcome"
That's a fact" said the first speaker, with
broad emphasis, aud goodnatured, forgv
ing smile. Fourteen 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 upon the
man who had broken the silence He was
stand by the stove warming his boots. To
have warmed his feet through such mass of
would have been a fourteen hours operation.
DIX feet four or five inches he stood in those
boots with shouldcrs( (cased in fur coat, that
toooked more like bearing up world than
you will meet ordinarily in half lifetime-
Ills head Websterian, his shaggy hair black
as Jet, his whiskers to match, his dark piercing
eye, aid his jaws eternally moving with Il qud
between them, while a smile of cheerful good
Aumor, Notwithstanding his, seeming impatience,
attracted every one attention.
Fourteen hours in Chicager, eh Wal,
can stand it if the rest can if twenty
dollars won't carry ne through, I'll borry Of
EN-"
And ne thrust hand in little less in size
than common spade down into the cavern
nePths Of broad-striped fashy pair of pants
aAd brought up that great red hand as full as
II could hold, of shining twenty dollar gold
pieces
Don't yer think can stand these ere Chi
caSers for one fourteen hours ?"
nod Of assent from three or four and q
Slllle OF curiosity from the rest, answered his
question in the affirmative.
You must have been in luck, stranger"
o"lu an enVious looking little man. you've
t"olg tian your share of gold"
!, l nave eh Well reckon not. came
"toneStiy by it. That's fact And there's
iaem living who can remember this child when
i he went round the prairies trapping prairie
nenS and the like, to get him nights lodging,
Sr sr pair of shoes, to keep the massasaugers
,rom biting my toes I've hung myself up
os note nor one night in the timber, to keep out
=; ~ inc ways of the wild Yarmints best sleeping
N Tie world, in the crotch of a tree-top =
low, Tow, reckon you wouldn't believe it, but
egone all winter without shoe to nv foot;
Tnl Tha ilved on wild game, when ! could catch it.
that's fact ~