Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1857-05-22
MistGIlaneons.
CHANCES AND CHANGES.
RAILROAD "REMINISCENCES.
BY FRANCES D. GAGE

BY FRANCES ID. GAGE'
~ say Mr.. Conductor, when will the next
express train go out to st. Louis :"
"Eleven o'clock and thirty minutes, to-
night, sir" was the gentlemanly reply to the
rough query.
"Elcven o'clock and thirty minutesl Go
to Texas! Why, its ten this very minute.
III bet my boots against a jack-knife the
morning express is off"
ayes, sir, it has been gone half an hour. /"
"Why in nature didn't you get us here
sooner? Fourteen hours in Chicager is
enough to break fellow all to smash
Fourteen hours in Chicager, putting and
blowing! I've been told they keep rcgu-
lar sx-hundred hoss steam power all the
while a running, to blow themselves up with,
and pick the pockets of every traveller to
pay the firemen and engineers! Wall, l
can stand it; I've twenty that's never been
broke, think that will put me through
Why didn't you fire up, old brag-give
your old hoss another peck of oats. tell
We, this fourteen hours will knock my calcu
lations all into the middle Of next week."
"Very sorry, sir--we've done our best
but as we arc not clerks of the weather,
hope you will not lay your misfortunes tc
our account. Snow drifts and the thermo
meter sixteen below zero, are enemies VIC
can't readily overcome"
"Thats So" said the first speaker, with s
broad emphasis, and good naturcd, forgiv
ing smile. "Fourteen hours in Chicagcr! !
The stentorian voice, sounding like {
trumpet, had aroused every sleeper from ely
sian dreams into which he might have fallel
after his long, tedious, cold nights travel
Every head was turned, every eye was fixec
on the man who had broken the silence
He was standing by the stove, warming hi
boots. To have warmed his feet throug
such mass of cow hide and sole leathe
would have been fourteen hours operation
Six feet four or five inches he stood il
those boots, with shoulders leased in a fu
coat) that looked moro like bearing up
world than you will meet in half lifetime
His head Wcbsterian, his shaggy hair blac'
; as jet, his whiskers to match, his dark, pier(
ing eye and his jaws etcrnally moving wit
a rousng quid between them, with smil
of cheerful good humor, notwithstanding
his seeming impaticnce, attracted every one
! attention.
"Fomteen hours in Chicager, eh7 Wal
can stand it if the rest can if twenty do
won't carry me through, I'll borry of m
friends. I've got the things that'll brin
en-. That's So"
And he thrust hand little less in siz
than a common spade, down into tho cav
ernous depths of broad-striped, fiashy pal
of pants, and brought up that great re
hand, full as it could hold, of shining twent
dollar gold pieces.
"Don't yer think I can stand these Chi
cagers for one fourteen hours I"
A nod of assent from three or four, and
smile of curiosity from the rest, answere
his question in the affirmative.
"You must have been in luck stranger,
said an cnvious looking little man. "You'v
more than your share of gold"
~ have, cha Wall l reckon not.
come honestly by it. That's So An
there's them living who can remember th
child when he went around the prairie
trapping p'rarry hens and the like, to g
him nights lodging, or pair of shoes, I
keep the massasaugers from biting his toes
Pve hung myself up more nor one night
. the timber to keep out Of the way of tn
wild varmints; best sleeping in the world,
the crotch of a tree-top! Now, recko
you wouldn't believe it, but I've gone a
winter without shoe to my foot; and live
on wild game, when could ketch it. That
SOL!
"Didn't stunt your growth" said a voie
near,