Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1857-08-13
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CHANGES AND CHANGES.
A RAILROAD REMINISCENCE.

"Eleven o'clock and thirty minutes to-
night, sir" was the gentlemanly reply to
the rough query.
"Eleven 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 natur didn't you get US there
sooner? Fourteen hours in Chicager is e.
nough to break a feller to smash. Fourteen
hours in Chicager, putting and blowing! I've
been told they keep regular six hundred
hoss steam power all the while a runnin' to
blow themselves up with, and pick the pock-
ct of every stranger to pay the 6remen and
engineers! Wall, I guess I can stand it !;
I've twenty that's never been been broke,
think thatll put me through. Why don't
you fire up, old brag-give your old boss
another peck of oats. tell ye, this four
teen hours will knock my calculation into
the middle of next week"
every sorry, but we've done our best !;
but as We are not clerks of the weather, I
hope you will not lay our misfortunes to our
account Snow drifts and the thermometer
sixteen degrees below zero are enemies we
can't readily overcome"
"That's so" said the first speaker, with
broad emphasis, and good natured, forgiv-
ing smile "Fourteen hours in Chicager."
The estentorian voice, sounding like trum-
pet, had aroused every sleeper from elysian
dreams into which he might have fallen, af-
ter 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 his feet through such
mass of eowhide 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 with ordinarily in half life
time. His head Websterian, his shaggy
hair black as jet, his whiskers to match, his
dark piercing eye, and his jaws eternally
moving, with rousing quid between them,
while smile of good humor, notwithstand.
ing his seeming impatience, attracted every
ones attention.
"Fourteen hours in Chicager, eh? Wall,
I can stand it if the rest can if twenty dol
lars won't carry me through, I'll borrow of
my friends. I've got the things that'll bring
'em. That's So"
And he thrust hand little less in size
than common spade, down in 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 dol
lar gold pieces.
"Don't yer think can stand these ere
Keicagers for one fourteen hours"
A nod of assent from three or four, and
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 than your share of gold"
81 have, eh ?" Wall, I reckon not. I
came honestly by it. That's so. And there's
them who remember this child when he went
round prairies trapping prairie hens, and the
like, to get him nights lodging, or pair
of shoes, to keep the massasaugers from bit
ing my toes; 1 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, I
reckon you wouldn't believe it, but I've gone
all winter without shoe to my foot; and
lived on wild game when I could ketch it.
That's so. '"
"Didn't stunt your growth" said voice
near.
"Not bit oft. 1t brought me up right
These prairies are wonderful roomy; I
thought one spell would let myself out en-
tirely, but me and mother held corcus, and
decided that she was getting old, and blind
like, it tux too long and cost too much to
sew up the legs of my trowsers, and so put
a stop to it, and concluded that six foot FIVE
would do for feller that couldn't afford the
expensive luxury of a wife to make his breech-
es. 1t was only my love for my mother that
stopped my growth. If I'd a had idea of
sewing machine, there's no telling what I
might have DONE"
"You have so many gold pieces ir your
pocket, you can afford to get your trowsers
made now. Why don't you and your mother
hold another caucus, and see what you can
do? If she would let you expand yourself,
you might sell out to Barnum, and make a
fortune travelling with Tom Thumb, and
take the old woman along"
"Stranger," said the rough, great man,
and his whole face loomed up with min
gled expression of pain and pride. 'Stran-
ger, spoke word here didn't mean to;
a slightly word, like, about my mother. I
would give all the gold in my pocket to bring
her back for one hour, to look upon this
country as it is now. She had her cabin
here when Chicager was nowhere; here she
raised her boys-she couldn't give them
laruing, but she taught US better things than
books can give; to be honest, and useful,
and industrious. She taught us to be faith
ful and true; to stand by friend, and be
generous to an enemy. It's thirty years,
stranger, since we dug her grave by the lake
side with our own hands; and with many
tear and sob, turned ourselves away from the
cabin where we'd been raised-the Indians
bod L;llod our father lono hefore and uo