The Kanzas news., 1857-10-17
The Kanzas News.
sATURDAY,::::::::oCToBER IT, 1857.
From Appleton's Guide.
a Railway "Reminiscences.
By FRANCES D. GAGE


the rough inquiry.
ELEVEN o'clock and thirty minutes. Go
10 Texas! Why, it's ten this very minute.
I'll bet my boots against a jack-knife the
morning express is off,
"Yes, sir, it has been gone half an hour"
"Why in nature didn't you get here SOON
-er? Fourteen hours in Chieager is enough
TO break fellow all to smash. Fourteen
hours in Chicager, putting and blowing ]
I've been told they keep regular six hum
dred hoss steam power all the time run
ming, to blow themselves up with, and pick
the pocket of every traveller to pay the fire
men and engineers! Wall, 1 guess I can
stand it; I've twenty that's never been
broke; think that viii put me through.
Why didn't you fire up, old brag-give your
old boss another peck of oats. l tell ye,
this fourteen hours will knock my calcula-
tions all into the middle of next week"
Every sorry, sir-we've done our best
but as we are not clerks of the weather, I
hope you viii not lay your misfortunes to
our account. Snowdrifts. and the thermom
eter 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 stentorian voice, sounding like a
trumpet, had aroused every sleeper from his
eIysian dreams into which he might have
fallen, after his long, tedious, cold nights
travel. Every head was turned, and 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 a mass of cowhide and
Ia hor
hours operation. Six feet four or FIVE inch
es he stood in those boots, with shoulders
leased in fur coat) that looked more like
ordinarily in half life. His head Webste-
rian, his shaggy hair black as jet, his whis-
kers to match, his dark, piercing eye, and
his jaws eternally moving, with rousing
quid between them, while a good humor,
Notwithstanding his seeming impatience, at
tracted every ones attention.
Fourteen hours in Chicager, Ell! Wal,
/ guess can stand it if the rest of you
can; if twenty dollars won't carry me
through, I'll borry of my friends. I've got
the things that'n bring 'em. That's 500
And he thrust hand little less in size |
than common spade, down into the cav
ernous depths of broad striped, fashy
pair of pants, and brought up that great red
hand as full as it could hold of shining
twenty dollar gold pieces.
Don't you think can stand these Chi
eagers for one fourteen hours q"
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 than your share of gold.''
81 have, Ell? Well, reckon not.
came honestly by it. That's so. And |
there's them living who can remember this |
child when he went round the p'rarries trap
ping p'rarry hens and the like. to get him
nights lodging, or pair of shoes to keep
the massaugers from biting my toes; I've
hung myself more than one night in the |
timber, to keep out of the way of the wild |
varmints. Best sleeping in the world, in |
the crotch of tree top! Now l reckon
you won't believe ii, but I've gone all winter
without shoe on my foot; and lived on
wild game, when could catch it. That's |
so %
Didn't stunt your growth said voice |
near.
mot bit of it. It brought me up right |
These p'rarries ara wonderfully roomv. II
thought one spell would let myself out en-
tirely, but me and mother held coreus, and |
decided that as she was getting too old, and /
blind like, it tux too long and cost too much |
to sew up the legs of my trousers, and so l |
put stop to it, and concluded that six foot |
five would do for feller that couldn't afford |
the expensive luxury of wife to make his |
britehes. 1t was only my love of my mo-
ther that stopped my growth. If I'd had |
an idea OF sewing machine there's no tell |
ing what might have done"
-'You have SO many gold pieces in your
pocket you can afford to get your trousers |
made now. Why don't you and your mo-
ther hold another caucus and see what YOU
can do If she should let you expand your
sell, you might sell out to Barnum, and
make 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
gied expression of pain and pride ssStran-
ger, L spoke a word here didn't mean to !:
slightly word like, about my mother. i
would give all the gold in my pocket to
oring her back for one hour to look upon
'nis country as it now is. She had her
Saoin here when Chicager was nowhere
mere she raised her boys-she couldn't give
ner iS boys learning, but she taught us better
things than books can give-to be honest.
truthful and industrious. She taught rs to
oe faithful and true, to stand by friends. and |!
oe generous to our enemy. It's thirty wears
stranger, since we dug her grave by the lake
sioe. with our hands and with many a tear
ana sob. turned ourselves away from the
>cao'k <here we'd been raised. The indians
hao Killed our father long before, and we'd /
no'hing to keep US, and so we went to seek
sur - Iorssnes, My brother, he took down 10
u LOUIS. aad got married there, som'ers
~Io l Just .Eeat where the wind blowed. and /
7 neh | had seraped money enough together
Il cum back and beasht favr .c,.. e -