Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1857-07-31
M | S CELL A n Y
From the Missouri Democrat.
CHANGES AND CHANGES.
A Rail Road ReminIscence.
BY FRANCES DANA GAGE.

II say, Mr.. Conductor, when will the
next express train go out for St. Louis'''
eleven o'clock and thirty minutes to
night sir, was the gentlemanly reply tc
the rough query.
Eleven o'clock and thirty minutes, Go
to Texas! Why, it's ten this very minute
I'll bet my boots againsta jack knife the
morning express is Oft. :"
"Yes. sir, it has been gone half an hour.
"Why in natur didn t you get us here
sooner' Fourteen hours in Chicager is e.
nough to break a fellow all to smash. -
Fourteen hours in Chicager, putting and
blowing I've been told they keep reg
\ ular six hundred horse steam power all the
.Lghle running, to blow themselves up
with, and pick the pockets of every travel
Ter to pay the fremcn and engineers -
We'll, | guess | can stand it. I've Il twenty
tina, has never been broke, | reckon it will
put me through Why didn't you put up
old brug,-give your old hoss another peek
of oats | tell We, this fourteen hours will
Knock all our calculations into the middle
of next week
Every slrry, sir-we'vc done our best;
but we are not clerks of the weather. |
hope you will not lay your misfortune to our
account. Snow drifts and tne thermome-
emies we can't readily overcome.
That's so,' said the first speaker, with
broad emphasis, and good natured, for
giving smile "Fourteen hours in Chica-
GER"
The stentorian voice sounded like
trumpet, and 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 thus broken
the silence. He was standing by the stove
warming his boots. To have warmed his
feet through such a mass of sole leather
would have been a fourteen hours opera
tion. Six feet four or five inches he stood
In those boots, with shoulders ceased in
fur coat) that looked more like bearing up
world than you will meet, ordinarily, in
life time. His head Websterian, his shag-
gy hair black as jet, his whiskers to match,
his dark, piercing eye, and his jaws eter-
nally moving, with a rousing quid between
them. while a smile Of cheerful good humor
Notwithstanding his seeming impatience,
attracted every ones attention.
"Fourteen hours in Chicager, eh' Well,
l can stand it if the rest can; il twenty dol
lars won carry me through, I'll borrow of
my friends. I've got the things that II
bring 'em. That's So"
And he thrust a hand little less in size
than a common spade, down into the cav
ernous depths of broad, striped. hashy
pair of pants, and brought up that great
red hand. full as it coald hold Of shining
twenty dollar gold pieces
Don't you think | can stand these ere
Chcagcrs for one fourteen hours =
A nod of assent from three or four, and
a smile of curiosity from the rest, answer
ed his question in the affirmative.
You must have been in luck, stranger
said an envious looking little man. You We
more than your share of gold
Il have, eh Well, | reckon not | come
honestly by it that's so. And there's
them living who can remember tins child
when he went round the p rairries trapping
prairry hens and the like to get him
nights lodging, or pair of shoes TO keep
the msssassaugers from biting my toes
I've hung myself up more nor one night in
the timber, to keep out Of the way Of the
wild varmints; best sleeping in the would in
thecrotch OF a tree-top Now, | reckon you
wouldn't believe it, but I've gone ali win
ter without shoe to my feet and lived on
wild game when | could ketch it, That's
So
biNh ~ pNuhp fOui BiO"th n"il "a
voice near.
Not bit of it. 1t brought me right up
These p'rarres are wonderful roomy.
thought one spell | would let myself out
entirely, but me and mother had a corcus
and decided that as she was getting old ,
and blind like, it tux too long and cost too
much to sew up the legs of my trousers,
and so put stop to it, and concluded
that six feet five would do for tclIer that
couldn't afford the expensive luxury Of "a
wife to make his breeches. 1t was only my
love for my mother that stopped my
growth If I'd had an idea of sewing
machine, there's no telling what might II
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 moth
or hold another corcus, 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 old woman along
Stranger, said the rough, great man
and his whole face loomed up with a min
gled expression of pain and pride, 'stran-
ger, spoke a word here didn't mean to (;
a slightly word like, about mother. |
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