Kenosha tribune & telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1856-1859, 1857-05-21
Chances and Changes-A Railroad Remin-
iacenca
BY FRANCES ID. GAGE.


II say, Mr.. Conductor, when will the mex
express train 60 out to st. Louis 7"
eleven o'clock and thirty minutes, to might
sir" was the gentlemanly reply to the roug
query.
eleven o'clock and thirty minutes Go t
Texas Why, it's ten this very minute II
bet my boots against jack-knIfe the mornin
express is off
Eyes sir it has been gone half an hour"
"Why in natur didn't you get up here sooner
Fourteen hours in Chicager is enough to breal
a fellow all to smash, Fourteen hours in Chi
eager, putting and blowing I've been told the,
keep regular six-hundred boss steam powe
all the while running, to blow themselves VI
with, and pick the pockets of every traveller t
pay the fremen and engineers Wall, CUES
| can stand it; I've twenty that's never beer
broke, | think that will put me through. Why
didn't you fire up old brag-give your old hos.
another peck of oats. l tell We, this fourteen
hours will knock my calculations all into tn,
middle of next week"
Every sorry, sir-we've done our best bu
as we are not clerks Of the weather, hope yo,
will not lay your misfortunes to our account
Snow-drifts and the Thermometer sixteen below
zero, are enemies we can't readily overcome"
That's so" said the first speaker, with broad
emphasis, and good natured, forgiving smile
Fourteen hours in Chicager!''
The stentorian voice. sounding like trumpet
had aroused every sleeper from elysian dream,
into which he might have fallen after his long
tedious, cold nights travel. Every head wa,
turned, every eye was fixed on the man who haC
broken the silence. He was standing by the
stove warming his boots. To have warmed hi,
feet through such mass of cow-hide and sole
leather, would have been fourteen hours ope
ration. 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 ordinarily, in half lifetime. His
head Websterian, his shaggy hair black as Jet
his whiskers to match, his dark piercing eye
and his jaws eternally moving, with a rousing
quid between them, while smile of cheerful
good humor, notwithstanding his seeming imps
tience, attracted every ones attention.
Fourteen hours in Chicager, eh7 Wall,
can stand it if the rest can if twenty dollars
won't carry me through, II borry of my friends
I've got the things that II bring en-. That's so
And he thrust hand little less in size than
a common spade, down into the cavernous depth
of broad-striped, dashy pair of pants, and,
brought up that great red hand, full as it could
hold, of shining twenty dollar gold pieces.
Don't yer think l can stand these ere Chica-
gers for one fourteen hours?'
A nod of assent from three or four, and a smile
of curiosity from the rest, answered his ques-
ton in the affirmative.
you must have been in luck, stranger" said
an envious looking little man. You've more
than your share ofgold."
Il have, Ell! Well reckon not I come
honestly by it. That's so. And there's them
living who can remember this child when he
went round the p'rarries trapping p'rarry hens
and the like, to get him a nights lodging, or a
pair of shoes, to keep the massasaugers from
biting my toes; I've hung myself up more nor
one night in the timber, to keep out of the ways
of the wild varments; best sleeping in the world,
in the crotch of a tree-tep. Now, | reckon you
wouldn't believe it, but I've gone all winter
without a shoe to my foot; and lived on wild
game when l could ketch it. That's SOL
Didn't stunt your growth, said voice near.
Not a bit of it. 1t brought me up right
These p'rarries are wonderful roomy. l thought
one spell would let myself out entirely, but me
and mother held corcus and decided that she
was getting old, and blind like, it TUX too long,
and cost to much to sew up the legs of my pan
tatoons, and so put stop to it, and concluded
that six foot five would do for a Teller that
couldn't afford the expensive luxury of a wife
to make his breeches. 1t was only my love foI
my mother that stopped my growth. IfI'dhad
an idea of sewing machine, there's no telling
what might done.
You have so many gold pieces in your peck.
ct, you can afford to get your trousers made now
Why don't you and your mother hold another
caucus, and see what you can do7 If she would
let You expand yourself 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 mingled ex-
preston of pain and pride. Stranger, L spoke
a word here didn't mean to; slightly word,
like, about my mother. would give all the gold
in my pocket to bring her back for one hour, to
look upon this country as il is now She had her
she raised her boys-she couldn't give them
larnin', but she taught US better things than
books can give; to be honest, and useful, and in
dustrious She taught us to be faithful and true
to stand by friend, and be generous to an en-
envy. 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 had killed our father long before
and we'd nothing to keep us-and so we went
to seek our fortunes. My brother, he took down
to st. Louis, and got married down there som.
ers; ana | Just went where the wind bowed, and
when I'd scraped money enough togethr, / cum
back and bought few acres of land around my
mothers old cabin. for the place where I'd lain
her bones was sacred like. Well, in the course
of time, it turned up right in the middle of Chi
eager. | couldn't stand that loved my ole
mother too well to let omnibusses rattle over
y
and quietly moved her away to the bury Il
ground; and then l went back to Texas ant
wrote TO an attorney to sell my land. Wha
cost few hundred dollars to begin on, l solo
for over forty thousand-if I'd kept it till now
'twould have been worth ten times that; that's so
but got enough fort. l soon turned that forty
thousand into eighty thousand, and that int
twice as much and so on, till | don't know mol
don't care what l IN worth; that's So work hard
tba nbar
day of my life what my mother taught me- new
er drink, nor fight; wish l didn't swear an(
chaw; but them's got to be kind second natul
like, and the only thing that troubles me is ny
money-haven't got no wife nor children
and L m going now to hunt up my brother ant
his folks If his boys is clever and industrious
amt ashamed of my big boots and old fashioned
ways, and his girls is young women and mo-
ladies'; ifthey help their mother, and don't put OF
more two frocks day, III make 'em rich, every
one on'em.
Now. gentlemen, faint often I'm led to tel
on myself after this fashion. But these oil
places, where trapped when was boy, mad
me feel like child agin-and | just felt lik
telling these youngsters here about the change
and chances Teller may meet in life, if he onl,
tries to make the most of himself.
But, boys" said he, turning to party o
Young men. there's something better than mon
much larnin' as money, could be President il
1857 just as easy. Why, could buy up hal
the North, and not miss it out of my pile. Blu
get larnin don't chaw tobacco; don't take Il
liquor don't swear, and mind your mothers
that's The advice of real live Sucker and if yol
mind what / say you may be men, (and it ain
every teller that wears a gOatee and breaches
that's man by long ways.) Foller out he
counsels never do thing that will make yol
ashamed to meet her in heaven. Why, boys,
never done bad thing but heard my mother
voice reprovin' me and | never done a geo'
move, but I've seemed to hear her say, That
right Jack" and that has been the best of all
Nothin' like a mother, boys; nethin' ike mo
| tber-that's so.
All this had passed while waiting to wood
just out of Chicago. The great man was swell
ling with emotions called up from the dark shs
dows of the past his big rough frame heave
| like great billow upon the ocean. Tears spran
| TO his deep set and earnest eyes-they welled ri