The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1858-01-21
THE OLD SUCKER.
AY MRS. FRANCES D. GAGE.

AI MRS. FRAMES ID. GAGE.
4 say, Mr.. Conductor, when will the
the next express train go to St Louisl"
Eleven clock and thirty minutes, to-
night. sir was the gcntlemanly reply to
the rough question.
Eleven o'clock and thirty minutes.--
Go to Texasl Why, it's ten thi, 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 natur' didn't you get US bere
sooner! Fourteen hours in Chicago is
nuff to break a feller all to smash. Four
teen hours in Chicager, putin and blow
in. I've been told they keep regular
six hundred ho,s steam power all the
while running, to blow themselves up
with, and pick the pockets of every trav-
eler to pay the firenen and engineers
Wal, guess [ can stand it; I've twen-
ty that's never been broke and l guess
that will put me through. Why didn't
you fire up, old brig-give your old boss
another peck Of oats! l tell ye, this four
teen hours will knock my calculations oil
into the middle of next week
Very sorry, sir-~e've done our best
but as we are not clerks of the weather,
| hope you will not lay your misfortuues
to our account. Snowdrilts and the ther-
mometer sixteen below zero are enemies
We can't real y osercome.'
That's fact, said the first speaker,
with broad emphasis, and good Da-
tured forgiving smile. Fourteen hours
in Chicager!'
The stentoriau voice, sounding like a
trumpet. had aroused every sleeper fro j
elysian dreams into which be might have
fallen after his long, tedious, cold night :
travel. Every head was turned, every
eye was fixed on the man who had bro
Ken the silence. He was standing by the
stove warming his boots. To have warm
ed his feet through such a mass of cow
hide and sole-leather would hase been a
fourteen hours operation. Six feet tour
or five inches he stood in those boots.
with shoulders caSed in a fur coat, that
looked more like bearing up a world than
you will meet with ordinarily in half a
lifetime. His head Websterian, his shag-
gy hair black as Jet, his whi>kers to match
his dark piercing eye, and his jaws eter.
nally rowing with rousine quid between
them. with smile of good humor, not
withstandins his seeming impatience, at
tracted every ones attention.
Fourteen hours in Chicager. eh!' Wal
| can stand it if the rest can; if twenty
dollars won't carry me through, I'll Dor
row Of my friends. I've got the thing,
thatll bring en-
He thrust his hand, little less in size
than common spade. down into the ca
vernous depths of his pockets and brough
it up full as it could hold of twenty dol
lar pieces.
! Don't yer think can stand these ere
Chicagers for one fourteen hours?'
A nod of assent from three or four ant
a smile ofcurio,ity from the rest, answ, T.
ed his question iu the affirmative.
You must have been in luck, stranger,
said an envious looking little man. 'Yor
have more than your share of gold
Il have, ehl Wall, reckon not. |
came honestly by it. That's fact Aud
there's them living who can remembe
this child when be went round the prai
ries trapping prairie hens and the like tc
get him pair OF shoes to keep tie mas
sasaugers from biting my toes; I've hun!
myself up more nor one night in the tim
ber, to keep oct of the ways o
the wild varmints; best sleeping in th
world. in the crotch of a tree top! Now
| reckon you wouldn't believe it. but w
gone all winter without shoe on my foo
and lived on wild game, when I coul'
ketch it That's fact!'
Didn't stunt your growth, said
voice near.
Not bit Of it. 1t brought me u,
right. These prairies are so wonderful
roomy. | thought one spell | would lie
myself out entirely, but NE and mothe
held corcus, and decided that she wa
getting old and blind like, and it TUX to-
Hong and cost too much to SOW up the leg
of my trowsers, so put a stop to it, an
concluded that six foot five would do TO
a feller that couldn afford the expen-iv
luxury of wife to make breeches fo
him 1t was only the love for my nothe
that stopped my growth. If I'd had a
idea of sewing machine. there's no tel
ling what might have DONE
/ You have SO many gold pieces in you
pocket. you can afford to get your trow
sers made now. Why don't you an
your mother hold another caucus, and Sc
what you can do! If she would le, 20
expand yourself, you might sell ou, t
Barnum and make fortune travelin
with Tom Thumb, and take the old wo
man along
Stranger, said the rough, great ma
and his whole face loomed up with a min
gled expression of pain and pride; 'strau
ger, spoke word here | didn't mca
to; slightly word, like, about my moth
er. | would give all the gold in my pock
ct to bring her back for one hour, to loo
upon this country as it is now, She ha
her cabin here when Chicagcr wa