Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1858-04-07
LETTER FROM A wAsHINGTONIAN.
respOndence Of the star. I


ROCHEPoRr Mo. March "a, 1858.
Where is the use of travelling if the world
does not know it? And how shall the world
know it unless through the columns of your so
Valuable, interesting, and reliable paper
Don't blush at this praise, for that you deserve
II can prove by yourself and the whole al
phabet OF your correspondents.
Epic roets and Bowery b'hoys may rush IN
"Hsdits res, but rOydgeHTS must proceed more
Ire,hOdically. [ left, then, Washington on
thursday in the morning train for n village
some forty miles distant called Baltimore.
known to the travelling public as connected by
railroads with Bladensburg, Ellicott's Mills.
Hnvre de Grace, &c, where / started in the
afternoon train for that undiscovered bourne"
the Far West. 1t Is useless to repeat the well
known fact that from Baltimore to the Ohio
you find cars comfortable and conductors as
accommodating as one could wish, and that
thence to Cincinnati these matters are 90 on the
contrary quite the reverse" The cars, in
deed, are got up" regardless of expense to
such degree that you would suppose none had
been incurred in their construction, bat were
presented To the company by some enemy of
human rePOse. To make amends, however
they generally contriye to miss the connexion
with the st. Louis train and force upon you the
tpaid for hospitality of POrkopolis, as they did
with Us. ''Our army in Flanders swore some.
but our company in the omnibus-and they
had reason, and
s.On reason betwixt resolve
That column of true majesty in man''-
could have shamed them all from MARLBOROUGH
to Corporal Trim.
After We reached Aenia it was too dark to see
anything; before We reached il [ saw only n
pair of black eyes-were they black or hazle or
blue, or did they assume each hue as the pass
ing mind suggested lovely cheeks and ripest
lips, with the usual surroundings of bonnet
curls and crinoline. But Time especially on
railroads, is remor.eIess; the hour of parting
too quickly arrived she passed, like somo
glorious vision, from my sight forever, and left
me 10 dream-Of the dear ones at home, for,
you know,
''pye got wife aud little familvr
Az Cincinnati saw, with that mixed respect
and awe with which We witness remarkable
men and places for the first time a victim of
that social experiment, the confidence plan In
the person Of an old farmer from western Vlr-
g'nia. Confidence man had made his ac
qua1ntance on the cars; taken a deep interest
In his successful trip to st. Joseph, Mo. whittier
himself happened to be going; met Mr. Smith
at the depot, who owed him a debt with only
800 note, which neither he nor the farmer
could change, though the latter could fortu-
nately spare his friend S37 to be repaid at the
hotel, and while he was considering if it was a
ssHs investment, Smith and creditor disap-
peared round a corner, and
Like the baseless fabric Of a vision
Left not a rack behind"
generous Texan found him in this plight
paid his bill, procured him a return ticket
and returned him home with the information
that perils surround other travellers besides
those who 20 down to the sea in great shps
By the way, this Texan was a Lecompton
man. At least he appeared so to me At each
station In Indiana and Illinois he made q short
speech TO the crowd with the benevolent design
of persuading them that it was more respectable
10 be useful darkey in the South than a mean
Abolitionist in the North, and that a safe
maxim in life was. that what a Black Repu bill
can wouldn 4 steal wasn't worth carrying away
In the cars be distributed his whisk from one
of Wymsn's bottles apparently and his opin-
ions with equal prodigality, having a drink
round every FIVE minutes, and testing each ma
passenger with q toast to the success of Le-
compton and the confusion of niger stealers
10 starchy gemman of color he volunteered
the opinion that the climate was too cold for his
constitution, and be would live longer on some
gentleman's plantation in the - Sunny South -
though, as
Good seldom comes from good adyice,n
fear it was not duly appreciated in this in
stance, yet there was such genuine good fellow
ship and iberality about him that be was the
most popular man in the cars and when he
promised at leisure time next summer, to re-
turn with fowling piece, in order to bag few
IoPekaltes, there were many OF them ready to
say
When next he rides that race,
May be there to seen
With the aid of guide book could give
you graphic account of the villages and towns
L passed through, rivaling in precision at least
the immortal Ibsckeray, who places Mount
Vernon, Pope's Greek and Williamsburg in a
cory neighbOrhOod for the interchange Of din
ner parties, some hundred years ago. Perhaps
the travel since then has fattened out the
country and separated these parts, rs l have
seen q ball Of dough, under the kneading fin-
gers of the housewife, spread into formidable G
waste of cake. But there is nothing to be seen
on the route worthy description. unless, in
decd, IL be the huge prairies of Illinois, through
which We passed in the night. Just fancy an
interminable level of waving grass and thou
sand tinted flowers, broken only by an occa-
sional farmhouse, whose white walls rise up in
the dead OF night like the huge tombs of some
giant race, the whole mellowed by the sad rays
Of night, silver queen. You may talk Of
moonlight at sea, but give me moonlight ON the
prairies at least in preference to the murky
rain which poured upon us all the night VIC
were passing through them, and until we
reached st. Louis at four o'clock on Sunday
morning,
intended 10 continue my narration to this
point, and if you print ard praise this duly
may do 80 hereafter, and farther, if farther l
70. Truly yours, VIAToR