The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-09-01
WASHINGTON. D. G..
OK THE Roam. Auo. Is, 1859

# and don't mind it; which, By the way, shows
the bad results of contracting habits, whether
rood or bad. Our grandmothers and aunts
have always labored to produce upon our minds
the impression that habits of rising early, being
tidr. taking exercise, &c, were of the utmost
importance but, for my part, / think you lose
half the pleasure when you do thing by rou-
tine. To get up one morning at four o'clock,
and 90 out in the woods while the dew yet lies
thick on the grass, and the sun is calling out
the birds, and life is beginning TO stir above
you. around you, and beneath you, is-well,
/ know very few pleasures in this world that
can be compared to it. But to do it six days,
OF six weeks, in succession, would, 1 fancy, be
rather stupid. At least, l would rather you
should try the experiment than and if you
ike it as well the twentieth morning as you
did the first, advise you to keep on. 1t is
lust so with riding, driving, boating, dc. Half
the enjoyment consists in the novelty and sur
Prise, the unwonted emotions. Now, dear pub
lie, don't go to the pains of upsetting my the
cry with an array Of facts, and philosophy, and
physiology, and prove me of unsound morals
and unsafe principles, and entirely in the
wrong. dare say | am. 1t is my normal
condition. At any rate, / would rather let it
20 So than take the trouble to defend myself
If you viii look back, you will see that /
dated nv letter on the road ;" but / find it
vastly easier to get on the road than to keep
there. | don't refer now to the imminent dan
ger in these latter days of plunging through
rotten bridges and off washed-away embark
ments, and rolling over and over in railway
carriages, but to the difficulty of keeping hold
Of the thread of your discourse. / think the
principle which some of our slaveholding law
giyers seem to have adopted, is very good
one. If you can't make people stop doing a
wrong thing, just vote it right one. This
saves their consciences, spares the moral dete-
rioratOn which always results from breaking a
somewhere. So / am going to defend my cpl
sodical way of writing, for | am sure can't
undertake to say everything / have to say
about thing before leave it. There are so
many by-ways running off from every highway
over which the soul journeys, that one might as
well walk in tread-mill, as try to keep straight
on. Of course, if / were writing a sermon, or
disquisition on the specific gravity of comet,
! should expect to cruise around within hailing
distance of my topic; but that's all the fun, in
writing letters, that you can say anything about
anything and nobody to blame. As l re-
marked to a friend the other day, / think the
apostle Paul and | are alike in this respect
We both strike off in a tangent on the slightest
provocation, aud for the same reason-that we
are both so well loaded, that you have only to
touch US, and We 90 of. He said he liked it !;
aua-so, nv dear, yea'd better like5t toe, for /
assure you | care more for him than do for
all these-I was just going to say an impolite
thing, but | won't
Yes, it is very nice to travel alone. Hus-
bands, and fathers, and brothers, are very good
in their way, and convenient and handy to pay
your bills and look after your luggage, and we
ought to be very kind, and considerable, and
iorbearing still it is a relief, once in while
to be free, to be your own man. Therefore,
when | set out on my travels one fine day, a
few weeks, or months, or years ago, and found
myself disappointed in the companion whom
expected, | was not so disheartened as / ought
to have been. My spirits rose to the height of
the emergency. | felt like doubling my fists,
and shouting, as did the man at the hotel, when
informed that breakfast was coming. "Come
on, ant afraid !" / even felt that / could
encounter that mob of wild beasts that crowd
round the New York depots, and defeat them
single-handed. But all my heroism was as
water spilled on the ground, for avuncular ten
deness prevented its flowing into the proper
pipes. and / was handed over to the mercies of
Mr. Binney, THAT isn't his real name,) man
whom | never saw, of whom had never heard,
but man who / dare say, was capable of any
crime, and who certainly was guilty of the i'm
pertlnence of being q man, and having charge
OF me when / wanted to take care of myself
1t is indubitable proof Of the surprising sweet
neSs Of my temper, that, notwithstanding the
cooperating nature of his offence, treated
him with the utmost civility-slightly distant,
but perfectly polite. i owe it to him to say
that h. was a good traveller. He was familiar
with the road, and knew all along what we were
coming TO next, and who founded it, and what
ITS effect would be ON the rising generation,
and all the Indian legends connected with it.
But the best of all was, that he was not going
through, as had expected, but was to stop in
d.. So, as soon as / ascertained that fact,
| and myself out to be agreeable; and when
We reached A, he hunted up an old school
mate, planter from the South, and consigned
me to him, ready invoiced and labelled Oh
mel Well, yielded, with resigned and quiet
despair
he was a very sensible man, and slept most
Of the time except when | spoke to him, which
l did occasionally for the sake of seeing him
Jump. You see he knew that it was not polite
lor Kim TO sleep, but he cherished the pleasing
illusion that | did not know it, hut fancied him
n na1,
souIi If he only could have known that it was
The most agreeable disposition he could posi-
bly, have made Of himself, though, as far as my
observation goes, men certainly look better
awake than asleep. Slumber isn't becoming to
the masculine gender. Look at the next man
you see asleep in church. What absolute lack
OF expression-what falling jaws-what idiocy
ia The bobbing head-what lack-lustre vacancy
about the eyes and in the eyes, when they slowly
Grag themselves open-how senseiess are the
myers, and how, when they awake, they halt
look about, and then suddenly look straight al
The minister for two minutes, and pretend they
nave been awake all the time, just as if every
body didn't know. 1t is as good as pantomime
But for all, L was right glad my fellow-travel
Ter slept, for our attempts at conversation were
really distressing to a sensitive mind. He had
habit of receiving my most trihing remarks
with an air of deep solemnity, which was very
provoking. 1t is bad enough to say foolish
things, and to know they are foolish when you
say them, but it is great deal worse to have
people think that you think you have said some
thmg wise. Then he never would understand
what said the first time; consequently, it had
TO be repeated. Now, when you are putting
about in distress for remark, you do often
selze hold of any platitude, and give audible ut
terance, despising yourself all the while; but
after it has done duty, and you have showed il
from you in disgust, to be forced to stretch out
your hand and draw it back once more. Eheu
Our conversation might be daguerreotyped
thus: