The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1859-11-09
CINCINNATI, Ohio, Nov. 2, 1855

IL. y. Knapp:
"Time and tide wait for no man." So we
found it this morning when we began to in
quire for a boat to go down the beautiful
Ohio" True, we were here con time !" but
the tide had flown, and but few boats are ven
turing out and as some do stick on the
bars, we have concluded to take the cars for
Cairo. And as our train will not leave before
81 this P. NJ, and 1 am tired of lounging
about the streets Twill spend a little time scrib-
bling you a line.
Thus far our journey has been very pleasant.
Upon reaching Mansfield the day we left we
found a boyhood's acquaintance waiting for
the P. NJ. train west. He had been going in
The morning train but heard the whistle before
he reached the depot and benevolcntly conclu-
ded he would rather wait for the next train
than keep that one waiting for. him. So We
met, and went with him to Crestline and there
lodged. To meet an old friend thus is
"Like the music of Caryl,
Pleasant and melancholy to the soul"
We spent hours living over boyhood,s day,
laughing at its pranks, lamenting its f%ollies, en-
joying over again its joys, exciting afresh graf
itudc for its privileges and mercies, and almost
dropping a tear for its friendships broken and
its friends far away or silent in the grave
What a blessed faculty is memory! it quietly
slows away in a convenient corner OF the soul
facts and fancies and feelings, faces and friend
ships and things and incidents, and when re-
CURED, either for profit or pleasure, cheerfuliy
brings them out to view. How completely
without it, would the past be a blank, howawk-
wark our position ia the present and how un-
certain our oonjectEres of the future. But our
benevolent Maker consulted our happiness
when he gave it to US, and nothing but our
perverseness can make it ether than a perpet-
ual minister to our well-being. Well, that we
might be up early, we did not stay uF all night,
but after dreaming about sleep and waking to
hear the clock strike, we got up at four, and
reached the depot at six, to getafter the "star
of empire" at seven o'clock. Standing upon
the platform waiting for the train l observed
a blazing head forthcoming from the west. 1
watched it as it approached and saw itsteadily di
minishing In size until it wasa an Insignificant lit
tie lamp. Howmuch like some laxative politi-
clan thought. AT a distance and on the stump
or in the legislative Halls, as he pours cut, in
grandiloquent style, his great thoughts, the
multitudes gaze and cry "NIagnus Apells;" but
bring him near and look more narrowly and he
dwindles to a mere gas-Fouch. His grand
speeches are bGt grand platitudes about the
current questions of party contests.
But, away, we go through a fne agricultural
region, but a little inclined to the production
of chills as well as corn. And our train Meth
or dashed as all over an embankment, nor kill
ed a brakeman, nor run over a COW, so that we
had no incidents, except that a spring of our
locomotive kept US waiting a half an hour by
the naughty trick of getting out of fix. And
then what grumbling! 1t seems as if men
would go at the rate of sixty miles an hour aud
then beat tire horse for his ~laziness. But it is
not only along railways that men love a light
ming train. Multitudes are as eager to get
along the journey of life, and because time
will not cease to "drag his slow length along
they must call in king alcohol or some of his
confederates, or a little. sulphur and charcoal,
or even a tight wire to his aid. Well, the day
seems coming when a saddle will be adapted
to the electric wire and men astride will reach
the end of all their journeys before they be-
gin. In Van Vert we had the pleasure of
meeting many former friends, and finding them
generally in health and prosperity. 1t is re-
freshing to know that in these western coun-
ties, where the last two or three years yielded
SO little of the necessaries of life, this year has
in a good measure made up. The frost did not
destroy the wheat to any considerable extent;
and the corn and potatoes and all kinds of
vegetables are very abundant. But as [ rode
through some of these forests I could net but
admire the courage of the:man who undertakes
to clear himself a farm here. Yet when it is
done he receives his reward from a rich soil
The political excitement has been quite intense
here this fall, giving promise of a scorching
contest for President next year. Here L have
found how pleasant is christian fellowship
Thrown together casually a cord of mutual af-
lection is touched and heart flows out to heart
and all mutually rejoice. Here are some to
whom we brake the bread ofEJe when yet the
ehands of the Presbytery" hadnot been laid on
as. Here are some who set their feet upon
the narrow way under our ministrations. This
constitutes one of the tenderest and most pleas
ant relations known. 1t was therefore with
peculiar pleasure that we ministered and COM
muned among these people and learned of their
past and present since we last met and the
joyous hope they still entertained. Sheet full.
JOHN ROBINSON.
-" HrH "a#r o. 81