The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1859-04-14

two good rubber pillows, and two very substan-
tial shawls by way of bed-clothing altogether as
comfortable a nights arrangement, as can be
expected by a man, who is shooting all the while
through the valley of the Mohawk, at the rate OF
twenty or thirty miles an hour. really fancied
1 had reached the perfection of midnight travel
ing; if perfection can be predicated of that,
which at best is but q mitigated
not 50 sound, nor half 50 deeply sweet
s As he . n 81 brow, S.,e Nth n n hSRsly 0issin bound
But the philosophical Latin poet tells us, that
something bitter bubbles up from the very foun-
tain of pleasure. / had scarcely composed my
self-not to sleep-but to the delightful dreamy
doze which precedes it, in which, escaped from
thought, You have just consciousness enough LETT
to know that you are conscious of nothing-was
Just sinking into a state, in which L am sure !
could not have said the first line of the multiple
cation table, nor returned thanks for a compli-
mentary toast at a public dinner when the door
of the car opened, and two gentlemen bounded
cheerily in, took their seats at the stove, Tiny
berth was next TO the stove,) and engaged In
loud, animated, earnest conversation The first
hearty burst of question and reply went of like
a pistol, and summoned me back from the misty
precincts of dream land thought resumed her
importunate sway; and a perplexed impression
succeeded, that either on their part or on mine,
the right man was not in the right place. For a
moment / was lost in doubt, whether somebody
or other was not unseasonably loquacious, or l
myself unseasonably drowsy. In fact / was not
quite sure of my personal identity. 1 felt some
what as Hodge did, when he awoke and found
himself in his wagon, from which some rogue
had stolen his cattle while he slept. "f l am
not Hodge quoth he, 81 have found a capital
wagon if l I'm Hodge, | have lost 4 first rate
yoke of oxen"
Pretty soon, however, 1 found out that / was
Hodge that the sleep ON which l had calculated
So confidently was in n fair way To be stolen
moreover that 1 had a long journey before me;
that | was to speak at Canandaigua in the even
ing, and was likely to be Il good deal the worse
for wear. Accordingly, after waiting a while
for the river to run dry, | raised myself, with the
most wo-begone look | could assume, (and it re-
quired no effort to assume it, looked over the
end of my berth, and told my conversible neigh
bors that | was very weary, and wanted sadly to
go to sleep, but that l could not possibly do 50,
if they continued to talk with each other. The
gentleman nearest me answered with the utmost
politeness, that they were not aware there was a
person in the next berth who wished to sleep,
and that they would cease TO disturb me. For
what other object than going to sleep, the worthy
gentleman supposed L should be packed away at
midnight, in the lower berth of a sleeping car,
between Albany and Syracuse, in the middle of
the nineteenth century, he did not intimate, nor
have | been able to conceive. Satisfied, however,
with his courteous and encouraging assurance, |
sank back the gentleman drew up the screen
tDdl scDiTtltu u sA uCiltS SnC diiQs dBpsti-
emily pnder the impression that sound like water
would not rise above its source, resumed with his
companion their conversation as before!
This was a state of things to put ones philo-
sophy, even if he had been wide awake, to the
proof. The conductor presently passed along,
and | made my appeal to him. l expostulated,
1 argued, L sought to move. | really think on
this occasion [ was eloquent. | pleaded for the
imprescriptible right of every human being to a
nights sleep, once in the twenty-fOur hours. L
put it on the ground of contract; [ had paid my
dollar for a berth in a sleeping car. Had
known that / had paid double price, l could
have put that point more forcibly. | threw my
self on his sense of duty as a conductor on his
feelings as a man. l had travelled since eight
O'clock A. NJ. and expected to travel till half
past ten the next day, before l reached my des-
~tination. l was tired in a word, | was sleepy;
and / stood, or rather, at the moment | lay, upon
nv right to go to sleep. L had half a mind to
tell him, that, as he had caused the words
had taken my MOI for a berth, I could bring
assunpsit against him. if he did not adopt all
reasonable measures to let me go to sleep.
The conductor was evidently not only con-
WINGED but moved. He admitted the soundness
of my argument; it was plain that he felt the
force of my appeal; but, when l begged him to
interpose and oblige the talkative gentlemen TO
cease their conversation, his cOuntenance fell,
and leaning towards me he said, in a low voice,
by way of excuse for not interfering, that : he
knew they ought not to talk. but one was n high
officer of the New York Central Railroad, (and
he named the Office, but | shall not,) and the
other was n great President of 4 Railroad out
West. He uttered the words with solemnity.
adding for my consolation. that the Officer of
the New York Central would get ont at Science
ta6y." This was all the satisfaction l got by my
first appeal; of a second and a third he took no
notice as he passed by. He probably supposed l
was beside myself. to think OF stopping the con-
versatiOn of a hiyh fnpctinparu of the Central
with the IS great President of some other road.
But the longest hour has an end we reached
Schenectady the officer of the New York Cen
trail got out; and the great President like
other great Presidents, leaving his seat, retreat
ed to obscurity, in the rear of the car. As he
passed me toward his berth. I murmured to my
self reqiaesodt IN pace, meaning only Il am of n
very f~orgiving make) may he get a good nap"
With this benediction, 1 dismissed the great
President (who, like the great Macbeth. had
murdered sleepy to that rest of which he had
deprived me. For the rest of the way silence re-
sumed her solitary reign, and | slept till we
reached Syracuse.
Here an awkward space of two hours, and n
very coriaceous beef-steak, (partaken with the
brakemen who were to go out at seven,) inter-
vened before we started for Canandaigua. On
the way to Auburn, the car in which | was,
broke down but without causing any disaster or
more than a few moments delay. l arrived in
safety at my destination in Canandaigua, and
found myself at home under the hospitable roof
of my friend Mr.. Granger.
With this region, especially with Canandaigua,
l have some domestic associations by means of a
connection with the family of Hon. Nathaniel
Gorham of Charlestown, Massachusetts,, who was
associated with Oliver Phelps in the vast land
purchase which bears their joint names. Judge
Gorham was a man of eminence he presided one
year in the Congress of the old confederation ;
and in the Convention for forming the COnstitu-
tion of the United States, he was called to the
Chair by Gen. Washington every day for three
months. In connection with Mr.. Phelps, shortly
after the revolutionary war, he purchased of the
State of Massachusetts,, which claimed, in virtue
of a compromise with New York, a pre-emptiye
right in the property of the soil, a tract of six
millions of acres, in the Genessee Country, as it