North Branch democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Pa.) 1854-1867, 1866-04-04
To the North Branch Democrat.
BERMING Mo. March 20.
KIND FRIEND -

before / did not think to trouble you so
soon again; why do not adhere to this
wise determination, | cannot tell; unless
like the man who was "willing to commit
any crime that he might have the pleasure
of seeing his name in print" have decided
to afflict my friends with second letter
for the same laadable purpose.
One thing | am desirous of telling you
is that made decided mistake in my
last, in regard to railways. do feel the
most profound interest in them; especially
if they should happen to lead from the
Town of Ithica to Pittston no Hannibal
and St. Joseph road, l assure you; by the
way Mr.. Editor, were you ever so fortunate
or rather unfortunate as to take trip on
this same road if not will give you
slight sketch of oDe, that you may form
some idea of the immense convenience,
comfort, and pleasure of Missouri travel
ing in general, and the Hannibal road in
particular.
After travelling for four days and nights,
excepting one which we spent in st. Louis,
we found ourselves on Saturday evening
in the city of Macon perhaps you do not
know what constitutes city in lIo. / am
not exactly booked up in the matter my
self; but judging from appearance, should
say, one dozen dwellings and grcg-shop;
something after the style of the city of
4Numbuucker, situated between TInkhan-
mock and Factoryville.
You will doubtless think | am digress-
ing but please remember we are waiting
for the train, which is some hours "behind
time"
At ten o'clock all is ready; and we step
aboard the cars which a hand-bil in large
letters had previously informed us is per-
feet miracle of convenience and elegance.
After the usual amount of hurryiug,
jostling and crowding, we at last find our
selves seated, or rather packed away for
the remainder of our journey, distance of
about one hundred miles to the city of st
Joseph. And now l have ample time to
take survey of our surroundings firstly,
| discover that we have exchanged the
large and really commodious cars in which
we have heretofore travelled, for those
much smaller, and every way inferior; in
deed we found it very inconvenient, as we
could have but one seat; which would
scarce accommodate two persons, and were
obliged to stow away not only ourselves,
but our two tired and sleepy ones as best
we could.
further observed that in place of the
kerosene lights, with which the cars had
previously been illumined, three "Tallow
dips" were placed at the sides of the car
which gave but an Indifferent light; and
of which we had "gentle reminder" in
the way of dripping grease, which occas-
ionaIly found. its way to our heads below.
The whole inside of the car had a filthy,
smoke-begrimmed appearance; nor was
this to be wondered at as the stove which
was minus part of door, was constantly
omitting fumes of smoke for the Ebeneft of
all present; in vain we appealed to the
small immovable windows as an escape
valve to prevent strangulation.
But this, as we afterwards discovered,
was only the beginning of our troubles !;
for the night set in extremely cold for this
season of the year; and we soon found
that something beside smoke WAS necessa-
ry to our comfort; the Conductor was ac-
cordingly sought with the request that our
car should be properly warmed; in reply
he informed US that they were destitute of
fuel of any kind; but he trusted we should
run across some before morning. Cold as
we now were, we were obliged to divest
ourselves of our outer wrappings, furs,
over-coats, &C., in order to keep the little
ones from suffering. You will perhaps
smile at the idea of extreme cold, early in
November; and know of no better way Of
preciating it, than to be travelling over the
open Prarie with strong north wind and
not one spark of fire. Meanwhile another
calamity threatened us that of being left
in darkness as we had but one light left,
and that was fast "growing beautifully
less" Upon demanding one, the Conduct
or politely informed US that contrary to
their usual custom they had omitted to
procure supply at Macon, consequently
we must do without; remarking at the
same time that they dare not burn oil for
fear of accidents as the road was so much