The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1866-12-07

"You are like my father, 1 sometime
think. You are hard enough and colt
enough so to shave brought up al
unacknowledged son. / see your scant!
figure, your close brown suit, and you
tight brown wig; but you, too, wear
wax mask to your death. You never b!
4 chance remove it-never by chance
falls off-and l know no more of you"
Throughout this dialogue, the travel
er spoke to himself at his window in the
morning, as he had spoke to himself al
the Junction overnight. And as h
had then looked into the darkness, ,
man who had turned gray too soon, like
a neglected fire, so he now looked int
the sunlight, an asher gray, like
fire which the brightness of the sun hao
put out.
As he had imperceptibly come into
possession of the dim den up in the cor
ner of tho court off Lombard street, OIL
whose grimy windows the inscription
Barbox Brothers had for many long
years daily imposed itself between hin
and the sky, so he had insensibly found
himself Il parsonage held in chronic dis
trust, whom it was essential to screw
tight to every transaction in which ht
engaged, whose word was never to be
taken without his attested bond, whom
all dealers with openly set mp guards
and wards against. This character had
come upon him through no act OF his own
1t was as if the original Barbox had
stretched himself down upon the office
floor, and had thither caused to be con-
veyed Young Jackson in his sleep, and
had there effected metempsychosis
and exchange of persons with him. The
in i'll its turn by the
deceit Of the only woman he had ever
loved, and the deceit of the only friend
he had ever made: who eloped from
him to be married together-the dis
covery, so followed up, completed what
his earliest rearing had begun. He
abashed, within the form OF
Barbox, and lifted up his head and
heart no more.
But he did at last effect one great re-
lease in his condition. He broke the
oar he mad piled so long, and he scut-
tied and sank the galley. He prevent
ed the gradual retirement of an old
business from him by TAX
ing the initiative and retiring from it,.
With enough to live on Though after
all with not too much), he obliterated
the firm of Barbox Brothers from the
pages of the Postoffice Directory and
the face Of the earth, leaving nothing
of it but its name on two pOrtmonteaus.
''For one must have some name in
going about, for people to pick up" he
explained to Mugby High Street,
the Inn-window, "and that
name at least was real once. Whereas,
Young Jackson Not to mention its
being sadly satirical misnomer for Old
Jackson"
He took up his hat and walked out,
Just in time to see, passing along on
the opposite side of the way, avelveteen
man, carrying his days dinner in a
small bundle that might have been
larger without suspicion of gluttony,
and pelting away towards the Junction
Ut great pace.
"Thcre's Lamps" said Barbox BROTH
crs. "And by the by"
Ridiculous, surely, that man SO Sc
rious. so self-contained, and not yet
three days emancipated from a routine
Of drudgery, should stand rubbing his
chin in the street in brown study
about Comic Songs.
"Bedsidep said Barbox Brothers,
testify. "Sings them at the bed
,ide Z Why at the bedside, unless
he goes to bed drunkf Does, l
shouldn't wonder. But it's no business
Of mine, Let ME see. Mugby Junction,
Murby Junction. Where shall l so next!
Az it came into my head last night
when / woke from an uneasy slulnber
in the carriage and found myself here,
can 90 any where from here. Where
shall | goi I'll 60 and look at the
Junction by daylight. There's no hurry.
and may like the look of one Line bet
ter than another"
But there were so many Lines. Gaz-
ing down upon them from bridge at
the Junction, it was as if the concen-
tratinr Companies formed n great In
dustrial Exhibition of the works of ex-
spiders that spun iron. And
then so many of the Lines went such
wonderful ways, so crossing and curv-
ing among one another, that the eye
lost them. And then some of them ap-
peared to start with the fixed intention
of coiug five hundred miles, and all OF
sudden gave it up at an insignificant
barrier, or turned off into n workshop.
And then others, like intoxicated men,
went a little way very straight, and
slued round and came
back again. And then others were so
chuck full of trucks of coal, others were
blocked with trucks of casks, others
were gorged with trucks of ballast,
Others were to set apart for wheeled OBJ
iects like immense cotton-reels; while
others were so bright and clear, and
others were so delivered over to rust
and ashes and idle wheelbarrOws out OF
work, with their legs in the air (look-
ing much like their masters on strlke),
that there was no beginning, middle,
OF end, to the bewilderment.
Barbox Brothers stood puzzled on the
bridge, passing his right hand across
the lines on his forehead, which multi
piled while he looked down, as II the
railway Lines were getting themselves
on that sensitive plate.
Then, was heard distant ringing OF
bells and blowing of whistles. Then,
puppet-looking heads of men popped
out of boxes in perspective and popped
in again. Then, prodigious wooden
razors set up on end began shaving the
Then, several locomotive
engines in several directions began to
scream and be agitated. Then, along
one avenue train came in. Then,
along another two trains appeared that
didn't come in, but stopped without.
Then, bits of trains broke off. Then, a
horse became involved with
them. Then, the locomotives shared
the bits of trains, and ran away with
the whole.
~ have not made my next move much
clearer by this. No hurry. No need to
make up my mind to-day, or Tomorrow,
nor yet the day after. I'll take a walk"
1t fell out somehow (perhaps he meant
it should) that the walk tended to the
platform at which he had alighted, and
to Lamps room. But Lamps was not in
his room. A pair Of velveteen shoul-
ders were adapting themselves to one
Of the impressions on the wall by
Lamps fireplace, but otherwise the
room was void. In passing back to get
e A. .kot,on arain ha learnt the