The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1867-02-14

L1NDELL HorEL
ST.. LOUIS. Feb'y Ill, 1867.

L1NDEIL HorEL,
ST.. LOUIS, Feb'y II, 1867. 1
EDITOR Rock ISLAND ARGUS, Dear, issrs
AS you know, on Saturday morning we
started for st. Louis to attend the great river
improvement convention, and as 1t Is few
miles from Rock Island to st. Louis, espe-
cially when YOU 90 by the way of LaSalle |
and Sandoval, as a natural consequence we
had our share of adventures,-not exactly
"perils by land and sea, but perils by trail,
some of which, by your permission, we pro-
pose to recount, 49, #A&
We'found, in the main, the c. RI PR.
r. in good condition, the road smooth and
up to an even surface, the cars warm and
comfortable in every respect the passengers
afiable, and to all appearances at peace with
'all the world and the rest of mankind, and,
above all, at peace with themselves. Mr..
| Editor, there is nothing that makes man
| look SO pleasant as to be at peace with him.
self-mind quiet, stomach full, feet warm,
conscience at rest,-well, if that won't make
| man look peaceful, what will? And wo-
men-why, under such circumstances, they
are perfect angels, (whew! if our friend of
| the Unio7, could have been with u.s. wouldn't
he have been tickled, though! He would
have gone into a compton ft,-see his late
article inviting young brides to be married
in. the Union office, if they wanted any kiss
| ing done up A No. !, and the conductor of
| the train perfect gentleman. At LaSalle
we transferred ourselves and baggage from
| the C.RI. 4 P. to the /. c. R.R., and with the
transfer were unfortunate enough to be badly
sold, so far as comfort is concerned, the last
mentioned road being in about as miserable,
break-neck condition as a road can well get.
1t would appear from the jolting, writing,
II 10 Al Al Al L.
| laid like farm fence-with every other end
on the top.
Their coaches are mutilated and dirty,
their employees no more civil, to say the
least, than the law requires them to be, with
large share of roughs among their passen-
gers.
/ A little episode happened on the road be-
tween Bloomington and Decatur, that
amused me considerably. There was greeny
aboard who put on lots of airs. He talk
ed to everybody, knew more than any one
else, and, in short, it was seit-evldent that
what he did know and what he did not know
was about as much as any one knew. There
were also a couple of confidence men in the
same car, who laid themselves out for
Greeny, and done him much after the follow
ing style: -
Confidence Ne. approached Greeny with
Il very beautiful brass paddock and asked him
, to examine it, claiming it to be a recent in
vention of his, and said that it was so con-
structed that only certain persons could lock
| and unlock it, and went through the opera
: ton of locking and unlocking it several
times in Greenys presence. Greenv appear
ed very much interested, claimed he was
some on mechanics, believed he could
, do what any one else could do, and ended
his voluminous remarks by offering to bet
he could do the thing as well as No. l.
At this juncture Confidence No. stepped
up and examined the lock with much curios-
= ity and evident satisfaction, and ended by
stating if he was not just out of funds he
would go Greenys half on bet of $50,
that he (Greenyl could do it like mice.
Greeny was short of funds also, but had
3 a watch worth $40, and that he offered to be,
with No. against his watch. No. 2 urged
on the bet and offered to go Greeny's halves
and would fork over his part when they got
to Decatur. But Greeny knew a thing OIL
: two, he had the dead wood on No. l, he
could do it just like mice. Up went the
? watches into No. 2's hands, as stake holder
and Greeny commenced his manipulations
but the more he turned the key the more the
: lock wouldn't be undid, and after about le
minutes fruitless effort, all at once Greeny
realized that he was not vet done teething
|
through. Oh, Mr.. Editor, if Won could have
been there, you would have laughed as YOU
| never laughcd before the wofui coun-
tenance of Greeny as he little by little dis
covered he was sold, bat he soon recovered
1 his speech, as such characters always do and
then began loudly to denounce No. | and
claimed he was cheated that there was a
| spring about the lock somewhere that No
touched, thereby preventing him from un-
locking the machine. No. took 1t perfect
" cool and appeared to think it very clever
and very natural business transaction, but
. No. claimed the whole transaction entirely
fair for he had looked on all the time ano
. believed MOL justly entitled to the watch
and therefore felt it his duty to deliver up
y the watch to No. /, as his, which he did. /
was decidedly refreshing to see how coolly
No. pocketed the watch, sbuttoned up hi
coat and proposed to leave at the next station
which We were approaching. But the pas
IS sengers having looked on and enjoyed th'
e Joke now interfered and when the train stop
y ped told No. he could not leave the trail
!, and the quicker he gave the watch up tbs
Ie better. Your humble servant stepped OF
the platform II search OF an officer, ant
: finally No. ]. co1e2ading discretion the bette
o part Of valos, d1sgsEged his ill-gotten gains
e and took his seat, very grumpy over his dis
comhtnre.
I AT Sandoyal we changed to the 0. & NJ
; r. r., comfortable broad gauge road ant
+ from thence to St Louis by O'Clock Sun
day morning, stopped at the Linden Hotel
Il and IN an eleuated corner thereof find nysel
. in conversation with you Mr.. Editor.
Of the Lindel, St. Louis, and the grea
: convention, more hereafter.
u Your Prodigiously,