The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1871-09-01


Content our pleasures, but the good and just
Judges and senates have been bought for gold;
Esteem and love are never to be sold.-PoPE.
At the time wherein my simple story
commences, | had Just returned from
the office of one of the railroads., having
applied, and applied successfully, for
the responsible, respectable, and, as
times go, tolerably well.paid situation
Of a brakeman.
The situation, l repeat, is respecta-
BILE one, yet not exactly to the liking OF
one, who, but a few months before,
dashed, in his own buggy, pair of fast
nags, down the Bloomingdale road-who
eschewed any others than Bajou's kids,
sported diamond studs, and was throw
ing the bucks of the Avenue into con-
vulsions of envy, with the patterns of
his waistcoats. All these were mine, and
yet | became brakeman.
OF course, when / applied for the
situation-with letter of introduction
from former clerk Of my father, now a
well-to do merchant uptown took
good care to stroke my incipient mus
tache with that delicate white hand of
mine. OF course. Il alluded incidentally to
the former greatness, or, to speak more
correctly, the former wealth of my
family. Of course, | took it for granted
the President would not consent to de-
base me by making me a brakeman, but
would appoint me his private secretary.
Alas the unromantic, matter-of fact
official, instead Of shedding tears for my
misfortune-instead of endeavoring to
soothe my lacerated feelings-scanned
Co.
Well, you are not exactly chap we
care to employ, but as my friend Mr..
Brown recommends you, we'll try you.
Come tomorrow morning; and mind,
young man, to be here at eight o'clock,
to a second"
CHAP "Young man! y And this
to me Oh, how my blood boiled at
the indignity l, Augustus Reginald,
ct cetera for | shall not utter my pa
tronymic in connection with the brake
on the rail. to be called chap" by
that insolent President
But then, dear reader, did you ever
live, for months, by sending up the
spout, or, in plain English, by deposit
ing with the pawnbroker, your valua-
bles? Did you ever come to your last
dollar? Well! hope you never did,
and fervently pray you never may. l
did this. 1t is truly wonderful what a
teacher of philosophy and moderation
is poverty. | accepted the offer.
My history was pretty common one
in our fast country; rise from corner
grocery and bad liquor store, to brown
stone front house, thence to bankrupt
cy, which carried my father through the
bar-room to the grave, and broke my
poor mothers heart.
Ny only sister, older, by some ten
years, than myself | scarcely remem-
bered, being but child when she was
discarded, for marrying beneath her, as
my mother used to say, young man
who was nobody, and mechanic to
boot.
On me, therefore, the presumptive heir
TO the brown-stone front house, and 10
countless thousands, were all the paren-
tai endearments lavshed that is 10 saw
my father sent me to the most expen.
sive schools, where learned to smoke
cigars, ride on horseback, decline, with.
out much stammering, the five Latin
declensions, and speak Saratoga French,
which no Partisan could have. by any
possibility, understood SO that, when
reverses came, was fit for nothing but
a jockey; yet with the innate shrewd-
ness of my nation, took, in preference
to the institution in the ascendant, the
rail.
l can't say liked my new employ
ment; at least, did not like it at first.
BY degrees, however, custom blunted
off the edge, and, in course of time, |
almost forgot my former self, and even
passed, without blush, my former ao
duaintances on Broadway.
Hardships-and those of brakeman
are neither few nor light-strengthened
nv constitution, till finally, by dint of
attention to my duties, and good con-
duct, worked my way from the plat
form to the inside of the cars and
sported the label with the legend
nconductor," with far more pride than
I formerly did with the best beaver of
Genin's matchless manufacture.
1t so happened that my route was on