Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1871-08-26
A Railroad Car Scene,

Albany RallWay, not many weeks ago:
81 ran across what first struck me as a
very singular genius on my road from
Springfield to Boston. This was stout,
black whiskered man who sat immediate
ly in front of me, and who INDUCED,
from time to time, in the most strange
and unaccountable maneuvres. Every
now and then he would get up and hur-
ry away to the narrow passage which
leads to the door in these drawing-room
cars, and when he thought himself secure
from observation, would fall TO laughing
in The most violent manner, and CON
tinued the healthful exercise until he
was as red iu the face as lobster. AS
we neared Boston these demonstrations
increased in violence, save that the
stranger no longer ran away to laugh,
but Kept his seat and chuckled to him
self with his chin deep down in his shirt
collar. But the changes that those port
manteaus underwent. He moved them
here, there, everywhere he put them
behind him, in front of him, on each side
of him. He was evidently getting
ready to leave, but as we We're yet TWEEN
ty-tive miles from Boston, the idea of
such early preparations was ridiculous.
If we had entered the city then the mys-
terry would have remained unsolved, but
the stranger at last became so much ex-
cited thai he could keep his seat no longer.
Some one must help him, and as | was
the nearest he selected me. Suddenly
surning, as if | had asked question, he
said, rocking himself to and fro in his
.hair ba nd ola
legs, and breathing bard, "Been gone
three years |! 'Ah /! Yes, been in Eu-
rope. Folks dou't expect me tor six
months yet, but got through and start
ed. telegraphed them at the last sta
tion they've got it by this time As
he said this he rubbed his hands and
changed the portmantaau on the LETT to
the right, and the one on the right to
the left again. 'Got wife p said l..
Eyes, and three children he returned,
and be got up and folded his overcoat
new, and hung it over the back of the
seat. you are pretty nervous over the
mai ter, amt you p said, watching his
fdgcty movements. 'Well, | should
think L was,' lie replied Il hain't slept
soundly for Il week. And do you know,
he went on, glancing around at the
passengers and speaking in lower tone,
Il am almost certain this train will run
off the track and break my neck before
l get to Boston. Well, the fact is, Pve
had too much good luck for one man
lately. The thing can't last :; 'taint
natural that it should, you know, Pve
watched it. First it rains, then it shines
then it rains again., it rains so hard you
think it's never going to stop; then it
shines so bright you think it's always
going to shine and just as you are set
tied on either belief, you are knocked
over by change, to show you that you
know nothing about it, 'Well, accord
ing to the phiosophy,' says I, 'you will
continue to have sunshine because you
are expecting Storm IT'S curious.
he returned, 'but the only thing which
makes me think l'll get through safe, is
because think l won't 'Well, that is
curious said |. Lord, yes he replied.
pm machinst-madea discovery-no-
body believed it spent all my money
trying to bring it out-mortgaged my
home-all went. Everybody laughed
at me-everybody but my spunky
little woman-said she would work her
fingers off before should give it up
Went to England-no better there
came within an ace of jumping off London
bridge. Went into shop to earn
money enough to come home with ;
there | met the man wanted. To make
long story short, Pve brought thirty
thousand pounds home with me- Good
tor you = exclaimed. 'Yes,' said he,
thirty thousand pounds and the best
of it is, she doesn't know anything at all
about it. I've fooled her so often and
disappointed her SO much that l Just con-
cluded | would say nothing about this.
When | got my money though, you
better believe l struck a bee-line for
home 'And now you will make her
happy said l. Happy he replied,
'why, you don't know anythink about it.
She's worked like dog while l have
been gone, trying to support herself and
the children decently. They paid her
thirteen cents apiece Tor making coarse
shirts ; and that's the way she lived half
the time. She'll come down there to
the depot to meet me in gingham
dress, and shawl hundred years old,
| anu BIC III tnLlh hllc uIoeSSu up Ou,
she won't have no clothes after this-oh,
no, guess not = and with these words
which implied that his wite's wardrobe
would soon rival Queen Victoria's, the
stranger tore down the passage way
again, and getting in his old corner,
where he thought himself out OF sight,
went through the strangest pantomine,
laughing, putting his mouth into the
drolest shapes, and then swinging him.
self backward and forward in the
limitid space, as if he were walking down
Broadway a tull rugged metropolitan
swell Aud SO on till we rolled into the de.
pot, and placed myself on the other car,
opposite the stranger, who, with port
manteau in each hand, had descended,
any was standing on the lower step,
ready to jump to the platform. l look
ed from bis face to the iaces of the peo'
pie before US, but saw no sign of recog'
nition. Suddenly he oried-'there they
aro,' and laughed outright, but in a hys
terical sort OF way. as he looked over
the crowd. followed his eyes and saw