Litchfield enquirer., 1871-07-13
A RAILROAD OAR SCENE.

A RAILROAD OAR SCENE.
 A correspondent of the Washington Cap.
 ital. thus writes. of an incident on the Bos.
 ton and Albany Railroad, not many weeks
 ago:
 'I ran across what first struck me as ve-
 ry singular genius on my road from Spring
 field to Boston. This was a stout, black
 whiskered man who sat immediately in
 front of mo. and who indulged, from time
 to time, in the most strange and unaccount-
 able manoeuvres Every now and then he
 would get up and hurry away to the nar-
 row 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 continue the healthful exer-
 else until he was as red in the face as lob
 ster. As We neared Boston these demon
 stratlons increased in violence, save that
 the stranger no longer ran away to laugh,
 but kept hls seat and chuckled to himself
 with his chin deep down in his shirt col
 lar. But the changes that those portman.
 teaus 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 were yet twenty-five miles from
 Boston, the idea of such early preparations
 was ridiculous. If we had entered the city
 then the mystery would have remained
 unsolved, but the stranger at last became so much excited that he could keep his seat
 no longer. Some one must help him, and as was the nearest he selected me. Sud-
 denly turning, as if had asked question,
 hn said, cooking hinAself to and fro an his chair. the meantime, and skipping hls legs, and breathing hard, "Been gone three years r "Ah ]" Yes, been in Europe.
 Folks don't expect me for six months yet,
 but got through and started. telegraph. ed them at the last station they've got it
 by this time." As he said this he rubbed
 his hands and changed the portmanteau on his left to the right, and the one on the right to the left again. ''Got wife ?" said l. Yes, and three children" he return, ed, and he got up and folded his overcoat anew, and hung it over the back of the seat. You are pretty nervous over the matter
 ain't you ?" l said, watching his fdgety movements. 'Well, should think was, j. he replied ''I hain't slept soundly for a week. And do you know" he went on, glancing around at the passengers and speaking in lower tone. "I am almost certain this train will run off the track and break my neck before get to Boston. |" " We'll, the fact is, have had too much good luck for one man lately. The thing can't last 'tain't natural that it should, you know, I've watched it. First 1t rains, then 1t shines, then it rains again it rains so hard you think it's never going to stop j; then it shines so bright you think it's al- ways going to shine ; and jus. as you are settled ill either belief, you are knocked over by change. to show you that you know nothing about it" "Well, accord ing to the philosophy" says I, ''you will continue to have sunshine because your are expecting storm" 'sIt's curious, he re- turned. after pause, "but the only thing which makes me think I'll get through safe, is because I think won't" '' We'll, tbat is curious" said I. "Lord, yes," he replied. I'm machinist-made dis covery nobody believed it; spent all my money trying to bring it out-mortgaged my home-all went. Everybody laughed at me-eyerybody but my wife-spunky Lttle woman-said she would work her fin gers off before I 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 wante To make long story short, I've brought thirty thousand pounds home with me-" ''Good for you p 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 dis appointed her so much that l just conclud- ed I would say nothing about this. When l got my money though, you better believe l struck bee-line for home" "And now you will make her happy said I. ''Hap- py y he replied, "why, you don't know anything about it. She's worked like dog while have been gone, trying to sup. port herself and the children decently. They paid her thirteen cents apiece for 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 ging ham dress, and shawl hundred years old, and she'll think she's dressed up. Oh, she won't have no clothes after this-oh, no, I guess not and with these words which implied that his wife'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 drollest shapes. and Gu0u SWluSluS u1uuS614 UaChWdTu auU 1OEWarO in the limited space, as if he were walking down Broadway full rigged metropolitan swell. And so on til we rolled into the depot, and placed myself on the other car, opposite the stranger, who, with a portmanteau in each hand. had descended and was standing on the lower step, ready to jump to the platform. I looked from his face to the faces of the people before us, but saw no sign of recognition. Sud- denly he cried, s' there they are,'r and laughed outright, but in a hysterical sort of a way, as he looked over the crowd. I followed his eyes and saw some distance back, as if crowded out and shouldered away by the we'll dressed and elbowing throng, a little woman in faded dress and a well-worn hat, with a face almost painful in it's intense but hopeful expression, glan- cing rapidly from window to window as the coaches glided in. She had not yet seen the stranger but moment after she caught his eye, and in another instant he had jumped to the platform with his two portmanteaus and making hole in the crowd pushing one here and there. and running one of his bundles plump into the well developed stomach of a venerable look.