Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1873-03-19
AN ARGONAUrS RETURN.

YOu came TO California In looz.
YIN return home, for the first time,
in 1872. Your home, in an Eastern
Stste. is DoZenville.
For the last twenty years you have
persisted in regarding Dozenville as
still possessed of all the attraetlveness
il had for you in youth. Reflection
told YOU it must have changed. Peo.
nle who had visited DOzenVille and
returned bore back gloomy stories OF
its dullness and mOnOtony. But you
had not seen this. You could not re-
aIize il. There was for you but one
d .zenyiIle. -yCuUg DOzenville- always
Ioung, because you saw it last IN
youth.
In dsy-dreams in river and bank
claims pieking and shoYelling up to
the middle in mud, slum, aIsd water;
by your cabin-doOr, smoking the
evening pipe on She sterile ridges OF
Nevada, prospecting for ledge"
YOU have in Imagination many times
visited Dezenville. You have eshaken
hands with all its old citizens; you
have been for time the newly re-
turned lion of the place. No matter
that letter after letter told you how
sires and grandsires aud matrons and
blooming, bright-eyed schoOlmates
had dropped off, you would see your
self. on the first Sunday home at
Dozenville, standing in the village
church and with what congregation
could you fill it save the one you had
left?
The dream is realized; the eonti-
nenf IL crosssd. you stand bodily in
Dozenyille. None knows OF your
coming. 1t is night ; the train has
stopped at the depot. The railroad
has been extended to Dozenville since
YOU left; DUzenvillians were talking
of building this road when you were
a how. The branch" is thirty miles
in length. They were thirty years
talking it over. Old Dozenvillians
had lived and died talking OF IT. AT
last a brisk New York Rpeculator
came along and in lew months the
road wes built. j..
There is q feeble effervescencea about
the depot when the train stops.
Conlpared with the roaring, hustiing
crovdIng hustle of q Wide-aTake
Town. il is a. the languid pop OF g stale
ehampagne-bottle to the roar OF for
tv-tvo D under. You get in q coach
and are driven toward Tie family res
idenee. 1t is 3 cold, clear winters 8
night. You look out: the wind is
roaring through the leAhess sycamores
every street has its old curve: every
house is in its old place. You reeog-
nize all, as though you had ieft but
Yesterdays yet q gloom seems to hang
about them, for you seelfI TO realize
notU that you are no. TO meet this OF
that old neighbor whose daily coming
and going from those gates setmed
as Interchangeable as the rising and
setting of Wonder moon. You have
met your mother and sisters you
have almost been obliged 10 prove to
them your identity.
1t was surprise. bnt not exactly o.
the quality you bad hoped for. Tney
were hardly prepared to see middle
( aged man, worn by toiland exposure.
The last photograph yoI sent home
ten years ago, implied still ome ap-
pearanee of youth. And after feU
DAYS, sometimes a few hours, you
i make a discovery: you are not Rc-
uuaiated with yodr own mother and
sisters. Twenty years is too long al
absence; there Is q great gap, q whole
Iifetime of incident and event, be
tween you and them. You are bounC
to a thousand California sympathiei
and associations Of which they knoY
nothing. You betrRy them eyerI
hour. You are continually proving
now that you are back 10 the oil
home. seated in the old arm. chair
and on the very carpet over whiel
Won tumbled in your baby-hood, tina
three fourths of your heart IS back Il
the land Of geysers, grizzlies, gold
The mother invOluntarily signs
This is not the boys heart which lei
her twenty years ago; 1t Is strang
mans heart, full ofhopes, fears, plan
au6 repemberances unknown to hel
1t is 3 heart recast, remoulded. ]
was beardless boy Who LEFT her
from the cradle to that last parting sh
had known his whole life but this
: bearded man who has returned
I with dashes Of grey in his hair, wit
I q different manner and q differer
voice. he brings with him the vO
z umn Of twenty years of life. but sh
cannot read il all at once. He show
caFeiessly page here and there, bt
il is broken and fragmentary 10 he
Her eye brightens when he speah
CONCERNING some event Of his ehilt
hood; there she is upon famiiii
2 ground-tbRt seems a piece OF her OW
: son. Hers dpTing your absence hl
5 been the quiet lie Of Dozeyille, n
. making half dozen new Requain
e aaces; you have made hundreds
IS the same time, and you bring the
=, all home with yOu.-OrerlGnd Mont
IN foy March.