Connecticut western news., 1873-01-17
The Stage4.DriYer.

There is a magic in the calling of Q stage-driver. Everybody knows and as- pires to know the stage-driver; every body IS known by, and is proud to be known by, the stage driver. The little boys remember it a month, if the stage driver speaks to them. There is par ticular satisfaction to be able to distin- gu1sh among drivers, and say it was Wrinkle, or it vas Mason, or it was Mltchelka The stage-driver is prince of a peculiar realm; and that realm con- s1sts ot the yellow coach he drives, and the high Seat he occupies, and his four mettles0me horses, and forty miles of county road, and the heart of several prn >cipal roads, not to speak of ten tf> >ousand little matters of interest and pleasure, business and profit, news and { gossip, with which he is connected. Hence he, like prince, is held in rev. ence of the populace. Of all the people on the earth, he is the one who rolls by 1 in a gilded coach; he is the one who rides through his immense estate with the most lordly and consequential air, and all the rest of us seem to be but poor tenants and gaping boors. It is | something to speak to 8 stage-driver; it is great thing to be recognized by the stage-driver. To be perchance known by one who knows nobody, is nothing. To be known, to be pointed out, to have your name whispered in Q bystander's ear, by one who knows everybody, affects you as if Omniscience were speaking about you. The stage driver differs from steamboat captain, in that the latter is not seen to be so immediately connected with his craft as the former. We meet the captain at the breakfast-ta he is nobody; he is no more than we; we can eat as well as he can. But who dare touch the stage-driver's ribbons? Who dare swing his whip?
 How rapidly and securely he drives down one hill and up the next---and that with fifteen passengers and half a tun of baggage! Then how maiestically he rounds to, at the door of the tavern! What delicate pomp in the movement of the four handsome horses! In what style the cloud of dust, that has served as an outrider all the way, passes off when the coach stops! How the viii lagers---the blacksmith, the shoemaker, the thoughtful politician, and the boozy loafers that fill the stoop---grin and stare, and make their criticism!
 How he hings the reins and the horses to the stable-boy, who presently returns with a splendid relay! How he accepts these from the boy with that sort of air with which a king might be supposed to take his armOr from the hands of a valet! There are his gloves, withal; he always wears gloves, as Saratoga fine lady, and would no sooner touch any thing without gloves than such lady would glass of Congress water.
 There is, moreover, & mystery attach ing to the stage-driver---a mystery deeper than the question why the car casses of elephants are found imbedded in the ice-mountains of the Arctics--- even this: Why the stage-driver is not frozen to death in our winters? His punctuality has something preternat- ural in it. How, in the coldest weather, in the severest storm, in fegs, in sleet, in hail, in lightning, in mud, when no. body else is abroad, the stage-8rive1 appears, rounding the corner, just as regular and just as quiet as the old clock in the kitchen!