The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1873-01-16
The Stpve.Driyer.

There is a magic in the calling of n
stage-driver. Everybody knows and as
plres to know the stage-driver; every
body is known by, and rs proud to be
known by, the stage-driver. The little
poys remember it month, if the stage
urlver speaks to them. There is par
tlcnlnr satisfaction to be able to distin-
gnish among drivers, and say it was
Minke, or it was Mason, or it was
Mitchell. The stage-driver is prince of
a peculiar realm; and that realm con-
slsts OF the yellow coach he drives, and
the high seat he occupies, and his four
mettlesome horses, and forty miles of
country road, and the heart of several
principal roads, not to speak of ten
Thousand little matters of interest and
pleasure, business and profit, news and
gossip, with which he is connected
dence 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
IN gilded coach; he is the one who
rides through his immense estate with
the most lordly and consequential mir,
and all the rest of us seem to be but
poor tenants and gaping Doors. 1t is
something to speak to 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 he known, to be pointed
out, to have your name whispered in a
bystander's ear, by one who knows
everybody, affects you as if Omniscience
were speaking about you. The stage
driver differs from steamboat captain,
an that the latter is not seen to be SO
immediately connected with his craft as
the former. We meet the captain at
the breakfast-table; 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
tus of baggaSel Then how majestically
he rounds to, at the door of the tavern
What delicate pomp in the movement OF
Be four handsome horsesl In what
style the cloud of dust, that has served
as an outrider all the way, passes of
when the coach stopsl How the vii
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 filings the reins and the horses
to the stable-boy, who presently returns
with splendid relay! How he accepts
these from the boy with that sort of all
with which a king might be supposed
to take his armor from the hands of ;
valetl There are his gloves, withal; be
always wears gloves, as a Saratoga fin,
lady, and would no sooner touch any
thing without gloves than such lad,
would glass of Congress water.
There is, moreover, mystery attach
ing to the stage-driver---a myster,
deeper than the question why the car
casses of elephants are found imbeddet
in the ice-mount&ns of the Arctics--
even this: Why the stage-driver is no
frozen to death in our winters? Hii
punctuality has something preternat
ural in it. How, in the coolest weather
in the severest storm, in fegs, in sleet
in hail, in lightning, in mud, when no
body else is abroad, the stage-drive
appears, rounding the corner, just a
regular and Just as quiet as the ol,
clock in the kitchenl