The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-05-17
CIIAPTER~I.

1hhI EN-
THE AUTocRAr OF THE STAGE COACH.
"Git up!"
No leader of u cavalry charge ever put
more authority into his tones than ana
Whisky Jim as he drew the lines over his
four bay horses in the streets of Red Owl
Landing, village two years old, Boosting
three thousand inhabitants, and certain
prospect of having four thousand a month
later.
Even ministers, poets, and writers OF I'M
worldly romances are sometimes influenced
by merccnary considerations. But stage
drivers are entirely consecrated to their
high calling. Here was Whisky Jim in the
very streets of Red OWL in the spring of
the wear 1856, when money was worth five
anil six per cent. month on bond and
mortgage, when corner lots doubled in
value over night, when everybody was fran
tically trying to swinde everybody else
here was Whisky jim, with the iniatuation
of lifelong devotion to horse-fesh, utter
" obiyious to the chances of robbing green
cmigrants which a season of speculation
affords. He was secure from the infection.
You might have shown him Il gold mine
under the very feet of his whccl-horscs, and
he would not have worked it for twenty-four
hours. He had an itching palm, which
could he satisfied with nothing but the
"ribbons" drawn over the backs of four
INLAND.
" az up!'
The coach moved away--slowly at first
from the front door of a large, rectangu-
ar, implanted II d Owl Hotel, dragging its
wheels heavily through the soft turf of a
Main street from which the cotton wood
I 4 l,,,t ia, .I, ;.I, Ia.
stumps were still standing and which re-
manned as innocent of all pavement as when
three years before, the chief whose name il
bore, loaded his worldly goods upon the
back of his oldest and uglicst wife, slung
his gun over his shoulder, and started
mournfully away from the home OF his IA
Tiers. which he, shittlcss fellow, had bar
gained away to the white man for an annui-
~ of powder and blankets, and a little
money, to be quickly spent for whisky. And
yet, | might add digressively, there is com
f,rt in the sad1cst situations. Even the
venerable Red Owl bidding adieu to tho
home of his ancestors found solace in the
sweet hope of returning under favorable
circumstances to scalp the white mans wife
and children.
"Git up, THAR, G'lang." The long
whip swung round and cracked threatening
ly over the launches of the leaders, making
them start suddenly us the coach wen
round corner and dipped into a hole
at the same instant, nearly throwing the
driver, and the passenger who was enjoying
the outride with him, from their seats.
"What a hole" said the passenger,
studious- looking young man, with an ento
mologist's tin collectingl OK slung over hi
shoulders.
The driver drew a long b elth, moistcnet
his lips, and said in a cool and aggravatingl,
deliberate fashion
'That air blamed pollywog puddle solt
las week for tcw Thousand"
"Dolars?" askel the. young man.
Jim egave him an annihlating look, an,
uueried: Didn't think meant two thaou
sand acorns, did YEP"
"It's an awful price," said the abashe,
passenger, speaking as one might in tn
presence of a superior being.
Jim was silent awhile, and then resumed
in the same slow tone, but with somethin,
of condescension mixed with it:
"Think so, do ye? Mebbe so, stranger
Fool what bought that tadpole lake don
middlin' well in disposin' of it, howsumd
ever"
Here the Superior Being came to dea
pause, and waited to be questioned.
g How's that?" asked the young man.
After proper interval of meditation, Jir
said "Sol' it this week. Tuck jest twic
what he invested in his frog-fshcry"
"Four thousand?" said the passenge
with an inquisitive and surprised rising in
Election.
"IIey?" said Jim, looking at him solemn
ly. "Tew times tew use to be four when
larnt the rewl of three in old Yarmouth
Mebbe faint so in the country you com
from, where they call pail a bucket
The passenger kept still awhile. TIL
manner of the Superior Being chilled him
little. But Whisky Jim graciously brok
the silence himself.
90 Sell mex week for six
The young mans mind had already lie
the subject under discussion, and it too
some little effort of recollection to bring
back.
"How long will it keep on going up?
he asked.
"Tell it teches the top. Come daow
then like a spile-drivcr in hurry. IIigho
it goes the wuss it'll mash anybody VIII;
happens to stan percisely under it,"
'!When will it reach the top?"
The Superior Being turned his eyes flu
upon the student, who blushcd a little undo
the half-sneer of his look.
"Yaou tell Thunder, stranger, that
jest what everybody'd pay money to fin
out. Everybody means to git aout in time
but-thundcr EVERY piece of perrary
this territory is deadfall Somebody
git catchcd in every one of them air trap
Gee up! G'lang! Git up, won't you
Hcy?" And this last sentence was orna
mented with another magnificent writing
master flourish of the whip-lash, and en-
phasized by an explosive crack at the en-,
which started the four horses off at swing
ing gallop, from which Jim did not allo
them to settle back into walk until the
had reached the high prairie land in IL
rear of the town.
"What are those people living in ten
for?" asked the student as he pointed bac
to Red Owl, now considerably below then
and which presented panorama of balloon
frame houses, mostly innocent of pain
with sprinkling of tents pitched here ar
there among the trees; on lots not yet r,
deemed from virgin wildness, but whic
possessed the remarkable quality of " fetcl
ing" prices that would have done honor
wcll-located land in Philadelphia.
- What they live that away fer? Hey
Mostly cause they can't live no other
Then, after long pause, the Superior b.
ing resumed Ill tOHc OF llall-sOlllOquy
Amt a bed nur board in the hull city
Red Owl to be had for payin' nur coaxin
Beds is aces. Houses is trumps. Ian,
lords is got high, low, Jack, and the gan
in their hands. Looky there! A bran-ne
lot of fools fresh from the factory" An
he pointed to the old steamboat "Bc
Bolt" which was just coming up to the Ian,
ing with deck and guards black with Gag,
immigrants of all classes.
But Albert Charlton, the student, did n
look back any longer. 1t marks an epot
in mans life when he first catches sight
a prairie landscape, especially if that Liant
scape be one of those great rolling ones
he seen nowhere so well as in Minnesot
Charlton had crossed Illinois from CLical
to Dunleith in the nighttime, and so hi
missed the fiat praries. His sense of SUI
Unity was keen, and, besides his natur
love for such scenes, he had hobbyist pa