The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-03-19
8ittlmond Qispatrll.
Er THE CIRCULATION OF THE DIS.
PATCH IS LARGER THAN THE COMBINED
CIRCULATION OF ALL THE OTHER DAILY
SEwsPApERs OF THE CITY.


AN ARGoEAuT's RETuRH.--Iou came to
California In 1852. You return home, for
the first time, IN 1872. Your homo, in an
eastern State. is Dozevie.
For the last twenty years you have per-
sisted in regarding Dozevile az still possessed
of all the attractiveness it had fer you In
youth. Reflection told you it must have
changed. People who had visited DoZeville
and returned bore back gloomy stories of its
dullncss aud monotony. But you had not
seen this. You could not realize it. There
was for you but one Dozeville-young Doze-
villc-always young, because you saw it last
in youth.
In day-dreams in river and bank claims,
picking and shovcling up to the middle in
mud. slum, and wafer; by your cabln.door
smoking the evening pipe; on the sterile
ridges of Nevada prospecting for "ledge,' y
YOU have, in imagination, many times visited
Dozevile. You have shaken hands with all
it's old citizens; you have been, for time,
the newly-returned lion Of the place. No
matter that letter after letter told you how
sres, and grandsires, and matrons, and
blooming, bright.eyed schoolmates had drop
ped off, you would see yourself, on the first
Sunday home at Dozeville, standing In the
village church; and with what congregation
could you ill II save the one you had left!
The dream Is realized; the continent is
crossed; you stand bodily in Dozeville.
None know of your coming. 1t is night.
lhe train has stopped at the depot The
railroad has been extended to Dozeyille
since you left. DoZcvillians were talking OF
building this road when you ~cre boy
The branch &" is thirty miles in length
They were thirty years talking it over. Old
Dozeyilians had lived and died talking ol
it. At last brisk New York Speculation
came along, and in a few months the road
was built.
There is feeble effcrvcsccnce about tho
DozeviIlc depot when the train stops. Com
pared with the roaring, husliag, crowdins
hustle ola Wdc-awake town, il is as the Ian.
guild pop Of stale champagne bottle to the
roar of a forty-two pouDder. You get in 9
coach and are driven toward the family resi-
lencc. 1t is cold, clear winters night. You
look out the wind is roaring through tht
IcatlcSs SycamorcS; every street has its ole
curve; every house is in its old place Yor
recognize them all. as though you had lcf
| nut Yesterday; yet gloom seems to hang
| about them. for yon realize n0,c that you
are not to meet this or that old ncighhor
| whose daily coming and going from hose gates
| seemed It's interchangeable as the rising and set
ting of yonder moon. You have plet your
| mother and sisters; you have allnos
| been obliged to prove TO them your
| identity, II wis surprise, but moi
| exactly of the quality you had hoped for
They were hardly prepared to see middle.
aged man, Worn 10y toll and exposure. Tho
last photograph you sent home ten years ast
| implied still some appearance of youth. Ant
| you make discovery. you are not acq1aintcC
| with your own mother and sisters. Twent,
wears is too long an absence; there is q grea
| gap, whole lifetime Of incident and event
| between you and them. You are bound 10 4;
| thousand California sympathcS aud aSsocia
lions Of which they know nothing. You be
| tray them every hour. You are continually
| proving. now that you are back at the ole
| home, seated in the old armchair. and OH tht
very carpet over which YOU tumbled in youi
| batyhood. that thrcC-tourtls Of yollr hc:Tt i:
| back in the land of fgeysers, grizzlies, and gold
| The mother inyountirily >ighs. This is moi
| the boys heart which left her twenty year,
| ago: it is n strange mans heart, full OF
| hopes, fears, plans, and relnembranccs un
known to her. 1t is a heart rcc.st, remod
cllcd. 1t was beardless boy who left her
from the cradle to that last parting she hat
| known his whole life; but this is Il bearded
man. who has returned with dashcs of gra,
IN his hair with a different manner and
| different voice. He brings with him tin
volume Of twcnty-onc years of lite, but sh
cannot read it all at once. He shows, care
lesSly, page here and there, but it is broker
and fragmcntary to hear. Her eye brighleD
when he speaks concerning some event O
his childhood; there she is upon tanilia
ground that seems piece of her own son
Hers. during your entire absence, has beel
the quiet life Of Dozevilc, not making halt
a-dozen new acquaintances you have mad
hundreds in the same time, and you brin.
them all home with you.- Overland Month";.
| for March.