New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-02-28
ONCE AND AGAIN.
III CHARLES WARREN sTODDARD.

Once aud again / have nestled in the Ii
OF a small village and wondered at L
necessity OF any world beyond my peacef
horizon. Once and again, after long veal
have entered the old schooroom with L
fearful and impatient heart OF q boy
have paced the playground and gone
and fro in the village streets singing, b
the song once sang came not again to IL
lips, tor it no longer suited the tine or ii
occasion.
| thought 20 take up the thread of Iii
where had dropped il near d score
years before, and complete the web whic
fancy bad embroidered with many ilows
OF memory and hope and love. | ha
forgotten that the loom weaves steadil
and persistently whether my hand be On
or not, and that can never mend the ren
IN the fabric 50 long neglected.
My record elsewhere il replete wit
numerous accidents by food and field
with the epOchs OF meetings and lnarryingt
of births and deaths. Meanwhile, tn
friends who had held fast to me through al
theae changes wrote ever in the selt-sam
VEN, and plotted for nv return with sucl
even and sturdy faith that had grown t.
look upon them as having drunk at The
fountain of immortal youth
OF course the detachable spring gushel
out of the heart of one OF those dear OLD
Bulls that walled in the village, for how
e,-e could they have quafted 1t The bones
more than two centuries pave the high.
wa7 between New England and California
As jubilant as young Lochinvar, came on,
OF the West one summer dawn, and took
train for Heartsease. / had resolved to
compass in single week the innumerable
landmarks that dot mountain and desert
and prairie-to leap as it were from sea to
sea from the present to the past, from
manhood to early youth.
/, it any wonder that / forestalled the
time, and was day and a night distant
before inguirng friends discovered my
eight Is it any wonder that the shrieking
and swaying train seemed slow to me, for
already my spirit had folded it's swift win rs
"A tho nestlike village of Heartsease
had, moreover, by this brilliant maneuvre
left the bitter cup of parting untasted-
1ut nothing more serious than this-and
seemed to have won a whole day from the
clutches Of time, who deals them out so
stIDgily TO the .xpectant and impatient
watcher.
San Francisco faces the sunrise. but there
IS broad glitiering bay and coast
range with the brawny bare shoulders be-
tween them, | sailed over the flashing
wafer, rode under the mountains and
threaded three tunnels before | began to
realize that l was fugitive from home. 1t
was midsummer; the car windows were half
open; whifls OF warm wind blew in upon me
scented with bay leaves and sage. For a
moment forgot Hcartsease and the home
of my youth, and turned tenderly to take
last farewell of the beloved land of my
adoption. The corn was cut and stacked in
iong dusty rows; it looked like a deserted
camp; thu grain was down; small equrrels
skipped lightly over the shining stubble.
whisking their hushy tails like puffs of
smoke. II seemed to me that no fairer land
ever baked in summers sunshine. Even the
parchad earth, with its broken and powder
sd crust, was lovely in my eyes. Small day
oERis sat in the corners OF the fences, when
there were any fences to sit in, and
nodded to me from behind their feather
masks; all the birds of the air tainted me
with heads on one side and dropping wings
might escape trusting humanity ana steal
away betimes, but these airy messengers
waylaid me and chirped a sarcastic adieu
from every field we crossed.
In the compulsory solitude of travel q
man is thrown back upon himself; at any
rate am, and with waning courage and
growing regret sank into IA corner OF nv
seat by tho window, and glowered at the |
interminable slices of landscape that slid
past me on both sides the rocking train |
Have you ever noted the refrain Of the hy-
ing wheels as they hurry from town to
toHL! lHeTe ID ID bua!p iIolu INC |
locomotive. and groan from one end of the |
train TO the other, rs II every screw were |
rheumatic and nothing but a miracle held |
il in its place. Then the song begins, very |
slowly at first, and in the old familiar strain: |
Observation-Disclosures O-ka-chilunk koka i
kodachiunk," repeated again and |
again, varied only when the short rails are
crossed, where il adds few ex tra syllables in
this style: "Kokacbilunls, chilunk, CHUNK"
f,at
tho utmost speed is attained; it then scars
nto this impressive refrain: "Lickity cut,
ickity-cut. hckity-cut. lickity-cut," repeat
al as often and us rapidly AZ possible. All
.he world goes By in two DIZZY landscapes,
get the song is UNMARRIED until you approach
, town with Il struggling and unfinished
edge, where the houses are waltZing about
rs if they had not yet decided upon any
location. Here you slacken |
speed and drop INTO a third movement, as
nonutonous as the others and far more
lrowsy, for it suggests all that is soothing
md nerve relaxing and sleep-begetting.
t is "killikinick, kilii-kinick, kill
.in--nck; eb. ali! bang.' A long groan
rom the wheels, a deep sigh from the
and you are stockstlll at some
inland hamlet that knows no emotion
reater than that occasioned by your
rival.
TO this duh accompaniment | climbed
ut of the golden lowlahds, the basins of
he San Joaquin and the Sacramento.
nto the silver mountains where the full |
noon wac just rising. The train seemed
@ soar through space: We passed from cliff
q cliff, above dark rayines, on bridges like !
pider- webs: we whirled around sharp cor
ers rs if we had started TOR some planet, |
ut thought better OF 1t and clung to earth. |
nth our hair on end aud half the breath
NJ of our bodies. We were continually
sceuding; the locomotive painted hide
usly; every throb of the powerful machine {
ent slUdder through the whole length of
he train. {
AGAIN anu again we paused; it seemed &
nat we could not 20 further without rest
we hung on thu edge OF u oha>m ,
/ whose tathomless shadow were buried u 6
,rest and d stream, both of which sent up [
ard to Us a fragrant and mclodious greet | I
lG; sometimes We rested under a mighty | I,
fountain, whose adamantine brow scoWled il
pom us, aud we were glad when We once | b
ore resumed the toiisome ascent of the | a
erras and escaped unhAgAcl fire.. flat @
ants lair. h
Once We carried Oh The o,!u.. .: q Wild I,
mon Midnight ana silence seemed To a
lumber there; the moon Hooded one half f;
Q mysterious gulf with light, revealing a | Il
,uder waterfall whose plash was family | "
ard; it served only to make the silence "
ore profound. Near at hand the torn and |
gged earth, robbed of it's treasure, looked &
inful even in that sOfiening light. On p