The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-07-22
The Pittsburgh Dispatch Of July IS has

.cThcy tumDleQ nfteen Oh US out OF q DON
car about two miles from here and we
pactly-buist, rcd-beartled man who was
founging about the elevator near the Union
depot yesterday morning. The tails OF his
coat stopped st his waist, he had no vest,
and red faanel shirt cleaned through a
rent in his outer yestDlent that once was
white but that had been converted by hard
times into dingy brown. His pants were
as much too long for him a. his coat was too
short, and there was braZen, shiny look
about his wardrobe that spoke loudly Of an
intimate acquaintance with the oil and
tar OF empty box-cars. But the voice
came out in familiar accents through all
that cloud OF dirt and misery, and an in
tent look Mt him discovered Frank Gardiner,
a man who has lived a life Of adventure eX-
trayagsnt "a any ever pictured by the most
reckless yeliow-eorered romancist. Com
mon place as the name is, it describes man
who has score Of times balanced himself
upon the scales of fate when the slightest
adverse tremer meant death to him. When
the writer last saw him he was nabob on
California street, San Francisco. lie had n
clear title to loo, 900 good gold dollars, and
he ate expensive dinners at the "Poodle
Dog" Yesterday he scrubbed bar-room
and kitchen, and carried of the refuse of a
tenement-house, taking stale loaf OF rye
bread for reward, upon which he feasted
rayenousiy.
Gardeners life has been nightmare With
fortunes chances be has been shot into az
fluence with the speed and giddiness OF
rocket, and with the same chances he has
fallen Us precipitately as the stick OF the dis
charged firc-bal. At sixteen he was ma
circulated at Oxford, and in his freshman
year in boyish fight he threw his adversary
so as to dislocate his neck. The unfortunate
youth was of noble family, and Gardiner
was transported for life. Within the first
year OF his confinement at New Zealand
he escaped to the bush, where he
was joined by n number Of his
miserable companions, and for years the
band were terror to the settlements. A
price was put upon his head, and his COM
panions were offered free pardon to de-
liver him up to the authorities. He escaped
to Melbourne, where he was apprehended,
and, again escaping, he second time took
to the bush. In Australia the shepherds
were friendly to him, and one OF them one
day brought him the first intelligence he
had received from home in over fifteen
years. 1t was q notification OF his pardon,
and in August, 1873, he left the colonies
free man, and celebrated his Christmas in
San Francisco.
LIFE in A NEW WORLD.
For awhile his luck seemed to change in
this country. Though in the colonies he
had at various times been possessed OF for
tune, he held it in constant fear OF appre-
hension, and being careless Of what became
OF it, his yiciSsitudes were often painfully
sudden. He brought money with him to
the coast, and in the stock excitement OF
1874 he made large profits. q With his gains
he purchased small rancho in the San Joa-
quin valley, and there he lived quietly until
the Bonanza excitement Of the fall OF last
year. In that speculation he identified him
self with the Ralston, or Bank OF California,
party, and he was carried with them into the
river. He tried mining in Virginia City for
awhile, but four dollars a day, earned tif-
teen hundred feet under ground, did not suit
him, and he struck out for the East.
He could not go back to San Francisco,
where he never suffered poverty, and he did
not have money enough to go anywhere |
else, so he resolved to take two-tie pass
in other words, to beat his way along the |
line OF the Central and Union Pacific rail |
roads. While he was in that portion OF
the State of Nevada near Virginia he was
well treated by the conductors and brake
men Of the freight trains; but after that
time lie began to appreciate the difficulties |
Of the task he had undertaken. At 4
watering-place, Il station beyond where he
had parted from the last friendly conduc-
tor, he laid in wait for the next eastern
freight, and acting upon the advice Of the
railroad man lie boarded the cow catcher
OF the engine, and crawled upon the plat
form, resting his back against the hot crown
sheet Of the boiler.
RIDE ON. A LOCOMOTIVE.
In this way he rode over a whole division
(about 1875 miles, and what his sensations
were, sitting on the face Of the rushing
locomotive as it plunged through the dark
ness Mt fifteen or twenty miles an hour, can
be more easily imagined than described.
At the end Of the division he was discover
ed and forced to loaf around until the next
train passed. When this train arrived at the
station several empty boX-cars were in
willingly open, and Gardiner felt that his
luck had not yet deserted him. He climbed
into one stealthily, and when the train
moved off, and he was not disturbed,
he fairly Rugged himself for Joy
and disposed himself comfortably for
n sleep. His happiness was not OF
long duration. In the midst Of a happy
dream two sturdy brakemen awoke him
and asked him what he had. lie replied
Nothing" and they proposed that ne
should trade coats with one OF them and
ride to the end OF the. DIVISION. Ills coat
was comparatively new and had been costly.
The brakeman's coat was in rags. But
he traded, and at the next station the whole
force of the train was mustered, and he was
put off the train and left thirty miles from
settlement, in the middle OF an aikali desert
with white section-boss and six Cinnamon
for companions. This was fair sample OF
his experience from that time forth, and
when Gardiner arrived in Omaha his gar
ments were as picturesque as Joseph's coat,
and, as he said with grim humor, they have
stuck to him yet.
He travelled from Chicago to Pittsburgh I
Just us he travelled from Nevada to Chicago,
and when the writer saw him his spirits
Were as high as when he was power on
California street. Plans for the future. He
had none. His sole aim was to reach New
York. And then-then, he said, "ii nothing
turns up shall take the first vessel, and so
oefore the mast to Australia where have
friends who will give me another start"
The yenire that tried John Hensley on
charge OF burglary last week said: awe
believe he broke into Jets meat-house; we
believe he stole the meat; yet we do not be-
lieye he ought to be sent to the peniten-
tiary," and accordingly fixed his term Of
imprisonment in the county Jail at three
months.-Scott County Vc.) Register.