Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1876-05-26
NO. 1875:
THE ADVENTURES OF A CIRCUIr-RIDER.
CONTINUED FROM YESTERDAY

ali theS We Deen cracked up TO De. heV
City. shabby genteel. looks like the latter
half OF misspent lfe-will probably end
up in some large junk shop. Such was
Joseph's entry in his journal. and he
wasn't very far astray at that. Jim Blad-
so on the Prairie Belle, according to John
Hay, had ''nigger on the safety-valve,"
to be sure to have it constan tly inspected
and in good working order.
But there was nothing like this upon
the Key City-though these missionaries.
very hot and trihe homesick. amused
themselves watching the colored firemen
lighting up the gang-ways with fiaring
rosn-torches as they took on and off the
different cargoeS on the route.
McGregor was the stopping place for
| these Gospel adventurers, and there they
bade farewell to the Father OF Waters,
and took train for an inland town named
Cresco. These towns grow up with mar
vclous rapidity along the line of the rail-
roads, and are very often taken down and
moved from point to point, according as
the funds last whereby to push on the
road. This special train spent about an
hour in chasing herd of cattle over the
sleepers. as there was swamp on either
side of the track, and the numbering cows
preferred to run heavily in advance of the
engine.
"How many cows do you kill week ?"
inquired Brother Joseph.
About sixteen" answered the baggage
master: land they are sent down to the
mangled-beef' shop, and done into jerked
steaks"
This was vivid anticipation of their
commissariat department, which, with the
apostolic statement that they should eat
such things as were set before them,
these young brethren pause and mediate.
"a little different from the table d. h0te
at the Grand Hotel, Paris, suggested Friar
William.
! Yes but don't be everlastingly COM
pairing our trip here with"
Now, Joseph. you're mad again. Re-
member
Your little hands were never made
To tear each others eyes,
Won't you smoker
"No,' said Joseph, shortly and TO the
point; and they looked out of the bag
gage-car door, with their feet upon Il box.
for an hour, and said nothing.
III THE WAYS OF THE CIRCUIT-RIDER.
This is Parson Jambeau's said the
driver OF an exceedingly long and thin
wagon, which looked like that terrible in
sect know as the DEVILS darning needle
hung upon four wheels.
| The wheels themselves, as if they were
afraid of the body, or had experienced
falling out by the way, kept as far off as
possible from the main portion of the We.
hicle. The freedom of the coming Fourth
of July seemed to touch everything in
this Western town with its Independent
spirit. The wheels were Independent of
the wagon; the horses travelled as far
apart from each other as though one of
them had come from Charleston Harbor
and the other from Boston Bay. with the
dividing pole for Mason and Dixon's line.
The very houses stood off with senti-
nel-like effect. as though each one OF them
guarded some State-sovereignty prnci
pie.
Here, then, the old veteran missionary,
who had served his days in the foreign
service lin Africa, and was now home
missionary on the domestic board, met the
two tledglings at his garden-gate and
took them into his little cabin. 1t was
very hot, and the young brethren were
tired, and the next day was the Fourth,
and it was soon settled that they would
wait over, and then go to their new fields
of labor the day afterward.
SO the wife and the children were met
and introduced, and Brother Joseph and
the trair drew lots as to which one should
remain with the missionary's family, and
which one should sleep at a neighbours
where there were nine children down with
the whooping- cough. The lot of the
boarder-out fell to Friar William, and he
dreamed he WAS in a menagerie all night
| long
| The Fourth was very hot and very "glo-
rious' in that Western town. Wagon
loads of red-haired, freckled-faced girls
and perspiring young men in linen busters
came into the grove-or "high place" as
the Israelites would have called it-and
celebrated in the true American way. That
afternoon, after assisting Parson jam
beaus little children to fire off their crack
ers, the old missionary, to whom our
young heroes were assigned, looked over
the map with his two assistants, and
showed them the lay of the land, and gave
them their final directions for the morrow
when they were to separate.
Then came the solemn work of drawing
lots about the fields. On the one hand
was large town, with civilization and
comforts and kind of definite parish
work on the other hand were two coun-
ties OF prairie-land, with little hamlets
grouped together in spots, and the long
expected missionary horse "Sam"-or, as
the friar called him, "Psalmist the
rckety buggy.
Out came the hat, in went the lots,
around went the hands shutflng about,
and the fates settled it: Joseph goes to
the civilized quarter, and William takes
the steed OF twenty summers and goes to
the rougher Gentiles.
Thus on the morrow they parted. Bro.
Joseph took the stage and went to his
quite, orderly town, and paid his boarding.
/ house bills regularly, and got on we'll with
his landlady, and had his linen washed
and his shoes polished, and read his news
paper every morning; just as he had al
ways done on every former vacation and
in the three months time was as fat as
young seal, and was almost ready to get
married and settle down.
| The other brother-"the circuit-rder'--
packed his bags under the seat, kissed the
children good-by. got out his map.
cracked his whip over the Psalmist's back.