Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1877-08-23
Miscfll
0p
Doctor 10.

/ 10 was .ired Of border life at last. He
| was n sort OF free aud-easy scape-grace,
may ms well tell YOU AZ once. II you meet
! a young man on tie border who is not
! there for speculation who is not In search
OF a home. who is not dabbling in Indian
afisirs- whose occupation, In short, Will
not sufficiently account for his presence
you may pretty safely set him down a one
| to whom civilization does not vouChsafe as
| much freedom as suits him leave due
margin for those whom the hcToncs In the
! newspaper stories jill and send West, and
/ then wish they hadn't Ii is curious to OBJ
/ serve. by-thc-wav. the local changes in the
I directions which these much manipulated
characters cake. Europc.tnr instance, may
! be considered the Sanltorium of the
crossed" of New Eng and aud the Allan
] tic sea board generally. Such ones eager
/ " court the dangers Of an ocean voyage,
only to steer clear Of them al and turn up.
safe though untorgetting. in Rome or Par
i Your disappointed inlander, on the
, other hand. depends upon the railroad
/ !lc commits himself with all his trou bes,
TO the care of the first snortiug stecd OF
! iron which passes with its iirery head turncd
Westward. Not the centres, bat the rare
/ fled SUBURBS. Of civilization are congeuial to
his soul. He would give his care To the
free winds rather than have it iostlcd ont
I !
But none of this is pertinent to 10. The
simple tact concerning him was this: He
had quarreled with his father. a comforta-
bic Pennsylvania farmer. Who had set his
heart upon thrifty increase OF hi, proper
" in the hands of his son when he himself
( should finally be laid 0n the shelf. Jos
biss was quite otherwise. and the whole
affair ended in his giving up hi. own pet
plan and crushing that OF his father at one
stroke. For one day he cut loose from the
old home mooring>. and was carried like
A piece OF DRIFT. Westward. Whercupon
Fate. TO whom lac committed himself. shut
lied him back and forth from Nebraska 10
Texas and from Texas TO Kansas. with
occasional side venture. which carried him
ont on the plains. 80 he had been nomad
for two years. Once having taken 'he
role of the rover. II had. in turn. taken
possession OF him. for he could not keep
his heart ont Of whatever he did. lie dil
not make his own plunges 80 10 speak for
- | said. he WAS committed to Fate. But
once in. he accepted the new elemy nj. aud
proceeded 10 ride the wave with en- njoymeut
IL not with independence. His manners
sunk BY degrees TO the level of his lfe not
that he became a boor-iar from it-but
simply that he followed that law OF con-
formity which rules us all, and makes MS
more or less like our nearest nclghborS.
Perhaps his experience was not calculated
10 put any very iiue edge upon his morals.
Tor that panoply must be extra. indeed.
which will protect one entirely from the
rough atmosphere OF the frontier. | have
called him a .cape-grace; but after all, il
might have been 4 great deal worse.
And he was tired Of border lie last
50 il came into his head to turn his back
upon it once for all. He had acquired
enough money to show for his tsre, and
more luggage than he could have imagined
himself to have before essaying TO pack it
up Then there Were the sparsey scat
tered shanfies OF the settlers to visit before
gong-sbanties to which Jos resistless
boHhOmie insured his -and.easy access.
He never found latch string in and so il
cABe about in one of his parting visits that
the nerve OF his old desire was unexpect-
~ set tinglipg. For what visitor but 10
would. on that day. have been welcome
at Mrs.. Whites' !he two beds in the o
ly room of the dwelling were. apparently.
full of children, who cried or shook or
tossed in fever, as the several stages of
the generic ague fl overlook them. Mr.
White himself was In the trembling act of
surrender TO the same archenemY, while
the implements of his fruitless warfare
tea-cups, bottles. spoons, hot irons etc =
were scattered about on the hearth at his
feet Now and then he ventnred upon
chattering jest with the CHEEKY ueighbOr
woman who had come in to lend hand or
exchange notes with his salow spouse
with whom it happened 10 be an off dav
for chlls. Thus did Otind the household.
Instantly the situation inspired him. An
old passion famed anew in his heart. He
felt the thrill of an instinct which had been
the beckoning spirit Of his former dreams,
lurin9 him on to oppose his will 10 that of
his father. Ii was the instinct for relev-
ing physical suiering-the prime prere-
quisite of the good physician. His eve
snapped at the present chance. How he
longed 10 hound that ague down, But the
sleader Knowledge, the poor resources, at
hand were giants In his way; so he merely
sat and looked On while Mrs. White poured
the inevitable white powder on a bit OF
dried apple in a spoon, and capped the
whole mass with another piece of apple
designed to conceal the medicine. On his
way home he dropped his head and rum-
mated more than was his wont. BLAMED
if don't.' he jerked out at last as he
kicked into a bunch of fallen cotton wood
leaves in his path, and sent its parts flying
| in every direction.
After that he lost no time. The next
morning he might have been seen in his
Sunday best. whatever that was, seated by
the side of teamsier, who was driving
! him TO the nearest railroad station. 1t had
been raining. and they must needs travel
slowly. II seemed to 10 that they fairly
crept through all that long day. and he
| ground his teeth. If not worse, whep they
drove up to the station at sunset, and SAW
! in the distance the smoke of the departing
East-bound train.
Plenty OF time to look about but little to
look at Half hundred one-story houses
scattered about with some presumptuous
attempt at regularity, which was worse
than any degree of disorder, were not in
viting TO the eye. newish. unfinished,
weather r-boardy-place, for which the rail
road was wholly responsible-a place. al
/ belt. which the enterprise of the circus
and the patent medicine had evidently fol-
| lowed closely up. 1t had been livelier two
| or three years before than it was now they
told him, tor at that time it had been the
! terminus of the read. But that ruthless
| maker and unmaker of cities aud towns had
possible metropolis "laid-out' city in
double sense 1t was now only one of the
man, unimportant beads which the track
| had strung on its line. and so business was
dull Yet to 10 it was suggestive of the
bustling world to which he bnd once be-
longed. and served to revive in his soul
| few strains Of the music of humanity which
had well. nigh become silent He was more
crazy than ever to get of; but there he was,
and there he must stay all night.
Thinking il over, he concluded to put up
at the Central Hotel-a longish, many-win-
dowed building. dingy with dirt from the
sidewalks, but perhaps the best honsc OF
its kind the place could muster. There |
was the usual bar-room loafiBg; the usual
round of coarse jokes and tobacco splitting;