Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1880-09-03

day night, making the So5 niles IN 50
hours. For pleasure, comfort and speed
this route via. the Baltimore and Chicago
express deserves word Of mention. After
having had two hours at Harpers Ferry
to visit old John Browns famous Engine
House, which is well picked with Federal
bullets and Clipped by the hammers OF
relic hunters, and climbing to
JeffersOn's Rock to take in the rarely r0-
mantle view into three states and miles OF
the beautiful Potomac and Shenandoah,
which Thomas Jefferson said was worth
trip across the Atlantic to see, and visiting
the old cemetery and battle ground on the
mountain where Stonewall Jackson sur
rounded and captured 10000 Federals and
immense stores and munitions OF war. After
two hours for this mot the capture but the
z. Nj. for Chicago and are whisked along
at speed that is fearful until one gets
used to it. In hours you have come 100
miles, past the Queen city, Cumberland,
Md, Nesting among the mountains at the
head of the canal navigation, with her TO-
600 busy souls and her magnificent railroad
hotel which, with its brilliantly lighted
and richly furnished halls, parlors and
chambers flashes upon you moment and
again you rush into the moonlight along
the river, through the mountain gorges,
past Keyser and Piedmont and in another
hour have past over thirty miles and are
swiftly climbing the II mile ascent OF the
Allegheny mountains through the
Widest MOUNTAIN COUNTRY
of West Virginia, and for the time being
our swiftly moving community or an hum
dred souls, more or less, is as completely
cut off from the outside world az il we
were buried in the Businesses of the Rocky
Mountains opd hr0kau oY1Q MIGHT annd
us to the bottom of craggy glen, with
nothing but night owls and wild cats and
rattlesnakeS to keep us company TILL the
next train should come along and hunt us
out. But we have not an hour for such
pleasant reflections before we are shooting
along through the pretty glades and
well-kept pasture lands on the broad
top of the Alleghanies, and pass the ex-
tensive and beautiful summer hotels OF
Deer Park and Oakland, bright with lights
and crowded with visitors, and the pic
light prOmenaderS.
In these attitudes the air is chilly, and
the brakemen, responding to the muir
murs of the passengers, goe through
the train making fires, and after warm
ing we retire to the luxurious
sleepers and are lost to the moving piano.
rama as the train descends the mountains,
winds along Cheat River, passes Grafton.
Paramount. and a dozen other smaller
towns, and brings us into the world again
at broad day at Bellaire, an Ohio town on
the Ohio River, which we pass, not through
but over, on a high bridge, a long way
above the chimney tops, while the doing
cows in the streets and the geese in the
back lots and the dog on the doorstep pay
us no more attention than they would a
shooting star, and the house-girl, sweep
ing off the front porch, only glances up to
see that her brakeman is not on the plat
form, and turns again to her work.
Here the conductor tells us that it is
only 1O4 miles to Newark, where we get
breakfast, that we will soon be there, SO
we begin to get ready, though it does seem
unreasonable, 4 but the conductor must
know, and after getting ready ard watch
ing the great Ohio cornfelds, which seem
to all run into pne as they shoot by the
window, and the hundred fOcks of sheep,
which seem to be on every hill, and the
fine timber which seems to skirt every
valley, we are at Newark and breakfast.
One hundred and four miles to breakfast,
from sunrise to eight O'Clock. The same
time that q fellow occupies at home in
making his toilet, spanking the children,
taking turn in the garden, running over
the morning paper and hurrying up the
cook, q passenger on the Baltimore q Ohio
express has made four days. journey for
a road team under the old regime. Truly
time and space is annihilated. So thought a
YOUNG RUNAWAY COUPLE
who boarded our train near this point on
cur return. 1t was about O'Clock in the
morning. Their hurried getting aboard,
their startled looks when the car doors
would open and their anxious inquiries
about the distance to Benwood the first
West Virginia station, soon aroused the
suspicion Of the conductor and myself,
who were comparing notes. She was
fair young blushing little thing as pretty
as a pink and as sweet as peach, not
fixed for travelling at all and especially
that cool night, with her Sunday bonnet
and filings on and light muslin dress
looking like she had just slipped away
from the camp-meeting which was holding
near the station where they got on; and he
a long, ugly, rough looking gawk, hardly
out Of his teens, trying to assume an off
hand dashing air but making miserable
failure. From my seat behind the couple
I took in the whole situation and was
much entertained by their observations
and manipulatiOns. AS we neared the
Ohio river I leaned over and said to the
young fellow ''Do you think you'll make
it 7" "What! how! make what ? don't
understand you," he said, looking scared
and surprised. sect to Wheeling in time
before they stop you," said 1, I'VE have
got you down for a runaway couple. )"
"Oh, no you are mistaken am taking
her to my sisters in Wheeling" "Oh +!
yes" said, II have heard that sister st0-
ry BEFORE" and proceeded to tell him so
much about the business that he conclu-
ded l knew all about it and asked my adj
vice which was readily given, the girl
meanwhile seeming very much interested
and pleased betimes at some little cOmpli-
ments to herself dropped in. We soon
numbered over the long bridge, the train
showed up tosthe station and as the pair
started out to take the Wheeling cars, |
wished them much luck. They thanked
me and stepped off and were soon whirl-
ling away to meet their rate LOT veal or
for woe. Which?
AS we rushed along through Ohio, In
diana and Illinois, there was little to in
terest a man travelling the road for the
first time except the general aspect of
new country, There was corn and fine
corn everywhere and standing almost as
thick as reeds four and six stalks in hill
and the hills close together. Small houses
and hOmesteads which In Virginia would
not be entitled to more than six or eight
acre lot surrounded by great fields Of corn
such as we would expect to see on our lar
gest plantations Ia farmer tells me it is
principally fed to cattle and hogs through
this section and is now selling at SO and
40 cents per bushel), large and numerous
herds of sheep are frequently seen, and all
day long for $50 miles after leaving the hill
country of the Ohio river, till we reach
Chicago, the country is, with the excep--
tion Of few tracts, as level as plain and
dotted over with populous towns and
small irregularly built villages with grass
grown streets, while in the country the
white farm house and the inevitable red
barn can be seen at almost every outlook.
Through Indiana and Illinois the country
roads cross the railroad at right angles