, 1880-02-09
" Bob" Burdette.
HIS DESCRIPTION OF CINCINNATI AND
81 CUMMINSvILLE.

anu Luo WOst uncCb way Oh Sot-
ting there is to go down through Vanity
Fair and see how the Paris of America
looks on Sunday night with its reform
clothes on. For Cincinnati has gone
out of the Paris business; temporarily,
at least; it has closed up its variety
shows Sunday nights. They tell me
that last night was remarkably quiet
for Sunday night in Cincinnati.
don't know what they must have
been like before the reform set in there
Every man must have carried a gong.
On our way to Cincinnati the fat pas
senger fattens his face against the
glass, and looking out into the gloom
says:
"This is Morrow. If it wasn't for
this town there are thousands of men
in Ohio who would never make joke.
But as it is. every day. several men in
every station on the line of this and
connecting roads. come in and say, to
the ticket agent, I want ticket to-
morrow that is, 1 want ticket to
Morrow to-day; I want to go to Nor
row this afternoon. Nine times out
of ten and oftener he does not want q
ticket. He has probably never been
and never will be in Morrow in all his
life, but he wants to say his joke and
he says it. That is why the town was
so named. There is one man in Xenia
has said it 365 times year for the past
eleven years. and he doesn't know, to
save his never-dying soul he couldn't
tell to-day, whether Morrow is north or
south of Xenia.
look out at South Lebanon as we
hurry through, and think of the Leban.
on a few miles away, where I chatted
last Friday night. slept in the hotel
where Clement L. Vallandigham acci-
dentally shot himself while endeavoring
to demonstrate that case of alleged
murder was really case of self-shoot-
ing. Lebanon was Tom Corwin's home
his grave is pointed out only short
distance from the town, and a painting
of Corwin ornaments the center of the
arch above the stage in the new and
elegant Town Hall. Charles Dickens
drove through Lebanon on one of his
stage rides through Ohio, and scene
in his American notes is located at an
old tavern in the town. And then
we'll, I was there myself last Friday
night.
made virtue of necessity, and it's
a good thing for some men there are
some necessary virtues, and got up
early at 6 A. M, and got away from the
Burnet House, without leaving any
more overshoes for them to remember
me by. don't like to get up early,
and don't feel remarkably happy as
the train whirls along. Here is Cum
minsville. I wonder where is Knowl-
tons grocery-it was Knowlton's wasn't
it? Twenty-Five years ago / went to
school il the upper story of the old
stone grocery, and play ed in the horse
trough, and fell IN sundry times. to the
infinite amusement of an enthusiastic
audience, and the decentralization of my
clothes. The long, dark, covered
bridge over Mill Creek that 1 used to
people with unheard-of terrors, when l
went streaking through it when the
deepening twilight filled it with gro
tesque shadows and gloomy shapes that
lurked among the heavy timbers and
ponderous arches. The canal packets
that used to carry us to Cincinnati-ah,
you talk about floating palaces on the
Mississippi, you rave about the Sound
steamers or the boats of the - Peoples |
Line, did you ever ride on passer
ger boat on the Miami Canal? There
acas grandeur for you. All, if l could
only have changed places in those days
with the boy who rode the hind
mule, my restless ambition would
have been satisfied. And you never
rode on canal boat in the spring, the
first one that went through to break the
ice, did you? Then you have never
been anywhere and never done any !
thing. But this Cumminsville, as look
at it t-pshaw, somebody has spoiled it.
They have built houses all over it,
and new railroads into it. The canal
isn't half as wide as it used to be. Mill
Greek seems to have been drained off
somewhere would not live in Cum
minsyille now for a salary. They've
spoiled it ; everything is smaller except
the houses. Look for the House of
Refuge" which was my boyish terror,
and wonder where is Shaddinger's
distillery that used to be the landmark |
on the other side of the creek, and 1
look at their great bearded fellows in
the streets, and about the depot, and
wonder If they are the boys l used to
go to school with If they are it seems |
to me they have also changed some
what.-Burlington Hanheye.
A woman in the hospital in Florence
has strange history. She entered the
Italian army in order to save her
brother, married man, from military
service. She served with distinction
during the war with Austria and re-
ceived g. medal for bravery in the field.
When these facts were known to King
Hunbert he presented her with the
croaa Of his ordar and naua diracfinna