Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-02-02
TWENTY YEARS FROM HOME

Your home, in an Eastern State, is Doze-
vile.
For the last twenty years you have per-
sisted in regarding Dozeville as st Il pos
sessed of all the attractiyeness it had for
you in youth. Reflection told you it must
have changed. People who had visited
Dozeville and returned bore back gloomy
stories Of it's dullness and monotony. But
you had not seen this. You could not real
lie it. There was for you one Dozeville-
young D1zeville-always young, because
you saw 1t last in youth.
In day-dreams, in river and bank claims,
picking and shoveliug up to the middle in
mud, slum and water by your cabin door
smoking the evening pipe; on the sterile
ridges Of Nevada prospecting for ledge,
You have, in imagination, many times Wis.
tied Dozeville. You have shaken hands
with all its old citizens you have been,
for time. the newly-returned hon OF the
place. No matter that letter after letter
told you how sires and grandsires and ma
irons and blooming, bright-eyed school
mates had dropped off, you would see
yourself. on the Sunday home at Dozevills,
standing at the village church and with
what congregation could you ill it save
the one you had left.
The dream IS realized the continent is
crossed, you stand bodily in Dozeville,
None know OF your coming. 1t Is night /;
the train has stopped at the depot, The
railroad has been extended to DOzevllle
since Won left. D,Zevillians were talking
Of building this road when you were a boy.
The branch is thirty miles in length.
Old D5zeyilHsns had lived and died talking
o. it. At last a brisk New York speculator
came along, and in a few months the road
was built
There Is a feeble effervescence about the
Dozeville depot when the train stops. Com.
pared with the roaring, hustling, crowding
hustle Of wide awake town, it is as the Ian
guild pop Of 4 stale champagne bottle to
the roar of q forty two FOUNDER. You get
coach and are driven toward the family
residence. 1t IS a cold, clear winters night.
You look ont the wind is roaring through
the leahess sycamores every street has
its old curve, every house is in its old place.
You recognize them all, as though You had
left but yesterday yet gloom seems to
hang about them, for you realize now that
YOU are not to meet this or that old neigh
Dor whose daily coming and going from
those gates seemed as interchangeable as the
rising and setting OF yonder moon. Nou
have met your mother and sisters; you
have almost been obliged to prove TO them
your identity. Il was . surprise, but not
exactly Of tha quality you had hoped for.
They were hardly prepared to see middle
aged maH, worn by toll and exposure The
last photograph you sent home, ten years
ago. implied still some appearance Of
youth. And AFTER few days, sometimes
after a few honrs, you make a discovery +;
YOU are not acquainted with your own
mother and sisters. Twenty years Is too
long an Absence. there is great gap, a
whole lifetime Of incident and event be-
tween YOU and chem. You are bound 70 a
thousand California sympathies and sssocia-
tons of which they know nothing. You
betrav them every hour Nou are continu-
ally proving, now that your are back at the
old home. seated In the old arm chair, and on
the very carpet over which you tUmbled in
your babyho1d, that three-fourths of your
heart Is back ia the land Of geysers, griz-
lilies and COLL. The mother involuntarily
signs. This IL not the boy g heart that left
her twenty years ago it is a strange mans
heart, full Of hopes, fears plans and re-
membrauce unknown to her. IL is
heart recast, remodeed. 1t was
beAr5less boy who left her-from the
cradle to that last parting, she had known
MS whole life but this Is a bearded man
who has returned, with dashss Of gray in
mis- hair with . different manner and a
different voice. He brings with him the
volume OF twenty years OF lie, but she
cannot read i all at once. He shows, care
lesslv. a page here and there, but it's broken
and fragmentary to her. Her eyes brighten
when he speaks concerning some event Of
his childhood there she is upon familiar
ground-that seems 4 picture Of her own
son. Hers, during your entire absence,
has been the quiet life at Dozeville, not
making half . dozen new acquaintance !;
vou have made hundreds in the same time,
and you bring them all home with you.
There Is a younger sister in the house.
She has held dim recollection of you all
her life she has longed to see the mys-
ferrous brother in California, who is
alwass VIZ ting home that he is on the eve
of making 4 fortune. She has painted an
ideal Of him IN her mind and often
touched up the picture with many perfec-
tons. And this-you. are the reality.
she will not. to herself own any disap-
uointment but she did suppose him dit
fereut appearing man. In q crowd he IS
not the very last man she would have sim
gled out for her brother, bat he would not
have been the first.
The morning after your arrival you be-
hold Dozsvilis by daylight. 1t Is very
much the same as when you left; woods
fences and corner posts all in their old
places: the vacant lots, fenced in and NOT
built upon =, hen you left, are still fenced in
and vacant. A lew veteran trees upon the
main street have disappeared. SIX new
houses In twenty years One church has
been IN we'd from its former location. Con
seouent on the change there was great dis
satisfaction among the congregation part
seceded and Joined another denomination.
1t was all the work OF new minister, who
had a mania for moving churches wherever
he settled. This occurred seven years ago /;
Won hear all about It before being in DJze-
VILE three days Tae unpleasantness has
not lost its fast luster; they pickle old
contentious in Dlzsville, and so keep them
ready for use u wiGtcr, when things are
dull and the branch road showed up.
OaZav!lle and the surrounding territory
seem t7 have srruuk. The day journeys
~ vou~ Youth go Long Beach and Big
Pond have aHlrdle3 TO mere morning
strolls. For years. in the mines, did You
tramp two o. fa-ea miles over the noun
tain and Wall. ~ TO tie nearest store for
your -four. beans. coffee and pork-s0ms-
times after hard DAYS work
There are 800 old scguajntances
IN Dozsyi.ja Go te met and shaken hands
with. All. after tho frs. grletiuge, make
the remark, Growing old, ! see, like the
rest Of Us. rais, to enc o. thirty-fve,
from seyageaariaus, eptua-enarians and
octogeuar-ns. Is hard to bear. The next
INQUIRY is " How have You Usen all this
time - This IS a difficult question. also,
90 tue an appropriate sad applicable an
swer for, fifteen or twenty times q day.
The long. wished-for welcome back to Doze.
Vile proves a tedious operation, The
apples witaeg in your grasp. Finally, you
deem It advisabls 70 restric. the number Of
these greetihGs to three per day. You
court retirement, snd avoid more the To-
cality of the dozen stores constituting the
pulsatinr center Of p7zsvIlle,
Let rs read the Dczsville signs
William Barnes, Books and Stationery.
This is your first youthful playmate.
Twenty years ago you left BIN, Just
launched in the Dozeville bookstore he
keeps IL still. Then ne was aruddy-iaced,
lively young man, just married now he
has a shop-worn look Of age. For twenty
years he has stood behind that counter, sell.
ing primers. states, slate pencils, worsted
and dolls 10 little bows and Cirls, For