Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1884-02-09
Street Car Romance.
HOW A DRIVER WON THE HEART
OF AN ALBANY BELLE.
Denver Letter to Adams Journal.


red haired, round shouldered Yer
mont boy, nineteen years old, was
employed as driver on horse car
in Albany. Living not far from the
corner of State and Eagle streets was
sixteen year old bewitching maid
en- who was one of his passengers al
most daily. We will call her Louise
Robbins. This driver, whom we
will name Henry Martin in order to
conceal his identity, though far from
prepossessing in appearance, had as
tender heart under his rough exter-
ior and far more genuine manliness
than the majority of the city swells
who paraded State street then just
as the dude does to day.
But Miss Louise thought the
young car driver the most awkward
and uncouth specimen of man flesh
she had ever set her soft, laughing
black eyes upon. She drew his por-
trait and presented it to a lady
friend, and labelled it 1.-THE Red
Rose, or the Horse Car Heater"
Many were the jokes she and her as
sociates perpetrated on poor, inof-
fensive Henry Martin, and he was
not SO stupid as not to know it.
Yet, unnatural as it may seem, the
more she ridiculed him, the fonder
he grew of Miss Louise, for the awk
ward youth, while fully realizing the
gulf between their social relations,
could not help worshipping the
ground she trod upon. He knew
how prosperous it was for a car
driver to cherish affection for the
daughter of so wealthy an Albanian,
yet her image was ever before him,
though he struggled hard to destroy
his mad love. He ascertained her
name by watching the store packages
sent to her home, and an old diary
still in his possession shows the
name of Louise Robbins on every
page.
His letters to his widowed mother
in Vermont at that time were filed
with glowing descriptions of dark
eyed school girl whom he thought
the prettiest and dearest lady in all
the land-and to that mother, the
only person in the world who knew
the value of mis- noble heart, he told
the story of his silent worship Of
Miss Louise. Sensible mother that
she was, she warned him of his folly
which must end only in bitter dis
appointment.
At last there came day when
Louise was his only passenger.
With tempest in his soul and tears
streaming down his face, he STAN
mered out the declaration that she
was an angel, that he knew he had
no right to talk to her, "but o, Miss
Robbins, if you knew how l love
you, you would not blame me, for 1
can't help it." Louise did not
scream or get frightened, she only
laughed in his face and said "You
get back to that horse or he will run
away and kill us both, and don't
you dare act like fool again. Not
withstanding Louise was still in her
teens, she had listened several times
to the entreaties of fashionable
young and old men, who not only
knew that she was a fascinating
creature, but were surely aware that
she was the only daughter of a very
wealthy gentleman. She had told
them all that they were very kind
and she would always be their dear
friend, sister, cousin, or anything
but their wife. But poor Henry,
with his fiery head, weather beaten
hoSCs ciS hohuos tCu uuu OuoPpCu,
did not quite fail in touching ten
der place in her heart; and when she
had gone to bed that night, though
she laughed almost Historically as
she thought of the car drivers ludi-
crous performance, there came the
conviction, here is a genuine man;
the only one of my admirers who
means what he says; and for the first
time she pitied the man. Then she
grew angry with him for his audac-
ity, called to her father and told him
of the incident; but when the angry
father said he would have him dis
charged and fired out of town the
next day, she pleaded that he was a
poor, simple fellow, and that he did
not mean to do anything wrong.
II