The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1888-11-28
BOB'S DEBT.

OUUcueI OI tfc tIuAis M uoy 'VhS "ss~
half the night you might have heard hi
"he-ays yo' ripe hanannys, heays 30
fresh candy an chewin' gum, prize In
every PACKAGE" as he edged his way
with his basket down the narrow aisles
of the rocking, swinging passenger
coaches Of the fast mail. Such com
nonplace looking fellow, with his short.
ssumpy figure clad in dingy blue uni
form. only too obviously bequest of his
predecessor in the business, and miles toe
big for him Dusty and travelled stained
with the CRIME OF many trip over the
"air line" from north to south Of a great
railroad, was this old suit. Even the
battered cap that surmounted the
freckled face and the thatch OF closely
cropped red hair had rather tired and
pathetic droop TO it, as If it could tell
stories Of sleepIess nights when the train
plunged on through the darkness, and OF
weary DAYS when the public showed q
distaste for overripe bananas, and the
yeriest baby refused to be taken in by
the attractions Of rolling pins filed with
pasty French candy.
But no one noticed either him or his
clothes. He was such n waif IN the great
tide Of travel, such bubble on the
stream of life, he was swept onward
without a thought. He had not even the
distinction Of a name. BY some process
Of logic the great autocratic public Is It's
own sponsor for certain names, and the
power that made every fOotman Jeames,
and every street car driver Gallagher,
had dubbed him and his fellow train boys
"Bub."
1t was quite true that far away in
cabin in the piny woods OF Mississippi
there was an old family Bible where his
name was written down i'll big, sprawl
ing letters as Robert Edmund Lee Smith,
but no one knew OF cared for that hut
the two women who spelled out chap
ter every night in that well thumbed old
book by the Pickering light Of a tallow
dip.
AT first, when, as he said afterward,
"he was 80 green he had TO keep lodging
the COWS to keep from being eaten up,
he tried to set it right with the big, joke
loving public about his name, To the
day of his death he will never forget
how, when the first man addressed him
as "Bub," he explained. MY name is
Smith, sir, Robert Smith" or the scald
ing tears Of modification that rushed
Into his eyes as the man jerked off his
hat, made him q satirical bow ard cried
beg pardon, Mr.. Smith, glad to have
the honor of your acquaintance. Alter
that Bob accepted his name like he did
the uniform and basket and trashy novels
as part of his calling and stock in trade.
You see he was Of the least possible
importance in the world. He came and
went on his dreary rounds with fruit on
candy or papers or books, sometimes
cursed by an impatient traveller. Some
times i'm the freemasOnry Of youth fresh
young face would smile sympathetically
upon him, and occasionally babe would
reach out its tiny hands TO him and
touch his grimy hand with rose leaf fin
gers. At such times Bob's honest eye,
had trick of growing big and soft with
rnshed tears, and he would look very
hard out of the window at the flying
landscape to keep, as he said in his slangy
way, from stopping all over himself,
and az he made his way out of the car
with the little tie of human kinship with
the world warm about his heart he would
forbear to press i'll timed sweets upon
the lovers and bridal couples or TO vaunt
the merits of his especial brand of chew
ing gum TO old ladies without teeth.
1t was a hard life, and at night when
he curled himself upon ms little chest OF
wares in the corner of the baggage car,
while the men swore at the heavy trunks |
and excess baggage, Bobs thoughts
would 20 wandering back 70 the little
cabin in the piny woods where he was
born. lie had only TO shut ms eyes and
he could see the homely little ,cOm in
which his mother and grandmother sat
by o smolderlng fire, There was the
trndle bed In which his little sisters lay |
asleep. and at his motheI feet, allowing !
his head against her knee Like dog, was
yin. Poor Jim, q man in eize, 1et never
TO be more than little child, with his
great hands beating the empty air, and
his tongue repeating an idiots glbbeIlsh.
Poor Mamsey," said Bob with a
gToan, thinking ii the patient face bend |
ing above that unlovely form. some
time, when I'm a mamie set his teeth
hard sometime I'm a-goin' TO
fix her up like q vestibule palace eel"
lie paused, fairly overcome by the gor-
geousness Of the idea; with bufiay an
a niggali, an you bet she'll be a cat on
wheels then.
Perhaps Bob was thinking rather more
than usual about home, because the
colonel was on board the train. tie had
laid his hand on Bobs shoulder and
called him "my boy" in tones that went
70 the lonely little heart, and told him
all about the folks at home" for Bob S
mother was the coloners nearest neigh
Dor. Finally, when Bob would have left
the colonel to his cigar he had turned TO
q friend and actually introduced the
train boy to the president OF the road.
Bob could hardly believe it, even when
he heard the colonel saying
"You should have known his father,
sir. Finest soldier l ever saw. Went
into the war, by CAD, sir, without even a
gun. Said: If there's any fighting and
they need me, therell he guns enough
and TO spare Fought all the way
through the war and cried like a baby
when Lee surrendered. Named this boy
here after his old commander And
Bobs a chip off of the old block. Father
died, and he's making brave fight for
the mother and little ones and the col
onel, whose heart was az soft as a baby
where women and children were con-
,<,..,.J dro,,, ont his lic, lanlanna and