The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1891-12-18
Ghe1emorraf-Sfa
THE STAGE COACH BABY.
by MRS. NJ. l.. RAYNE.

w HoHiiC, l'JuhS, ~ Hoiics
said the man on the cracker-bo,
this is the hour for every sneak
ing son of a Winnebago 10 say hi
leetlc now | lay me- in the reser
walton. Git" and he pointed {,
the door Of the rendezvous with
gesture that admitted Of no delay
''Them copper-colored coyote
would set thar like alabastel
images all night, and the hull o
ter-morrer, if there warn't some
body to boot them off. AM they
lissen an don't understand a word
but look so pizen knowin' you't
think they wuz drinkin' it all in
The Indians filed out and with,
ont a sound disappeared into the
night, and the usual complement
OF visitors gathered at the stove
with the man on the cracker box
AS centerplece. There was a man
who was selling patent clothes
reels, and another who was selling
bibles, old Capt. Lemming and the
postmaster and a man from The
Missouri Bottoms, whose team was
hitched outside. He told them
that he expected his "old woman
and "lillle gal" by the stage, which
vas usually late.
"Speakin' of the STAGE" SAID the
nan on The cracker-box, pm reg,
ufarly glad | amt in it. Onct over
them drivewavs twiXt here and
Omaha was enough for ME. No,
ihankee, pard, if | can't 60 by
steam. then | stays where / be.
I've no notion for travelin' with
wimmen and sick babies IN a stage
coach"
''Tell us bout it, can't We Q" sug-
gested the clothes reel man, who
was dying of what he called ''end.
way" at being stranded in such a
torlorn place.
"'Taint so much to TELL" said
the cracker-bo man, cutting off a
good sized chew from The "pig" of
tobacco offered 10 him, IAN | guess
can wind 1t up afore the stage
gels here, but the DOM and the
%sufferin' of it is what hurts my
feelins, to think when | warn't TO
whoop and boiler, that l kept it all
in just on account of tina: good for
nothln'-say! I'm gettin' ahead of
my story.
"BoyS, dye member when the
bridge over Pigeon River was
built, an what a lot of money and
political s~henanigan it took, an
how picturS of the fine structure,
as they called 1t, was in them New
York papers an how sol up all the
tellers on the prairie felt cause they
didn't have to take off their shoes
an stockings an ford the criek.
An how the work was we'll under
way when the $4,000 necessary TO
finish it off was sent out by a spe-
cial messenger? Say, | was on
the Stage when the fellow with
that money started TO come
through. There were four or five
of us on the inside of The coach
on that day, and one woman
with a sick baby-she was tryin'
10 get it home 10 her folks afore il
died, she said. She was young an
pretty, but her eyes were red with
cryin' an takin' care OF the young
I'm day an night. She didn't have
much TO say to any of us, but when
she looked at us with them big
sorrowful eyes our hearts went
down into our boots, and we would
have laid down an let her walk
over us.
"The baby was wrapped up in
shawls am wells and lay on a pill
low an was fed with one of them
nussin' bottles, an it whlned an
cried a leetle, in a faint, sick way.
an the mother kissed an cooed to
it, an sung leetle hymns that made
us all get colds in DIR heads, an
she feared ii was g-ttin' worse an
would die afore she got home. She
was goin' 10 the fur end of the
stage route, she said, with her
voice full of tears.
"The tother passenger that inter
ested us rid on the box WITH the
driver. / don't know how it was
that we saveyed right off that he
was the Teller that had the money
for that bridge! | guess il were
on the same principal that the
birds Of The air know when to get
together and go south-a kind of
instinct. Fact was, we didn't cot
ton rightly to that bridge scheme.
We thought the next county were
putting on airs with a wrought iron
bridge out OH the prairie for the
cows 10 hoof over. But twern't
any of our funeral an we didn't
make it one.
"But that teller with a cloak
with a cape to il, sol up on deck a
SEEM the landscape DER, as the
old hymn ses, an a lookin' kinder (
rich and satisfied, jes' told on him.
self, an we kinder wondered whar |
he kept the spondulics, il he had
in his boots, or in a belt, or his
hat lInin'. An we got 10 speakin'
over inside, an the leeile woman
spoke UP kinder o. quick an, SEES
she, Don't, please! my baby is \
worse an sure enuf it were, an
had a kinder convulsion that
made us feel as if we we're murder :
prs fnr dicfurhs,i IF ~ 4