Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-01-21


"Goodby, Len"
Take care OF Yourself, old fellow"
'Let's hear from you when you get
home"
Don't forget u.s."
mo danger Of that, boys, and if any of
you ever come to i Richmond, remen,
Der | live there, and my mother will be
as glad to see you as | shall" The
speaker is young man, hardly thirty.
and as he sits in the blackboard taking
leave Of the little crowd of men who
have assembled to bid him goodby, his
handsome face and well knit form are
such as to attract attention at once.
After an absence of years, Len Hawley
is going home. To him, as we'll as to
the men who surround him, the parting
means great deal, even though they
strive-with that intensely American
dislike of exhibiting any emotion-to
conceal their adieus under an air of
everyday unconcern. After one has
seen the days lengthen into weeks, the
weeks into months and the months into
years with one set Of comrades, when it
comes to parting, the days long past
bring up their memories to pass in re-
view, and while no one speaks of them.
all are conscious that they are present
"Oh, you'll be back again, Len; you
can't stay away" says one of the men to
whom he has been speaking, more to
break the silence that is becoming un-
comfortable than for any other reason
The young man merely shakes his
head. He, as well as all the rest, knows
that after years spent together this
parting will for the most of them be
forever. Out of the little frontier miu-
ing town many another comrade has
gone just as he is going-never to re-
turn. Many another who day after day
had dreamed of going, as he now is go
ing, lay resting under the sod in ie
mountains around, whose crests are just
beginning to be gilded with the rays of
the early summer sun.
"Well, everything is on board, Jose,
and you can drive around and pick up
MIR. Dunsmier and his wife, and th n
turn yourself loose" It is the stage
0SonU giving Ills AhSI COmuanuS 10 Iao
driver.
As the team of four half broken bron-
chos swings into the street the young
mans face smarts and burns at the
words he had just heard, and in the en-
barrassment they cause him he almost
forgets to respond to the farewells
shouted after him. He feels almost like
jumping from the blackboard and re-
joining his comrades he has left He has
hardly recovered his self possession as
Jose stops his team at house in front OF
which are already waiting man of his
own age and a woman some years
younger. The man, with much domi,
neering, at last has the trunk, of which
he seems so solicitous, placed to his sat
isfaction in the blackboard, and, with the
lady, takes the rear of the two seats.
With crack of the whip Jose turns his
team into the road and the weekly mail
between Prescott, Arizona, and San
Diego, California, has begun its six hun
dred miles of travel over mountains and
across deserts to meet the steamers of
the Pacific.
Whether or not the mass of letters
and papers piled in the bottom of the
vehicle will all reach there, or whether
any of it will, is aquestion. While it is
the boast of the contractors that they
run strictly on schedule time, they give
no guarantee assuring the safe delivery
OF anything, even of the passengers they
carry. All they pretend to do is to run
the gantlet. If they get through, they
will bring the mail in on time;" and
after waiting without avail an hour for
Its arrival when it is due it is useless to
expect it. Another week will elapse.
and then new driver, driving new
team, will come in and explain just
where and when the Indians Jumped
and took in" the missing mail, and in
confirmation of what he says, as likely
as not, he will turn over to the post
master mass of rif1ed letters, SO stained
and black with blood that the readers
will have to puzzle long over them be-
fore they can decipher their contents. 1t
is a standing rule, though-one that all
drivers are urged to observe strictly
that, if absolutely necessary to tighten
the load in order to escape from an In
dian attack, the mail bags containing
papers are to be sacrificed first, and those
containing letters are to be thrown off
only in extreme emergencies.
Such is human nature that constant
association with danger brings at last
callousness, and while all the passengers
who have taken seats on this particular
morning may have thought of the dan
gers in a general way, not one has con-
ceived it possible that his or her fate
may be the same as has met those whose
graves they SO often encounter close by
the roadside. Each Of the men has pre-.
pared for a possible attack by arming
himself. Two at least of the passengers
Lien Hawley and Mrs. Dunsmier-
thinking how unfortunate the coinci-
dence that has thrown them together to
make this long trip in company As for
Mr.. Dunsmier, he merely thin ks how
unfortunate he is to be forced to make
1t at all. In the past, when Mrs. Duns-
mier was simply Mamie Manning, the
admitted belle of the little frontier set
Element, she and Len Hawley had been
lovers. That was before the man who
now sat beside her had come into her
life, and, as she and the man she had
discarded sat together for the first time
in months, neither could refrain from
thinking Of the past-of the quarrel. so
trivial in its beginning, that had caused
them to drift SO wide apart that recon.
ciliation was impossible.
AS for Len Hawley, when be had