The daily Alaskan., 1917-01-24
A Kiss In a
 Coach In the Days Before There
 Were Railways
By F. A, MITCHELL

I have always had fancy for lo6k- ing back into the past for items con cerning those from whom have de- scended. The doings of these persons who lived and moved and worked and loved and quarreled; Just as others of my family are doing today, have al- ways been of interest tos'ma I have before me 6 portrait of one esf my grandfathers painted when he-was She age that l am now, and one would suppose that he and were twin broth CTS instead of being two generations apart Be was young In tho last 'cen- tury, when the railroad wsE ocoming Into vogue as a mode of fraTel and shortly before the use of electricity in telegraphing. Among family 'docu' ments, of which I have collected "a great number, ther6 is one written by this gentleman which prize moro than any of thesothers. 1 give it'just as he wrote it. except for q little ed- iting where he referred to himselfs for an autobiographer is always at a dis | advantage in this respect. need to say that the writer at the time of the happenings narrated was twenty y-three years old and, considered handsome His narrative reads:
 l started to cross the Allegheny mountains on a business trip to Gin. cinnati, then the principal city in' the west and expected to be gone several weeks, having planned to spend a week fn Cincinnati and Ia week re turning. We left atn6 o'clock 1in the morning from the. Antlers' tavern, there being eight insideB and fouriOut- sides on the coach.
 There was some shifting of passen- gers during the day, and St evening the positions of those inside was as follows-I give them infinitely, for they are pertinent to an understanding of my narrative: sat.en' the front seat, riding backward There was one oth- CT person on the seat with me, a mid dle aged lady. She sat on my left On the middle seat, facing me; but on the other side of the coach, was an elderly gentleman, eniHenthy respect able looking The other two places on the middle seat were occupied by a young woman, very precise looking, whom he called Amelia, and his daughter, a girl of about eighteen On the back seat were man and two Wo- men. do not describe them, for they have no part in what I am gOing to record.
 The first night in a coach is'VeEy uA- comfortable; 1t is only when one gets somewhat accustomed to the toltng and has met with -sGtacient' loss of sleep to render him hungry for 'Blum- Der that he can lose himself sitting. straight up and continually bumped. But on this first night ascending the mountains, having been 'up" lats' sev- eral evenings preceding my departure, slept fairly well The horses were obliged to proceed at walk
 In the middle of the night I was awakened by pair of arms thrown around me and a pair of lips pressed against mine. My faculties not taking in the situation at, once, 1t did not lm- mediately occur to me to detaln who ever kissed me, and by the time pro- ceeded to do so it was too late. The arms about me were unlocked and the lips removed from mine. '4..'.
 Not only was therein hghp' in- the coach, but the night was very dark. l could not see my hand before my eyes. All knew of the episode was by the sense of touch. There was no doubt in my mind that I had been kissed by a woman, but the principal evidence of this was that the lips that were press ed upon mine were soft and there was no beard. Had the matter occurred when my faculties wereuoFmaHy alive doubtlessI I should have lain awake the rest of the night deiberating as to who had favored me. As it was, my deiber- ? ations, assisted by the monotonous breathing, not to mention snoring, of the passengers put me 'totsleep:
 In the morning we stoppedat a tay- ern, and after coldiwater thrown over my face and a good |breakfast of fried chicken, various kinds of game and buckwheat cakes, for which I eIpend- ed a Spanish silver half dollar, on re turning to the coach my adventure of the night came back to me, exciting not only curiosity, but other emotions. I had scarcely seated myself when l made a careful survey of those per sons some one of" whom might have given me sthe kiss. .E''ss
 There were three women sitting sui fciently near me tonhaTe committed the act. There was the middle aged lady beside me, whose name do not know; ;there were 4heta and the young girl, her niece, whom they called Agnes. I did not doubt that ;eneo of othe three was the perpetrator. II scrutiniEed the face of each, but could see no 'traco of guilt. The lady beside me S'snd Amelia met my gaze without a culver, but Agnes, who sat opposite me, lowered her eyes | I made suU my mind fthse Agnes was