Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 April 1869 — Page 1 Miscellaneous Column 1 [MISCELLANEOUS]

Sdccteb JHisrellanjj,

FORTY SHILLINGS AND COSTS. I bad bean fill day trying to get from ATeminater to Ohelchester by a country line, a London line, and a branch line of railway. In the first place, as the country line only ran three trains a day, passenger and goods together, necessitating weary shuntings at every station, we could hardly be said to have made a good start. In the next place, the strategic arrangement whereby the London line managed invariably to start its trains five minutes before the arrival of the “up ’’-country train, making us wait for two hours at Marlbary Junction, to spite the country com pany, scarcely tended to rapid progress. In the third place as ft always happens to be the aim of a traffic-manager to endeavor to drive passengers on to the main line, and to visit with all possible retributive delays the hostile British public when it will travel on a branch, we could not be considered to have made up for the lost time on the branch. In the fourth place, it didn’t help ns forward to be compelled to travel one hundred and twenty-seven miles round about in a parabola, in order to reach Ohelchester, which, at starting, was only fifty-eight mites from Aveminster .In the fifth and last place, we were not got te Ohelchester yet; and it would have -been money in my pocket if I never had. i “Swlnbro’—Swinbro’. Change here lor Marchmont and Nntohley. Change time for a Change, I reflected, nonsidering I had been nine hoars out on a tourney of fifty-eight miles, and was stuLfer off from my destination. Look ingout from my window of a firstnUss compartment, I saw it was a cheerless, drizzling night, and the railway porters were, streaming in the misty air as they harried to and fro past the gleam of the lamps. Remonstrating with the guard re specting our train being an boor Tate, and the time past eteYon it night, he soothed my irritation by telling me gruffly I had no business ou a branch line if 1 wanted to go anywhere; and if I would go to out of-the-way places like Ohelchester, I must be very thankful if the company put themselves to Use expense of taking me there at all, considering branches didn’t pay to work as a rule. A solitary passenger then entered my carriage, or rather was banged Into it by the guard. Another minute, and the guard had banged himself into his van, emitting the growl; “Change here I” Our fiery and restive iron stead, no doubt weary with its headlong career of full twelve miles an hoar, gave a heroic neigh * Of triumph, resembling a feeble crow, iu emulation of past exploits, in days long before it was condemned to transportation on a branch, and dragged us off into the bleak night. My Companion was a tall, thin, middle aged man, with a face lean and withered like a shrivelled apple, concluded below theebin by a stiff satin cravat. In a dress, tight-fitting, and of ancient and faded black, be looked altogether like a man who had run very much- to seed, which perhaps accounted for the luxuriant growth of his arms and legs. Observing nil clothes steaming with the damp air, 1 began to realize it was very chilly. It certainly was. “Quite a change In the weather,” I remarked, “ Very cold to-night, is It not t" “Don’tfeel the cold myself. Perhaps volt Would like to change places with me. There is no draught here/ I replied I should be very pleased to d<f SO, if not to his inconvenience; end accordingly we changed seats. It i tas cold, and no mistake. 1 must have taken a chill, for ITelt the cold creeping over me in a most unaccountable manLooklng at my companion on the opposite seat, on whom the lamp light now shone full, I saw that his face was not so thin, nor his features so withered, as I had * u ßPooed-; and I must have made a mistake as to his age, for ho was by no °,l d “I had previously judged. How cold it was to: be sore I As I contoo look at him, I noticed his aspect Chanc«d momently—that ho was growing 5 thht the wrinkles hi hla face were filling out and smoothing down; and that he was gradually becoming like some one I had seen before. As Yds cheek! grew rouud and ruddy, end his hair chagead from gray to brown, before my tjj/cyai, I became in such a state of nßjrpns agitation, J radewored to cry out, but oonld not. I was paralyzed with the Oblfi, —sold that seemecLAo -make my* limbs rjatd, sod numb my Vitals; for I saw the manrptnigjpefort me was no longer a stranger—no more friend or the sight, anfafl did- So, sew that they 'themon^c^brow, tefeeeif and puckered. And! knew tkft this man, t