GEORGETOWN COLLEGE, JULY, 1880. No. 9

No. 9. VOL. VIII. GEORGETOWN COLLEGE, JULY, 1880. dents of Georgetown, and up to my point ing along the rails I saw a human form LIFE. with its limbs all mangled and crushed, of disembarkation is hardly worth a de- A little stream that rises with the sun. scription, the country offering a general and a great pool of blood all around it, And babbles onward from its tiny grot, appearance of being stale, flat and un- trying to raise itself upon its arms, and Its surface dimpled with a laughing smile, its upturned face distorted with the most profitable ; and even were it beautiful, On, on past childhood’s dreamy bank of flowers. terrible agony. And over the crushed as descriptions are generally skipped, and bleeding form bent this thick-set A broader, quicker stream, a warmer sky, one would be hardly worth giving, unless A swifter flowing through sweet-scented fields, man with his immovable face ; the two we were possessed of the power and gen- Whose tender shoots and promises'of fruit forming a picture I shall never forget. May bud and blossom, or may droop and die.. ius of Scott. I have passed over the route so often Then there was a rush of workmen, for Still onward through glad fields of bending grain. now that I rarely gaze out from the win- it was one of their number who had been And fields all barren; choked with idle weeds, run over, and the unfortunate man was ’Mid blended songs of sadness and of joy, dow, hut generally fall to observing my borne away on a litter. Somebody threw The harvests fall beneath the mower’s scythe. fellow passengers, or fall asleep, from earth over the blood with a spade, and Westward, westward towards the setting sun, which quiet amusement, 1 never fail to awaken when a singular point of interest the little drama, at least to me a mere With scarce an echo of its former life, spectator, was over. So quickly was it Flowing slowly onward through the wintry fields. —Washington—nears, and when the enacted, that I felt, as I turned away, as Pale, bloomless fields of hoar frost and of snow. bland conductor in his most sonorous if I had just awakened from some fear- and soothing accents remarks “Ten min- Yet sometimes falls a slender-threaded ray ful dream. But the next day there was Aslant upon the stilly stream that blends utes for refreshments.” Then is the train With murmured echoes of a past, and brings hastily unloaded of its male population, a funeral in the village, and a poor, man- ’Mid dreamy stillness a sweet smile of spring. gled corpse was laid into the earth which and a sandwich and a gulp of hot coffee the day before was a living, moving be- The flowers, the sweet innocence, the bliss, do wonderfully refresh the inner man. With what a yearning our fond hearts Upon this particular ride instead of ing in all the pride of manly strength and Th’-y fill! But who can stem Iufe’s tide ? falling asleep I pursued the other alter- vigor. And the trains rushed by as Those days, those days come back to us no more. usual, and the workmen dug and delved ; H. O. W. native. Upon a seat to my right was en- sconced a very fierce and defiant looking so little is one being missed from out A RIOK AI.O>« I’HK RAH.. specimen of the fair sex. She had a this great and busy world. Seated behind was a frank-looking A very common-place topic to talk large, double-lidded panier basket fidl of ! oranges, evidently a Florida traveler re- ; young man, with whom I entered into about I know, especially as in the partic- conversation, and who before long was turning northward, which being of an ular ride referred to, there was not i telling me the short history of his life. even the slightest accident to relieve the j equal height with her seat, she sat upon both in a Turk-like fashion, and sucked His family had been, he said, in comfort- monotony of what is now a frequent oc- | able circumstances, but his father dying currence in the life of almost every one. i oranges with remarkable fierceness and persistency. At one of the stations she ! left the uncle guardian and sole manager But then everybody talks about common- j of the property, who, being a rascally places ; they are the great staple articles was joined by her husband, a short, thick- fellow, transferred it into cash and folding set man with a cast-iron sort of counte- of conversation ; and who does not in- j his tent like the Arab silently stole away dulge in them V If the majority of peo- nance ; a face moulded into one set ex- pression, that seemed as if time and to Europe. The young man was at col- ple waited until they had something very | lege when he received this anything hut wise, or bright, or original to communi- emotion could never change. As he j 1i cheerful intelligence ; and, acting under cate. this would be a very silent world pecked his wife on the forehead, and seated himself opposite to her, relapsing noble instincts, resolved not to he a bur- indeed. Many, who otherwise seem den upon his family hut to-start out and pleasant and companionable enough, i into silence after a few interrogations regarding items of expense, it struck seek his own fortunes. Accordingly he would lie hushed forever. Even the gathered together what, cash he had and me that I had seen that face somewhere great and witty and wise would not he came to Washington, where finding noth- over-loquacious; for the really good j before, audit was a face which once seen ing to do, he worked his way southward, j would not easily be forgotten. And then tilings in conversation, as in life, are few supporting himself chiefly by hard man- 1 it flashed upon me where, and that bard- and far between ; they sparkle like the ual labor ; and he depicted some ot the j set face brought back to me recollections golden sands among a great, great deal scenes and incidents he had passed of common quartz. of an academy in the North, where I had through, and some of the queer phases ol With this brief and apologetic prelude passed one of my juvenile years, andhow character he had met with, with no little I will allow the train to start, for no- walking near the railroad one afternoon, 1 humor and vivacity of description. At body likes to he kept waiting at the de- which ran along right outside of our I last he found himself again in Washing- j grounds, a train rushed swiftly by, and pot. The ride from Washington north- 1 ton, where he received a position in one ward is well known to many of the stu- then 1 heard an awful groan, and look- 98 GEORGETOWN COLLEGE JOURNAL. of the hotels ; and there a letter from his an indescribable mingling of calmness that answer very noble and delicate, yes, mother reached him, begging him to re- and rest about it, so much so that ere long turn home, so that now he was on his a refinement of delicacy though spoken the rocking of the train, the panting of in rough words by a rough man. In it journey thither. As we neared a little engine, the quiet lullably, and the mur- village he told me that was his home, there was true altruism, the altruism murs of the passengers in conversation that is so much preached about by the and left me, to go to tire baggage-oar to became confused and blended, until all see about his trunk. Looking out from theoretical philanthropists of the day, were lost, and I "was fast asleep. yet is so little practiced. Ah, from tlie the window I saw a lady * in mourning Waking.at length at the depot, and eagerly watching, and I felt that that was travelling down to the ferry, for I have unlettered and the ignorant, from “the the mother ; nor was I mistaken, for as one wide river to cross ere I reach my simple annals of the poor,” is it that we often draw the truest and the most prac- he leaped from the car I saw her face destination, I found the usual amount of brighten, and saw him enfolded in a late stragglers waiting for the boat. tical lessons of charity. motherly embrace. In a moment the W. Around the stove in the waiting room, * ♦ — train was dashing onward, and we were for it was a raw night in early spring, THE OOOII-NATUJKED MAN. Hying past green fields and farmhouses, was gathered a little group regarding and here and there some cattle would with interest and amusement a couple The “Letter” which appeared in the raise their heads and eye us stupidly as of specimens of the tramp species, who last issue entered a complaint against the we passed. How many homesteads we possessed between them just about one heaviness which characterizes the ar- rushed by, some of whose occupants came suit of clothes, and yet seemed as cheer- ticles making up our COLLEGE JOURNAL. out to see the train pass. What were ful and happy as if they found life in- While the present writer has neither the we to them V Only a part of the great, deed a luxury.

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