| OCR Text |
Show 134 UNCLE TOM'S CADIN: OR, quence which has won for them immortal renown ! How sublimely he had sat with his hands in his pockets, and scouted all sentimental weakness of those who would put tho welfare of a few miserable fugitives before great state interests! He was as bold as a lion about it, and "mightily convinced" not only himself, but everybody that heaJ·d him;but then his idea of a fugitive was only an idea of the letters that spell the word, -or, at the most, the image of a little newspaper picture of a man with a stick and bundle, with " Ran away from the subscriber " under it. The magic of the real presence of distress, -the imploring human eye, the frail, trembling human hand, the despairing appeal of helpless agony,- these he had never tried. He had never thought that a- fugitive might be a hapless mother, a defenceless child, -like that one which was now wearing his lost boy's Jjtt]c well-known cap i and so, as our poor senator was not stone or steel, - as he was a man, and a. downright noblehearted one, too,- l1e was, as everybody must see, in a sad case for his patriotism. And you need not exult over him, goed brother of the Southern States; for wo have some inklings that many of you, under similar circumstances, would not do much hotter. We have reason to know, in Kentucky, as in Mississippi, arc noble and generous hearts, to whom never was tale of suffering told in vain. Ah, goed brother! is it fair for you to expect of us services which your own brave, honorable heart would not allow you to render, were you in our place 1 Be that as it may, if our good senator was a political sinner, he was in a fair way to expiate it by his night's penance. There had been a long continuous period of rainy weather, and the soft, rich earth of Ohio, as every one knows, is admi- LIFE AMONG THE LOWI,Y. 135 rably suited to the manufacture of mud, -and the road was an Ohio railroad of ihc goed old times. 11 And pray, what sort of a road may that be?" says some eastern traveller, who has been accustomed to connect no ideas with a railroad, but those of smoothness or speed. Know, then, innocent eastern friend, that in benighted regions of the west, whore the mud is of unfathomable and sublime depth, roads are made of round rough logs, arranged transversely side by side, and coated over in their pristine freshness with earth, turf, and whatsoever may como to hand, and then the rejoicing native calletl1 it a road, and straightway cssayeth to ride thereupon. In process of time, the rains wash off all the turf and grass aforesaid, move the logs hither and thither, in picturesque positions, up, down and crosswise, with divers chasms and ruts of black mud intervening. Over such a road as this our senator went stumbling along, making moral reflections ns continuously as under the circumstances could be expected, -the carriage proceeding along much as follows,- bump! bump ! bump! slush! down in the mud!-the senator, woman and child, reversing their positions so suddenly as to come, without any very accurate adjustment, against the windows of the down-hill side. Carriage sticks fust, wllile Cudjoe on the outside is beard making a great muster among tho horses. After various ineffectual pullings and twitcllings, just as the senator is losing all patience, the carriage suddenly rights itself with a bounce,two front wheels go down into another abyss, and senator, woman, and child, all tumble promiscuously on to the front seat, -senator's hat is jammed over his eyes and nose quite unceremoniously, and ho considers himself fairly extinguished; -child cries, and Cudjoe on the outside delivers animated |
