The Continental Monthly, Vol 2, No 6, December 1862: Devoted to Literature and National PolicyVarious
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol 2, No 6, December 1862: Devoted to Literature and National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
Ah! here is one brave fellow, who, though still lame from a recent
wound, is hastening back to the scenes where duty calls him. He comes
into the cars with his sword in one hand, and his overcoat, neatly
strapped, in the other. He looks grave and serious--doubtless he is
thinking of home, and of the dear ones he has just left. Doubtless, from
that cause springs a singular restlessness, that impels him to get out
at every stopping place, and pace backward and forward with unequal
steps, till the train starts again. As he passes and repasses me, I try
to read his countenance. There is no flinching there--no shrinking from
duty in that brave soul. In the expressive language of Scripture, he has
'put his life in his hand,' and is ready to offer it at the shrine of
his country. As I mark his firm lip, his thoughtful eye, his look of
steadfast determination, there come into my mind those grand
soul-stirring lines of Percival:
'Oh! it is great for our country to die; when ranks are contending,
Bright is the wreath of our fame; glory awaits us for aye:
Glory, that never is dim, shining on with a light never ending,
Glory, that never shall fade, never, O never, away.'
At the first station beyond Rutland, a woman with a baby--there is
always a woman with a baby in the cars--got out. In addition to the
baby, she had a carpet bag, a band box, a basket, and several paper
parcels. How she managed to carry them all, I know not; but as she was
stumbling along, thus overloaded, a lady, just entering the car with
some others, with a sudden, generous impulse, took the baby in her arms,
and, at the risk of losing her own passage, carried it to the door of
the waiting-room. Then, without stopping to receive the thanks of the
grateful mother, she rejoined her friends, smiling at her own exploit,
and all unconscious of the admiration her beautiful action had excited
in some of her fellow travellers. At the picturesque village of Bellow's
Falls, on the Connecticut river, we entered the 'Old Granite State,' but
too far south to see the 'native mountains' in their wildest grandeur
and magnificence. One specimen, however, greets us as we leave the
village--a huge, perpendicular mass of granite, rising sheer up from the
railroad to the height of a thousand feet or more; while the river, a
wild receptacle of tumbled rocks and broken falls, stretches along the
other side of the track, far beneath us. The labor expended in the
construction of this mountain road (the Cheshire Railroad) must have
been enormous, and affords a striking proof of the indomitable energy
and enterprise of the New England character. The high places have
literally been brought low, and the valleys exalted. Not once, but many
times, the train rushes through between two perpendicular walls of solid
granite, so high that not a glimpse of the sky can be seen from the car
windows; while beyond, some hollow chasm or rugged gulley has been
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