I Had Found It Necessary To Study Physiognomy
Since Leaving England, And Was Horrified By The Appearance Of My Next
Neighbour.
His forehead was low, his deep-set and restless eyes
significant of cunning, and I at once set him down as a swindler or
pickpocket.
My convictions of the truth of my inferences were so strong,
that I removed my purse, in which, however, acting by advice, I never
carried more than five dollars, from my pocket, leaving in it only my
handkerchief and the checks for my baggage, knowing that I could not
possibly keep awake the whole morning. In spite of my endeavours to the
contrary, I soon sank into an oblivious state, from which I awoke to the
consciousness that my companion was withdrawing his hand from my pocket.
My first impulse was to make an exclamation, my second, which I carried
into execution, to ascertain my loss; which I found to be the very
alarming one of my baggage-checks; my whole property being thereby placed
at this vagabond's disposal, for I knew perfectly well, that if I claimed
my trunks without my checks, the acute baggage-master would have set me
down as a bold swindler. The keen-eyed conductor was not in the car, and,
had he been there, the necessity for habitual suspicion, incidental to his
position, would so far have removed his original sentiments of generosity
as to make him turn a deaf ear to my request, and there was not one of my
fellow-travellers whose physiognomy would have warranted me in appealing
to him. So, recollecting that my checks were marked Chicago, and seeing
that the thief's ticket bore the same name, I resolved to wait the chapter
of accidents, or the re-appearance of my friends. I was scarcely able to
decide whether this proof of the reliance to be placed upon physiognomy
was not an adequate compensation for the annoyance I was experiencing, at
the probability of my hoarded treasures falling into the hands of an
adventurer.
During the morning we crossed some prairie-country, and stopped at several
stations, patches of successful cultivation showing that there must be
cultivators, though I rarely saw their habitations. The cars still
continued so full that my friends could not join me, and I began to be
seriously anxious about the fate of my luggage. At mid-day, spires and
trees, and lofty blocks of building, rising from a grass-prairie on one
side, and from the blue waters of Lake Michigan on the other, showed that
we were approaching Chicago. Along beaten tracks through the grass,
waggons with white tilts drawn by oxen were proceeding west, sometimes
accompanied by armed horsemen.
With a whoop like an Indian war-whoop the cars ran into a shed - they
stopped - the pickpocket got up - I got up too - the baggage-master came to
the door: "This gentleman has the checks for my baggage," said I, pointing
to the thief. Bewildered, he took them from his waistcoat-pocket, gave
them to the baggage-master, and went hastily away.
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