And Then The
Seats Were All Full, And We Found That There Was A Lower Depth Even
In The Terrible Deep Of A Railway Train In A Western State.
There
was a second-class carriage, prepared, I presume, for those who
esteemed themselves too dirty for association with the aristocracy
of Cairo; and into this we flung ourselves.
Even this was a joy to
us, for we were being carried away from Eden. We had acknowledged
ourselves to be no fitting colleagues for Mark Tapley, and would
have been glad to escape from Cairo even had we worked our way out
of the place as assistant stokers to the engine-driver. Poor Cairo!
unfortunate Cairo! "It is about played out!" said its citizen to
me. But in truth the play was commenced a little too soon. Those
players have played out; but another set will yet have their
innings, and make a score that shall perhaps be talked of far and
wide in the Western World.
We were still bent upon army inspection, and with this purpose went
back from Cairo to Louisville, in Kentucky. I had passed through
Louisville before, as told in my last chapter, but had not gone
south from Louisville toward the Green River, and had seen nothing
of General Buell's soldiers. I should have mentioned before that
when we were at St. Louis, we asked General Halleck, the officer in
command of the Northern army of Missouri, whether he could allow us
to pass through his lines to the South.
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