This will show you what
a superior set of men are employed on American railways.
Among the men who spoke to us as we stood on our balcony, was a
delightful character, a nigger. I heard Mr. Tyson look over and say,
"Jerry, why did you not tell me you were going to get married?" Up came
Jerry, looking the very picture of a happy bridegroom, having been
married the evening before to a dark widow considerably older than
himself. He was quite a "get up" in his dress, with boots of a
glistening blackness. He answered, "I sent you an invitation, Mr. Tyson,
and left it at your office." He was nothing daunted by his interesting
position in life, and had a week's holiday in honour of the event. He
was, to use his own expression, a "'sponsible nigger," though he was
actually only cleaner up, and carpet sweeper in the office, negroes
never being allowed to have any charge in the working of the line, or a
more "'sponsible" station than that connected with the office work,
though in that they are often confidentially employed in carrying money
to the bank, &c.
_Columbus, Friday 22nd._--It began to rain last night, and continued to
pour to-day till ten o'clock, so that we had no opportunity of seeing
much of the town of Wheeling, but our rooms looked on to the Ohio, and
were within a stone's throw of it.
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