A Wonderful Night Ride

We have often heard and rcad of' the wonderful manner in which some persons have managed toride over railroads without paying their farp, by concoaling themselves soraewhere inside the ears, or, in some ingenious marnier, riding on the outside of coaches, but tho boldest and most reckless act of the kind ever comniitted we believe to bo one which occurred on tho Ohio & Mississippi Railroad. - Hundreds of persons would not fear the booming of cannon all around them, but there are very few persons who would havo the hardihood or nerve to atteuipt the feat a boy performed on the above railroad. ïhe night train left St. Louis for this city ou Thursday night about 7 o'clock, with a good load of passengere, who were coinfortable end warm in the slecping coaches, although the air without was rather cool and chilly. Betore tho train started a lad between sixteen and seventeen years of agc stole under one of the 8leepiug coaches, straddled himself across a truck about five inchos wide, and lying on his 8tomacb, his hands clutching a cold iron bar for support, and his feet tmtangled in a chain bolow, he prepared himself for an all night free ride over more than three hundred miles of road. Did he think that at any moment he could be jostled oíf his insecuro hiding place and perhaps left in somo uninhabited portion of tbe country, through which tho train passed, alone to die 't Did he consider that sleep might overcomo him while on this perilous trip and death onsue, or that numbness might creep over him, and his hands thus fail him as a support? Doubtless not ; he was only thinking probably of reaching his destination, which was his home and which he had but lately left. The train moved on, the boy clutched tho iron bar tighter, and hugged his support more closely. Oíf shot the train, the iron horse screaching its loudest, faster and fastor, until its speed at times reachod a mile a minute, but still the boy, only about two feet from the ground, kept fast hold, never closing his eyes for a minute. What thoughts must have flashed through his niind, youug as he was. Minutes must have seemed hours, and hours weeks. But the night at last was done. The first streaks of dawu illuminated the horizon, and when the train reached Otisco, Indiana, about twenty milos from Jeffersonville, tho boy was still safe and sound. The glorjons God of Day had thrown its gladdening light upon his eyes. Sorue of the chains of the brakes had bocome broken, and in lepairing them the men found to their astonishment, the boy still lying thore, unconcerned and even laughing. - Ho was taken off by the conductor, stiff and cold, and covered with dust from head to foot, The conductor questioned him as to why he attempted such a ridc. He replied that he lived in Jotfersonville, and that a short time ago he went to St. Louis with an eider brother, who ran away to California, leaving him in a large city alone, and without money. He wished to get home and undertook this novel method, and, said he, " I didn't mind it very much, except foi tho dust." The conductor said as he had ridden thus farfree, he might take the best seat inside the cars and ride the rest of the way, at the same cost. On the back of his coat wore little rents which had been made during the night by the slight pressure of the car on his back. Expressions of sympathy were tendered by the passengers as soon as they heard of his perilous journey, many of them saying they would have boen willing to have paid his passage had they known of his reckloss determination. It was indeed a wonderful ride, and betokened extraordinary courago on tho part of the boy.