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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of My Native Land, by James Cox
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: My Native Land
+       The United States: its Wonders, its Beauties, and its People;
+       with Descriptive Notes, Character Sketches, Folk Lore, Traditions,
+       Legends and History, for the Amusement of the Old and the
+       Instruction of the Young
+
+Author: James Cox
+
+Release Date: January 28, 2004 [EBook #10857]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY NATIVE LAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Keren Vergon, Julie Barkley and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+MY NATIVE LAND.
+
+
+
+The United States: its Wonders, its Beauties, and its People; with
+Descriptive Notes, Character Sketches, Folk Lore, Traditions, Legends
+and History, for the Amusement of the Old and the Instruction of the
+Young.
+
+
+BY
+
+
+JAMES COX,
+
+
+Author of "Our Own Country," "Missouri at the World's Fair," "Old and
+New St. Louis," "An Arkansas Eden," "Oklahoma Revisited," Etc.
+
+
+  "Breathes there a man with soul so dead
+   Who never to himself has said,
+      This is my own, my native land."
+
+
+PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED.
+
+
+1903
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+OUR NATION'S BIRTH.
+
+The Story of Liberty Bell--Impartial Opinions on the Revolutionary
+War--The Shot that was Heard Around the World--The First Committee of
+Safety--A Defeat which Equaled a Victory--Washington's Earnestness--To
+Congress on Horseback--The First 4th of July Celebration.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+THE WITCH OF SALEM.
+
+A Relic of Religious Bigotry--Parson Lawson's Tirade against
+Witchcraft--Extraordinary Court Records of Old Puritan Days--Alleged
+Supernatural Conjuring--A Man and his Wife both put to Death--Crushed
+for Refusing to Plead--A Romance of the Old Days of Witch Persecution.
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+IN PICTURESQUE NEW YORK.
+
+Some Local Errors Corrected--A Trip Down the Hudson River--The Last of
+the Mohicans--The Home of Rip Van Winkle--The Ladies of Vassar and their
+Home--West Point and its History--Sing Sing Prison--The Falls of
+Niagara--Indians in New York State.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+IN THE CENTER OF THE COUNTRY.
+
+The Geographical Center of the United States, and its Location West of
+the Mississippi River--The Center of Population--History of Fort
+Riley--The Gallant "Seventh"--Early Troubles of Kansas--Extermination of
+the Buffalo--But a Few Survivors out of Many Millions.
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+THE MORMONS AND THEIR WIVES.
+
+The Pilgrimage Across the Bad Lands to Utah--Incidents of the
+March--Success of the New Colony--Religious Persecutions--Murder of an
+Entire Family--The Curse of Polygamy--An Ideal City--Humors of Bathing
+in Great Salt Lake.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE INVASION OF OKLAHOMA.
+
+A History of the Indian Nation--Early Struggles of Oklahoma
+Boomers--Fight between Home-Seekers and Soldiers--Scenes at the Opening
+of Oklahoma Proper--A Miserable Night on the Prairie--A Race for
+Homes--Lawlessness in the Old Indian Territory.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+COWBOYS--REAL AND IDEAL.
+
+A Much Maligned Class--The Cowboy as he Is, and as he is Supposed to
+be--Prairie Fever and how it is Cured--Life on the Ranch Thirty Years
+Ago and Now--Singular Fashions and Changes of Costume--Troubles
+Encountered by would-be Bad Men.
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+WARDS OF OUR NATIVE LAND.
+
+The Indians' Admirers and Critics--At School and After--Indian Courtship
+and Marriage--Extraordinary Dances--Gambling by Instinct--How
+"Cross-Eye" Lost his Pony--Pawning a Baby--Amusing and Degrading Scenes
+on Annuity Day.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+CIVILIZATION--ACTUAL AND ALLEGED.
+
+Tried in the Balances and Found Wanting--Indian Archers--Bow and Arrow
+Lore--Barbarous Customs that Die Slowly--"Great Wolf," the Indian
+Vanderbilt--How the Seri were Taught a Valuable Lesson--Playing with
+Rattlesnakes with Impunity.
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+OLD TIME COMMUNISTS.
+
+Houses on Rocks and Sand Hills--How Many Families Dwelt Together in
+Unity--Peculiarities of Costumes--Pueblo Architecture and Folk Lore--A
+Historic Struggle and how it Ended--Legends Concerning Montezuma--Curious
+Religious Ceremonies.
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+HOW CUSTER LIVED AND DIED.
+
+"Remember Custer"--An Eye-Witness of the Massacre--Custer, Cody and
+Alexis--A Ride over the Scenes of the Unequal Conflict--Major Reno's
+Marked Failure--How "Sitting Bull" Ran Away and Lived to Fight Another
+Day--Why a Medicine Man did not Summon Rain.
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+AMONG THE CREOLES.
+
+Meaning of the word "Creole"--An Old Aristocratic Relic--The Venice of
+America--Origin of the Creole Carnivals--Rex and his Annual
+Disguises--Creole Balls--The St. Louis Veiled Prophets--The French
+Market and other Landmarks in New Orleans--A Beautiful Ceremony and an
+Unfinished Monument.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+THE HEATHEN CHINEE IN HIS ELEMENT.
+
+A Trip to Chinatown, San Francisco--A House with a History--Narrow
+Alleys and Secret Doors--Opium Smoking and its Effects--The
+Highbinders--Celestial Theatricals--Chinese Festivals--The Brighter Side
+of a Great City--A Mammoth Hotel and a Beautiful Park.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+BEFORE EMANCIPATION AND AFTER.
+
+First Importation of Negro Slaves into America--The Original
+Abolitionists--A Colored Enthusiast and a Coward--Origin of the word
+"Secession"--John Brown's Fanaticism--Uncle Tom's Cabin--Faithful unto
+Death--George Augustus Sala on the Negro who Lingered too long in the
+Mill Pond.
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+OUR NATIONAL PARK.
+
+A Delightful Rhapsody--Early History of Yellowstone Park--A Fish Story
+which Convulsed Congress--The First White Man to Visit the Park--A Race
+for Life--Philosophy of the Hot Springs--Mount Everts--From the Geysers
+to Elk Park--Some Old Friends and New Ones--Yellowstone Lake--The
+Angler's Paradise.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+THE HEROES OF THE IRON HORSE.
+
+Honor to whom Honor is Due--A Class of Men Not Always Thoroughly
+Appreciated at their Worth--An Amateur's Ride on a Flying
+Locomotive--From Twelve Miles an Hour to Six Times that Speed--The
+Signal Tower and the Men who Work in it--Stealing a Train--A Race with
+Steam--Stories about Bewitched Locomotives and Providential Escapes.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+A RAILROAD TO THE CLOUDS.
+
+Early History of Manitou--Zebulon Pike's Important Discovery--A Young
+Medicine Man's Peril and Final Triumph--A Health Resort in Years Gone
+By--The Garden of the Gods--The Railroad up Pike's Peak--Early Failures
+and Final Success--The Most Remarkable Road in the World--Riding Above
+the Clouds.
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+INTO THE BOWELS OF THE EARTH.
+
+The Grand Canon of the Colorado--Niagara Outdone--The Course of the
+Colorado River--A Survey Party Through the Canon--Experiences of a
+Terrible Night--Wonderful Contrasts of Color in the Massive Rocks--A
+Natural Wall a Thousand Feet High--Hieroglyphics which have Never been
+Deciphered--Relics of a Superior Race--Conjecture as to the Origin of
+the Ancient Bearded White Men.
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+OUR GREAT WATERWAYS.
+
+Importance of Rivers to Commerce a Generation Ago--The Ideal River
+Man--The Great Mississippi River and its Importance to our Native
+Land--The Treacherous Missouri--A First Mate who Found a Cook's Disguise
+very Convenient--How a Second Mate got over the Inconvenience of
+Temporary Financial Embarrassment.
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THROUGH THE GREAT NORTHWEST.
+
+The Importance of Some of our Newest States--Romantic History of
+Montana--The Bad Lands and their Exact Opposite--Civilization Away Up in
+the Mountains--Indians who have Never Quarreled with White
+Men--Traditions Concerning Mount Tacoma--Wonderful Towns of the Extreme
+Northwest--A State Shaped like a Large Chair--The Falls of Shoshone.
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+IN THE WARM SOUTHEAST.
+
+Florida and its Appropriate Name--The First Portions of North America
+Discovered by White Men--Early Vicissitudes of its Explorers--An
+Enormous Coast Line--How Key West came to be a great Cigar Town--The
+Suwanee River--St. Augustine and its World-Renowned Hotel--Old Fort
+Marion.
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+Statue to Minute Man
+Interior of Independence Hall, Philadelphia
+Tomb of General Grant, Riverside Park
+A Memory of Rip Van Winkle
+The Exact Center of United States
+Brigham Young's Grave, Salt Lake City
+Chief Rain-in-the-Face and his Favorite Pony
+The Cowboy as He Is
+Civilized Indians
+An Uncivilized Savage
+The Belle of the Pueblo
+Custer Battlefield and Monument
+The Old French Market at New Orleans
+The Prettiest Chinese Woman in America
+Yellowstone Falls
+In and Around Yellowstone Park
+A Marvel of Magnificence
+Climbing Pike's Peak by Rail
+Hieroglyphic Memoirs of Past Ages
+A Fin de Siecle Pleasure Steamer
+Whaleback Steamer on the Lakes
+Two Views of Mount Tacoma
+A Restful Southern Home
+
+
+
+
+
+MY NATIVE LAND.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+OUR NATION'S BIRTH.
+
+The Story of Liberty Bell--Impartial Opinions on the Revolutionary
+War--The Shot that was Heard Around the World--The First Committee of
+Safety--A Defeat which Equaled a Victory--Washington's Earnestness--To
+Congress on Horseback--The First 4th of July Celebration.
+
+
+It was not until April 19th, 1775, that the shot was fired which was
+"heard around the world." But the struggle for American Independence was
+really started nearly a quarter of a century earlier, when on the
+afternoon of August 27th, 1753, Liberty Bell was rung to call together
+the Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania.
+
+In the old days of town meetings, training days, town schools and
+Puritans, bells took a more prominent part in public affairs than they
+do to-day. It was usual to call the people together for purposes of
+deliberation by means of a village or town bell, and of these bells the
+one to which we refer was the most important and interesting. Liberty
+Bell is well named. It was ordered in the year 1751, and it was
+delivered a year later. Shortly afterwards, it cracked, and had to be
+recast, but in June, 1753, it was finally hung in the Pennsylvania State
+House at Philadelphia. It has never been removed from the building
+except on two occasions. The first of these was in 1777, when it was
+taken to Allentown for safety, and the second in 1885, when it was
+exhibited at New Orleans.
+
+This bell, which sounded the death-blow to tyranny and oppression, was
+first rung to call together the Assembly, which immediately resolved to
+insist upon certain rights which had been denied the colonists by the
+British Crown. Eighteen months later, it was again rung to announce the
+meeting at which the rights of the colonists were sternly defined and
+insisted upon. In 1765, it convened the meeting of the Assembly at which
+it was resolved to be represented at the Congress of the Colonies in New
+York, and a month later it was muffled and tolled when the "Royal
+Charlotte" arrived, bearing the much hated stamps, whose landing was not
+permitted. Again it rang muffled, when the Stamp Act went into
+operation, and when the people publicly burned stamp papers. In 1768,
+the Liberty Bell called a meeting of the men of Philadelphia, who
+protested once again against the oppression of government without
+representation. In 1771, it called the Assembly together to petition the
+King of England for the repeal of the duty on tea, and two years later
+it summoned together the largest crowd ever seen in Philadelphia up to
+that date. At that meeting it was resolved that the ship "Polly," loaded
+with tea, should not be allowed to land.
+
+In 1774, the bell was muffled and tolled on the closing of the Port of
+Boston, and in the following year it convened the memorable meeting
+following the battle of Lexington. On this occasion 8,000 people
+assembled in the State House yard and unanimously agreed to associate
+for the purpose of defending, with arms, their lives, liberty and
+property against all attempts to deprive them of them. In June, 1776,
+Liberty Bell announced the submission to Congress of the draft of the
+Declaration of Independence, and on July 4th of the same year, the same
+bell announced the signing of the Declaration. On July 8th of the same
+year, the bell was tolled vigorously for the great proclamation of
+America's Independence. The tolling was suspended while the Declaration
+was read, and was once more rung when that immortal document had been
+thus formally promulgated.
+
+In April, 1783, Liberty Bell rang the proclamation of Peace, and on July
+4th, 1826, it ushered in the year of Jubilee.
+
+The last tolling of the bell was in July, 1835, when, while slowly
+tolling, and without any apparent reason, the bell, which had played
+such an important part in the War of Independence, and in the securing
+of liberty for the people of this great country, parted through its
+side, making a large rent, which can still be clearly seen. It was as
+though the bell realized that its great task was accomplished, and that
+it could leave to other and younger bells, the minor duties which
+remained to be performed.
+
+This is not a history of the United States, but is rather a description
+of some of the most interesting and remarkable features to be found in
+various parts of it. It is difficult, however, to describe scenes and
+buildings without at least brief historical reference, and as we present
+an excellent illustration of the apartment in which the Declaration of
+Independence was signed, we are compelled to make a brief reference to
+the circumstances and events which preceded that most important event in
+the world's history.
+
+As we have seen, the conflict between the home country and the colonies
+commenced long before there was any actual outbreak. As Mr. Thomas
+Wentworth Higginson so graphically expresses it, the surrender of Canada
+to England by France in 1763 suddenly opened men's eyes to the fact that
+British America had become a country so large as to make England seem
+ridiculously small. Even the cool-headed Dr. Franklin, writing that same
+year to Mary Stevenson in London, spoke of England as "that stone in a
+brook, scarce enough of it above water to keep one's shoes dry." A
+far-seeing French statesman of the period looked at the matter in the
+same way. Choiseul, the Prime Minister who ceded Canada, claimed
+afterwards that he had done it in order to destroy the British nation by
+creating for it a rival. This assertion was not made till ten years
+later, and may very likely have been an afterthought, but it was
+destined to be confirmed by the facts.
+
+We have now to deal with the outbreak of a contest which was, according
+to the greatest of the English statesmen of the period, "a most
+accursed, wicked, barbarous, cruel, unnatural, unjust, and diabolical
+war." No American writer ever employed to describe it a combination of
+adjectives so vigorous as those brought together by the elder Pitt,
+afterwards Lord Chatham. The rights for which Americans fought seemed to
+him to be the common rights of Englishmen, and many Englishmen thought
+the same.
+
+On the other hand, we are now able to do justice to those American
+Loyalists who honestly believed that the attempt at independence was a
+mad one, and who sacrificed all they had rather than rebel against their
+King. Massachusettensis, the well-known Tory pamphleteer, wrote that the
+annals of the world had not been deformed with a single instance of so
+unnatural, so causeless, so wanton, so wicked a rebellion.
+
+These strong epithets used on both sides show how strangely opinions
+were divided as to the rebellion and its causes. Some of the first
+statesmen of England defended the colonists, and some of the best known
+men in the colonies defended England.
+
+The City of Boston at this time had a population of about seventeen
+thousand, as compared with some half a million to-day. In its garrison
+there were three thousand British troops, and the laws of Parliament
+were enforced rigidly. The city suffered temporary commercial death in
+consequence, and there were the most vigorous efforts made to prevent an
+open outbreak of hostilities. In January, 1775, a conflict was barely
+averted at Marshfield, and in the following month the situation was so
+strained at Salem that nothing but great forbearance and presence of
+mind on the part of the colonists prevented bloodshed. The Boston
+massacre of less than five years before was still uppermost in men's
+thoughts, and it was determined that the responsibility of the first
+shot in the war, if war there must be, should rest with the Royal
+troops.
+
+Accordingly, the colonists accepted insult and abuse until they were
+suspected by the British troops of cowardice. One officer wrote home
+telling his friends that there was no danger of war, because the
+colonists were bullies, but not fighters, adding that any two regiments
+ought to be decimated which could not beat the entire force arrayed
+against them. But the conflict could not be long delayed. It was on
+April 18th, 1775, that Paul Revere rode his famous ride. He had seen the
+two lights in a church steeple in Boston, which had been agreed upon as
+a signal that the British troops were about to seize the supplies of the
+patriots at Concord. Sergeant Monroe's caution against making
+unnecessary noise, was met by his rejoinder, "You will have noise enough
+here before long--the regulars are coming out."
+
+Then he commenced his ride for life, or, rather, for the lives of
+others. We all know the result of his ride, and how church bells were
+tolled and signal shots fired to warn the people that the soldiers were
+coming. It was a night of tumult and horror, no one knowing what
+brutality they had to expect from the now enraged British soldiers. The
+women of the towns, warned by the pre-arranged signals, hurried their
+children from their homes, and fled to farm houses, and even barns in
+the vicinity. Before daybreak the British troops had reached Lexington
+Green. Here they found Captain Parker and 38 men standing up before
+twenty times that number of armed troops, indifferent as to their fate,
+but determined to protect their cause and their friends. The Captain's
+words have passed into history. They took the form of an order to the
+men:
+
+"Don't fire unless you are fired on; but, if they want a war, let it
+begin here."
+
+History tells us of few such unequal contests as this. The troops fired
+on the gallant little band, and seven of their number were killed. The
+fight at Concord followed, when 450 Americans met the British troops at
+the North Bridge, where
+
+    "Once the embattled farmers stood,
+  And fired the shot heard around the world."
+
+The British detachment was beaten back in disorder, but the main body
+was too strong to be attacked. The minute men, however, made a most
+magnificent fight, and at the close of the day they had killed 273
+British soldiers, only 93 of their own number being among the killed or
+missing.
+
+Thus commenced the War of Independence, the event being described by Dr.
+Joseph Warren in a document of sufficient interest to warrant its
+reproduction in full.
+
+"The barbarous murders committed on our innocent brethren," wrote the
+doctor, "have made it absolutely necessary that we immediately raise an
+army to defend our wives and our children from the butchering hands of
+an inhuman soldiery, who, incensed at the obstacles they met with in
+their bloody progress, and enraged at being repulsed from the field of
+slaughter, will, without the least doubt, take the first opportunity in
+their power to ravage this devoted country with fire and sword. We
+conjure you, therefore, by all that is dear, by all that is sacred, that
+you give all assistance possible in forming an army. Our all is at
+stake. Death and devastation are the instant consequences of delay.
+Every moment is infinitely precious. An hour lost may deluge our country
+in blood, and entail perpetual slavery upon the few of your posterity
+who may survive the carnage. We beg and entreat, as you will answer to
+your country, to your own consciences, and, above all, as you will
+answer to God himself, that you will hasten and encourage, by all
+possible means, the enlistment of men to form an army, and send them
+forward to headquarters at Cambridge, with that expedition which the
+vast importance and instant urgency of the affair demand."
+
+Two days after the fight, the Massachusetts Committee of Safety resolved
+to enlist 8,000 men, an event which our old friend Liberty Bell
+celebrated by a vigorous tolling. All over the colonies a spirit of
+determination to resist spread like lightning, and the shot that was
+heard around the world was certainly heard very distinctly in every nook
+and corner of New England, and of the old Atlantic States. Naturally,
+there was at first a lack of concentration and even of discipline; but
+what was lacking in these features was more than made up for by bravery
+and determination. As John Adams wrote in 1818, the army at Cambridge at
+this time was not a National army, for there was no nation. It was not
+even an army of the United Colonies, because the Congress at
+Philadelphia had not adopted or acknowledged the army at Cambridge. It
+was not even the New England army, for each State had its separate
+armies, which had united to imprison the British army in Boston. There
+was not even the Commander-in-Chief of the allied armies.
+
+These anomalies, of course, righted themselves rapidly. Gage's
+proclamation of martial law expedited the battle at Bunker Hill, which
+was brought about by the impatience of the British troops, and by the
+increased confidence among the colonists, resulting from the fights at
+Lexington and Concord. It is true, of course, that the untrained
+American troops failed to vanquish the British army at Bunker Hill, but
+the monument at that spot celebrates the fact that for two hours the
+attacks of the regulars were withstood. A prominent English newspaper
+described the battle as one of innumerable errors on the part of the
+British. As William Tudor wrote so graphically, "The Ministerial troops
+gained the hill, but were victorious losers. A few more such victories
+and they are undone." Many writers have been credited with the
+authorship of a similar sentiment, written from the American standpoint.
+"It is true that we were beaten, but it will not take many such defeats
+to accomplish a magnificent victory."
+
+What began to be known as the great American army increased in strength.
+It was adopted by Congress, and George Washington placed in command.
+Under the historic elm tree at Cambridge, Mass., which was the scene of
+so many important councils in the first hours of the life of the United
+States, he assumed the authority bestowed upon him with this office, and
+a week later he held a council with his officers. He found some 17,000
+men at his command, whom he described as a mixed multitude of people
+under very little discipline.
+
+William Emerson, grandfather of the great poet, in a soliloquy on the
+strange turn events had taken, said "Who would have thought, twelve
+months past, that all Cambridge and Charleston would be covered over
+with American camps and cut up into forts and entrenchments, and all the
+lands, fields and orchards laid common, with horses and cattle feeding
+on the choicest mowing land, and large parks of well-regulated locusts
+cut down for firewood. This, I must say, looks a little melancholy. It
+is very diverting to walk among the camps. They are as different in
+their look as the owners are in their dress, and every tent is a
+portraiture of the temper and tastes of the persons who encamp in it.
+Some are made of boards and some of sailcloth; some partly of one and
+some partly of the other; again, others are made of stone and turf,
+brick or brush. Some are thrown up in a hurry, others curiously wrought
+with doors and windows, done with wreaths and withes, in the manner of a
+basket. Some are proper tents, looking like the regular camp of the
+enemy. In these are the Rhode Islanders, who are furnished with tent
+equipages and everything in the most exact English style. However, I
+think this great variety is rather a beauty than a blemish in the army."
+
+As was to be expected, there was more or less of a lack of harmony and
+unity among the companies of men collected together to form an army to
+fight for liberty. History tells us that there was even a little
+jealousy between the four New England colonies. There was also a good
+deal of distrust of Washington. It was argued that at least one-third of
+the class from which he came had Tory and Royalist inclinations, and
+what guarantee had they that Washington was not one of their number?
+Washington himself found that those who styled themselves in old country
+parlance "The Gentry," were loyal to King George rather than to the
+colonies, and while his own men were inclined, at times, to doubt the
+sincerity of the Father of his Country, the very men with whom he was
+suspected of being in sympathy were denouncing him with vigor.
+
+Washington, to his lasting credit be it said, was indifferent both to
+praise and censure. Seeing that discipline was the one thing needful, he
+commenced to enforce it with an iron hand. He declined any remuneration,
+and gave his services freely to the cause. He found himself short of
+ammunition, and several times he lost a number of his men. In the spring
+of 1776, Washington went to New York with his Continental army. Here he
+found new difficulties, and met with a series of mishaps. The failure of
+the advance into Canada during the winter had hurt materially, but the
+bravery of the troops in the Carolinas came as a grand encouragement.
+
+We need not trace further the progress of the war, or note how, through
+many discouragements and difficulties, the cause of right was made to
+triumph over the cause of might. We will pass on to note a few of the
+interesting facts in connection with the signing of the Declaration of
+Independence. To-day, our Senators and Congressmen travel to the
+National Capital in Pullman cars, surrounded by every luxury that wealth
+and influence can bring them.
+
+In the days of the Continental Congress it required a good deal more
+nerve to fulfill one's duty. The delegate had to journey to Congress on
+horseback. Sometimes he could find a little country inn at which he
+could sleep at night, but at others he had to camp in the open as best
+he could. Frequently a friendly warning would cause him to make a detour
+of several miles in order to escape some threatened danger, and,
+altogether, his march to the capital was far from being triumphant.
+
+At this particular period the difficulties were more than usually great.
+The delegates arrived at Philadelphia jaded and tired. They found stable
+room for their horses, made the best toilet possible, and found their
+way at once to Independence Hall, where opinions were exchanged. On the
+7th of June, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia submitted a series of
+resolutions, under the instructions of the Virginia Assembly--resolutions
+which, it may be stated, pledged the colonies to carry on the war until
+the English were entirely driven out of the country. Congress declared
+deliberately that the United States was absolved from all allegiance to
+the British Crown, and it then proceeded to burn its bridges, by
+declaring the expediency of taking effectual measures for forming foreign
+alliances. John Adams seconded the resolutions, which were not passed
+without debate.
+
+Delegates from New York, Pennsylvania and South Carolina opposed the
+proposition very vigorously, one member stating that it required the
+impudence of a New Englander for them, in their disjointed state, to
+propose a treaty to a nation now at peace; that no reason could be
+assigned for pressing this measure but the reason of every madman--a
+show of spirit. John Adams defended the resolutions, claiming that they
+proclaimed objects of the most stupendous magnitude, in which the lives
+and liberties of millions yet unborn were infinitely interested.
+Finally, the consideration was postponed, to be passed almost
+unanimously on July 2d. John Adams was most enthusiastic over this
+result, and, writing to his wife on the subject, he said:
+
+"The 2d day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the
+history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by
+succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be
+commemorated as a day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God
+Almighty, from one end of the continent to the other, from this time
+forward, forevermore."
+
+But although the day referred to by John Adams saw the thirteen colonies
+become independent States, it is July the 4th that the country
+celebrates. On that day the Declaration of Independence was promulgated.
+This marvelous document was prepared by Jefferson in a small brick
+house, which then stood out in the fields, but which is now known as the
+southwest corner of Market and Seventh Streets, Philadelphia. It is
+situated within about four hundred yards of Independence Square. In his
+little room in this house, on a very small writing desk, which is still
+in existence, Jefferson drafted the title deed of our liberties. He
+wrote without reference of any kind, merely placing upon paper the
+succession of thoughts which had been paramount in his mind for years.
+In the original document, as submitted by Jefferson, there appeared a
+stern condemnation of the "piratical warfare against human nature
+itself," as slavery was described. This was stricken out by Congress,
+and finally the document, as amended, was adopted by the vote of twelve
+colonies, New York declining to vote.
+
+We give an illustration of the Interior of Independence Hall. Here it
+was that the Declaration was signed. According to some authorities the
+signing did not take place on July 4th, while according to others it
+did. Some records seem to show that fifty-four of the fifty-six names
+were attached to the parchment on August 2d. Jefferson frequently stated
+that the signing of the Declaration was hastened by a very trivial
+circumstance. Near the Hall there was a large stable, where flies
+abounded. All the delegates wore silk stockings, and were thus in a
+condition to be easily annoyed by flies. The heat was intolerable, and a
+tremendous invasion by the little pests, who were not retarded by fly
+screens or mosquito bars, drove the legislators almost frantic, and
+caused them to append their signatures to the document with almost
+indecent haste.
+
+However this may be, the Declaration was finally signed, and Liberty
+Bell proclaimed the fact to all within hearing. John Hancock, we are
+told, referred to his almost schoolboy signature with a smile, saying
+that John Bull could read his name without spectacles. Franklin is said
+to have remarked that they must all hang together, or else most
+assuredly they would all hang separately--a play upon words showing that
+the patriot's sense of humor was too admirably developed to be dimmed
+even by an event of this magnitude.
+
+There were rejoicings on every hand that the great act had been
+accomplished. A very pleasing story tells of how an aged bell-ringer
+waited breathlessly to announce to waking thousands the vote of
+Congress. This story has since been denied, and it seems evident that
+the vote was not announced until the following day, when circulars were
+issued to the people. On July 6th, the Declaration was printed in a
+Philadelphia newspaper, and on the 8th, John Nixon read the Declaration
+in the yard of Independence Hall. On the same day, the Royal Arms over
+the door of the Supreme Court Room were torn down, and the trophies thus
+secured burned.
+
+The first 4th of July celebration of which we have any record, took
+place two years after the signing. General Howe had left the city
+shortly before, and every one was feeling bright and happy. In the diary
+of one of the old patriots who took part in this unique celebration,
+appears the following quaint, and even picturesque, description of the
+events of the day:
+
+"On the glorious 4th of July (1778), I celebrated in the City Tavern,
+with my brother delegates of Congress and a number of other gentlemen,
+amounting, in whole, to about eighty, the anniversary of Independency.
+The entertainment was elegant and well conducted. There were four tables
+spread; two of them extended the whole length of the room; the other two
+crossed them at right angles. At the end of the room, opposite the upper
+table, was erected an Orchestra. At the head of the upper table, and at
+the President's right hand, stood a large baked pudding, in the center
+of which was planted a staff, on which was displayed a crimson flag, in
+the midst of which was this emblematic device: An eye, denoting
+Providence; a label, on which was inscribed, 'An appeal to Heaven;' a
+man with a drawn sword in his hand, and in the other the Declaration of
+Independence, and at his feet a scroll inscribed, 'The declaratory
+acts.' As soon as the dinner began, the music, consisting of clarionets,
+hautboys, French horns, violins and bass-viols, opened and continued,
+making proper pauses, until it was finished. Then the toasts, followed
+by a discharge of field-pieces, were drank, and so the afternoon ended.
+On the evening there was a cold collation and a brilliant exhibition of
+fireworks. The street was crowded with people during the exhibition.
+
+"What a strange vicissitude in human affairs! These, but a few years
+since colonies of Great Britain, are now free, sovereign, and
+independent States, and now celebrate the anniversary of their
+independence in the very city where, but a day or two before, General
+Howe exhibited his ridiculous Champhaitre."
+
+Independence Hall remains to-day in a marvelous state of preservation.
+At the great Centennial Exposition, held to celebrate the hundredth
+anniversary of the events to which we have alluded in this chapter, tens
+of thousands of people passed through the room in which the Declaration
+of Independence was signed, and gazed with mingled feelings upon the
+historical bell, which, although it had long outlived its usefulness,
+had in days gone by done such grand proclaiming of noble truth,
+sentiment and action. Up to quite a recent date, justice was
+administered in the old building, but most of the courts have now been
+moved to the stately structure modern Philadelphia is now erecting at
+the cost of some $16,000,000.
+
+Independence Hall and Independence Square are lovingly cared for, and
+visitors from all nations are careful to include them both in their tour
+of sight-seeing while in this country. Within the Hall they find old
+parchments and Eighteenth Century curiosities almost without number, and
+antiquarians find sufficient to interest and amuse them for several days
+in succession. Every lover of his native land, no matter what that land
+may be, raises his hat in reverence when in this ancient and
+memory-inspiring building, and he must be thoughtless, indeed, who can
+pass through it without paying at least a mental tribute of respect to
+the memories of the men who were present at the birth of the greatest
+nation the world has ever seen, and who secured for the people of the
+United States absolute liberty.
+
+The illustration of the interior of Independence Hall on page 17, was
+furnished for use in this work by the National Company of St. Louis,
+publishers of "Our Own Country," a large work descriptive of a tour
+throughout the most picturesque sections of the United States. The
+letter-press in "Our Own Country" was written by the author of this
+work, and it is one of the finest tributes to the picturesqueness of
+America that has ever been published. Other illustrations in this work
+were also kindly supplied by the same publishing house.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+THE WITCHES OF SALEM.
+
+A Relic of Religious Bigotry--Parson Lawson's Tirade Against
+Witchcraft--Extraordinary Court Records of Old Puritan Days--Alleged
+Supernatural Conjuring--A Man and his Wife both put to Death--Crushed
+for Refusing to Plead--A Romance of the Old Days of Witch Persecution.
+
+Among the curiosities of New England shown to tourists and visitors, is
+the original site of some of the extraordinary trials and executions for
+witchcraft in the town of Salem, now known as Danvers, Mass. Looking
+back upon the events of two hundred years ago, the prosecution of the
+alleged witches appears to us to have been persecution of the most
+infamous type. The only justification for the stern Puritans is the fact
+that they inherited their ideas of witchcraft and its evils from their
+forefathers, and from the country whence most of them came.
+
+One of the earliest precepts of religious bigotry was, "Thou shalt not
+allow a witch to live," and from time immemorial witchcraft appears to
+have been a capital offense. It is on record that thousands of people
+have, from time to time, been legally murdered for alleged intercourse
+and leaguing with the Evil One. The superstition seems to have gained
+force rather than lost it by the spread of early Christianity. As a
+rule, the victims of the craze were women, and the percentage of aged
+and infirm women was always very large. One of the greatest jurists of
+England, during the Seventeenth Century, condemned two young girls to
+the gallows for no other offense than the alleged crime of having
+exerted a baneful influence over certain victims, and having, what would
+be called in certain districts, "hoodooed" them.
+
+In Scotland the craze was carried to still further lengths. To be
+accused of witchcraft was to be condemned as a matter of course, and the
+terrible death of burning at the stake was the invariable sentence. Most
+of the victims made imaginary confessions, preferring to die at once
+than to be tortured indefinitely. In the year 1716, a wealthy lady and
+her nine-year-old daughter were hanged for witchcraft, and even thirty
+or forty years later the records of Great Britain are sullied by another
+similar case of persecution.
+
+These unsavory records are given in order to correct a misapprehension
+as to the part the old Puritans took in the persecutions. Many people
+seriously believed that the idea of witchcraft, as a capital offense,
+originated in Salem, and attribute to the original witch-house the
+reputation of having really given birth to a new superstition and a new
+persecution. As we have seen, this is entirely erroneous. The fact that
+the Puritans copied a bad example, instead of setting a new one, should,
+at least, be remembered in palliation of the unfortunate blot upon their
+otherwise clean escutcheon.
+
+In the year 1704, one Deodat Lawson, minister at Salem during the last
+sixteen or seventeen years of the Seventeenth Century, published a
+remarkable work, entitled "Christ's Fidelity, the only Shield against
+Satan's Malignity." In this work appears a record of the so-called
+calamity at Salem, which the author tells us was afflicted, about the
+year 1692, "with a very sore and grievous infliction, in which they had
+reason to believe that the Sovereign and Holy God was pleased to permit
+Satan and his instruments to affright and afflict those poor mortals in
+such an astonishing and unusual manner."
+
+The record of Parson Lawson is so realistic and emblematic of the times
+in which he lived, that we reproduce some of his own expressions. Thus,
+he says, "Now, I having for some time before attended the work of the
+Ministry in Salem Village, the report of those great afflictions came
+quickly to my notice, the more so, because the first person afflicted
+was in the minister's family, who succeeded me after I was removed from
+them. In pity, therefore, to my Christian friends and former
+acquaintance there, I was much concerned about them, frequently
+consulted with them, and (by Divine assistance) prayed for them; but
+especially my concern was augmented when it was reported at an
+examination of a person suspected for witchcraft, that my wife and
+daughter, who died three years before, were sent out of the world under
+the malicious operations of the infernal powers, as is more fully
+represented in the following remarks. I did then desire, and was also
+desired by some concerned in the court, to be there present that I might
+hear what was alleged in that respect, observing, therefore, when I was
+amongst them, that the case of the afflicted was very amazing and
+deplorable, and the charges brought against the accused such as were
+grounds of suspicion, yet very intricate and difficult to draw up right
+conclusions about them. They affirmed that they saw the ghosts of
+several departed persons, who, at their appearing, did instigate them to
+discover such as (they said) were instruments to hasten their death,
+threatening sorely to afflict them if they did not make it known to the
+magistrates.
+
+"They did affirm at the examination, and again at the trial of an
+accused person, that they saw the ghosts of his two wives (to whom he
+had acted very ill in their lives, as was proved by several
+testimonies), and also that they saw the ghosts of my wife and daughter
+(who died above three years before), and they did affirm that when the
+very ghosts looked on the prisoner at the bar they looked red, as if the
+blood would fly out of their faces with indignation at him. The manner
+of it was thus: Several afflicted being before the prisoner at the bar,
+on a sudden they fixed all their eyes together on a certain place on the
+floor before the prisoner, neither moving their eyes nor bodies for some
+few minutes, nor answering to any question which was asked them. So soon
+as that trance was over, some being out of sight and hearing, they were
+all, one after another, asked what they saw, and they did all agree that
+they saw those ghosts above mentioned. I was present and heard and saw
+the whole of what passed upon that account during the trial of that
+person who was accused to be the instrument of Satan's malice therein.
+
+"Sundry pins have been taken out the wrists and arms of the afflicted,
+and one, in time of examination of a suspected person, had a pin run
+through both her upper and lower lip when she was called to speak, yet
+no apparent festering followed thereupon after it was taken out. Some of
+the afflicted, as they were striving in their fits in open court, have
+(by invisible means) had their wrists bound together with a real cord,
+so as it could hardly be taken off without cutting. Some afflicted have
+been found with their arms tied and hanged upon a hook, from whence
+others have been forced to take them down, that they might not expire in
+that posture. Some afflicted have been drawn under tables and beds by
+undiscerned force, so as they could hardly be pulled out. And one was
+drawn half way over the side of a well, and with much difficulty
+recovered back again. When they were most grievously afflicted, if they
+were brought to the accused, and the suspected person's hand but laid
+upon them, they were immediately relieved out of their tortures; but if
+the accused did but look on them, they were immediately struck down
+again. Wherefore, they used to cover the face of the accused while they
+laid their hands on the afflicted, and then it obtained the desired
+issue. For it hath been experienced (both in examinations and trials)
+that so soon as the afflicted came in sight of the accused, they were
+immediately cast into their fits. Yea, though the accused were among the
+crowd of people, unknown to the sufferers, yet on the first view they
+were struck down; which was observed in a child of four or five years of
+age, when it was apprehended that so many as she would look upon, either
+directly or by turning her head, were immediately struck into their
+fits.
+
+"An iron spindle of a woolen wheel, being taken very strangely out of an
+house at Salem Village, was used by a spectre as an instrument of
+torture to a sufferer, not being discernible to the standers by until it
+was by the said sufferer snatched out of the spectre's hand, and then it
+did immediately appear to the persons present to be really the same iron
+spindle.
+
+"Sometimes, in their fits, they have had their tongues drawn out of
+their mouths to a fearful length, their heads turned very much over
+their shoulders, and while they have been so strained in their fits, and
+had their arms and legs, etc., wrested as if they were quite dislocated,
+the blood hath gushed plentifully out of their mouths for a considerable
+time together; which some, that they might be satisfied that it was real
+blood, took upon their finger and rubbed on their other hand. I saw
+several together thus violently strained and bleeding in their fits, to
+my very great astonishment that my fellow mortals should be so
+grievously distressed by the invisible powers of darkness. For certainly
+all considerate persons who beheld these things must needs be convinced
+their motions in their fits were preternatural and involuntary, both as
+to the manner, which was so strange, as a well person could not (at
+least without great pain) screw their bodies into; and as to the
+violence, also, they were preternatural motions, being much beyond the
+ordinary force of the same persons when they were in their right minds.
+So that, being such grievous sufferers, it would seem very hard and
+unjust to censure them of consenting to or holding any voluntary
+converse or familiarity with the devil.
+
+"Some of them were asked how it came to pass that they were not
+affrighted when they saw the Black-man. They said they were at first,
+but not so much afterwards. Some of them affirmed they saw the Black-man
+sit on the gallows, and that he whispered in the ears of some of the
+condemned persons when they were just ready to be turned off--even while
+they were making their last speech.
+
+"Some of them have sundry times seen a White-man appearing among the
+spectres, and as soon as he appeared, the Black-Witches vanished; they
+said this White-man had often foretold them what respite they should
+have from their fits; as, sometimes, a day or two or more, which fell
+out accordingly. One of the afflicted said she saw him in her fit, and
+was with him in a glorious place, which had no candle or sun, yet was
+full of light and brightness, where there was a multitude in 'white,
+glittering robes,' and they sang the song in Rev. v, 9. She was both to
+leave that place and said: 'How long shall I stay here? Let me be along
+with you.' She was grieved she could stay no longer in that place and
+company.
+
+"A young woman that was afflicted at a fearful rate had a spectre appear
+to her with a white sheet wrapped about it, not visible to the standers
+by, until this sufferer (violently striving in her fit) snatched at,
+took hold and tore off the corner of that sheet. Her father, being by
+her, endeavored to lay hold of it with her, that she might retain what
+she had gotten; but at the passing away of the spectre, he had such a
+violent twitch of his hand as it would have been torn off. Immediately
+thereupon appeared in the sufferer's hand the corner of a sheet, a real
+cloth, visible to the spectators, which (as it is said) remains still to
+be seen."
+
+It was proved, the records of the time continue, by substantial
+evidences against one person accused, that he had such an unusual
+strength (though a very little man) that he could hold out a gun with
+one hand, behind the lock, which was near seven foot in the barrel,
+being such as a lusty man could command with both hands, after the usual
+manner of shooting. It was also proved that he lifted barrels of metal
+and barrels of molasses out of a canoe alone; and that, putting his
+fingers into a barrel of molasses, full within a finger's length,
+according to custom, he carried it several paces. And that he put his
+finger into the muzzle of a gun which was more than five foot in the
+barrel, and lifted up the butt end thereof, lock, stock and all, without
+any visible help to raise it. It was also testified that, being abroad
+with his wife and his wife's brother, he occasionally stayed behind,
+letting his wife and her brother walk forward; but, suddenly coming up
+with them, he was angry with his wife for what discourse had passed
+betwixt her and her brother. They wondering how he should know it, he
+said: "I know your thoughts," at which expression they, being amazed,
+asked him how he could do that, he said: "My God whom I serve makes
+known your thoughts to me."
+
+Some affirmed that there were some hundreds of the society of witches,
+considerable companies of whom were affirmed to muster in arms by beat
+of drum. In time of examinations and trials, they declared that such a
+man was wont to call them together from all quarters to witch-meetings,
+with the sound of a diabolical trumpet.
+
+Being brought to see the prisoners at the bar, upon their trials, they
+swore, in open court, that they had oftentimes seen them at witch
+meetings, "where was feasting, dancing and jollity, as also at devil
+sacraments, and particularly that they saw such a man amongst the
+accursed crew, and affirming that he did minister the sacrament of Satan
+to them, encouraging them to go on in their way, and that they should
+certainly prevail. They said, also, that such a woman was a deacon and
+served in distributing the diabolical element. They affirmed that there
+were great numbers of the witches."
+
+With such sentiments as these prevailing, it is not at all remarkable
+that the alleged witches were treated with continual and
+conspicuous-brutality. One old lady of sixty, named Sarah Osburn, was
+hounded to death for being a witch. The poor old lady, who was in fairly
+good circumstances, and appears to have been of good character, was put
+upon her trial for witchcraft. For three days, more or less ridiculous
+testimony was given against her, and a number of little children, who
+had evidently been carefully coached, stated upon the stand that Mrs.
+Osburn had bewitched them. She was called upon by the court to confess,
+which she declined to do, stating that she was rather a victim than a
+criminal. She was sent to jail, and treated with so much brutality that
+she died before it was possible to execute her in the regulation manner.
+
+Bridget Bishop was another of the numerous victims. The usual charges
+were brought against her, and she was speedily condemned to death.
+Before the sentence was executed, the custom of taking council with the
+local clergy was followed. These good men, while they counseled caution
+in accepting testimony, humbly recommended the government to the speedy
+and vigorous prosecution of such as "had rendered themselves obnoxious
+by infringing the wholesome statutes of the English Nation for the
+detection of witchcraft." Following this recommendation, double and
+treble hangings took place, and there was enough brutality to appease
+the appetite of the most vindictive and malicious.
+
+Perhaps the most extraordinary record of witchcraft persecution at the
+end of the Seventeenth Century was that of Giles Corey and his wife
+Martha. The singular feature of the case is, that the husband had been
+one of the most enthusiastic declaimers against the unholy crime of
+witchcraft, while his good wife had been rather disposed to ridicule the
+idea, and to condemn the prosecutions as persecutions. She did her best
+to prevent Giles from attending trials, and one of the most serious
+charges against her was that on one occasion she hid the family saddle,
+so as to prevent her lord and master from riding to one of the
+examinations.
+
+This attempt to assert woman's rights two hundred years ago was resented
+very bitterly, and two enthusiastic witch-hunters were sent to her house
+to entrap her into a confession. On the way they made inquiries, which
+resulted in their being able to patch up a charge against the woman for
+walking in ghostly attire during the night. When the detectives called
+at the house she told them she knew the object of their visit, but that
+she was no witch, and did not believe there was such a thing. The mere
+fact of her knowing the object of their visit was regarded as conclusive
+evidence against her, although a fair-minded person would naturally
+suggest that, in view of local sentiment, her guess was a very easy one.
+The poor woman was immediately arrested and placed on trial. Several
+little children were examined, and these shouted out in the
+witness-stand, that when the afflicted woman bit her lip in her grief,
+they were seized with bodily pains, which continued until she loosened
+her teeth. The chronicles of the court tell us, with much solemnity,
+that when the woman's hands were tied her victims did not suffer, but
+the moment the cords were removed they had fits.
+
+Even her husband was called as a witness against her. His evidence does
+not appear to have been very important or relevant. But another witness,
+a Mrs. Pope, who appears to have been an expert in these matters, and to
+have been called at nearly every trial, took off her shoe in court and
+threw it at the prisoner's head, an act of indecorum which was condoned
+on the ground of the evident sincerity of the culprit. The poor woman
+was condemned, as a matter of course, and when she was removed to jail,
+a deputation from the church of which she was a member called upon her
+and excommunicated her. She mounted the ladder which led to the gallows
+with much dignity, and died without any attempt to prolong her life by a
+confession.
+
+The fate of her husband was still more terrible. Notwithstanding his
+zeal, and the fact that he had given evidence against his own wife, he
+was arrested, charged with a similar offense. Whether hypnotic
+influences were exerted, or whether the examining justices merely
+imagined things against the prisoner, cannot be known at this time. The
+court records, however, state that while the witnesses were on the
+stand, they were so badly afflicted with fits and hurts, that the
+prisoner's hands had to be tied before they could continue their
+testimony. Unlike his wife, the poor man did not deny the existence of
+witchcraft, and merely whined out, in reply to the magistrate's censure,
+that he was a poor creature and could not help it. The evidence against
+him was very slight, indeed, and he was remanded to jail, where he lay
+unmolested, and apparently forgotten, for five or six months.
+
+He was then excommunicated by his church, and brought before the court
+again. Sojourn in jail seems to have made the old man stubborn, for when
+he was once more confronted by his persecutors he declined to plead, on
+the ground that there was no charge against him. An old obsolete English
+law was revived against him, and the terrible sentence was pronounced
+that for standing mute he be remanded to the prison from whence he came
+and put into a low, dark chamber. There he was to be laid on his back,
+on the bare floor, without clothing. As great a weight of iron as he
+could bear was to be placed upon his body, and there to remain. The
+first day he was to have three morsels of bread, and on the second day
+three draughts of water, to be selected from the nearest pool that could
+be found. Thus was the diet to be alternated, day by day, until he
+either answered his accusation or died.
+
+On September 19th, 1692, death came as a happy relief to the miserable
+man, who had begged the sheriff to add greater weights so as to expedite
+the end. This is the only case on record of a man having been "pressed
+to death" in New England for refusing to plead, or for any other
+offense. There are a few cases on record where this inhuman law was
+enforced previously in England, but it was always regarded as a relic of
+mediaeval barbarity, and the fact that it was revived in the witch
+persecutions is a very significant one. After his death, an attempt was
+made to justify the act by the statement that Corey himself had pressed
+a man to death. This justification appears feeble, and to be without any
+corroborative testimony.
+
+Another very remarkable witch story has about it a tinge of romance,
+although the main facts actually occurred as stated. A sailor named
+Orcutt, left his sweetheart on one of his regular voyages, promising to
+return at an early date to claim his bride. The girl he left behind him,
+whose name was Margaret, appears to have been a very attractive,
+innocent young lady, who suffered considerably from the jealousy of a
+rival. Soon after the departure of her lover, the witch difficulty
+arose, and the young girl was much worried and grieved at what happened.
+On one occasion she happened to say to a friend that she was sorry for
+the unfortunate witches who were to be hanged on the following day. The
+friend appears to have been an enemy in disguise, and, turning to
+Margaret, told her that if she talked that way she would herself be
+tried as a witch. As an evidence of how vindictive justice was at this
+time, the poor girl was arrested by the sheriff on the following day, in
+the name of the King and Queen, on a charge of witchcraft. The young
+girl was led through the streets and jeered at by the crowd. Arrived at
+the court, her alleged friend gave a variety of testimony against her.
+The usual stories about aches and pains were of course told. Some other
+details were added. Thus, Margaret by looking at a number of hens had
+killed them. She had also been seen running around at night in spectral
+attire. The poor girl fainted in the dock, and this was regarded as a
+chastisement from above, and as direct evidence of her guilt. She was
+removed to the jail, where she had to lie on a hard bench, only to be
+dragged back into court the following day, to be asked a number of
+outrageous questions.
+
+With sobs she protested her innocence, but as she did so, the witnesses
+against her called out that they were in torment, and that the very
+motion of the girl's lips caused them terrible pain. She was sentenced
+to be hanged with eight other alleged witches two days later, and was
+carried back, fainting, to her cell. In a few minutes the girl was
+delirious, and began to talk about her lover, and of her future
+prospects. Even her sister was not allowed to remain with her during the
+night, and the frail young creature was left to the tender mercies of
+heartless jailors.
+
+A few hours before the time set for execution, young Orcutt sailed into
+the harbor, and before daybreak he was at the house. Here he learned for
+the first time the awful calamity which had befallen his sweetheart in
+his absence. At 7 o'clock he was allowed to enter the jail, with the
+convicted girl's sister. At the prison door they were informed that the
+wicked girl had died during the night. Knowing that there was no hope
+under any circumstances of the sentence being remitted, the bereaved
+ones regarded the news as good, and although they broke down with grief
+at the shipwreck of their lives, they both realized that, to use the
+devout words of the victim's sister, "The Lord had delivered her from
+the hands of her enemies."
+
+The record of brutality in connection with the witch agitation might be
+continued almost without limit, for the number of victims was very
+great. Visitors to Danvers to-day are often shown by local guides where
+some of the tragedies of the persecution were committed. The
+superstition was finally driven away by educational enlightenment, and
+it seems astounding that it lasted as long as it did. Two hundred years
+have nearly elapsed since the craze died out, and it is but charitable
+to admit, that although many of the witnesses must have been corrupt and
+perjured, the majority of those connected with the cases were thoroughly
+in earnest, and that although they rejoiced at the undoing of the
+ungodly, they regretted very much being made the instruments of that
+undoing.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+IN PICTURESQUE NEW YORK.
+
+Some Local Errors Corrected--A Trip Down the Hudson River--The Last of
+the Mohicans--The Home of Rip Van Winkle--The Ladies of Vassar and their
+Home--West Point and its History--Sing Sing Prison--The Falls of
+Niagara--Indians in New York State.
+
+
+Residents in the older States of the East are frequently twitted with
+their ignorance concerning the newer States of the West, and of the
+habits and customs of those who, having taken Horace Greeley's advice at
+various times, turned their faces toward the setting sun, determined to
+take advantage of the fertility of the soil, and grow up with the
+country of which they knew but little.
+
+It needs but a few days' sojourn in an Eastern city by a Western man to
+realize how sublimely ignorant the New Englander is concerning at least
+three-fourths of his native land. The writer was, on a recent occasion,
+asked, in an Eastern city, how he managed to get along without any of
+the comforts of civilization, and whether he did not find it necessary
+to order all of his clothing and comforts by mail from the East. When he
+replied that in the larger cities, at any rate, of the West, there were
+retail emporiums fully up to date in all matters of fashion and
+improvement, and caterers who could supply the latest delicacies in
+season at reasonable prices, an incredulous smile was the result, and
+regret was expressed that local prejudice and pride should so blind a
+man to the actual truth.
+
+Yet there was no exaggeration whatever in the reply, as the experienced
+traveler knows well. Neither Chicago nor St. Louis are really in the
+West, so far as points of the compass are concerned, both of these
+cities being hundreds of miles east of the geographical center of the
+United States. But they are both spoken of as "out West," and are
+included in the territory in which the extreme Eastern man is apt to
+think people live on the coarsest fare, and clothe themselves in the
+roughest possible manner. Yet the impartial and disinterested New York
+or Boston man who visits either of these cities speedily admits that he
+frequently finds it difficult to believe that he is not in his own much
+loved city, so close is the resemblance in many respects between the
+business houses and the method of doing business. Denver is looked upon
+by the average Easterner almost in the light of a frontier city, away
+out in the Rockies, surrounded by awe-inspiring scenery, no doubt, but
+also by grizzly bears and ferocious Indians. San Francisco is too far
+away to be thought very intelligently, but a great many people regard
+that home of wealth and elegance as another extreme Western
+die-in-your-boots, rough-and-tumble city.
+
+This ignorance, for it is ignorance rather than prejudice, results from
+the mania for European travel, which was formerly a characteristic of
+the Atlantic States, but which of recent years has, like civilization,
+traveled West. The Eastern man who has made money is much more likely to
+take his family on a European tour than on a trip through his native
+country. He incurs more expense by crossing the Atlantic, and although
+he adds to his store of knowledge by traveling, he does not learn matter
+of equal importance to him as if he had crossed the American continent
+and enlightened himself as to the men and manners in its different
+sections and States.
+
+Nor is this sectional ignorance confined, by any means, to the East.
+People in the West are apt to form an entirely erroneous impression of
+Eastern States. The word, "East," to them conveys an impression of dense
+population, overcrowding, and manufacturing activity. That there are
+thousands and thousands of acres of scenic grandeur, as well as farm
+lands, in some of the most crowded States, is not realized, and that
+this is the case will be news to many. Last year a party of Western
+people were traveling to New York, and, on their way, ran through
+Pennsylvania, around the picturesque Horse Shoe Curve in the
+Alleghenies, and along the banks of the romantic and historic
+Susquehanna. A member of the party was seen to be wrapped in thought for
+a long time. He was finally asked what was worrying him.
+
+"I was thinking," was his reply, "how singular it is that the Republican
+party ran up a majority of something like a hundred thousand at the
+election, and I was wondering where all the folks came from who did the
+voting. I haven't seen a dozen houses in the last hour."
+
+Our friend was only putting into expression the thought which was
+indulged in pretty generally by the entire crowd. Those who were making
+the transcontinental trip for the first time marveled at the expanse of
+open country, and the exquisite scenery through which they passed; and
+they were wondering how they ever came to think that the noise of the
+hammer and the smoke of the factory chimney were part and parcel of the
+East, where they knew the money, as well as the "wise men," came from.
+The object of this book being to present some of the prominent features
+of all sections of the United States, it is necessary to remove, as far
+as possible, this false impression; and in order to do so, we propose to
+give a brief description of the romantic and historic River Hudson. This
+river runs through the great State of New York, concerning which the
+greatest ignorance prevails. The State itself is dwarfed, in common
+estimation, by the magnitude of its metropolis, and if the Greater New
+York project is carried into execution, and the limits of New York City
+extended so as to take in Brooklyn and other adjoining cities, this
+feeling will be intensified, rather than otherwise.
+
+But "above the Harlem," to use an expression so commonly used when a
+political contest is on, there are thousands of square miles of what may
+be called "country," including picturesque mountains, pine lands which
+are not susceptible of cultivation, and are preserved for recreation and
+pleasure purposes, and fertile valleys, divided up into homesteads and
+farms.
+
+It is through country such as this that the River Hudson flows. It rises
+in the Adirondack Mountains, some 300 miles from the sea, and more than
+4,000 feet above its level. It acts as a feeder and outlet for numerous
+larger and smaller lakes. At first it is a pretty little brook, almost
+dry in summer, but noisy and turbulent in the rainy seasons. From
+Schroon Lake, near Saratoga, it receives such a large quantity of water
+that it begins to put on airs. It ceases to be a country brook and
+becomes a small river. A little farther down, the bed of the river falls
+suddenly, producing falls of much beauty, which vary in intensity and
+volume with the seasons.
+
+At Glens Falls the upper Hudson passes through a long defile, over a
+precipice some hundred feet long. It was here that Cooper received much
+of his inspiration, and one of the most startling incidents in his "The
+Last of the Mohicans" is supposed to have been enacted at the falls.
+When Troy is reached, the river takes upon itself quite another aspect,
+and runs with singular straightness almost direct to New York harbor.
+Tourists delight to sail up the Hudson, and they find an immense
+quantity of scenery of the most delightful character, with fresh
+discoveries at every trip. Millionaires regard the banks of the Hudson
+as the most suitable spots upon which to build country mansions and
+rural retreats. Many of these mansions are surrounded by exquisitely
+kept grounds and beautiful parterres, which are in themselves well worth
+a long journey to see.
+
+Beacon Island, a few miles below Albany, is pointed out to the traveler
+as particularly interesting, because four counties corner upon the river
+just across from it. The island has a history of more than ordinary
+interest. It used to be presided over by a patroon, who levied toll on
+all passing vessels. Right in the neighborhood are original Dutch
+settlements, and the descendants of the original immigrants hold
+themselves quite aloof from the English-speaking public. They retain the
+language, as well as the manners and customs, of Holland, and the
+tourist who strays among them finds himself, for the moment, distinctly
+a stranger in a strange land. The country abounds with legends and
+romances, and is literally honeycombed with historic memories.
+
+The town of Hudson, a little farther down the river, is interesting
+because it was near here that Henry Hudson landed in September, 1609. He
+was immediately surrounded by Indians, who gave him an immense amount of
+information, and added to his store of experiences quite a number of
+novel ones. Here is the mouth of the Catskill River, with the wonderful
+Catskill Mountains in the rear. It will be news, indeed, to many of our
+readers that in these wild (only partially explored) mountains there are
+forests where bears, wild cats and snakes abound in large numbers.
+
+Many people of comparative affluence reside in the hills, where there
+are hotels and pleasure resorts of the most costly character. During the
+storms of winter these lovers of the picturesque find themselves snowed
+in for several days at the time, and have a little experience in the way
+of frontier and exploration life.
+
+The sunrises in the Catskills are rendered uniquely beautiful by the
+peculiar formation of the ground, and from the same reason the thunder
+storms are often thrilling in character and awful in their magnificence.
+Waterfalls of all sizes and kinds, brooks, with scenery along the banks
+of every description, forests, meadows, and lofty peaks make monotony
+impossible, and give to the Catskill region an air of majesty which is
+not easy to describe on paper.
+
+Every visitor asks to be shown the immortalized bridge at Sleepy Hollow,
+and as he gazes upon it he thinks of Washington Irving's unrivaled
+description of this country. He speedily agrees with Irving that every
+change of weather, and indeed every hour of the day, produces some
+change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains, and they are
+regarded by all the good wives far and near as perfect barometers. When
+the weather is fair and settled they are clothed in blue and purple, and
+print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky, but, sometimes, when
+the rear of the landscape is clear and cloudless, they will gather a
+hood of gray vapors which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will
+grow up like a crown of glory.
+
+Here it was that Rip Van Winkle is supposed to have lived and slept, and
+astonished his old friends and neighbors, and their descendants. The
+path along which Rip Van Winkle marched up the mountain, prior to his
+prolonged sleep, is shown to the tourist, who hears at his hotel, in the
+conveyance he hires for the day, and among the very mountains
+themselves, countless local legends as to Rip Van Winkle, and as to the
+percentage of fact and fiction in Washington Irving's masterly
+production.
+
+If he is antiquarian enough to desire it, he can be shown the very spot
+upon which Rip Van Winkle laid himself down to sleep. Local opinion
+differs as to the exact spot, but there is so much faith displayed by
+the people that no one can doubt that they are genuine in their beliefs
+and sincere in their convictions. The tourist can also be shown the site
+of the old country inn, upon the bench in front of which Rip Van Winkle
+sat and astonished the natives by his extraordinary conversation, and
+his refusal to believe that a generation had elapsed since he was in the
+town last.
+
+The chair upon which Dame Van Winkle is supposed to have sat, while she
+was berating her idle and incorrigible lord and master, is also shown to
+the visitor, and the more credulous ones gaze with interest upon a
+flagon which they are assured is the very one out of which Rip Van
+Winkle drank. The only thing needed to complete the illusion is the
+appearance of the old dog, which the man who had so grievously overslept
+himself was sure would have recognized him, had he put in his
+appearance.
+
+It is almost impossible to outlive one's welcome in the Catskill
+Mountains, or to wear one's self out with sight seeing, so many are the
+novelties which greet the gaze. The Catskills are abounding with
+traditions quite as interesting and extraordinary as the Rip Van Winkle
+story. They were known originally as the "Mountains of the Sky," a name
+given them by the Indians, who for so many generations held them in
+undisputed possession. Hyde Peak, the loftiest point in the Catskills,
+was regarded by the Indians as the throne of the Great Spirit, and the
+Dutch settlers who crowded out the Indians seem to have been almost as
+generous in their superstitions and legends. These settlers dropped the
+name, "Mountains of the Sky," and adopted the, to them, more euphonic
+one of the Katzberg Mountains, from which the more modern name has been
+adopted.
+
+The village of Catskill deserves more than a passing notice. It is the
+home of a large number of well-known people, including the widows of
+many men whose names are famous in history. The old Livingston Manor was
+located near the village, and a little farther down is Barrytown, where
+the wealthy Astors have a palatial summer resort. A little farther down
+the river are two towns with a distinctly ancient and Dutch aspect. They
+were settled by the Dutch over two hundred years ago, and there are many
+houses still standing which were built last century, so strongly did our
+forefathers construct their homes, and make them veritable castles and
+impregnable fortresses.
+
+Another very old town on the Hudson is the celebrated seat of learning,
+Poughkeepsie. Of this, it has been said that there is more tuition to
+the square inch than in any other town in the world. The most celebrated
+of the educational institutions at this point is the Vassar College, the
+first ladies' seminary in the world, and the butt of so many jokes and
+sarcasms. Poughkeepsie is not quite as old as the hills above it, but it
+is exceedingly ancient. Here was held the celebrated State convention
+for the ratification of the Federal Constitution, in which Alexander
+Hamilton, Governor Clinton, and John Jay, and other men of immortal
+names took part.
+
+It is only comparatively recently that the first stone building erected
+in this town was torn down, to make room for improvements, after it had
+weathered storm and time in the most perfect manner for more than a
+century and a quarter. At Newburgh, a few miles farther south, an old
+gray mansion is pointed out to the visitor as Washington's headquarters
+on several occasions during the Revolution. Fortunately, the State has
+secured possession of the house and protects it from the hands of the
+vandal.
+
+This wonderful old house was built just a century and a half ago. A
+hundred and twelve years ago Washington's army finally disbanded from
+this point, and the visitor can see within the well-preserved walls of
+this house the historical room, with its seven doors, within which
+Washington and his generals held their numerous conferences, and in
+which there are still to be found almost countless relics of the
+Revolutionary War.
+
+While sailing on the Hudson, a glimpse is obtained of West Point, the
+great military school from which so many of America's celebrated
+generals have graduated. West Point commands one of the finest river
+passes in the country. The fort and chain stretched across the river
+were captured by the British in 1777 (two years after it was decided
+that West Point should be established a military post), but were
+abandoned after Burgoyne's surrender. The Continental forces then
+substituted stronger works. West Point thus has a history running right
+back to the Revolutionary War, and the ruins of Forts Clinton and
+Montgomery, which were erected in 1775, are in the immediate vicinity.
+
+There are 176 rooms in the cadet barrack. There is no attempt at
+ornamentation, and the quarters are almost rigid in their simplicity and
+lack of home comfort. Not only are the embryo warriors taught the
+rudiments of drill and warfare, but they are also given stern lessons in
+camp life. Each young man acts as his own chambermaid, and has to keep
+his little room absolutely neat and free from litter and dirt of any
+kind.
+
+The West Point Chapel is of interest on account of the number of tablets
+to be found in it, immortalizing many of the Revolutionary heroes. A
+winding road leads up to the cemetery, where are resting the remains of
+many other celebrated generals, including Winfield Scott. The State Camp
+meets annually at Peekskill, another very ancient town, replete with
+Revolutionary War reminiscences. It was settled in the year 1764 by a
+Dutch navigator, from whom it takes its name. Another house used by
+General Washington for headquarters is to be found near the town, as
+well as St. Peter's Church, in which the Father of his Country
+worshiped.
+
+Tarrytown is another of the famous spots on the Hudson. Near here
+Washington Irving lived, and on the old Sleepy Hollow road is to be
+found the oldest religious structure in New York State. The church was
+built by the Dutch settlers in the year 1699, and close to it is the
+cemetery in which Washington Irving was interred. Sunnyside, Irving's
+home, is a most interesting stone structure, whose numerous gables are
+covered with ivy, the immense mass of which has grown from a few slips
+presented to Irving by Sir Walter Scott.
+
+A sadder sight to the tourist on the Hudson, but one which is of
+necessity full of interest, is the Sing Sing Prison, just below Croton
+Point. In this great State jail an army of convicts are kept busy
+manufacturing various articles of domestic use. The prison itself takes
+its name from the Indian word "Ossining," which means "stone upon
+stone." The village of Sing Sing, strange to say, contains many charming
+residences, and the proximity of the State's prison does not seem to
+have any particular effect on the spirits and the ideas of those living
+in it.
+
+Still further down the Hudson is Riverside Park, New York, the scene of
+General Grant's tomb, which overlooks the lower section of the river,
+concerning which we have endeavored to impart some little information of
+an interesting character. Of the tomb, we present a very accurate
+illustration.
+
+While in New York State, the tourist, whether he be American or
+European, is careful to pay a visit to the Niagara Falls, which have
+been viewed by a greater number of people than any other scene or wonder
+on the American continent. This fact is due, in part, to the admirable
+railroad facilities which bring Niagara within easy riding distance of
+the great cities of the East. It is also due, very largely, to the
+extraordinary nature of the falls themselves, and to the grandeur of the
+scene which greets the eye of the spectator.
+
+The River Niagara is a little more than thirty-three miles long. In its
+short course it takes care of the overflow of Lakes Superior, Michigan,
+Huron and Erie, and as it discharges the waters of these lakes into Lake
+Ontario, it falls 334 feet, or more than ten feet to the mile.
+
+The rapids start some sixteen miles from Lake Erie. As the river channel
+suddenly narrows, the velocity of the current increases with great
+abruptness. The rapids are but a third of a mile in length, during which
+distance there is a fall of fifty-two feet. The boat caught in these
+rapids stands but a poor chance, as at the end of the torrent the water
+dashes down a cataract over 150 feet deep. The Canadian Fall passes over
+a rocky ledge of immense area, and in the descent leaves a space with a
+watery roof, the space being known as the "Cave of the Winds," with an
+entrance from the Canadian side. The Canadian Fall has a sweep of 1,100
+feet and is considerably deeper than the other.
+
+It is little more than a waste of words to endeavor to convey an
+impression of the grandeur and magnificence of Niagara. People have
+visited it from all parts of the world. Monarchs and princes have
+acknowledged that it exceeded their wildest expectation, and every one
+who has gazed upon it agrees that it is almost impossible to exaggerate
+its grandeur, or to say too much concerning its magnitude. Even after
+the water has dashed wildly 150 feet downwards, the descent continues.
+The river bed contracts in width gradually, for seven miles below the
+falls, where the whirlpool rapids are to be seen. After the second fall,
+the river seems to have exhausted its vehemence, and runs more
+deliberately, cutting its channel deeper into the rocky bed, and
+dropping its sensational habits.
+
+Some writers have hazarded an opinion that, as time changes all things,
+so the day may come when Niagara Falls shall cease to exist. Improbable
+as this idea naturally sounds, it has some foundation in fact, for there
+have been marvelous changes in the falls during the last few
+generations. About two hundred and fifty years ago a sketch was taken of
+Niagara, and a hundred years later another artist made a careful and
+apparently accurate picture. These two differ from one another
+materially, and they also differ greatly from the appearance of the
+falls at the present time. Both of the old pictures show a third fall on
+the Canadian side. It is known that about a hundred years ago several
+immense fragments of rock were broken off the rocky ledge on the
+American side, and, more recently, an earthquake affected the appearance
+of the Canadian Fall. Certain it is, that the immense corrosive action
+of the water, and the gradual eating away of the rock on both the ledge
+and basin, has had the effect of changing the location of the falls, and
+forcing up the river in the direction of Lake Erie. Time alone can
+decide the momentous question as to whether the falls will eventually be
+so changed in appearance as to be beyond recognition. The lover of the
+beautiful and grand, and more especially the antiquarian, sincerely
+trusts that no such calamity will ever take place.
+
+The history of the Indians in New York State is a very interesting one.
+Prior to the discovery of America by Columbus, the section of country
+including a majority of New York State and the northern portion of
+Pennsylvania, was occupied by the Iroquois, Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas,
+Cayugas and Senecas. These formed the historical Five Nations, of whom
+writers of the last century tell us so much that is of lasting
+importance. These tribes were self-governed, their rulers being selected
+on the hereditary plan. There was a federal union between them for
+purposes of offense and defense, and they called themselves,
+collectively, the "People of the Long House." This imaginary house had
+an eastern door at the mouth of the Mohawk River, and a western door at
+the Falls of Niagara.
+
+Bashfulness was not a characteristic of these old-time red men, who had
+a special name of many letters for themselves, which, being interpreted,
+meant "Men surpassing all others." They trace their origin from the
+serpent-haired God, Atotarhon, and other traditions attribute their
+powers of confederation and alliance to the legendary Hiawatha. They
+built frame cabins and defended their homes with much skill. Their dress
+was chiefly made out of deer and elk hide, and relics still in existence
+show that they had good ideas of agriculture, tanning, pottery, and even
+carving. They were about 12,000 strong, and they appear to have been the
+most powerful Indian combination prior to the arrival of the white man.
+
+They were powerful in war as well as comparatively sensible in peace.
+Their religion was, at least, consistent, and included a firm belief in
+immortality. They maintained what may be termed civilized family
+relations, and treated their women with proper respect. Their conduct
+towards the white men was much more friendly than might have been
+expected, and almost from the first they displayed a conciliatory
+attitude, and entered into alliances with the newcomers. They fought
+side by side with the New Englanders against the French, and the hostile
+Indians who allied with them, and in the year 1710, five of their
+sachems or legislators crossed the Atlantic, and were received with
+honors by the Queen of England. In diplomacy they did not prove
+themselves in the long run as skillful as the newcomers, who by degrees
+secured from them the land over which they had previously exercised
+sovereign rights.
+
+The survivors of these Indians have not sunk to as low a level as many
+other tribes have done. It is not generally known in the West that there
+are on the New York reservations, at the present time, more than 5,000
+Indians, including about 2,700 survivors of the once great Seneca tribe.
+
+The State of New York is about the same size as the Kingdom of England.
+It is the nineteenth State in the Union in point of size, possessing
+area of more than 49,000 square miles, of which 1,500 square miles is
+covered by water, forming portions of the lakes. Its lake coast line
+extends 200 miles on Lake Ontario and 75 miles on Lake Erie. Lake
+Champlain flows along the eastern frontier for more than 100 miles,
+receiving the waters of Lake George, which has been described as the
+Como of America. The lake has a singular history. It was originally
+called by the French Canadians who discovered it, the "Lake of the Holy
+Sacrament," and it was the scene of battles and conflicts for over a
+hundred years.
+
+The capital of the Empire State, with its population of such magnitude
+that it exceeds that of more than twenty important foreign nations, is
+Albany, which was founded by the Dutch in 1623, and which has since
+earned for itself the title of the "Edinburgh of America." Compared with
+New York City it is dwarfed in point of population and commercial
+importance.
+
+Of the actual metropolis of the great Empire State it is impossible to
+speak at any length in the limited space at one's command. Of New York
+itself, Mr. Chauncey Depew said recently, in his forcible manner,
+"To-day, in the sisterhood of States, she is an empire in all that
+constitutes a great commonwealth. An industrious, intelligent, and
+prosperous population of 5,000,000 of people live within her borders. In
+the value of her farms and farm products, and in her manufacturing
+industries, she is the first State in the Union. She sustains over 1,000
+newspapers and periodicals, has $80,000,000 invested in church property,
+and spends $12,000,000 a year on popular education. Upward of 300
+academies and colleges fit her youth for special professions, and
+furnish opportunities for liberal learning and the highest culture, and
+stately edifices all over the State, dedicated to humane and benevolent
+objects, exhibit the permanence and extent of her organized charities.
+There are $600,000,000 in her savings banks, $300,000,000 in her
+insurance companies, and $700,000,000 in the capital and loans of her
+State and National banks. Six thousand miles of railroads, costing
+$600,000,000, have penetrated and developed every accessible corner of
+the State, and maintain, against all rivalry and competition, her
+commercial prestige."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+IN THE CENTER OF THE COUNTRY.
+
+The Geographical Center of the United States and its Location West of
+the Mississippi River--The Center of Population--History of Fort
+Riley--The Gallant "Seventh"--Early Troubles of Kansas--Extermination of
+the Buffalo--But a Few Survivors out of Many Millions.
+
+
+Kansas is included by most people in the list of Western States; by many
+it is regarded as in the extreme West. If the Pilgrim Fathers had been
+told that the haven of refuge they had selected would, within two or
+three hundred years, be part of a great English-speaking nation with
+some 70,000,000 of inhabitants, and with its center some 1,500 miles
+westward, they would have listened to the story with pardonable
+incredulity, and would have felt like invoking condemnation upon the
+head of the reckless prophet who was addressing them.
+
+Yet Kansas is to-day in the very center of the United States. This is
+not a printer's error, nor a play upon words, much as the New Englander
+may suspect the one or the other. There was a time when the word "West"
+was used to apply to any section of the country a day's journey on
+horseback from the Atlantic Coast. For years, and even generations,
+everything west of the Allegheny Mountains or of the Ohio River was "Out
+West." Even to-day it is probable that a majority of the residents in
+the strictly Eastern States regard anything west of the Mississippi
+River as strictly Western.
+
+There is no doubt that when Horace Greeley told the young men of the
+country to "Go West and grow up with the country," he used the term in
+its common and not its strictly geographical sense, and many thousand
+youths, who took the advice of the philosopher and statesman, stopped
+close to the banks of the Mississippi River, and have grown rich in
+their new homes. It cannot be too generally realized, however, that the
+Mississippi River slowly wends its way down to the Gulf of Mexico well
+within the eastern half of the greatest nation in the world. At several
+points in the circuitous course of the Father of Waters, the distance
+between the river and the Atlantic Ocean is about 1,000 miles. In an
+equal number of points the distance to the Pacific Ocean is 2,000 miles,
+showing that whatever may be said of the tributaries of the Mississippi
+River, and especially of its gigantic tributary the Missouri, the
+Mississippi is an Eastern and not a Western river.
+
+We give an illustration of the point which competent surveyors and
+engineers tell us is the exact geographical center of the United States
+proper. The monument standing in the center of this great country is
+surrounded by an iron railing, and is visited again and again by
+tourists, who find it difficult to believe the fact that a point
+apparently so far western is really central. The center of the United
+States has gone west with the absorption of territory, and the Louisiana
+purchase, the centenary of which we shall shortly celebrate, had a great
+effect on the location.
+
+The center of population has moved less spasmodically, but with great
+regularity. A hundred years ago the City of Baltimore was the center of
+population, and it was not until the middle of the century that Ohio
+boasted of owning the population center. For some twenty years it
+remained near Cincinnati, but during the '80s it went as far as
+Columbus, Indiana, where it was at the last Government census. At the
+present time it is probably twenty or thirty miles west of Columbus, and
+in the near future Fort Riley will be the population, as well as the
+geographical, center.
+
+Fort Riley is an interesting spot for civilian and soldier alike. Having
+been selected by the Government as the permanent training school for the
+two mounted branches of the service--the cavalry and light
+artillery--its 21,000 acres have been improved at lavish expense. It
+seems really remarkable that so metropolitan a bit of ground could be
+found out on the plains, where, though civilization is making rapid
+strides, and the luxuries of wealth are being acquired by the advancing
+population, it is unusual to find macadamized streets and buildings that
+can harbor a regiment and still not be crowded. Yet such are some of the
+characteristics of Fort Riley Reservation, and the newness of it all is
+the best evidence of the interest the War Department has taken in its
+development. Many of the recently erected buildings would grace the
+capital itself. Nearly $1,000,000 have been expended in the past four
+years in new structures, all of magnesia limestone, and built along the
+lines of the most approved modern architecture, and of a character which
+insures scores of years of usefulness.
+
+The fort is situated on the left bank of the Kansas River, near the
+junction of the Republican and Smoky Hill Forks. It was first laid out
+in 1852, and has ever since been one of the leading Western posts.
+Located, though it is, far out on the Kansas prairies, it has,
+particularly in late years, been fully in touch with the social life of
+the East, through the addition of new officers and the interchange of
+post courtesies.
+
+The post, as it stands to-day, consists of officers' quarters, artillery
+and cavalry barracks, administration buildings, sheds, hospital,
+dispensary, etc., scattered over 150 acres of ground. The Kansas River
+is formed just southwest of it by the union of the Smoky Hill and
+Republican Forks, and the topography for practice and sightseeing could
+not be surpassed in the State. Five miles of macadamized streets,
+150,000 feet of stone and gravel walks, six miles of sewers, four miles
+of water and steam heating pipes, leading to every room of each of the
+sixty buildings, make up the equipment, which is, of course, of the
+highest quality throughout. All the stone is quarried on the
+reservation, and is of lasting variety, and makes buildings which bear a
+truly substantial appearance. The Government has an idea toward
+permanency in its improvements.
+
+The history of Fort Riley has been one of vicissitudes. When it was laid
+out in 1852, it was at first called Camp Center, but was changed to its
+present name by order of the War Department in honor of General B. C.
+Riley. In 1855, the fort suffered from Asiatic cholera, and Major E. A.
+Ogden, one of the original commissioners who laid out the reservation,
+who was staying there, nursed the soldiers with a heroic attachment to
+duty, and himself fell a victim to the disease. A handsome monument
+marks his resting place. He was a true soldier hero, and his name is
+still spoken in reverence by the attaches of the post.
+
+Another notable feature of the reservation is the dismantled rock wall
+to the east of the fort, which is all that now remains of the once
+ambitious capitol building of the State of Kansas. It has a strange
+history, being the "Pawnee House," in which the Territorial Legislature
+met in the early ante-bellum days, confident of protection by the
+soldiers from the roaming Indian bands infesting the prairies.
+
+A famous dweller at the fort for two decades was old Comanche, the only
+living creature to escape from the Custer massacre on the side of the
+Government. He was the horse ridden by an officer in that memorable
+fight, and by miracle escaped, after having seven balls fired into him.
+He was found roaming over the prairie, after the massacre, and was
+ordered put on the retired list, and stationed at Fort Riley, where for
+twenty years he was petted and cared for, but never ridden. His only
+service was to be led in processions of ceremony, draped in mourning.
+Now that he is dead, his body has been preserved with the taxidermist's
+best skill, and is one of the State's most noted relics.
+
+The fort has been of unusual interest of late. In addition to the
+maneuvers of the school for mounted service, in which the soldiers have
+been regularly drilled, engaging in sham battles, throwing up mimic
+fortifications, fording the rivers, etc., the War Signal Service has
+been conducting some interesting experiments. The Signal Service has had
+its huge balloon, which was exhibited at the World's Fair, at the post,
+and its ascensions and the operations put in practice have proved very
+attractive and instructive.
+
+The new riding hall, or cavalry practice building, makes it possible for
+the training school to go on the year round, regardless of the weather.
+It has an open floor space 300 feet long and 100 feet wide, making it an
+admirable room for the purpose.
+
+The Fort Riley troops are always called on when there is trouble in the
+West. They have put down a dozen Indian uprisings on the plains, and
+only a few months ago were sent for to keep order in Chicago during the
+railway strikes. From this trip, four old members of the post were
+brought back dead, having met their fate in the bursting of a caisson,
+while marching along a paved street.
+
+The fort is the great pleasure resort of Kansas. The late commanding
+officer, Colonel Forsyth, now General Forsyth, is much given to
+hospitality, and the people of the State take great pride in the post's
+advancement and its victories. During the summer, on several occasions,
+the national holidays especially, the soldiers "receive," and excursion
+trains bring hundreds of visitors from every direction, who are
+delighted to feast their eyes on real cannon, uniforms and shoulder
+straps. They are entertained royally. Drills, salutes, sham battles and
+parades, occupy every hour of the day, and in the evening the drill
+floor becomes a dancing place for all who enjoy the delights of a
+military ball.
+
+The history of the fort has been, in a measure, that of the Seventh
+Cavalry, which for nearly two decades has had its residence there, and
+become identified with the spot. The Seventh Cavalry dates its glory
+from before the days of the intrepid Custer, whose memory it cherishes.
+It has taken part in scores of Indian battles--indeed, there has not,
+for years, been an uprising in the West in which it has not done duty.
+Its last considerable encounter was at Wounded Knee and Drexel Mission,
+where the Custer massacre was in a degree avenged. Here it lost
+twenty-four of its members, and a magnificent granite monument has been
+erected at the fort to their memory. It bears the names of those who
+fell, and tells briefly the story of their bravery.
+
+In the Wounded Knee battle, on the plains of Dakota, during the closing
+days of 1891, the four troops of the regiment were treacherously
+surprised by the Sioux, and because, after the attack, Colonel Forsyth
+ordered a charge, resulting in the killing of many of the savages, he
+was suspended by his superior officer, General Miles, for disobedience
+of orders, which were not to fire on the enemy. An investigation,
+however, amply justified his action, and he was reinstated in charge of
+his post as before. Early in November, 1894, on the promotion of General
+McCook to be Major General, Colonel Forsyth stepped up to the Brigadier
+Generalship, and his place at Fort Riley will be taken by Colonel
+Sumner. There is a rumor, however, in army circles, that the old Seventh
+will be stationed in the far Northwest, and the Fifth Cavalry will
+succeed it as resident regiment here. The post has become so closely
+identified with the fortunes of the former regiment that it will seem
+strange to have any other troops call it home.
+
+There are usually at the fort three squadrons of cavalry, of four troops
+each, and five batteries of light artillery, engaged in the maneuvers of
+the school for mounted service, which has its headquarters for the
+entire army here. The principal object of this school is instruction in
+the combined operations of the cavalry and light artillery, and this
+object is kept steadily in view. The troops of each arm form a
+sub-school, and are instructed nine months in the year in their own arm,
+preparatory to the three months of combined operations. Thus the
+batteries are frequently practiced in road marching in rapid gaits; the
+Kansas River is often forded; rough hills are climbed at "double quick,"
+and guns are brought to action on all sorts of difficult ground, with
+the result that, when the combined operations begin, the batteries may
+be maneuvered over all kinds of obstacles.
+
+Among the plans of the future is one, which was a favorite with General
+Sheridan, of making Fort Riley the horse-furnishing headquarters for the
+entire army. The location being so central, it insures the nearest
+approach to perfect acclimation of animals sent to any part of the
+Union. Two plans are being contemplated for the accomplishment of this
+object. One is to make it a breeding station; the other is to simply
+make it a purchasing station, which shall buy of the farmers of the West
+the horses needed by the army, and train the animals for regular use
+before sending them to the various posts.
+
+Present plans also include an increase in the number of soldiers
+stationed at Fort Riley to 3,000. If the proposed increase in the
+standing army is carried out, there may be more than that. The
+Government evidently has faith in the location of the fort. While it has
+abandoned and consolidated other stations, it has all the time been
+increasing its expenditures here, and the estimates for the next year
+aggregate expenditures of over $500,000, provided the Appropriation
+Committee does its duty. There are plans of still further beautifying
+the grounds, and the addition of more turnpikes and macadamized roads.
+
+The State of Kansas, and especially Geary and Riley Counties, in which
+the fort is situated, reap a considerable benefit from its location. The
+perishable produce of the commissary department comes from the country
+around. Hundreds of horses are bought at round prices, while the soldier
+trade has sent Junction City, four miles west, ahead of all competitors
+in Central Kansas for volume of business and population. Naturally,
+Kansas is glad to see Fort Riley a permanency, and hopes that it may be
+made the Government's chief Western post.
+
+Kansas has been spoken of as the most wonderful State in the Union, and
+in many respects it is fully entitled to its reputation in this respect.
+It has had enough discouragements and drawbacks to ruin half a dozen
+States, and nothing but the phenomenal fertility of the soil, and the
+push and go of the pioneers who claim the State as their own, has
+enabled Kansas to withstand difficulties and to sail buoyantly through
+waves of danger into harbors of refuge. In its early days, border
+warfare hindered development and drove many most desirable settlers to
+more peaceful spots. Since then the prefix "Bleeding" has again been
+used repeatedly in connection with the State, because of the succession
+of droughts and plagues of grasshoppers and chinch bugs, which have
+imperiled its credit and fair name. But Kansas remains to-day a great
+State, with a magnificent future before it. The fertility of the soil is
+more than phenomenal. Kansas corn is known throughout the world for its
+excellency, and at the World's Fair in 1893 it took highest awards for
+both the white and yellow varieties. In addition to this, it secured the
+gold medal for the best corn in the world, as well as the highest awards
+for red winter wheat flour, sorghum sugar and apples. Indeed, Kansas
+soil produces almost anything to perfection, and the State, thanks
+largely to works of irrigation in the extreme western section, is
+producing larger quantities of indispensable agricultural products every
+year.
+
+The very motto of the State indicates the early troubles through which
+it went, the literal interpretation being "To the stars (and stripes)
+through difficulties." The State is generally known now as the
+"Sunflower State," and for many years the sword has given place to the
+plowshare. But the very existence of Fort Riley shows that t his was not
+always the condition of affairs. Early in the Eighteenth Century, French
+fur-traders crossed over into Kansas, and, later on, Spanish explorers
+were struck with the possibilities of the fertile plains. Local Indian
+tribes were then at war, but a sense of common danger caused the
+antagonistic red men to unite, and the white immigrants were massacred
+in a body. After the famous Missouri Compromise of 1820, and the
+Kansas-Nebraska Act of thirty years later, the slave issue became a very
+live one in Kansas, and for some time the State was in a condition
+bordering upon civil war. The convention of 1859, at Wyandotte, settled
+this difficulty, and placed Kansas in the list of anti-slavery States.
+
+Some ten years ago, after Kansas had enjoyed a period of the most unique
+prosperity, from an agricultural standpoint, the general impression
+began to prevail that the State was destined to become almost
+immediately the greatest in the nation. Corn fields were platted out
+into town sites, and additions to existing cities were arranged in every
+direction. For a time it appeared as though there was little
+exaggeration in the extravagant forecast of future greatness. Town lots
+sold in a most remarkable manner, many valuable corners increasing in
+value ten and twenty-fold in a single night. The era of railroad
+building was coincident with the town boom craze, and Eastern people
+were so anxious to obtain a share of the enormous profits to be made by
+speculating in Kansas town lots, that money was telegraphed to agents
+and banks all over the State, and options on real estate were sold very
+much on the plan adopted by traders in stocks and bonds in Wall Street.
+
+The greed of some, if not most, of the speculators, soon killed the
+goose which laid the golden egg. The boom burst in a most pronounced
+manner. People who had lost their heads found them again, and many a
+farmer who had abandoned agriculture in order to get rich by trading in
+lots, went back to his plow and his chores, a sadder and wiser, although
+generally poorer, man. Many hundreds of thousands of dollars changed
+hands during the boom. Exactly who "beat the game," to use the gambler's
+expression, has never been known. Certain it is, that for every man in
+Kansas who admits that he made money out of the excitement and
+inflation, there are at least fifty who say that the boom well-nigh
+ruined them.
+
+Kansas is as large as Great Britain, larger than the whole of New
+England combined, and a veritable empire in itself. It is a State of
+magnificent proportions, and of the most unique and delightful history.
+Three and a half centuries ago, Coronado, the great pioneer prospector
+and adventurer, hunted Kansas from end to end in search of the precious
+metals which he had been told could be found there in abundance. He
+wandered over the immense stretch of prairies and searched along the
+creek bottoms without finding what he sought. He speaks in his records
+of "mighty plains and sandy heaths, smooth and wearisome and bare of
+wood. All the way the plains are as full of crooked-back oxen as the
+mountain Serena in Spain is of sheep."
+
+These crooked-back oxen were of course buffaloes, or, more correctly
+speaking, species of the American bison. No other continent was ever
+blessed with a more magnificent and varied selection of beasts and birds
+in forests and prairies than was North America. Kansas in particular was
+fortunate in the possession of thousands of herds of buffaloes. Now it
+has none, except a few in a domesticated state, with their old regal
+glory departed forever. When we read the reports of travelers and
+trappers, written little more than half a century ago, and treating of
+the enormous buffalo herds that covered the prairies as far as the eye
+could reach, we wonder whether these descriptions can be real, or
+whether they are not more in the line of fables and the outgrowth of a
+too vivid imagination.
+
+If, thirty years ago, some wiseacre had come forward and predicted that
+it would become necessary to devise means for the protection of this
+enormous amount of game, he would have been laughed out of countenance.
+Yet this extraordinary condition of affairs has actually come to pass.
+Entire species of animals which belonged to the magnificent fauna of
+North America are already extinct or are rapidly becoming so. The
+sea-cow is one of these animals; the last specimens of which were seen
+in 1767 and 1768. The Californian sea-elephant and the sea-dog of the
+West Indies have shared a like fate. Not a trace of these animals has
+been found for a long time. The extinction of the Labrador duck and the
+great auk have often been deplored. Both of these birds may be regarded
+as practically extinct. The last skeleton of the great auk was sold for
+$600, the last skin for $650, and the last egg brought the fabulous sum
+of $1,500.
+
+Last, not least, the American bison is a thing of the past!
+
+It has been historically proven that at the time of the discovery of
+America, the buffalo herds covered the entire enormous territory from
+Pennsylvania to Oregon and Nevada, and down to Mexico, and thirty years
+ago the large emigrant caravans which traveled from the Eastern States
+across the Mississippi to the gold fields of California, met with herds
+of buffaloes, not numbering thousands, but hundreds of thousands. The
+construction trains of the first Pacific Railroad were frequently
+interrupted and delayed by wandering buffalo herds.
+
+Today the United States may be traversed from end to end, and not a
+single buffalo will be seen, and nothing remains to even indicate their
+presence but the deep, well-trodden paths which they made years ago.
+Rain has not been able to wash away these traces, and they are counted
+among the "features" of the prairies, where the bisons once roamed in
+undisturbed glory. It was a difficult task for the Government to gather
+the last remnants, about 150 to 200 head, to stock Yellowstone Park with
+them, and to prevent their complete extinction.
+
+Undoubtedly, the buffalo was the most stupid animal of the prairies. In
+small flocks, he eluded the hunter well enough; but in herds of
+thousands, he cared not a whit for the shooting at the flanks of his
+army. Any Indian or trapper, stationed behind some shrubs or earth hill,
+could kill dozens of buffalo without disturbing the herd by the swish of
+the arrow, the report of the rifle, or the dying groans of the wounded
+animals. A general stampede ensued at times, which often led the herd
+into morasses, or the quick-sand of the rivers, where they perished
+miserably. The destruction was still greater when the leader of the herd
+came upon some yawning abyss. Those behind drove him down into the deep,
+and the entire herd followed blindly, only to be dashed to death.
+
+The very stupidity of the bison helped to exterminate the race, where
+human agency would have seemed well nigh inadequate.
+
+Among the large game of the continent, the bison was the most important,
+and furnished the numerous Indian tribes not only with abundant food,
+but other things as well. They covered their tents with the thick skins,
+and made saddles, boats, lassoes and shoes from them. Folded up, they
+used them as beds, and wore them around their shoulders as a protection
+against the winter's cold. Spoons and other utensils for the household
+could be made from their hoofs and horns, and their bones were shaped
+into all kinds of arms and weapons. The life and existence of the
+prairie Indian depended almost entirely upon that of the buffalo. There
+is no doubt that the Indians killed many buffaloes, but while the damage
+may have been great, there was not much of a reduction noticeable in
+their numbers, for the buffalo cow is an enormous breeder.
+
+Conditions were changed, however, when the white man arrived with his
+rifle, settled down on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, and began to
+drive the aborigines of the American continent further and further West.
+With this crowding back of the Indians began that also of the buffalo,
+and the destruction of the latter was far more rapid than that of the
+former.
+
+It was about the middle of the Seventeenth Century when the first
+English colonists climbed the summits of the Allegheny Mountains.
+Enormous herds of buffalo grazed then in Western Pennsylvania, Ohio,
+Indiana, Illinois, Tennessee, and in the famous blue grass regions of
+Kentucky. How fast the buffaloes became exterminated may best be
+illustrated by the fact that, at the beginning of the present century,
+the bison had entirely disappeared from the eastern banks of the
+Mississippi. A few isolated herds could be found in Kentucky in 1792. In
+1814 the animal had disappeared in Indiana and Illinois. When the white
+settlers crossed the Mississippi, to seek connection with the
+territories on the Pacific coast, the buffalo dominion, once so vast,
+decreased from year to year, and finally it was split in two and divided
+into a northern and southern strip. The cause of this division was the
+California overland emigration, the route of which followed the Kansas
+and Platte Rivers, cutting through the center of the buffalo regions.
+These emigrants killed hundreds of thousands of animals, and the
+division became still greater after the completion of the Union Pacific
+line and the settlement of the adjacent districts.
+
+The buffaloes of the southern strip were the first to be exterminated,
+particularly when the building of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe
+Railroad facilitated entrance to the southern range.
+
+Aside from the pleasure and excitement from a buffalo hunt, the yield
+was a rich one, and troops of hunters swarmed over the Western prairies;
+buffalo hunting became an industry which gave employment to thousands of
+people. But human avarice knew no bounds, and massacred senselessly the
+finest game with which this continent was stocked. The dimensions to
+which this industry grew may best be guessed when it is stated that in
+1872 more than 100,000 buffaloes were killed near Fort Dodge in three
+months. During the summer of 1874, an expedition composed of sixteen
+hunters killed 2,800 buffaloes, and during that same season one young
+trapper boasted of having killed 3,000 animals. The sight of such a
+slaughter scene was gruesome to behold. Colonel Dodge writes of it:
+"During the fall of 1873 I rode across the prairie, where a year ago I
+had hunted several herds. At the time we enjoyed the aspect of a myriad
+of buffaloes, which were grazing peacefully over the prairies. Now we
+rode past myriads of decaying cadavers and skeletons, which filled the
+air with an insufferable stench. The broad plain which, a year ago, had
+teemed with animals, was nothing more than a dead, foul desert."
+
+Mr. Blackmore, another traveler, who went through Kansas at about the
+same time, says that he counted, on four acres of ground, no less than
+sixty-seven buffalo carcasses. As was to be expected, this wholesale
+and, indeed, wanton slaughter brought its own reward and condemnation.
+The price of buffalo skins dropped to 50 cents, although as much as
+$3.00 had been paid regularly for them. Moreover, as the number of
+animals killed was greater than could be removed, the decaying carcasses
+attracted wolves, and even worse foes, to the farmyard, and terrible
+damage to cattle resulted.
+
+The Indians also were disturbed. "Poor Lo" complained of the wanton and
+senseless killing of the principal means of his sustenance, and when the
+white man with a laugh ignored these complaints, the Indians got on the
+war-path, attacked settlements, killed cattle and stole provisions, thus
+giving rise to conflicts, which devoured not only enormous sums of
+money, but cost the lives of thousands of people. When the locust plague
+swept over the fields of Kansas and destroyed the entire crop, the
+settlers themselves hungered for the buffalo meat of which they had
+robbed themselves, and vengeance came in more ways than one.
+
+The extermination of the buffalo of the southern range was completed
+about 1875; to the bisons of the northern range were given a few years'
+grace. But the same scenes which were enacted in the South, repeated
+themselves in the North, and the white barbarians were not satisfied
+until they had killed the last of the noble game in 1885. When the
+massacre was nearly over, a few isolated herds were collected and
+transported to Yellowstone Park, where they have increased to about 400
+during the last few years, protected by the hunting laws, which are
+strictly enforced. With the exception of a very few specimens, tenderly
+nursed by some cattle raisers in Kansas and Texas, and in some remote
+parts of British America, these are the last animals of a species, which
+two decades ago wandered in millions over the vast prairies of the West.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+THE MORMONS AND THEIR WIVES.
+
+The Pilgrimage Across the Bad Lands to Utah--Incidents of the
+March--Success of the New Colony--Religious Persecutions--Murder of an
+Entire Family--The Curse of Polygamy--An Ideal City--Humors of Bathing
+in Great Salt Lake.
+
+
+About half a century ago one of the most remarkable pilgrimages of
+modern times took place. Across what was then, not inaptly, described by
+writers as an arid and repulsive desert, there advanced a procession of
+the most unique and awe-inspiring character. History tells us of bands
+of crusaders who tramped across Europe in order to rescue the Holy Land
+from tyrants and invaders. On that occasion, all sorts and conditions of
+men were represented, from the religious enthusiast, to the ignorant
+bigot, and from the rich man who was sacrificing his all in the cause
+that he believed to be right, to the tramp and ne'er-do-well, who had
+allied himself with that cause for revenue only.
+
+But the distance traversed by the crusaders six or seven hundred years
+ago was insignificant compared with the distance traversed by the
+pilgrims to whom we are referring. In addition to this, the country to
+be crossed presented difficulties of a far more startling and
+threatening character. There was before them a promised land in the
+extreme distance, but there intervened a tract of land which seemed as
+impassable a barrier as the much talked-of, but seldom inspected,
+Chinese Wall of old. There was a region of desolation and death,
+extending from the Sierra Nevadas to the border lines of Nebraska, and
+from the Yellowstone to the Colorado Rivers. A profane writer once
+suggested that the same Creator could hardly have brought into existence
+this arid, barren and inhospitable region and the fertile plains and
+beautiful mountains which surrounded it on all sides.
+
+Civilization and irrigation have destroyed the most awful
+characteristics of this region, but at the time to which we are
+referring, it was about as bad from the standpoint of humanity and human
+needs as could well be imagined. Here and there, there were lofty
+mountains and deep canons, as there are now, but the immense plains,
+which occupy the bulk of the land, were unwatered and uncared for,
+giving forth volumes of a penetrating alkali dust, almost as injurious
+to human flesh as to human attire. Here and there, there were, of
+course, little oases of comparative verdure, which were regarded by
+unfortunate travelers not only as havens of refuge, but as little
+heavens in the midst of a sea of despair. The trail across the desert,
+naturally, ran through as many as possible of these successful efforts
+of nature to resist decay, and along the trail there were to be found
+skeletons and ghastly remains of men whose courage had exceeded their
+ability, and who had succumbed to hunger and thirst in this great,
+lonesome desert.
+
+That no one lived in this region it would seem superfluous to state.
+Occasionally a band of Indians would traverse it in search of hunting
+grounds beyond, though, as a general rule, the red man left the country
+severely alone, and made no effort to dispute the rights of the coyotes
+and buzzards to sole possession.
+
+Along the trail mentioned, there advanced at the period to which we have
+referred, a procession which we have likened, in some respects, to the
+advance of the crusaders in mediaeval days. Those who happened to see it
+pass described this cavalcade as almost beyond conception. The first
+impression from a distance was that an immense herd of buffalo were
+advancing and creating the cloud of dust, which seemed to rise from the
+bare ground and mount to the clouds. As it came nearer, and the figures
+became more discernible, it was seen that the caravan was headed by a
+band of armed horsemen. The animals were jaded and fatigued, and walked
+with their heads low down and their knees bent out of shape and form.
+Their riders seemed as exhausted as the animals themselves, and they
+carried their dust-begrimed guns in anything but military fashion.
+Behind them came hundreds, nay, thousands, of wagons, of all shapes and
+builds, some of them entirely open and exposed, and others protected
+more or less by canvas tilts. These wagons seemed to stretch back
+indefinitely into space, and even when there was no undulation of the
+surface to obstruct the view, the naked eye could not determine to any
+degree the length of the procession. Near the front of the great
+cavalcade was a wagon different in build and appearance to any of the
+others. It was handsomely and even gaudily decorated, and it was covered
+in so carefully that its occupants could sleep and rest as secure from
+annoyance by the dust as though they were in bed at home.
+
+Instead of two broken-down horses, six well-fed and well-watered steeds
+were attached to the wagon, and it was evident that no matter how short
+had been the supply of food and water, the horses and occupants of this
+particular conveyance had had everything they desired. The occupant of
+this wagon was a man who did not look to be more than thirty years of
+age, but whose face and manner indicated that he was in the habit of
+being obeyed rather than obeying. A great portion of his time was
+occupied in reading from a large vellum-bound book, but from time to
+time he laid it on one side to settle disputes which had arisen among
+some of his ten thousand followers, or to issue orders of the most
+emphatic and dogmatic character.
+
+This man was Brigham Young, the successor of Joseph Smith, and the
+chosen Prophet of the Mormons, who were marching across the desert in
+search of the promised land, which they were informed had been set aside
+for their purpose by the Ruler of the Universe.
+
+We need not follow the fortunes and misfortunes of the zealous, if
+misguided, men and families who followed their leader across the great
+unwatered and almost unexplored desert. No one knows how many fell by
+the wayside and succumbed to hunger, exhaustion or disease. The bulk of
+the column, however, persevered in the march, and, through much sadness
+and tribulation, finally arrived at a country which, while it was not
+then by any means up to expectation or representation, at least
+presented facilities and opportunities for living. When the great
+valleys of Utah were reached, men who a few months before had been
+strong and hardy, but who now were lank and lean, fell on their knees
+and offered up thanksgiving for their deliverance, while the exhausted
+women and children sought repose and rest, which had been denied them
+for so many long, wearisome days.
+
+But there was no time to be wasted in rejoicings over achievements, or
+regrets over losses. The virgin acres before them were theirs for the
+asking, or rather taking, and the Mormon colony set to work at once to
+parcel out the land and to commence the building of homes. Whatever may
+be said against the religious ideas of these pilgrims, too much credit
+cannot be given them for the business-like energy which characterized
+their every movement. A site was selected for what is now known as Salt
+Lake City. Broad streets were laid out, building plans and rules
+adopted, and every arrangement made for the construction of a handsome
+and symmetrical city. Houses, streets and squares appeared almost by
+magic, and in a very few weeks quite a healthy town was built up. Those
+who in more Eastern regions had learned different trades were set to
+work at callings of their choice, and for those who were agriculturally
+disposed, farms were mapped out and reserved.
+
+Fortunately for the newcomers, industry was a watchword among them, and
+a country which had been up to that time a stranger to the plow and
+shovel was drained and ditched, and very speedily planted to corn and
+wheat. So fertile did this so-called arid ground prove to be, that one
+year's crop threw aside all fears of further poverty, and prosperity
+began to reign supreme. Had the Mormons confined themselves to work, and
+had abandoned extreme religious and social ideas, impossible in an
+enlightened age and country, they would have risen long before this into
+an impregnable position in every respect.
+
+But polygamy, hitherto restrained and checked by laws of Eastern States
+and Territories, was now indulged in indiscriminately. The more wives a
+member of the Mormon church possessed, the greater was his standing in
+the community. The man who had but two or three wives was censured for
+his want of enthusiasm, and he was frequently fined heavily by the
+church, which was not above levying fines, and thus licensing alleged
+irregularities. Some of the elders had more than a hundred wives each,
+and these were maintained under relations of a most peculiar character.
+
+At first the polygamous tenents of the church did not cause much comment
+on the outside, because the Mormons were so shut off from civilization
+that they seemed to occupy a little world of their own, and no one
+claimed the right to censure or interfere with them. Gradually, however,
+there became a shortage of marriageable women, and this resulted in
+mysterious raids being made on neighboring settlements. Wanderers upon
+the mountains spoke with horror of mysterious tribes of men who wandered
+around engaged in acts of plunder, and from time to time strange women
+appeared in the towns and settlements.
+
+Like so many other bands of persecuted men who had fled from their
+oppressors in search of liberty, the early Mormons soon adopted the
+tactics of which they had complained so bitterly. The man who refused to
+obey the orders of the church, or who was in any way rebellious, was apt
+to disappear from his home without warning or explanation. He was not
+arrested or tried; he was simply spirited away, and no mark or sign
+proclaimed his last resting place. The Danite Band, or the Avenging
+Angels, came into existence, and some of their terrible deeds have
+contributed dark pages to the history of our native land.
+
+It is not to be supposed that acts such as these were approved
+indiscriminately by the newcomers. Occasionally a mild protest would be
+uttered, but it seemed as though the very walls had ears, for even if a
+man in the bosom of his family criticised the conduct of the church, his
+doom appeared to be sealed, and he generally disappeared within a few
+days. Occasionally a family would attempt to escape from Utah, in order
+to avoid compliance with laws and orders which they believed to be
+criminal in character, as well as contrary to their preconceived notions
+of domestic happiness and right. To make an attempt of this character
+was to invite death. In the first place, it was almost impossible to
+traverse the surrounding mountains and deserts, and even if these
+natural obstacles were overcome, the hand of the avenger was constantly
+uplifted against the fugitives, who were blotted off the face of the
+earth, on the theory that dead men tell no tales.
+
+On one occasion, a man left his home in Utah in the way described,
+because he declined to bring home a second wife. Brigham Young, in the
+course of his pastoral calls, entered the comfortable house occupied by
+the family, and called upon the man to introduce to him his wives. He
+was one of the few men who, while in every other respect a zealous
+Mormon, had declined to break up his family relations by bringing a
+young wife into his home. The mother of his children informed the
+Prophet with much vehemence of this fact, and in words more noble than
+discreet assured him that no effort of his could disturb the domestic
+relations of the house, or make her husband untrue to vows he had taken
+twenty years before.
+
+The Prophet was too astounded to lose his temper, but turning to the
+happy husband and father, he told him in stentorian tones that unless
+within one month he complied with the orders of the church, it would
+have been better for him had he never been born, or had he died while on
+the terrible march across the Bad Lands and the alkali desert. That the
+Prophet was in earnest was evidenced by the arrival the following day of
+some of his minions, who brought with them more explicit directions, as
+well as the names of certain young women to whom the man must be
+"sealed" or "married" within the time mentioned by Young.
+
+No idea of complying with this order ever occurred to the head of the
+house. He knew that his wife would far rather die than be dishonored,
+and he himself was perfectly willing to sacrifice his life rather than
+his honor. But for the sake of his four children he determined to make
+an attempt to escape, and accordingly, a few days later, the family,
+having collected together all their available and easily transported
+assets, hitched up their wagon and drove away in the dead of night.
+Their departure in this manner was not expected, and was not discovered
+for nearly forty-eight hours, during which time the refugees had made
+considerable progress over the surrounding mountains. They maintained
+their march for nearly a week, without incident, and were congratulating
+themselves upon their escape, when the disaster which they had feared
+overtook them.
+
+They were camped by the side of a little stream in a fertile valley, and
+all were sleeping peacefully but the elder boy, who was acting as
+sentinel. His attention was first called to danger by the uneasiness
+displayed by the horses, which, by their restless manner and sudden
+anxiety, showed that instinct warned them of an approaching party.
+Without wasting a moment's time, the young man hastily aroused the
+sleepers, who prepared to abandon their camp and seek refuge in the
+adjoining timber. They had barely reached cover when a party of mounted
+armed men rode up. Finding a deserted camp, they separated, and
+commenced to scour the surrounding country. One of the number soon came
+upon the retreating family, but before he could cover them with his
+rifle he had been shot dead by the infuriated father, who was determined
+to resist to the uttermost the horrible fate which now stared them in
+the face.
+
+The noise was taken by the other searchers as a signal to them that the
+hunted family had been found, and knowing that this would be so, the man
+and his sons hurried the woman and younger children to a secluded spot
+at a little distance, and seeking convenient cover determined to make a
+desperate effort to protect those for whose safety they were
+responsible. Unfortunately for the successful carrying out of this plan,
+the helpless section of the party was discovered first. The avenging
+party then divided up into two sections, one of which dragged away the
+woman and her young children, and the others went in search of the man
+and his two sons. They speedily found them, and in the fight which
+followed two lives were lost on both sides.
+
+The oldest son of the escaping party was wounded and left for dead.
+Several hours later consciousness returned to him, and the first sight
+that met his gaze was the dead bodies of his father and brother. A
+chance was offered him to escape, but weak as he was from loss of blood,
+he determined to follow up the kidnaping party, forming the desperate
+resolve that if he could not rescue his mother and sisters, he would at
+least save them from the horrible fate that he knew awaited them. This
+resolve involved his death, for he was no match for the men he was
+contending against. No grave was ever dug for his remains, and no
+headstone tells the story of his noble resolution and his intrepid
+effort to carry it into execution.
+
+There were hundreds, and probably thousands, of similar incidents, and
+Mormonism proved a sad drawback to the happiness of a people who
+otherwise had before them prospects of a most delightful character.
+Brigham Young proved a marvelous success as a ruler. He had eighteen
+wives and an indefinite number of children, estimates concerning the
+number of which vary so much that it is best not to give any of them. It
+is generally stated and understood that the so-called revelation calling
+upon the chosen people to practice polygamy, was an invention on the
+part of Young, designed to cover up his own immorality, and to obtain
+religious sanction for improper relationships he had already built up.
+However this may be, it is certain that polygamy had a serious blow
+dealt at it by the death of its ardent champion. Since then stern
+federal legislation has resulted in the practical suppression of the
+crime, and in recent years the present head of the church has officially
+declared the practice to be improper, and the habit dead.
+
+Brigham Young's grave, of which we give an illustration, has been
+visited from time to time-by countless pleasure and sight-seekers. Like
+the man, it is unique in every respect. It is situated in the Prophet's
+private burial ground, which was surveyed and laid out by him with
+special care. He even went so far as to select the last resting place
+for each of his eighteen wives, and so careful was he over these details
+that the honor of resting near him was given to each wife in order of
+the date of her being "sealed" to him, in accordance with the rites and
+laws of the church. Most of the Mrs. Youngs have been buried according
+to arrangements made, but all of the remarkable aggregation of wives has
+not yet been disposed of in the manner desired. The Prophet's favorite
+wife, concerning whose relationship to Mrs. Grover Cleveland there has
+been so much controversy, was named Amelia Folsom. For her special
+comfort the Prophet built the Amelia Palace, one of the most unique
+features of Salt Lake City. Here the lady lived for several years.
+
+Let us leave the unpleasant side of Mormon history and see what the
+zealous, if misguided, people have succeeded in accomplishing. Salt Lake
+City, which was originally settled by Brigham Young and his followers in
+July, 1847, is perhaps the most uniform city in the world so far as its
+plans are concerned. The original settlers laid out the city in squares
+ten acres large. Instead of streets sixty and eighty feet wide, as are
+too common in all our crowded cities, a uniform width of 130 feet was
+adopted, with more satisfactory results. In the original portion of the
+city these wide streets are a permanent memorial to the forethought of
+the early Mormons. The shade trees they planted are now magnificent in
+their proportions, and along each side of the street there runs a stream
+of water of exquisite clearness. There is very little crowding in the
+way of house-building. Each house in the city is surrounded by a green
+lawn, a garden and an orchard, so that poverty and squalor of the slum
+type is practically unknown. The communistic idea of homes in common,
+which has received so much attention of late years, was not adopted by
+the founders of this city, who, however, took excellent precautions to
+stamp out loafing, begging and other accompaniments of what may be
+described as professional pauperism.
+
+Within thirty years of the building of the first house in Salt Lake
+City, which, by the way, is still standing, the number of inhabitants
+ran up to 20,000. It is now probably more than 50,000, and the city
+stands thirty-first in the order of those whose clearing-house returns
+are reported and compared weekly. Hotels abound on every side, and
+benevolent institutions and parks are common. Churches, of course, there
+are without number, and now that the Government has interfered in the
+protection of so-called Gentiles, almost all religious sects are
+represented.
+
+No description of the Mormon Temple can convey a reasonable idea of its
+grandeur. Six years after the arrival of the pilgrims at Salt Lake City,
+or in 1853, work was commenced on this immense structure, upon which at
+least $7,000,000 have been expended. Its length is 200 feet, its width
+100 feet, and its height the same. At each corner there is a tower 220
+feet high. The thickness of the walls is 10 feet, and these are built of
+snow-white granite. So conspicuous and massive is this building, that it
+can be seen from the mountains fifty and even a hundred miles away.
+
+The Tabernacle, which is in the same square as the Temple, and just west
+of it, is aptly described by Mr. P. Donan as one of the architectural
+curios of the world. It looks like a vast terrapin back, or half of a
+prodigious egg-shell cut in two lengthwise, and is built wholly of iron,
+glass and stone. It is 250 feet long, 150 feet wide, and 100 feet high
+in the center of the roof, which is a single mighty arch, unsupported by
+pillar or post, and is said to have but one counterpart on the globe.
+The walls are 12 feet thick, and there are 20 huge double doors for
+entrance and exit. The Tabernacle seats 13,462 people, and its acoustic
+properties are so marvelously perfect that a whisper or the dropping of
+a pin can be heard all over it. The organ is one of the largest and
+grandest toned in existence, and was built of native woods, by Mormon
+workmen and artists, at a cost of $100,000. It is 58 feet high, has 57
+stops, and contains 2,648 pipes, some of them nearly as large as the
+chimneys of a Mississippi River steamer.
+
+The choir consists of from 200 to 500 trained voices, and the music is
+glorious beyond description. Much of it is in minor keys, and a strain
+of plaintiveness mingles with all its majesty and power. All the seats
+are free, and tourists from all parts of the world are to be found among
+the vast multitudes that assemble at every service. Think of seeing the
+Holy Communion broken bread, and water from the Jordan River, instead of
+wine, administered to from 6,000 to 8,000 communicants at one time! One
+can just fancy the old-time Mormon elders marching in, each followed by
+his five or twenty-five wives and his fifty or a hundred children.
+
+Close by is Assembly Hall, also of white granite, and of Gothic
+architecture. It has seats for 2,500 people, and is most remarkable for
+the costly fresco work on the ceiling, which illustrates scenes from
+Mormon history, including the alleged discovery of the golden plates and
+their delivery to Prophet Smith by the Angel Moroni.
+
+All around this remarkable city are sights of surpassing beauty. Great
+Salt Lake itself ought to be regarded as one of the wonders of the
+world. Although an inland sea, with an immense area intervening between
+it and the nearest ocean, its waters are much more brackish and salty
+than those of either the Atlantic or the Pacific, and its specific
+gravity is far greater. Experts tell us that the percentage of salt and
+soda is six times as great as in the waters of the Atlantic, and one
+great advantage of living in its vicinity is the abundance of good, pure
+salt, which is produced by natural evaporation on its banks. It would be
+interesting, if it were possible, to explain why it is that the water is
+so salty. Various reasons have been advanced from time to time for this
+phenomenon, but none of them are sufficiently practical or tangible to
+be of great interest to the unscientific reader.
+
+It is just possible that this wonderful lake may in course of time
+disappear entirely. Some years ago its width was over 40 miles on an
+average, and its length was very much greater. Now it barely measures
+100 miles from end to end and the width varies from 10 to 60 miles. In
+the depth the gradual curtailment has been more apparent. At one time
+the average depth was many hundred feet, and several soundings of 1,000
+feet were taken, with the result reported, in sailors' parlance, of "No
+bottom." At the present time the depth varies from 40 to 100 feet, and
+appears to be lessening steadily, presumably because of the
+extraordinary deposit of solid matter from the very dense waters with
+which it is filled.
+
+The lake is a bathers' paradise, and the arrangements for bathing from
+Garfield Beach are like everything else in the land of the Mormons,
+extraordinary to a degree. In one year there were nearly half a million
+bathers accommodated at the four principal resorts, and so rapidly are
+these bathing resorts and establishments multiplied, that the day is not
+distant when every available site on the eastern shore of the lake will
+be appropriated for the purpose. As a gentleman who has bathed in this
+lake again and again says, it seems preposterous to speak of the finest
+sea-bathing on earth a thousand miles from the ocean, although the
+bathing in Great Salt Lake infinitely surpasses anything of the kind on
+either the Atlantic or Pacific coasts.
+
+The water contains many times more salt, and much more soda, sulphur,
+magnesia, chlorine, bromine and potassium than any ocean water on the
+globe. It is powerful in medicinal virtues, curing or benefiting many
+forms of rheumatism, rheumatic gout, dyspepsia, nervous disorders and
+cutaneous diseases, and it acts like magic on the hair of those
+unfortunates whose tendencies are to bald-headedness. It is a prompt and
+potent tonic and invigorant of body and mind, and then there is no end
+of fun in getting acquainted with its peculiarities. A first bath in it
+is always as good as a circus, the bather being his or her own trick
+mule. The specific gravity is but a trifle less than that of the Holy
+Land Dead Sea.
+
+The human body will not and cannot sink in it. You can walk out in it
+where it is fifty feet deep, and your body will stick up out of it like
+a fishing-cork from the shoulders upward. You can sit down in it
+perfectly secure where it is fathoms deep. Men lie on top of it with
+their arms under their heads and smoking cigars. Its buoyancy is
+indescribable and unimaginable. Any one can float upon it at the first
+trial; there is nothing to do but lie down gently upon it and float.
+
+But swimming is an entirely different matter. The moment you begin to
+"paddle your own canoe," lively and--to the lookers-on--mirth-provoking
+exercises ensue. When you stick your hand under to make a stroke your
+feet decline to stay anywhere but on top; and when, after an exciting
+tussle with your refractory pedal extremities, you again get them
+beneath the surface, your hands fly out with the splash and splutter of
+a half-dozen flutter wheels. If, on account of your brains being heavier
+than your heels, you chance to turn a somersault, and your head goes
+under, your heels will pop up like a pair of frisky, dapper ducks.
+
+You cannot keep more than one end of yourself under water at once, but
+you soon learn how to wrestle with its novelties, and then it becomes a
+thing of beauty and a joy for any summer day. The water is delightful to
+the skin, every sensation is exhilarating, and one cannot help feeling
+in it like a gilded cork adrift in a jewel-rimmed bowl of champagne
+punch. In the sense of luxurious ease with which it envelops the bather,
+it is unrivaled on earth. The only approximation to it is in the
+phosphorescent waters of the Mosquito Indian coast.
+
+The water does not freeze until the thermometric mercury tumbles down to
+eighteen degrees above zero, or fourteen below the ordinary freezing
+point. It is clear as crystal, with a bottom of snow-white sand, and
+small objects can be distinctly seen at a depth of twenty feet. There is
+not a fish or any other living thing in all the 2,500 to 3,000 square
+miles of beautiful and mysterious waters, except the yearly increasing
+swarms of summer bathers. Not a shark, or a stingaree, to scare the
+timid swimmer or floater; not a minnow, or a frog, a tadpole, or a
+pollywog--nothing that lives, moves, swims, crawls or wiggles. It is the
+ideal sea-bathing place of the world.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+THE INVASION OF OKLAHOMA.
+
+A History of the Indian Nation--Early Struggles of Oklahoma
+Boomer--Fight between Home-Seekers and Soldiers--Scenes at the Opening
+of Oklahoma Proper--A Miserable Night on the Prairie--A Race for
+Homes--Lawlessness in the Old Indian Territory.
+
+
+Oklahoma, the youngest of our Territories, is in many respects also the
+most interesting. Many people confound Oklahoma Territory with the
+Indian Territory, but the two are separate and distinct, the former
+enjoying Territorial Government, while the latter, unfortunately, is in
+a very anomalous condition, so far as the making and enforcing of laws
+is concerned.
+
+Up to within a few years Oklahoma was a part of what was then the
+"Indian Territory." Now it has been separated from what may be described
+as its original parent, and is entirely distinct. It contains nearly
+40,000 square miles, and has a population of about a quarter of a
+million, exclusive of about 18,000 Indians. It contains more than twice
+as many people to the square mile as many of the Western States and
+Territories, and is in a condition of thriving prosperity, which is
+extraordinary, when its extreme youth as a Territory is considered.
+
+In 1888, Oklahoma was the largest single body of unimproved land capable
+of cultivation in the Southwest. It was nominally farmed by Indian
+tribes, but the natural productiveness of the soil, and the immense
+amount of land at their disposal, cultivated habits of indolence, and
+there was a grievous and even sinful waste of fertility. To the south
+was Texas, and on the north, Kansas, both rich, powerful and wealthy
+States. The Indian possessions lying between disturbed the natural
+growth and trend of empire.
+
+Seen from car windows only, the country appeared inviting to the eye. It
+was known, from reports of traders, to have all the elements of
+agricultural wealth.
+
+And this made the land-hungry man hungrier.
+
+The era of the "boomer" began; and the "boomer" did not stop until he
+had inserted an opening wedge, in the shape of the purchase and opening
+to settlement of a vast area right in the heart of the prairie
+wilderness. When the first opening took place it seemed as though the
+supply would be in excess of the demand. Not so. Every acre--good, bad,
+or indifferent--was gobbled up, and, like as from an army of Oliver
+Twists, the cry went up for more. Then the Iowa and Pottawatomie
+reservations were placed on the market. They lasted a day only, and the
+still unsatisfied crowd began another agitation. Resultant of this, a
+third bargain-counter sale took place. The big Cheyenne and Arapahoe
+country was opened for settlement. Immigrants poured in, and now every
+quarter-section that is tillable there has its individual occupant and
+owner.
+
+But still on the south border of Kansas there camped a landless and
+homeless multitude. They looked longingly over the fertile prairies of
+the Cherokee Strip country, stirred the camp-fire embers emphatically,
+and sent another dispatch to Washington asking for a chance to get in.
+Congress heard at last, and in the fall of 1893 the congestion was
+relieved.
+
+The scenes attending the wild scramble from all sides of the Strip are a
+matter of history and do not require repetition. Five million acres were
+quickly taken by 30,000 farmers.
+
+The old proverb or adage, which states that the man who makes two blades
+of grass grow where one grew before is a public benefactor, would seem
+to proclaim that Oklahoma is peopled with philanthropists, for the
+sturdy pioneers who braved hardship and ridicule in order to obtain a
+foothold in this promised land, have, in five or six years, completely
+changed the appearance of the country. A larger proportion of ground in
+this youthful Territory shows that it is a sturdy infant, and it is
+doubtful whether in any part of the United States there has been more
+economy in land, or a more rapid use made of opportunities so
+bountifully provided by nature.
+
+Truth is often much stranger than fiction, and the story of the invasion
+of Oklahoma reads like one long romance. Many men lost their lives in
+the attempt, some few dying by violence, and many others succumbing to
+disease brought about by hardship. Many of the men who started the
+agitation to have Oklahoma opened for settlement by white citizens are
+still alive, and some of them have had their heart's desire fulfilled,
+and now occupy little homes they have built in some favorite nook and
+corner of their much loved, and at one time grievously coveted, country.
+
+Oklahoma came into the possession of the Seminole Indians by the
+ordinary process, and remained their alleged home until about thirty
+years ago. In 1866, the country was ceded to the United States
+Government for a consideration, and in 1873, it was surveyed by Federal
+officers, and section lines established according to law.
+
+It was the natural presumption that this expense was incurred with a
+view to the immediate opening of the Territory for settlement. For
+various reasons, more or less valid, and more or less the result of
+influence and possible corruption, the actual opening of the country was
+deferred for more than twenty years after its cession to the United
+States Government, and in the meantime it occupied a peculiar condition.
+Immense herds of cattle were pastured on it, and bad men and outlaws
+from various sections of the country awoke reminiscences of biblical
+stories about cities of refuge by squatting upon it, making a living by
+hunting and indifferent agriculture, and resting secure from molestation
+from officers of the law.
+
+To remedy this anomaly, and to secure homes for themselves and families
+in what was reported to be one of the most fertile tracts in the world,
+Captain Payne and a number of determined men organized themselves into
+colonies. There has always been a mania for new land, and many people
+are never happy unless they are keeping pace with the invasion of
+civilization into hitherto unknown and unopened countries. Many who
+joined the Payne movement were doubtless roving spirits of this
+character, but the majority of them were bona fide home-seekers, who
+believed as citizens of this country they had a right to
+quarter-sections in the promised land, and who were determined to
+enforce those rights.
+
+No matter, however, what were the motives of the "boomers," as they were
+called from the first, it is certain that they went to work in a
+business-like manner, planned a regular invasion, and formed a number of
+colonies or small armies for the purpose.
+
+We will follow the fortune of one of these colonies in order to show
+what extraordinary difficulties they went through, and how much more
+there is in heaven and earth than is dreamt of in our humdrum
+philosophy. The town of Caldwell, on the southern line of Kansas, was
+the camp from which the first colonists started. It consisted of about
+forty men, and about 100 women and children. Each family provided itself
+with such equipment and conveniences as the scanty means at disposal
+made possible. A prairie schooner, or a wagon with a covering to protect
+the inmates from the weather and secure a certain amount of privacy for
+the women and children, was an indispensable item. When the advance was
+made, there were forty such covered wagons, each drawn by a pair of
+horses or mules, and each containing such furniture as the family
+possessed. The more fortunate ones also had in the wagons certain
+material to be used in building the little hut, which was to be their
+home until they could earn enough to build a more pretentious residence.
+
+Eye witnesses describe the starting of the colony as one of the most
+remarkable sights ever witnessed. The wagons advanced in single file,
+and some few of the men rode on horseback in order to act as advance
+guides to seek suitable camping grounds, and to protect the occupants of
+the wagons from attack. In some cases one or two cows were attached by
+halters to the rear of the wagons, and there were several dogs which
+evidently entered heartily into the spirit of the affair. The utmost
+confidence prevailed, and hearty cheers were given as the cavalcade
+crossed the Kansas State line and commenced its long and dreary march
+through the rich blue grass of the Cherokee Strip.
+
+The journey before the home-seekers was about 100 miles, and at the slow
+rate of progress they were compelled to make, it was necessarily a long
+and arduous task. Some few of the women were a little nervous, but the
+majority had thoroughly fallen in with the general feeling and were
+enthusiastic in the extreme. The food they had with them was sufficient
+for immediate needs, and when they camped for the night, the younger
+members of the party generally succeeded in adding to the larder by
+hunting and fishing.
+
+We have all heard of invading armies being allowed to proceed on their
+march unmolested only to be treated with additional severity on arriving
+at the enemies' camp. So it was with the colonists. They got through
+with very little difficulty, and no one took the trouble to interfere
+with their progress. Men who had been in the promised land for the
+purpose, had located a suitable spot for the formation of the proposed
+colony, and here the people were directed. One of the party had some
+knowledge of land laws, and after a long hunt he succeeded in locating
+one of the section corners established by the recent Government survey.
+This being done, quarter-sections were selected by each of the
+newcomers, and work commenced with a will. Tents and huts were put up as
+rapidly as possible, and before a week had passed the newcomers were
+fairly well settled. They even selected a town site and built castles in
+the air of a most remarkable character.
+
+That they were monarchs of all they surveyed seemed to be obvious, and
+for some weeks their right there was none to dispute. Then by degrees
+the cowboys who were herding cattle in the neighborhood began to drop
+hints of possible interference, and while these suggestions were being
+discussed a company of United States troops suddenly appeared. With very
+little explanation they arrested every man in the colony for treason and
+conspiracy, and proceeded to drive the colonists out of the country. The
+men were compelled to hitch up their horses, and, succumbing to force of
+numbers, the colonists sadly and wearily advanced to Fort Reno, where
+they were turned over to the authorities. After being kept in
+confinement for five days they were released, and told to get back into
+Kansas as rapidly as possible. Government officials saw that the order
+was carried out, and then left the colonists to themselves.
+
+The men lost no time in making up their minds to organize a second
+attempt to establish homes for their families, and once more they made
+the march. A bitter disappointment awaited them, for they found that
+their cabins had all been destroyed and they had to commence work over
+again. This they did, and they had scarcely got themselves comfortable
+when another small detachment of troops arrived to turn them out. The
+men were tied by means of ropes to the tail-ends of wagons, and driven
+like cattle across the prairie to the military fort. For a third time
+they conducted an invasion, and for the third time they were attacked by
+Government troops.
+
+A spirit of determination had, however, come over the men in the
+interval, and an attempt was made to resist the onslaught of the
+soldiers. The Lieutenant in charge was astonished at the attitude
+assumed, and did not care to assume the responsibility of ordering his
+men to fire, as many of the colonists were well armed and were
+undoubtedly crack shots. He, accordingly, adopted more diplomatic
+measures, and, by establishing somewhat friendly relations, got into
+close quarters with the settlers. A rough and tumble fight with fists
+soon afterwards resulted, and the hard fists and brawny arms of the
+settlers proved too much for the regulars, who were for the time being
+driven off.
+
+The result of the boomers' victory was the sending of 600 soldiers to
+dislodge them, and it being impossible to resist such a force as this,
+the colonists yielded with the best grace they could and sadly deserted
+the homes they had tried so hard to build up. Some of the men were
+actually imprisoned for the action they had taken, and the colony for a
+time was completely broken up. The example set was followed by several
+others, and for some years a conflict, not particularly creditable to
+the Government, went on. No law was discovered to punish the boomers and
+thus put a final end to the invasions. All that could be done was to
+drive the families out as fast as they went in, a course of action far
+more calculated to excite disorder than to quell it. Sometimes the
+soldiers displayed a great deal of forbearance, and even went out of
+their way to help the women and children and reduce their sufferings to
+the smallest possible point. Again, they were sometimes unduly harsh,
+and more than one infant lost its life from the exposure the evictions
+brought about. The soldiers by no means relished the work given them,
+and many of them complained bitterly that it was no part of their duty
+to fight women and babies. Still they were compelled to obey orders and
+ask no questions.
+
+While the original colonists, or boomers, gained little or nothing for
+themselves by the hardships they insisted on encountering, they really
+brought about the opening for settlement of Oklahoma. About the year
+1885 it began to be generally understood that the necessary proclamation
+would be issued, and from all parts of the country home-hunters began to
+set out on a journey, varying in length from a few hundreds to several
+thousand miles. The Kansas border towns on the south were made the
+headquarters for the home-seekers, and as they arrived at different
+points they were astonished to find that others had got there before
+them. In the neighborhood of Arkansas City, particularly, there were
+large settlements of boomers, who from time to time made efforts to
+enter the promised land in advance of the proclamation, only to be
+turned back by the soldiers who were guarding every trail. The majority
+of the newcomers thought it better to obey the law, and these settled
+down, with their wagons for their homes, and sought work with which to
+maintain their families until the proclamation was issued and the
+country opened to them.
+
+It was a long and dreary wait. The children were sent to school, the men
+obtained such employment as was possible, and life went on peacefully in
+some of the most peculiar settlements ever seen in this country. Finally
+the Springer Bill was passed and the speedy opening of at least a
+portion of Oklahoma assured. The news was telegraphed to the four winds
+of heaven, and where there had been one boomer before there were soon
+fifty or a hundred. In the winter of 1888, various estimates were made
+as to the number of people awaiting the President's proclamation, and
+the total could not have been less than 50,000 or 60,000. Finally the
+long-looked-for document appeared, and Easter Monday, 1889, was named as
+the date on which the section of Oklahoma included in the bill was to be
+declared open. There was a special proviso that any one entering the
+promised and mysterious land prior to noon on the day named, would be
+forever disqualified from holding land in it, and accordingly the
+opening resolved itself into a race, to commence promptly at high noon
+on the day named.
+
+Seldom has such a remarkable race been witnessed in any part of the
+world. The principal town sites were on the line of the Sante Fe
+Railroad, and those who were seeking town lots crowded the trains, which
+were not allowed to enter Oklahoma until noon. All available rolling
+stock was brought into requisition for the occasion, and provision was
+made for hauling thousands of home-seekers to the towns of Guthrie and
+Oklahoma City, as well as to intervening points. Before daylight on the
+morning of the opening, the approaches of the railway station at
+Arkansas City were blocked with masses of humanity, and every train was
+thronged with town boomers, or with people in search of free land or
+town lots.
+
+The author was fortunate in securing a seat on the first train which
+crossed the Oklahoma border, and which arrived at Guthrie before
+1 o'clock on the day of the opening. It was presumed that the law had
+been enforced, and that we should find nothing but a land-office and a
+few officials on the town site.
+
+But such was far from being the case. Hundreds of people were already on
+the ground. The town had been platted out, streets located, and the best
+corners seized in advance of the law and of the regulations of the
+proclamation.
+
+There was no time to argue with points of law or order. Those who got in
+in advance of the law were of a determined character, and their number
+was so great that they relied on the confusion to evade detection. One
+of their number told an interesting story to the writer, concerning the
+experience he had gone through. He had slipped into Oklahoma prior to
+the opening, carrying with him enough food to last him for a few days.
+He found a hiding place in the creek bank, and there laid until a few
+minutes before noon on the opening day. When his watch and the sun both
+told him that it lacked but a few minutes of noon, he emerged from his
+hiding place, with a view to leisurely locating one of the best corner
+lots in the town. To his chagrin he saw men advancing from every
+direction, and he was made aware of the fact that he had no patent on
+his idea, which had been adopted simultaneously by several hundred
+others. He secured a good lot for himself, and sold it before his
+disqualification on account of being too "previous" in his entry was
+discovered.
+
+As each train unloaded its immense throngs of passengers, the scene was
+one that must always baffle description. The town site was on rising
+ground, and men, and even women, sprang from the moving trains, falling
+headlong over each other, and then rushing up hill as fast as their legs
+would carry them, in the mad fight for town lots free of charge. The
+town site was entirely occupied within half an hour, and the surrounding
+country in every direction was appropriated for additions to the main
+"city." Before night there were at least 10,000 people on the ground,
+many estimates placing the number as high as 20,000.
+
+Some few had brought with them blankets and provisions, and these passed
+a comparatively comfortable night. Thousands, however, had no
+alternative but to sleep on the open prairie, hungry, as well as
+thirsty. The water in the creek was scarcely fit to drink, and the
+railroad company had to protect its water tank by force from the thirsty
+adventurers and speculators.
+
+The night brought additional terrors. There was no danger of wild
+animals or of snakes, for the stampede of the previous day had probably
+driven every living thing miles away, with the solitary exception of
+ants, which, in armies ten thousand strong, attacked the trespassers. By
+morning several houses had been erected, and the arrival of freight
+trains loaded with provisions not only enabled thoughtful caterers to
+make small fortunes, but also relieved the newcomers of much of the
+distress they had been suffering. Within a week the streets were well
+defined, and houses were being built in every direction, and within six
+months there were several brick buildings erected and occupied for
+business and banking purposes.
+
+The process of building up was one of the quickest on record, and
+Guthrie, like its neighbor on the south, Oklahoma City, is to-day a
+large, substantial business and financial center. Those of our readers
+who crossed Oklahoma by rail, even as lately as the winter of 1888, will
+remember that they saw nothing but open prairie, with occasional belts
+of timber. There was not so much as a post to mark the location of
+either of these two large cities, nor was there a plow line to define
+their limits.
+
+In no other country in the world could results such as these have been
+accomplished. The amount of courage required to invest time and money in
+a prospective town in a country hitherto closed against white citizens
+is enormous, and it takes an American, born and bred, to make the
+venture. The Oklahoma cities are not boom towns, laid out on paper and
+advertised as future railroad and business centers; from the first
+moment of their existence they have been practical, useful trading
+centers, and every particle of growth they have made has been of a
+permanent and lasting character.
+
+But if the race to the Oklahoma town sites was interesting, the race to
+the homesteads was sensational and bewildering. All around the coveted
+land, anxious, determined men were waiting for the word "Go," in order
+to rush forward and select a future home. In some instances the race was
+made in the wagons, but in many cases a solitary horseman acted as
+pioneer and galloped ahead, in order to secure prior claim to a coveted,
+well-watered quarter-section. Shortly before the hour of noon, a number
+of boomers on the northern frontier made an effort to advance in spite
+of the protests of the soldiers on guard. These latter were outnumbered
+ten to one, and could not attempt to hold back the home-seekers by
+force. Seeing this fact, the young Lieutenant in charge addressed a few
+pointed sentences to the would-be violators of the law. He knew most of
+the men personally, and was aware that several of them were old
+soldiers. Addressing these especially, he appealed to their patriotism,
+and asked whether it was logical for men who had borne arms for their
+country to combine to break the laws, which they themselves had risked
+their lives to uphold. This appeal to the loyalty of the veterans had
+the desired effect, and what threatened to be a dangerous conflict
+resulted in a series of hearty hand-shakes.
+
+A mighty shout went up at noon, and the deer, rabbits and birds, which
+for years had held undisputed possession of the promised land, were
+treated to a surprise of the first water. Horses which had never been
+asked to run before, were now compelled to assume a gait hitherto
+unknown to them. Wagons were upset, horses thrown down, and all sorts of
+accidents happened. One man, who had set his heart on locating on the
+Canadian River near the Old Payne Colony, rode his horse in that
+direction, and urged the beast on to further exertions, until it could
+scarcely keep on its feet. Finally he reached one of the creeks running
+into the river. The jaded animal just managed to drag its rider up the
+steep bank of the creek, and it then fell dead. Its rider had no time
+for regrets. He had still four or five miles to cover, and he commenced
+to run as fast as his legs would carry him. His over-estimate of his
+horse's powers of endurance, and his under-estimate of the distance to
+be covered, lost him his coveted home; for when he arrived a large
+colony had got in ahead of him from the western border, and there were
+two or three claimants to every homestead.
+
+In other cases there were neck and neck races for favored locations, and
+sometimes it would have puzzled an experienced referee to have
+determined which was really the winner of the race. Compromises were
+occasionally agreed to, and although there was a good deal of bad temper
+and recrimination, there was very little violence, and the men whose
+patience had been sorely taxed, behaved themselves admirably, earning
+the respect of the soldiers who were on guard to preserve order. The
+excitement and uproar was kept up long after night-fall. In their
+feverish anxiety to retain possession of the homes for which they had
+waited and raced, hundreds of men stayed up all night to continue the
+work of hut building, knowing that nothing would help them so much in
+pressing their claims for a title as evidence of work on bona fide
+improvements. They kept on day after day, and, late in the season as it
+was, many of the newcomers raised a good crop that year.
+
+The opening of other sections of the old Indian Territory, now included
+in Oklahoma, took place two or three years later, when the scenes we
+have briefly described were repeated. To-day, Oklahoma extends right up
+to the southern Kansas line, and the Cherokee Strip, on whose rich blue
+grass hundreds of thousands of cattle have been fattened, is now a
+settled country, with at least four families to every square mile, and
+with a number of thriving towns and even large cities. At the present
+time the question of Statehood for the youngest of our Territories is
+being actively debated. No one disputes the fact that the population and
+wealth is large enough to justify the step, and the only question at
+issue is whether the whole of the Indian Territory should be included in
+the new State, or whether the lands of the so-called civilized tribes
+should be excluded.
+
+The lawlessness which has prevailed in some portions of the Indian
+Territory is held to be a strong argument in favor of opening up all the
+lands for settlement. At present the Indians own immense tracts of land
+under very peculiar conditions. A large number of white men, many of
+them respectable citizens, and many of them outlaws and refugees from
+justice, have married fair Cherokee, Choctaw and Creek girls, and these
+men, while not recognized by the heads of the tribes, are able to draw
+from the Government, in the names of their wives, the large sums of
+money from time to time distributed. Advocates of Statehood favor the
+allotment to each Indian of his share of the land, and the purchase by
+the Government of the immense residue, which could then be opened for
+settlement.
+
+Until this question is settled, the anomaly will continue of
+civilization and the reverse existing side by side. Some of the Indians
+have assumed the manners, dress, virtues and vices of their white
+neighbors, in which case they have generally dropped their old names and
+assumed something reasonable in their place. But many of the red men who
+adhere to tradition, and who object to innovation, still stick to the
+names given them in their boyhood. Thus, in traveling across the Indian
+Territory, Indians with such names as "Hears-Something-Everywhere,"
+"Knows-Where-He-Walks," "Bear-in-the-Cloud," "Goose-Over-the-Hill,"
+"Shell-on-the-Neck," "Sorrel Horse," "White Fox,"
+"Strikes-on-the-Top-of-the-Head," and other equally far-fetched and
+ridiculous terms and cognomens.
+
+Every one has heard of Chief "Rain-in-the-Face," a characteristic
+Indian, whose virtues and vices have both been greatly exaggerated from
+time to time. A picture is given of this representative of a rapidly
+decaying race, and of the favorite pony upon which he has ridden
+thousands of miles, and which in its early years possessed powers of
+endurance far beyond what any one who has resided in countries removed
+from Indian settlements can have any idea or conception of.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+COWBOYS--REAL AND IDEAL.
+
+A Much Maligned Class--The Cowboy as he Is, and as he is Supposed to
+be--Prairie Fever and how it is Cured--Life on the Ranch Thirty Years
+Ago and Now--Singular Fashions and Changes of Costume--Troubles
+Encountered by would-be Bad Men.
+
+
+Among the thoroughly American types of humanity, none is more striking
+or unique than the cowboy. This master of horsemanship and subduer of
+wild and even dangerous cattle, has been described in so many ways that
+a great difference of opinion exists as to what he was, and what he is.
+We give a picture of a cowboy of to-day, and will endeavor to show in
+what important respects he differs from the cowboy of fiction, and even
+of history.
+
+Sensational writers have described the cowboy as a thoroughly bad man,
+and, moreover, as one who delights in the word "bad," and regards it as
+a sort of diploma or qualification. Travelers over the region in which
+the cowboy used to be predominant give him a very different character,
+and speak of him as a hard-working, honest citizen, generous to a fault,
+courteous to women and aged or infirm men, but inclined to be humorous
+at the expense of those who are strong and big enough to return a joke,
+or resent it, if they so prefer.
+
+We have spoken of the cowboy in two tenses: the present and the past.
+Strictly speaking, we should, perhaps, have only used one, for many of
+the best judges say that there is no such thing as a cowboy in this day
+and generation. He flourished in all his glory in the days of immense
+ranges, when there was an abundance of elbow room for both man and
+beast, and when such modern interferences with the cattle business as
+the barb-wire fence did not exist. The work of cattle herding and
+feeding to-day certainly differs in a most remarkable manner from that
+of thirty and even twenty years ago, and the man has naturally changed
+with his work. Now, the cowboy is, to all intents and purposes, a farm
+hand. He feeds the stock, drives it to water when necessary, and goes to
+the nearest market town to dispose of surplus products, with all the
+system and method of a thoroughly domesticated man. Formerly he had
+charge of hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of branded cattle, which
+ranged at will over boundless prairies, and the day's work was
+frequently varied by a set-to with some unfriendly Indians or some
+exceptionally daring cattle thieves.
+
+The very nature of his work used to make the cowboy somewhat desperate
+in his habits, and apt to be suspicious of newcomers. He was never such
+a terrible individual as has been frequently stated in print. His work
+confined him to a few frontier States and Territories, and hence he was
+a very convenient person to ridicule and decry. The man who met the
+average cowboy face to face, generally learned to respect him, and
+speedily appreciated the fact that it paid to be at least civil. Writers
+who never went within 500 miles of the nearest cattle ranch or cowboy's
+home, treated him with less courtesy and described him in all sorts of
+terms.
+
+Dime literature, with its yellow covers and sensational pictures of
+stage robberies and the like, has always libeled the American cowboy to
+a most outrageous extent. As a result of the misapprehensions thus
+created, what is known as cowboy or prairie fever is quite a common
+disease among youths who are trying to raise a mustache for a first
+time. The feats of recklessness, the absolute disregard of
+conventionality and the general defiance attributed to the man who herds
+cattle on the prairie, seem to create a longing on the part of
+sensationally inclined youths, and many of these have cut their teeth
+and learned their lesson in a very different manner from what was
+expected.
+
+Let us imagine for a moment the experiences of the young man from the
+East, who has convinced himself, by careful reasoning and reading, that
+nature intended him to shine in the West. It is probable that he came to
+this most important conclusion many years before, and it is not unlikely
+that his first cowboy enthusiasm was fed by attacks upon the cat, with
+the nearest approach he could obtain to a rawhide whip. From this
+primitive experience, sensational literature, and five and ten-cent
+illustrated descriptions of the adventures of "Bill, the Plunger," and
+"Jack, the Indian Slayer," completed the education, until the boy, or
+young man, as the case may be, determines that the hour has arrived for
+him to cast away childish things and become a genuine bad man of the
+West.
+
+Just how he gets half way across the continent is a matter of detail.
+Sometimes the misguided youth is too proud to beg and too honest to
+steal, in which case he probably saves up his pocket money and buys a
+cheap ticket. The more romantic and strictly correct course to adopt is
+to start out without a dollar, and to beat one's way across the
+continent, so as to be thoroughly entitled to recognition on the
+prairie. Many a young man who has commenced the pilgrimage towards
+glorified badness, has had the fever knocked out of him before advancing
+100 miles, but others have succeeded in getting through, and have
+arrived in Texas, Wyoming or Montana, as the case may have been,
+thoroughly convinced of their own ability to hold their own in all
+company.
+
+The disappointment that awaits the adventurous one is almost too great
+to be expressed in words. If the cowboys were one-half as bad as they
+are painted, they would proceed to demonstrate their right to an evil
+reputation by murdering the newcomer, and stealing his wearing apparel
+and any money he might happen to have with him. Instead of doing this,
+the cowboy generally looks with amusement on the individual who has come
+so many miles to join him. The greeting is not of the exuberant
+character expected, and frequently the heart of the newcomer is broken
+by being told to go back to his mammy and spend a few years more in the
+nursery. A runaway tenderfoot just fresh from school is not wanted on
+the cattle ranch, and although Western farmers are too good-natured to
+resent very severely the liberty taken, they never flatter the newcomer
+by holding out any inducements or making any prophecies as to his
+future.
+
+The writer met a runaway enthusiast of this character a few years ago.
+His destination was the extreme West. As he did not know himself the
+State to which he was bound, he presumed that no one else did. When
+found, he had got as far as Kansas City, and hunger and lack of a place
+where he could sleep in comfort had cooled his ardor and inaugurated a
+vigorous attack of home-sickness. As the ideal cowboy life does not
+provide for feather beds or meals served in courses, it was suggested to
+the lad that possibly he was having a good experience in advance, and
+getting himself accustomed to the privations of the life he had decided
+to adopt.
+
+This logic did not commend itself at all to the runaway, whose sole
+ambition now was to borrow enough money to telegraph a message of
+penitence to his father. A small sum necessary for the purpose was given
+him, and the dispatch sent. Within an hour an answer was received and
+money transmitted by wire to supply the lad with a ticket for his home,
+where it is exceedingly probable what little cowboy fever he had left in
+him was speedily removed in old-fashioned and regulation manner.
+
+The cowboy must not be confounded with the cattle baron. Ten or twelve
+years ago, when a great deal of money was made out of raising cattle,
+there was an invasion of the prairie States by men who knew nothing
+whatever about cattle raising, but who had made up their minds to secure
+a fortune by raising steers. They took with them as inconsistent ideas
+as did the youth in search of adventure. Often they carried large sums
+of money, which they invested very lavishly in business, and they also
+took with them ridiculously fine clothes, patent leather boots,
+velveteen jackets, and other evidences of luxury, which made them very
+unpopular and very ridiculous in their new homes. Nine-tenths of these
+called themselves "cattle barons," and about the same proportion
+obtained a great deal of experience but very little money, while trying
+to revolutionize the cattle business.
+
+It is not necessary to own cattle at all to be a cowboy, although many
+members of this interesting profession own a few beasts of their own and
+are allowed to have them graze with the other stock on the ranch.
+Generally speaking, the term used to be applied to all those who were
+engaged in handling the cattle, and in getting them together on the
+occasion of the annual round-ups. The old-time cowboy did not have a
+very high reputation, nor was he always looked upon quite as leniently
+as his surroundings demanded. About twenty years ago, a well-known
+cattleman wrote the following description of the cowboy and the life he
+led:
+
+"If any one imagines that the life of a cowboy or ranchman is one of
+ease and luxury, or his diet a feast of fat things, a brief trial will
+dispel the illusion, as is mist by the sunshine. True, his life is one
+of more or less excitement or adventures, and much of it is spent in the
+saddle, yet it is a hard life, and his daily fare will never give the
+gout. Corn bread, mast-fed bacon, and coffee, constitute nine-tenths of
+their diet; occasionally they have fresh beef, and less often they have
+vegetables of any description. They do their own cooking in the rudest
+and fewest possible vessels, often not having a single plate or knife
+and fork, other than their pocket knife, but gather around the
+camp-kettle in true Indian style, and with a piece of bread in one hand,
+proceed to fish up a piece of 'sow belly,' and dine sumptuously, not
+forgetting to stow away one or more quarts of the strongest coffee
+imaginable, without sugar or cream. Indeed, you would hesitate, if
+judging it from appearance, whether to call it coffee or ink. Of all the
+vegetables, onions and potatoes are the most desired and the oftenest
+used, when anything more than the 'old regulation' is had. Instead of an
+oven, fireplace or cooking stove, a rude hole is dug in the ground and a
+fire made therein, and the coffee pot, the camp kettle and the skillet
+are his only culinary articles used.
+
+"The life of the cowboy is one of considerable daily danger and
+excitement. It is hard and full of exposure, but is wild and free, and
+the young man who has long been a cowboy has but little taste for any
+other occupation. He lives hard, works hard, has but few comforts, and
+fewer necessities. He has but little, if any, taste for reading. He
+enjoys a coarse practical joke, or a smutty story; loves danger, but
+abhors labor of the common kind; never tires of riding, never wants to
+walk, no matter how short the distance he desires to go. He would rather
+fight with pistols than pray; loves tobacco, liquor and woman better
+than any other trinity. His life borders nearly upon that of an Indian.
+If he reads anything, it is in most cases a blood and thunder story of
+the sensational style. He enjoys his pipe, and relishes a practical joke
+on his comrades, or a tale where abounds animal propensity.
+
+"His clothes are few and substantial, scarce in number and often of a
+gaudy pattern. The 'sombrero' and large spurs are inevitable
+accompaniments. Every house has the appearance of lack of convenience
+and comfort, but the most rude and primitive modes of life seem to be
+satisfactory to the cowboy. His wages range from $15.00 to $20.00 a
+month in specie. Mexicans can be employed for about $12.00 per month.
+The cowboy has few wants and fewer necessities, the principal one being
+a full supply of tobacco.
+
+"We will here say for the benefit of our Northern readers, that the term
+'ranch' is used in the Southwest instead of 'farm,' the ordinary laborer
+is termed a 'cowboy,' the horse used a 'cow horse,' and the herd of
+horses a 'cavvie yard.'
+
+"The fame of Texas as a stock-growing country went abroad in the land,
+and soon after her admission to the Union, unto her were turned the eyes
+of many young men born and reared in the older Southern States, who were
+poor in this world's goods, but were ambitious to make for themselves a
+home and a fortune. Many of this class went to Texas, then a new and
+comparatively thin and unsettled country, and began in humblest manner,
+perhaps for nominal wages, to lay the foundation for future wealth and
+success."
+
+This is a very severe description, and relates to a class of men who
+were found in the wildest parts of Texas shortly after the war. It
+certainly does not adequately describe the cowboy of the last twenty
+years. Another writer, who was himself for more than a quarter of a
+century engaged in the work of herding cattle, gives a much fairer
+description of the cowboy. He divides those entitled to this name into
+three classes, and argues that there is something noble about the name.
+He also claims that in view of the peculiar associations, privations,
+surroundings and temptations of the cowboy, he is entitled to much
+credit for the way in which he has retained the best characteristics of
+human nature, in spite of his absence from the refining influences of
+civilization.
+
+According to this authority, the first class of cowboys include the
+genuine, honest worker on the prairie, the man who has due respect for
+the rights of all. He is scrupulously honest, but yet charitable enough
+to look leniently on the falling away from grace of his less scrupulous
+brothers, and he is loyal to a remarkable extent to every one who has a
+right to claim his friendship. In the second class is placed the less
+careful cowboy, who is not quite so strict in his moral views, although
+no one would like to class him as a thief. The story is told of the
+Irishman who found a blanket bearing upon it the Government mark "U. S."
+Paddy examined the blanket carefully and on finding the mark shouted
+out: "U. for Patrick and S. for McCarty. Och, but I'm glad I've found me
+blanket. Me fayther told me that eddication was a good thing, and now I
+know it; but for an eddication I never would have found the blanket."
+
+Reasoning of this kind is quite common among this second class or
+division of the cowboy. It is not suggested that he is exactly a thief,
+because he would scorn the acts of the city light-fingered gentleman,
+who asks you the time of day, and then, by a little sleight-of-hand,
+succeeds in introducing your watch to a too obliging and careless
+pawnbroker at the next corner. But he is a little reckless in his ideas
+of what lawyers call the rights of individuals, and he is a little too
+much inclined, at times, to think that trifles that are not his own
+ought to be so.
+
+The writer, to whom we are referring, includes in class three the
+typical cowboy, and the man used by the fiction writer as a basis for
+his exaggerations and romances. Into this class drifts the cowboy who is
+absolutely indifferent as to the future, and who is perfectly happy if
+he has enough money to enable him to buy a fancy bridle or a magnificent
+saddle. These are about the beginning and the end of his ideas of
+luxury; although he enjoys a good time, he looks upon it rather as
+incidental and essential to pleasure. A steady position at a small
+salary, a reasonable amount to do, and fairly good quarters, constitute
+all he looks for or expects. He is perfectly honest with all his
+indifference. He is often whole-souled and big-hearted, constantly
+allows himself to be imposed upon, but has an inconvenient habit of
+occasionally standing up for his rights and resenting too much
+oppression. He is exceedingly good-natured, and will often drive some
+stray cattle several miles for the convenience of a perfect stranger,
+and a man to whom he owes no obligation whatever.
+
+It is said that such a thing as distress among the relatives or
+descendants of cowboys was impossible, because of the delightful
+tenderheartedness of men with rough exterior and whose daily life makes
+them appear hardened. The working cowboy is seldom rich, even in the
+most generous acceptation of the term. The small wages he earns are
+expended almost entirely on decorations for his horse or himself. Even
+when he succeeds in saving a few dollars, the money seems to burn a hole
+in his pocket, and he generally lends it to some one in greater need
+than himself. But every man working on a ranch has something to spare
+for the widow or children of a deceased brother, especially if he was
+killed in the course of his duties. An instance of this generous-hearted
+disposition might well be given, but it is sufficient to say that the
+rule is invariable, and that a promise made to a dying man in this
+respect is never forgotten.
+
+Leaving for a moment the personal characteristics of the much-maligned
+cowboy, who has been described as everything from a stage-robber to a
+cutthroat, we may with profit devote a little space to a consideration
+of his attire as it was, and as it is. In the picture of a cowboy in
+this work the modern dress is shown very accurately. It will be seen
+that the man is dressed conveniently for his work, and that he has none
+of the extraordinary handicaps to progress, in the way of grotesque
+decorations, which he had been thought to believe were, at least, part
+and parcel of the cowboy's wardrobe and get up. Certainly at the present
+time men engaged in feeding and raising cattle are almost indifferent as
+to their attire, wearing anything suitable for their purpose, and making
+their selections rather with a view to the durability, than the
+handsomeness, of the clothing.
+
+But in years gone by, there was almost as much fashion changing among
+the men on the prairie as among the woman in the drawing-room. At the
+close of the war the first of the arbitrary dictates of fashion went
+out. A special form of stirrup was introduced. It was very narrow and
+exceedingly inconvenient, but it was considered the right thing, and so
+everybody used it. Rawhide was used in place of lines, and homespun
+garments were uniform. Calfskin leggings, made on the prairie, with the
+hair on the outside, were first worn, and large umbrella-like straw hats
+came into use. A little later it was decided the straw hat was not
+durable enough for the purpose. When excited a cowboy frequently starts
+his horse with his hat, and when he is wearing a straw, four or five
+sharp blows knock out of the hat any semblance it may ever have had to
+respectability and symmetry. The wide brim woolen hat was declared to be
+the correct thing, and every one was glad of the change. The narrow
+stirrup gave place to a wider one, and the stirrup leather was shortened
+so as to compel the rider to keep his knees bent the whole time. The
+most important change in fashion twenty years ago, was the introduction
+of tanned leather leggings and of handsome bridles. Many a man now pays
+two or three months' wages for his bridle, and since the fashion came
+in, it is probable that many thousand dollars have been invested in
+ornamental headgear for prairie horses and ponies. A new saddle, as well
+as bow and tassel decorations, also came in at this period, and it is to
+be admitted that for a time exaggeration in clothing became general. It
+is an old joke on the prairie that the average man's hat costs him more
+than his clothes.
+
+Many a cowboy earning $30.00 a month has spent three times that sum on
+his saddle alone. More than one man earning $25.00 a month has invested
+every cent of his salary in silver buckles for his strange looking hat.
+Equally extravagant is the average man as to his saddle, bridle, and
+even spurs and bit. Those who talk so much about the bad habits of these
+people, will hardly credit the fact that many a cowboy abstains from
+liquor and tobacco for an entire year at a stretch, simply because he
+wants to purchase some article of attire, which he thinks will make him
+the envy of the entire ranch.
+
+The cow pony is worthy of as much attention and thought as the cowboy.
+It is often said that the latter is hard and cruel, and that he uses his
+pony roughly. This is far from being correct. Between the cowboy and his
+pet pony there is generally a bond of sympathy and a thorough
+understanding, without which the marvelous feats of horsemanship which
+are performed daily would be impossible. Perhaps in the preliminary
+breaking in of the pony there is more roughness than is quite necessary.
+At the same time, it should be remembered that to subdue an animal which
+was born on the prairie and has run wild to its heart's content, is not
+a very simple matter. The habit of bucking, which a Texas pony seems to
+inherit from its ancestors, is a very inconvenient one, and an expert
+rider from the East is perfectly helpless upon the back of a bucking
+pony. The way in which he mounts assures the animal at once that he is a
+stranger in those parts. A natural desire to unseat the daring stranger
+becomes paramount, and the pony proceeds to carry out the idea.
+
+At first it moves quietly and the rider congratulates himself on having
+convinced the animal that resistance will be ill vain. But just as he
+begins to do this the animal gets down its head, arches up its back,
+something after the manner of an angry cat, leaps into the air and comes
+down on the ground with its four legs drawn together under it, perfectly
+stiff and straight. The rider seldom knows how it happened. He only
+knows that it felt as though a cannon ball had struck him, and that he
+fell off most ungracefully.
+
+A pony never bucks viciously when a cowboy is riding it. It has learned
+by long experience that the process is distinctly unprofitable. Breaking
+in a pony and convincing it that the way of the transgressor is hard, is
+one of the difficulties of prairie life. When, however, it is once
+accomplished, an almost invaluable assistant has been secured. The
+staying powers of the cow pony are almost without limit. He will carry
+his master 100 miles in a day, apparently with very little fatigue. In
+point of speed he may not be able to compete with his better bred
+Eastern cousin, but in point of distance covered he entirely outclasses
+him. Assuming an easy gait within its powers of endurance, a pony of the
+prairie will keep it up almost indefinitely. At the end of a very long
+ride, the man is generally more fatigued than his steed. The latter,
+after being relieved of its saddle and bridle, rolls vigorously to get
+rid of the stiffness, and, after an hour or two, is apparently in as
+good condition as ever.
+
+The charm connected with cowboy life is found in the disregard of strict
+rules of etiquette and ceremony, and in the amount of fun which is
+considered to be in place around the prairie fire. We have already seen
+that the wages paid to cowboys are, and always have been, very small.
+The hours that have to be worked, and the hardships that have to be
+encountered, seem to combine together to deter men from leading the life
+at all. We know that it does neither, and that it is seldom there is
+really any dearth of help on the prairie or among the cattle herds. The
+greatest delight is derived from jokes played at the expense of smart
+tenderfeet, who approach the camp with too much confidence in
+themselves. The commonest way of convincing the newcomer that he has
+made a mistake is to persuade him to ride an exceptionally fractious
+pony. The task is generally approached with much confidence, and almost
+invariably ends in grief. If the stranger can retain his seat and thus
+upset the rehearsed programme, the delight of the onlookers is even
+greater than their disappointment, and the newcomer is admitted at once
+into the good fellowship of the crowd.
+
+Nothing aggravates a cowboy so much, or makes him more desperate in his
+selection of tricks, as the affectation of badness on the part of a
+newcomer. A year or two ago a young man, who had been saving up his
+money for years in order to emulate the deeds of some of the heroes
+described in the cheap books he had been reading, arrived in the
+Southwest, and proceeded to introduce himself to a number of employes of
+a cattle ranch who, a few years ago, would have been known as regulation
+cowboys. The unlimited impudence and the astounding mendacity of the
+youth amused the cowboys very much, and they allowed him to narrate a
+whole list of terrible acts he had committed in the East. Before he had
+been in his new company an hour, he had talked of thefts and even
+killings with the nonchalance of a man who had served a dozen years in
+jail. His listeners enjoyed the absurdity of the situation, and allowed
+him to talk at random without interruption.
+
+The story telling was brought to an end in a very sensational manner
+indeed. One of the listeners knew that a deputy sheriff was in the
+neighborhood looking out for a dangerous character. Skipping out from
+the party, he hunted up the deputy, and told him that one of the hunted
+man's confederates was in the camp. The deputy, who was new to the
+business and anxious to make a reputation for himself, rushed to the
+camp and arrested the storyteller in spite of his protests. The young
+man, who had been so brave a few minutes before, wept bitterly, and
+begged that some one would telegraph his mother so as to have his
+character established and his liberty assured. The joke was kept up so
+long that the young man was actually placed in safe keeping all night.
+The following morning he was released, as there was nothing whatever
+against him except artistic lying. The speed that he managed to attain
+while hurrying to the nearest railroad station showed that with proper
+training he might have made a good athlete.
+
+He waited around the station until the next train went East, and no
+passenger was more delighted when the conductor said "All aboard," than
+was the youth who was going back home very much discouraged, but very
+considerably enlightened.
+
+On another occasion a typical cowboy was traveling on the cars, and as
+is quite common with members of his profession, had been approached by a
+sickly looking youth, who asked him dozens of questions and evinced a
+great anxiety to embark upon prairie life. There was very little to
+interest the cattle-worker, and after awhile he determined to get rid of
+his not overwelcome, self-introduced friend. He accordingly pointed, out
+a rough-looking man at the far end of the car, and told the questioner
+that he was the leader of a dangerous band of train robbers. The
+individual was probably some hard-working man of perfectly honest
+habits, but the would-be brave young man, who a few moments before had
+been a candidate for a life of danger and hardship, was so horrified at
+the bare idea, that he decided in a moment to emulate the Irishman who
+said he had left his future behind him, and jumped from the moving
+train, preferring a succession of knocks and bruises to actual contact
+with a man of the character he had schooled himself into admiring.
+
+Every man who creates a disturbance, defies the law, and discharges
+fire-arms at random is spoken of as a cowboy, although in a majority of
+instances he has never done a day's work to justify the name. The tough
+man from the East who goes West to play the bad cowboy, is liable to
+find that he has been borrowing trouble. He finds out that an
+altercation is likely to bring him up facing the muzzle of a pistol in
+the hands of a man much more ready to pull the trigger off-hand than to
+waste time in preliminary talk. He soon learns the lesson of
+circumspection and, if he survives the process, his behavior is usually
+modified to fit his new surroundings. A tragic illustration of the
+results that may come from a tenderfoot's attempt to masquerade as a bad
+man west of the Mississippi River, took place in the winter of 1881-82
+in New Mexico, on a southward-bound Atchison train. One of the strangers
+was terrorizing the others. He was a tough-looking fellow from some
+Eastern city; he had been drinking, and he paraded the cars talking
+loudly and profanely, trying to pick quarrels with passengers and
+frequently flourishing a revolver. The train hands did not seem inclined
+to interfere with him, and among the people aboard whom he directly
+insulted, he did not happen to hit upon any one who had the sand or the
+disposition to call him down.
+
+Toward the members of a theatrical company, traveling in one of the
+coaches, he particularly directed his violence and insults. His conduct
+with them at last became unbearable, and when, after threatening two
+actors with his revolver and frightening the women to the verge of
+hysterics, he passed onward into another car, a hurried council of war
+was held in the coach be had just vacated, and every man who had a
+pistol got it in readiness, with the understanding that if he returned,
+he was to be shot down at the first aggressive movement. But that phase
+of trouble was averted, for, as it happened, he remained in the car
+ahead until, at dusk, the train rolled into Albuquerque.
+
+Here the proprietor of the Armijo House was at the station with his
+hackman awaiting the train's arrival. He called out the name of his
+house at the door of one car, and then turning to the hackman said: "You
+take care of the passengers in this car, and I will go to the next."
+
+These inoffensive words caught the ear of the tough man from the East,
+who was pushing his way to the car platform. He drew his pistol and
+started for the nearest man on the station platform, shouting:
+
+"You'll take care of us, will you? I'll show you smart fellows out here
+that you are not able to take care of me."
+
+He flourished his revolver as he spoke and, just as his feet struck the
+second step of the car, he fired, the ball passing over the head of the
+man on the station platform. The sound of his pistol was quickly
+followed by two loud reports, and the tough man fell forward upon the
+platform dead. The man at whom he had apparently fired had drawn his
+revolver and shot him twice through the heart.
+
+A crowd gathered as the train rolled on, leaving the tough man where he
+had fallen. Of course the man who killed him, a gambler of the town, was
+fully exonerated at the inquest, and was never even indicted for the
+killing.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+WARDS OF OUR NATIVE LAND.
+
+The Indians' Admirers and Critics--At School and After--Indian Courtship
+and Marriage--Extraordinary Dances--Gambling by Instinct--How
+"Cross-Eye" Lost his Pony--Pawning a Baby--Amusing and Degrading Scenes
+on Annuity Day.
+
+
+Opinions differ materially as to the rights and wrongs, privileges and
+grievances, and worthiness and worthlessness of the North American
+Indian. Some people think that the red man has been shamefully treated
+and betrayed by the white man, and that the catalogue of his grievances
+is as long as the tale of woe the former is apt to tell, whenever he can
+make himself understood by a sympathetic listener.
+
+Holders of this opinion live for the most part in districts where there
+are no Indians located.
+
+There are others who think that the Indian has been absurdly pampered by
+the Government, and that it would be as sensible to try to change the
+arrangement of seasons as to attempt to prevent the survival of the
+fittest, or, in other words, to interfere with the gradual, but in their
+opinion inevitable, extermination of the Indian.
+
+Those holding this extreme view are for the most part those who live
+near Indian reservations, and who have had opportunities of studying the
+red man's character.
+
+Both views are of course unduly severe. As a useful citizen the Indian
+varies considerably, and it is rather as an interesting study that we
+approach the subject.
+
+Civilization has a very peculiar effect upon the American Indian. The
+schools for Indian children are well managed, and the education imparted
+should be sufficient to prevent the possibility of a relapse into the
+unsatisfactory habits and the traditional uncleanliness of the different
+tribes. Sometimes the effect of education is excellent. There are many
+Indians to be found who have adopted civilized modes of living, and who
+have built up homes and amassed little fortunes by farming, raising
+cattle and trading. Some of the Indians, notably those of the five
+civilized tribes or nations in Indian Territory, resemble white men in
+appearance very much. They will sometimes work side by side with swarthy
+Caucasians, whose skin has been tanned by exposure to the sun, and
+except for the exceptionally high cheek bone and the peculiarly straight
+hair, there is little to distinguish the Indian from the white man.
+
+But these cases are exceptions to the general rule, which is that
+education is looked upon by Indians as a degradation rather than
+otherwise. Great difficulty is often experienced in persuading parents
+to allow their children to be taken to the training schools at all, and
+so much compulsion is often necessary that an appearance of kidnaping is
+imparted. The first thing that is done with an Indian boy or girl
+admitted to one of these schools, is to wash the newcomer with
+considerable vigor from head to foot, and to cut off the superfluous,
+and, generally speaking, thickly matted hair.
+
+The comfort of short hair, neatly combed and brushed, seldom impresses
+itself upon the youthful brave. For obvious reasons this is, however,
+insisted upon, and while the boy is at school he is kept neat and clean.
+Directly, however, he returns to his tribe he is in danger of relapsing
+into the habits of his forefathers. Too often he is sneered at for his
+neatness. His short hair is looked upon as an offense, and he is
+generally willing to fall in with tribal fashions, abandon his neat
+clothing, and let his hair grow and his face accumulate the regulation
+amount of dust and dirt.
+
+The Indian trader and the pioneer generally will tell you that the only
+good Indian is a dead Indian. He will repeat this adage until it becomes
+wearisome in its monotony. Then, perhaps, he will vary it by telling you
+that of all the mean Indians the educated one is the meanest. This is
+only true in some instances, but it is a fact that education does not
+invariably benefit the Indian at all.
+
+Almost all Indians are passionately fond of dancing. Several books have
+been written descriptive of the various dances of different tribes. Some
+of them have a hidden meaning and dangerous significance, while others
+are merely for the purpose of amusement and recreation. For these dances
+the Indians generally put on the most fancy costumes they have, and
+their movements are sometimes graceful and sometimes grotesque. The sign
+dance, as seen in some of the Southwestern tribes, is a curious one. One
+of the belles of the tribe leads a man into the dancing apartment, which
+consists of one of two tepees thrown together. In one are the tomtom
+beaters, in the other the dancers. In this room the couple begin to
+dance, making signs to each other, the meaning of which may be: "Well,
+what do you think of me? Do you like me? Do you think me pretty? How do
+I affect you?" and so on, the signs all being closely watched by the
+spectators, who applaud, giggle, chuckle or laugh uproariously by turns,
+as the case may be. Such a dance is a questioning bee, a collision of
+wits on the part of two really facetious Indians.
+
+Wit is a universal trait of the savage. Some white men draw. All Indians
+draw. Some white men are cunning. All Indians are cunning. Some white
+men are humorous. All Indians are witty. Dry wit, with a proverbial
+philosophy in it which would have delighted the soul of Tupper, is
+indigenous to the Indian. The Indian is the finest epigrammist on earth.
+His sentences are pithy and sententious, because short--never long and
+involved. A book of Indian wit and wisdom would have an enormous sale,
+and reveal the very core of his thought on a typical scale.
+
+The Indian flirt is sweet, saucy, subtle, seductive. She has the art of
+keeping in stock constantly about her a score of bucks, each one of whom
+flatters himself that he, and he alone, is the special object of her
+admiration. Every tribe has had its belle. Poquite for the Modocs,
+Ur-ska-te-na for the Navajos, Mini-haha for the Dakotas, Romona for the
+neighboring bands. These belles have their foes among Indian women, but,
+however cordially hated, they never brawl or come to blows.
+
+Love-making is one of the interesting night scenes in an Indian camp.
+When a young man wants to court a pretty red couquette, he stands at the
+door of his lodge on a bright day and flashes a ray of light from his
+sun-glass on the face of his sweetheart far away. She sees the ray as it
+falls on her, and follows in the direction whence it is thrown, right or
+left. She understands the secret of these flash lights. Soon the lovers
+meet, each under a blanket; not a word, not a salutation is exchanged;
+they stand near each other for a time and then retire, only to repeat
+the affair day after day.
+
+At last, upon some favorable night, the Indian youth visits the door of
+her lodge; she comes out and sits down on the ground beside him; still
+no word is spoken. At last she arises from the ground; he also rises,
+and standing before her, throws his blanket over both of them. No sooner
+has he done so than she doffs her blanket, letting it fall upon the
+ground, which is the admission on her part that she loves him, and does
+him obeisance as her future lord and master.
+
+Every Indian camp at night is full of such lovers, with wooings as
+sweet, lips as willing, embraces as fond, lives as romantic, hearts as
+true, and elopements as daring and desperate as ever graced a Spanish
+court. The old people come together with their friends and hold a
+council. "How many ponies can he pay for her?" has a good deal to do
+with the eligibility of the suitor. That night he brings his articles of
+dowry to the door of his fiancee. If they are still there next morning,
+he is rejected; if not, accepted.
+
+No formal marriage ceremony is gone through as a rule. The heart is the
+certificate and the Great Spirit the priest. Under the tribal government
+of the Indians, the rights of women were respected and clearly defined.
+She was the head of the house, and all property, save an insignificant
+amount, descended at death to her. She was in many tribes personified as
+the principal object of worship, prayer and adoration, in the tutelary
+goddess of the tribe. Now all is changed. The Indian of to-day is not
+the Indian of fifty years ago, and cannot be studied in the same light.
+His manners, customs and habits are all changed, and polygamy, more and
+more, creeps in with all its appalling degradations.
+
+On special occasions an entire tribe is gathered under an open space in
+the cottonwoods to celebrate their principal dances. Hands are wildly
+waved above the heads of the dancers around a central fire of logs,
+piled in a conical heap. Around this blazing pile runs the dark circle
+which was built at sunset, inclosing sacred ground, which must not be
+trespassed on. The old chanter stands at the gate of the corral and
+sings. The men built the dark circle in less than an hour. When done,
+the corral measures forty paces in diameter. Around it stands a fence
+eight feet high, with a gate in the east ten feet wide.
+
+At night-fall many of the Navajo people move, temporarily, all their
+goods and property into the corral, and abandon their huts or hogans.
+Those who do not move in are watchers to protect their property, for
+there are thieves among the Navajos. At 8 o'clock a band of musicians
+enters, and, sitting down, begins a series of cacophonous sounds on a
+drum. As soon as the music begins, the great wood pile is lighted. The
+conflagration spreads rapidly and lights the whole landscape and the
+sky. A storm of red, whirling sparks fly upward, like bright golden bees
+from out a hive, to a height of a hundred feet. The descending ashes
+fall in the corral like a light shower of snow. The heat soon grows so
+intense that in the remotest parts of the enclosure it is necessary for
+a person to screen his face when he looks towards the fire.
+
+Suddenly a warning whistle is heard in the outer darkness, and a dozen
+forms, lithe and lean, dressed only with the narrow white breech-clout
+and mocassins, and daubed with white earth until they seem a group of
+living marbles, come bounding through the entrance, yelping like wolves,
+and slowly moving round the fire. As they advance, in single file, they
+throw their bodies into diverse attitudes, some graceful, some strained,
+some difficult, some menacing, and all grotesque. Now they face the
+east, now the west, now the south, now the north, bearing aloft their
+slender wands, tipped with eagle down, holding and waving them with
+surprising effects. Their course around the fire is to the left, east,
+west, south, north, a course invariably taken by all the dancers of the
+night.
+
+When they have circled the fire twice, they begin to thrust their wands
+toward it. Their object is to try to burn off the tip of eagle down.
+They dash up to the fire, crawl up to it on their faces, run up holding
+their heads sidewise, dart up backward and approach it in all sorts of
+attitudes. Suddenly, one approaching the flaming pile throws himself on
+his back, with his head to the fire, and swiftly thrusts his wand into
+the flames. Many are the unsuccessful attempts, but at length, one by
+one, they all succeed in burning the downy balls from the end of their
+wands. As each accomplishes his feat, it becomes necessary, as the next
+duty, to restore the ball of down, which is done by refitting the ring
+held in the hand with down upon it, and putting it on the head of the
+aromatic sumac wand.
+
+The dance customs and ideas differ with the tribes and localities.
+Sometimes the dance is little more than an exhibition of powers of
+endurance. Men or women, or both, go through fatiguing motions for hours
+and even days in succession, astounding spectators by their disregard of
+the traditions of their race, so far as idleness is concerned. Other
+dances are grotesque and brutal. On special occasions weird ceremonies
+are indulged in, and the proceedings are sensational in the extreme.
+
+Of the ghost dance and its serious import, readers of the daily papers
+are familiar. Of the war dances of the different tribes a great deal has
+also been written, and altogether the dance lore of the American Indian
+is replete with singular incongruities and picturesque anomalies.
+Dancing with the Indian is often a religious exercise. It involves
+hardship at times, and occasionally the participants even mutilate
+themselves in their enthusiasm. Some of the tribes of the Southwest
+dance, as we shall see later, with venomous snakes in their hands,
+allowing themselves to be bitten, and relying on the power of the
+priests to save them from evil consequences.
+
+The Indians gamble as if by instinct. On one occasion the writer was
+visiting a frontier town just after its settlement. Indians were present
+in very large numbers, and in a variety of ways they got hold of a good
+deal of money. The newcomers from the Eastern States were absolutely
+unprepared for the necessary privations of frontier life. Hence they
+were willing to purchase necessary articles at almost any price, while
+they were easily deluded into buying all sorts of articles for which
+they had no possible need. The Indians, who are supposed to be
+civilized, took full advantage of the situation, and brought into town
+everything that was of a salable character, frequently obtaining three
+or four times the local cash value.
+
+With the money thus obtained they gambled desperately. One Indian, who
+boasted of the terrible name of "Cross-Eye," brought in two ponies to
+sell. One of them was an exceptionally ancient-looking animal, which had
+long since outlived its usefulness, and which, under ordinary local
+conditions, could certainly have been purchased for $4.00 or $5.00. A
+friendly Indian met Mr. "Cross-Eye", and a conversation ensued as to the
+value of the pony and the probable price that it would realize. The two
+men soon got angry on the subject, and finally the owner of the pony bet
+his animal's critic the pony against $20.00 that it would realize at
+least the last-named sum.
+
+With this extra stimulus for driving a good bargain, the man offered his
+pony to a number of white men, and finally found one who needed an
+animal at once, and who was willing to pay $20.00 for the antiquated
+quadruped. "Cross-Eye" made a number of guttural noises indicative of
+his delight, and promptly collected the second $20.00.
+
+He had thus practically sold a worthless pony for $40.00, and had it not
+been for his innate passion for gambling, would have done a very good
+day's business. A few hours later, however, he was found looking very
+disconsolate, and trying very hard to sell some supposed curiosities for
+a few dollars with which to buy a blanket he sorely needed. His
+impecuniosity was easily explained. Instead of proceeding at once to
+sell his second pony, he turned his attention first to gambling, and in
+less than an hour his last dollar had gone. Then, with the gamester's
+desperation, he had put up his second pony as a final stake, with the
+result that he lost his money and his stock in trade as well. He took
+the situation philosophically and stoically, but when he found it
+impossible in the busy pioneer town to get even the price of a drink of
+whisky for his curiosities, he began to get reckless, and was finally
+escorted out of the town by two or three of his friends to prevent him
+getting mixed up in a fight.
+
+When the Indians have enough energy they gamble almost day and night.
+The women themselves are generally kept under sufficient subjection by
+their husbands to make gambling on their part impossible, so far as the
+actual playing of games of chance is concerned. But they stand by and
+watch the men. They stake their necklaces, leggings, ornaments, and in
+fact, their all, on the play, which is done sometimes with blue wild
+plum-stones, hieroglyphically charactered, and sometimes with playing
+bones, but oftener with common cards. Above the ground the tom-tom would
+be sounded, but below ground the tom-tom was buried.
+
+An Indian smokes incessantly while he gambles. Putting the cigarette or
+cigar to his mouth he draws in the smoke in long, deep breaths, until he
+has filled his lungs completely, when he begins slowly to emit the smoke
+from his nose, little by little, until it is all gone. The object of
+this with the Indian is to steep his senses more deeply with the
+narcotizing soporific. The tobacco they smoke is generally their own
+raising.
+
+"The thing that moved me most," writes a traveler, describing a visit to
+an Indian gambling den, "was the spectacle in the furthest corner of the
+'shack' of an Indian mother, with a pappoose in its baby-case peeping
+over her back. There she stood behind an Indian gambler, to whom she had
+joined her life, painted and beaded and half intoxicated. The Indian
+husband had already put his saddle in pawn to the white professional
+gambler for his $5.00, and it was not five minutes before the white
+gambler had the saddle and $5.00 both. Then, when they had nothing else
+left to bet, so intense was their love for gambling, they began to put
+themselves in pawn, piecemeal, saying: 'I'll bet you my whole body.'
+That means 'I'll put myself in pawn to you as your slave to serve you as
+you will for a specified time.'
+
+"So it was that this Indian mother stood leaning back wearily against
+the wall, half drunk and dazed with smoke and heat, when all at once the
+Indian who lived with her said to her in Indian: 'Put in the baby for a
+week. Then pay-day will come.' It was done. The baby was handed over.
+That is what civilization has done for the Indian. Its virtues escapes
+him; its vices inoculate him."
+
+One of these vices is gambling. The Indian is kept poor all the year
+round and plucked of every pinfeather. That is the principal reason why
+he steals, not only to reimburse himself for loss, but also to avenge
+himself upon the white man, who he knows well enough has constantly
+robbed him.
+
+Gambling, as witnessed in the Indian camp at night, is a very different
+affair from the cache. The tom-tom notifies all that the bouts with
+fortune are about to begin. During the game the music is steadily kept
+up. In the intervals between the games the players all sing. Crowds
+surround the camp. When a man loses heavily the whole camp knows it in a
+few minutes, and not infrequently the wife rushes in and puts a stop to
+the stake by driving her chief away. Gambling is the great winter game.
+It is often played from morning till night, and right along all night
+long. Cheating and trickery of every sort are practiced.
+
+"Lizwin" or "mescal" are the two drinks made by the Indians themselves,
+one from corn and the other from the "maguay" plant. The plains Indians
+drink whisky. To gamble is to drink, and to drink is to lose. Gambling
+is the hardest work that you can persuade an Indian to do, unless
+threatened by starvation. Different tribes gamble differently.
+
+The Comanches, undoubtedly, have by far the most exciting and
+fascinating gambling games. The Comanche puzzles, tricks and problems
+are also decidedly superior to those of any other nation. The gambling
+bone is used by the Comanches. The leader of the game holds it up before
+the eyes of all, so that all can see it; he then closes his two hands
+over it, and manipulates it so dexterously in his fingers that it is
+simply impossible to tell which hand the bone is in. In a moment he
+suddenly flings each closed hand on either side of him down into the
+outreaching hand of the player next to him.
+
+The game commences at this point. The whole line of players passes, or
+pretends to pass, this bone on from one to another, until at last every
+hand is waving. All this time the eyes along the opposite line of
+gamblers are eagerly watching each shift and movement of the hands, in
+hopes of discovering the white flash of the bone. At last some one
+descries the hand that holds the bone, or thinks so. He points out and
+calls out for his side. The hand must instantly be thrown up. If it is
+right, the watching side scores a point and takes the bone. The sides
+change off in this way until the game is won. The full score is
+twenty-one points. The excitement produced by this game is at times
+simply indescribable.
+
+The Utes play with two bones in each hand, one of which is wrapped about
+with a string. The game is to guess the hand that holds the wrapped
+bone. The plum-stone game is played by the plains Indians. It is only
+another name for dice throwing. The plum-stones are graved with
+hieroglyphics, and counts are curiously made in a way that often defies
+computation by white men. The women gamble quite as much as the men,
+when they dare, and grow even more excited over the game than their
+lords. Their game, as witnessed among the Cheyennes, is played with
+beads, little loops and long horn sticks made of deer foot.
+
+The children look on and learn to gamble from their earliest childhood,
+and soon learn to cheat and impose on their juniors. Their little
+juvenile gambling operations are done principally with arrows. Winter
+breeds sloth, and sloth begets gambling, and gambling, drink. There is
+no conviviality in Indian drinking bouts. The Indian gets drunk, and
+dead drunk, as soon as he possibly can, and finds his highest enjoyment
+in sleeping it off. His nature reacts viciously under drink, however, in
+many cases, and he is then a dangerous customer.
+
+The women of many tribes are a most pitiable lot of hard working, ragged
+and dirty humanity. Upon them falls all the drudgery of the camp; they
+are "hewers of wood and drawers of water," and bend under immense
+burdens piled upon their backs, while thousands of ponies browse,
+undisturbed, in every direction. As the troops are withdrawn, the squaws
+swoop down upon the deserted camps, and rapidly glean them of all that
+is portable, for use in their domestic economy. An Indian fire would be
+considered a very cheerless affair by the inmates of houses heated by
+modern appliances; but such as it is--a few sticks burning with feeble
+blaze and scarcely penetrating the dense smoke filling the tepee from
+the ground to the small opening at the top--it consumes fuel, and the
+demand is always greater than the supply, for the reason that an Indian
+has no idea of preparation for future necessities. If the fire burns,
+all right; when the last stick is laid on, a squaw will start for a
+fresh supply, no matter how cold and stormy the weather may be.
+
+The poetical Indian maiden may still exist in the vivid imagination of
+extreme youth, but she is not common to-day. The young girls affect gay
+attire, and are exempt from the hardships of toil which are imposed on
+their elder sisters, mothers and grandams, but their fate is infinitely
+worse. Little beauty is to be discerned among them, and in this regard
+time seems to have effaced the types which were prevalent a few years
+ago.
+
+Annuity day is a great event in the life of every Agency Indian, and if
+the reader would see Indian life represented in some of its most
+interesting features, there is no more suitable time to select for a
+visit to any Agency. It is a "grand opening," attended by the whole
+tribe; but the squaws do not enjoy quite the freedom of choice in the
+matter of dress goods, or receive such prompt attention from the clerks
+as our city ladies are accustomed to. Even at 9 o'clock in the morning,
+notwithstanding the fact that the actual distribution would not take
+place until noon, the nation's wards are there, patiently waiting for
+the business of the day to begin. Stakes have been driven into the
+ground to mark the space to be occupied by each band, and behind them,
+arranged in a semicircle, are the different families, under the charge
+of a head man. The bands vary in numbers, both of families and
+individuals, but they all look equally solemn as they sit on the ground,
+with their knees drawn up under their chins, or cross-legged like Turks
+and tailors.
+
+The scene now becomes one of bustle and activity on the part of the
+Agency people, who begin rapidly filling wagon after wagon with goods
+from the store-houses. Blankets of dark blue material, cotton cloth,
+calico of all colors and patterns, red flannel, gay woolen shawls, boots
+and shoes that make one's feet ache to look at them, coffee pots, water
+buckets, axes, and numerous other articles, are piled into each wagon in
+the proportion previously determined by conference with the head men. A
+ticket is then given to the driver, bearing the number of the stake and
+the name of the head man. Away goes the wagon; the goods are thrown out
+on the ground in a pile at the proper stake, and that completes the
+formal transfer to the head man, who then takes charge of them, and,
+with, the assistance of a few of the bucks designated by himself,
+divides the various articles, according to the wants of the families and
+the amount of goods supplied.
+
+During the rush and fury of the issue and division of the goods, the
+sombre figures in the background have scarcely moved. Not one has
+ventured to approach the center where the bucks are at work, measuring
+off the cloth, etc.; they are waiting for the tap of the bell, when they
+will receive just what the head man chooses to give them. There is no
+system of exchange there; it is take what you get or get nothing. In a
+great many cases they do not use the goods at all, but openly offer them
+for sale to the whites, who, no doubt, find it profitable to purchase at
+Indian prices.
+
+As soon as the issue is completed, a crowd of Indians gather in front of
+the trader's store to indulge their passion for gambling, and in a short
+space of time a number of blankets and other articles change hands on
+the result of pony races, foot races or any other species of excitement
+that can be invented. There is a white man on the ground who is, no
+doubt, a professional runner, and the Indians back their favorite
+against him in a purse of over $30.00, which the white man covers, and
+wins the race by a few inches. The Indians will not give up, and make
+similar purses on the two succeeding days, only to lose by an inch or
+two. There is a master of ceremonies, who displays a wonderful control
+over the Indians. He makes all the bets for the red men, collecting
+different amounts for a score or more, but never forgetting a single
+item or person.
+
+Ration day brings out the squaws and dogs in full force; the one to pack
+the rations to camp, and the latter to pick up stray bits. A few at a
+time the squaws enter the store-house and receive their week's supply of
+flour, coffee, sugar, salt, etc., for themselves and families. The beef
+is issued directly from the slaughter-house, and the proceeding is
+anything but appetizing to watch. The beeves to be killed are first
+driven into a corral, where they are shot by the Indian butchers; when
+the poor beasts have been shot to death, they are dragged to the door of
+the slaughter-house and passed through the hands of half-naked bucks,
+who seem to glory in the profusion of blood, and eagerly seek the
+position on account of the perquisites attached to it in the way of
+tempting (?) morsels which usually go to the dogs or on the refuse heap.
+The beef is issued as fast as it can be cut up, at the rate of half a
+pound a day for each person, regardless of age; bacon is also issued as
+a part of the meat ration.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+CIVILIZATION--ACTUAL AND ALLEGED.
+
+Tried in the Balances and Found Wanting--Indian Archers--Bow and Arrow
+Lore--Barbarous Customs that Die Slowly--"Great Wolf," the Indian
+Vanderbilt--How the Seri were Taught a Valuable Lesson--Playing with
+Rattlesnakes with Impunity.
+
+
+Does Prohibition prohibit? is a question politicians and social
+reformers ask again and again. Does civilization civilize? is a question
+which is asked almost exclusively by persons who are interested in the
+welfare of the American Indian, and who come in daily contact with him.
+
+In the preceding chapter we have seen some little of the peculiar habits
+of the American Indian, civilized and otherwise, and it will be
+interesting now to see to what extent the white man's teaching has
+driven away primeval habits of living, hunting and fighting. Within the
+last few weeks, evidence of a most valuable character on this question
+has been furnished by the report submitted to the Secretary of the
+Interior by the Commission sent to investigate matters concerning the
+five civilized tribes of Indians in the Indian Territory. This says that
+they have demonstrated their incapacity to govern themselves, and
+recommends that the trust that has been reposed in them by the
+Government should be revoked.
+
+The courts of justice have become helpless and paralyzed. Murder,
+violence and robbery are an every-day occurrence. It was learned by the
+Commission that fifty-three murders occurred in the months of September
+and October in one tribe only, and not one of the culprits was brought
+to justice. The Dawes Commission recommends that a large portion of the
+Indian reservation be annexed to Oklahoma; this action to be followed by
+forming that country into a Territory. But to accomplish this, it would
+be necessary that the consent of the Indians be obtained, and this is
+doubtful.
+
+The statement that the Indians have cast aside their ancient weapons and
+adopted more modern ones, and that through the use of them, they are
+gradually extending their hunting grounds beyond the lines of their
+reservations, is false. The report of the Commission makes this clearly
+known. Throughout the West the Indians still trust to their bows and
+arrows. On the northwest coast most of the Indians live by hunting and
+fishing. They use principally the bow and arrow, knife, war club and
+lance. In the North Pacific Ocean are several islands inhabited only by
+Indians. In the Queen Charlotte and the Prince of Wales Archipelago is
+found one of the most remarkable races of aborigines on the American
+continent. These are the Haida tribes, and consist of strikingly
+intelligent Indians. They acquire knowledge readily; learn trades and
+exhibit much ingenuity in following the teachings of missionaries and
+traders. But for all that, they still cling with something bordering
+upon affection to the primitive weapons of their race.
+
+During the long winter nights the old Indians seat themselves before the
+fire and carve bows, ornament club handles, and feather and point
+arrows. Perhaps in some of the tepees hang polished guns furnished by
+the Government, but they are more for ornament than use. This evening
+work is accompanied by the low croaking of some old Indian, who tells
+over again the legends, folk-lore and nursery tales of their
+grandfathers and grandmothers.
+
+The Haida tribe is more rapidly advancing in civilization than any of
+its neighbors, yet they still carve and paint bows, arrows, club handles
+and paddles. The Indians still cling to other rude implements and take
+not kindly to metal ones. Rude knives are still used for skinning deer,
+especially by the old Indians. The axe, of course, is employed for
+cutting trees and excavating canoes and mortars. It has really taken the
+place of the stone chisel, yet many old men prefer burning the roots of
+the tree until it can be made to fall by giving it a few hacks with the
+rude stone hatchet.
+
+In archery, the Indian has scarcely been excelled. With a quick eye and
+a powerful muscle, he sends the arrow as unerringly as the archers of
+olden time.
+
+The Indian bow is usually from three and one-half to four feet in
+length, with such a difficult spring that one with no experience can
+scarcely bend it sufficiently to set the string. Different tribes, of
+course, carry bows of different lengths, the Senecas having the longest.
+The best of woods for making bows are Osage orange, hickory, ash, elm,
+cedar, plum and cherry; some of these are strengthened with sinews and
+glue. Almost every tribe has three sizes, the largest being used for war
+purposes, and until an Indian can handle this war bow, he is not
+considered entitled to be called a warrior.
+
+Some claim the Sioux and the Crows make the best bows, although the
+Apaches come close in the rank. When the Sioux bow is unstrung, it is a
+straight piece of wood, while the Apaches and the Southern Indians make
+a perfect Cupid's bow. The Crows often use elk horns as material, and
+carve them beautifully. The Sioux, to make the straight piece of wood
+more elastic, string the backs with sinews. Often these are beautifully
+beaded and leathered, quite equaling, as a piece of art, the elaborate
+elk horn bows made by the Crows. The Comanches' bows are covered with
+sinew, much like those of the Apaches. The object of practice is to
+enable the bowman to draw the bow with sudden and instant effect. It is
+seldom that the Indian has need of throwing the arrow to a great
+distance.
+
+The bow of the Western Indian is small and apparently insignificant,
+though its owner makes it very powerful, indeed. From his babyhood days
+he has habituated it to his use, until it has become, as it were, a very
+part of his nature. The Indian studies to get the greatest power out of
+the smallest possible compass, and he finds a short bow on horseback far
+more easily used and much more reliable in its execution. In the Far
+West, bows are made largely of ash, and are lined with layers of buffalo
+or deer sinews on the back. The Blackfeet have in use very valuable bows
+of bone. Other tribes make use of the horns of mountain sheep. Sometimes
+the bone bows will fetch very large sums of money, and deals have been
+noticed in which the consideration for one of them was a pair of ponies,
+with five pounds of butter thrown in as make-weight.
+
+An athletic Indian on a fleet horse can do terrible execution with one
+of these bows, which, even in these days of repeating rifles, is by no
+means to be despised as a weapon. No one can estimate the force of a
+throw from one of them when an artistic archer is in charge. The effects
+from a wound from an arrow are so distressing that it is quite common to
+accuse an Indian of using poisoned arrows, when possibly such a fiendish
+idea never entered his head. Only those who have ridden side by side
+with an Indian hunter really know how much more powerful an arrow shot
+is than the average man supposes.
+
+In war the Indians would even now arm themselves in part with bow,
+quiver, lance, war club and shield. The Northwestern tribes are partial
+to fighting with the bow and lance, protected with a shield. This shield
+is worn outside of the left arm, after the manner of the Roman and
+Grecian shield.
+
+The Western Indians are fonder of horseback riding than the Eastern
+tribes, and have learned to wield their weapons while mounted. They are
+taught to kill game while running at full speed, and prefer to fight on
+horseback. Some of them are great cowards when dismounted, but seated on
+an Indian pony they are undaunted.
+
+It is a mistake to suppose that arrow-heads are no longer manufactured;
+the art of fashioning them is not lost. Almost every tribe manufactures
+its own. Bowlders of flint are broken with a sledge-hammer made of a
+rounded pebble of hornstone set in a twisted withe. This bone is thought
+to be the tooth of the sperm whale. In Oregon the Indian arrow is still
+pointed with flint. The Iroquois also used flint until they laid aside
+the arrow for the lack of anything to hunt. The Iroquois youth, though
+the rifle has been introduced largely into his tribe, will have none of
+it, but takes naturally to the bow and arrow. Steel for arrow-heads is
+furnished by the fur-traders in the Rocky Mountains, and iron heads are
+often made from old barrel hoops, fashioned with a piece of sandstone.
+In shooting with the bow and arrow on horseback, the Indian horse is
+taught to approach the animal attacked on the right side, enabling its
+rider to throw the arrow to the left. Buffalo Bill was an adept at
+slaughtering game on horseback, and he won his great bet at killing the
+greatest number of buffaloes, by following the custom of the Indians and
+shooting to the left. The horse approaches the animal, his halter
+hanging loose upon his neck, bringing the rider within three or four
+paces of the game, when the arrow or rifle ball is sent with ease and
+certainty through the heart.
+
+Indians who have the opportunity to ride nowadays, still exercise with a
+lance twelve or fifteen feet in length. In their war games and dances
+they always appear with this lance and shield. The spears are modern and
+have a blade of polished steel, and the shields are made of skin. Those
+of old make are of buffalo neck. The skin is soaked and hardened with a
+glue extracted from the hoofs. The shields are arrow-proof, and will
+throw off a rifle shot if held obliquely, and this the Indian can do
+with great skill. Since there is no war or the occasion for the use of
+these arms, except in games of practice, many of the Indians, for a few
+bottles of "fire water," have sold their best shields, and now they are
+seen scattered over the country, preserved as curios.
+
+It is folly to assume that the Indians have wholly or partly done away
+with their barbaric customs. In their celebrations it is their great joy
+to cast off their clothing and to paint their bodies all colors of the
+rainbow, wear horns on their heads and make themselves look as hideous
+as possible. The arrow game is introduced--never are there
+demonstrations with the modern weapons--and the man is esteemed above
+all others who can throw the greatest number of arrows in the sky before
+the first one falls. In hunting, the Sioux kill muskrats with spears, as
+they did in early days spear the buffaloes, managing to get close to
+them by being dressed in wolf skin, and going on all fours. There are
+Indians who would, on horseback, attack and kill a bear with a lance,
+but are afraid to molest the animal unless they have the Indian pony as
+a means of escape.
+
+The arrow-heads of chert used for hunting are peculiarly fastened, in
+order to make the arrow revolve. The Indian feathers the arrow for the
+same purpose, and also carves the arrow shaft with a spiral groove. This
+is not, as has been supposed, to let the blood out of the wound, but to
+make the arrow carry.
+
+Every tribe has its own arrow. It is claimed that the Pawnees are the
+best manufacturers. The Comanches feather their arrows with two
+feathers; the Navajos, Utes and all Apaches, except the Tontos, have
+three feathers--the Tontos using four feathers for each shaft. The bird
+arrow is the very smallest made.
+
+"I have practiced" says one traveler, "for hours with the Utes,
+uselessly trying to blame the twist of the feathered arrow for my bad
+shots. The Indians say the carving and feathers are so arranged as to
+give the arrow the correct motion, and one old chief on seeing the twist
+in the rifle barrel by which the ball is made to revolve in the same
+manner, claimed that the white man stole his idea from the Indian."
+
+Stones, with grooves around their greatest circumference, are secured to
+a handle by a withe or thong and become war clubs. They are dangerous
+weapons in the hand of an Indian. Tomahawks, manufactured by white men,
+have succeeded the war club in a way, as it is claimed the rifle has the
+bow and arrow. Recent tomahawks taken from the Indians bear an English
+trade-mark. They originally cost about 15 cents, and were sold to the
+Indians for nothing less than a horse, and perhaps two.
+
+Chief "Wolf," an Indian Croesus, and the Vanderbilt of the red men,
+though he is worth over $500,000 and drives at times in an elegant
+coach, clings closely to his tepee, ever demonstrating the savage part
+of his life.
+
+He lives at Fishhook Bay, on the Snake River, in the State of
+Washington. He is of the Palouse Snake Indians, and though he has a
+comfortable house, he never sleeps there, but goes to the tepee, no
+matter how inclement the weather. In the days when the buffalo were
+plenty, "Wolf" was a great hunter. He tells a tale of driving 3,000
+bison over a bluff near the Snake, where they were all killed by the
+fall. This is supposed to be true, because until late years the place
+was a mass of bones. Though he has his guns and all the modern
+fire-arms, both he and his children cling to the primitive weapons of
+war.
+
+The correspondence between the Governments of the United States and
+Mexico over the brutal murder of two men by the Seri Indians, seems to
+show that some at least of the North American Indians have gained
+nothing at all from the civilizing influences which are supposed to have
+extended for so many years. The deed had no other motive than pure
+fiendishness. Small as is the tribe of Seris--they number only about 200
+souls--these savages are the most blood-thirsty in North America. For a
+long time they have terrorized Sonora, but the Mexican Government seems
+powerless to control them.
+
+The tribe was visited recently by an expedition from the Bureau of
+Ethnology, which has just returned to Washington with some very
+interesting information. Prof. W. J. McGee, who led the party, says: "It
+is understood that the Seris are cannibals--at all events they eat every
+white man they can slay. They are cruel and treacherous beyond
+description. Toward the white man, their attitude is exactly the same as
+that of a white man toward a rattlesnake--they kill him as a matter of
+course, unless restrained by fear. Never do they fight in open warfare,
+but always lie in ambush. They are copper-colored Ishmaelites. It is
+their custom to murder everybody, white, red or Mexican, who ventures to
+enter the territory they call their own."
+
+In many respects the Seris are the most interesting tribe of savages in
+North America. They are decidedly more primitive in their way than any
+other Indians, having scarcely any arts worth mentioning. In fact, they
+have not yet advanced as far as the stone age. The only stone implement
+in common use among them is a rude hammer of that material, which they
+employ for beating clay to make a fragile and peculiar kind of pottery.
+When one of the squaws wishes to make meal of mesquite beans, and she
+has no utensil for the purpose, she looks about until she finds a rock
+with an upper surface, conveniently hollow, and on this she places the
+beans, pounding them with an ordinary stone.
+
+The Seris live on the Island of Tiburon, in the Gulf of California. They
+also claim 5,000 square miles of the mainland in Sonora. Their dwellings
+are the rudest imaginable. A chance rock commonly serves for one wall of
+the habitation; stones are piled up so as to make a small enclosure, and
+the shell of a single great turtle does for a roof. The house is always
+open on one side, and is not intended as a shelter from storms, but
+chiefly to keep off the sun. The men and women wear a single garment
+like a petticoat, made of pelican skin; the children are naked. Not far
+from Tiburon, which is about thirty miles long by fifteen miles wide,
+there is a smaller island where pelicans roost in vast numbers. The
+Seris go at night and with sticks knock over as many birds as they
+require.
+
+These Indians are fond of carrion. It makes no difference to them
+whether a horse has died a natural death a week or a month ago, they
+devour the flesh greedily. The feet of the animal they boil until those
+parts are tender enough to bite. The Seris are among the very dirtiest
+of savages. Their habits in all respects are filthy. They seem to have
+almost no amusements, though the children play with the very rudest
+dolls. Before the whites came they used pieces of shells for cutting
+instruments. They are accustomed to killing deer by running and
+surrounding the animals. No traditions of sufficient interest to justify
+recording in print appear to exist among these people. The most
+interesting ornament seen on any member of the tribe was a necklace of
+human hair, adorned with the rattles of rattlesnakes, which abound in
+the territory infested with these remnants of all that is most
+objectionable among the aboriginal red men of this continent.
+
+Physically speaking, the Seris are most remarkable. They are of great
+stature, the men averaging nearly six feet in height, with splendid
+chests. But the most noticeable point about them is their legs, which
+are very slender and sinewy, resembling the legs of the deer. Since the
+first coming of the Spaniards they have been known to other tribes as
+the runners. It is said that they can run from 150 to 200 miles per day,
+not pausing for rest. The jack rabbit is considered a very fleet animal,
+yet these Indians are accustomed to catch jack rabbits by outrunning
+them.
+
+For this purpose, three men or boys go together. If the rabbit ran
+straight away from the pursuer it could not be taken, but its instinct
+is to make its flight by zigzags. The hunters arrange themselves a short
+distance apart. As quickly as one of them starts a rabbit, a second
+Indian runs as fast as he can along a line parallel with the course
+taken by the animal. Presently the rabbit sees the second Indian, and
+dashes off at a tangent. By this time the third hunter has come up and
+gives the quarry another turn. After the third or fourth zigzag, the
+rabbit is surrounded, and the hunters quickly close in upon him and grab
+him.
+
+It is an odd fact that this method of catching jack rabbits is precisely
+the same as that adopted by coyotes, which work similarily by threes. By
+this strategy, these wild dogs capture the rabbits, though the latter
+are more fleet by far. It is believed that no other human being
+approaches the Seris in celerity of movement. A favorite sport of the
+boys is lassoing dogs. Mongrel curs are the only animals domesticated by
+these wild people. For amusement sake, the boys take their dogs to a
+clear place and drive them in all directions, then they capture the
+frightened animals by running and throwing the lassos, which are made of
+human hair. They have no difficulty in overtaking the dogs.
+
+One day, a party of boys returning with their dogs after a bout of this
+sport, passed near a bush in which there were three or four blackbirds;
+on spying the birds, they dashed toward the bush and tried to catch them
+with their hands; they did not succeed, though one of the birds only
+escaped with the loss of several feathers. Some women of the tribe were
+watching, and they actually jeered at the boys for their failure. The
+boys were so mortified that they did not go into camp, but went off and
+sat by themselves in the shade of a greasewood bush. What white man or
+boy would think of catching blackbirds in such a way? Yet non-success in
+an attempt of that kind was the exception and not the rule. The Seris
+often take birds in this fashion.
+
+Senor Encinas was the pioneer in that region. He found good grazing
+country in the territory claimed by the Seris, and so established his
+stock farm there. He brought priests with him to convert the savages,
+and caught a couple of the latter to educate as interpreters. The plan
+for civilizing the Indians proved a failure. They did not care to become
+Christians, and they killed the Senor's stock. So, finally, the Senor
+decided to adopt a new course of procedure. He summoned the Indians to a
+council, as many of them as would come, and informed them that from that
+time on he and his vaqueros would slay an Indian for every head of
+cattle that was killed. At the same time he sent away the priests and
+engaged an additional number of vaqueros.
+
+The Indians paid no attention to the warning, and a few days later they
+killed several head of cattle. Without delay the Senor and his men
+coralled and killed a corresponding number of the Seris. Then there was
+war. The savages made ambushes, but they had only bows and arrows, and
+the vaqueros fought bravely with their guns. Every ambush turned out
+disastrously for the Indians. Finally, the Seris made a great ambush,
+and there was a battle which resulted in the killing of sixty-five
+savages. The lesson proved sufficient, and the Indians were glad to
+conclude a permanent peace, agreeing that no further depredations
+against the Senor or his property should be attempted. From beginning to
+end the fighting lasted ten years.
+
+After the killing of the two Americans, the Seris were very much afraid
+of reprisals. For a good while they did not dare to come to the ranch of
+Senor Encinas, but at length one old woman came for the philosophical
+purpose of seeing if she would be killed. She was well treated and went
+away. Eventually confidence was restored, and about sixty of the savages
+were visiting on the premises.
+
+No other people in North America have so few conceptions of civilization
+as the Seris. They have absolutely no agriculture. As well as can be
+ascertained they never put a seed into the ground or cultivate a plant.
+They live almost wholly on fish, water fowl, and such game as they kill
+on the main land. The game includes large deer, like black tails, and
+exquisite species of dwarf deer, about the size of a three months' fawn,
+pecarries, wild turkeys, prairie dogs, rabbits and quail. They take very
+large green turtles in the Gulf of California. Mesquite beans they eat
+both cooked and raw. The mesquite is a small tree that bears seeds in
+pods.
+
+The snake dance is another evidence of the comparative failure of
+civilization to civilize. This is seen chiefly in the vicinity of the
+Grand Canon of the Colorado. Venomous rattlesnakes are used in the
+dance, which is an annual affair. Hundreds of snakes are caught for the
+occasion, and when the great day arrives the devotees rush into the
+corral and each seizes a rattler for his purpose. Reliable authorities,
+who have witnessed this dance, vouch for the fact that the snakes are
+not in any way robbed of their power to implant their poisonous fangs
+into the flesh of the dancers. It even appears as though the greater the
+number of bites, the more delighted are the participants, who hold the
+reptiles in the most careless manner and allow them to strike where they
+will, and to plant their horrible fangs into the most vulnerable parts
+with impunity. When the dance is over, the snakes are taken back to the
+woods and given their liberty, the superstition prevailing that for the
+space of one year the reptiles will protect the tribe from all ill or
+suffering.
+
+The main interest attached to this dance is the secret of why it is the
+dancers do not die promptly. No one doubts the power of the rattlesnake
+to kill. Liberal potations of whisky are supposed by some people to
+serve as an antidote, while Mexicans and some tribes of Indians claim to
+have knowledge of a herb which will also prolong the life of a man stung
+by a snake and apparently doomed to an early death. Tradition tells us
+that for the purposes of this dance, a special antidote has been handed
+down from year to year, and from generation to generation, by the
+priests of the Moquis. It is stated that one of the patriarchs of old
+had the secret imparted to him under pledges and threats of inviolable
+secrecy. By him it has been perpetuated with great care, being always
+known to three persons, the high priest of the tribe, his vice-regent
+and proclaimed successor, and the oldest woman among them. On the death
+of any one of the three trustees of the secret, the number is made up in
+the manner ordered by the rites of the tribal religion, and to reveal
+the secret in any other way is to invite a sudden and an awful death.
+
+During the three days spent by the dancers in hunting snakes, it is
+stated that the secret decoction is freely administered to them, and
+that in consequence they handle the reptiles with perfect confidence.
+When they are bitten there is a slight irritation but nothing worse. On
+the other hand, there is often a heavy loss of life during the year from
+snake bites, for the sacred antidote is only used on the stated occasion
+for which it was, so the legend runs, specially prepared or its nature
+revealed.
+
+The people living within almost sight of the Grand Canon vary as much in
+habits and physique as does the scenery and general contour of the canon
+vary in appearance. The Cliff Dwellers and the Pueblos do not as a rule
+impress the stranger with their physical development, nor are they on
+the average exceptionally tall or heavy. There are, however, small
+tribes in which physical development has been, and still is, a great
+feature. Unlike the Pueblos, these larger men wear little clothing, so
+that their muscular development and the size of their limbs are more
+conspicuous. Naturally skilled hunters, these powerful members of the
+human race climb up and down the most dangerous precipices, and lead an
+almost ideal life in the most inaccessible of spots.
+
+The Maricopa Indians must be included among those whose general
+appearance seems to invite admiration, however much one may regret the
+absence of general civilization and education. These men are for the
+most part honest, if not hard working, and they are by no means
+unpleasant neighbors. Right near them are the homes of smaller Indians,
+who have reduced peculation to a fine art, and who steal on general
+principles. We have all heard of the little boy who prefers to steal
+poor apples from his neighbor's tree to picking up good ones in his
+father's orchard. Much the same idea seems to prevail among these
+Indians. They will frequently spend several hours and even the greater
+portion of a day, maneuvering to secure some small article worth but a
+few cents to any one.
+
+They have a way of ingratiating themselves with white tourists, and
+offering to act as guides not only to spots of special beauty, but also
+to mines of great value. When they succeed in convincing strangers of
+their reliability, they are happy, and at once proceed to exhibit the
+peculiar characteristics of their race. Pocket handkerchiefs, stockings
+and hats are believed to be the articles after which they seek with the
+most vigor. They are, however, not particular as to what they secure,
+and anything that is left unguarded for but a few hours, or even
+minutes, is certain to be missed. The perquisites thus obtained or
+retained are regarded as treasure trove. When first charged with having
+stolen anything, they deny all knowledge of the offense, and protest
+their innocence in an amusing manner. When, however, convincing proof is
+obtained, and the missing article discovered, the convicted thief thinks
+the matter a good joke, and laughs most heartily at the credulity and
+carelessness of the white man.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+OLD TIME COMMUNISTS.
+
+Houses on Rocks and Sand Hills--How Many Families Dwelt Together in
+Unity--Peculiarities of Costumes--Pueblo Architecture and Folk Lore--A
+Historic Struggle and How it Ended--Legends Concerning
+Montezuma--Curious Religious Ceremonies.
+
+
+Perhaps the most peculiar people to be found in our native land are the
+Pueblos, who live in New Mexico between the Grande and Colorado Rivers.
+When Coronado, the great explorer, marched through the territory 450
+years ago, he found these people in a condition of at least comparative
+civilization. They were living in large houses, each capable of
+accommodating several families, and solidly built. Although they had
+wandering bands of robbers for their nearest neighbors, they were able
+to defend themselves against all comers, and were content and
+prosperous. Their weapons, although primitive, were quite scientific,
+and were handled with much skill as well as bravery.
+
+For two years they were able to withstand the Spanish invaders in their
+"casas-grandes." It had been reported to the Spanish commanders that
+several hundred miles in the north lay a great empire named Cibola,
+which had seven large cities. In these were long streets, on which only
+gold and silversmiths resided; imposing palaces towered in the suburbs,
+with doors and columns of pure turquoise; the windows were made of
+precious stones brilliantly polished. At the sumptuous feasts of the
+prince of the land, enchanting slaves served the most delicate dainties
+on golden dishes. There were mountains of opal rising above valleys
+reveling in jewels, with crystal streams, whose bottom consisted of pure
+silver sand.
+
+The disappointment of the Spaniards was great. A number of large Indian
+villages were found, whose inhabitants subsisted upon the fruits of a
+primitive agriculture. The frugality and thrift of the Pueblos excited
+the interest of the voluptuous Spaniards. The peculiar architecture of
+the villages and houses also drew their admiration. Taken as a whole,
+the circles of houses resembled the cells of a wasp's nest, of which the
+upper stories were reached on a crude ladder. Entrance could be gained
+only through a small opening in the roof, not even the sides facing the
+streets containing doors. A few heavily grated windows served as
+port-holes for their arrows. These peculiar constructions of baked clay
+are still fashionable in such old towns as Suni, Taos and others.
+
+Situated as the Moqui villages and Acoma were, on the top of an
+inaccessible rock, the Spaniards despaired of conquering them. The
+supposed Cibola not panning out according to expectation, they did not
+seek reinforcement, and left the Pueblos in peace. Only near the end of
+the Sixteenth Century the Pueblos had to submit to Spanish rule, under
+which they remained until 1848, when the territory embracing New Mexico
+and Arizona was ceded to the United States.
+
+In some respects the Spanish supremacy proved beneficial to the Indians.
+They virtually maintained their independence. Many innovations in their
+life and customs can be traced from this period. The only domestic
+creatures in their villages were large turkeys, whose feathers served as
+head ornaments for the warriors; but horses, cows, sheep, goats, dogs
+and last, but not least, the indispensable burros were added to their
+domestic stock.
+
+The most important change in their communistic mode of living dates from
+the annexation of New Mexico to the United States, and the introduction
+of railroads. Their unfriendly neighbors, the Apaches, Comanches, Kiowas
+and Navajos, were restricted to their own reservations.
+
+Feeling safe under the powerful protection of the Government, these
+peaceable people have begun to relinquish their old mode of communistic
+existence in their strange dwellings. Until recently, there was a
+promiscuous living together of large families in the numerous apartments
+of a single house, to which access could be only obtained through a
+small aperture in the roof. More modern cottages are being built for
+single families now; farming is also carried on on a large scale, and in
+some parts grape and fruit culture is attempted with good results.
+
+All the villages are characterized by a certain industrial monopoly. In
+one of them, for instance, the pottery for all the Pueblos is
+manufactured; in others, like the Moqui villages, all the people are
+employed in the making of finely woven goats' hair blankets, in which
+occupation many are great experts. Although a large number are engaged
+in the sale of blankets and Indian goods in the southwestern part of the
+Union, in the gold diggings of California, in Mormon settlements, in the
+small railroad stations of Arizona, the average Pueblo Indian prefers a
+settled life. He is domestic in his habits, and loves his family, his
+cattle, his farm and his neighbors as dearly as does his pale-faced
+brothers. And has he not good cause to rejoice and be contented with his
+lot? Has he not a faithful and charming wife? There are some pretty
+girls of perfect contour among the Pueblo Indians, especially in the
+Tigua villages. Are not his gleeful children, who are enjoying a romp on
+the huge sand hills, obedient and reverential in his presence? The
+impudent spirit of young America has not yet exerted its baneful
+influence here.
+
+How scrupulously clean are the households! The good housewives of the
+Netherlands do not excel the Pueblo squaws in cleanliness. Floors are
+always carefully swept; all along the walls of the spacious rooms seats
+and couches are covered with finely variegated rugs; the walls are
+tastefully decorated with pictures and mirrors, and the large cupboards
+are filled with luxurious fruits, meats, pastry and jellies. Thousands
+of white bread-winners in the large cities would envy these Indians if
+they could behold their comparative affluence and their obviously
+contented state. Nor do they obtain all this without fatiguing toil. The
+land is barren and dry, which compels them to induce irrigation through
+long canals from far away streams, and the men are never afraid of work.
+
+The Pueblo pottery of to-day differs but little from that of the
+Sixteenth Century. In the pottery villages the work is done mostly by
+men, who sit on the broad, shaded platform and shape their immense
+vessels in imitation of human beings and every imaginable animal shape.
+The grotesquely shaped mouth is generally intended for the opening,
+through which the water, soup or milk is poured.
+
+The squaws are assuming more and more the occupations of the modern
+housewife, though they still grind their corn in the stone troughs used
+hundreds of years ago, and they still bake their bread in thin layers on
+hot, glowing stones. Dressmakers and tailors still go a-begging among
+the Pueblo people, and no attention whatever is paid to Parisian
+dictators of fashion. The good Pueblo squaw cuts, fits, and sews all the
+clothing for the family, which used to be composed mostly of leather.
+Her husband's wardrobe consists now of a few multi-colored shirts, a
+pair or two of leather pantaloons, with silver buttons, mocassins and a
+shoulder blanket.
+
+The head gear, if any be worn, as is often the case, is simply a large
+colored handkerchief. Girls are usually dressed like the daughters of
+Southern farmers, but they refuse to discard the bloomers, over which
+the petticoats are worn a little below the knees. These leather
+pantalettes are a necessity in a country where poisonous snakes and
+insects abound in gardens and fields. To see a Pueblo girl at her best,
+she must be surprised in animated gossip in a bevy of girl friends, or
+when engaged in mirthful laughter while at work. Then the expressive,
+deep black eyes sparkle and the white teeth offer a glittering contrast
+to her fine black tresses, eyes and eyebrows. The Pueblo Indians are to
+be congratulated on one fact especially, that they permitted their moral
+improvement through the agency of the black-frocked missionaries and
+school teachers who came from the East, but also that they are one of
+the few tribes who resisted the conscienceless rascals who would wreck
+their homes through "fire water" and gambling devices.
+
+A large number of ancient many-storied, many chambered communal houses
+are scattered over New Mexico, three of the most important of which are
+Isletta, Laguna and Acoma. Isletta and Laguna are within a stone's throw
+of the railroad, ten miles and sixty-six miles, respectively, beyond
+Albuquerque, and Acoma is reached from either Laguna or Bubero by a
+drive of a dozen miles. The aboriginal inhabitants of the pueblos, an
+intelligent, complex, industrious and independent race, are anomalous
+among North American natives. They are housed to-day in the self-same
+structures in which their forefathers were discovered, and in three and
+a half centuries of contact with Europeans their manner of life has not
+materially changed.
+
+The Indian tribes that roamed over mountain and plain have become wards
+of the Government, debased and denuded of whatever dignity they once
+possessed, ascribe what cause you will for their present condition. But
+the Pueblo Indian has absolutely maintained the integrity of his
+individuality, and is self-respecting and self-sufficient. He accepted
+the form of religion professed by his Spanish conquerors, but without
+abandoning his own, and that is practically the only concession his
+persistent conservatism has ever made to external influence.
+
+Laborious efforts have been made to penetrate the reserve with which the
+involved inner life of this strange child of the desert is guarded, but
+it lies like a dark, vast continent behind a dimly visible shore, and he
+dwells within the shadowy rim of a night that yields no ray to tell of
+his origin. He is a true pagan, swathed in seemingly dense clouds of
+superstition, rich in fanciful legend, and profoundly ceremonious in
+religion. His gods are innumerable. Not even the ancient Greeks
+possessed a more populous Olympus. On that austere yet familiar height,
+gods of peace and of war, of the chase, of bountiful harvest and of
+famine, of sun and rain and snow, elbow a thousand others for standing
+room. The trail of the serpent has crossed his history, too, and he
+frets his pottery with an imitation of its scales, and gives the
+rattlesnake a prominent place among his deities. Unmistakably a pagan,
+yet the purity and well being of his communities will bear favorable
+comparison with those of the enlightened world.
+
+He is brave, honest and enterprising within the fixed limits of his
+little sphere; his wife is virtuous, his children are docile. And were
+the whole earth swept bare of every living thing, save for a few leagues
+surrounding his tribal home, his life would show no manner of
+disturbance. Probably he might never hear of so unimportant an event. He
+would still alternately labor and relax in festive games, still
+reverence his gods and rear his children to a life of industry and
+content, so anomalous is he, so firmly established in an absolute
+independence.
+
+Pueblo architecture possesses none of the elaborate ornamentation found
+in the Aztec ruins in Mexico. The exterior of the house is absolutely
+plain. It is sometimes seven stories in height and contains over a
+thousand rooms. In some instances it is built of adobe--blocks of mud
+mixed with straw and dried in the sun, and in others, of stone covered
+with mud cement. The entrance is by means of a ladder, and when that is
+pulled up the latch-string is considered withdrawn.
+
+The pueblo of pueblos is Acoma, a city without a peer. It is built upon
+the summit of a table-rock, with overhanging, eroded sides, 350 feet
+above the plain, which is 7,000 feet above the sea. Anciently, according
+to the traditions of the Queres, it stood upon the crest of the superb
+Haunted Mesa, three miles away, and some 300 feet higher, but its only
+approach was one day destroyed by the falling of a cliff, and three
+unhappy women, who chanced to be the only occupants--the remainder of
+the population being at work in the fields below--died of starvation, in
+view of the homeless hundreds of their people who for many days
+surrounded the unscalable mesa with upturned, agonized faces.
+
+The present Acoma is the one discovered by the Spaniards; the original
+pueblo on the Mesa Encantada being even then an ancient tradition. It is
+1,000 feet in length and 40 feet high, and there is, besides, a church
+of enormous proportions. Until lately, it was reached only by a
+precipitous stairway in the rock, up which the inhabitants carried upon
+their backs every particle of the materials of which the village is
+constructed. The graveyard consumed forty years in building, by reason
+of the necessity of bringing earth from the plain below; and the church
+must have cost the labor of many generations, for its walls are 60 feet
+high and 10 feet thick, and it has timbers 40 feet long and 14 inches
+square.
+
+The Acomas welcomed the soldiers of Coronado with deference, ascribing
+to them celestial origin. Subsequently, upon learning the distinctly
+human character of the Spaniards, they professed allegiance, but
+afterwards wantonly slew a dozen of Zaldibar's men. By way of reprisal,
+Zaldibar headed three-score soldiers and undertook to carry the
+sky-citadel by assault. The incident has no parallel in American
+history, short of the memorable and similar exploit of Cortez on the
+great Aztec pyramid.
+
+After a three days' hand to hand struggle, the Spaniards stood victors
+upon that seemingly impregnable fortress, and received the submission of
+the Queres, who for three-quarters of a century thereafter remained
+tractable. In that interval, the priests came to Acoma and held footing
+for fifty years, until the bloody uprisal of 1680 occurred, in which
+priest, soldier and settler were massacred or driven from the land, and
+every vestige of their occupation was extirpated. After the resubjection
+of the natives by De Vargas, the present church was constructed, and the
+Pueblos have not since rebelled against the contiguity of the white man.
+
+All the numerous Mexican communities in the Territory contain
+representatives of the Penitentes order, which is peculiar by reason of
+the self-flagellations inflicted by its members in excess of pietistic
+zeal. Unlike their ilk of India, they do not practice self-torture for
+long periods, but only upon a certain day in each year. Then, stripped
+to the waist, these poor zealots go chanting a dolorous strain, and
+beating themselves unsparingly upon the back with the sharp-spined
+cactus, or soap-weed, until they are a revolting sight to look upon.
+Often they sink from the exhaustion of long-sustained suffering and loss
+of blood. One of the ceremonies among these peculiar people is the
+bearing of a huge cross of heavy timber for long distances. Martyrs to
+conscience and religious devotees frequently carry crosses of immense
+weight for miles, and are watched eagerly by crowds of excited
+spectators. The man who carries this fanatacism to the greatest length
+is the hero of the day, and receives the appointment of Chief of the
+Ceremonies for the following year.
+
+Ceremonies such as these point to the extreme antiquity of the people,
+and seem to indicate that they must have been descended from tribes
+which were prominent in biblical narrative. According to many able
+historians, people have resided in this part of the world for at least
+twelve hundred years. In other words, when Columbus and Americus
+Vespucius discovered and explored the new world or portions of it, these
+peculiar people had been living on the then mysterious continent for the
+greater part of a thousand years.
+
+According to some authorities these people are aboriginal. According to
+others, they migrated from some distant clime. The antiquity of China is
+well known, and there is good reason to believe that the Moquis and
+Zunis have sprung from Chinese voyagers, or perhaps pirates, who,
+hundreds of years ago, were wrecked on the western shores of America.
+Another theory is, that on the occasion of one of the numerous
+expulsions or emigrations from China, a band of Mongolians turned
+northward and came into America by crossing the Behring Strait.
+
+Other antiquarians think that Morocco, rather than China, was the
+original home of these races. The traveler is much struck with the
+resemblance between the habits and customs of the Moors and of some of
+the old established tribes of New Mexico. In dress and architecture the
+Moorish idea certainly prevails very prominently. The white toga and the
+picturesque red turban are prominent in these resemblances. The jugs
+used for carrying water are distinctly Moorish in type, and the women
+carry them on their heads in that peculiar manner which is so
+characteristic of Moorish habits and customs.
+
+One of the very earliest records of these people has been left us by
+Spanish explorers. A writer who accompanied one of the earliest
+expeditions from Spain, says: "We found a great town called Acoma,
+containing about 5,000 people, and situated upon a rock about fifty
+paces high, with no other entrance but by a pair of stairs hewn in the
+rock, whereat our people marveled not a little. The chief men of this
+town came peaceably to visit us, bringing many mantles and chamois
+skins, excellently dressed, and great plenty of victuals. Their
+corn-fields were two leagues distant, and they fetched water out of a
+small river to water the same, on the brinks whereof there were great
+banks of roses like those of Castile. There were many mountains full of
+metals. Our men remained in the place three days, upon one of which the
+inhabitants made before them a very solemn dance, coming forth in the
+same gallant apparel, using very witty sports, wherewith our men were
+exceedingly delighted."
+
+Among the ruins found here, the early use of stone for architectural
+purposes is clearly manifested, and there are innumerable relics of
+ingenuity in periods upon which we are apt to look with great contempt.
+Arrow-heads made of flint, quartz, agate and jaspar, can easily be found
+by the relic hunter. Hatchets made of stone, and sharpened in a most
+unique manner, are also common, and the ancestors of the Pueblos
+undoubtedly used knives made of stone hundreds of years ago.
+
+One of the most interesting of the ancient houses is in the Chaco Canon.
+This edifice was probably at one time 300 feet long, about half as wide
+and three stories high. From the nature of the rooms, it is evident that
+the walls were built in terrace-form out of sandstone. There were about
+150 rooms, and judging from the present habits of the people, at least
+500 human beings lived in this mammoth boarding-house. Another very
+interesting structure of a similar character is found on the Upper
+Grande River, about two hours' drive from Santa Fe. It was about 300
+feet square originally, and most of the foundations are still in fairly
+good condition, though much of the exposed portion of the stone has
+yielded by degrees to the friction caused by continual sandstorms. It is
+believed that more than 1,000 people lived in this one house.
+
+Of recent years a good deal has been written concerning the
+possibilities of the future in regard to saving expense by large numbers
+of families occupying one house. Most of these ideas have been
+ridiculed, because experience has proved that families seldom reside
+comfortably in crowded quarters. The tribes of which we are writing,
+while they destroy the originality of the communistic ideas of the
+Nineteenth Century, also disprove the arguments which are principally
+brought against them. In these singular houses or colonies, several
+families live together in perfect harmony. There are no instances on
+record of disputes such as are met with in boarding-houses patronized by
+white people, and in this one respect, at any rate, quite a lesson is
+taught us by the Pueblo tribes. The people are quiet and peaceable in
+disposition, and one secret of their peaceful dwelling together is found
+in the absence of jealousy, a characteristic or vice which does not seem
+to have penetrated into the houses on the cliffs, or to have sullied the
+dispositions of these people with such a remarkable and creditable
+history. It requires a good deal of dexterity and agility to enter or
+leave a communal house of this character, and a door, from what we are
+apt to term a civilized point of view, is unknown.
+
+The visitor is told a number of legends and stories about these houses
+and the people who live in them. The coming of Montezuma is the great
+idea which permeates all the legends and stories. According to many of
+the people, Montezuma left Mexico, during the remote ages, in a canoe
+built of serpent-skins. His object was to civilize the East and to do
+away with human sacrifice. He communicated with the people by means of
+cords in which knots were tied in the most ingenious manner. The knots
+conveyed the meaning of the Prophet, and his peculiar messages were
+carried from pueblo to pueblo by swift messengers, who took great
+delight in executing their tasks.
+
+A number of exceedingly romantic legends are centered around the Pueblo
+de Taos, which is about twenty miles from Embudo. Taos is considered the
+most interesting and the most perfect specimen of a Pueblo Indian
+fortress. It consists of two communistic houses, each five stories high,
+and a Roman Catholic church (now in a ruined condition) which stands
+near, although apart from the dwellings. Around the fortress are seven
+circular mounds, which at first suggest the idea of being the work of
+mound-builders. On further examination they prove to be the sweating
+chambers or Turkish baths of this curious people. Of these chambers, the
+largest appears also to serve the purpose of a council chamber and
+mystic hall, where rites peculiar to the tribe (about which they are
+very reticent) are performed.
+
+The Pueblo Indians delight to adorn themselves in gay colors, and form
+very interesting and picturesque subjects for the artist, especially
+when associated with their quaint surroundings. They are skilled in the
+manufacture of pottery, basket-making and bead work. The grand annual
+festival of these Indians occurs on the 30th of September, and the
+ceremonies are of a peculiarly interesting character.
+
+Jesuitism has grafted its faith upon the superstitions of the
+Montezumas, and a curious fruitage is the result. The mystic rites of
+the Pueblo Indians, performed at Pueblo de Taos in honor of San Geronimo
+(St. Jerome), upon each succeeding 30th day of September, attract large
+concourses of people, and are of great interest to either the
+ethnologist, ecclesiastic or tourist. A brief description can give but a
+faint idea of these ceremonies, but may serve to arouse an interest in
+the matter. In the early morning of St. Jerome's day, a black-robed
+Indian makes a recitation from the top of the pueblo to the assembled
+multitude below. In the plaza stands a pine tree pole, fifty feet in
+height, and from a cross-piece at top dangles a live sheep, with legs
+tied together and back down. Besides the sheep, a garland of such fruits
+and vegetables as the valley produces, together with a basket of bread
+and grain, hang from the pole. The bell in the little adobe chapel
+sounds and a few of the Indians go in to mass.
+
+A curious service follows. A rubicund Mexican priest is the celebrant,
+while two old Mexicans in modern dress, and a Pueblo Indian in a red
+blanket, are acolytes. When the host is elevated, an Indian at the door
+beats a villainous drum and four musket shots are discharged. After the
+services are concluded, a procession is formed and marches to the race
+track, which is three hundred yards in length. The runners have prepared
+themselves in the estufas, or underground council chambers, and soon
+appear. There are fifty of them, and all are naked except a
+breech-clout, and are painted no two alike. Fifty other runners to
+contest with these, arrive from the other pueblo. They form in line on
+either side of the course, and a slow, graceful dance ensues. All at
+once three hundred mad young Mexicans rush through the throng on their
+wild ponies, the leader swinging by the neck the gallo or cock. Then the
+races begin, two runners from each side darting down the track cheered
+by their companions. No sooner do they reach the goal than two others
+start off, and thus for two hours, until the sum of victories gained by
+individuals entitles one party or the other to claim success. The race
+decided, the runners range themselves in two facing lines, and, preceded
+by the drum, begin a slow zig-zag march.
+
+Excitement now runs riot. The dancers chant weird songs, break the ranks
+and vie with each other in their antics and peculiarities. A rush is
+made upon the crowd of spectators through whom the participants in the
+orgies force their way, regardless of consequences. The women, who
+hitherto have taken but little part in the excitement, now come forward
+and throw cakes and rolls of bread from the pueblo terraces. Everybody
+rushes after these prizes in a headlong manner, and the confusion
+becomes still greater.
+
+An adjournment is then taken for dinner, and in the afternoon, six
+gorgeously painted and hideously decorated clowns come forward and go
+through a series of antics calculated to disgust rather than amuse the
+spectator. The unfortunate sheep, which is still hanging to the pole, is
+finally thrown to the ground after several attempts have been made to
+climb the pole. The fruits and products are seized by the clowns, who
+rush off with them, and every one connected with the tribe seem to be
+highly satisfied with the outcome of the day's proceedings, and the
+culmination of the spectacle.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+HOW CUSTER LIVED AND DIED.
+
+"Remember Custer"--An Eye Witness of the Massacre--Custer, Cody and
+Alexis--A Ride over the Scenes of the Unequal Conflict--Major Reno's
+Marked Failure--How "Sitting Bull" Ran Away and Lived to Fight Another
+Day--Why a Medicine Man did not Summon Rain.
+
+
+"Remember Custer" was the watchword and battle-cry of the small army of
+American soldiers who early in the present decade advanced against
+hostile Indians in the Northwest, who after indulging for weeks in a
+series of fantastic dances and superstitious rites, were finally called
+to time by the Government and punished for their disregard of treaty
+rights and reasonable orders. Every American child should know who
+Custer was and why the troopers called upon each other to remember him
+on the occasion referred to. It is less than twenty years since he died.
+His name should be remembered by civilians as well as soldiers for
+almost as many centuries to come.
+
+There are some men who seem to defy and even court death. Custer was one
+of these. He was so recklessly brave that he often caused anxiety to his
+superior officers. Time and again he led a handful of men apparently
+into the jaws of death and brought them out safely, after having
+practically annihilated the foe. As the pitcher which is carried safely
+to the well ninety-nine times sometimes gets broken at the hundredth
+attempt, so was it with General Custer. In June, 1876, his detachment
+was outnumbered twenty to one at a little ford near Crazy Horse Creek,
+in Dakota, and his entire command was wiped out. An adopted son of
+"Sitting Bull," the famous Indian, states that he saw Custer die, adding
+that he twice witnessed the hero lying on his back fighting his foes.
+The third time he saw him a blanket was drawn over the hero, who was
+apparently dead.
+
+On another page is given an admirable illustration of the camp and ford,
+as well as of the monument erected in Custer's memory, with typical
+Indian camp scene. This picture is from photographs taken specially for
+Mr. Charles S. Fee, General Passenger Agent of the Northern Pacific
+Railroad, whose tracks run close by this scene of such sad history.
+
+A volume could be devoted to the life of Custer, the adventures he
+encountered, and the risks he ran in the course of his eventful and
+useful career. His works and his memoirs bristle with information
+concerning the actual truths of border life and Indian warfare, bereft
+of romance and exaggeration. Like almost all Indian fighters, Custer
+entertained a supreme contempt for the red man generally, although his
+naturally kind disposition led him to give credit to individual red men
+for bravery, gratitude, and other characteristics generally believed to
+be inconsistent with their character and nationality.
+
+Besides being a gallant fighter, Custer was also a great lover of
+recreation and fun, while a genuine hunting expedition drew him out from
+his almost habitual quiet and made him the natural leader of the party.
+Among his friends was William Cody, better known to the amusement loving
+world as Buffalo Bill, on account of his alleged excessive prowess in
+the shooting and destruction of buffalo. If Mr. Cody were consulted, he
+would probably prefer to be called Indian Bill, as his hatred of the
+average red man was very largely in excess of his anxiety to kill the
+hump-backed oxen, which were, at one time, almost in sole possession of
+the Western prairies. On one occasion, he and Custer had a very
+delightful time together, and Cody has given a pleasing description of
+what took place.
+
+This was on the occasion of the visit to this country of the Grand Duke
+Alexis. Some twenty-three years ago this European celebrity enjoyed a
+tour through the United States, and visited most of the grandest
+features of our native land. Before coming to the country, he had heard
+of its great hunting facilities, and also of the sport to be obtained
+from shooting buffalo on the prairie. He mentioned this fact to the
+officers of the Government, who were detailed to complete arrangements
+for his benefit, and, accordingly, it was arranged that the Grand Duke
+should be conducted into buffalo land, and initiated into the mysteries
+of buffalo hunting, by the officer who has since been annihilated by the
+Sioux, and the irrepressible hunter who has since developed into a
+prince among showmen.
+
+These two somewhat rough, but very kind, chaperones, took with them on
+this trip a party of Indians, including "Spotted Tail," with whose
+daughter Custer carried on, we are told, a mild flirtation on the march.
+A great deal of amusement was derived from the trip, as well as very
+much important information.
+
+It was but four years later that Custer was engaged on a more serious
+and less entertaining mission. The scene of the tragedy was visited some
+three years ago by Mr. L. D. Wheeler, to whom we are indebted for the
+following very graphic and interesting description of the visit and of
+the thoughts it called forth:
+
+"A rather lengthy ride found us at Reno's crossing of the river, the
+ford where he crossed to make his attack. Fording the stream, we
+dismounted among the young timber and bushes lining the stream, and ate
+lunch. Before lunch was finished, two Indian girls came down the river.
+The younger, tall, slender and graceful, dressed in bright, clean
+scarlet, was a picture. With her jet black hair hanging in shining
+plaits, her piercing eyes and handsome face, she was the most comely,
+sylph-like Indian maiden I have ever seen.
+
+"Mounting our horses, lunch over, we cantered back on the trail that
+Custer and Reno followed, for a ride of several miles to Lookout Hill,
+or Point, which we ascended. This was the point where Custer and his
+officers obtained their first view of the valley of the Greasy Grass, as
+the Sioux call the Little Horn.
+
+"After a survey of the region, spurring our horses forward, we in time
+found ourselves climbing the gentle acclivities which led up to Reno's
+old rifle-pits, now almost obliterated. The most noticeable feature of
+the spot is the number of blanched bones of horses which lie scattered
+about. A short distance from the pits--which are rather rounded, and
+follow the outline of the hills in shape--and in a slight hollow below
+them, are more bones of horses. This is where the wounded were taken,
+and the hospital established, and the horses kept. From the wavy summit
+line of the bluffs, the ground slopes in an irregular broken way back to
+the northeast and east, into a coulee that forms the passage to the ford
+which Custer aimed for and never reached. The ground about the
+battle-field is now a national cemetery. It is enclosed by a wire fence,
+and there are several hundred acres of it. It might be cared for in a
+manner somewhat better than it is. During one of my visits there, a Crow
+Indian rode up to the gate and deliberately turned his herd of horses
+into the inclosure to graze.
+
+"As I rode into the grounds, after fording and recrossing the river
+where Custer failed, the first object to greet my sight was a small
+inclosure, with large mound and headstone, which marked the spot where
+Lieutenant Crittenden fell. At one corner, and outside of it, stood the
+regulation marble slab which marks the place where each body on the
+field was found. This one stated that there Lieutenant Calhoun was
+killed. At numbers of places down the western slope, but near the
+ravines, the surface is dotted with the little gravestones. In some
+places, far down the descent, and far from where Custer, Van Reilly, Tom
+Custer and others fell, they are seen singly; in other spots three or
+four, or half a dozen. At one point there are over thirty, well massed
+together. Down in this part of the field, in the ravine running towards
+the monument, is the stone marking where Dr. Lord's body was found, and
+with it are four others.
+
+"In the shallow coulee east of the ridge, and almost at the bottom of
+the slope, some distance northwest of where Calhoun and Crittenden were
+killed, and on the main ridge slope of it, is a large group of stones.
+Here is where Captain Miles Keogh and thirty-eight men gave up their
+lives. On this side of the ridge--the eastern side--between where Keogh
+and his men died and where Custer fell, there are numerous stones. On
+the opposite side of the Custer ridge--that which faces the river--and
+close to its crest, there are very few stones, and those are much
+scattered, and not in groups. At the northern extremity of the ridge is
+a slight elevation which overtops everything else, and slopes away in
+all directions, save where the ridge lies. Just below this knoll, or
+hillock--Custer Hill--facing southwest, is where Custer and the larger
+part of his men fell."
+
+On the right bank of the Missouri River--the Big Muddy--in North Dakota,
+almost within rifle shot of the town of Mandan, on the Northern Pacific
+Railroad, there existed in the '70s a military post named after the
+nation's great martyr President, Fort Abraham Lincoln. On the morning of
+the 17th of June, 1876, there went forth from here among others, with
+the pomp and ceremony for which they were distinguished, a cavalry
+regiment famed in the army for dash, bravery and endurance--the noted
+Seventh Cavalry.
+
+At the head of the Seventh Cavalry was a man who was unquestionably the
+most picturesque character for long years, and perhaps for all previous
+and present time, in the army. Entering the army in active service
+during the Civil War, his career was a continual round of successes and
+advances, and at its close, aside from the peerless Sheridan, no
+cavalryman had a greater reputation for magnificent dash than he.
+Transferred to the plains--the war over--his success as an Indian
+campaigner naturally followed, and at the time he moved out upon his
+latest and fated expedition, George Custer had a reputation as an Indian
+fighter second to none.
+
+On June 22d, Custer and the Seventh Cavalry left camp on the Rosebud in
+compliance with their instructions. On the 23d and 24th, many of the
+camping places of the Indians, in their migration westward, were passed.
+By evening of June 24th, the trail and signs had become so hot and fresh
+that a halt was ordered to await tidings from the scouts. Their
+information proved that the Indians were across the divide, over in the
+valley of the Little Horn. Custer, confident of his ability to whip the
+Indians single-handed, prepared for fight at once. He pushed ahead on
+the trail, and created the impression that it was his determination to
+get to the spot, and have one battle royal with the Indians, in which he
+and the Seventh should be the sole participants on our side, and in
+consequence the sole heroes. The idea of defeat seems never to have
+occurred to him.
+
+Early on the morning of June 25th, Custer resumed his march. Up to that
+time the command was maneuvered as a whole. Now, however, it was divided
+into four detachments. One under Major Reno, consisting of three troops
+of cavalry and the Indian scouts, forty in number, held the advance; the
+second battalion, composed also of three troops, moved off some miles to
+the left of Reno, scouting the country to the southward; a third
+detachment, comprising the pack train which carried the reserve
+ammunition--some 24,000 rounds--was under the command of Captain
+McDougall, and had one troop as an escort; the fourth battalion was that
+under Custer himself, and was the largest, having five troops, and it
+marched parallel to Reno and within easy supporting distance to the
+north, the pack train following the trail in rear of Reno and Custer.
+
+Reno advanced from the ford across the valley in column of fours for
+some distance, then formed in line of battle, and afterwards deployed
+the command as skirmishers. The bulk of the Indians and their camp were
+hidden by a bend of the river, and Reno, instead of charging round the
+bend and into the Indian camp, halted and dismounted his command to
+fight on foot. At this point two or three of the horses could not be
+controlled, and carried their riders into the Indian camp; one account
+stating that they plunged over the river bank, injuring the men, who
+were afterwards killed by the Indians. Here at Ash Point, or Hollow, the
+command soon got sheltered in the timber, and were on the defensive; the
+Indians now pouring in from all sides. The Indian scouts with Reno had
+before now been dispersed, and were making back tracks fast as their
+ponies could carry them. Accounts differ as to how long they remained in
+this timber, but it was probably not to exceed half an hour. The
+"charge" out--as Reno termed it--was virtually a stampede, and many did
+not know of the departure until too late to start, no well-defined and
+well-understood order having been given to that effect. There was no
+systematic attempt to check the pursuit of the Indians, who now,
+directed by "Gall," swarmed down upon them and prevented them from
+reaching the ford at which they had crossed. Many were killed on this
+retreat, and many others wounded, among the former being Lieutenant
+Donald McIntosh. Reno headed the retreat, and they tore pell mell across
+the valley, and at the new ford they were lucky to strike, there was
+great confusion, it being every man for himself, and the devil take the
+hindmost; and, as is usually the case, the (red) devil got his clutches
+on more than one. Crossing the stream as best they could, Lieutenant
+Hodgson being killed after having crossed, men and horses climbed the
+steep, almost inaccessible bluffs and ravines, upon the top of which
+they had a chance to "take account of stock." Many had attempted to
+scale the bluffs at other points hard by. The Indians were up there in
+some force, and by them, when almost up the cliffs, Dr. DeWolf was
+killed.
+
+After remaining on the bluffs at least an hour, probably longer, a
+forward movement down stream was made for a mile or mile and a half.
+Previous to this, heavy firing had been heard down the river in the
+direction Custer had gone. Two distinct volleys were heard by the entire
+command, followed by scattering shots, and it was supposed Custer was
+carrying all before him. When Reno had reached the limit of this advance
+north toward Custer, they saw large numbers of Indian horsemen scurrying
+over what afterward proved to be Custer's battle-field. Soon these came
+tearing up toward Reno, who hastily retreated from what would seem to
+have been a strong position, back to near the point where he had
+originally reached the bluffs. Here they sheltered themselves on the
+small hills by the shallow breastworks, and placed the wounded and
+horses in a depression. That night, until between 9 and 10 o'clock, they
+were subjected to a heavy fire from the Indians, who entirely surrounded
+them. The firing again began at daylight of the 26th, and lasted all
+day, and as the Indians had command of some high points near by, there
+were many casualties. Reno's total loss, as given by Godfrey, was fifty
+killed, including three officers, and fifty-nine wounded. Many of those
+left in the river bottom when the retreat began, eventually reached the
+command again, escaping under cover of night.
+
+Of Custer's movements, opinions of what he did or should have done, are
+many and various. The theory first entertained and held for years, but
+not now tenable nor, indeed, probably held by many, was that Custer
+reached the ford and attempted to cross; was met by a fire so scorching
+that he drew back and retreated to the hill in the best form possible,
+and there fought like an animal at bay, hoping that Reno's attack in the
+bottom and Benton's timely arrival would yet relieve him. The Indians,
+however, strenuously assert that Custer never attempted the ford, and
+never got anywhere near it. No dead bodies were found any nearer than
+within half a mile of the ford, and it seems undoubted that the Indians
+tell the truth.
+
+When Custer rode out on the bluff and looked over into the valley of the
+Greasy Grass, he must have seen at once that he had before utterly
+misapprehended the situation. The natural thing to do would have been to
+retrace his trail, join Reno by the shortest route, and then, united,
+have pushed the attack in person or, if then too late for successful
+attack, he could, in all likelihood, have extricated the command and
+made junction with Terry. Indian signals travel rapidly, and as soon as
+Reno was checked and beaten, not only was this fact signaled through the
+camp, but every warrior tore away down stream to oppose Custer, joining
+those already there, and now, at least, alert.
+
+It is probable, then, that before Custer could reach the creek valley
+the Indians had made sufficient demonstrations to cause him to swerve
+from where he would otherwise, and naturally, strike it, and work
+farther back toward the second line of bluffs, even perhaps as far back
+as Captain Godfrey gives the trail. The only thing to militate against
+this would be the element of time, which seems hardly to oppose it.
+However he got there, Custer is at last upon the eminence which is so
+soon to be consecreted with his life's blood. What saw he? What did he?
+The sources of information are necessarily largely Indian. At the
+southeastern end of the Custer ridge, facing, apparently, the draw, or
+coulee, of the branch of Custer Creek, Calhoun and Crittenden were
+placed. Some little distance back of them, in a depression, and down the
+northern slope of the Custer Ridge, Keogh stood. Stretched along the
+north slope of the ridge, from Keogh to Custer Hill, was Smith's
+command, and at the culminating point of the ridge, or Custer Hill, but
+on the opposite ridge from where the others were placed, were Tom Custer
+and Yates, and with them Custer himself. Yates' and Custer's men
+evidently faced northwest. It would appear from the Indians' statements
+that most of the command were dismounted.
+
+The line was about three-quarters of a mile in length, and the attack
+was made by two strong bodies of Indians. One of these came up from the
+ford named after the hero and victim of the day. It was led by a daring
+Indian, with some knowledge of generalship, and his followers were of a
+very superior class to the average red man. This body of attackers did
+great execution and succeeded in almost annihilating the white men
+against whom they were placed, and whom they outnumbered so
+conspicuously. From the meagre information concerning what took place
+that is accessible, it appears as though the execution of these men was
+almost equal to that of skilled sharp-shooters. A reckless Indian named
+"Crazy Horse" was at the head of a number of Cheyennes who formed the
+principal part of the second attacking body. These encountered Custer
+himself, and the men immediately under his orders. Outnumbering the
+white men to an overwhelming extent, they circled around, and being
+reinforced by the first column, which by this time was elated by victory
+and reckless as to its brutality, it commenced the work of blotting out
+of existence the gallant cavalrymen before them.
+
+Most of Custer's men knew the nature of their destroyers too well to
+think of crying for quarter or making any effort to escape. There was a
+blank space between the ridge on which the battle was fought and the
+river below. Some few men ran down this spot in hopes of fording the
+river and finding temporary hiding places; they prolonged their lives
+but for a few minutes only, for some of the fleetest Indians rushed
+after them and killed them as they ran. The horse upon which Captain
+Keogh rode into the battle escaped the general slaughter, and found its
+way back once more to civilization. Of the way it spent its declining
+years we have already spoken.
+
+With this exception, it is more than probable that no living creature
+which entered the fight with Custer came out of it alive. A Crow scout
+named "Curley," claims that he was in the fight, and that after it was
+over he disguised himself as a Sioux, held his blanket around his head
+and escaped. "Curley's" statement was never received with much credence.
+The evidence generally points to the fact that, prior to the battle,
+nearly all the Indian scouts who were with Custer on the march ran away
+when they saw the overpowering nature of the foe. "Sitting Bull," who
+has since met the fate many believe he deserved, also claimed to be in
+the fight on the other side. His story of the prowess of Custer, and of
+his death, was probably concocted with a view to currying favor with
+white men, as it appears evident that "Sitting Bull" showed his usual
+cowardice, and ran away before there was a battle within twenty-four
+hours' distance.
+
+Major James McLaughlin, during his experience as Indian Agent at
+Standing Rock Agency, North Dakota, had an opportunity of gathering a
+great deal of important information with reference to the battle-field
+and incidents connected with it. At the request of Mr. Wheeler, whose
+researches into the legends and history of interesting spots within easy
+access by means of the Northern Pacific Railroad were most successful,
+obtained from the Major the following valuable information concerning
+many points of detail which have been the subject of debate and dispute:
+
+"It is difficult," says this undoubted authority, "to arrive at even
+approximately the number of Indians who were encamped in the valley of
+the Little Big Horn when Custer's command reached there on June 25th,
+1876; the indifference of the Indians as to ascertaining their strength
+by actual count, and their ideas at that time being too crude to know
+themselves. I have been stationed at this Agency since the surrendered
+hostiles were brought here in the summer of 1881, and have conversed
+frequently with many of the Indians who were engaged in that fight, and
+more particularly with 'Gall,' 'Crow King,' 'Big Road,' 'Hump,' 'Sitting
+Bull,' 'Gray Eagle,' 'Spotted Horn Bull,' and other prominent men of the
+Sioux, regarding the Custer affair. When questioned as to the number of
+Indians engaged, the answer has invariably been, 'None of us knew; nina
+wicoti,' which means 'very many lodges.' From this source of
+information, which is the best obtainable, I place the number of male
+adults then in the camp at 3,000; and that on June 25th, 1876, the
+fighting strength of the Indians was between 2,500 and 3,000, and more
+probably approximating the latter number.
+
+"'Sitting Bull' was a recognized medicine man, and of great repute among
+the Sioux, not so much for his powers of healing and curing the
+sick--which, after he had regained such renown, was beneath his
+dignity--as for his prophecies; and no matter how absurd his prophecies
+might be, he found ready believers and willing followers, and when his
+prophecies failed to come to pass, he always succeeded in satisfying his
+over-credulous followers by giving some absurd reason. For instance, I
+was in his camp on Grande River in the spring of 1888, sometime about
+the end of June. There had been no rain for some weeks, and crops were
+suffering from drouth, and I remarked to him, who was in an assemblage
+of a large number of Indians of that district, that the crops needed
+rain badly, and that if much longer without rain the crops would amount
+to nothing. He, 'Sitting Bull,' replied: 'Yes, the crops need rain, and
+my people have been importuning me to have it rain. I am considering the
+matter as to whether I will or not. I can make it rain any time I wish,
+but I fear hail. I cannot control hail, and should I make it rain, heavy
+hail might follow, which would ruin the prairie grass as well as the
+crops, and our horses and our cattle would thus be deprived of
+subsistence.' He made this statement with as much apparent candor as it
+was possible for a man to give expression to, and there was not an
+Indian among his hearers but appeared to accept it as within his power.
+
+"'Sitting Bull' was dull in intellect, and not near as able a man as
+'Gall,' 'Hump,' 'Crow,' and many others who were regarded as subordinate
+to him; but he was an adept schemer and very cunning, and could work
+upon the credulity of the Indians to a wonderful degree, and this,
+together with great obstinacy and tenacity, gained for him his
+world-wide reputation. 'Sitting Bull' claimed in his statement to me
+that he directed and led in the Custer fight; but all the other Indians
+with whom I have talked contradict it, and said that 'Sitting Bull' fled
+with his family as soon as the village was attacked by Major Reno's
+command, and that he was making his way to a place of safety, several
+miles out in the hills, when overtaken by some of his friends with news
+of victory over the soldiers, whereupon he returned, and in his usual
+style, took all the credit of victory to himself as having planned for
+the outcome, and as having been on a bluff overlooking the battlefield,
+appeasing the evil spirits and invoking the Great Spirit for the result
+of the fight.
+
+"And, when considering the ignorance and inherent superstition of the
+average Sioux Indian at that time, it is not to be wondered at that the
+majority, if not all, were willing to accept it, especially when united
+in common cause and what they considered as their only safety from
+annihilation. As a matter of fact, there was no one man who led or
+directed that fight; it was a pell mell rush under a number of
+recognized warriors as leaders, with 'Gall' of the Hunkpapas and 'Crazy
+Horse' of the Cheyennes the more prominent.
+
+"The Indians with whom I have talked deny having mutilated any of the
+killed, but admit that many dead bodies were mutilated by women of the
+camp. They also claim that the fight with Custer was of short duration.
+They have no knowledge as to hours and minutes, but have explained by
+the distance that could be walked while the fight lasted. They vary from
+twenty minutes to three-quarters of an hour, none placing it longer than
+forty-five minutes. This does not include the fight with Reno before his
+retreat, but from the time that Custer's command advanced and the fight
+with his command commenced. The opinion of the Indians regarding Reno's
+first attack and short stand is, that it was his retreat that gave them
+the victory over Custer's command. The helter skelter retreat of Reno's
+men enthused the Indians to such an extent that, flushed with excitement
+and this early success, they were reckless in their charge upon Custer's
+command, and with the slight number of Indians thus fully enthused, that
+small command was but a slight check to their sweeping impetuosity. The
+Indians also state that the separated detachments made their victory
+over the troops more certain."
+
+Thus Custer fell. The mystery surrounding his death will probably never
+be solved in a satisfactory manner, owing to the impossibility of
+placing any reliance on statements made by the Indians. The way in which
+the command was annihilated and the soldiers' bodies mutilated, should
+go a long way towards disproving many of the theories now in existence
+concerning the alleged ill treatment of Indians, and their natural
+peacefulness and good disposition. Custer had so frequently befriended
+the very men who surrounded his command and annihilated it, that the
+baseness of their ingratitude should be apparent even to those who are
+inclined to sympathize with the red men, and to denounce the alleged
+severity with which they have been treated. Travelers through the Dakota
+region find few spots of more melancholy, though marked, interest than
+the one illustrated in connection with this chapter.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+AMONG THE CREOLES.
+
+Meaning of the Word "Creole"--An Old Aristocratic Relic--The Venice of
+America--Origin of the Creole Carnivals--Rex and His Annual
+Disguises--Creole Balls--The St. Louis Veiled Prophets--The French
+Market and Other Landmarks in New Orleans--A Beautiful Ceremony and an
+Unfinished Monument.
+
+
+New Orleans is known throughout the world for the splendor of its
+carnivals. As one of the great Creole cities of the world, it has for
+more than half a century made merry once a year, and given quite a
+business aspect to carnival festivities. The Creole is one of the
+interesting characters to be met with in a tour through the United
+States. As a rule, he or she is joyous in the extreme, and believes most
+heartily in the wisdom of the command to "laugh and grow fat." The
+genuine Creole scarcely knows what it is to be sad for more than a few
+hours at a time, a very little pleasure more than offsetting a very
+great deal of trouble and suffering. A desire to move around and to
+enjoy changes of scene is a special feature of the Creole, and hence the
+spectacular effects of the carnival procession appeal most eloquently to
+him.
+
+Many Eastern and Northern people confound the term "Creole" and
+"Mulatto," believing that the former name is given to the offspring of
+mixed marriages, which take place in spite of the vigilance of the laws
+of most of the Southern States. This is entirely a mistake, for the
+genuine Creole, instead of being an object of contempt and pity, is
+rather an aristocrat and of a higher caste than the average white man.
+Strictly speaking, the term implies birth in this country, but foreign
+parentage or ancestry. It was originally applied to the children of
+French and Spanish settlers in Louisiana, and in that application
+applied only to quite a handful of people. As time has worn on, and
+French emigration has ceased, and the Spaniard has been gradually pushed
+south, the number of actual Creoles has of course diminished rapidly.
+The name, however, by common consent, has been perpetuated and is
+retained by descendants in the third and fourth generations of original
+Creoles. Some of the Creoles of to-day are very wealthy, and many of the
+others are comparatively poor, changes in modes and conditions of life
+having affected them very much. Although the very name Creole suggests
+Spanish origin, there is more French blood among the Creoles of to-day
+than that of any other nation. The vivacious habits and general love of
+change so common among French people, continue in their descendants. The
+old plan of sending the children over to France to be educated has been
+largely abandoned in these later days, but the influences of Parisian
+life still have their effect on the race.
+
+This is largely the reason why it is that New Orleans has been often
+spoken of as the American Venice. To that beautiful European city, with
+its gondolas and picturesque costumes, belongs the honor of having
+originated high-class comedy. To New Orleans must be given the credit of
+planting, or at any rate perpetuating, the idea in a tangible shape in
+this country, and of having, for fully two generations, kept up the
+annual celebration almost without a break. Masquerading came across the
+Atlantic from Venice by way of France, where the idea took strong hold.
+When emigration from France to the old Territory of Louisiana became
+general, the idea came with it, and the practice of sending children to
+Paris to be educated resulted in the latest ideas of aristocratic
+festivities being brought over to the home which has since sheltered
+them.
+
+History tells us that on New Year's Eve of 1831, a number of
+pleasure-seeking men spent the entire night in a Creole restaurant at
+Mobile arranging for the first mystic order in that city, and from this
+beginning the long line of Creole comedies sprang up. In 1857, the
+Mystic Krewe of Comus made its first appearance upon the streets of New
+Orleans. "Paradise Lost" was the subject selected for illustration. Year
+after year the revelry was repeated on Shrove Tuesday, but the outbreak
+of the war naturally put a stop to the annual rejoicing. Southern
+enthusiasm is, however, hard to down, and directly the war was over,
+Comus reappeared in all his glory. A few years later the Knights of
+Momus were created, and in 1876 the Krewe of Proteus had its first
+carnival. Many other orders have followed, but these are the more
+magnificent and important.
+
+It is difficult to convey an adequate idea of the feeling which prevails
+in regard to these comedies. The mystery which surrounds the orders is
+extraordinary, and the secret has been well kept, a fact which cynics
+attribute to the exclusion of ladies from the secret circle. It is well
+known that on many occasions men have pretended to leave the city on the
+eve of the comedy, and to have returned to their homes a day or two
+later, not even their own families knowing that they took a leading part
+in the procession. The Carnival Kings issue royal edicts prior to their
+arrival, commanding all business to cease on the occasion of the
+rejoicings. The command is obeyed literally. Banks, courts of justice
+and business houses generally suspend operations, and old and young
+alike turn out to do homage to the monarch of the day.
+
+Let us imagine for a moment we are privileged to see a Creole carnival.
+Every inch of available space has been taken up. Every balcony
+overlooking the royal route is crowded with pleasure parties, including
+richly dressed ladies, all the flower and beauty of the Sunny South
+being represented. The course is illuminated in the most attractive
+manner, and every one is waiting anxiously for the procession. Bands of
+music, playing sprightly tunes, finally reward the patience of the
+watchers. Then come heralds, bodyguards and marshals, all gorgeously
+arrayed for the occasion. Their horses, like themselves, are richly
+adorned for the occasion, and the banners and flags are conspicuous for
+the artistic blending of colors.
+
+Then riding in state comes the Lord High Chamberlain, bearing the golden
+key of the city, delivered over to him in state twenty-four hours
+previously by the Mayor. Next comes the hero of the parade, the King
+himself. All eyes are riveted upon him. Thoroughly disguised himself, he
+is able to recognize on the balconies and among the crowds his personal
+friends and most devoted admirers. To these he bows with great
+solemnity. Mystified to a degree, and often disputing among themselves
+as to the probable identity of the monarch, the richly dressed young
+ladies and their cavaliers bow in return, and look as though they would
+fain hold the monarch among them much longer than the necessity of
+keeping order makes it possible. Following the King are the bodyguards
+and crowds of holiday makers.
+
+Rex generally makes a display now of some special theme, appearing this
+year as a crusader, another year as the discoverer of America, and a
+third year as some other mystic individual. But no matter what the
+subject of the carnival may be, the underlying principle is the same.
+Sometimes a great deal of instruction is imparted with the mirth-making,
+but in every case the procession is but a signal for general rejoicing.
+Directly the procession is disbanded, which always takes place in
+military order, the entire city gives way to fun and mirth of every
+character. Liberty abounds throughout the city without license. By
+common consent every one is careful to prevent disturbance or trouble.
+All are happy, and every one seems to appreciate the fact that the very
+life of the comedy depends upon its respectability. There is nothing
+vulgar or common about any of the proceedings, or about the countless
+tableaux which pass along the private streets. Everything is what has
+been described as orderly disorder. Everything is attractive and easy.
+
+The ball, which is a prominent feature of a Creole carnival, is a
+wonderful combination of Nineteenth Century aristocratic ideas and of
+Oriental humor. The guests are in full dress, and represent the highest
+elements of Southern society. Around the carpeted floor, those who have
+taken part in the pageant march in their grotesque costumes. An
+apparently blood-thirsty Indian, brandishing a club over his head, darts
+for a second from the line to go through the motions of dashing out the
+brains of perhaps a most intimate friend, who has no idea who has thus
+honored him by a recognition.
+
+Another man, who in everyday life is, perhaps, a sedate banker or a
+prominent physician, is masquerading in some extraordinary attire with a
+mask of extraordinary dimensions and significance. He sees in the throng
+a young lady of his acquaintance, and proceeds to shake hands with her
+with great effusion. So well is the secret kept, that she has no idea
+that the apparently frolicsome youth is a middle-aged man of business,
+and she spends perhaps half the night wondering which of her beaus this
+fearfully and wonderfully disguised man was.
+
+Of the balls which succeed carnivals in the cities which delight in
+these temporary divorces from the cares of business and finance, pages
+might be written. One ball only need be mentioned in any detail. This is
+the ball given by the "Knights of Revelry," in connection with and at
+the expense of the Mobile clubs. The entire theatre was rearranged in
+illustration of the theme of the club's pageant for the year. All around
+the halls were hung tapestries and banners, artistically decorated, and
+arranged so as to convey the idea of forests and gardens. The very doors
+were converted into mimic entrances to caves and parterres, and the
+general effect was entrancing as well as sentimental. The band was
+hidden from the guests in a most delightfully arranged little Swiss
+chalet, and refreshments were served from miniature garden pavilions.
+The very floors upon which the dancing was to take place were decorated
+so as to present the appearance of a newly mown lawn.
+
+The height of realism was attained by means of an imitation moat over
+the orchestra well. Across this was a drawbridge, which was raised and
+dropped at fitting intervals, and the drop curtain was made to represent
+a massive castle door. There was a banquet chamber, with faultless
+reproductions of mediaeval grandeur and wonder. Stained glass windows
+represented well-known and attractive ladies, and there were other
+marvelous and costly innovations which seemed practically impossible
+within a theatre.
+
+At this ball, as at all others, the revelry proceeded until midnight.
+Just as Cinderella left the ball when the clock struck 12, so do the
+holders of the Creole revels stop dancing immediately that Lent has
+commenced. The next day all is over. Men who the night before were the
+leaders in the masquerade, resume their commonplace existence, and are
+seen at the ordinary seats of custom, buying and selling and conducting
+themselves like Eastern rather than Southern men.
+
+The carnival idea has not been confined to strictly Southern cities. St.
+Louis has, for many years in succession, enjoyed the pageants and balls
+of its Veiled Prophets, an organization as secret and mysterious as any
+to be found in a Creole section. Instead of being a Mardi Gras
+celebration, the St. Louis pageant is given during the Indian summer
+days of the first week of October. The parade takes place after
+night-fall, and consists of very costly pageants and displays. It is no
+exaggeration to say that hundreds of thousands of dollars have been
+spent in illuminating the streets through which the processions have
+passed, the money for this purpose being freely subscribed by business
+men and private citizens. But in St. Louis, as in New Orleans, no one
+knows who finds the money to pay for the preparation of the pageant, the
+rich and varied costumes, the exquisite invitations and souvenirs, and
+the gorgeous balls. Readers of the "Pickwick Papers" will remember that
+when certain members of the club proposed to make a tour of the country,
+with a view to noting matters of special interest, it was unanimously
+resolved not to limit the scope of the investigations, and to extend to
+the investigators the privilege of paying their own expenses. Very much
+the same rule prevails in regard to the Creole carnivals and balls, and
+the adaptation of the idea in other cities. The utmost secrecy is
+preserved, and it is considered bad form in the extreme to even hint at
+belonging to any of the secret orders. The members subscribe all
+expenses themselves without a moment's hesitation, and there has never
+been such a thing seen as a list of the amounts donated.
+
+There are not lacking people who say that these celebrations are
+childish, and beneath the dignity of a business community. The answer to
+criticisms of this kind is, that no one being asked to contribute to the
+expense of the revelries, or being even asked or allowed to purchase a
+ticket of admission to the balls, any criticisms are very much like
+looking a gift horse in the mouth. If it be agreed that life is made up
+of something more than one stern, continuous race for wealth, then it
+must be conceded that these carnivals occupy a most important part in
+the routine of life. The absolute unselfishness of the entire work
+commends it to the approval of the most indifferent. Those who raise the
+expense have to work so hard during the parades and balls that they get
+comparatively little pleasure from them, while they are also prevented
+by the absolute secrecy which prevails from securing so much as a word
+of thanks or congratulation from the outside public. In this material
+age, there is a danger of celebrations of this kind wearing themselves
+out. When they do so, the world will be the poorer in consequence.
+
+New Orleans, to which we have referred as the great home of the Creole
+carnival, is a city known the world over by reputation. It is situated
+at the very mouth of the great Mississippi River, and its history dates
+back to the year 1542, when a gallant band of adventurers floated down
+the river into the Gulf of Mexico. In 1682, La Salle sailed down the
+river and took possession of the country on both sides of it in the name
+of France. In the closing days of the Seventeenth Century a French
+expedition landed not far from New Orleans, which was founded in 1718,
+with a population of sixty-eight souls. Three years later, the city,
+which now contains a population of more than a quarter of a million, was
+made the capital of the Territory of Louisiana, and it at once became a
+place of considerable importance.
+
+In 1764, it was ceded to Spain, and this resulted in the people taking
+possession of New Orleans and resisting the change in government. Five
+years later, the new Spanish Governor arrived with ample troops,
+suppressed the rebellion, and executed its leaders from the Place
+d'Armes. In 1804, the territory of Orleans was established, and in 1814,
+a British army, 15,000 strong, advanced on the city after which the
+Territory was named. A great deal of confusion followed, but the city
+held its own, and the invading army was repulsed.
+
+During the Civil War New Orleans again saw active campaigning. The
+occupancy of the city by General Butler, and the stern measures he
+adopted to suppress the loyalty even of the women of the town, has
+formed the subject of much comment. There are many interesting stories
+concerning this epoch in the city's history, which are told with many
+variations to every one who sojourns for a while in the great port at
+the gate of the greatest river in the world.
+
+To-day, New Orleans is perhaps best known as the second largest cotton
+mart in the world, some 2,000,000 bales of the product of the Southern
+plantations being received and shipped out every year. More than
+30,000,000 pounds of wool and 12,000,000 pounds of hides also pass
+through the city every year, to say nothing of immense quantities of
+bananas and costly transactions in sugar and lumber.
+
+Although New Orleans is really some little distance from the ocean, the
+river at this point is more than half a mile wide, and the great ships
+of all nations are seen loading and unloading at its levee.
+
+New Orleans naturally abounds in ancient landmarks and memorials. The
+old Spanish Fort is one of the most interesting among these. Warfare of
+the most bitter character was seen again and again at this place. The
+fortifications were kept up largely to afford protection against raids
+from Mexican pirates and hostile Indians, though they were often useful
+against more civilized foes. It was at this port that Andrew Jackson
+prepared to receive the British invaders. The magnificent use he made of
+the fortifications should have given to the old place a lasting standing
+and a permanent preservation. Some forty years ago, however, the fort
+was purchased and turned into a kind of country resort, and more lately
+it has become the home of a recreation club.
+
+Better preserved, and a most interesting connecting link between the
+past and the present, is the world-renowned French Market in New
+Orleans. A story is told of a great novelist, who traveled several
+thousand miles in order to find representatives of all nationalities
+grouped together in one narrow space. For a work he had in contemplation
+he was anxious to select for his characters men of all nationalities,
+whom chance or destiny had thrown together. He spent several days in
+Paris, journeyed throughout sunny Italy, got lost in some of the
+labyrinths of the unexplored sections of London, and finally crossed the
+Atlantic without having found the group of which he was in search. Not
+even in the large cities of America could he find his heart's desire,
+and it was not until he strayed into the old French Market of New
+Orleans that he found that for which he searched. He spent several days,
+and even weeks, wandering through the peculiar market, and making
+friends with the men of all nationalities who were working in different
+parts of it. He found the Creole, full of anecdote, superstition and
+pride, even when he was earning an occasional meal by helping to unload
+bananas, or to carry away the refuse from the fish stores. The negro, in
+every phase of development, civilization and ignorance, could, and
+always can, be found within the confines of the market. The amount of
+folk-lore stored up in the brains covered by masses of unkempt wool
+astounded the novelist, who distributed dollars, in return for
+information received, so lavishly, that he began to be looked upon after
+a while as a capitalist whose wealth had driven him insane. Then, again,
+he met disappointed emigrants from nearly all the European countries,
+men, and even women, who had crossed the Atlantic full of great
+expectations, but who had found a good many thorns among the looked-for
+roses.
+
+The Indian is not often seen now around the French Market, although he
+used to be quite a feature of it. Some of the most exceptionally idle
+loungers, however, show evidence of Indian blood in their veins, in the
+shape of exceptionally high cheek-bones, and abnormally straight and
+ungovernable hair.
+
+Almost every known language is spoken here. There is the purest French
+and the most atrocious patois. There is polished English, which seems to
+indicate high education, and there is the most picturesque dialect
+variation that could be desired by the most ardent devotee of the
+everlasting dialect story. Spanish is of course spoken by several of the
+market traders and workers, while Italian is quite common. At times in
+the day, when trade is very busy, the visitor may hear choice expletives
+in three or four languages at one time. He may not be able to interpret
+the peculiar noises and stern rebukes administered to idle help and
+truant boys, but he can generally guess pretty accurately the scope and
+object of the little speeches which are scattered around so freely.
+
+If it be asked what special function the market fulfills, the answer is
+that it is a kind of inquire-within for everything. Many of the poorer
+people do all their trading here. Fruit is a great staple, and on
+another page a picture is given of one of the fruit stands of the old
+market. The picture is reproduced from a photograph taken on the spot by
+an artist of the National Company of St. Louis, publishers of "Our Own
+Country," and it shows well the peculiar construction of the market. The
+fruit sections are probably the most attractive and the least
+objectionable of the entire market, because here cleanliness is
+indispensable. In the vegetable section, which is also very large, there
+is not always quite so much care displayed or so much cleanliness
+enforced, refuse being sometimes allowed to accumulate liberally. Fish
+can be obtained in this market for an almost nominal consideration,
+being sometimes almost given away. Macaroni and other similar articles
+of diet form the staple feature of the Italian store of trade, which is
+carried on on the second floor of the market. The legitimate work called
+for alone provides excuse for the presence of many thousand people, who
+run hither and thither at certain hours of the day as though time were
+the essence of the contract, and no delay of any kind could be
+tolerated. As soon, however, as the pressing needs of the moment are
+satisfied, a period of luxurious idleness follows, and rest seems to be
+the chief desideratum of the average habitue or employe. The children,
+who are sitting around in large numbers, vie with their elders in
+matters of idleness, though they are occasionally aroused to a condition
+of pernicious activity by the hope of securing donations or compensation
+of some kind from newcomers and guests.
+
+Structurally, the French Market is very well preserved. There are
+evidences of antiquity and of the ravages of time and weather on every
+side, but for all that the market seems to have as its special mission
+the reminding of the people that when our ancestors built, they built
+for ages, and not entirely for the immediate present, as is too often
+the case nowadays. The market also serves as a link between the present
+and the past. It is only of late years that the bazaar, which used to be
+so prominent a feature, has fallen into insignificance. Formerly it
+retained the importance of the extreme Orient, and afforded infinite
+fund for reflection for the antiquarian and the lover of history.
+
+The cemeteries of New Orleans are of exceptional interest, and are
+visited every year by thousands of people. Owing to the proximity of
+the water mark to the surface of the ground, the dead are not buried as
+in other cities, and the vaults are above instead of under ground. They
+are well arranged, and the antiquity of the burial grounds, and the
+historic memories connected with the tablets, combine to make them of
+more than ordinary interest. The local custom of suspending business on
+the first day of November of each year for the purpose of decorating
+graves in all the cemeteries, is also worthy of more than a passing
+notice. Not only do people decorate the last resting places of their
+friends and relatives on this specially selected day, but even the
+graves of strangers are cared for in a spirit of thankfulness that the
+angel of death has not entered the family circle, and made inroads into
+bonds of friendship.
+
+A few years ago a young woman died on the cars just as they were
+entering the world-renowned Creole city. There was nothing on the body
+to aid identification, and a stranger's grave had to be provided. In the
+meantime the friends and relatives of the missing girl had been making
+every effort to locate her, no idea having occurred to them that she was
+going South. A loving brother finally got hold of a clew, which he
+followed up so successfully that he at last solved the mystery. He
+arrived in New Orleans on November 1st, and when taken out to the grave
+that had been provided for the stranger who had died just outside the
+gates, he was astounded to find several handsome bouquets of flowers,
+with wreaths and crosses, lying upon it. Such a sight could hardly have
+been met with in any other city in the world, and too much can hardly be
+said in praise of the sentiment which suggests and encourages such
+disinterested kindness and thought.
+
+The cemetery which occupies a site close to the great battle-field, is
+always specially decorated, and crowds go out in thousands to pay
+tribute to honored memories. Close to this spot there is a monument to
+celebrate the great battle during which General Pakingham was shot, and
+at which General Jackson galloped excitedly up and down the lines, and
+almost forced the men on to victory. The monument has not received the
+care which it deserves. More than half a century ago work was commenced
+on it, and a great deal was accomplished. But after a year or two of
+effort the project was abandoned for the time, and it has never been
+renewed. In the long interval that has ensued the roof has, in a large
+measure, disappeared, as well as several of the steps leading up to the
+front. Hundreds of people have cut their names in the stone work, and
+the monument, which ought to be preserved in perpetuity, looks so
+disreputable that little regret would be caused were the entire fragment
+to be swept away by some unusually heavy gust of wind.
+
+More than 1,500 soldiers were buried in the Chalmette Cemetery after the
+battle referred to. Since the war it has been well nigh forgotten, but
+several duels and affaires d'honneur have been settled on the historic
+spot.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+THE HEATHEN CHINEE IN HIS ELEMENT.
+
+A Trip to Chinatown, San Francisco--A House with a History--Narrow
+Alleys and Secret Doors--Opium Smoking and its Effects--The
+Highbinders--Celestial Theatricals--Chinese Festivals--The Brighter Side
+of a Great City--A Mammoth Hotel and Beautiful Park.
+
+
+Chinatown, San Francisco, is such a remarkable place, and contrasts so
+strangely with the wealth and civilization of the great city on the
+Pacific Coast, of which it is a part, that its peculiarities cannot be
+ignored in a sketch of the most remarkable features of our native land.
+Writers and artists have for years made this blot on San Francisco's
+splendor the subject for sarcasm and cartoon, and, indeed, it is
+difficult to handle the subject without a considerable amount of
+severity. Californians are often blamed for their harshness towards the
+Chinese, and the way in which they have clamored from time to time for
+more stringent exclusion laws. It takes a trip to Chinatown to make it
+clear to the average mortal why this feeling is so general in San
+Francisco, and why it extends throughout the entire Pacific Slope.
+
+There are about 25,000 Chinese in and around San Francisco. A small
+proportion of these have abandoned the worst features of their race, and
+make themselves comparatively useful as domestic servants. In order to
+retain their positions they have to assimilate themselves more or less
+to the manners and customs of the country, and they are only
+objectionable in certain respects. But the one-time dwellers in the
+Celestial Empire, who make their homes in Chinatown, have very few
+redeeming qualities, and most of them seem to have no tangible excuse
+whatever for living.
+
+They adhere to all the vices and uncivilized habits of their
+forefathers, and very frequently add to them equally objectionable vices
+of so-called civilization. At one time all the streets in Chinatown were
+little more than elongated ash pits and garbage receptacles. The public
+outcry at length became so vigorous that the strong hand of the law was
+brought to bear, and now the principal through streets are kept fairly
+clean. The side streets and alleys are, however, still in a deplorable
+condition, and no American or European could possibly live many days in
+such filth without being stricken with a terrible disease. The
+Mongolians, however, seem to thrive under conditions which are fatal to
+civilized humanity. They live to quite the average age, and the children
+seem to be very healthy, if not conspicuously happy.
+
+Chinatown covers an area of about eight large squares, in the very heart
+of San Francisco. Again and again attempts have been made to get rid of
+the drawback and nuisance. But the "Melica Man" has allowed himself to
+be outwitted by the "Heathen Chinee," who has secured property rights
+which cannot be overcome without a measure of confiscation, which would
+appear to be scarcely constitutional. The area is probably one of the
+most densely populated in the world. The Chinese seem to sleep
+everywhere and anywhere, and the houses are overcrowded to an extent
+which passes all belief. It is known as an actual fact, that in rooms
+twelve feet square as many as twelve human beings sleep and eat, and
+even cook what passes with them for food. The houses themselves are so
+horrible in their condition, and have been so remodeled from time to
+time, to meet Celestial ideas and fall in with notions which are but a
+relic of barbarism, that not even a colored man of the most degraded
+type can be persuaded to live permanently in a house which has ever been
+occupied by an unregenerated denizen of Chinatown.
+
+At the entrance to this peculiar, and, indeed, disreputable quarter,
+there is a house with a peculiar history. It was built more than a
+quarter of a century ago, by a wealthy banker, who selected the site
+because of the admirable view that could be obtained from it of the
+leading features of the city. He spared no expense in its erection, and
+when it was completed he was able to gaze from the upper windows upon
+some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. For a while the banker
+lived in the most magnificent style, and earned for himself a reputation
+as a prince of entertainers. He spent thousands of dollars on
+entertainments, and appeared to have everything that a human being could
+desire. His end was a tragic one, and it has never been ascertained for
+certain whether he died by his own hand, or by the hand of one of his
+alleged friends or avowed foes. The house which was once his great pride
+is now occupied by the Chinese Consul.
+
+It is still, by far, the finest house in the Chinese quarter. The moment
+it is passed the sight-seeker or slummer finds himself in the midst of a
+horrible collection of Oriental filth and squalor. There are a number of
+stores which excite his contempt the moment his eyes light upon them.
+They are chiefly devoted to the retailing of such food as the occupants
+of Chinatown delight in, and over many of them the Chinese national
+emblem can be seen flying. Fish are on sale in large numbers, and as
+they are kept until sold, regardless of their condition, the effluvia of
+some of the fish markets can be very easily imagined. Vegetables also
+form a very large proportion of the daily bills of fare, and these add
+materially to the malodorous condition of the neighborhood. The streets
+are all of them very narrow, and there are also a number of
+exceptionally narrow and complicated passages and alleys, which have
+been the scenes of crimes innumerable in days gone by.
+
+Some of these alleys are but three or four feet wide, and, owing to
+their almost countless turns and angles, they afford an easy means for
+the escape of a fugitive who is being hunted by the police, or by one of
+those blood-thirsty Chinese societies of which the Highbinders is a
+type. One writer who has investigated the matter very thoroughly, tells
+us that most of the houses have secret doors leading from one to the
+other in such a manner that if a fugitive should determine to make his
+escape, he can always do so by means of these secret doors, and the
+underground passages to which they lead.
+
+The stores, workshops and other apartments are generally exceedingly
+small, and the proverbial economy of the Chinaman is proved by the fact
+that every square foot of floor space and ground is put to some
+practical use, and one finds cobblers, barbers, fortune-tellers and a
+multitude of small tradesmen carrying on a business in a jog, or niche
+in the wall, not as large as an ordinary bootblack's stand. Along the
+narrow sidewalks are seen many of these curbstone merchants. Some have
+their goods displayed in glass show-cases, ranged along the wall, where
+are exhibited queer-looking fancy articles of Chinese workmanship, of a
+cheap grade, all sorts of inexpensive ornaments for women and children's
+wear, curiously fashioned from ivory, bone, beads, glass and brass,
+water and opium pipes galore.
+
+The opium pipe is something so unlike any European conception of a pipe
+that it is difficult to describe it. It consists of a large bamboo tube
+or cylinder, with a bowl about midway between the extremities. The bowl
+is sometimes a very small brass plate, and sometimes an earthen
+cup-shaped contrivance, with the top closed or decked over, having only
+a tiny hole in the center. Into this little aperture the opium, in a
+semi-liquid state, after being well melted in a lamp flame, is thrust by
+means of a fine wire or needle. The drug is inserted in infinitesimal
+quantities. It is said that all the Chinese smoke opium, although all do
+not indulge to excess. Some seem to be able to use the drug without its
+gaining the mastery over them.
+
+There are more than a hundred opium dens in the Chinese quarters. These
+places are used for no other purpose whatever at any time. If it were
+the Chinese alone who frequented them, but little would be thought of
+it. Hundreds of white people, men, women and the youth of both sexes,
+have, however, become victims to this loathsome habit. So completely
+enslaved are they, that there is no escape from the tyrant. For all the
+poverty and untold misery this has brought upon these unfortunates, the
+Chinese are responsible. Vices cluster around Chinese social life, and
+nearly every house has its opium-smoking apartment, or rooms where the
+lottery or some kind of gambling is carried on.
+
+The residents of Chinatown have a government of their own, with its
+social and economic regulations, and its police and penal department,
+and they even inflict the death penalty, but in such a secret way that
+the outside world seldom hears of these acts of high authority. This
+social and commercial policy is controlled by six companies, to one of
+which every Chinaman in the country owes allegiance and is tributary.
+These companies severally represent different provinces in the Chinese
+Empire, and upon every arrival of a steamer from that country, and
+before the passengers are landed, the Chinese portion of them are
+visited by an official of the six companies, who ascertains what
+province each arriving coolie is from. That decides as to which company
+he will belong.
+
+Every Chinaman who comes is assured of his return to China, or, if he is
+so unfortunate as to die while in exile, that his bones will be sent
+home. This very important matter is one of the duties of the six
+companies. This comforting assurance, however, is not shared in by the
+women, whom, excepting those who are the wives of men of the better
+class, are brought over by a vile class of traders, and sold as
+chattels, or slaves, having no relation to the six companies.
+
+There is in the Chinese quarters a ghastly underground place, where the
+bones of the departed are conveyed, after they have remained a certain
+time in the ground. Here they are scraped, cleaned and packed,
+preparatory to their last journey back to the fatherland, and their
+final resting place. Among the Chinese residents of San Francisco there
+are comparatively few of those of the higher class. The difference
+between them and the masses is very pronounced, and they appreciate the
+difference to the fullest extent. They are educated, well-bred
+gentlemen. The coolie and lower class are an ignorant, repulsive and
+ill-mannered people. They seem to be mere brutes, and not a gleam of
+intelligence is apparent in their dull, expressionless faces.
+
+The "Highbinders" are bound together by solemn obligations, and are the
+instruments used by other Chinamen to avenge their real or fancied
+wrongs. The Highbinders are organized into lodges or tongs, which are
+engaged in constant feuds with each other. They wage open warfare, and
+so deadly is their mutual hatred, that the war ceases only when the last
+individual who has come under the ban of a rival tong has been
+sacrificed. These feuds resemble the vendettas in some of the Southern
+States of Europe, and they defy all efforts of the police to suppress
+them. Murders are, consequently, frequent, but it is next to impossible
+to identify the murderers, and if a Chinaman is arrested on suspicion,
+or even almost positive evidence of guilt, the trial uniformly ends in a
+failure to convict.
+
+The theatres are, to the visitor, probably the most interesting feature
+of the Chinese quarters. A few years ago there were several of these
+playhouses, but the number is now reduced to two. The charge of
+admission is 25 cents or 50 cents.
+
+The white people who, out of curiosity, attend a performance, generally
+pay more, and are given more comfortable seats upon the stage. The stage
+is a primitive affair. It boasts of no curtain, footlights or scenery of
+any kind.
+
+When, during the progress of a play, a man is killed, he lies upon the
+stage until the scene is ended, and then gets up and walks off.
+Sometimes an attendant will bring in and place under his head a small
+wooden pillow, so that the dead man may rest more comfortably. After an
+actor has been beheaded, he has been known to pickup the false head and
+apostrophize it while making his exit from the stage. The orchestra is
+at the back of the stage. It usually consists of one or two
+ear-splitting flageolets and a system of gongs and tom-toms, which keep
+up an infernal din during the entire performance.
+
+Chinese plays are usually historical, and vary in length from a few
+hours to several months. The costumes are gorgeous after the Chinese
+ideas of splendor. No females are allowed on the stage at all, young men
+with falsetto voices invariably impersonating the women.
+
+The restaurants of Chinatown are a very unsatisfactory feature of the
+unsavory quarter. Many of the laborers board at them, and the smaller
+ones are nothing in the world but miserable little chop-houses, badly
+ventilated and exceedingly objectionable, and, indeed, injurious to
+health and good morals. There are larger restaurants, which are more
+expensively equipped. Shakespeare's advice as to neatness without
+gaudiness is not followed. There is always a profusion of color in
+decoration, but there is never anything like symmetry or beauty.
+
+There are an immense number of joss-houses in Chinatown. Each company
+has one of its own. Others belong to the societies, tongs and to private
+parties. The appointments of these temples are gorgeous in their way.
+One has recently been opened on Waverly Place, which far surpasses all
+the others in the grandeur of its sacred equipments and decoration. The
+idols, bronzes, carvings, bells, banners and the paraphernalia of the
+temple are said to have cost about $20,000, and represents the highest
+degree of Chinese art. In front of the throne in each of these temples,
+where the principal god is seated, burns a sacred flame that is never
+extinguished. In a cabinet at the right of the entrance is a small image
+called "the doorkeeper," who sees that no harm befalls the temple of
+those who enter.
+
+The temple doors are always open, and those who are religiously inclined
+can come in at any hour of the day. Prayers are written or printed on
+red or blue paper. These are lighted and deposited in a sort of furnace
+with an opening near the top, and as the smoke ascends the bell near by
+is sounded to attract the attention of the gods. The women have a
+favorite method of telling their fortunes. They kneel before the altar,
+holding in either hand a small wooden block, about-five inches long,
+which resembles a split banana. These they raise to their closed eyes,
+bow the head and drop. If they fall in a certain position, it is an
+indication that the wish or prayer will be granted. If they fall in an
+unfavorable position, they continue the effort until the blocks fall as
+desired. When business is dull and times hard with the Chinaman, they
+attribute it to the displeasure of their gods. They try to propitiate
+the offended deity by burning incense sticks, and offering fruits and
+other things which have no Christian equivalent, and which are supposed
+to be grateful to the divine palate.
+
+The Chinese observe a great many holidays. The most important are those
+of the New Year. This is a movable feast, and occurs between the 21st of
+January and the 19th of February. The New Year must fall on the first
+new moon after the sun has entered Aquarius. It is customary at this
+time to have all business straightened out, and all debts contracted
+during the year paid. Unless this is done, they will have no credit
+during the year, and consequently a great effort is made to pay their
+creditors. There are some, however, who have been unfortunate and have
+laid by nothing for this day of settlement, and knowing well that there
+are a number of those troublesome little bills that are liable to be
+presented at any time, they keep themselves out of sight until the sun
+has risen upon the New Year.
+
+They then reappear in their accustomed haunts, feeling safe for a few
+days at least, for while the merry-making is going on there is no danger
+of being confronted with a dun. All gloomy subjects are tabooed, and
+everybody devotes himself to getting all the enjoyment he possibly can
+out of this festal day. To some this is the only holiday in the whole
+year, and they are obliged to return to their labors the following day.
+Others will celebrate three or four days, and so on up the scale. The
+rich and the independent keep it up for fully two weeks, and begin to
+settle down to everyday life about the sixteenth day.
+
+The night preceding New Year's day is spent in religious ceremonies at
+the temples or at home. Out of doors the air is filled with the smoke
+and roar of exploding firecrackers. But when the clock has tolled the
+death of the old and announced the birth of the New Year, one would
+think that Pandemonium was let loose. Unless one has heard it, no idea
+can be formed as to what this unearthly noise really is. We are told it
+is to frighten away evil spirits, to invoke the favor of the gods, to
+bid, as they fondly hope, a final farewell to ill-luck; and, again,
+simply because they are happy, and when in this frame of mind, they love
+to manifest their joy in noisy demonstrations. A certain time in the
+early morning is spent in worship at the shrines at home and in the
+temples. They place before their sacred images, offerings of tea, wine,
+rice, fruits and flowers. The Chinese lily is in full bloom at this
+season, and it occupies a conspicuous place in the joss-houses. It is
+for sale on every street corner.
+
+The day is spent in feasting, pleasure seeking, and in making New Year's
+calls. The Chinamen are always greatly pleased to receive calls from
+white men with whom they have business dealings, and they exhibit their
+cards with much pride. They are very punctilious and even rival the
+Frenchmen in politeness, and it is considered an offense if any of their
+proffered hospitalities are declined.
+
+But while Chinatown is the most extraordinary feature of San Francisco,
+and is visited by tourists who naturally look upon it somewhat in the
+light of forbidden and hence exceptionally attractive fruit, it is not
+by any means the most interesting or most important feature of one of
+the finest cities in the world. San Francisco is the metropolis of the
+Pacific Slope. It occupies the point of a long peninsula between the bay
+and the ocean, and so unique is its site that it includes some
+magnificent hills and peaks. The history of San Francisco bristles with
+border and gold mine stories and tales of the early troubles of
+pioneers. Whole pages could be written concerning the adventures of the
+early days of this remarkable city. The time was when a few frame
+buildings constituted the entire town. The rush of speculators following
+discovery after discovery of gold, converted the quiet little port into
+a scene of turmoil and disturbance.
+
+Every ship brought with it a cargo of more or less desperate men, who
+had come from various points of the compass determined to obtain a
+lion's share of the gold which they had been told could be had for the
+taking. The value of commodities went up like sky-rockets. The man who
+had a few spare mules and wagons on hand was able to realize ten times
+the price that was tendered for them before the boom. Many men who were
+thus situated did not consider it advisable to throw away their chances
+by accepting grave risks in search of gold, and many who stayed at home
+and supplied the wants of those who went up country realized handsome
+competences, and in some cases small fortunes.
+
+That there was a good deal of lawlessness and violence is not to be
+wondered at. It has been said that for every bona fide miner there was
+at least one hanger-on or camp follower, who had no intention of doing
+any digging or washing, but who was smart enough to realize that a
+veritable thief's paradise would be built up by the hard workers.
+Sometimes these men went to the trouble of digging tunnels under the
+ground and into the tents of successful miners, frequently passing
+through rich deposits of gold on the way. At other times they waylaid
+wagons and coaches coming into San Francisco from the mining camps.
+History tells us of the fights which ensued, and we have all heard of
+the successful miners who were murdered while asleep at half-way houses,
+and the result of their hard toil turned to base uses and vicious
+purposes.
+
+In San Francisco itself robbery and violence could not be suppressed. We
+have all heard of the way in which the decent element finally got
+together, formed special laws and executed offenders in short order. No
+one of course approves lynch law in the abstract, but when the
+circumstances of the case are taken into consideration, it is difficult
+to condemn very severely the men who made it possible for San Francisco
+to become a great and honored city.
+
+The population of San Francisco to-day is about a third of a million. A
+greater portion of its growth has been during the last quarter of a
+century, and it was the first city in this country to lay cable conduits
+and adopt a system of cable cars. For several years it had practically a
+monopoly in this mode of street transportation, and, although
+electricity has since provided an even more convenient motive power, San
+Francisco will always be entitled to credit for the admirable missionary
+work it did in this direction. At the present time, almost every portion
+of the city and its beautiful parks can be reached easily by a system of
+transportation as comfortable and rapid as it is inexpensive.
+
+Among the wonders of San Francisco must be mentioned the Palace Hotel, a
+structure of immense magnitude and probably two or three times as large
+as the average Eastern man imagines. The site of the hotel covers a
+space of more than an acre and a half, and several million dollars were
+spent on this structure. Everything is magnificent, expansive, huge and
+massive. The building itself is seven stories high, and in its center,
+forming what may be described as the grandest enclosed court in the
+world, is a circular space 144 feet across and roofed in with glass at a
+great height. Carriages are driven into this enclosure, and, in the
+nearest approach to severe weather known in San Francisco, guests can
+alight practically indoors.
+
+There are nearly 800 bed-rooms, all of them large and lofty, and the
+general style of architecture is more than massive. The foundation walls
+are 12 feet thick, and 31,000,000 brick were used above them. The
+skeleton of wrought iron bands, upon which the brick and stone work is
+constructed, weighs more than 3,000 tons. Four artesian wells supply
+pure water to the house, which is not only one of the largest hotels in
+the world, but also one of the most complete and independent in its
+arrangements.
+
+A pleasant ride of nearly four miles in length brings the rider to
+Golden Gate Park. The Golden Gate, from which the park takes its name,
+is one of the world's beauty spots, and here some of the most exquisite
+sunsets ever witnessed can be seen. The Gate is the entrance from the
+Pacific Ocean to San Francisco Bay, which varies in width from ten to
+fifteen miles. At the Gate the width is suddenly reduced to less than a
+mile, and hence at ebb and flow the current is very swift. Near the Gate
+sea lions can be seen gamboling in the surf, and the waves can be
+observed striking on the rocks and boulders, and sending up spray of
+foamy whiteness to a height of a hundred feet.
+
+Golden Gate Park is like everything else on the Pacific Coast, immense
+and wonderful. It is not the largest park in the world, but it ranks
+amongst the most extensive. Its acreage exceeds a thousand, and it is
+difficult to appreciate the fact that the richly cultivated ground
+through which the tourist is driven has been reclaimed from the ocean,
+and was but once little more than a succession of sand bars and dunes.
+
+When the reader goes to San Francisco, as we hope he will go some day,
+if he has not already visited it, he will be told within a few minutes
+of his entering the city, that he has at least reached what may be
+fairly termed God's country. Of the glorious climate of California he
+will hear much at every step, and before he has been in the city many
+days, he will wonder how he is to get out of it alive if he is to see
+but a fraction of the wonderful sights to which his attention is called.
+
+California is frequently spoken of as the Golden State. The name
+California was given to the territory comprising the State and Lower
+California as long ago as 1510, when a Spanish novelist, either in fancy
+or prophecy, wrote concerning "the great land of California, where an
+abundance of gold and precious stones are found." In 1848, California
+proper was ceded to the United States, and in the same year the
+discovery of gold at Colomo put a stop to the peace and quiet which had
+prevailed on the fertile plains, the unexplored mountains and the
+attractive valleys. Shortly after, a hundred thousand men rushed into
+the State, and for the first few years as many as a hundred thousand
+miners were kept steadily at work.
+
+It was in 1856 that the famous Vigilance Committee was formed. In the
+month of May of that year murderers were taken from jail and executed,
+the result being that the Governor declared San Francisco to be in a
+state of insurrection. The Vigilance Committee gained almost sovereign
+power, and before it disbanded in August, it had a parade in which over
+5,000 armed, disciplined men took part.
+
+Two years later, the overland mail commenced its journeys and the
+celebrated pony express followed in 1860. Railroads followed soon after,
+and instead of being a practically unknown country, several weeks'
+journey from the old established cities, the lightning express has
+brought the Pacific so near to the Atlantic that time and space seem to
+have been almost annihilated.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+BEFORE EMANCIPATION AND AFTER.
+
+First Importation of Negro Slaves into America--The Original
+Abolitionists--A Colored Enthusiast and a Coward--Origin of the word
+"Secession"--John Brown's Fanaticism--Uncle Tom's Cabin--Faithful unto
+Death--George Augustus Sala on the Negro who Lingered too long in the
+Mill Pond.
+
+
+The American negro is such a distinct character that he cannot be
+overlooked in a work of this nature. Some people think he is wholly bad,
+and that although he occasionally assumes a virtue, he is but playing a
+part, and playing it but indifferently well at that. Others place him on
+a lofty pedestal, and magnify him into a hero and a martyr.
+
+But the Afro-American, commonly called a "nigger" in the South, is
+neither the one nor the other. He is often as worthless as the "white
+trash" he so scornfully despises, and he is often all that the most
+exacting could expect, when his surroundings and disadvantages are taken
+into consideration. Physiologists tell us that man is very largely what
+others make him, many going so far as to say that character and
+disposition are three parts hereditary and one part environment. If this
+is so, a good deal of allowance should be made. It is less than 300
+years since the first negroes were brought over to this country, and it
+is but little more than thirty years since slavery was abolished. Hence,
+from both the standpoints of descent and environment, the negro is at a
+great disadvantage, and he should hardly be judged by the common
+standard.
+
+It was in the year 1619 that a Dutch ship landed a cargo of negroes from
+Guinea, but that was not really the first case of slavery in this
+country. Prior to that time paupers and criminals from the old world had
+voluntarily sold themselves into a species of subjection, in preference
+to starvation and detention in their own land; but this landing in 1619
+seems to have really introduced the colored man into the labor world and
+market of America.
+
+We need not trace the history of the negro as a slave at any length.
+That he was occasionally abused goes without saying, but that his
+condition was approximately as bad as a majority of writers have
+attempted to prove is not so certain. It was the policy of the slave
+owner to get as much work out of his staff as he possibly could. He knew
+from experience that the powers of human endurance were necessarily
+limited, and that a man could not work satisfactorily when he was sick
+or hungry. Hence, even on the supposition that all slave owners were
+without feeling, it is obvious that self-interest must have impelled
+them to keep the negro in good health, and to prevent him from losing
+strength from hardship and want.
+
+On some plantations the lot of the slave was a hard one, but on others
+there was very little complaining or cause for complaint. Thousands of
+slaves were better off by far than they have been subsequent to
+liberation, and it is a fact that speaks volumes for the much discussed
+and criticized slaveholders, that numbers of emancipated slaves refused
+to accept their freedom, while many more, who went away delighted at the
+removal of withstraint, came back of their own option very soon after,
+and begged to be allowed to resume the old relations.
+
+The average negro obeys, literally obeys, the divine instruction to take
+no thought for the morrow. If he has a good dinner in the oven he is apt
+to forget for the time being that there is such a meal as supper, and he
+certainly does not give even a passing thought to the fact that if he
+has no breakfast in the morning he will be "powerfu' hungry." This
+indifference as to the future robbed slavery of much of its hardship,
+and although every one condemns the idea in the abstract, there are many
+humane men and women who do not think the colored man suffered half as
+much as has so often and so emphatically been stated.
+
+Abolition was advocated with much earnestness for many years prior to
+Lincoln's famous emancipation proclamation. The agitation first took
+tangible shape during the administration of General Jackson, a man who
+received more hero worship than has fallen to the lot of any of his
+successors. To a zealous, if perhaps bigoted, Quaker belongs the credit
+of having started the work, by founding a newspaper, which he called the
+"Genius of Universal Emancipation." William Lloyd Garrison, subsequently
+with "The Liberator," was connected with this journal, and in the first
+issue he announced as his programme, war to the death against slavery in
+every form. "I will not equivocate; I will not excuse; I will not
+retreat a single inch, and I will be heard," was the announcement with
+which he opened the campaign, which he subsequently carried on with more
+conspicuous vigor than success.
+
+Garrison handled the question of the relation between the white and
+colored people of the country without gloves, and his very outspoken
+language occasionally got him into trouble. The people who supported him
+were known as Abolitionists, a name which even at that early date
+conjured up hard feeling, and divided household against household, and
+family against family. Among these Garrison was regarded as a hero, and
+to some extent as a martyr, while the bitterness of his invective earned
+for him the title of fanatic and crank from the thousands who disagreed
+with him, and who thought he was advocating legislation in advance of
+public sentiment.
+
+The debates of the days of which we are speaking were full of interest.
+Many of the arguments advanced teemed with force. The Abolitionists
+denounced the Republic for inconsistency, in declaring that all men were
+equal, and then keeping 3,000,000 colored people in enforced subjection.
+In reply the Bible was freely quoted in defense of slavery, and the
+fight was taken up by ministers of religion with much zeal. It was not,
+by any means, a sectional question at that time. While the slaves were
+owned by Southern planters and landed proprietors, they were purchased
+and kept on borrowed capital, and many of the men in the North, who were
+supposed to sympathize with the Abolitionists, were as much interested
+in the perpetuation of slavery as those who actually owned the slaves
+themselves.
+
+In the year 1831, a negro named Turner, supported by six desperate and
+misguided fellow countrymen, started out on what they regarded as a
+practical crusade against slavery. Turner professed to have seen visions
+such as inspired Joan of Arc, and he proceeded to fulfill what he
+regarded as his divine mission, in a very fanatical manner. First, the
+white man who owned Turner was murdered, and then the band proceeded to
+kill off all white men in sight or within convenient reach. Within two
+days nearly fifty white men were destroyed by those avenging angels, as
+they were called, and then the insurrection or crusade was terminated by
+the organizing of a handful of white men who did not propose to be
+sacrificed as had been their fellows.
+
+Turner's bravery was great when there was no resistance, but he
+recognized that discretion was the better part of valor the moment
+organized resistance was offered. Taking to the woods, he left his
+followers to shift for themselves. For more than a week he lived on what
+he could find in the wheat fields, and then, coming in contact with an
+armed white man, he speedily surrendered. A week later he was hanged,
+and seventeen other colored men suffered a like penalty for connection
+with the conspiracy. The murderous outbreak had other dire results for
+the negro, and caused many innocent men to be suspected and punished.
+
+A year later, Garrison started the New England Anti-Slavery Society,
+which was followed by many similar organizations. So intense did the
+feeling become that President Jackson thought it advisable to recommend
+legislation excluding Abolition literature from the mails. The measure
+was finally defeated, but in the Southern States, particularly, a great
+deal of mail was searched and even condemned. Rewards were offered in
+some of the slave-holding States for the apprehension of some of the
+leading Abolitionists, and feeling ran very high, every outbreak being
+laid at the doors of the men who were preaching the new gospel of equal
+rights, regardless of color.
+
+Mobs frequently took a hand in the proceedings, and several men were
+attacked and arrested on very flimsy pretexts. In 1836, the Pennsylvania
+Hall, in Philadelphia, was burned, because it had been dedicated by an
+anti-slavery meeting. So bitter did the feeling become that every
+attempt to open schools for colored children was followed by
+disturbance, the teachers being driven away and the books destroyed.
+Numerous petitions on the subject were sent to Congress, and there was
+an uproar in the House when it was proposed to refer a petition for the
+abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia to a committee. The
+Southern Congressmen withdrew from the House as a formal protest, and
+the word "secession," which was subsequently to acquire such a much more
+significant meaning, was first applied to this action on their part.
+
+A compromise, however, was effected, and the seceding members took their
+seats on the following day. Feeling, however, ran very high. Some people
+returned fugitive slaves to their owners, while others established what
+was then known as the underground railway. This was a combination
+between Abolitionists in various parts, and involved the feeding and
+housing of slaves, who were passed on from house to house and helped on
+their road to Canada. Much excitement was caused in 1841 by the ship
+"Creole," which sailed from Richmond with a cargo of 135 slaves from the
+Virginia plantation. Near the Bahama Islands one of the slaves named
+Washington, as by the way a good many thousand slaves were named from
+time to time, headed a rebellion. The slaves succeeded in overpowering
+the crew and in confining the captain and the white passengers. They
+forced the captain to take the boat to New Providence, where all except
+the actual members of the rebelling crowd were declared free.
+
+Joshua Giddings, of Ohio, offered a resolution in the House of
+Representatives claiming that every man who had been a slave in the
+United States was free the moment he crossed the boundary of some other
+country. The way in which this resolution was received led to the
+resignation of Mr. Giddings. He offered himself for re-election, and was
+sent back to Congress by an enormous majority. As Ohio had been very
+bitter in its anti-negro demonstrations, the vote was regarded as very
+significant. The Supreme Court decided differently from the people, and
+a ruling was handed down to the effect that fugitive slaves were liable
+to re-capture. The court held that the law as to slavery was paramount
+in free as well as slave States, and that every law-abiding citizen must
+recognize these rights and not interfere with them. Feeling became very
+intense after this, and for a time it threatened to extend far beyond
+rational limits. In the church the controversy waxed warm, and in more
+than one instance division as well as dissension arose.
+
+In 1858, a new phase was given to the controversy by John Brown. Every
+one has heard of this remarkable man, who was regarded by some as a
+martyr, and by others as a dangerous crank. As one writer very aptly
+puts it, John Brown was both the one and the other. That his intentions
+were in the main good, few doubt, but his methods were open to the
+gravest censure, and according to some deep thinkers he was, in a large
+degree, responsible for the bitter feeling which made war between the
+North and the South inevitable. Probably this is giving undue importance
+to this much-discussed enthusiast, who regarded himself as a divine
+messenger sent to liberate the slaves and punish the slave-holders.
+
+He conceived the idea of rallying all the colored people around him in
+the impregnable mountains of Virginia, and having drafted a
+constitution, he proceeded to unfurl his flag and call out his
+supporters. In October, 1859, he took possession of the United States
+Armory at Harper's Ferry, interfered with the running of trains, and
+practically held the town with a force of some eighteen men, of whom
+four were colored. Colonel Robert E. Lee quickly came on the scene with
+a detachment of troops and drove the Brown following into an
+engine-house. They declined to surrender, and thirteen were either
+killed or mortally wounded. Two of Brown's sons were among those who
+fell, and the leader himself was captured. He treated his trial with the
+utmost indifference, and went to the scaffold erect and apparently
+unconcerned. His body was taken to his old home in New York State, where
+it was buried.
+
+Abraham Lincoln must not be included in the list of enthusiastic
+Abolitionists, although he eventually freed the slaves. In speeches made
+prior to the war he expressed the opinion that in slave States general
+emancipation would be ill-advised, and although his election was looked
+upon as dangerous to slave-holders' interests, the fear seems to have
+been prophetic in a large measure. It was not until the war had lasted
+far longer than originally anticipated that Lincoln definitely
+threatened to liberate the colored slaves. That threat he carried into
+execution on January 1st, 1863, when 3,000,000 slaves became free. The
+cause of the Confederacy had not yet become the "lost cause," and the
+leaders on the Southern side were inclined to ridicule the decree, and
+to regard it rather as a "bluff" than anything of a serious order. But
+it was emancipation in fact as well as in deed, as the colored orator
+never tired of explaining.
+
+Such in outline is the history of the colored man during the days of
+enforced servitude. Of his condition during that period volumes have
+been written. Few works printed in the English language have been more
+widely circulated than "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which has been read in every
+English-speaking country in the world, and in many other countries
+besides. It has been dramatized and performed upon thousands of stages
+before audiences of every rank and class. As a descriptive work it
+rivals in many passages the very best ever written. Much controversy has
+taken place as to how much of the book is history--how much of it is
+founded upon fact and how much is pure fiction. The ground is a rather
+dangerous one to touch. It is safest to say that while the brutality
+held up to scorn and contempt in this book was not general in the slave
+States or on plantations in the South, what is depicted might have taken
+place under existing laws, and the book exposed iniquities which were
+certainly perpetrated in isolated cases.
+
+That all negroes were not treated badly, or that slavery invariably
+meant misery, can be easily proved by any one who takes the trouble to
+investigate, even in the most superficial manner. When the news of
+emancipation gradually spread through the remote regions of the South,
+there were hundreds and probably thousands of negroes who declined
+absolutely to take advantage of the freedom given them. Many most
+pathetic cases of devotion and love were made manifest. Even to-day
+there are numbers of aged colored men and women who are remaining with
+their old-time owners and declining to regard emancipation as logical or
+reasonable.
+
+Not long ago, a Northern writer while traveling through the South found
+an aged negro, whom he approached with a view to getting some
+interesting passages of local history. To his surprise he found that the
+old man had but one idea. That idea was that it was his duty to take
+care of and preserve his old master's grave. When the war broke out, the
+old hero was the body-servant or valet of a man, who, from the very
+first, was in the thick of the fight against the North. The colored man
+followed his soldier-master from place to place, and when a Northern
+bullet put an end to the career of the master, the servant reverently
+conveyed the body back to the old home, superintended the interment, and
+commenced a daily routine of watching, which for more than thirty years
+he had never varied.
+
+All the relatives of the deceased had left the neighborhood years
+before, and the faithful old negro was the only one left to watch over
+the grave and keep the flowers that were growing on it in good
+condition. As far as could be learned from local gossip, the old fellow
+had no visible means of subsistence, securing what little he needed to
+eat in exchange for odd jobs around neighboring houses. No one seemed to
+know where he slept, or seemed to regard the matter as of any
+consequence. There was about the jet black hero, however, an air of
+absolute happiness, added to an obvious sense of pride at the
+performance of his self-imposed and very loving task.
+
+Instances of this kind could be multiplied almost without end. The negro
+as a free man and citizen retains many of the most prominent
+characteristics which marked his career in the days before the war. Now
+and again one hears of a negro committing suicide. Such an event,
+however, is almost as rare as resignation of an office-holder or the
+death of an annuitant. Indifference to suffering and a keen appreciation
+of pleasure, make prolonged grief very unusual among Afro-Americans, and
+in consequence their lives are comparatively joyous.
+
+One has to go down South to appreciate the colored man as he really is.
+In the North he is apt to imitate the white man so much that he loses
+his unique personality. In the Southern States, however, he can be found
+in all his original glory. Here he can be regarded as a survival of
+preceding generations. In the South, before the war, the truism that
+there is dignity in toil was scarcely appreciated at its full worth. The
+negro understood, as if by instinct, that he ought to work for his white
+master, and that duties of every kind in the field, on the road and in
+the house, should be performed by him. For a white man who worked he
+entertained feelings in which there was a little pity and a great deal
+of contempt. He has never got over this feeling, or the feeling which
+his father before him had. Down South to-day the expression "po' white
+trash" is still full of meaning, and the words are uttered by the
+thick-lipped, woolly-headed critics with an emphasis and expression the
+very best white mimic has never yet succeeded in reproducing.
+
+George Augustus Sala, one of England's oldest and most successful
+descriptive writers, talks very entertainingly regarding the emancipated
+slave. The first trip made to this country by the versatile writer
+referred to was during the war.
+
+He returned home full of prejudices, and wrote up the country in that
+supercilious manner European writers are too apt to adopt in regard to
+America. Several years later he made his second trip, and his
+experiences, as recorded in "America Revisited," are much better
+reading, and much freer from prejudice.
+
+"For full five and thirty years," he writes, "had I been waiting to see
+the negro 'standing in the mill pond.' I saw him in all his glory and
+all his driving wretchedness at Guinneys, in the State of Virginia. I
+own that for some days past the potential African, 'standin' in de mill
+pond longer than he oughter' had been lying somewhat heavily on my
+conscience. My acquaintance with our dark brethren since arriving in
+this country had not only been necessarily limited, but scarcely of a
+nature to give me any practical insight into his real condition since he
+has been a free man--free to work or starve; free to become a good
+citizen or go to the devil, as he has gone, mundanely speaking, in Hayti
+and elsewhere. Colored folks are few and far between in New York, and
+they have never, as a rule, been slaves, and are not even generally of
+servile extraction. In Philadelphia they are much more numerous. Many of
+the mulatto waiters employed in the hotels are strikingly handsome men,
+and on the whole the sable sons of Pennsylvania struck me as being
+industrious, well dressed, prosperous, and a trifle haughty in their
+intercourse with white folks.
+
+"In Baltimore, where slavery existed until the promulgation of Lincoln's
+proclamation, the colored people are plentiful. I met a good many
+ragged, shiftless, and generally dejected negroes of both sexes, who
+appeared to be just the kind of waifs and strays who would stand in a
+mill pond longer than they ought to in the event of there being any
+convenient mill pond at hand. But the better class darkeys, who have
+been domestic slaves in Baltimore families, seemed to retain all their
+own affectionate obsequiousness of manner and respectful familiarity.
+Again, in Washington, the black man and his congeners seemed to be doing
+remarkably well. At one of the quietest, most elegant and most
+comfortable hotels in the Federal Capital, I found the establishment
+conducted by a colored man, all of whose employes, from the clerks in
+the office to the waiters and chambermaids, were colored. Our
+chambermaid was a delightful old lady, and insisted ere we left that we
+should give her a receipt for a real old English Christmas plum pudding.
+
+"But these were not the mill pond folk of whom I was in quest. They were
+of the South, as an Irishman in London is of Ireland, but not in it. I
+had a craving to see whether any of the social ashes of slavery lived
+their wonted fires. Away down South was the real object of my mission,
+and in pursuit of that mission I went on to Richmond."
+
+Mr. Sala proceeds to give a most amusing account of his ride from New
+York to Richmond, with various criticisms of sleeping-car accommodation,
+heartily endorsed by all American travelers who have read them. Arriving
+at Richmond he asked the usual question: "Is not the negro idle,
+thriftless and thievish?" From time immemorial it has been asserted that
+the laws of meum and tuum have no meaning for the colored man. It is a
+joke current in more than one American city, that the police have
+standing orders to arrest every negro seen carrying a turkey or a
+chicken along the street. In other words, the funny man would have us
+believe that the innate love of poultry in the Ethiopian's breast is so
+great that the chances are against his having been possessed of
+sufficient force of character to pass a store or market where any birds
+were exposed for sale and not watched.
+
+It is doubtless a libel on the colored race to state that even the
+majority of its members are chicken thieves by descent rather than
+inclination, just as it is a libel on their religion to insinuate that a
+colored camp meeting is almost certain to involve severe inroads into
+the chicken coops and roosts of the neighboring farmers. Certain it is,
+however, that chicken stealing is one of the most dangerous causes of
+backsliding on the part of colored converts and enthusiastic singers of
+hymns in negro churches. The case of the convert who was asked by his
+pastor, a week after his admission to the church, if he had stolen a
+chicken since his conversion, and who carefully concealed a stolen duck
+under his coat while he assured the good man that he had not, is an
+exaggerated one of course, but it is quoted as a good story in almost
+every State and city in the Union.
+
+Mr. Sala objects very much to judging a whole class of people by a few
+street-corner or cross-road loungers. The negro he found to be
+superstitious, just as we find them to-day. Even educated negroes are
+apt to give credence to many stories which, on the face of them, appear
+ridiculous. The words "Hoodoo" and "Mascot" have a meaning among these
+people of which we have only a dim conception, and when sickness enters
+a family the aid of an alleged doctor, who is often a charlatan of the
+worst character, is apt to be sought. It will take several generations
+to work out this characteristic, and perhaps the greatest complaint the
+colored race has against those who formerly held them in subjection, is
+the way in which voodoo and supernatural stories were told ignorant
+slaves with a view to frightening them into obedience, and inciting them
+to extra exertions.
+
+For absolute ignorance and apparent lack of human understanding, the
+negro loafer to be found around some of our Southern towns and depots
+may be quoted as a signal and quite amusing example. The hat, as Mr.
+Sala humorously puts it, resembles an inverted coal scuttle or bucket
+without handles, and pierced by many holes. It is something like the
+bonnet of a Brobdingnagian Quakeress, huge and flapped and battered, and
+fearful to look upon.
+
+"Hang all this equipment," this interesting writer goes on to say, "on
+the limbs of a tall negro of any age between sixteen and sixty, and then
+let him stand close to the scaffold-like platform of the depot shanty
+and let him loaf. His attitude is one of complete and apathetic
+immobility. He does not grin. He may be chewing, but he does not smoke.
+He does not beg; at least in so far as I observed him he stood in no
+posture and assumed no gestures belonging to the mendicant. He looms at
+you with a dull, stony, preoccupied gaze, as though his thoughts were a
+thousand miles away in the unknown land; while once in every quarter of
+an hour or so he woke up to a momentary consciousness that he was a
+thing neither rich nor rare, and so wondered how in thunder he got
+there. He is a derelict, a fragment of flotsam and jetsam cast upon the
+not too hospitable shore of civilization after the great storm had
+lashed the Southern sea to frenzy and the ship of slavery had gone to
+pieces forever. Possibly he is a good deal more human than he looks, and
+if he chose to bestir himself and to address himself to articulate
+discourse, could tell you a great many things about his wants and
+wishes, his views and feelings on things in general which, to you, might
+prove little more than amazing. As things go, he prefers to do nothing
+and to proffer no kind of explanation as to why he is standing there in
+a metaphorical mill pond very much 'longer than he oughter.'"
+
+One turns with pleasure from the severe, but perhaps not overdrawn,
+character sketch of the colored loafer, to the better side of the modern
+negro. The intense desire for education, and the keen recognition of the
+fact that knowledge is power, point to a time when utter ignorance even
+among the negroes will be a thing of the past. Prejudice is hard to
+fight against, and the colored man has often a considerable amount of
+handicap to overcome. But just as Mr. Sala found the typical negro,
+"standing in the mill pond longer than he oughter," a sad memento of the
+past, so the traveler can find many an intelligent and entertaining
+individual whose accent betrays his color even in the darkest night, but
+whose cute expressions and pleasant reminiscences go a long way towards
+convincing even the sternest critic that the future is full of hope for
+a race whose past has in it so little that is either pleasing or
+satisfactory.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+OUR NATIONAL PARK.
+
+A Delightful Rhapsody--Early History of Yellowstone Park--A Fish Story
+which Convulsed Congress--The First White Man to Visit the Park--A Race
+for Life--Philosophy of the Hot Springs--Mount Everts--From the Geysers
+to Elk Park--Some Old Friends and New Ones--Yellowstone Lake--The
+Angler's Paradise.
+
+
+Yellowstone Park is generally included in the list of the wonders of the
+world. It is certainly unique in every respect, and no other nation,
+modern or ancient, has ever been able to boast of a recreation ground
+and park provided by nature and supplied with such magnificent and
+extraordinary attractions and peculiarities. It is a park upon a
+mountain, being more than 10,000 feet above the level of the sea.
+Irregular in shape, it may be said to be about sixty miles across on the
+average, and it contains an area of 3,500 square miles.
+
+Mr. Olin D. Wheeler, in an admirable treatise on this park, in which he
+describes some of the many wonders in the marvelous region traversed by
+the Northern Pacific Railroad, thus rhapsodizes:
+
+"The Yellowstone Park! The gem of wonderland. The land of mystic
+splendor. Region of bubbling caldron and boiling pool with fretted rims,
+rivaling the coral in delicacy of texture and the rainbow in variety of
+color; of steaming funnels exhaling into the etherine atmosphere in
+calm, unruffled monotone and paroxysmal ejection, vast clouds of fleecy
+vapor from the underground furnaces of the God of Nature; sylvan
+parkland, where amidst the unsullied freshness of flower-strewn valley
+and bountiful woodland, the native fauna of the land browse in fearless
+joy and wander wild and free, unfretted by sound of huntsman's horn, the
+long-drawn bay of the hound, and the sharp crack of the rifle.
+
+"Land of beauteous vale and laughing water, thundering cataract and
+winding ravine; realm of the Ice King and the Fire King; enchanted spot,
+where mountain and sea meet and kiss each other; where the murmurs of
+the river, as it meanders through heaven-blest valleys, becomes harsh
+and sullen amid the pine-covered hills which darken and throttle its
+joyous song, until, uncontrollable, it throws itself, a magnificent
+sheet of diamond spray and plunging torrent, over precipices, and rolls
+along an emerald flood betwixt canon walls, such as the eye of mortal
+has seldom seen."
+
+The history of this park is involved in a good deal of mystery. About
+ninety years ago it was first discovered, but the information brought
+back to civilization by the explorers was apparently so exaggerated that
+it excited general ridicule. No one believed that the wonders described
+really existed. Even later, when corroborative evidence was forthcoming,
+skepticism continued. It was almost as difficult then to make people
+believe the truth about the hot springs and geysers, as it is now to
+make people believe that it is possible for a man to stand on the edge
+of a hot spring, catch the choicest kind of fish in the cool waters of
+the lake surrounding him, and then cook his fish in the boiling water of
+the spring without taking it off the hook, or walking a single step.
+
+This latter fish story has the peculiar feature of being true. Several
+reliable men, including some who have not allowed the ardent pursuit of
+Isaac Walton's pet pastime to blunt their susceptibility of veracity,
+have performed this apparently impossible feat, or have seen it done
+right before their very eyes. A year or so ago, when an appropriation
+was asked for in Congress for the further preservation of Yellowstone
+Park, a member made this extraordinary possibility an argument in
+support of his plea. A roar of laughter succeeded his recital, and when
+the orator stopped to explain that he was merely recording an actual
+fact and not telling a fish story, there seemed to be danger of
+wholesale convulsion within the legislative walls. Several of the amused
+Congressmen subsequently made inquiries and ascertained to their
+astonishment that, instead of exaggeration, the half had not been told,
+and that if a full summary of the attractions of Yellowstone Park were
+to be written, the immense shelves of the Congressional Library itself
+would scarcely hold the books that would have to be written to contain
+it.
+
+This little divergence is to afford an excuse for the incredulity of our
+forefathers, who made sarcastic remarks as to the powers of wild Western
+whisky, when pioneers returned from the Rocky Mountains and told them
+that there existed away up in the clouds an immense natural park, where
+beauty and weirdness could be found side by side.
+
+John Colter, or Coulter, is said to have been the first white man who
+ever entered the natural portals of this glorious park. It was in the
+early days of the century that this remarkable man had his adventure. He
+was a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, which was sent out to
+explore the sources of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers. He was
+naturally an adventurer, and a man who had no idea of the meaning of the
+word "danger." The party had a glimpse of Yellowstone Park, and Coulter
+was so enamored with the hunting prospects that he either deserted from
+the expedition party or obtained permission to remain behind.
+
+However this may have been, it is certain that Coulter remained, with
+but one companion, in the vicinity of the Jefferson Fork of the Missouri
+River. According to fairly authentic records, he and his companion were
+captured by hostile Blackfeet, who showed their resentment at the
+intrusion upon the privacy of their domains by depriving Coulter of his
+clothing, and Coulter's companion of his life. The chronic adventurer,
+however, spent four years among the more friendly Bannock Indians, who
+probably for centuries had lived in or near the park. He had a very
+enjoyable time in the newly discovered region, and his adventures
+crowded upon each other, one after the other, with great rapidity. When
+at last he decided to return to the abode of the white man, he took with
+him a fund of recollection and incident of the most sensational
+character, and before he had been at home with his own kindred a week,
+he had earned the reputation of being a modern Ananias, ten times more
+mendacious than the original article.
+
+Twenty or thirty years elapsed before any reliable information was
+obtained about the park. James Bridger, the daring scout and
+mountaineer, went through the park more than once, and in his most
+exaggerated rhapsodies told of its beauties and of its marvels. But
+Bridger's stories had been tried in the balances and found wanting
+before this, and nobody worried very much over them. In 1870, Dr. F. V.
+Hayden and Mr. M. P. Langford explored the park on a more rational
+basis, and gave to the world, in reliable shape, a resume of their
+discoveries. Mr. Langford was himself an experienced Western explorer.
+For many years he had desired to either verify or disprove the so-called
+fairy tales which were going the rounds concerning Yellowstone Park. He
+found a number of equally adventurous gentlemen, including the
+Surveyor-General of Montana, Mr. Washburn, after whom the expedition was
+generally known. In 1871, Dr. Hayden, who was then connected with the
+United States Geological Survey Department, undertook a scientific
+exploration of the park. He was accompanied by Mr. Langford, and the two
+men together tore away the veil of mystery which had overhung the
+wonderful resort among the hills, and gave to the country, for the first
+time, a reliable description of one of the most magnificent of its
+possessions.
+
+The report was not confined to eulogy. It included drawings, photographs
+and geological summaries, and wound up with an earnest appeal to the
+National Government to reserve the beauty spot as a National Park
+forever. Several men arose to endorse the request, and in March, 1872,
+Congress passed an act dedicating Yellowstone Park to the public for all
+time, declaring it to be a grand national playground and a museum of
+unparalleled and incomparable marvels.
+
+Since that time the park has gradually become better known and more
+highly appreciated. The Northern Pacific Railroad runs a branch line to
+which the name of the park has been given, and which connects
+Livingston, Montana, with Cinnabar, at the northern edge of the park.
+The road is about fifty miles long, and the scenery through which it
+passes is astounding in its nature.
+
+From Cinnabar the tourist is driven in large stages throughout the park.
+If at all reminiscent by nature, he thinks about the experiences of
+Coulter, to whom we have already referred as the pioneer white man of
+Yellowstone. Early in the century the park was occupied by Indians, who
+had scarcely come in contact with white men, and who had not learned
+that in the unavoidable conflict between races, the weaker must
+inevitably succumb to the stronger. Around the limpid streams and at the
+borders of the virgin forests, containing untold wealth, tents made of
+skin drawn over boughs cut roughly from trees, could be seen in every
+direction. All around there were rough-looking, utterly uncivilized
+Indians, who were carrying out their usual occupation of doing nothing,
+and doing it with exceptional ability.
+
+The women or squaws were more active, but frequently paused in their
+work to look at the unfortunate Coulter, who, deprived of his clothing
+and absolutely naked, was waiting, bound hand and foot, for the fate
+that he had every reason to believe awaited him. His only companion had
+been killed the day before, and he expected every minute to meet the
+same fate. According to his own description of what followed, strategy
+saved his life. An Indian, sent for the purpose, asked him if he could
+run fast. Knowing himself to be an athlete of no mean ability, but
+guessing the object of the question, he assured the Indian that he was
+not a speedy runner. The answer had the effect he anticipated.
+
+His thongs were almost immediately cut, and he was taken out on the open
+prairie, given a trifling start, and then told that he might save
+himself if he could. Coulter had run many a fast mile before, but he
+never ran as on this occasion. He knew that behind him there were, among
+the indolent young Indians, many who could run with great speed, and his
+only hope lay in getting to cover ahead of these. Every long stride
+meant that much space between him and death, and every stride he took
+was the longest in his power. Again and again he looked around, only to
+discover to his astonishment that he had but just held his own. At last,
+however, all his pursuers except one were tired of the pursuit, and when
+he found this to be the case, he turned like a stag at bay and
+overpowered him.
+
+Then seeing that others of the Indians were taking up the chase, after a
+brief rest, Coulter made another great run, plunged into the river in
+front of him, and finally entered the labyrinth of forests and craters
+now known to the world as Yellowstone Park. Here, if his story is to be
+believed, he succeeded in making for himself clothing of some character
+out of the skins of beasts that he shot, and finally he fell into the
+hands of less hostile red men.
+
+So much of the early days of Yellowstone, and of the reminiscences which
+a first visit naturally conjure up. The park as it exists to-day is
+overcrowded with modern interests, and one only refers to these
+reminiscences by way of contrast. There are in the park at least 100
+geysers, nearly 4,000 springs, and an immense number of miniature parks,
+large and small rivers, and other marvels.
+
+The park is about equi-distant from the cities of Portland and St. Paul,
+and so many people have been attracted to it in recent years that a
+large number of very fine hotels have been built at a great expense. The
+hotels are open about four months a year, and the help to run them is
+brought from different States. The expenses are naturally heavy, and
+hence the hotel charges are not nominal, although the tourist can
+generally limit the expenses incurred to the bulk of his pocket-book,
+should he so desire. If he includes in his calculations the absolutely
+free sights that he witnesses, the expense of a trip is certainly
+moderate, and ought not to be taken into much consideration.
+
+The Mammoth Hot Springs is one of the leading sources of attraction of
+the park, a tour of which is something no American of means can afford
+to miss. The springs are very hard to describe. They consist of a number
+of irregular terraces, some as large as five acres in extent, and others
+very small. Some are a few feet high, and others stand forty or sixty
+feet above the one next below. Few people really understand what these
+springs are, or how the terraces are formed. One authority of eminence
+says that the rocks underlying the particular point are calcareous in
+character, consisting mainly of carbonated lime, which is somewhat
+soluble in percolating earth water. The hot subterranean water dissolves
+a large amount of mineral matter in passing through the earth, which it
+deposits on the surface in passing through the air. By this process
+walls, embankments and terraces are built up, and as the minerals
+through which the water passes are varying greatly in color, so the
+deposits left on the surface are some of them red, other pink and others
+black, with yellows, greens, blues, chocolates and mixed colors
+abounding in immense numbers, sometimes harmonizing beautifully and
+sometimes presenting the most astounding contrasts.
+
+The water in the springs is not warm, but hot, and hence the name.
+Frequently the temperature exceeds 160 degrees, in which case the
+coloring matter seems to be washed out, and the terraces present a white
+appearance. On other occasions, where the temperature is less severe,
+the varying hues already referred to abound on every side. Sometimes
+this whiteness, or bleached-out appearance, is astounding in its
+effects. The true artist will stand for hours gazing upon it, and
+wishing that he could reproduce, ever so inaccurately, the intense
+beauties which surround him.
+
+Behind the springs, and blocking up the view on the south, is the
+mountain known as Bunsen Peak, the highest within the range of the eye.
+Just across the open space, in front of the hotel at the springs, are
+the quarters of the National soldiers who patrol the park, and, to a
+certain extent at any rate, protect it from the vandal and the
+purloiner.
+
+In an admirable description of this scene contained in "Indian Land and
+Wonderland," a very delightful story is told of the long, low, flat and
+lava-capped mountain known as Mount Everts, in honor of Mr. T. C. Everts
+of Helena. Few know the story upon which the mountain owes its name,
+which is given as follows:
+
+Among the members of the first party that ever explored Yellowstone Park
+were Messrs. M. P. Langford, S. T. Hauser and T. C. Everts. There was
+also a military escort under Lieutenant Doane. The party proceeded up
+the Yellowstone River to the Grand Canon, thence across to Yellowstone
+Lake, around its eastern edge to the southern end, whence turning west
+they followed down the Firehole River through the Upper Geyser Basin to
+the Madison River. Following this river out from the park, they returned
+to Western civilization--all but one of them.
+
+On the nineteenth day out, September 9th, when moving across the country
+bordering the southern shore of the lake, Mr. Everts became lost. The
+traveling here was difficult, owing to fallen timber, rugged heights and
+no trails, and he was not missed until camp was made at night. Mr.
+Everts was not seen again for thirty-seven days, when he was found by
+two mountaineers on the verge of what is now known as Mount Everts,
+perfectly exhausted, and partly deranged through exposure and suffering.
+On the very first day of his absence his horse, left standing and
+unfastened, with all the man's arms and camp equipments attached, became
+frightened and ran away. Everts was near-sighted, had not even a knife
+for use or defense, and only a field glass to assist him in escaping. He
+first managed to reach Heart Lake, the source of Snake River. Here he
+remained for twelve days, sleeping close by the Hot Springs to keep from
+freezing. His food was thistle roots, boiled in the springs. One night
+he was forced into a tree by a mountain lion, and kept there all night.
+
+Finally, he bethought himself of the lenses of his field glasses, and
+thus was enabled to kindle fires. He wandered all along the western side
+of the lake and down the Yellowstone to where he was providentially
+found. He gave the story of his terrible experience in the old
+"Scribner's Magazine," since become "The Century," and a thrilling tale
+it makes. In a country filled with a network of streams, abundantly
+supplied with animal life for food, gorged with timber for fuel, the man
+nearly froze and starved and perished from thirst. Twice he was five
+days without food; once three days without water. It was late in the
+season, and the storms swept down on him and chilled him to the bone;
+the snows kept him prisoner in camp, or, when on his painful marches,
+blocked his progress.
+
+Naturally, he lost strength, and became hourly in danger of succumbing
+to the vast difficulties which confronted him. His sufferings were
+increased by the fear which was created by a large mountain lion, which
+got on his trail and followed him, evidently with a view to making him a
+feature of the menu of his next meal. It seems incredible that Mr.
+Everts should ever have escaped with his life. Fortune, however, came to
+his rescue at last. He was rescued and nursed back to life by good
+friends. To the plateau on which he was found, his name was given,
+although there are few who will remember the significance of the name.
+
+Norris Geyser is another of the almost miraculous features of the park.
+The basin of the geyser has been described as a weird, uncanny place,
+and the words seem well chosen. Of vegetation there is practically none,
+because the underground heat keeps the ground always warm, and steam
+breaks out into the atmosphere at several points. The general aspect is
+drear and desolate, gray and dull, and yet there is something about it
+beautiful as well as uncanny.
+
+A geyser is always a source of wonder. The word is of Icelandic
+derivation, and signifies gushing. As applied to phenomena such as we
+are now describing, its applicability is good, for, from the mouth of
+the geysers, there rushes from time to time an immense mass of boiling
+water and steam, creating a disturbance of no ordinary character. It is
+assumed that the water hurled into the air to a great height while at
+boiling point, has risen to the surface through masses of lava, which
+are reminiscent of volcanic ages far beyond the memory of mankind. The
+mystery of geological formation is too great to be gone into in a work
+of this character, but the bare contemplation of geysers, such as are
+seen at Yellowstone Park, reminds one of the wonders deeply hidden in
+the bowels of the earth, unappreciated and unknown by and to 99 per
+cent. of the human race.
+
+At the Norris Geyser basin the noise is extraordinary, and people who
+are superstitiously inclined are awed at the rumblings and grumblings
+which seem to issue from the bowels of the earth. Eruptions of hot water
+and steam at irregular intervals burst forth, and the very road which
+crosses the adjoining plain has been bleached to almost perfect
+whiteness by the vapors. The crust of ground is very thin all around
+here, and indiscriminate exploring is dangerous. To slip through the
+crust into the boiling water beneath would inevitably involve being
+scalded to death, and the man who allows the guide to show him where to
+tread exhibits the greater wisdom.
+
+In direct contrast to this basin is the Elk Park. Yellowstone is
+celebrated among other things for being the home of an immense number of
+the most remarkable specimens of North American animals. The Government
+herd of buffalo in the park is of countless value, because it is really
+the only complete representation at the present time of the practically
+extinct species of flesh and hide producing animals which used to graze
+by the million on the prairie. The buffalo are comparatively tame. Most
+of them were born within the confines of the park, and seem to have
+realized that the existence of their kind in perpetuity is one of the
+greatest desires of the Government. There are a number of bears around
+as well, but they have lost their viciousness, and enjoy life very
+hugely under somewhat changed conditions. They seldom hurt any one, but
+prowl around the hotels at night, and by eating up the scraps and
+leavings solve the garbage problem in a satisfactory manner.
+
+Deer, elk, antelope and mountain sheep climb the mountains, and very
+frequently find their way into Elk Park or Gibbon Meadow. This is an
+exceptionally desirable wintering ground, because it is surrounded by
+hills and mountains which keep off the worst of the winds, and there is,
+moreover, a perpetual spring of pure water. The meadow is probably the
+prettiest spot in the entire park. There is less of the awful and more
+of the picturesque than can be found elsewhere, and it is, in many
+respects, an oasis in a vast and somewhat dreary expanse of land.
+
+Golden Gate is another of the exquisite spots every visitor to
+Yellowstone Park seeks and finds. To reach the Golden Gate one must be a
+great climber, for it is high up, and the road to it is built along the
+edge of a cliff, which, in places, seems to be absolutely perpendicular.
+The gate is, however, worth reaching, and one is not surprised to hear
+that as much as $14,000 were spent in cutting out a single mile of the
+road to it through the rock.
+
+Leaving the Golden Gate, and continuing the tour of inspection, a valley
+of large dimensions is seen. The contrast between the rich green of
+almost faultless verdure, and the dreariness of the rocks left behind,
+is striking. It would seem as though nature had built up an immense
+barrier between the weird and the natural, so that the one could not
+affect the other. The Bible speaks of the intense comfort of the shade
+of a great rock in a dry and thirsty land. A sensation of equal, if not
+greater, relief is experienced in Yellowstone Park when one leaves the
+grand, death-like desolation around the Hot Springs, and encounters the
+exquisite beauty of shrub land and timber but a few paces away. The
+groves of trees are in themselves sources of great delight, and also of
+immense wealth. Fortunately, they will be preserved in perpetuity for
+the American people. The lumber king cannot get here. His ravages must
+be confined to other regions.
+
+The valley into which the tourist has entered takes its name from the
+Swan Lake, a very delightful inland mountain scene. The lake is about
+two miles from Golden Gate. It is not a very large body of water, but
+its rippling surface extracts expressions of admiration from all who
+behold it. It has been described as a demure looking sheet of water, and
+there is something about the appearance of the lake which seems to
+justify the peculiar definition. The canon forming the valley is like
+everything else in Yellowstone Park--a little out of the ordinary. On
+the one side there are lofty mountains, with eminences and peaks of
+various formation and height, while in the distance the great Electric
+Peak can be easily seen. We have already spoken of Yellowstone Park as
+being about 10,000 feet above the sea level. Electric Peak, well
+described as the sentinel of the park, is more than 11,000 feet high.
+Viewed from a distance, or along the line of the valley, it is
+calculated to excite both admiration and awe.
+
+Willow Creek Park, or Willow Park, as it is sometimes called, lies due
+south. It takes its name from the immense growth of willow bushes which
+hide the ground from view, and monopolize the scenery and groundwork
+entirely. None of these bushes can claim the right to be called trees,
+as the average height is inconsiderable. But they make up in density
+what they lack in altitude. The peculiar green of the willow is the
+predominating color, without any variation of any kind. The idea
+conveyed to the mind is of a huge green carpet or rug, and when the wind
+blows freely across the valley, it divides up the bushes into little
+ridges or furrows, which add to the uniqueness of the scene. Springs of
+remarkably pure water, many of them possessed of medicinal power, abound
+in this neighborhood, and tourists slake an imaginary thirst with much
+interest at different ones of these.
+
+The Obsidian Creek runs slowly through this valley. Obsidian Cliff is
+the next object of special interest which is witnessed. It is half a
+mile long and from 150 to 200 feet high. The southern end is formed of
+volcanic glass, or obsidian, as true a glass as any artificially
+produced. The roadway at its base is constructed across the talus, and
+is emphatically a glass road. Huge fragments of obsidian, black and
+shining, some of it streaked with white seams, line the road. Small
+pieces are also plentiful. This flow of glass came from a high plateau
+to the east-northeast. Numerous vent pits, or apparent craters, have
+been discovered on this plateau. Mr. J. P. Iddings, of the Unites States
+Geological Survey, who has made a special study of Obsidian Cliff,
+contributes to the survey report for 1885-86 a paper that has in it much
+that is of interest to the unscientific mind.
+
+The Lower Geyser Basin is in some respects more pleasing than the
+Norris, although the desolation is perhaps even more apparent. People
+who have seen districts in which salt is made out of brine extracted
+from wells, state that the appearance in the Lower Geyser Basin is very
+similar to what is seen around manufacturing districts of that
+character. This basin is in the valley of the Firehole River, a
+strangely named stream, of a very beautiful character. In the basin
+itself the branches of the Firehole unite, and with the Gibbon River
+form one of the three sources of the Missouri, called the Madison, after
+the President of that name. The Fountain Geyser is the largest in the
+neighborhood, and is one of the best in the park. It is very regular in
+its eruptions, and seldom fails to perform on time for the benefit of
+the onlooker. It sends an immense volume of water into the air, and
+resembles a fountain very closely. Its basin is very interesting, and
+gives a good example of the singular deposits left by a geyser.
+
+When the fountain is busy throwing out its volumes of water, the
+appearance is very peculiar. Little notice is given of an eruption,
+which takes place suddenly, although at stated intervals. All at once
+the watcher is rewarded for his patience by having the stillness changed
+into activity of the most boisterous character. The water is hurled
+upwards in a mass of frothing, boiling and foaming crystals. The actual
+height varies, but frequently goes as far as thirty feet. In a moment
+the wall of water becomes compact, oblong and irregular. Crystal effects
+are produced, varying according to the time of day and the amount of
+light, but always delightful and peculiar.
+
+Close at hand are the Mammoth Paint Pots, in the center of the Firehole
+Geyser. We can explain the appearance of the Paint Pot or Mud Bath much
+more easily than we can account for the phenomenon. It is well named,
+because it resembles a succession of paint pots of enormous size more
+than anything else that the imagination can liken it to. The basin
+measures forty by sixty feet, with a mud boundary three or four feet
+high on three sides of it. The contents of the basin have kept
+scientists wondering for years. The substance is white, looking very
+much like ordinary paint, but, unlike paint, it is constantly in motion,
+and the agitation is so persistent that an idea is given that the Paint
+Pot's basin is the bed of a crater. The continual bubbling and vibration
+is very interesting in its effects, and the noise it makes is quite
+peculiar, not unlike a subdued hiss or a badly executed stage-whisper.
+Mixed among the white substance is a quantity of silicious clay of all
+sorts and conditions of color. This produces a variation in the
+appearance, but is merely in addition to what is otherwise marvelous in
+the extreme. Pearl gray, with terra cotta, red and green tints is the
+basic color of this boiling, seething mass, which seems to be
+continually at unrest and in a course of worry.
+
+The Excelsior Geyser is the most conspicuous feature of the Midway
+Basin, a collection of hot springs and pools. They are situated in the
+Midway Basin, and were originally called Cliff Caldron. Excelsior Geyser
+is in a continual state of anarchy, without law, government or
+regulation. It does just as it likes and when it likes. It seldom
+performs when wanted to, but when it does break out into a condition of
+fermentation, the effect is very magnificent. As one writer puts it, the
+beauties and exhibitions of this geyser are as far superior to those of
+all the others as the light of the sun seems to that of the moon.
+
+The geyser was for years regarded as the grandest spring in the park,
+before its exceptionally great features prevailed or became apparent. In
+the years 1881-82, the eruptions from this geyser became so terrific
+that it spouted water as high as 250 feet, and converted the generally
+inoffensive Firehole River into a torrent of storming water. Rocks of
+large size and heavy enough to be very dangerous were hurled headlong
+from within the mysterious confines of the earth, and were dashed around
+in all directions. For miles the terrific noise could be heard, and
+people who had been waiting for a phenomenon of this character, hurried
+across country to witness it. It is only now and again that a phenomenon
+of this kind is repeated, and the most skillful geologists are unable to
+give us any adequate forecasts as to when the next performance will take
+place.
+
+Rehearsals seem always in progress. Vast masses of steam rise from the
+crater or hole. Many people crowd to the edge of the basin and strive to
+penetrate into the mysteries of subterranean happenings. The day may
+come when some scientific method of seeing through smoke and steam and
+enduring scalding heat without difficulty may be devised. Until then the
+mystery must remain unsolved.
+
+In exact contrast with the irregular and spasmodic action of the
+Excelsior, is the methodical, persevering action of Old Faithful. This
+is another of the great and popular geysers of Yellowstone Park. It is
+so uniform in its appearance that a man can keep his watch regulated by
+it. Every sixty-five minutes the well-named geyser gives forth a
+peculiar noise to warn the world that it is about to perform. Then for
+about five minutes a vast stream of water and steam is hurled into the
+air to the height of about 150 feet. The mass of boiling water measures
+six feet in diameter, and the volume discharged exceeds a hundred
+thousand gallons each hour. Day by day and hour, for nearly twenty
+years, this industrious geyser has regularly done its duty, and afforded
+entertainment for visitors. No one knows how long prior to that time it
+commenced operations, or for how long it will continue.
+
+Leaving for the moment the consideration of geysers and hot springs and
+other wonders of this character, the sightseer gets a view of a very
+different nature. At Keppler's Cascades the stage coach generally stops
+to enable passengers to walk to the edge of the cliff and watch the
+cascades and foaming river in the black canon below. Then the journey
+proceeds through the Firehole Valley, and through leafy forests and open
+glades, until the narrow and tortuous canon of Spring Creek is reached.
+The scenery here is decidedly unconventional and wild.
+
+We soon reach the summit of the Continental Divide. Now the outlook is
+much expanded, and it becomes more majestic and dignified. The mountains
+overhang the roadway on one side and drop far below on the other. Heavy,
+shaggy forests cover the slopes and peaks, while tiny island parks, as
+it were, and cheerful openings are occasionally seen. The road winds
+about the mountain-flanks, now climbing up, now descending; the whole
+aspect of nature grows more grand, more austere; the air grows more
+rarified, and one becomes more and more exalted in spirit. Occasionally
+the mountains break away and you obtain a view far out beyond the narrow
+limits round about. Distant mountains are seen, and the feeling that
+there are nothing but mountain-walls about you impresses itself strongly
+upon one, and it is just about true. After several miles of such riding,
+and when you have begun to imagine that nothing finer can come, the road
+leads up to a point that, almost before you know it, simply drives from
+your thoughts all else seen on this ride.
+
+It is a wonderful picture, and produces a state of exultation that to
+some must seem almost too strong to endure. The mountains, which rise
+high above, stretch also far below, and in every direction are at their
+very best. Proud and regal in their strength and bearing, they are
+still, from summit to the depths, heavily covered with the primeval
+forest. It would seem as if they really knew what a view was here
+unfolded, and to rejoice in the grandeur of the scene. Like a thread,
+you can trace the turns and lines of the road along which the stage has
+come. But that which adds the softer, more beautiful element to a
+picture otherwise almost overpowering in its grandeur, and withal stern
+and unyielding, is seen through a break or portal off to the south.
+
+Far away, far below, lies a portion of Shoshone Lake. Like a sleeping
+babe in its mother's lap, nestles this tiny lakelet babe in the
+mountains. It shines like a plate of silver or beautiful mirror. It is a
+gem worth crossing a continent to see, especially as there runs between
+the lake and the point of view a little valley dressed in bright, grassy
+green as a kind of foreground in the rear. There is thus a silvered
+lake, a lovely valley, with bright and warm green shades, and rich,
+dark-black forests in the rear. No one can gaze upon such a combination
+and contrast without being impressed, and without recognizing the
+sublime beauty and grandeur of the park and its surroundings.
+
+Yellowstone Lake is another of the extraordinary attractions of our
+great National Park. It is described as the highest inland sea in the
+world, and more than 7,000 feet above the sea level. It is, really,
+nearly 8,000 feet above the sea, and its icy cold water covers an area
+some thirty miles in length and about half as wide or about 300 square
+miles. This glorious inland ocean is perched up at the summit of the
+Rocky Mountains, just where no one would expect to find it. Several
+islands of varying sizes are dotted over the surface of the water, which
+at times is as smooth as a little mill pond, and at others almost as
+turbulent as the sea. The shores are entirely irregular in their
+formation, and Promontory Point extends out into the water a great
+distance, forming one of the most peculiar inland peninsulas in the
+entire world. Along the southern shore, inlets and bays are very
+numerous, some of them natural in character, and others full of evidence
+of brisk, and even terrific, volcanic action.
+
+From the peculiar rocks and eminences along the shore, reflections are
+cast into the water of an almost indescribable character. They are
+varied in nature and color, and, like the lake itself, differ from
+anything to be seen elsewhere. Another unique feature of this lake, and
+one that has to be seen to be understood, is the presence on the banks,
+and even out in the lake itself, of hot springs and geysers full of
+boiling water and steam. Some of these springs have wide and secure
+edges, or banks, on which a man can stand and fish. Then, on his right
+hand, he has the icy-cold water of the lake, from which he can obtain
+trout and other fish, until he begins to dream of a fisherman's
+paradise. Dr. Hayden, the explorer, already referred to, was the first
+man to take advantage of the opportunity and to cook his fish unhooked
+in the boiling water to his left, merely making a half turn in order to
+do so. When the Professor first mentioned this fact, he was good
+humoredly laughed at, but, as stated in an earlier part of this chapter,
+the possibility has been so clearly demonstrated, that people have long
+since admitted as a possibility what they had first denounced as an
+utter absurdity.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+THE HEROES OF THE IRON HORSE.
+
+Honor to Whom Honor is Due--A Class of Men Not Always Thoroughly
+Appreciated at their Worth--An Amateur's Ride on a Flying
+Locomotive--From Twelve Miles an Hour to Six Times that Speed--The
+Signal Tower and the Men who Work in it--Stealing a Train--A Race with
+Steam--Stones about Bewitched Locomotives and Providential Escapes.
+
+
+No one who has not given the matter special consideration has the
+remotest idea of the magnitude and importance of the railroad system of
+the United States. Nor has any one who has not studied the statistics
+bearing on the question the faintest conception of the cost of the roads
+built and in operation. The cost in dollars and cents for a mile of
+track has been ascertained to a fractional point. Expert accountants
+have figured out to a hundredth part of a cent the cost of hauling a
+passenger or a ton of merchandise any given distance. There are even
+tables in existence showing the actual expense incurred in stopping a
+train, while such details as the necessary outlay in wages, fuel,
+repairs, etc., have received the attention which the magnitude of the
+interests involved deserves.
+
+But the cost in human life and suffering of the great railroad system of
+the United States is quite another matter, and one that does not come
+within the scope of the calculations of accountants, expert or
+otherwise. It has been said repeatedly that a man is safer in a railroad
+train than on the streets. In other words, the percentage of death and
+serious injury is said by statisticians to be lower among men habitually
+traveling than among people who are classed as stay-at-homes, and who
+seldom take a railroad journey. But while this is doubtless correct, so
+far as passengers are concerned, the rule does not apply to railroad
+employes, and those who by their never-wavering care and energy protect
+the life and limbs of passengers, and make railroad traveling safe as
+well as comfortable.
+
+A celebrated divine, when preaching on the subject of faith, once took a
+railroad journey for an illustration. As he pointed out, with much
+eloquence and force, there could be no more realistic personification of
+faith than the man who peacefully lay down to sleep at night in his
+berth of a Pullman car, relying implicitly upon the railroad men to
+avert the thousands of dangers which had to be encountered during the
+still hours of the night.
+
+Whenever there is a strike, a great deal is written about the men
+employed in various capacities by railroads, and every misdeed is
+exaggerated, and every indiscretion magnified into a crime. But very
+little is said on the other side of the question. The men to whom
+railroad travelers, and especially those who ride at night, commend
+their safety, are worked to the full extent of their powers, and are
+paid very small wages, when the nature of their duties and the hours
+they have to make are taken into consideration.
+
+The commendation of these men takes the form of deeds, rather than
+words, and while so few have ever stopped to consider the loyalty and
+devotion of the poorly paid and hard-worked railroad man, every traveler
+who enters a railroad car pays silent tribute to their reliability. The
+passenger, as he lounges comfortably in a luxurious seat, or sleeps
+peacefully in his state-room, thinks nothing of the anxiety and
+annoyances of the men in charge of the train, or of those who are
+responsible for the track being kept clear, and proper orders being
+given to the engineer.
+
+This official is a man of many hardships and dangers. To him is
+entrusted daily the lives of hundreds of human beings. He knows not how
+many, but he knows that the slightest error on his part will hurl
+perhaps ten, perhaps twenty, and perhaps fifty human beings into
+eternity, besides maiming for life two or three times as many more. He
+knows, too, that not only is he responsible for the safety of the men,
+women and children who are riding behind him, but also for the occupants
+of other trains on the same track. He knows exactly where he must run on
+to a side track to allow the express in the other direction to pass, and
+he knows just where he must slacken speed in order to get safely around
+a dangerous curve, or cross a bridge which is undergoing repairs, or
+which is not quite as substantial as it would be if he, instead of
+millionaire railroad directors, had the control of the bridge
+construction and repair fund.
+
+To catch an idea of the responsibility of a locomotive engineer, it is
+necessary to ride a hundred miles or so in an engine. The author was
+given this privilege on a bleak, frosty day, early last winter. He was
+told by the officials that he took the ride at his own risk, and as a
+matter of personal favor, and that he must not interfere with the
+engineer or fireman in the execution of their duties. The guest was
+received kindly by both engineer and fireman, and was given a seat
+whence he could see along expanse of track over which the locomotive had
+to draw the train of cars. To a novice the sensation of a first ride on
+a locomotive is a very singular one, and to say that there is no tinge
+of fear intermingled with the excitement and pleasure, would be to make
+a statement not borne out by fact. On the occasion referred to, the
+train was a special one, carrying a delegation half way across the
+continent. It was about fifteen minutes late, and in order to make the
+run to the next division point it was necessary to maintain an average
+speed of more than forty-five miles an hour. As is almost always the
+case, when there is need for exceptional hurry, all sorts of trifling
+delays occurred, and several precious minutes were wasted before a start
+could be made.
+
+Finally, the conductor gives the necessary word, the engineer pulls the
+lever, and the irregular passenger finds for the first time in his life
+how much more difficult it is to start a locomotive than he ever
+imagined.
+
+First, there is a distinct tremble on the huge locomotive. Then there
+comes a loud hiss, with a heavy escape of steam, as the huge pistons tug
+and pull at the heavy wheels, which slip round and round and fail to
+grip the rail. Then, as gradually scientific power overcomes brute
+force, there is a forward motion of a scarcely perceptible character.
+Then, as the sand-box is brought into requisition, the wheels distinctly
+bite the rail, and, in the words of the race-track, "They're off." For a
+few seconds progress is very slow, indeed. Then the good work of the
+trusted locomotive becomes apparent, and before we are well out of the
+yards quite a good speed is being obtained. The fireman is busy ringing
+the bell, and the engineer, from time to time, adds to the warning noise
+by one of those indescribable toots made only by a steam engine.
+
+Now we are outside the city limits, and the train is making excellent
+time. We take out our watch and carefully time the speed between two
+mile-posts, to ascertain that about seventy seconds were occupied in
+covering the distance. Regardless of our instructions we mention this
+fact to the fireman, who has just commenced to throw a fresh supply of
+coal on to the roaring fire, adding a word of congratulation.
+
+"Why, that's nothing," he replies, laughing, "we are going up grade now.
+Wait until we get along the level or go down grade, and we will show you
+a mile away inside of sixty."
+
+We are not particularly glad to hear this. Already the locomotive is
+rocking a good deal more than is quite pleasant to the uninitiated, and
+the contrast between the hard seat and the pleasant one at our disposal
+in the Pullman car is becoming more and more obvious. Just as we are
+wondering how it will be possible to preserve one's equilibrium while
+going around a curve in the distance, a cow strays sheepishly on to the
+track, apparently some 200 yards ahead. The engineer plays a tune with
+his whistle, and the cow proceeds to trot down the track in front of us.
+That singularly misnamed appendage, the cow-catcher, strikes her
+amidships. She is thrown twenty feet in the air, and all that is left of
+her rolls into the ditch by the side of the track.
+
+For the moment we had forgotten George Stephenson's reply to the member
+of the British Parliament, who asked him what would happen in the event
+of a cow getting in front of one of the trains George was proposing to
+run, if necessary powers could be obtained. His reply, which has long
+since become historical, was that it would be very bad for the cow. We
+remembered this, and agreed with the pioneer railroad man when we saw
+the unfortunate bovine turn a quadruple somersault and terminate her
+existence in less than a second. But a moment previously we had been
+wondering what would happen when the inevitable collision took place.
+
+The fireman observes that the occurrence has somewhat unnerved us, and
+in a good-natured way assures us that a little thing of that kind
+doesn't amount to anything. It is pretty bad, he says, when a bunch of
+cows get on a track, and he remembers once, several years ago, having a
+train stopped out in the Far West by a bunch of fat steers, which
+blocked up the track. "But," he adds, by way of parenthesis, "that was
+on a very poor road with a broken-down freight locomotive. If we had had
+"87," with a full head of steam on, we could have got through all right,
+even if we had to overload the market with beef."
+
+Now the train rushes around a curve in one direction and now in another.
+The engineer never relaxes his vigilance, and, although he affects to
+make light of the responsibility, and assures his somewhat nervous
+passenger that there is no danger of any kind, his actions do not bear
+out his words. We are running special, a little ahead of the mid-day
+express schedule, and at every station there are waiting passengers who
+herald our approach with delight, and, gathering together their
+packages, advance to the edge of the platform evidently supposing we are
+going to stop for them. That we are to dash through the station at a
+speed of fifty or sixty miles an hour, does not occur to them as a
+remote possibility, and the looks of astonishment which greet us as we
+rush past the platform are amusing. Finally, we reach a long stretch of
+level track, where the rails are laid as straight as an arrow for
+apparently several miles ahead.
+
+"Now's your time, if you want to take a good mile," says the friendly
+fireman.
+
+We take his advice, and by aid of a stop watch, especially borrowed for
+the occasion, we ascertain the fact that a mile is covered in fifty-two
+seconds. The next mile is two seconds slower, but the speed is more than
+maintained on the third mile. Reduced to ordinary speed figures, this
+means that we are making something like seventy miles an hour, and doing
+vastly better than was even anticipated. Our good work is, however,
+interfered with by the sudden application of the air brakes and the
+shutting off of steam as we approach a little station, where the signal
+is against us. A change in train orders proves to be the cause of the
+hindrance to our progress, and the engineer grumbles somewhat as he
+finds he will have to wait at a station some twenty miles further on,
+provided a train coming in the opposite direction is not on the side
+track before he gets there. The execution of this order involves a delay
+of five or ten minutes, but when we have the line clear again such good
+time is made that we accomplish our task and pull into the depot, where
+locomotives are to be changed, on time to the second.
+
+Such is a ride on a locomotive in broad daylight. At night of course the
+dangers and risks are increased ten-fold. The head-light pierces into
+the inky darkness, and frequently exaggerates the size of objects on and
+near the track. The slightest misunderstanding, the most trivial
+misinterpretation of an order, the least negligence on the part of any
+one connected with or employed by the road, may involve a wreck, to the
+total destruction of the train and its passengers, and the engineer
+feels every moment the full extent of his responsibilities and the
+nature of the risks he runs.
+
+These responsibilities are increased ten-fold by the great speed
+necessary in these days of haste and hurry. Few of our great-grandfathers
+lived to see steam applied as a motive power for locomotion. Most of our
+grandparents remember the first train being run in this country. Many of
+those who read these lines can recollect when a philosopher placed
+himself on record that a speed of twenty miles was impossible, because,
+even if machinery could be constructed to stand the wear and tear, the
+motion would be so rapid that the train men and passengers would succumb
+to apoplexy or some other terrible and fatal malady.
+
+It is less than seventy years ago since the time that the so-called
+crank, George Stephenson, ventured modestly to assert that his little
+four-and-a-half-ton locomotive, "The Rocket," was actually capable of
+whirling along one to two light carriages at the astounding velocity of
+twelve miles an hour. He was laughed to scorn by the highly intelligent
+British Parliamentary Committee engaged in the investigation of his new
+method of land traveling. At the present day, with regularly scheduled
+trains on many lines thundering across wide continents tirelessly hour
+after hour, at the rate of a mile a minute, it is the deliberate
+judgment of the most conservative students of railway science that the
+ultimate limit of speed is still in the far distance, and that 100 miles
+per hour will not be deemed an extraordinary rate of travel by the time
+the first decade of the Twentieth Century shall have closed.
+
+It is true that railroad schedules seldom call for mile-a-minute
+traveling, but the engineer is called upon very frequently to go even
+faster. The majority of people, even the most intelligent among those
+who habitually travel, obtain their conceptions of speed from the
+figures of the time-table, forgetting that in nearly every instance
+considerable portions of the route must be traversed at much more than
+the average speed required to cover the total distance in the schedule
+time. There are very few, if any, of the fast express trains which do
+not, on some part of each "run," reach or exceed a speed of a mile a
+minute. Yet, by reason of superior roadway and well constructed cars,
+the accelerated velocity is unnoticed; while running at from sixty to
+seventy miles an hour the passenger calmly peruses his paper or book,
+children play in the aisle, and a glass brim full of water may be
+carried from one end to the other of the smoothly rolling coach without
+the spilling of a drop. All the while the nerves of those in charge of
+the train are kept at high tension, and, oblivious as the passengers may
+be as to the danger, actual and imaginary, the risks incurred are never
+for a moment lost sight of by the two men on the locomotive.
+
+The man in the signal tower has an equal responsibility. In some
+respects the burden upon his shoulders is even greater, because he has
+the fate of perhaps a score of trains in his hands, with the lives of
+hundreds of passengers. Now and then, when the wrong lever has been
+pulled and a train is wrecked, we hear of a signal man sleeping at his
+post, but few of us stop to think how many thousand times a day the
+right lever is pulled, and how exceptional is the lapse from duty. There
+are heroes of the sea, and there are heroes of the battle-field, but
+there are ten times as many heroes who perform their deeds of heroism on
+locomotives, in switch and signal towers, and in railroad yards. It may
+not be fashionable to compare these savers of human life with those who
+destroy life on the battle-field, but the valor and endurance of the
+former is at least as conspicuous and meritorious as the daring and
+suffering of the latter.
+
+In "Scribner's Magazine" there recently appeared a most graphic
+description of a two-storied, square signal tower at "Sumach Junction."
+
+"This tower," says the contributor to the magazine named, "had two rows
+of windows on all sides and stood at the intersection of branches. At
+this point the trunk line resolved itself from four tracks into two, and
+here the gravel track, which looked as if it had been laid by a palsied
+contractor, left the main line and respectability behind, and hobbled
+out of sight behind the signal station with an intoxicated air. Beneath
+the tower, to the right hand, a double-tracked branch tapped a fertile
+country beyond the sand hills. And beneath the signal tower, to the
+left, a single-tracked branch, only a mile long, brought South Sumach,
+one of those tiresome towns that manufacture on water-power, in touch
+with the middle man. This petty branch (as if the case had been with
+petty people), made more trouble than all the rest of the lines put
+together. The signal man found this out.
+
+"So Sumach Junction had its place in the world, and, perhaps, it was a
+more important one than that of many a complacent and opulent suburb.
+The heart of this little community did not center, as a thoughtless
+person might suppose, in the church, or the commandery, or the grocery
+store, or the school, but in the signal tower. It was the pulse of the
+section. It was the life-blood of thousands of unconcerned travelers,
+whose lives and happiness depended on the intelligent vigilance of three
+men. These three took turns up there in the tower, locking and unlocking
+switches and signals until one might expect them to faint for dizziness
+and confusion. It was no uncommon thing in the signal tower, when one of
+the three wanted a day off, for the other two to double up on
+twelve-hour shifts. As long as the service was well performed, the
+Superintendent asked no questions."
+
+The story came to be written on account of the prolonged sickness of one
+of the three, which compelled the remaining two to remain on duty until
+their eyes were often dim, and their brain power exhausted. One of these
+finally worked until nature overcame force of habit and reliability, and
+a collision would have resulted but for the returning consciousness of
+the overworked and thoroughly exhausted man.
+
+While this hero of everyday life slept, or rather lost the power of
+thought from extreme exhaustion, the heavy snow storm which was making
+the night doubly dark had so blocked the machinery of the semaphore that
+it refused to respond to the desperate efforts of the weary signal man,
+who heard a freight train approaching, and knew that unless it was
+flagged at once it would dash into the rear end of a passenger train,
+which was standing in sight of the signal box, with its locomotive
+disabled. Finally, abandoning the attempt to move the lever, he rushed
+out into the night and forced his way through the snow in the direction
+of the approaching train. He was in time to avert the collision that
+appeared inevitable, but in his excitement overlooked his own danger,
+and was knocked down and terribly injured by the train he flagged.
+
+Within the last year the largest railroad station in the world, in the
+yards of which there is an immense amount of traffic, and from whose
+signal towers are worked switches and signals innumerable, has been
+opened. This immense station is situated at St. Louis. It covers an area
+of about twelve acres, and is larger than the two magnificent depots of
+Philadelphia combined. The second largest railroad station in the world
+is at Frankfort, Germany. The third in order of size is the Reading
+Station at Philadelphia. The four next largest being the Pennsylvania
+Depot at Philadelphia, St. Pancras Station in London, England, the
+Pennsylvania Depot in Jersey City, and the Grand Central Depot in New
+York City.
+
+We have all heard of peculiar thefts from time to time, and the records
+of stolen stoves and other heavy articles seem to show that few things
+are sufficiently bulky to be absolutely secure from the peculator or
+kleptomaniac. But to steal a train seems to the average mind an
+impossibility, though under some conditions it is even easy. During the
+crusade of the Commonwealers in 1894, more than one train was stolen.
+All that was required was a sufficient force to overcome the train crew
+at some small station or water tank, and one or two men who knew how to
+turn on steam and keep up a fire.
+
+History tells of a much more remarkable case of train stealing, with
+events of startling bravery and hair-breadth escapes connected with it.
+We refer to the great railroad raid in Georgia during the year 1862,
+when a handful of intrepid heroes invaded a hostile country,
+deliberately stole a locomotive, and came within an ace of getting it
+safely delivered into the hands of their friends.
+
+A monument, surmounted by the model of a locomotive, was erected four or
+five years ago to commemorate an event without precedent and without
+imitation. The story of the raid reads like fiction, but every incident
+we record is one of fact. Every danger narrated was run. Every
+difficulty was actually encountered, and the ultimate failure came about
+exactly as stated.
+
+Generals Grant and Buell were at the time marching towards Corinth,
+Mississippi, where a junction was to be made. The Confederate troops
+were concentrating at the same point, and there was immediate trouble
+brewing. General Mitchell, who was in command of one of Buell's
+divisions, had advanced as far as Huntsville, Alabama, and another
+detachment had got within thirty miles of Chattanooga. It was deemed
+advisable, and even necessary, to cut off the railway communication
+between Chattanooga and the East and South, and James J. Andrews was
+selected by General Buell for the task.
+
+Andrews picked out twenty-four spirits like unto himself, who entered
+the enemy's territory in ordinary Southern dress, and without any other
+arms than revolvers.
+
+Their purpose was to capture a train, burn the bridges on the northern
+part of the Georgia State Railroad, and also on the East Tennessee
+Railroad, where it approaches the Georgia State line, thus completely
+isolating Chattanooga, which was then virtually ungarrisoned. These men
+rendezvoused at Marietta, Georgia, more than 200 miles from the point of
+departure, having (with the exception of five, who were captured en
+route or belated) made their way thither in small detachments of three
+and four. The railroad at Marietta was found to be crowded with trains,
+and many soldiers were among the passengers.
+
+After much reconnoitering, it was determined to capture a train at Big
+Shanty, a few miles north of Marietta, and, purchasing tickets for
+different stations along the line in the direction of Chattanooga, the
+party, which included two engineers, reached Big Shanty.
+
+While the conductor, the engineer, and most of the passengers were at
+breakfast, the train was seized, and being properly manned, after the
+uncoupling of the passenger cars, was started on its fierce race
+northward. Think of the exploit--twenty men, with a hostile army about
+them, setting out thus bravely on a long and difficult road crowded with
+enemies.
+
+Of course the theft of the train 'produced great consternation, but the
+captors got away in safety, stopping frequently for the purpose of
+tearing up the track, cutting telegraph wires, etc. Andrews informed the
+people at the stations that he was an agent of General Beauregard,
+running an impressed powder train through to Corinth, and generally this
+silenced their doubts, though some acted suspiciously.
+
+The first serious obstacle was met at Kingston, thirty miles on the
+journey. Here the captors and their train were obliged to wait until
+three trains south-bound passed by. For an hour and five minutes they
+remained in this most critical position, sixteen men being shut up in
+the box-car, personating Beauregard's ammunition. Just as the train got
+away from Kingston two pursuers appeared, being Captain W. A. Fuller,
+the conductor of the stolen train, and an officer who happened to be
+aboard of it at the time it was run out from Big Shanty. Finding a
+hand-car, they had manned it and pushed forward until they had found an
+old locomotive standing with steam up on a side track, which they
+immediately loaded with soldiers and hurried forward with flying wheels
+in pursuit, until Kingston was reached, where they took the engine and a
+car of one of the waiting trains, and with forty armed Confederates
+continued the journey.
+
+It was now nip and tuck, with one engine rushing wildly after another.
+To wreck the pursuing train was the only tangible hope of the fugitives,
+who stopped again and again in order to loosen a rail. Had they been
+equipped with proper tools they could have done this easily, but as it
+was, they simply lost precious time. Once they were almost overtaken by
+the pursuing engine, and compelled to set out again at a terrible speed.
+At one point at Adairsville, they narrowly escaped running into an
+express train. Fuller, the conductor of the stolen train, and his
+companions, being arrested by the obstructions of the track, left their
+engine behind and started on foot, finally taking possession of the
+express passed at Adairsville, and turning it back in pursuit.
+
+When Calhoun was passed, the trains were within sight of each other. The
+track was believed to be clear to Chattanooga, and if only the pursuing
+train could be wrecked, the end would be gained. Again the lack of tools
+hampered the daring little band. They made desperate effort to break a
+rail, but the pursuers were upon them before they had accomplished it,
+and Andrews hurried on his engine, dropping one car and then another,
+which were picked up and pushed ahead, by the pursuers, to Resaca
+Station.
+
+Both engines were, at the time, at the highest rate of speed. Andrews at
+last broke off the end of his last box car and dropped crossties on the
+track as he ran. Several times he almost lifted a rail, but each time
+the coming of the Confederates within rifle range compelled him to
+desist.
+
+A participant in the feat, in his narrative of the affair, published in
+"Battles and Leaders of the Civil War," by the Century Company, says:
+
+"Thus we sped on, mile after mile, in this fearful chase, around curves
+and past stations in seemingly endless perspective. Whenever we lost
+sight of the enemy beyond a curve, we hoped that some of our
+obstructions had been effective in throwing him from the track, and that
+we would see him no more; but at each long reach backward the smoke was
+again seen, and the shrill whistle was like the scream of a bird of
+prey. The time could not have been so very long, for the terrible speed
+was rapidly devouring the distance, but with our nerves strained to the
+highest tension, each minute seemed an hour. On several occasions the
+escape of the enemy from wreck seemed little less than miraculous. At
+one point a rail was placed across the track so skillfully on the curve,
+that it was not seen till the train ran upon it at full speed. Fuller
+says that they were terribly jolted, and seemed to bounce altogether
+from the track, but lighted on the rail in safety. Some of the
+Confederates wished to leave a train which was driven at such a reckless
+rate, but their wishes were not gratified."
+
+At last, when hope was well nigh exhausted, a final attempt was made.
+Additional obstructions were thrown on the track, the side and end
+boards of the last car were torn into shreds, all available fuel was
+piled upon it, and blazing brands were brought back from the engine.
+Reaching a long, covered bridge, the car, which was now fairly ablaze,
+was uncoupled; but before the bridge was fully on fire the pursuers came
+upon it, pushed right into the smoke, and ran the burning car before
+them to the next side track. So this expedient also failed. With no car
+left, no fuel--every scrap of it having been thrown into the engine or
+upon the burning car--and with no means of further obstructing the
+track, the pursued party were reduced to desperation, and as a last
+resource, when within eighteen miles of Chattanooga, abandoned the train
+and dispersed to the woods, each to save himself.
+
+The good old locomotive, now feeble and useless, was left. According to
+some accounts it was reversed, in order to cause a collision with the
+on-coming train, but according to others, the steam was exhausted, and
+the engine just stopped for want of power. However this may have been,
+the hunters of the train become at once hunters of the train stealers,
+several of whom were captured the same day, and all but two within a
+week. Two of those who had failed to connect with the party were also
+captured. Being in citizen's dress within the enemy's lines, the whole
+party were held as spies. A court-martial was formed and the leader and
+seven out of the remaining twenty-two were condemned and executed. The
+others were never brought to trial. Of the remaining fourteen, eight
+succeeded by a bold effort in making an escape from Atlanta, and
+ultimately reaching the North. The other six failed in this effort, and
+remained prisoners until March, 1863, when they were exchanged.
+
+All sorts of stories have been heard from time to time concerning the
+supernatural side of railroading, and the peculiar and apparently hidden
+antics which locomotives occasionally are guilty of. The following story
+is well worth reproducing, and may serve as an illustration of hundreds
+of others. It was told by an engineer, who worked on the Utah & Northern
+Railroad years ago, before that road became part of the Union Pacific
+system. The road was very rough, and save for a long stretch of sage
+brush along the Snake River north of Pocatello, it ran in canons, over
+mountains, and through heavy cuts of clay, which was often washed down
+on to the tracks by the spring rains. It was, as it is now, a railroad
+rushed with business.
+
+It was the only line into Butte City, which had been struck a short time
+before, and was then giving promise of its future distinction as the
+greatest mining camp in the world. The shipments of gold and bullion
+were very heavy, and all the money for the banks in Butte and Helena was
+sent over this road. There were no towns along the line. The only stops
+were made at water-tanks, and such eating-houses as the railroad company
+had built at long intervals. It was a rough, hard run, and was made
+especially lonely by the uninhabited stretches of sand and sage brush,
+and the echoes from the high granite walls of the narrow canon. It was a
+dangerous run besides. The James gang of train robbers and the Younger
+brothers had been operating so successfully in Missouri, Kansas and
+Minnesota that other bandits had moved West to attempt similar
+operations.
+
+Finally, word came from the general offices of Wells, Fargo & Co. that
+several train robbers had been seen in Denver, and might work their way
+north in the hope of either securing gold bullion from one of the down
+trains from Butte, or money in exchange on an up train. After detailing
+these conditions, the engineer went on.
+
+"We got a new manager for the road, an Eastern man, who had some high
+notions about conducting railroad travel on what he called a modern
+basis. One of the first results of his management was a train, which he
+called the 'Mormon Flyer,' running from Butte to Salt Lake, and
+scheduled on the time card to run forty miles an hour. We told him he
+never could make that time on a rough mountain road, where a train had
+to twist around canon walls like a cow in the woods, but he wouldn't
+believe it. He said that if a train could run forty-five miles an hour
+in the East it could run forty on that road. The train was made up with
+a heavy 'hog' engine, a baggage car, express car and two sleepers. The
+first train down jumped the track twice, and the up train from Salt Lake
+was wrecked and nearly thrown into the Snake River. Then the trains ran
+from four to six hours behind time, and the people and the papers began
+to jest about the 'Mormon Flyer,' and ask for a return of the old
+Salisbury coach line. The manager complained from time to time, and said
+it was all the fault of the engineers; said that we did not know our
+business, and that he would get some men from the East who would make
+the 'Mormon Flyer' fly on time.
+
+"Well, one evening in Butte I had made up my train and was waiting for
+orders, when the station-master handed two telegrams to me. One was from
+the manager at Salt Lake, and read: 'You bring the 'Flyer' in on time
+to-morrow, or take two weeks' notice.' The other was from the Wells,
+Fargo & Co. agent, at Salt Lake, and read: 'No. 3 (the north-bound
+'Flyer') held up this afternoon near Beaver Canon. Treasure box taken
+and passengers robbed.' The best description of the robbers that could
+be had, was given. I showed both telegrams to the conductor, who held
+the train until he could get a dozen Winchesters from the town. In the
+meantime I had put the fireman on, and we put the finishing touches on
+the engine, No. 38--a big, new machine, with eight drivers, and in the
+pink of condition. I told my fireman that if we couldn't pull her
+through on time we would leave the train on the side of the road, and
+thus teach a trick or two to the man who wanted to run a mountain road
+on Eastern methods. I pulled that train out of Butte as though it had
+been shot out of a gun, and when we reached the flat below Silver Bar
+Canon I had her well set and flying like a scared wolf. The train was
+shaking from side to side like a ship at sea, and we were skipping past
+the foothills so fast that they looked like fence posts. The cab shook
+so that my fireman couldn't stand to fill the fire-box, so he dumped the
+coal on the floor and got down on all fours and shoveled it in. No. 38
+seemed to know that she was wanted to hold down my job, and quivered
+like a race horse at the finish. We made up the lost time in the first
+100 miles, and got to Beaver Canon with a few minutes to spare.
+
+"It was when I slowed her up a bit in the canon that I noticed something
+the matter with her. She dropped her steady gait and began to jerk and
+halt. The fire-box clogged and the steam began to drop, and when I
+reached a fairly long piece of road in the dark and silent canon, she
+refused to recover. She spit out the steam and gurgled and coughed, and
+nothing that I could do would coax her along. I told the fireman that
+the old girl was quitting us, and that we might as well steer for new
+jobs. He did his best to get her into action, but she was bound to have
+her own way. She kept losing speed every second, and wheezed and puffed
+like a freight engine on a mountain grade, and moved about as fast.
+Finally, we came to a corner of a sharp turn, almost at the mouth of the
+canon, and then No. 38 gave one loud, defiant snort and stopped. "'She's
+done for now,' I said to the fireman, and we got out of the cab with our
+lanterns.
+
+"The cylinder-heads were almost opposite a high rock at the turns. Well,
+when we got there, what do you think we saw? Not a hundred yards ahead
+of the mouth of the canon, and as plain as day in the moonlight, was a
+pile of rocks on the track. On either side was a bunch of half a dozen
+masked men, with Winchester rifles half raised. Ten rods further on were
+a dozen or more horses picketed at a few cottonwood trees.
+
+"Well, you bet your life we couldn't get back to that train too quick.
+It was not midnight, and in two minutes we had the crew and passengers
+out with enough guns and revolvers to furnish the Chinese army.
+Passengers, in those days, and in that country, carried guns. When the
+robbers saw that the train had stopped they started forward, to be met
+by a rattling fire. One of them dropped, but the rest ran for their
+horses and got away.
+
+"Now, then, you can't tell me that there isn't something in an engine
+besides machinery," concluded the engineer, as he turned to the other
+members of the Roundhouse Club.
+
+"The man who says there isn't, is a fool," was the answer from one, and
+the others nodded their heads in approval.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+A RAILROAD TO THE CLOUDS.
+
+Early History of Manitou--Zebulon Pike's Important Discovery--A Young
+Medicine Man's Peril and Final Triumph--A Health Resort in Years Gone
+By--The Garden of the Gods--The Railroad up Pike's Peak--Early Failures
+and Final Success--The Most Remarkable Road in the World--Riding Above
+the Clouds.
+
+
+Manitou is a name which conjures up reminiscences of legend and history,
+and it also reminds the traveler of some of the most remarkable scenes
+of the Rocky Mountains. It has been said that the man who knows how to
+appreciate natural grandeur and beauty, can spend six months in the
+vicinity of Manitou, and then come back six month later to find
+undiscovered joys and treasures of beauty on every side.
+
+The earliest reliable records concerning this spot date back to the year
+1806, when Major Zebulon Pike discovered what he called the Great Snow
+Mountain. This, one of the loftiest of the Rockies, is now known as
+Pike's Peak after its discoverer, or at any rate after the man who first
+described it for the benefit of the public.
+
+It is on record that when Major Pike was crossing Colorado, nearly a
+hundred years ago, he saw on the horizon what he regarded as a misty
+cloud. When he finally realized that there was a mountain in front of
+him, he was at least a hundred miles away from it, and there were two or
+three smaller hills to be crossed before reaching it. After marching for
+over a week the party reached the Cheyenne Mountain, which they believed
+was the ascent of the great peak, a theory which was soon disproved.
+Manitou is at the foot of this great mountain. It was first described at
+length by an English tourist who visited the Manitou Springs just half a
+century ago. He traveled alone, and exhibited not only an immense amount
+of bravery, but also unlimited judgment in evading the attacks of wild
+beasts and equally savage Indians.
+
+His description of the trip is full of great interest. He describes how
+a band of mountain sheep advanced to the edge of an overhanging
+precipice to gaze upon the intruder, and how, a moment later, a herd of
+black tailed deer ran in front of him, with that contempt of danger seen
+only in animals which have not come in contact with human beings or
+modern weapons. The birds, he tells us, were indifferent as to his
+presence. They sang almost within arm's reach, and their rich plumage
+completely fascinated him. He continued in his hunter's paradise until
+he accidentally stumbled upon an Indian camp. No Indians were present,
+but the smouldering camp-fires warned him that they were not far
+distant. Later, he saw two Indians, who were evidently Arapahoes,
+carrying a deer between them, and he knew that the delightful hunting he
+had promised himself would not be forthcoming.
+
+He was shortly afterwards captured in a prairie fire, in which he was in
+great danger of being destroyed; nothing but the daring of his horse
+saved his life. He had heard from the friendly Indians he had met on his
+march that the Great Spirit had endowed the waters of the Springs of
+Manitou with miraculous healing powers, and he drank freely from the
+pure springs. These springs made Manitou a veritable Mecca for Indians
+of the West and Southwest for many generations before the white men
+discovered them. Pilgrimages were made across mountains and rivers of
+great magnitude, and when an Indian chief showed signs of failing
+health, and was not benefited by the machinations of medicine men, he
+was generally carried to Manitou, no matter how far the journey might
+be, or how great were the obstacles to be overcome.
+
+Among the many stories told concerning journeys of weeks' and even
+months' duration, one is exceptionally vivid, and is evidently founded
+on fact, although superstition has surrounded the facts with so much
+coloring that they are hard to discover. The story runs that in days
+long gone by, a great chief, who had conquered every tribe of whose
+existence he was aware, fell sick and could not be benefited by the
+medicine men, who were summoned from every direction. A number of these
+unfortunate physicians were put to death as a penalty for their failure
+to restore health to the dying chief. Finally, there were very few
+medicine men remaining in the vicinity; those who had not been
+decapitated having proved their strong desire for further life by
+discreetly retiring to parts unknown.
+
+One day tidings were brought the chief of a young medicine man in a
+neighboring tribe who had been overlooked by the searchers, but who had
+been phenomenally successful in wooing back health and prolonging life.
+The tribe had long since been reduced to a condition of subjection, and
+the said chief sent a detachment of his braves, with instructions to
+bring back the medicine man alive or dead.
+
+The young man, who had been expecting a summons of this kind, did not
+display the alarm anticipated. Even when he was told that the old chief
+was certainly dying, and that it was impossible to help him in any way,
+he maintained his stolid indifference and merely smiled.
+
+He carried with him a primitive vessel, filled with some mysterious
+fluid, upon the virtues of which he had implicit reliance. When he
+reached the camp in which the sick chief lay, he was summoned
+immediately before the ailing autocrat. That individual stated his
+symptoms, and then, instead of asking, as we are apt to ask our
+physicians, whether there was any medicine available for them, he told
+the young medicine man that if no improvement was effected within a few
+days there would be a funeral in the village, and there would be one
+less medicine man in the vicinity.
+
+This somewhat startling introduction did not disconcert the young man,
+who poured out a liberal dose of the fluid he had brought with him, and
+made the old chief drink it. During the night he repeated the doses
+several times, and on the following day he kept up the treatment. To
+every one's astonishment the blood began to flow again in the veins of
+the once invincible chief, and those who had been pitying the young
+medicine man began to congratulate him on his triumph. When, after a few
+days, the improvement became more marked, the young doctor explained to
+the chief that the water he had given him had been brought from springs
+in the distant mountains, and that if the chief desired to obtain
+another lease of life, he must visit those springs and remain there for
+some weeks.
+
+With the enthusiasm of renewed vigor, the old man promptly agreed to the
+suggestion, and in a few days arrangements were complete for a grand
+march over the Rocky Mountains to Manitou. Tradition tells of the
+splendor of the march, and of the way in which obstructions and
+hindrances were overcome. Finally, the great mountain was seen in the
+distance, and a few days later a halt was made at the springs. Here the
+old chief was given a regular treatment, and in a few days he was able
+to walk as vigorously as ever. Finally, he returned to his tribe, not
+only renewed in health, but also renewed in youth. The records of his
+race state that his appearance was entirely changed, and that, instead
+of looking like an old man, his features were those of a youth in his
+twenties. The chief lived many years, and finally died in battle.
+
+The fame of his cure naturally spread abroad with great rapidity. The
+old man was so well known that he became a walking testimonial of the
+merits of the springs, and expeditions without number were in
+consequence made to them. White people, as they came in contact with the
+Indians of the Far West, heard of the springs from time to time and of
+this wonderful cure. By many the stories were confounded with the
+legends concerning the search of Ponce de Leon for the fountain of
+perpetual youth. Later, however, more thorough investigation was made,
+and for more than a generation the truth, as well as the legends of
+Manitou, have been generally known.
+
+As a result, a great watering place has sprung up on the site of what
+was once a mysterious resting place of the Indians, and a retreat which
+it was dangerous to enter. About 2,000 people live here, and during the
+season there are often 3,000 or 4,000 health-seekers in addition. There
+is a grand avenue through the village eighty feet wide and well kept.
+Instead of being laid out in a mathematically straight line, it follows
+the meanderings of the River Fontaine-qui-Bouille. This feature gives it
+a novel as well as a delightful appearance. There is also a little park,
+which possesses features not to be found in the recreation grounds of
+large cities, and there is a foot-path known as Lover's Lane, which is
+so romantic in its appearance that it is obviously well known.
+
+The springs of Manitou are naturally the most interesting feature of the
+place. The Shoshone Spring, in the center of the village, is, perhaps,
+the best known. The Navajo Spring is but a few yards distant, and is
+considerably larger. The Manitou Spring itself is on the other side of
+the river, and is covered over with a very elegant spring-house. The
+Iron Ute Spring is in Engelman's Canon or glen, and is regarded by many
+as the best of all. Caves and canons innumerable abound in every
+direction. The Manitou Grand Canon is within two miles of the village.
+It presents the appearance of a natural mansion, with rooms several
+hundred feet long and high. The natural formations of the peculiar rocks
+present bewildering combinations of galleries, columns and frescoes.
+Here is to be seen the wonderful stalactite organ. This, according to
+many, is one of the wonders of the world. It consists of a number of
+thin stalactites of varying powers of reverberation, and these play
+delightful tunes or at least tones.
+
+One of the great objects of a trip to Manitou is to gain a sight of the
+world-renowned, but singularly named, Garden of the Gods. The most
+direct road to reach it from the village is by way of Manitou Avenue and
+Buena Vista Drive, the latter being a well-traveled road, which enters
+the avenue on the left, about a mile from the town, as one advances
+towards Colorado City. The entrance to the Garden is past Balanced Rock,
+an immense boulder which stands directly to the left of the road, poised
+on such a slender base that it suggests an irregular pyramid standing on
+its apex. To the right, as one passes this curious formation, is a steep
+wall of stratified stone, draped with clinging vines, and overgrown with
+evergreens. Pausing a moment on the brow of the elevation which is
+reached here, one can look down into the valley below in which the
+Garden lies. To the west are the mountains; to the east the plains. The
+road which winds through the valley is a pleasant way. One's eyes and
+mind are kept busy beholding and recording the interesting views which
+here abound.
+
+No one knows why this valley was named "The Garden of the Gods." There
+is nothing especially garden-like in its appearance; but, doubtless
+through "apt alliteration's artful aid," the name has become greatly
+popular, and it would be foolish to quarrel with it, or make any attempt
+to change it. There are, however, ample suggestions that Titanic forces
+have been at work here, and it requires but little imagination to
+ascribe these innumerable quaint sculpturings, these magnificent
+architectural rock works, these grand and imposing temples, not made
+with hands, to the agencies of the gods. Here are to be found carved in
+the stone by those cunning instruments of the hands of Nature--the wind,
+the rain, the sunbeam and the frost--curious, often grotesque, figures
+irresistibly suggestive of forms of life. Here stands a statue of
+Liberty, leaning on her shield, with the conventional Phrygian cap on
+her head; there is a gigantic frog carved in sandstone; yonder is a
+pilgrim, staff in hand. Groups of figures in curious attitudes are to be
+seen on every hand.
+
+Stone figures of the lion, the seal and the elephant are all found;
+indeed, a lively imagination is not needed to discover in this Garden of
+the Gods an endless variety of imitative forms of human beings, of birds
+and beasts and reptiles. These figures possess a curious interest and
+attract wondering attention; but the notable and majestic objects here
+are the "Great Gateway" and the "Cathedral Spires." Two lofty tables of
+carnelian colored sandstone, set directly opposite each other, about
+fifty feet apart, and rising to a height of 330 feet, form the portals
+of the far-famed Gateway. They rise from perfectly level ground, and
+present a strangely impressive spectacle.
+
+The "Cathedral Spires" are of a similar character to the Gateway, but
+their crests are sharply splintered into spire-like pinnacles. The forms
+assumed by the rocks here are remarkable indeed, but their color is
+still more remarkable. No sandstones of the East glow with such a
+splendor of carnelian hue. The striking contrast formed by these crimson
+crags outlined against he deep blue sky, and gilded by the high, white
+light of the unclouded sun of Colorado, cannot be described.
+
+One of the most visited prairie-dog towns is close to the Garden of the
+Gods. It is interesting to the tourist, and is generally visited on the
+return from the Garden to Manitou. The town is situated on the road
+which passes through the great Gateway to Colorado City, and may be seen
+on a little plateau to the left. There are a great number of little
+hills of sand and gravel thrown up by the dogs around their burrows.
+Every fine day they can be seen at work around their dwellings, or
+sitting on their haunches sunning themselves, and chattering gaily with
+some neighbor. The burrow has an easy incline for about two feet, then
+descends perpendicularly for five or six, and after that branches off
+obliquely; it is often as large as a foot in diameter. It has been
+claimed that the prairie-dog, the owl and the rattlesnake live
+harmoniously together.
+
+Concerning this, Mr. William G. Smith, the well-known naturalist, says:
+"Impossible. The burrowing owl will generally be seen where dogs
+congregate, and wherever the ground is undermined his snakeship is apt
+to be found; but rest assured there is some lively 'scattering' to get
+out of his way if he draws his slimy carcass into their burrows. The
+dogs have no desire to contest his right to it, and give him all the
+room he wants." The dogs at home are neat little fellows, and allow no
+litter to accumulate around their doors. They go to bed early, and never
+go around disturbing their neighbors before daylight.
+
+Adjoining the Garden is a region of ridges. One ridge leads up to
+another, and that to a third, and so on. This broken country, covered
+with pine and cedar, and clothed with bunch grass and grama, makes a
+capital tramping-ground, especially in winter, when rabbits, mountain
+grouse and sage-hens are numerous enough to make it worth while to
+shoulder a gun.
+
+The way to reach the ridges is to take the road to the Garden of the
+Gods, and follow it till the Quarry Road is reached. Pursuing the latter
+up a gorge, and then turning to the left on a branch road, which zigzags
+up the sides of the gorge, one soon finds oneself on the top of a ridge.
+The rule in ridge-climbing is never to cross a gully, but always to keep
+on top. All the ridges in this vicinity converge to the main ridge,
+which overlooks Queen's Canon. This ridge bends to the northwest, and in
+two or three miles joins a still higher one, which, strange to say, will
+be found to overlook the Ute Pass, a thousand feet above the Fontaine
+qui-Bouille, which flows in the bottom of the canon below--Eyrie, the
+site of a private residence--a most interesting glen, but not open to
+the public. The character of the monoliths in this canon is more
+remarkable even than those of the Garden of the Gods.
+
+The Major Domo is a column of red sandstone, rising to a height of 300
+feet, with a curious swell near the summit, which far exceeds in
+diameter the base of the shaft. It looks as though it might fall at any
+moment in obedience to the laws of gravity, and it is not exceeded in
+this regard by the Leaning Tower of Pisa. There is another glen of a
+similar character, about two miles to the northwest, which is known as
+Blair Athol. It is a beautiful spot, but, lacking water, has never been
+used as a dwelling place. It abounds in wildly picturesque scenery, and
+possesses rock formations of strange shapes and brilliant colors. There
+are groves of magnificent pines; and the view of the distant plains
+stretching to the eastern horizon is unobstructed, and of great
+interest.
+
+We have already spoken of the discovery of Pike's Peak. At the summit of
+this mountain, 14,147 feet above the sea level, there is a little signal
+service station, which can be reached by railway. When the mountain was
+first discovered several efforts were made to reach the summit, but
+without success. Major Pike himself recorded his opinion that it would
+be impossible for any human being to ascend to the summit. In these days
+of engineering progress there is, however, no such word as "impossible."
+Several enthusiasts talked as far back as twenty years ago of the
+possibility of a railroad to the very summit of the once inaccessible
+peak, and fifteen years ago a survey was made, with a view to building a
+railroad up the mountain, by a series of curves and nooks.
+
+It was believed possible by the engineers that a railroad of standard
+gauge and equipment could be operated without special appliances, and so
+strongly was this view held that work was commenced on the project.
+Eight miles of grading was completed, but the project was then abandoned
+in consequence of adverse reports received from experts, sent out for
+the purpose. Their statement was that no grade would be able to stand
+the force of the washouts, though, strange to say, all the grading that
+was accomplished stands to-day, as firm as ever. Three or four years
+later another project, destined to be more successful, came into
+existence. In 1889, grading commenced, and finally the work was
+completed, and the summit of Pike's Peak can now be reached by railroad.
+
+The road itself is one of the most remarkable ones in the United States,
+and, indeed, in the world. The road-bed is fifteen feet wide, and there
+is not a single foot of trestle work in the entire construction. There
+are three short bridges of iron, and the precautions in the way of cross
+sections of masonry are very elaborate. The average ascent per mile is
+1,320 feet, and the total ascent is nearly 8,000 feet. In the center of
+the track, between the heavy steel rails, are two cog rails, of great
+strength. These are provided to insure absolute safety for travelers,
+one being for general use and the other as a kind of reserve.
+
+Special locomotives are used on the line. These were constructed by the
+Baldwin Company, of Philadelphia, and include the latest patents in
+engine building. When standing on a level track they appear to be at a
+slant of about 8 per cent. When on a mountain road, like that of Pike's
+Peak, they are approximately level. There are three wheels on each side
+of the engine, but these are not driving wheels, being merely used to
+help sustain the weight. The driving wheels operate on the cog rails in
+the center of the track. The cars also slope, or slant, like the engine.
+No couplings are used, so that one great element of danger, is avoided.
+The engine and the cars have each independent cog brakes of almost
+unlimited power. When traveling three or four miles an hour, the little
+train, with the locomotive pushing instead of pulling it, can be stopped
+instantly. When the speed reaches eight or nine miles an hour, stoppage
+can be effected in less than one revolution of a wheel.
+
+Not only is the ride up Pike's Peak a wonderful sensation and a constant
+reminder of the triumphs of engineering, but it is also a source of
+continual delight to the lover of the beautiful and awful in nature.
+About half way up the mountain is a most delightful little hillside
+retreat, aptly named "The Half-Way House." It is a very comfortable
+establishment within rustic walls. The pines and firs which surround it
+add a great charm to the outlook, and the cool mountain breeze is
+charged with very pleasing odors. Tourists frequently spend a night here
+and consider the sensation one of the most unique of a long trip.
+
+A tourist describing a ride up Pike's Peak by this singular railroad,
+says:
+
+"We are now far above timber line. On all sides can be seen strange
+flowers, of lovely forms and varied hues. Plants which attain
+considerable proportions on the plains are here reduced to their lowest
+forms. It is not an unusual thing to find a sunflower stalk in the
+prairies rising from a height of eight to ten feet; here they grow like
+dandelions in the grass, yet retaining all their characteristics of form
+and color. Beyond this mountain meadow are great fields of disintegrated
+granite, broken cubes of pink rock, so vast in extent that they might
+well be the ruins of all the ancient cities in the world. Far below
+flash the waters of Lake Morain, and beyond, to the southward, lie the
+Seven Lakes. Another turn of the track to the northward, and the shining
+rails stretch almost straight up what appears to be an inaccessible wall
+of almost peerless granite. But no physical obstruction is formidable
+enough to stop the progress of this marvelous railway; and passing the
+yawning abyss of the 'Crater,' the line proceeds direct to the summit.
+The grade here is one of 25 per cent., and timid passengers will not
+escape a thrill of fear as they gaze over the brink of this precipice,
+although the danger is absolutely nothing. At last the summit is
+reached, and, disembarking, the tourists can seek refreshments in the
+hotel, which will cater to their wants, and then spend the time before
+the train returns in enjoying the view, and in rambling over the seventy
+acres of broken granite which form the summit.
+
+"The view from the Peak, once beheld, can never be forgotten. The first
+sensation is that of complete isolation. The silence is profound. The
+clouds are below us, and noiselessly break in foaming billows against
+the faces of the beetling cliffs. Occasionally the silence is broken by
+the deep roll of thunder from the depths beneath, as though the voice of
+the Creator were uttering a stern edict of destruction. The storm rises,
+the mists envelop us, there is a rush of wind, a rattle of hail, and we
+seek refuge in the hotel.
+
+"Pause a moment before entering, and hold up your hands. You can feel
+the sharp tingle of the electric current as it escapes from your
+finger-tips. The storm is soon over, and you can see the sunbeams
+gilding the upper surfaces of the white clouds that sway and swing below
+you half way down the mountain sides, and completely hide from view the
+world beneath. The scenery shifts, like a drawn curtain the clouds part;
+and as from the heights of another sphere we look forth upon the majesty
+of the mountains and the plains, an ocean of inextricably entangled
+peaks sweeps into view. Forests dark and vast seem like vague shadows on
+distant mountain sides. A city is dwarfed into the compass of a single
+block; water courses are mere threads of silver, laid in graceful curves
+upon the green velvet mantle of the endless plains. The red granite
+rocks beneath our feet are starred with tiny flowers, so minute that
+they are almost microscopic, yet tinted with the most delicate and
+tender colors.
+
+"The majesty of greatness and the mystery of minuteness are here brought
+face to face. What wonders of creation exist between these two extremes!
+The thoughtful mind is awed by the contemplation of this scene, and when
+the reflection comes that these vast spaces are but grains of sand upon
+an infinite shore of creation, and that there are worlds of beauty as
+far and varied between the tiny flowers and the ultimate researches of
+the microscope as those which exist, on an ascending scale, between the
+flowers and the great globe itself, the mind is overwhelmed with wonder
+and admiration. It is in vain that one strives to describe the scene.
+Only those who have beheld it can realize its grandeur and
+magnificence."
+
+Lovers of horseback riding regard the vicinity of Pike's Peak and
+Manitou almost in the light of a paradise. A ride of a few miles in any
+direction leads to some specially attractive or historic spot. Crystal
+Park is one of the popular resorts of this kind. It is enclosed by high
+mountains on all sides, with an entrance which partakes of the nature of
+a natural gateway. In summer time this park is a profusion of bloom,
+with wild flowers and vines seldom seen in any other part of the world
+in such splendor. There are several elevated spots from which the
+surrounding country can be seen for miles. Above the park is Cameron's
+Cone. This is a mountain of much interest, although it can only be
+reached and climbed by hardy, athletic individuals. All around there are
+a profusion of canons. The Red Rock Canon was at one time a popular
+resort. It took its name from the profusion of red sandstone on all
+sides. This natural wealth finally destroyed the beauty of the canon,
+which is now a mass of stone quarries. Bear Creek Canon has less of the
+practical and more of the picturesque about it. A very charming brook
+runs down the center, and there are two or three small but very
+delightful falls.
+
+The Ridge Road is a species of boulevard recently constructed for the
+use of visitors to Manitou. At places the grade is so abrupt that timid
+ladies do not care to drive down it. Otherwise it is a very pleasing
+thoroughfare, with fresh surprises and delights awaiting the tourist
+every time he passes along it. The view in every direction is most
+charming and extensive. Pike's Peak can be seen to great advantage, and
+in the forty miles of the road many different features of this mountain
+can be observed. The road also leads to William's Canon.
+
+Cheyenne Mountain, although dwarfed somewhat by Pike's Peak, is
+deserving of notice. It is very massive in its form, and its sides are
+almost covered by canons, brooklets and waterfalls. Two vast gorges,
+know as the North and South Canons, are especially asked for by
+visitors. The walls of these gorges are of rich granite, and stand
+perpendicular on each side a thousand feet high. The effect is very
+wonderful in a variety of ways. In the South Canon are the celebrated
+Seven Falls, which were immortalized by Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson, the
+well-known poetess, whose remains were interred on Cheyenne Mountain by
+her own request. The Seven Lakes must also be seen by all visitors to
+the Manitou region, and there are so many more special features to be
+examined and treasures to be discovered that, no matter how long one
+stays in the neighborhood, a pang of regret is felt when the visit is
+brought to a termination.
+
+There are other spots in America where more awful scenes can be
+encountered. There are few, however where the combinations are so
+delightful or the general views so attractive and varying.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+INTO THE BOWELS OF THE EARTH.
+
+The Grand Canon of the Colorado--Niagara Outdone--The Course of the
+Colorado River--A Survey Party Through the Canon--Experiences of a
+Terrible Night--Wonderful Contrasts of Color in the Massive Rocks--A
+Natural Wall a Thousand Feet High--Hieroglyphics which have Never been
+Deciphered--Relics of a Superior Race--Conjecture as to the Origin of
+the Ancient Bearded White Men.
+
+
+We have already spoken of Niagara as one of the wonders of the world,
+and one of the most sought-after beauty spots of America. We will now
+devote a few pages to a description of a far more remarkable natural
+wonder and to a phenomenon which, were it situated nearer the center of
+population, would have long since outclassed even Niagara as a tourist's
+Mecca.
+
+Reference is made to the Grand Canon of the Colorado.
+
+Few people have the slightest conception of the magnitude or awfulness
+of this canon. It is clearly one of the wonders of the world, and its
+vastness is such that to explore it from end to end is a work of the
+greatest possible difficulty.
+
+Even in area, the canon is extraordinary. It is large enough to contain
+more than one Old World country. It is long enough to stretch across
+some of the largest States in the Union. Some of the smaller New England
+States would be absolutely swallowed up in the yawning abyss could they,
+by any means, be removed to it bodily. An express train running at a
+high rate of speed, without a single stop and on a first-class road-bed,
+could hardly get from one end of the canon to the other in less than
+five hours, and an ordinary train with the usual percentage of stoppage
+would about make the distance between morning and evening.
+
+Reduced to the record of cold figures, the Grand Canon is made up of a
+series of chasms measuring about 220 miles in length, as much as 12
+miles in width, and frequently as much as 7,000 feet in depth.
+
+This marvelous feature of American scenery is very fully described in
+"Our Own Country," published by the National Publishing Company. In
+describing the canon, that profusely illustrated work says that the
+figures quoted "do not readily strike a responsive chord in the human
+mind, for the simple reason that they involve something utterly
+different from anything that more than 99 per cent. of the inhabitants
+of the world have ever seen. The man who gazes upon Niagara for the
+first time, is astounded at the depth of the gorge as well as at the
+force of the water; and he who has seen Niagara can appreciate somewhat
+the marvels of the Grand Canon, when he bears in mind that the great
+wonder of the Western World is for miles at a stretch more than fifty
+times as deep as the falls and the gorge, generally admitted to be the
+most awful scenic grandeur within reach of the ordinary traveler. Nor is
+this all. Visitors to Paris who have enjoyed a bird's-eye view of the
+gay city from the summit of Eifel Tower, have felt terribly impressed
+with its immense altitude, and have been astounded at the effect on the
+appearance of living and inanimate objects so far below them. How many
+of the Americans who have been thus impressed by French enterprise, have
+realized that in their own country there is a natural gorge, at points
+of which the distance between the summit and the base is more than five
+times as great as the height of the Eifel Tower?"
+
+The Colorado River rises in the Rocky Mountains, crosses the Territories
+of Utah and Arizona, and then running between the last named and the
+State of California, finally empties its waters into the gulf bearing
+the name of the Golden State. For more than two hundred miles of its
+course it runs through the gorge known as the Grand Canon, and hence it
+has been a very difficult river to explore. During the Sixteenth
+Century, some of the Spanish explorers, to whom this country is indebted
+so much for early records and descriptions, crossed the then undeveloped
+deserts of the Southwest and discovered the Grand Canon. Many of the
+reports they made of the wonders of the New World read so much like
+fairy tales, and seemed so obviously exaggerated, that little credence
+was given to them. Hence it was that their estimates concerning the
+gorge through which the Rio Colorado Grande flows were treated as
+fables, and laughed at rather than believed.
+
+Major Powell, than whom few men have done more to enlighten the world
+concerning the wonders of the Far West, describes the canon very aptly,
+and speaks in a most attractive manner of the countless canons and
+caverns, whirlpools and eddies, brooklets and rivers, fords and
+waterfalls, that abound on every side. In his first extended description
+of the canon, he stated that "every river entering it has cut another
+canon; every lateral creek has also cut another canon; every brook runs
+in a canon; every rill born of a shower and living only in the showers,
+has cut for itself a canon; so that the whole upper portion of the basin
+of the Colorado is traversed by a labyrinth of these deep gorges. About
+the basin are mountains; within the basin are canon gorges; the
+stretches of land from brink to brink are of naked rock or of drifting
+sands, with here and there lines of volcanic cones, and of black scoria
+and ashes scattered about."
+
+Of late years thousands of people have been attracted to this great
+canon, although but very few have succeeded in exploring its entire
+length. Few, indeed, have been able to pass along the balcony of the
+canon, and to gaze up at the countless wonders of nature, piled one
+above the other, apparently up to the very region of the clouds. The
+common notion of a canon, as Captain C. E. Dutton tells us, is that of a
+deep, narrow gash in the earth, with nearly vertical walls, like a great
+and neatly cut trench. There are hundreds of chasms in the plateau
+country which answer very well to this notion. It is, however,
+unfortunate that the stupendous passway for the Colorado River through
+the Kaibabs was ever called a canon, for the name identified it with the
+baser conception. At places the distance across the chasm to the nearest
+point on the summit of the opposite wall is about seven miles. A more
+correct statement of the general width would be from eleven to twelve
+miles. It is hence somewhat unfortunate that there is a prevalent idea,
+in some way, that an essential part of the grandeur of the Grand Canon
+is the narrowness of its defile.
+
+As Major Powell expresses it, there are rather a series of canons, than
+one huge one. Wherever the river has cut its way through the sandstones,
+marbles and granites of the Kaibab Mountains, beautiful and
+awe-inspiring pictures are seen, while above there are domes and peaks,
+some of red sandstone and some of snowy whiteness. Cataract Canon alone
+is forty-one miles long, and has seventy-five cataracts and rapids, of
+which fifty-seven are within a space of nineteen miles. A journey along
+the bank of a river with a waterfall every twenty feet, on the average,
+is no joke, and only the hardiest men have been able to accomplish it.
+In the spring of 1889, the survey party of a projected railroad from
+Grand Junction to the Gulf of California, made this journey, and from
+its published description more actual information can be gleaned
+concerning the canon itself than almost any mere verbal description.
+
+The surveyors had to carry with them, on their backs, for a great
+portion of the way, the limited supplies of food they took with them,
+because it was frequently impossible to get the boats along at all. When
+the boats were used, several were upset, and everything was uncertainty
+as to the bill of fare that would be presented at the next meal, even if
+there was to be a meal at all. Mr. Frank M. Brown, president of the
+railroad company, lost his life in one of the whirlpools. He was in a
+boat, a little ahead of the others, and seemed to be cheerful and
+hopeful. He shouted to his comrades in the rear to come on with their
+boats, and that he was all right. A moment later, his friends were
+astonished to see the boat gone, and their leader swimming around and
+around in a whirlpool, trying hard to reach smooth water.
+
+He was a good swimmer, and a brave man, but his efforts were futile, and
+finally he sank. The party waited and watched for hours, but were
+finally compelled to recognize the fact that their friend and leader was
+gone forever.
+
+It was determined almost immediately to beat a retreat. While the party
+was hunting for a side canon leading northward through which they could
+make their exit, it became evident that a storm was brewing. Rain
+commenced to fall in a steady shower, and to increase in quantity. The
+surveyors had no dry clothing beyond what they stood up in, and there
+was no shelter of any kind at hand. They were near Vassey's Paradise, in
+the deepest part of the canon they had yet reached. A storm in such a
+location had its awfulness intensified beyond measure, and the
+frightened men looked in every direction for shelter. Finally, about
+forty feet up the side of the marble cliff, the opening to a small
+cavern was seen. Into this Mr. R. B. Stanton, one of the party, climbed.
+There was not room enough for his body at full length, but he crawled in
+as best he could, curled himself up, and tried to sleep.
+
+A terrible night followed. At about midnight he was awakened by a
+terrific peal of thunder, which re-echoed and reverberated through the
+canon in a most magnificently awful manner. He had been caught in storms
+in mountain regions and deep valleys before, but he had never felt so
+terribly alone or so superstitiously alarmed as on this occasion. Every
+now and then a vivid flash of lightning would light up the dark recesses
+of the gorge, casting ghastly shadows upon the cliffs, hill sides,
+ravines and river. Then again there would be the darkness which, as
+Milton puts it, could be felt, and the feeling of solitude was almost
+intolerable.
+
+The river in the meantime had swollen into a torrent, by the drenching
+rain, which had converted every creek into a river, and every feeder of
+the Colorado into a magnificent, if raging, river itself. The noise
+caused by the excited river, as it leaped over the massive rocks along
+its bed, vied with the thunder, and the echoes seemed to extend hundreds
+of miles in every direction. What affected the stranded traveler the
+most was the noise overhead, the reverberation inducing a feeling of
+alarm that huge masses of rock were being displaced from their lofty
+eminence thousands of feet above his head, and were rushing down upon
+him.
+
+The night was passed, finally, and when the storm had spent itself, the
+survivors of the party succeeded in getting out of the canon and
+reaching a plateau, 2,500 feet above. They then took a brief rest, but
+with that disregard for danger which is characteristic of the true
+American, they at once organized another expedition, and a few months
+later resumed the task so tragically interrupted and marred with such a
+sad fatality.
+
+The trip through Glen Canon was like a pleasure trip on a smooth river
+in autumn, with beautiful wild flowers and ferns at every camp. At Lee's
+Ferry they ate their Christmas dinner, with the table decorated with
+wild flowers, picked that day.
+
+On December 28th they started to traverse, once more, that portion of
+Marble Canon made tragic by the fatality of the summer before. "On the
+next Tuesday," writes Mr. Stanton, "we reached the spot where President
+Brown lost his life. What a change in the waters! What was then a
+roaring torrent, now, with the water some nine feet lower, seemed from
+the shore like the gentle ripple upon the quiet lake. We found, however,
+in going through it with our boats, there was the same swift current,
+the same huge eddy, and between them the same whirlpool, with its
+ever-changing circles. Marble Canon seemed destined to give us trouble.
+On January 1st, our photographer, Mr. Nims, fell from a bench of the
+cliff, some twenty-two feet, on to the sand beach below, receiving a
+severe jar, and breaking one of his legs just above the ankle. Having
+plenty of bandages and medicine, we made Nims as comfortable as possible
+till the next day, when we loaded one of the boats to make him a level
+bed, and constructing a stretcher of two oars and a piece of canvas, put
+him on board and floated down river a couple of miles--running two small
+rapids--to a side canon, which led out to the Lee's Ferry road."
+
+The next day, after discovering a way out of the deep ravine, one of the
+party tramped thirty-five miles back to Lee's Ferry, where a wagon was
+obtained for the injured surveyor. Eight of the strongest men of the
+party then undertook the task of carrying the injured man a distance of
+four miles, and up a hill 1,700 feet high. It is indicative of the
+extraordinary formation of the Grand Canon that the last half mile was
+an angle of 45 degrees, up a loose rock slide. The stretcher had to be
+attached to ropes and gently lifted over perpendicular cliffs, from ten
+to twenty feet high. The dangerous and tedious journey was at last
+accomplished, and the trip continued.
+
+Finally the unexplored portion of the canon was reached. For thirty
+miles down Marble Canon, to the Little Colorado River, the most
+beautiful scenery was encountered. At Point Retreat, the solid marble
+walls stand perpendicularly 300 feet high from the river edge. Behind
+these walls the sandstone lies in benches, and slopes to an aggregate
+height of 2,500 feet. Above the narrow ravine of marble, the color is
+mostly rich gray, although the presence of minerals has in places
+imparted so many tints that quite a rainbow appearance is presented.
+Caves and caverns relieve the monotony of the solid walls. Here and
+there a most delightful grotto is seen, while the action of the water
+rushing down the cliff sides has left little natural bridges in many
+places. Countless fountains of pure, sparkling water adorn the smooth
+rocks, and here and there are little oases of ferns and flowers, which
+seem strangely out of place so far down into the very bowels of the
+earth.
+
+Below Point Hausbrough, named in honor of Peter M. Hausbrough, who was
+drowned during the first exploring trip, the canon widens rapidly. The
+marble benches are replaced by strata of limestone and between the river
+and the rocks green fields and groves of trees become common. The view
+from the river, looking across this verdure, with sandstone rocks for
+the immediate background, and snow-capped mountains in the distance, is
+extraordinary in its magnificence and combinations. Between the grand
+junction of the Little Colorado with the main canon and the Granite
+Gorge, there is about eight hundred miles of a very different section.
+Evidences of volcanic action abound. Rocks and boulders seem to have
+been blown out of position and mixed up all in a heap. The rocks are
+largely charged with mineral, and, as a result, almost every known color
+is represented, in the most remarkable purity. The river runs through a
+wide valley, with the top walls several miles apart.
+
+The Granite Gorge itself is entirely different. Here the great walls of
+granite start from the water's edge. The first few feet are usually
+vertical. Then, for a thousand feet or more, the rise is at an angle of
+about 45 degrees, while occasionally masses of rock stand out
+prominently and overhang the river. Above the granite comes a mass of
+dark colored sandstone, with a vertical front. In many places it is
+perfectly black, the color being intensified by the brightness of the
+red below. If an artist were to paint a cliff deep red, with a jet black
+border along the top, Old World critics would be apt to declare him
+insane. Yet this is really the coloring of this section of the most
+wonderful canon in the entire world.
+
+Although the canon at this point varies in width at the top from six to
+twelve miles, the river really runs through a narrow gorge, and partakes
+very much of the nature of a long rapid or cataract. For ten miles the
+fall averages twenty-one feet per mile, sufficient to make the current
+very dangerous even at low water, and something terrible after heavy
+rains or much snow melting. In one place the fall is eighty feet in
+about five hundred yards, and here, of course, navigation is practically
+out of the question. The explorers, to whom we have referred, were
+compelled to proceed with great deliberation at this point. Occasionally
+they ran the rapids, but very often they were compelled to lower their
+boats by means of lines, and even to lift them over exceptionally
+dangerous rocks.
+
+At the worst point of all, one of the boats, while being lowered by
+lines, was struck by an eddy and run tightly in between two rocks. It
+became necessary for men to go into the water to liberate the boat. With
+lines tied securely to their bodies, some of the boldest of the
+explorers ventured into the water and tried to loosen the boat, or at
+least to secure the invaluable provisions and blankets on board. It was
+January, and the water was so intensely cold that no man could endure it
+more than a few minutes at a time, so that the process was a long and
+tedious one. Finally the boat was got out, but it took five days to
+repair it, and even then it was a very poor means of navigation. A few
+days later, a still more powerful and dangerous rapid was encountered.
+Some idea of the force of the water can be gleaned from the precautions
+that were necessary. A line 250 feet long was strung out ahead, and the
+boat was swung into the stream. It went through apparently the most
+dangerous places without much difficulty. The line was loosened slowly
+and the boat held under control, but when it reached the main eddy it
+began to get contrary, and finally swung round, and seemed to have
+struck a back current. Several hours' work got the boat to shore, but
+the next one was dashed into a thousand pieces while crossing over some
+of the sharp-pointed rocks.
+
+The forty miles of the Granite Gorge are replete with wonders. The
+strangely misnamed section, the Bright Angel Creek, is absolutely dark,
+even at midday. It has been described as a sentinel of the great canon,
+and few people have dared attempt to pass through it. Farther down, the
+granite walls become less steep, and black granite relieves the monotony
+of color. Here and there, at side canons and sudden bends, the vast rear
+view of the gorge, with its sandstone cliffs, is brought into view.
+These are benched back several miles from the river, with huge mountains
+here and there intervening. Above the dark sandstone there are flattened
+slopes of yellow, brown, red, green and white rock, rich in mineral.
+Through these the force of water for ages has cut narrow, trench-like
+waterfalls, most remarkable in appearance and attractive in their
+variety of coloring.
+
+It is difficult to imagine an upright wall a thousand feet high with red
+the predominating color, and with brighter hues near the summit. Benches
+of marble, with tufts of glass and bush, appear here and there, while
+occasionally there is a little tract of faultless green. Above all this,
+there is something like two thousand feet of a lighter colored
+sandstone. This is beautified by spiral turrets and domes, and wherever
+the slope is gradual enough, pine and cedar trees abound in large
+numbers. Behind all this there is the background of snow on the summit
+of the mountains, and when an unexpected view can be obtained from the
+river below, there is so great a profusion of coloring that the eye
+rebels, and a feeling not unlike headache is produced.
+
+Further wonders are revealed every few thousand feet. At the mouth of
+the next creek the coloring is different. The strata dips visibly, and
+the marble, which has hitherto been exposed to view, is now beneath the
+surface. The sandstone forms the river boundary, and rises at a sharp
+angle from the water's edge. The river itself is narrow in consequence,
+but the great valley is even wider at the top. The walls vary in height
+from 2,000 to 8,000 feet, and in rainy seasons the water rushes down the
+side in great profusion. Thousands of little rivulets join the main
+stream, and add greatly to the volume of water. Sometimes the river will
+rise four or five feet in a single night, upsetting all calculation, and
+making navigation risky in the extreme. When, by chance, the sun is able
+to penetrate into the depths of this canon, the kaleidoscopic effects
+are exquisite, and cause the most indifferent to pause and wonder.
+
+The discovery of an extinct volcano explains a great deal of the wonders
+of the great canon. The volcano is examined by thousands of tourists,
+this being one of the spots to reach which scientists are willing to
+incur countless hardships and risks. No one can tell when the volcano
+was active, but from the nature of the crater it is perfectly clear that
+at one time it belched forth volumes of lava, which had a marked effect
+on the formation of the rock and the lay of the land of the surrounding
+country. Past the volcano, for many miles, the bright colors already
+referred to are supplanted by more sombre hues. Occasionally there is a
+little scarlet, and, as a rule, the sandstone is covered with the
+mysterious substance brought out of the bowels of the earth by the now
+silent, but once magnificently awful, mountains.
+
+The exploring party to which we have referred, went through 600 miles of
+canons, and found that no two miles were really alike. Finally, after
+three months of hardship, they emerged into an open country, and became
+almost frantic with joy. Never did country seem so beautiful, or verdure
+so attractive, and the panorama of beauty which was presented to their
+view caused them to shout with delight, and to offer up cries of
+thankfulness for their ultimate deliverance from a series of hardships
+and dangers which at one time seemed almost insurmountable.
+
+The region also abounds with archaeological curiosities and remarkable
+hieroglyphics. Many of these are found in close proximity to the Grand
+Canon of the Colorado, and on the cliffs in which the far-famed cliff
+dwellers of old took up their abode. Hieroglyphics, marked upon rocks or
+other lasting substances, have been used by nearly all ancient races to
+perpetuate the history of certain events among them. Especially true is
+this of the ancient people who lived in Arizona. The remarkable picture
+rocks and boulders, with strange symbols upon them, left by the
+prehistoric races of Arizona, have been the cause of much discussion
+among those who have seen them, as to who these ancient hieroglyphic
+makers were. These rock records may be divided into three different
+kinds, which it is thought were made by two different races. The first,
+or very ancient race, left records on rocks, in some instances of
+symbols only, and in other instances of pictures and symbols combined.
+The later race, which came after the first race had vanished, made only
+crude representations of animals, birds or reptiles, not using symbols
+or combinations of lines.
+
+The age of the most ancient pictographs and hieroglyphics can only be
+conjectured, but all give certain indications that they are many
+centuries old, and the difference between the work of the ancient and
+the later race leads the observer to believe that the older
+hieroglyphics were made by a people far superior to those who came after
+them, and who left no record in symbols, as we have said, with the
+exception of crude representations of animals and reptiles.
+
+In many instances it is quite evident that the same rock or cliff has
+been used by the two different races to put their markings upon, the
+later, or inferior, race often making their pictographs over or across
+the hieroglyphic writings of the first race. Of the superiority of the
+first people who left their writings on the rocks and boulders found in
+the ancient mounds, ruins and graves, there can be no doubt, for their
+writings show order and a well defined design in symbols, which were
+evidently intended to convey their history to others; and it is quite
+probable that those who made the great mounds, houses and canals were
+the authors of these writings. It may be truthfully asserted that the
+cliff dwellers of the rock houses in the deep canons of the mountains
+were of the same race as the mound builders of the valleys, for exactly
+the same class of hieroglyphics found on boulders from the ancient ruins
+of the valleys, are found on the rocks near the houses of the cliff
+dwellers.
+
+If this superior race were so distinctive from all other ancient races
+of Arizona--in their work being so far advanced as to solve what would
+be called, even at the present day, difficult engineering problems; to
+dig great canals many miles in length, the remains of which can be seen
+at the present time, and to bring them to such perfection for irrigating
+purposes; to build such great houses and to live in cities--may it not
+have been, as many who have studied this subject now contend, that this
+superior race were white people instead of a copper colored race, as has
+generally been supposed?
+
+The hieroglyphics of the more ancient race are often found on sheltered
+rocks on the slopes of the mountains leading up from the valleys.
+Generally protected from the elements by overhanging cliffs, the dry
+climate has kept the writings from wearing away, and being in most
+instances picked into rocks which have a black, glistening surface, but
+of a lighter color underneath, the contrast is very noticeable, and when
+in prominent places these hieroglyphics can be seen several hundred feet
+away.
+
+As no metal tools have ever been found in the mounds, ruins or cliff
+dwellings, the hieroglyphics were probably picked into the rock with a
+sharp-pointed stone much harder than the rock upon which the work was
+done. It is a singular fact that, although iron, copper, gold and silver
+abound in the mountains in Arizona, no tools, utensils or ornaments of
+these metals are found in the mounds or ruins. Yet furnace-like
+structures of ancient origin have been found, which appear to have been
+used for reducing ores, and in and around which can be found great
+quantities of an unknown kind of slag.
+
+In many instances the hieroglyphic boulders have been found in great
+heaps, of several hundred in number, as if many different persons had
+contributed a piece of this strange writing to the collection. These
+etched boulders have been found buried in the ground with ollas
+containing the charred bones of human beings, and could the writings on
+the boulders be deciphered, we would undoubtedly learn of the virtues of
+the prehistoric deceased, just as we do of a person who dies in the
+present day, when we read the epitaph on a tombstone of the one who is
+buried beneath.
+
+In opening some of the mounds, the investigator finds they are made of
+the fallen walls of great adobe buildings, and as he digs deeper he
+finds rooms of various dimensions, and which, in many instances, have
+cemented walls and floors. In one instance there were found the
+impressions of a baby's feet and hands, made, presumably, as the child
+had crawled over the newly laid soft cement. In another mound the
+cemented walls of a room were found covered with hieroglyphics and rude
+drawings, which were thought to represent stellar constellations.
+
+To a certain extent, some of the pictured rocks tell us of part of the
+daily life of this ancient race, for in a number of instances the
+pictures picked into the rocks, although rudely formed, are
+self-explanatory, and the ancient artist tells plainly by his work what
+is meant. On the edge of a little valley in the Superstition Mountains,
+there was found a great rock on which had been etched many small
+animals, apparently representing sheep, and at one side was the figure
+of a man, as if watching them. It may be the ancient herder himself,
+sitting in the shadow of the great rock, while his sheep were grazing in
+the valley below, has passed away the time in making this rock picture.
+The hardy wild sheep still found in the mountains of Arizona may be the
+remnants of great bands formerly domesticated by these people.
+
+The skeleton of the prehistoric man dug from beneath the stalagmites in
+the cave of Mentone, France, and which set all the scientific men of the
+world talking and thinking, gives proof of no greater age than many of
+the skeletons, relics or bones of some of these ancient mound and canal
+builders.
+
+An incident illustrating the great antiquity of prehistoric man in
+Arizona, is the following: In digging a well on the desert north of
+Phoenix, at the depth of 115 feet from the surface a stone mortar, such
+as the ancients used, was found standing upright, and in it was found a
+stone pestle, showing the mortar had not been carried there by any
+underground current of water, and that it had not been disturbed from
+the position in which its ancient owner had left it with the pestle in
+it. There is only one way to account for this mortar and pestle. They
+had originally been left on what was at that time the surface of the
+ground, and the slow wash from the mountains had gradually, during
+unknown ages, raised the surface for miles on every side to the extent
+of 115 feet.
+
+The question is often asked, Will this hieroglyphic writing ever be
+deciphered? The authors of the most ancient hieroglyphic writings or
+markings seem to have had well-defined forms or marks, which were in
+common use for this class of writing. Is it not most reasonable that a
+race so far advanced in other ways would have perfected a method of
+transmitting by marks of some kind their records to those who might come
+after them? Again, where so much system is shown in the use of symbols,
+it may be presumed that the same mark, wherever used in the same
+position, carries with it a fixed meaning, alike at all times. Having
+such a settled system of marks, there must be a key to the thoughts
+concealed in writing, and quite likely the key for deciphering these
+hieroglyphics will sometime be found on one of the yet undiscovered
+hieroglyphic rocks in the high mountains or in the mounds not yet
+examined. On the other hand, there can be no key to the inferior class
+of pictographs made by the people who came after the mound, canal and
+city builders had disappeared, for the crudely marked forms of reptiles,
+animals or similar things had a meaning, if any, varying with each
+individual maker.
+
+Who were these people who formed a great nation here in the obscurity of
+the remote past? Were they the ancient Phoenicians, who were not only a
+maritime but a colonizing nation, and who, in their well-manned ships,
+might have found their way to the southern coast of America ages since,
+and from thence journeyed north? Or were they some of the followers of
+Votan or Zamna, who had wandered north and founded a colony of the
+Aztecs? Whoever these people were, and whichever way they came from, the
+evidences of the great works they left behind them give ample proof that
+they were superior and different from other races around them, and these
+particular people may have been the "bearded white men," whom the
+Indians had traditions of when Coronado's followers first came through
+the Gila and Salt River valleys in 1526.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+OUR GREAT WATERWAYS
+
+Importance of Rivers to Commerce a Generation Ago--The Ideal River
+Man--The Great Mississippi River and Its Importance to Our Native
+Land--The Treacherous Missouri--A First Mate Who Found a Cook's Disguise
+Very Convenient--How a Second Mate Got Over the Inconvenience of
+Temporary Financial Embarrassment.
+
+
+During the last quarter of the century in which we write the figures "1"
+and "8" in every date line, the steam railroad has, to a very large
+extent, put out of joint the nose of the steamboat, just as, at the
+present time, we are threatened with so complete a revolution in travel
+and motive power as to warrant a prediction that, long before another
+quarter of a century has passed, electricity will take the place of
+steam almost entirely. But even if this is so, old acquaintance should
+not be forgot, and every citizen of the United States should feel that
+the prosperity of the country is due, in very large measure, to the
+country's magnificent waterways, and to the enterprise of the men who
+equipped river fleets and operated them, with varying degrees of profit.
+
+The true river man is not so conspicuous as he was in the days when St.
+Louis, Cincinnati, Memphis and other important railroad centers of
+to-day were exclusively river towns. The river man was a king in those
+days. The captain walked the streets with as much dignity as he walked
+his own deck, and he was pointed to by landsmen as a person of dignity
+and repute. The mate was a great man in the estimation of all who knew
+him, and of a good many who did not know him. Ruling his crew with a rod
+of iron, and accustomed to be obeyed with considerable and commendable
+promptness, he adopted a tone of voice in general conversation
+considerably louder than the average, and every one acquired a habit of
+making way for him.
+
+The levee in a river town, before the railroads came snorting and
+puffing across country and interfering with the monopoly so long enjoyed
+by the steamboat, was a scene of continuous turmoil and activity.
+Sometimes, now, one sees on a levee a great deal of hurrying and noise.
+But the busiest scenes of to-day sink into insignificance compared with
+those which are rapidly becoming little more than an indistinct memory.
+The immense cargoes of freight of every description would be ranged
+along the river front, and little flags could be seen in every
+direction.
+
+These flags were not, perhaps, exactly evidence of the activity of the
+schoolmaster, or of the prevalence of superior education. They were,
+rather, reminders of the fact that a great majority of the rank and file
+of river workers could read little, and write less. To tell a colored
+roustabout twenty or thirty years ago to fetch a certain cargo, labeled
+with the name of a particular boat or consignee, would have been to draw
+from the individual addressed a genuine old-time plantation grin, with
+some caustic observation about lack of school facilities in the days
+when the roustabout ought to have been studying the "three Rs," but was
+not. It was, however, comparatively easy to locate a cargo by means of a
+flag, and identification seldom failed, as the flags could be varied in
+color, shape and size, so as to provide distinction as well as
+difference.
+
+Those who remember the busy levee scene, with the flag adornment
+referred to, will agree that there was something picturesque as well as
+noisy about the old river days, and will be inclined to regret, and
+almost deplore, the fact that things are not, from a river man's
+standpoint, what they were.
+
+In no country in the world has railroad building been carried on with so
+much enterprise as in our native land. Prior to the enormous expenditure
+on track building and railroad equipment, advantage had to be taken of
+the extraordinary opportunities for navigation and transportation
+afforded by the great waterways of the country. As railroads were
+naturally built in the East before the West, the value of our Middle and
+Western waterways is naturally best understood by the average reader,
+because they continued to play an indispensable part in the transaction
+of business of every character until quite a recent period.
+
+The Eastern rivers are less magnificent in extent and volume than those
+of the West, though many of them are picturesque and attractive in the
+extreme. The Hudson has often been spoken of as the "Thames of America,"
+not because there is any resemblance between the length of the two
+rivers upon which are situated the two greatest cities of modern times.
+The simile is the result rather of the immense number of costly family
+residences and summer resorts built along the banks of both rivers.
+
+In another chapter we say something of a trip down the picturesque
+Hudson, whose banks are lined with historic landmarks and points of
+pressing interest. We give an illustration of a pleasure boat on the
+Hudson, which reminds one of many delightful river trips taken at
+various periods, and also of the events of national importance which
+centered around the river that is crowded, year after year, with
+pleasure-seekers from the overcrowded metropolis at its mouth.
+
+The Mississippi River is the largest and grandest in North America. A
+few miles above St. Louis it is joined by the Missouri River, and if the
+distance from the source of the latter to the Gulf of Mexico be
+calculated, the longest river in the world is found. At a considerable
+distance from the source of the Father of Waters are the Falls of St.
+Anthony, discovered more than two hundred years ago by enterprising
+pioneers, who thought they had discovered the headwaters of the great
+river. The scenery of the river at the falls and beyond them is very
+attractive, and in many cases so beautiful as to be beyond verbal
+description. In many other parts of the river the scenery is grand,
+though occasionally there are long stretches of flat country which are
+inclined to become monotonous and barren of poetic thought.
+
+Of the entire river, Mr. L. U. Reavis writes enthusiastically:
+
+"The more we consider the subject," says this author, "the more we are
+compelled to admit that the Mississippi is a wonderful river, and that
+no man can compute its importance to the American people. What the Nile
+is to Egypt, what the great Euphrates was to ancient Assyria, what the
+Danube is to Europe, what the Ganges is to India, what the Amazon is to
+Brazil--all this, and even more than this, the Mississippi River is to
+the North American Continent. In an earlier age men would have worshiped
+the Mississippi, but in this age we can do better, we can improve it. To
+this all our efforts should be directed, and we should continually bear
+in mind that no other improvement, ancient or modern, relating to the
+interests of commerce has ever commanded the attention of men equal in
+importance to that of the Mississippi River, so as to control its waters
+and afford ample and free navigation from St. Paul to the Gulf of
+Mexico."
+
+During the last few years, the agitation in favor of river improvement
+has assumed very definite shape, and from time to time large
+appropriations have been made by Congress for the purpose of keeping the
+river navigable at all periods of the year. As long ago as 1873, the
+Chairman of the Senate Committee on Transportation Routes censured the
+Government for neglecting to thoroughly improve the big rivers. A
+quarter of a century has nearly elapsed since then, and, in the opinion
+of many competent river men, there is still room for much improvement,
+not only in the river, but in the method of arrangements for designing
+and carrying out the improvements.
+
+The Missouri River, the great tributary to the Mississippi, has often
+been described as one of the most treacherous and aggressive rivers in
+the universe. It seems to be actuated by a spirit of unrest and a desire
+for change, so much so that the center of the river bed frequently moves
+to the right or left so rapidly as to wipe out of existence prosperous
+farms and homes. Sometimes this erratic procedure threatens the very
+existence of cities and bridges, and tens of thousands of dollars have
+been spent from time to time in day and night work to check the
+aggression of the stream and to compel it to confine itself to its
+proper limits.
+
+The Mississippi proper brings down from the lakes to its junction with
+the Missouri River clear water, in which the reflection is so vivid,
+that the verdure on the banks gives it quite a green appearance. The
+Missouri, on the other hand, is muddy and turbulent, bringing with it
+even at low water a large quantity of sand and sediment. At high water
+it brings with it trees and anything else that happens to come within
+its reach, but at all periods of the year its water is more or less
+muddy. At the junction of the two rivers the difference in color of the
+water is very apparent, and, strange to say, there is not a complete
+intermingling until several miles have been covered by the current.
+Under ordinary conditions, the western portion of the current is very
+much darker in shade than the eastern, even twenty miles from what is
+generally spoken of as the mouth of the Missouri.
+
+The Muddy Missouri rises in the Rocky Mountains. It is really formed by
+the junction of three rivers--the Jefferson, the Gallatin and the
+Madison. By a strange incongruity, the headwaters of the Missouri are
+within a mile of those of the Columbia, although the two rivers run in
+opposite directions, the Columbia entering the Pacific Ocean and the
+Missouri finding an inlet to the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi. At
+a distance of 441 miles from the extreme point of the navigation of the
+head branches of the Missouri, are what are denominated as the "Gates of
+the Rocky Mountains," which present an exceedingly grand and picturesque
+appearance. For a distance of about six miles the rocks rise
+perpendicularly from the margin of the river to the height of 1,200
+feet. The river itself is compressed to the breadth of 150 yards, and
+for the first three miles there is but one spot, and that only of a few
+yards, on which a man can stand between the water and the perpendicular
+ascent of the mountain.
+
+At a distance of 110 miles below this point, and 551 miles from the
+source, are the "Great Falls," nearly 2,600 miles from the egress of the
+Missouri into the Mississippi River. At this place the river descends by
+a succession of rapids, and falls a distance of 351 feet in sixteen and
+one-half miles. The lower and greater fall has a perpendicular pitch of
+98 feet, the second of 19, the third of 47 and the fourth of 26 feet.
+Between and below these falls there are continuous rapids of from 3 to
+18 feet descent. The falls, next to those of Niagara, are the grandest
+on the continent.
+
+Below the "Great Falls" there is no substantial obstruction to
+navigation, except that during the midsummer and fall months, after the
+July rise, there is frequently insufficient water for steamboating. This
+results from the fact that, although the Missouri River drains a large
+area of country and receives many tributaries, some of which are
+navigable for many hundreds of miles, it passes for a great portion of
+its course through a dry and open country, where the process of
+evaporation is very rapid. The channel is rendered intricate by the
+great number of islands and sandbars, and in many cases it is made
+exceptionally hazardous by reason of countless snags.
+
+Volumes have been written concerning the adventures of pioneers and gold
+hunters, who went up the Missouri in advance of railroads and even
+civilization, in order to trade with the Indians or to search for yellow
+metal in the great hills in the unexplored country, where so much in the
+way of easily acquired wealth is looked for. Some of the wealthiest men
+in the West to-day have a vivid recollection of the dangers they
+encountered on the voyage up this river, and of the enemies they had to
+either meet or avoid. Sometimes hostile Indians would attack a boat
+amid-stream from both sides of the river, and when an attempt was made
+to bring gold or costly merchandise down the river, daring attacks were
+often made by white robbers, whose ferocity and murderous designs were
+quite as conspicuous as those of the aboriginal tribes. Many a murder
+was committed, and the seeds were sown for countless mysteries and
+unexplained disappearances.
+
+The Ohio River is another of the great tributaries of the Mississippi.
+In years gone by the importance of this waterway was enormous. The
+Mississippi itself runs through Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa,
+Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana. The
+Ohio taps and drains a much older country than many of these States, and
+hence its importance in the days when Cincinnati was the great gateway
+of the West and a manufacturing city of first importance.
+
+The Ohio is a great river for more than a thousand miles, and connects
+Pittsburg with Cairo, running through such important towns as Louisville
+and Cincinnati. On this river some of the most interesting events in
+river history have been enacted in the past. Many a tragedy and many a
+comedy are included in its annals, and even to-day, although paralleled,
+crossed and recrossed by railroads, it is a most important highway of
+commerce.
+
+The Tennessee River is a tributary of the Ohio, which it enters so near
+the Mississippi as to have a very close connection with that great
+river. Entering the Ohio at Paducah, Kentucky, the Tennessee is one of
+the largest and most important rivers east of the Mississippi. It is
+formed by the union of two rivers which rise in the Allegheny Mountains
+and unite at Kingston, Tennessee. The river then runs southwest through
+Alabama, and turning northward, passes through portions of Tennessee and
+Kentucky. In length the Tennessee exceeds 1,200 miles, and, with the
+exception of very dangerous places here and there, it is strictly a
+navigable river.
+
+Running as it does, through a country not yet thoroughly supplied with
+railroad accommodation, the Tennessee forms an important connection
+between a number of small shipping points, which would otherwise be cut
+off from commercial intercourse with large centers. Hence the
+transportation facilities are good, and in many respects remind one of
+old days when river traffic was general. Boats run almost all the year
+around up this river as far as Alabama points, and not only is a large
+and lucrative freight business transacted, but pleasure and
+health-seekers are also carried in large numbers.
+
+Everything was not prosaic in river life in the old days. All of us have
+heard of the great races on the Mississippi River between magnificent
+steamers, and of the excitement on deck as first one and then the other
+gained a slight advantage. Stories, more or less reliable, have been
+told again and again of the immense sums of money made and lost by
+speculators who backed their own boats against all comers. Tricks and
+jokes also prevailed and continue up to the present time. The passenger
+on a Tennessee River boat is almost sure to be told how a very popular
+first mate escaped arrest by disguising himself as a cook. The story is
+amusing enough to bear repetition, and bereft of corroborative detail,
+evidently designed to lend artistic verisimilitude to the narrative, it
+is as follows:
+
+The boat was detained at a landing at a small Kentucky town where the
+laws against gambling were supposed to be very strict. Some of the
+officers of the boat were determined to kill time by staking a few
+dollars at poker, faro or something worse, and inquiries were made in
+consequence as to where a game could be found. These resulted
+satisfactorily from the gamblers' standpoint, and the crowd took
+themselves to the appointed spot, taking with them the very stout,
+good-natured, but not very speculative first mate. The game was played
+in a small room at the rear of an almost equally small restaurant.
+Everything went well for awhile, and those who were winning thought they
+had everything the heart could possibly desire. All at once one of the
+colored help came rushing in with a notification that the place was
+being raided.
+
+It was a case of every man for himself. As is usual in cases of this
+kind, one or two got under the table, where of course they were promptly
+found and arrested. Two others jumped out of the window, into the arms
+of two deputies, who were standing there to receive them. The mate,
+caught for the first time in his life in a gambling resort, thought of a
+very good plan of escape. Snatching up his hat and coat he walked into
+the kitchen, where he found a good-natured colored lady hard at work
+stirring batter in anticipation of some table luxury for a coming meal.
+With admirable presence of mind the mate picked up an apron, tied it
+around him and telling "mammy" to take a few minutes' rest as she was
+evidently overtired, he seized her wooden spoon and went on stirring the
+batter as though he had never done anything else in his life.
+
+In the meantime every other member of the party had been caught and
+taken to the little frame building which answered the purpose of jail
+and police-court combined. Various conjectures were exchanged as to the
+fate of the mate, whose ignorance of the events incidental to gambling
+raids was expected to prove very inconvenient to him in a variety of
+ways. All anxiety on this score was, however, thrown away. The old man
+acted his part so well that when the raiders saw him laboriously at work
+with the wooden spoon they concluded that he was a member of the
+establishment. In consequence of this they let him alone, and when the
+raid was over he replaced his hat and coat, with the indifference and
+nonchalance of an experienced actor, and went quietly back to the boat.
+
+Here he informed friends of the incarcerated individuals of the fix they
+were in, and advised them to go to their release, preferring himself to
+keep as far as possible from the representatives of the law. Liberty was
+obtained by the payment of considerable sums in the way of fines and
+costs, and although the event took place some years ago, the way in
+which the inexperienced gambler escaped, while his more hardened and
+experienced friends were caught, is still a constant source of merriment
+among officers and passengers.
+
+It was while enjoying a delightful and distinctly sensational trip on
+the Columbia River that the passengers were enlightened as to a
+comparatively old trick, which was executed with the utmost promptness
+and despatch by a young second mate. This young man was never known to
+have any money. Generous in the extreme, and heartily full of fun, he
+managed to get rid of his salary as promptly as it was paid him, and his
+impecuniosity was a standing joke among members of the crew and regular
+passengers. On one occasion the boat met with an accident, and was tied
+up at a small town for four or five days. The hero of the story, with a
+number of other light-hearted individuals, naturally went ashore on
+pleasure bent. They had what is generally called a good time, but what
+little funds they had when they started were soon exhausted.
+
+Two or three councils of war were held as to how a supply of liquid
+refreshments, of a character not included in the temperance man's bill
+of fare, could be obtained. Finally, the second mate undertook to secure
+the needful without the expenditure of any money. He borrowed a heavy
+overcoat belonging to one of the party, and then hunted up two large
+wine bottles. One of these he filled with water and securely corked. The
+other he took empty, and with these in his pockets entered the saloon.
+Producing the empty bottle he asked the bar-keeper how much he would
+charge for filling it, and on hearing the amount told him to go ahead.
+
+As soon as the bottle was filled and returned to the second mate, he
+slipped it in his pocket, and in a very matter-of-fact manner began to
+make arrangements for the liquidation of the debt, at a convenient
+period. The saloon-man naturally resented any discussion of this
+character, and told his customer to either pay for the liquor or return
+it right away. Assuming an air of injured innocence, our friend took out
+the bottle of water, handed it to the barkeeper and said he "guessed
+he'd have to take it back." The unsuspecting purveyor of liquor that
+both cheers and inebriates, grumbled considerably, emptied the bottle of
+water into the demijohn of whisky, handed back the bottle to the
+apparently disconsolate seeker after credit, and told him to "get out."
+
+Naturally, no second order was necessary. Five minutes later, the entire
+party could have been seen sharing the contents of the bottle which had
+not been emptied, but which they lost no time in emptying. The trick
+answered its purpose admirably. When, about two weeks later, the man who
+had played it was again in the town, he called at the saloon to pay for
+the whisky. He was treated very kindly, but hints were freely given as
+to the necessity of a keeper accompanying him on his travels. In other
+words, the bar-keeper declined distinctly to believe that he had been
+hoodwinked as stated. This feature of the joke was, in the opinion of
+its perpetrators, the most amusing feature of all, and it need hardly be
+said that very little effort was made to disabuse the unbelieving but
+somewhat over-credulous bar-keeper.
+
+The Columbia River is one of the most interesting and remarkable on the
+continent. Rising, as it does, quite near the source of the Missouri
+River, it runs, by a very circuitous route, to the Pacific Ocean, being
+in places very narrow, and in others abnormally wide. The Dalles of the
+Columbia are known the world over. They are situated some sixty or
+seventy miles west of the city of Portland, and are within easy distance
+of the American Mount Blanc. They extend from Dalles Station, a small
+town on the Union Pacific Railroad, to Celilo, another station about
+fifteen miles farther east. Between these two points the bed of the
+Columbia is greatly reduced in width, and its boundaries are two huge
+walls of rock, which rise almost perpendicularly from the water level.
+The width of the chasm, through which the water rushes wildly, varies
+considerably, but at no point in the western section does it exceed 130
+feet, although on either side of the Dalles the width of the river
+itself ranged from about 2,000 to much more than 2,500 feet.
+
+As the volume of water is enormous at this point, especially after rain
+and much melting of snow, there is often a rise of fifty feet in a few
+hours in the narrow channel of the Dalles. Sometimes the rise exceeds
+seventy feet, and an effect most extraordinary in character results.
+From many points along the river banks, Mount Hood can be seen towering
+away up into the clouds. The bluffs themselves are marvels of formation,
+very difficult to explain or account for. When the water is low, there
+is an exposure of almost vertical cliffs. The bluffs vary in height to a
+remarkable extent, and the lower the water, the more grotesque the
+appearance of the figures along them. When the water is very low, there
+is a cascade, or waterfall, every few feet, presenting an appearance of
+continuous uproar and froth, very attractive to the sightseer, but very
+objectionable from the standpoint of navigation.
+
+When the water is high, these cascades are lost sight of, and the rocks
+which form them are covered with one raging torrent, which seems
+inclined to dash everything to one side in its headlong course towards
+the Pacific Ocean. Logging is a most important use to which the Columbia
+River is put, and when immense masses of timber come thundering down the
+Dalles, at a speed sometimes as great as fifty miles an hour, all
+preconceived notions of order and safety are set at naught. There is one
+timber shoot, more than 3,000 feet long, down which the logs rush so
+rapidly that scarcely twenty seconds is occupied in the entire trip. The
+Dalles generally may be described as a marvelous trough, and the name is
+a French word, which well signifies this feature.
+
+Farther down the river, and near the city of Portland, there are some
+very delightful falls, not exceptionally large or high, but very
+delightful in character, and full of contradictions and peculiarities.
+Steamboating on the Columbia River, in its navigable sections, is
+exceedingly pleasant and instructive. The river is the largest in
+America which empties into the Pacific Ocean. For more than 140 miles it
+is navigable by steamers of the largest kind, while other vessels can
+get up very much higher, and nearer the picturesque source. On some
+sections of it, glaciers of great magnitude can be seen, and there are
+also many points concerning which legend and tradition have been very
+busy. According to one of these traditions, the Indians who formerly
+lived on the banks of the river were as brave as the ancient Spartans
+and Greeks, though if this is approximately correct, the law and
+argument of descent must be entirely erroneous, for the Indians of this
+section to-day rank among the meanest and most objectionable of the
+entire country.
+
+An artistic illustration is given of the "whaleback" steamer, used
+principally on our Northern lakes. The whaleback varies from a somewhat
+clumsy looking craft, resembling in appearance very much the back of a
+whale, to the much more attractive and navigable craft shown in the
+illustration. These whalebacks have a very important part to play in
+internal navigation. It seems able to withstand, readily, bad weather
+and rough water. Unlike most vessels which are safe under these
+conditions, it requires very little water to be safely navigated, and it
+can carry heavy loads in six or eight feet of water.
+
+The revival of the steamboat trade on our great rivers, and the
+recovering from the railroads of at least a portion of the trade stolen
+away, is a pet hobby among river men generally, and especially among
+those whose parents taught them from the cradle up the true importance
+of the magnificent internal waterways bountifully provided for our
+native land by an all-wise Providence. It is seriously proposed to
+attempt this revival by aid of whaleback steamers, and if the project is
+carried out, the success which will attend the effort is likely to
+agreeably surprise even the most enthusiastic among those who are now
+advocating it.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+THROUGH THE GREAT NORTHWEST.
+
+The Importance of Some of our Newest State--Romantic History of
+Montana--The Bad Lands and their Exact Opposite--Civilization Away Up in
+the Mountains--Indians who have Never Quarreled with White
+Men--Traditions Concerning Mount Tacoma--Wonderful Towns of the Extreme
+Northwest--A State Shaped like a Large Chair--The Falls of Shoshone.
+
+
+Within the last few years new States have been admitted into the Union
+which, in themselves, form a magnificent empire. We allude to the great
+Northwestern Territories which have become States within the last
+decade, and which have added so much luster to the escutcheon of our
+native land. The utmost ignorance prevails as to these States, and as to
+the northwestern corner of the United States proper, a term generally
+applied to this great Republic, with the exception of Alaska.
+
+Every now and again the report comes of a great forest fire in the
+Northwest, and occasionally the world is horrified by reports of a
+terrible calamity of this character, involving great loss of life and
+property. Owing to this fact there is a tendency to look on the
+northwestern tier of States as one huge forest, ever offering a
+temptation to that terrible destructive agency--fire. People who profess
+to have made tours through the country, add to the complication by
+enlarging on this one characteristic, and omitting all reference to the
+other features, in which the great Northwest towers head and shoulders
+above competitors, and teaches the entire world a lesson in
+productiveness, fertility, and, we may add, industry.
+
+The World's Fair served to very largely disabuse the public mind
+concerning what is destined to become one of the wealthiest sections of
+the United States. The elegant State buildings that were erected on the
+shores of Lake Michigan, and the gorgeous displays of fruits, grain,
+ore, and different products, must have convinced the average visitor
+that there was a great deal more in the far West and Northwest than he
+had dreamt of. Many were induced in consequence of the information they
+received, to blend their fortunes with the young States, and although
+the financial condition of the country has not been calculated to
+expedite the fulfillment of their Aladdin-like hopes, most of them have
+done well enough to be able to congratulate themselves on the change in
+the location and occupation.
+
+We can only speak of some of the most remarkable features of this great
+section, greater, indeed, than several Old World nations combined.
+Helena is the capital of one of these new States, to which is given the
+euphonic name of Montana. The name is very appropriate, as it signifies
+"belonging to the mountains." The Indians had a very similar name for
+the territory now included in the State, and Judge Eddy called it the
+"Bonanza State" because of its mining sensations, a name which has clung
+to it with much fidelity ever since. The arms of the State are
+significant and almost allegorical. The present is linked with the past
+by means of a retreating buffalo, significant of the extermination of
+this interesting and valuable species. The great mining resources of
+Montana are shown by a miner's pick and shovel, and in the rearground
+the sun is setting behind eminences of the Rocky Mountains. Montana was
+first discovered by Canadians, some two hundred years ago. The first
+permanent settlement was early in the present century, and, until within
+the last fifty years, all goods and utensils used in it were dragged up
+the Missouri River from St. Louis, a distance of nearly 2,000 miles.
+When the war broke out, the Territory was occupied almost entirely by
+Indians, with a few daring fur traders and a number of missionaries,
+who, in exercise of their duty, had no fear at all. The discovery of
+gold which took place almost simultaneously with the firing of the first
+shot in the conflict between the North and the South, brought thousands
+of adventurers from all parts of the Union and introduced millions of
+capital. Some of the mines turned out phenomenally successful, and
+although there were the usual heart-burnings on account of failures, the
+average of success was very great. The State's gold mines have yielded
+fabulous sums, and more recently steps have been taken to extract from
+the quartz and rock a full measure of wealth that is to be found there.
+
+Montana is a Northwestern State in fact as well as name. It is situated
+on the high plateau between the Continental Divide and the Bitter Root
+Range. Fully one-fifth of its area lies beyond the Rocky Mountains, and
+its northern boundary is the snow-covered region of Canada and British
+Columbia. The eastern portion of the State, bordering upon the Dakotas,
+is for the most part prairie land, rising rapidly in the direction of
+the west, and forming the approach to the mighty Rockies. The western
+portion, bordering upon Idaho, is much more mountainous in character.
+Some 50,000 square miles of hilly country are to be seen here, many of
+the peaks rising to heights exceeding 10,000 feet. The State alone is
+larger in area than the entire British Islands, and it is infinitely
+larger than the whole of New England. That it is a country of
+magnificent distances, is shown from the fact that the northern frontier
+equals in length the distance between the great seat of learning and
+culture in Massachusetts and the capital city of the short-lived
+Confederacy.
+
+Although most of Montana is rich in either agriculture or mineral, a
+considerable area is occupied by the notorious Bad Lands. General Sully
+described these lands very accurately, or at least aptly, when he said
+that they reminded him of "the other place with the fires out." So many
+descriptions of the Bad Lands have been given, that we need scarcely
+refer to them at great length. The clay, rock and peculiar dust which
+lies all around this territory becomes, on the slightest provocation,
+the nastiest kind of quicksand. Nothing can thrive or prosper in the Bad
+Lands which, however, are full of evidences of prehistoric life and
+which, perhaps, at one time were the scenes of activity and even
+prosperity.
+
+In exact contrast to the Bad Lands is the Gallatin Valley, about four
+hundred square miles in extent. It is stated to be one of the most
+fertile spots in the world, and by common consent it has been called the
+Egypt of Montana. A portion of it has been cultivated, and its yield per
+acre has been found to be prodigious. At no great distance from this
+fertile spot, two of America's most remarkable rivers have their rise.
+The greatest of these is the Missouri, which, measured from its source
+to final entrance into the Gulf of Mexico along the bed of the
+Mississippi River, is really the longest river in the world. Away up
+here in the mountains, the Missouri, which subsequently becomes one of
+the most treacherous and destructive rivers in the universe, runs
+through picturesque canons and over great gorges of rock, finally
+leaving the State a great river, though still insignificant in
+comparison with the volume it is to assume, and the drainage work it is
+to accomplish farther away from the mighty hills among which it had its
+source.
+
+The Northern Pacific Railroad runs through this wonderful State, with so
+great a future before it. Helena, the capital city of Montana, was
+originally a mining camp, and early prophecies were that it would not
+outlive the mining enthusiasm. These prophecies, however, have proved
+entirely mistaken. It is no longer a mere mining town, with rough, busy,
+uncultured men rushing hither and thither in the eager pursuit of their
+daily avocation. It is now not only the judicial capital of Montana, but
+it is also the great center of educational advance. It has a number of
+very handsome public buildings, and is the home of many men, who, having
+made their fortunes in the mines of the new Northwest, have been so
+impressed with the beauties of scenery and climate, that they have
+decided to abide where at first they merely intended to sojourn. Helena
+is more than 4,000 feet above the sea level, and its 20,000 inhabitants
+are reputed to be worth more than $100,000,000. The apostle of socialism
+or communism who suggested an equal division among the 60,000,000 of our
+people of all the wealth of the nation, would find little encouragement
+in this great mountain city, where poverty, if not unknown, is very
+scarce.
+
+Much more typical as a mining city is Butte. This is situated upon a
+hill quite peculiarly located, and is reached by a ride along the Silver
+Bow Valley. Close here is the wonderful Anaconda mine. The mines in the
+neighborhood have a reputation for immense yield, the annual extracts of
+gold, silver and copper being valued at more than $33,000,000. The
+Anaconda smelter, built some twelve years ago, is said to be the largest
+in the world, and the town itself seems to literally talk mining by its
+streets, its houses, its business, its habits and its people.
+
+Missoula is the third largest city of Montana. Its site is a splendid
+one for a city. The Hell Gate Canon and River merge into a magnificent
+plain, the foot of the noted Bitter Root Valley. The Hell Gate River
+breaks out from the canon and mountains into the wide plain and sweeps
+majestically across the extreme northern limit of it, hugging closely
+the Mission Range to the north. At the western side of the valley the
+Bitter Root River combines with the Hell Gate, and together, and now
+under the name of the Missoula River, they flow westward between high
+mountains. The northern end of the valley is perhaps six miles or more
+wide. The great opening in the mountain is rather triangular in shape,
+with the apex of the triangle many miles up the valley to the south.
+Here is a city laid out and built up in perfect harmony with its
+location, as is evidenced by the tasteful manner in which the place is
+planned and the character of its business blocks and residences.
+Telephones, electric lights, and water supply are found even in the
+remote suburbs of Missoula.
+
+The mountains literally hem them in. Immediately to the northeast is a
+bare hill that is startling in its resemblance to an animal. It is like
+a huge, recumbent elephant, the hind quarters of which form the northern
+end of Hell Gate Canon, around which the railroad curves as it issues
+from the canon. The "Mammoth Jumbo," as it is appropriately known,
+reclines with head to the north and trunk stretched out behind him. One
+eye is plainly seen, and one huge shoulder is visible. Down in the
+south, sharp, decisive, with a steep, rocky escarpment facing us, and a
+long ridge descending from it, is Lolo Peak, of the Bitter Root Range, a
+noted landmark. This overhangs Lolo Pass, through which Chief Joseph
+came in his famous retreat from General Howard in 1877, which terminated
+in the battle of the Bear Paw Mountains, October 5th, where the brave
+and able chieftain was captured with the rest-of his tribe, when almost
+within reach of freedom just across the Canadian border.
+
+At the southern extremity of the valley on the banks of the Bitter Root
+River, and with the range serving as an effective background, is Fort
+Missoula, a pleasantly located military post. Several interpretations of
+the meaning of the word "Missoula" are given. Father Guidi, a priest of
+long residence in the country, gave me what he considers the true one,
+which also indicates the manner in which the Hell Gate Canon and River
+were christened. The spot where Missoula is located was once the scene
+of conflict between the various tribes of Indians. The "Flatheads" and
+"Blackfeet" were deadly enemies, and, presumably, may have fought over
+this lovely spot. At any rate, the ground just at the mouth of the Hell
+Gate Canon was covered long ago with skulls and human bones.
+
+These Flathead Indians are noted for the fact that they have never
+adopted a hostile attitude towards white people. They are advanced in
+civilization, as readers of Chapter IX and its accompanying illustration
+will have noted. Tradition states that their religion demands that the
+head of every infant must be flattened by means of a board before the
+bones harden sufficiently to assume a shape. However this may be, none
+of the surviving members of the tribe have particularly flat heads, and
+all deny emphatically the statement that nature is ever interfered with
+in the manner stated. These Indians call themselves "Selish," a name
+apparently without reason or derivation. The Flathead Reservation was
+formed about forty years ago. On three sides it is walled in by high
+mountains, and it consists of about 2,240 square miles of territory. The
+railway station, Arlee, is so named after the last war chief of the
+Flatheads. Passengers are often amused by the gaudily decked Indians who
+are seen at this station, which is quite near the reservation.
+
+An interesting story attaches to the Jocko River and Reservation. It is
+stated that an Irishman named Jacob Finley established a ranch on the
+river early in the present century. The French Canadians who settled in
+the neighborhood and intermarried with the Indians, called Finley by his
+Christian name with a peculiar French pronunciation, which made it sound
+very like much Jaco or Jocko--the latter name gradually becoming
+generally adopted. It was quite natural to call the river and the valley
+after the ranch owner, and the name finally became generally accepted as
+correct. This man Finley left behind him a family of seventeen, and
+before he had been dead many years his direct descendants numbered
+within three or four of an even century.
+
+The Indians called the stream the Nlka, an unpronounceable combination
+of letters, resulting from a most interesting though variously described
+event.
+
+Mrs. Ronan, the well-known writer, tells an interesting story of how
+names are given by Indians. Thus, her own daughter's name was Isabel,
+but the Indians called her "Sunshine." In February, 1887, the little
+girl was born. For some days prior to her birth the weather had been
+gloomy in the extreme. Almost simultaneously with the child's birth the
+sun, so long hidden under the clouds, burst forth to gladden the heart
+of man. With one accord, the Indians declared that the little one had
+brought sunshine with her, and hence the name, which, as subsequent
+events have proved, was exceptionally appropriate.
+
+Accompanying this chapter is an illustration of Mount Tacoma. This
+mountain is one of the most attractive, as well as lofty, in the
+Northwest. As can easily be supposed, traditions without number are
+connected with it. No greater mistake can be made than to imagine that
+the Indians who are found in this region are naturally atheistic, as
+well as ignorant. To the student of religion there is rather an inherent
+belief in the Supreme Being among these people, with very strong proofs
+of the truth of the divine revelation. One of the traditions, told with
+much fervor and earnestness about Tacoma, involves in it a Savior of
+mankind. With great reverence and awe the good listener among the band
+of tourists is told that at one period--legends are seldom very specific
+in the matter of time or space--a Savior arrived in a copper canoe, his
+mission being to save the Siwash Indians, who were spoken of as the
+chosen people of the Great Unseen. That some prophet or missionary
+certainly came to this region and preached appears to be evident from
+the very definite survival of the doctrines taught by him. His creed
+seems to have been a very apt blending of all that is best in the
+teachings of Buddha, with many of the precepts of the "Sermon on the
+Mount" added.
+
+Love to mankind, the evil of revenge, and the glories of forgiveness
+form the principal features of the doctrine. The legend, or tradition,
+goes on to say that so violent was the opposition to this crusader, who
+attacked local institutions so bitterly, that finally he was seized and
+nailed to a tree. This act of crucifixion resulted from a final sermon,
+in which the wanton destruction of human beings was denounced in terms
+of great vehemence. As nine, instead of seven or three, is the general
+number talked of in this section, it is not surprising that the story
+should go on to state that after nine days the "Mysterious One" was
+reanimated, and once more commenced his work of reformation and tuition.
+
+Nothing in connection with the story can be objected to. By some it is
+supposed to be the result of casual immigration from the regions of
+Palestine, to which also is attributed the story of the flood.
+
+Among nearly all the Indians of the Northwest there is a flood story, or
+legend, and there must be hundreds of Noahs in the minds of the
+story-tellers. We are told, for example, that when the Great Spirit
+flooded the entire earth, there was not quite enough water to cover the
+summit of Mount Tacoma. The man chosen to prevent the human race from
+being entirely obliterated was warned in a dream, or by some other
+means, to climb to the summit of this great mountain, where he remained
+until the wicked ones below him were annihilated, without a man, woman
+or child escaping. After the flood was over and the waters began to
+recede, the Great Spirit hypnotized or mesmerized this solitary human
+being, and created for him a wife of exceptional beauty. Together these
+two recommenced the battle of life, and, as the legend runs, every human
+being in existence can trace his lineage to them.
+
+The mountain is surely worth all that has been said about it. Its great
+height has already been commented upon. Standing, as it does, with its
+summit 14,444 feet above the sea level, it is actually a sentinel for
+almost the entire State. Hazard Stevens, the first man to climb Tacoma,
+reported that it was so called by the Indians because the word means, in
+their vocabulary, "mountain," and was given to Tacoma because it was a
+veritable prince among hills. It was at one time called Rainier, after a
+British lord, but the Indian name has generally prevailed.
+
+Tacoma has been described by many tourists as a rival to the most
+vaunted peaks of the Swiss Alps. As will be seen from the illustrations,
+which are remarkably good ones, there is a dim mistiness about the
+mountain. When the light is poor, there is a peculiar, almost unnatural,
+look about the cloud-topped peak. When the clouds are very white, the
+line of demarcation becomes faint in the extreme, and it is very hard to
+distinguish one from the other. Sometimes, for days together, the
+mountain is literally cloud-capped, and its peak hidden from view. Those
+who are fortunate enough to be able to appreciate the awful and unique
+in history, never tire of gazing upon Tacoma. They are glad to inspect
+it from every side. Some call it a whited sepulchre. There was a time
+when it was anything but the calm, peaceful eminence of to-day. Every
+indication points to the fact that it was once among the most active
+volcanoes in existence.
+
+There is a town, or rather city, of the same name as the mountain. This
+is situated on Commencement Bay. It is under the very shadow of the
+great mountain of which we have spoken, and which seems to guard it
+against foes from inland. Fifteen years ago it was a mere village, of
+scarcely any importance. It has rapidly grown into a town of great
+importance. In 1873 the Northern Pacific Railroad Company decided to
+make it the western terminus of their important system. This resulted in
+renewed life, or rather in a genuine birth to the place, which now has a
+population of 40,000 people, and is an exceedingly wealthy and
+prosperous city. The Tacoma Land Company, ably seconded by the railroad,
+has fostered enterprise in this place in the most hearty manner, and now
+some of the large buildings of the town, of the very existence of which
+many Eastern people affected ignorance, are more than magnificent--they
+are majestic.
+
+Seattle is another and even more brilliant diamond in Washington's
+crown. It is a great city, with a magnificent harbor, its name being
+that of a powerful Indian chief who, when the town was founded forty
+years ago, had things practically his own way. It grew in importance
+very rapidly, but in 1889 one of the largest fires of modern times
+destroyed $10,000,000 worth of property, including the best blocks and
+commercial structures of the city. People who had never seen Seattle at
+once assumed that the city was dead, and speculation was rife as to what
+place would secure its magnificent trade. Those who thus talked were
+entirely ignorant as to the nature of the men who had made Seattle what
+it was. Within a very few days the work of reconstruction commenced. The
+fire hampered the city somewhat, and checked its progress. But Seattle
+is better for the disaster, and stands to-day a monument to the "nil
+desperandum" policy of its leaders.
+
+Spokane Falls is another wonderful instance of Northwestern push and
+energy. It is a very young city, the earliest records of its founding
+not going back farther than 1878. When the census of 1880 was taken, the
+place was of no importance, and received very little attention at the
+hands of the enumerators. In 1890 it had a population of some 20,000,
+and attracted the admiration of the entire country by the progress it
+had made in the matter of electricity. Its water power is tremendous,
+and taking full advantage of this, electricity is produced at low cost
+and used for every available and possible purpose.
+
+The State of Washington, in which these three cities are situated,
+borders upon the Pacific Ocean, and is one of the greatest of our new
+States. The first modern explorer of the territory was a Spaniard,
+followed a few years later by English sailors. Just at the end of the
+last century, some Boston capitalists, for there were capitalists even
+in those days, although they reckoned their wealth by thousands rather
+than millions, sent two ships to this section to trade with the Indians
+for furs. One of these ships was the "Columbia," which gave the name to
+the region, part of which still retains it, although the section we are
+now discussing now owns and boasts of the name of the "Father" of his
+and our country.
+
+Washington became a State five years ago. It is a great mining country,
+but is still more noted for its wonderful lumber resources. The trade
+from Puget Sound is tremendous. One company alone employs 1,250 men in
+saw mills and logging, and it is responsible for having introduced
+improved machinery of every type into the section. The early history of
+the great lumber business is full of interest, and this is one point
+alone in which the advance has been tremendous. Another great company
+cut up 63,000,000 feet of lumber in one year, and shipped more than half
+of it out of the country. White cedar of the most costly grade is very
+common in Washington, and it is used for the manufacture of shingles,
+which sell for very high prices, and are regarded as unusually and,
+indeed, abnormally good. White pine of immense quantity and size is also
+found. Some of the logs are so large that they are only excelled by the
+phenomenal big trees of abnormal growth which are found some hundreds of
+miles farther south on the great Pacific Slope.
+
+Idaho is another of the great States of the great Northwest. It lies
+largely between the two States just described so briefly, and its shape
+is so peculiar that it has been spoken of as resembling a chair, with
+the Rocky Mountains and the Bitter Root Range as its front seat and
+back. Another simile likens it to a right-angled triangle, with the
+Bitter Root Range as its base. It is a vast tableland, wedge shape in
+character, and may be said to consist of a mass of mountain ranges
+packed up fold upon fold, one on top of the other.
+
+Three names were submitted to Congress when the Territory was first
+named. They were Shoshone, Montana and Idaho. The last name was chosen,
+finally, because it is supposed to mean "The sight on the mountain." The
+more exact derivation of the name seems to be an old Shoshone legend,
+involving the fall of some mysterious object from the heavens upon one
+of the mountains. The scenery in this State is varied in everything save
+in beauty, which is almost monotonous. Bear Lake, one of its great
+attractions, is a fisherman's paradise. Its waters extend twenty miles
+in one direction and eight or nine miles in the other. This vast expanse
+of water is one of the best trout fishing resorts in the world. Although
+in a valley, Bear Lake is so high up in the mountains that its waters
+are frozen up for many months in the year, the ice seldom breaking up
+until well into April. At all times the water is cold, and hence
+especially favorable for trout culture. Lake Pen d'Oreilles is about
+thirty miles long and varies in width from an insignificant three miles
+to more than fifteen. It is studded with islands of great beauty and
+much verdure. Close by it is the Granite Mountain, with other hills and
+peaks averaging, perhaps, 10,000 feet in height. The lake has an immense
+shore line, extending as much as 250 miles. For fully a tenth of this
+distance the Northern Pacific tracks are close to the lake, affording
+passengers a very delightful view of this inland scene, which has been
+likened to the world-renowned Bavarian lake, Koenigs See.
+
+The State is also well known on account of the reputation for weird
+grandeur won by the Snake River, also known as the Shoshone. This is a
+very rapid stream of water. By means of its winding course it measures
+fully a thousand miles in Idaho alone, and drains about two-thirds of
+the State. Near the headwaters of the Snake River, in the proximity of
+Yellowstone Park, there are very fertile bottoms, with long stretches of
+valley lands. The American Falls plunge over a mass of lava about forty
+feet high, with a railroad bridge so close that the roar of the water
+drowns the noise of the locomotive. For seventy miles the Shoshone River
+runs through a deep, gloomy canon, with a mass of cascades and many
+volcanic islands intervening. Then comes the great Shoshone Falls
+themselves, rivaling in many respects Niagara, and having at times even
+a greater volume of water. The falls are nearly a thousand feet in
+width, and the descent exceeds two hundred feet. Many writers have
+claimed that these falls have features of beauty not equaled in any part
+of the world. According to one description, they resemble a cataract of
+snow, with an avalanche of jewels amidst solid portals of lava.
+
+Bancroft, in summing up the great features of this State, says very
+concisely that: "It was the common judgment of the first explorers that
+there was more of the strange and awful in the scenery and topography of
+Idaho than of the pleasing and attractive. A more intimate acquaintance
+with the less conspicuous features of the country revealed many
+beauties. The climate of the valleys was found to be far milder than,
+from their elevation, could have been expected. Picturesque lakes were
+discovered among the mountains, furnishing in some instances navigable
+waters. Fish and game abound. Fine forests of pine and firs cover the
+mountain slopes, except in the lava region; and nature, even in this
+phenomenal part of her domain, has not forgotten to prepare the earth
+for the occupation of man, nor neglected to give him a wondrously warm
+and fertile soil to compensate for the labor of subduing the savagery of
+her apparently waste places."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+IN THE WARM SOUTHEAST.
+
+Florida and its Appropriate Name--The First Portions of North America
+Discovered by White Men--Early Vicissitudes of its Explorers--An
+Enormous Coast Line--How Key West came to be a great Cigar Town--The
+Suwanee River--St. Augustine and its World-Renowned Hotel--Old Fort
+Marion.
+
+
+Florida is the name given to one of the least known States in the Union.
+Ponce de Leon was the godfather of this southeastern corner of our
+native land. Its baptism took place in a remote period. The day of the
+event was Easter Sunday, which in the Spanish language is called Pascua
+Floria, which is literally interpreted "The Flowery Festival." Almost by
+accident, therefore, Florida received a name which is singularly
+appropriate and well chosen. From end to end, in either direction, there
+is a profusion of semi-tropical beauty and of flowers, some of them
+entirely peculiar to the immediate vicinity. There is an abundance of
+fruit as well, and frequently the blossoms on the fruit trees make a
+lovely flower show in themselves.
+
+The State arms are very peculiar and appropriate. The main figure is
+that of an Indian lying upon a bank, scattering flowers around him. In
+the distance the sun is setting amid beautiful hills. In the center
+there is a river with a steamboat upon it, and with a large cocoanut
+tree growing by the side. The State's motto is one which has been
+adopted by many communities, but which is ever welcome for the
+purpose--"In God We Trust."
+
+In regard to its climate, Florida can offer a great deal of variety.
+Consumptives by the tens of thousand have sought a renewed lease of life
+in the warmest sections of the State, and many have come back greatly
+benefited. The winters are of the Indian summer order, being singularly
+dry, healthy and free from dust. The Gulf Stream adds from five to ten
+degrees to the temperature in cold weather, and in the southern section
+the temperature rarely gets below freezing point. The exceptionally cold
+spell of 1894-95 may be quoted as quite an exception to the general
+rule, and the heavy loss to growing fruits was as great a surprise as it
+was a loss.
+
+Florida has the honor of being the first portion of North America to be
+discovered by white people. Ponce de Leon, whose very name is suggestive
+of romance and poetry, explored a section of the country in the year
+1513, when he proclaimed the sovereignty of Spain over it. In 1527, a
+Spanish company of soldiers attempted to drive out the native
+inhabitants. The attempt failed, but another one some fourteen years
+later was more successful. Spain was not given a clear title to the
+peninsula without protest. French Huguenots built Fort Caroline on St.
+John's River at about the middle of the century. Shortly after this
+enterprise, a Spanish fleet surprised and annihilated the pioneers, upon
+whose graves they placed the inscription, "Not as Frenchmen, but as
+Lutherans." This brutal attempt to give a religious aspect to the murder
+was resented very soon after. A French expedition captured the fort,
+hung the garrison one after the other, announcing that they did so, and
+hanged the ruffians "Not as Spaniards, but as traitors, thieves and
+murderers."
+
+West Florida was settled at the close of the Seventeenth Century, and in
+1763 the territory now included in the State was ceded to Great Britain
+in return for Cuba. Colonization followed, and a very large number of
+British Tories settled in the country. In 1814, the United States seized
+portions of the country, and four years later it became evident that
+European rule must cease in it. When in 1821 Spain ceded this territory
+to the United States, the number of white inhabitants was barely 600,
+although there were fully 4,000 Seminoles residing in it.
+
+The Seminole War commenced in 1835, and continued for seven years. The
+war cost some $20,000,000, and over 1,500 American soldiers lost their
+lives during the campaign. Over 30,000 troops were engaged in the
+conflict, and the Indians by taking advantage of their knowledge of the
+country, held out against superior force for an extraordinary length of
+time. Gradually the savages were driven south, and at last the Seminoles
+were overpowered. Those who survived were for the most part sent west of
+the Mississippi River. A few are still found, however, on a reservation
+some fifteen miles from Fort Pierce on Indian River.
+
+When the Southern States seceded, Florida went with them. In 1864,
+General Seymour led 7,000 troops nearly as far as Lake City.
+Jacksonville remained under Federal control, but the State fortunately
+escaped being made a battle-ground to any extent between the opposing
+forces.
+
+Florida has a very interesting geological record. It was evidently
+founded on coral reefs, and the formations are so recent that few
+minerals are found. Phosphate rock is one of the most remarkable natural
+productions of the State, and the actual value of this has not yet been
+thoroughly ascertained. The State itself is naturally divided into two
+sections, the East and the West. East Florida includes a long peninsula,
+and extends westward to the Suwanee River, concerning which the negro
+melodist delights to sing. Western Florida is more inland in character.
+The measurements of the State are peculiar. Thus it is 700 miles from
+the Perdido River to Cape Sable. From the Atlantic to the extreme west
+the distance is about 400 miles, and from north to south the distance is
+slightly greater. The peninsula itself averages rather less than 100
+miles in width throughout. Florida naturally possesses an enormous coast
+line. Of this nearly 500 miles is on the Atlantic seaboard, with some
+700 miles on the Gulf of Mexico. Harbors abound on every side, and when
+Florida becomes a manufacturing State as well as a fruit-growing one,
+its resources for exporting will be an immense advantage to it in
+overcoming competition and opposition.
+
+This coast line makes sea fishing one of the most profitable occupations
+in the State. About 10,000 men are kept constantly employed in this
+work. Some of the fish found here are choice and costly delicacies, and
+include red snapper, pompano, Spanish mackerel and sea trout. Of turtle
+there is an abundance, and tarpon fishing provides amusement to those
+who are more strictly sportsmanlike in disposition. Fishing for sponges
+is also a fairly remunerative occupation, which always excites much
+interest when watched by visitors from other States. Key West alone
+sends away sponges worth $500,000 every year, two great capitals of
+Europe being the best customers.
+
+Key West is, however, better noted for its cigars. It is situated on
+what was originally called Bone Reef by the Spaniards, on account of
+great quantities of human bones being found on it by the early
+explorers. Eighty years ago, a number of New England fishermen located
+at Key West, which is about sixty miles from Florida proper and about
+ninety miles from Havana. The great revolution in the nature of the
+town's business and habits was brought about by the settlement in it,
+less than a quarter century ago, of a large band of Cuban exiles. These
+brought with them the secrets of the manufacture of cigars of the
+highest grade. They at once set about establishing factories as large as
+their means allowed, and the business has grown so rapidly that there
+are now facilities for manufacturing nearly 150,000,000 cigars every
+year. To the man who appreciates the difference between good and bad
+cigars it is hardly necessary to say that in quality, as well as
+quantity, the product of this Spanish-American island has progressed.
+
+The harbor of Key West is the ninth port of entry in the country. It is
+so naturally impregnable that it escaped capture during the Civil War,
+when the Gulf Coast ports were a special source of attack and envy.
+Legend and history twine around the harbor stories of thrilling
+interest, many of which have formed the plots for successful and
+celebrated novels. The town has peculiar but attractive streets, with
+tropical trees on both sides. Seven miles distant is Key West, the most
+extreme southern point of United States territory. From the immense
+light-house pier the distance to the island of Cuba is less than
+eighteen miles.
+
+Returning to the inland, we may spend a few minutes
+
+
+  'Way down 'pon de Suwanee Ribber,
+  Far, far away--
+  Dare's wha' my heart is turnin' ebber--
+  Dare's wha' de ole folks stay.
+
+This river, as we have seen, forms the western boundary of Eastern
+Florida. It is a very romantic stream, running through a country of
+surpassing beauty, with tropical trees and undergrowth coming right to
+the water's edge. It enters Florida from Southern Georgia, and runs
+through a country which varies from forest to plain and from upland to
+valley. Along its banks there are a number of little Southern homes, few
+of them boasting of the magnificence of which we often read, but all of
+them peaceful and attractive. Of one of these we give an illustration.
+At first glance they may not appear to be anything very remarkable about
+the little house and its surroundings, but on second thoughts and
+glances something more than poetical will be discovered. The old negro
+ballad from which we have quoted above gives in its lines a charming
+idea of the river and of the memories and thoughts which cling to it.
+Excursion parties are very frequent along the river. Some indulge in
+hunting, and take advantage of the profusion of game on every hand.
+Others prefer to indulge in peaceful reverie and to think only of the
+quaint old folks, who, as we are told in the song, still stay in the
+vicinity.
+
+The Ocklawaha River resembles the Suwanee in many respects. Steamboats
+run along it for a considerable distance, and there is seldom difficulty
+in securing passengers. It is said that there are more alligators to a
+hundred square feet of water, in sections of this river, than can be
+found in any other water in the world. From the deck of a passenger
+steamer it is quite interesting to watch the peculiar proceedings of
+these dangerous creatures, and many conjectures are exchanged as to what
+would happen in the event of any one of the watchers falling overboard.
+On the banks of the river, cedar groves are frequently seen. Florida
+supplies the world with the wood required for lead pencils, and the
+inroads made into her cedar forests for this purpose threaten to
+eventually rob the State of one of its most unique features. Cypress, a
+wood which is just beginning to be appreciated at its true worth, is
+also abundant in this vicinity, and many of the much talked-of cypress
+swamps are passed. Pineapples are also seen growing vigorously, and also
+the vanilla plant, which resembles tobacco in its leaf. Vanilla leaf is
+gathered very largely, and sold for some purpose not very clearly
+defined or explained.
+
+The banyan tree has to be seen to be understood. It is really an
+exclusive product of Florida and is found in the Key West country, where
+sea island cotton will grow all the year around, indifferent to changes
+of season. The banyan is almost a colony of trees in itself, having,
+apparently, a dozen trunks in one. All the upper boughs are more or less
+united, and the old proverb of "In union there is strength," seems to
+have in it a unique illustration and confirmation.
+
+Lake Worth is one of the prettiest lakes in the South. It is a very
+beautiful sheet of water, broken only by Pitts' Island, which is located
+near its northern end. The most useful and desirable products of the
+North have here a congenial home, alongside those most loved in the
+region of the equator. A New Englander may find his potatoes, sweet
+corn, tomatoes and other garden favorites, and can pluck, with scarcely
+a change in his position, products that are usually claimed as
+Brazilian. He finds in his surroundings, as plentiful and as free as the
+water sprinkling before him, such strange neighbors as coffee, the
+tamarind, mango, pawpa, guava, banana, sapadillo, almond, custard apple,
+maumec apple, grape fruit, shaddock, Avadaco pear, and other equally new
+acquaintances.
+
+And these are all neighbors, actual residents, natives of the soil, not
+imported immigrants or exacting visitors to be tenderly treated. Giant
+relatives, equally at home, are the rubber tree, mahogany, eucalyptus,
+cork tree and mimosa. All these, within forty hours' travel of New York,
+to be reached in winter by an all-rail trip, and to be enjoyed in a
+climate that is a perpetual May. It was but a few years ago (less than a
+dozen) that the beauties of Lake Worth were at first dimly reported by
+venturesome sportsmen, who had gazed upon its unspeakable loveliness.
+
+To-day the taste and labor of wealthy capitalists from East and from
+West, have lined its fair shores with elegant homes. One of these, the
+McCormick Place, has for the past two years been famous for its wondrous
+beauty. It is situated at Palm Beach, on the eastern shore of the lake,
+and faces westward or inland. It thus receives the cool air from the
+lake and the breezes from the Atlantic, which is but a stroll distant.
+The entire estate comprises 100 acres, all under high cultivation. It
+has a water front on both lake and ocean of 1,200 feet. In this lovely
+spot Mr. McCormick built a castle, so handsomely finished, inside and
+out, so tastefully designed and so elegantly furnished, that one would
+imagine he expected to entertain royalty within its walls.
+
+It is said that nowhere on the continent is so great a variety of
+vegetable growth presented in one locality, as is here to be seen in the
+full perfection of lusty growth. The cacti at this point are marvels of
+variety and beauty. One's idea of what a cactus is can never be complete
+until one has witnessed a scene such as this, and a collection of this
+magnitude. The fruit trees form a mass of groves. In some of these, huge
+cocoanuts tower away above all other growth, while alongside of these
+monarchs of arbory culture there are groves of dwarf trees, less
+tremendous but quite as interesting.
+
+This region has been described as a mental quicksand. There is something
+in the atmosphere which makes the most industrious man contentedly idle.
+Here the nervous, irritable, fussy individual, who for years has never
+known what rest meant, and who has fidgeted when he could not work,
+finds himself relaxing, against his will, into a condition of what a
+celebrated statesman described as "innocuous desuetude." The balminess
+of the air, which is at once warm and invigorating and bracing, without
+being severe, brings about a natural feeling of rest. The fascination
+which this creates soon becomes overpowering. The longer the visitor
+remains the more completely and hopelessly does he give away to his
+feelings, until at last he only tears himself away by a painful effort.
+
+Biscayne Bay stands at the terminus of the peninsula of Florida, and at
+the extreme southeastern end of the United States. The visitor who
+stands here is on what is frequently called the great projecting toe of
+the Union. South of him there are a number of islands, but of the main
+land there is no more. The bay is almost a lake. It sets well into the
+coast, but is not quite enclosed by land. It is between five and ten
+miles wide and is forty miles long. A score of little inlets feed it
+from the ocean. The water is blue and clear and of no great depth,
+making the lake one of the finest cruising places in the world. All
+along the shores there are picturesque little settlements, all of them
+distinctly Southern in their appearance, and concerning each of which
+the traveler can hear legend without number.
+
+St. Augustine is perhaps the most talked-about city in Florida. It is a
+quaint old Spanish city with a great history. The evidences of the past
+seem to be disappearing rapidly, the retreat being forced by the
+introduction of modern ideas and immense sums of modern capital.
+Memorial Church is one of the features of the town, and behind it the
+traveler sees, as he approaches, turrets and towers of every shape and
+size. The pavements are almost uniformly good, and as one is driven
+along the streets for the first time, every turning seems to bring to
+light some new wonder and some unexpected beauty. Hedges formed of
+oleanders, arbor vitae, larches and cedars, to say nothing of masses of
+roses of all kinds, upset all his preconceived notions of tree, shrub
+and flower growth, and convince him that he has come to a land flowing
+indeed with milk and honey, where winters are practically unknown.
+
+The Hotel Ponce de Leon is naturally the great object of his search, and
+if his purse affords it the tourist certainly stops here, if only for
+the sake of saying that he has slept, for one night at least, in this
+extraordinary and marvelously magnificent hostelry. If the Ponce de Leon
+were in New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis or Chicago, it would excite
+murmurs of admiration on every hand. But its existence would not be
+regarded as something extraordinary, as it certainly is in a town of the
+size of St. Augustine. The enterprise which led to its construction has
+been commented on again and again, and the liberal methods of management
+have also been the subject of much comment. As the carriage passes
+through the arched gateway into the enclosed court, blooming all the
+year round with fragrance and beauty, the tourist begins to apologize
+mentally for the skepticism in which he has indulged, concerning this
+wonder of the age. After mounting several successive terraces of broad
+stone steps, he finds himself at last before the magnificent front of
+the great hotel. Before him there is the grand doorway, surmounted by
+the oft-described arch of Spanish shields in terra cotta. All around
+there are broad galleries and wide windows, with very costly, artistic
+cappings. The galleries are supported by massive but neat pillars, and
+the shaded nooks and quiet corners are full of romantic influence.
+
+Everything is reminiscent of old Spain, although the magnificence and
+architecture is often that of the extreme East. There are five elegantly
+decorated salons, in which there are tables of costly onyx, and on whose
+walls there are paintings of great splendor. On the ceiling above him
+exquisite frescoes tell the story of the old cavalier after whom the
+hotel is named, and of his patient and faithful search for the fabled
+fountain of youth which no one has yet found. At dinner the visitor is
+almost appalled by the magnificence of the service, and his appetite is
+apt to be injured by his reflections as to the cost of the silver and
+porcelain set before him. Sometimes as many as a thousand guests sit
+down together, and the service seems to be perfect for an unlimited
+number of visitors.
+
+This great hotel was erected like the great temple described in
+scripture, practically without hammer or nails. Being molded from
+concrete, it is practically proof against weather and time, and it is
+fireproof in a sense of the term far more literal than that generally
+adopted in large cities. There is no sham work, from basement to tower.
+Italian marble, terra cotta and Mexican onyx are the principal materials
+used, and nothing "equally as good" is tolerated.
+
+The view from St. Augustine can hardly be excelled in any part of the
+world. The old city gates remind the tourist of Spanish stories and
+Oriental fables. Net far distant he sees Fort Marion, described as the
+oldest fortification in the United States. It was built by one of the
+Spanish Kings at great expense, and, according to the opinion of
+experts, is likely to survive many generations to come. It is
+constructed of cocquina cement, found only in Florida, and which seems
+to be everlasting in character.
+
+Fort Marion has been the scene in years gone by of countless events of
+thrilling interest, and the student of history, who sees it for the
+first time, delights to conjure up reminiscences concerning it. In the
+old Indian war days there were several massacres at this point, in which
+the Indians occasionally outdid themselves in deeds of blood. About
+twenty years ago, the old fort was turned into an Indian prison, and to
+it were taken some of the worst and apparently most irreclaimable
+members of Indian tribes. This included Mochi, the Indian squaw who
+seemed to regard murder as a high art and a great virtue, "Rising Bull,"
+"Medicine Water," "Big Mocassin" and other red ruffians who had proved
+themselves beyond all hope of reformation. The watch-tower of the fort
+stands high above surrounding buildings, and is probably one of the
+oldest watch-towers and light-houses in the world.
+
+The old sea-wall runs from the fort past the historical old slave-market
+and the plaza, where cool breezes can be obtained on the hottest days.
+There is the cathedral, the oldest place of worship in the country, if
+the local historians are to be believed, with its chime of bells which
+first called the faithful to worship more than 200 years ago. On the
+east the smooth waters of the attractive bay rivet the attention of
+every visitor who has in him a particle of poetry, or appreciation of
+the beautiful. Not far away is Anastasia Island. At the north of
+Mananzas Bay is the spot where Sir Francis Drake, one of England's first
+admirals, landed, and close by is the oft-described lighthouse, with its
+old Spanish predecessor just north of it.
+
+Not far from St. Augustine is the Carmonna vineyard. Here there are
+seventy-five acres of land covered with grape vines. The second year
+these vines yielded two and a half tons of grapes per acre. The sea of
+leaves, responding to the gentle breeze which generally blows up,
+presents an appearance of green very restful to the eye, and opens up
+new ideas as to color and expanse. All around Moultrie there are acres
+and acres of white Niagara grapes, and in a few years Florida shipments
+of this fruit will be enormous.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of My Native Land, by James Cox
+
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