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diff --git a/old/52625-0.txt b/old/52625-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index f1d0d59..0000000 --- a/old/52625-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,5283 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Frank's Ranche, by E. Marston - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Frank's Ranche - My Holiday in The Rockies - -Author: E. Marston - -Release Date: July 23, 2016 [EBook #52625] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRANK'S RANCHE *** - - - - -Produced by Richard Tonsing, David Edwards and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - - - - - - -[Illustration] - - - - - FRANK'S RANCHE; - - OR, - - MY HOLIDAY IN THE ROCKIES. - - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration: FRANK'S RANCHE, FROM A SKETCH BY HIMSELF.] - - - - - FRANK'S RANCHE - - OR - - MY HOLIDAY IN THE ROCKIES - -BEING A CONTRIBUTION TO THE INQUIRY INTO WHAT WE ARE TO DO WITH OUR BOYS - - _BY THE AUTHOR OF - "AN AMATEUR ANGLER'S DAYS IN DOVEDALE"_ - - "To thy bent mind some relaxation give, - And steal one day out of thy life, to live!" - - COWLEY - - Second Edition. - - LONDON - SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON - CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET - 1886 - - (_All rights reserved_) - - "Oh! happy farmers! overblest I wis, - If they could only realise their bliss! - For whom the earth, away from jingling strife, - In just abundance sheds the gifts of life." - - VIRGIL'S _Georgics_. - (_R. D. Blackmore's Translation._) - -[Illustration] - - - - - _DEDICATORY LETTER._ - - - _MY DEAR FRIEND M._, - -_I cannot but dedicate this little volume to you who have been my -pleasant travelling companion for many thousands of miles in the great -western world. But for you I should probably never have undertaken such -a journey; and for how many acts of thoughtful kindness by the way am I -not indebted to you? Can I forget that you always insisted on my taking -the best bunk in the cabin, the best seat in stage-coaches, the best -room in hotels, the best bed in sleeping cars? Can I forget that it was -your warmhearted friendship for Frank which induced you to "rough it" -with me in his little log shanty? And ought I not gratefully to remember -the inexhaustible resources of that wonderful travelling bag and the -cruse of cordials which, in time of need, were ever at my service? No -man could have had a more pleasant, unselfish, and kind companion than -you were, and my only regret is that I have not been able to produce a -record of our journeyings more worthy of your acceptance._ - - _Yours faithfully, - E. M._ - - _London, - Christmas, 1885._ - -[Illustration] - - - - - INTRODUCTORY NOTE. - - -"What can justify one in addressing himself to the general public as if -it were his private correspondent?" asks Oliver Wendell Holmes. He then -answers his own question by stating that "there are at least three -sufficient reasons," and proceeding to give them. - -I wish I could with satisfaction to myself offer any one of those three -reasons for the existence of this little book. But, I cannot venture to -say that I have "a story to tell which everybody wants to hear;" neither -have I "been shipwrecked, or been in a battle, or witnessed any -interesting event that I can tell anything new about." It is needless to -add that I have not been hugged by a bear or scalped by an Indian. I do -not presume to assert that I can "put in fitting words any common -experiences not already well told;" and so I must assign the third -reason, which permits me "to tell anything I like, provided I can so -tell it as to make it interesting." - -I cling to this third reason; it embodies the only plea I can put forth. -I have tried to make my story interesting; it would gratify me deeply to -believe that I have succeeded. - - * * * * * - -"What shall we do with our boys?" is a question frequently put to the -body politic through the medium of the newspapers in the dull season. My -experience has convinced me that the question is a useless one. You may -train up and control your boys to a certain age; you may make them a -present of as good an education as you can afford; you may lay down -plans for their future; you may find niches for each one to fill; you -may fondly hope that each one in his turn will quietly drop into his -niche; that they will live and work together, and in course of time -become a help and comfort to you in your declining years. - -But will they do so? I have other sons besides Frank, and they have -found niches for themselves quite other than the ones I had intended for -them when years ago I said to myself "What shall I do with my boys?" Now -they have sons and daughters of their own, who will no doubt soon become -objects of the same inquiry in their turn. - -Frank's erratic wanderings from the niche I had designed for him are -recorded in these pages. I have written them in the hope that they may -be, if not very interesting, at least useful to young fellows who, like -him, cannot rest content in the parent nest, however well-feathered or -cotton-wooled it may be; but who also, like Frank, seem to be impelled -by some subtle influence, or by— - - "Such wind as scatters young men thro' the world - To seek their fortune further than at home, - Where small experience grows." - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - - - - - CONTENTS. - - - PART I. - - LETTER I.—My bright anticipations—Melancholy forebodings—Bound _Page_ 1 - for the Rockies—Frank's start for the Far West—Farming in - Minnesota—A new scheme—Starting a creamery—Glowing - hopes—Failure and disappointment - - LETTER II.—Frank's dearly-bought experience—A start for the 11 - Rockies—Magnificent scenery—Indian scouts and - revolvers—Advice to parents—Frank's determination to "rough - it" - - LETTER III.—A hundred and twenty miles' walk—Axe, pick-axe, 16 - and shovel—A four-hundred-feet roll down the mountain—Rough - living—An Indian scare—Deadly fumes—Working round a - smelter—Fishing in Lake "Abundance"—Disturbed by a grizzly - - LETTER IV.—Starting afresh on a new farm—Wheat forty to 27 - seventy-five bushels to the acre—Felling trees and - fencing—"Life here is deuced hard"—Somewhat despondent—Forty - below zero—Ink and bacon frozen—Anxiety for General - Gordon—Working in snow up to the waist - - LETTER V.—Never had such a hard time—Camping out in the 35 - Rockies—Horses decamp—Left in the lurch—A terrible - fright—Crossing a torrent—"Old Jim" taking a roll—Pack - smashed—"Old Jim" in a snow-drift—Woke up by a grizzly—What - the newspapers said of it—Cutting fencing poles in the - snow—Christmas Day—Pickles and plum pudding—The - consequences—A dance—Cowboys and farmers' daughters—"Shall I - turn tail?"—A profitable old cow—The nicest little ranche in - Montana—Start on a sheep drive 300 miles—"The healthiest - place I ever struck" - - LETTER VI.—My last letter before leaving for the United States 55 - by the good ship "Cunardia" - - - PART II. - - LETTER VII.—On board the "Cunardia"—Small troubles—The Romance 57 - of a rickety old chair—Arrival at New York—First - acquaintance with katydids - - LETTER VIII.—Up the Hudson River—The Catskills—My first 63 - chipmunk—"The Rip Van Winkle"—"Sleepy Hollow"—The - Mountain-House Hotel—Old Indian squaw-spirit—A snake in the - grass—A painting by Holbein - - LETTER IX.—Arrival at Saratoga—Season over—Hotel crowded with 73 - Deputies for nomination of a State Governor—Mugwump—Arrival - at Niagara—The Falls at midnight and by moonlight—No letter - from Frank - - LETTER X.—Start for Chicago—"The Michigan Central"—Arrival at 82 - Chicago—Still no letter from Frank—Start for St. Paul—St. - Paul and Minneapolis—Commodore Kitson's stables—Falls of St. - Anthony—"The Granary of the World"—Falls of - Minnehaha—Telegram to Frank to meet me at Livingston - - LETTER XI.—The North Pacific Railway—Brainerd—Detroit—Massacre 93 - by Sioux—Indian Reservation—Fargo—Wheat-fields of - Dakota—Bismarck—"Bad Lands"—The Rockies—Arrival at - Livingston—No news of Frank—My great disappointment - - LETTER XII.—The Yellowstone National Park—"The New 106 - Wonderland"—"The Devil's Slide"—The stage driver—Story of a - corpse—Driving a circus coach—Circus Bill "appropriates" a - coat—Stealing their own blankets—Start for the Park—Mammoth - Springs—Forest of dead pines—The Lake of the Woods—Norris - Hot Springs and Geysers—"Hell's Half-acre"—A perilous - drive—Fire Hole River—Lower Geyser Springs—"Old - Faithful"—"The Bee Hive"—The Grand Cañon—Rough - roads—Return—"The Golden Gate"—A strange pedestrian—"By - Jove! it's Frank!" - - LETTER XIII.—Livingston to Bozeman—Bozeman City—Arrival at 129 - Frank's ranche—Frank's progress—The shanty—Kitten and - mice—Aroused by a ground squirrel—Variation of climate—A - snowstorm—Our beds drenched—"Baching" it—Shaving under - difficulties—Situation—Fertility of the soil—Cultivation of - strawberries—Fine grazing district—Climate—Story of our - holiday on the ranche—Fishing in West Gallatin river—New - bridge and old canoe—"The coloured aristocracy"—Three bear - stories - - LETTER XIV.—Saying "Goodbye"—Departure in a heavy 160 - snowstorm—Gallatin Valley—Helena—Garrison—Butte City—Salt - Lake City—Polygamy—Articles of faith—Trial of a - murderer—Trial of polygamists - - LETTER XV.—Leave for Cheyenne—"Rock Springs"—Murder of 186 - Chinese—Mr. Black's "Green Pastures" and bottle of - champagne—"Hell upon Wheels"—Big Horn Cowboy and Milord - - LETTER XVI.—We leave Cheyenne—Arrival at Omaha—The barber's 197 - shop—Narrow escape from having my head shaved—Arrival at - Chicago—Niagara Falls - - CONCLUSION 202 - - APPENDIX 205 - - How to obtain Government Land 205 - - Pre-Emptions 206 - - Homesteads 207 - - Timber Culture Claims 209 - - Desert Land 211 - - Government Land Offices 213 - - Diagram of Time across the American Continent 214 - -[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA] - -[Illustration] - - - - - FRANK'S RANCHE; - - OR, - - MY HOLIDAY IN THE ROCKIES. - - - - - PART I. - - - - - LETTER No. I. - - - My bright anticipations—Melancholy forebodings—Bound for the - Rockies—Frank's start for the Far West—Farming in Minnesota—A new - scheme—Starting a creamery—Glowing hopes—Failure and - disappointment. - - _London, July, 1885._ - -Last year I spent a pleasant time in Dovedale, and "The Amateur Angler" -told you all about it. This autumn I had looked forward to a holiday in -some retired nook in leafy Herefordshire or Shropshire. I had my eye on -an old farmhouse at which to make my headquarters for fishing in The -Teme, or The Lugg, or The Arrow. - -As a boy, I knew that old house well; every corner of it, all the -buildings, orchards, and lovely green meadows surrounding it; the woods, -the ravines, the far-off mountains, and, above all, the pleasant river -which ran through and around the farm, wherein I used to swim and fish -for trout and grayling, are vividly before me now. - - "I knew each lane and every alley green, - Dingle and bushy dell.... - And every bosky bourn from side to side, - My daily walk and ancient neighbourhood." - -But hard and inexorable fate has ordered me off in quite a different -direction. All being well, my autumnal holiday will be spent in the -Rocky Mountains! If I have called such a fate as that hard, it is only -because of the uncertainty of it. A young man, I fancy, would see -nothing but delight in it; but for an old man in his seventh decade, and -one not accustomed to travel, it is like tearing up his roots and -plunging down stream into the unknown. - -I am going to fish in the Rockies. I shall take with me that immaculate -tackle which last year inspired me with such hopes in Dovedale. I hear -of places where you have only to cast your fly and you pull out a 5 lb. -trout (nothing less) with positive certainty; and without taking him off -your hook, you have simply to swing him a little behind you into a -natural boiling geyser, and in ten minutes your 5-pounder is cooked and -ready for your lunch. That is but a small specimen of the kind of sport -I am anticipating! That's the sort of thing that inspires me! - -But then there is the reverse of this pretty picture, which sometimes, -in melancholy moments, makes me contemplate my enforced holiday as a -hardship on the part of fate. Are there not mosquitoes on that side of -the broad Atlantic? Are there not Red Indians and grizzly bears? I have -pictured myself walking though a narrow glen, fishing-rod in hand, in -the angler's contemplative mood, and suddenly finding myself confronted -by a grizzly! Must, or rather _will_, he retire, or must I? I never -fired a revolver in my life, so I should not think of carrying one; -besides, I have no thirst for a grizzly's blood, and I only hope he has -none for mine. I am sure if he will let me alone I won't meddle with -him. Alas! I get a hug and a pat, and my fate and my fishing are ended! - -Then, again, I dream of encountering a band of black-feet, or crow's -feet, or spotted-tailed Indians, in feathers and war-paint, armed with -tomahawk and scalping-knife. I yield my hoary, or I may say my bald -scalp to that horrid knife, and _so_ my fate is ended. When I think of -things in that way, am I wrong in talking of it as a _hard_ fate? Then -there are six-shooters, bowie-knives, buffaloes, and rattlesnakes! - -Nevertheless, to the Rockies I am bound, in spite of all such gloomy -possibilities. My passage money is already paid and my berth secured in -the good ship "Cunardia": which is, I am told, one of the finest vessels -afloat; so I hope I shall be able to give a good account of her. - -My youngest son Frank, who has always been somewhat of a rolling stone, -and to whom, in the old country, neither wool nor pelf would stick, is -now settled away up at the foot of the Rocky Mountains; and when he has -sometimes written to me for money, and I have asked him how he has spent -it, his answer has invariably been "Come and see!" - -Year after year I have put off going, but now I am beginning to feel -that if I am ever to go, I must delay no longer; so I am about to see -with my own eyes where my money has gone to, and what may be the chances -of any portion of it coming back to me. - -Frank was always a peculiar youth to manage. He began life in my City -counting-house, but he soon tired of it. He had formed the notion that -he was better suited to the free life of the prairie than to the routine -work of City business. Of course he knew nothing about prairie life, and -he would not be persuaded that his notions were but the outcome of a -disordered imagination; he was well off where he was, with fair chances -before him; but he was quite prepared to throw those chances away, and -to strike out into the Far West. He was a strong, healthy, good-looking -youth, fond of society, and very popular, and consequently, was -gradually being led into habits of extravagance which might have ended -badly. I was therefore, willing to humour his wishes. - -In the year 1880 I paid his passage to America, and he began his career -by engaging himself to a farmer in Minnesota, who for a small stipend -was to instruct him in farming and give him his board in exchange for -his work. - -When Frank began with the farmer, it is not too much to say that he was -totally ignorant of everything belonging to a farm; but he had not been -on this farm for six months before he became convinced that he had -learnt everything there was to learn, and that he could give a few -wrinkles to his master. - -Then he told me that there was a wonderful farm to be had close at hand, -dirt cheap, a chance not to be lost; it was a small place of about 200 -acres with good house and building, and splendid feeding prairie-land -adjoining. This, he said, was just the place for him to begin on; and he -produced such elaborate figures to prove to me that, although the -previous occupant had failed there, enormous profits—one hundred per -cent. at least—could be made of it, if managed in accordance with his -enlightened views, rather than in the humdrum way in which the previous -farmer had come to grief. He wrote to me so urgently, so persistently, -so enthusiastically, that I, although with many misgivings, found him -the money wherewith to purchase and stock the place. More money was -expended on that farm than I am now willing to acknowledge, but -everything went along swimmingly for a short period. - -As time went on things did not seem to thrive so well as was hoped. The -corn crop was not up to the mark; the cattle did not fetch the expected -price; two or three horses died, and, on the whole, the first year's -work had not paid its expenses. But Frank was not disheartened; he wrote -courageously home for more money, and worked hard, ploughing and -planting, digging and hoeing. I was at least pleased to find him -sticking to his work so bravely, and exhibiting no desire to "cave in," -although it was evident that his life was a pretty hard one, and his -daily fare rough enough. - -One day I got a letter from him telling me that he was going to sell the -farm, as he had got another scheme in view which would land him in a -fortune in a very short time. - -The scheme was something quite new in that part of the country, and was -a safe success. - -The idea was to sell his farm, and with the produce establish a -Creamery, for the purpose of buying up all the cream from the farmers -for many miles round, and supply all the western cities, and even -eastward, as far as New York, with the best butter that could be made, -and at prices of hitherto unknown moderation. - -Frank supplied me with figures which proved conclusively that after -estimating cost of plant, and interest thereon, horses and carts for -driving round and collecting, wages of carters and butter-makers, and -the prime cost of the cream, the best butter could be produced at a -prime cost of sixpence a pound, while the very lowest at which it could -possibly be sold was a shilling or 1_s._ 2_d._ a pound. This, after -making ample allowance for cost of transit, &c., would clearly leave a -very handsome profit; the success of the thing was too obvious to be for -a moment questioned. - -So Frank sold his farm at about what it had originally cost him, but -with a total loss of his year's labour, and money sunk in improvements; -and went to work in connection with a partner, a practical man, who -joined him with no capital, but who, in consideration of his knowledge -and experience, was to share equally in the profits, first allowing -Frank fair interest for his capital. The local newspapers puffed the new -enterprise, and spoke in glowing terms of the pluck and energy of the -young Englishman: for a time things looked quite promising. - -Frank wrote home with his usual buoyancy and asked for more money to -purchase sundry articles and machinery absolutely needed to carry on the -rapidly-growing business. - -But, alas! for the glowing hopes of youth! At the end of a year it was -found by a balance-sheet carefully, and I believe fairly, drawn up by -the business partner, that there was nothing left but the plant; the -working capital for purchases and expenses was gone. The price of butter -had fallen enormously, and the price of cream and cost of collecting it -had exceeded the original calculations, whilst the plant, except as a -going concern, was not worth much. - -It was found necessary either that Frank should put in 2,000 dollars -more capital (which he said would set them right), or he must give up -the creamery. He did give it up, and was left high and dry to begin the -world again with a capital of about two hundred dollars. - -I am told that the working partner still carries on the business, and -having got hold of the plant at a nominal price, is now really making -the thing pay. - -But Frank was out of it, and Minnesota was no longer a place for him. -With the small capital above mentioned he decided to strike out west for -the Rockies. - -How he fared I will tell you in my next letter. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - - - - - LETTER No. II. - - -Frank's dearly-bought experience—A start for the Rockies—Magnificent -scenery—Indian scouts and revolvers—Advice to parents—Frank's -determination to "rough it." - - _London, August, 1885._ - -I have now given you a short account of how Frank managed to get through -his two first years of farming life in Minnesota, and how he (or rather -I) was worse off in the end than at the beginning. - -He had purchased experience at my expense; his money was nearly all -gone, and with what remained he resolved to start off for the Rocky -Mountains with a friend. This friend was a young fellow, who had gone -out from the City of London fired with the notion that the Great West -was the proper place for him, that there was nothing like a life in the -open prairie, where a little work would be diversified by a good deal of -hunting, shooting, and riding about. - -So this youth immediately on his reaching Frank, to whom he had been -highly commended by friends at home, borrowed a hundred dollars from -him, and they started off together to seek their fortunes in the -Rockies. - -I think I cannot do better than send you some extracts from Frank's -letters, which will give you a fair notion of his progress from the year -1883 to this time, and show, at all events, that amid a good many ups -and downs, and hardships of no ordinary character, he has up to this -point "stuck to it;" while his friend who accompanied him to the -Rockies, suddenly bolted, leaving Frank in the lurch, and minus the -money he had lent him. The first letter is dated June, 1883. - - "MY DEAR PARENTS, - - "I have just struck out here; I had nothing to do at M. The creamery - business was finished up, and I can get better pay working out here - than there. I started with S. on Monday, and we arrived here on - Thursday, a distance of 1,100 miles, right through the Rockies. - - "The view from our window looks out across a valley to the Rocky - Mountains, and down the valley for a distance of fifty miles; the - scenery is magnificent; the mountains are capped with snow. On - Monday we start for a place called Clark's Forks, 120 miles S.W., - just north of 'The National Park.' We stage it for sixty miles, and - either walk or take ponies the rest, up to a height of 7,000 feet - above sea level, to work on some fencing at two and a half dollars a - day. There are lots of ways of making a living there, and I hope of - saving money. The town here is full of Indian scouts, and every man - carries a revolver; in fact, as you may suppose, it is a rough - place, and we shall have to look sharp after ourselves with our - revolvers. Bears (grizzlies) are thick in the district we are going - to, also antelope, deer, and Indians.... We are in the roughest of - countries, but I am determined to fight my way through, and in the - end I hope to come out successful.... - - "My motive in coming here is simply to work hard and save money. If - any thing should happen to either of us you will hear from one of - us; we go with our lives in our hands. - - "As we are green hands just yet, we only get two dollars, but after - a little while we are to get three dollars a day. - - "I have now just money enough to get to our destination." - -Notwithstanding the fact that this boy had been losing my money all the -time, I did not feel altogether disheartened; for I had found him as -candid about his failures as he had been sanguine about his successes, -and he always gave me sufficiently clear accounts as to _how_ the money -had gone. I was pleased with the pluck he had shown under difficulties -from which many a young fellow would have shrunk. - -I had found out by this time that I had acted very unwisely in supplying -an inexperienced youth, however energetic and right principled, with -capital to start farming in a new country without any practical -knowledge whatever. - -Hundreds of youths go out to America and the Colonies every year under -circumstances very like those of my son. Indulgent parents supply them -with money at once to start them in life in an occupation to which they -bring nothing but conceit and ignorance combined, and their money is as -certain to be lost as if it were thrown into the sea. - -My advice to parents situated similarly to myself is never to give an -unlimited supply of money to start with. Allow your son just so much as -will keep him from starvation, and let him work out his luxuries for -himself. Let him rough it for three or four years at least; by that time -he will have discovered how far his boyish dreams have been realized by -experience, and he will have shown the stuff he is made of. He will -either have succumbed and gone home, or broken down in some more -disastrous way, or he will have gained experience which may justify his -starting in business with some hope of his being able to take care of -himself and his money, and to pull through. - -My son had gained experience at my expense, and now I decided that he -should gain a little more at his own cost. I thought it better that he -should rough it for himself, and this he had made up his mind to do. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - - - - - LETTER No. III. - - - A hundred and twenty miles' walk—Axe, pick-axe, and shovel—A - four-hundred-feet roll down the mountain—Rough living—An Indian - scare—Deadly fumes—Working round a smelter—Fishing in Lake - "Abundance"—Disturbed by a grizzly. - - _London, August, 1885._ - -I propose now to occupy a few pages with extracts from Frank's letters, -which will give a fair notion of his progress up to the time of my -sailing, and from that point I purpose to give you an account of my own -adventures. - -In his next letter, which is dated Cook's City, July 6, 1883, he says:— - - "I started out from Minnesota, as there was nothing for me to do - there that would pay me so well.... We walked from Bozeman, 120 - miles through the Rockies, with a promise of work, but the roads and - creeks, or rather mountain torrents, which we had to cross are so - bad at present that the smelter cannot be got up here yet, and so we - are employing ourselves in building a log cabin for the winter for - ourselves. The trouble is that winter will soon be here ... and as I - paid all S.'s expenses as well as my own, besides lending him 100 - dollars, I am afraid I shall not have much left.... We are now 120 - miles from the nearest neighbourhood, right in the heart of the - Rockies, so that letters are scarce and far between. From Bozeman - (where Mrs. Blackmore was buried) the carrier comes once a week, but - in winter, I suppose, once a fortnight. - - "The scenery here is magnificent; we are now in a gulch, with a - range of mountains on each side of us; a small camp composed of log - cabins, at present about fifty people, but a boom is expected, and - we shall share it. We have already taken up a lot, which costs - nothing, and are building a log cabin, which in two weeks we hope to - finish.... We hope in winter to save by getting an elk or two, of - which there are plenty, also bears, mountain lions, &c. The air is - very fine and rare here, and happens to agree with us both." - -[Illustration: WOODCHOPPER'S CABIN, FROM FRANK'S SKETCH.] - - "_Clark's Fork, August 5, 1883._ - - "When we first came here (on foot, 120 miles from Bozeman) we were - promised work, but on account of a misunderstanding between our - employers, we had to wait a few days; however, we have both been - working on a mountain pass, at two dollars and board a day. The - work, swinging an axe, pick-axe, and shovel, is not so very hard, - but the sleeping out in the open under our two blankets, sometimes - pouring with rain, was not very clever. There were about twenty of - us and a black cook, and the amount of bluebottle flies and other - insects I have eaten would have turned my stomach but for having a - marvellous appetite. - - "Boiled elk, bear, and tea was the programme for two weeks. When the - job was finished, we immediately got work fixing up and shovelling - charcoal round a smelter at three dollars, _without_ board; so we - are now working at it, and come home at noon for our dinner in a - little shack near the smelter; hours, seven to twelve; one to six. - We cook our bread when we get through at six, generally boiling some - buffalo meat for our next day's supply. - - "I must not forget to mention that our appearance at night is - somewhat similar to a coalheaver's. - - "This is good, honest, though dirty work. Our intention at present - is to save up 100 dollars, start off from here, and camp up at - Bridger's, 130 miles from here (about twelve miles on the other side - of Bozeman), and cut cordwood to supply Bozeman, and by hard work - hope to make 1,000 dollars by next July.... I want you to think that - I am doing my very best to make and save money. We have not had even - potatoes for a month. Goods are too expensive here, as they have to - be hauled from Bozeman. - -[Illustration: AN AWKWARD ROLL.] - - "Before we went on to the road business we had a three days' job - about five miles away, up on the side of a mountain covered with - snow, and had to pack our blankets, grub, &c., across the snow, - making sure of our footsteps, otherwise it might have been all up - with us. Once we did slip, and went flying down the mountain for 400 - feet; but there happened to be a curve which pulled us up. I shall - never forget the sensation. We tried to get a horse across. He - slipped, rolled over and over with our blankets, frying pan, and all - on his back. We thought it was all over with him, but he got up - after tumbling down 300 feet, shook himself, and walked off, leaving - our teapot smashed in. I believe the old beast had been there - before." - - "_August_ 19, 1883. - - "... As long as my health keeps up I don't care. I can get along - well; but this high altitude and the rough living, nothing but bread - and elk meat, which is liable to give one dysentery, has stopped me - working two or three days. However, I hope to be all right - to-morrow. - - "I have been working round a smelter (which has not yet actually - begun to work) from seven o'clock to six, at three dollars a day, - without board, so that, though I don't spend a cent except for meat, - sugar, flour, and coffee, which, by the way, are frightfully dear, - having to be hauled 120 miles, I cannot save much.... This is the - roughest of lives, but as I can get good wages I can put up with it. - - "My idea now is to work on as long as possible here. The smelter is - run by water power, and when it freezes up work will stop, Then - either go to a place near Bozeman and cut wood, or hire out - somewhere else; and when the winter is through make my way out to - Washington territory as soon as the snow will allow; take up a - homestead claim somewhere the other side of the Columbia River, work - in a lumber camp all the winter, and work the farm in the summer.... - There was an Indian scare in camp last night. Ten Indians turned up - fully armed, but they were only after some of their horses the - whites had stolen; two men were arrested, but one escaped, tearing - away with a horse and six-shooter at full gallop." - - "_August_ 26, 1883. - - "... I can now fully appreciate the value of money, having worked - hard for it lately. The 'boom' I mentioned meant simply that we - staked out ground near town, built a log foundation on it (to hold - it by homestead right), so that should this mining town turn out - another Leadville, the lot would be valuable, though it did not cost - a cent save our two days' labour.... You also mention that I said I - was going to get 20 dollars a week. So I did, but have had to lay - off two days, and still have plenty of money in hand; but laying off - when work shuts down cannot be helped. Last night, for instance, I - worked from seven o'clock to seven in the morning in the smelter - here for 14_s._ at carrying bullion (silver and lead, 100 lbs. - weight), but I am afraid I cannot work again to-night, as my feet - are blistered and dried up. Besides, the fumes, which are deadly, - have rather upset me. Though the wages are good, the risk is too - great. Out of the 14_s._ (three and a half dollars) I have to pay - 2_s._ a meal for board, as one has to live a little better than - 'baching it' at this sort of work. - - "Milk is a _necessity_, and at 1_s._ 6_d._ a quart runs away with - money. I must not forget to mention that there is a fearful rush for - the four cows owned by an old rancher here, whose _spring_ is by far - too handy. - - "I would have sent you a little sketch, but the principal mixer of - my oil colours is missing, and 120 miles too far to send.... Winter - is fast coming on, and the snow lies from five to seven inches deep - on the level, outside work being nearly shut off. - - "S. left here two days ago to work on a ranche, and I am not very - sorry for it, as he would neither save nor try and push along; so at - present I am without a partner in this wild life. - - "In my last I told you I was not feeling very well, so I went up on - the mountains from the valley to Lake 'Abundance,' and I send you - herewith a short account of my excursion.... I am sorry to say that - churches are out of the question here. The old miners are a - perfectly godless set, and if they were to catch sight of what they - call a 'sky pilot' he would swing." - - "FISHING AMONG THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS. - - "Just a line to tell you of a little fishing expedition that I went - on with a friend. We started from here, Cook's City (? city, there - are only a few log cabins), at daybreak on one of those mornings - only known to early risers, cool, with slight delicious breezes - fanning the valley of pines. We took with us a pack-horse to carry - our blankets, grub, &c., and I must here mention that a man soon - learns to pack, there being very little both as to quantity and - size—two blankets each, ten pounds of flour, coffee, bacon, - frying-pan, and coffee-pot completing the outfit. - - "Our way took us over a steep mountain leading through forests, down - again to a long plateau with a rushing torrent as its centre, until - we again ascended to a high divide or rocky ridge, whence we caught - sight of our lake, some four miles distant, shut in between the - bases of surrounding mountains. - - "I must not forget the charming view we had from the divide. Far - away for the distance of quite eighty miles could be seen mountain - after mountain rising in the clear, though mighty rare, atmosphere, - some looking like ancient castles, others as flat as tables, all - bare and rugged from above timber line. After a pipe and look to the - trappings of our pack-saddle, we started to descend, and camped - within a mile of the lake, near a creek of clear snow water. A - breakfast the next morning of bacon, coffee, and bread cooked in - frying-pan, at the cooking of which I am quite an expert, and we - started for the lake, catching grasshoppers on our way before the - sun had made them shed their overcoats and get too lively. - - "The first throw I made was with a piece of red flannel, and hooked - three nice salmon trout in no time, weighing from a pound to two and - a half; but they seemed as the morning advanced to fight shy of such - indigestible stuff as flannel, and I treated them to some nice - hoppers of a brownish tint, catching eight more. The hoppers went - wrong after a little, and I was hard up for a new bait, when, - happening to nearly land another fish, I pulled a piece of his jaw - (do you anglers call it the jaw?) out, threw again with this, and - caught two more; it was a small piece of the white gristly flesh, - and wriggled like a worm in the water. Time for grub came on: we - started a fire, fried some fish, ate it, smoked, of course, and I - think went to sleep—I know I did; when my friend roused me up and - told me to listen, and sure enough we could hear an old bear rolling - rocks on the other side of the lake, some quarter of a mile distant. - Both of us started with our rifles to have a shot, though, if within - fifty yards and the shot is not fatal (and bears have been shot - three times through the heart, and yet not killed), it is all up - with you; if near a tree, up you go. - - "However, we did not see the bruin, and perhaps it was lucky for us - we did not, as the older the hunters, the more cautious and wary - they are about these enormously strong brutes. Let me tell of my - first bear story out here. We were then down at the mill creek, some - eighty miles distant, when we met three hunters, who the night - before had met a bear. They came upon her unawares, each discharging - his Winchester, though only one slightly wounded her. She made a - rush for the nearest of them, and then for a scatter—one jumped into - a creek running fast enough to carry him off his legs; the other - climbed up a tree, which, being rotten, fell with a crash. However, - they all escaped, and lucky for them, as the strength and agility of - these Rocky Mountain bears is marvellous; they can lift and roll - about boulders of six hundred pounds, and tear up young trees from - the ground in a surprising manner. To return to our fishing, we had - good sport also the next day, catching forty-two; and on our nearing - the lake saw two young elk. My friend fired, but missed, I having - left my gun behind. - - "As our mail carrier starts early to-morrow, I must conclude, and, - should you want any information as to species of fish with their - anatomical peculiarities, I will try and find them out and send - you.—I am, &c., - - "F. - - "_Cook's City, Montana, August 30, 1883._" - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - - - - - LETTER No. IV. - - - Starting afresh on a new farm—Wheat forty to seventy-five bushels to - the acre—Felling trees and fencing—"Life here is deuced - hard"—Somewhat despondent—Forty below zero—Ink and bacon - frozen—Anxiety for General Gordon—Working in snow up to the waist. - - _London, August 15, 1885._ - -In September, 1883, Frank worked his way back into the more civilized -regions of Montana, and with his usual enthusiasm he wrote to me:— - - "This is the best country I have yet struck, and I am sure that I - shall do well here. My idea now is to hack up 160 acres, get a team, - wagon, and horses, build a small house, plough forty acres this - fall, put it into wheat, and ten acres of oats; ... if _I only had - the start now which I had when I went to Minnesota my fortune would - soon be made I feel sure_. Wheat goes from forty to even - seventy-five bushels to the acre, and at 4_s._ a bushel, one ought - to make plenty of money. A member of Parliament and several English - gentlemen have lately visited this valley, and were surprised at the - fertility of the soil. If a little later on you could send me some - money to start with again, it will help me to get a home, and so far - as I can see pave my way to a large thing. - - "By chance I have run out a piece of land where I can secure the - entire water right for a farm. I cannot see any thing but success - before me.... I am going to work out with the team every day I can - spare from the farm and earn money.... I would not ask you for a - cent if I could possibly help it, and I only want you to think I am - doing the very best for myself. I don't spend any money at all but - what is absolutely necessary, and I must beg you to give me another - small start to put me on my legs again. - - "I worked on the thresher here two days ago, and the wheat on the - farm I worked went forty-three bushels to the acre. On some stalks - two heads; this is a second crop on same land and no manure." - -The result of these appeals was that I supplied Frank with some more -money, and he purchased the farm and other things partly on credit (at a -ruinous interest), partly with his own savings, and partly with the cash -I sent him. - -In October of the same year (1883) he wrote— - -[Illustration: FRANK'S CABIN, FROM A SKETCH BY HIMSELF.] - - "I have got my cabin up and ploughed up some land, and have these - last five days been hauling logs down from the mountain to build my - stable, and, in fact, have come to town to have my log chain - mended.... - - "Don't imagine I am having a good time and spending money for the - sake of spending. I am up long before daylight and working hard - until dark. This winter I hope to get out 600 posts, and fencing for - the farm, besides working round to earn money. I bought fifteen - bushels of seed wheat at one dollar, and sowed and harrowed it in my - neighbour's piece of breaking. This is called 'renting;' I receive - two-thirds of the crop and he gets one-third. As I was not on my - land in time to plough enough, this gives me a share in the winter - wheat crop, and next year I hope to put in twenty acres of wheat and - five of potatoes." - -In December, 1883, he wrote to his brother: - - "A letter from you now and again would do no positive injury to - either party; send me a line when you can, as I don't expect to be - home for some years, and I do not want to lose track of any of you. - Many thanks for papers, send me any old magazines you can. I read - for company's sake, as I am all alone here, and don't want to forget - how to read. - - "The life here is deuced hard, but I feel certain of reaping a good - harvest, and am going to stick to it. At present I am working about - two miles from home, cutting down trees for fencing. I then start - them down the mountain on a small natural gulch on the snow; they go - like greased lightning, and make a terrible noise, which is echoed - and re-echoed through the mountains. - - "I have just completed my stable which looks _boss_, logs with mud - chinking; next year I intend putting in twenty acres of spring - wheat.... As I have just bought some beef-bones I am making a fine - stew; which makes my little kitten mew and skip round, being the - first taste for her little sides." - - "_Jan. 1, 1884._ - - "I wanted, if possible, to begin the new year without having to - write for money, but I am now having the hardest time I have ever - had; weather excessively cold, and very little grub in the house.... - I don't like to give up my best hopes, so if you can let me have the - little balance I mentioned, it would make me even.... It was indeed - a quiet Christmas for me, at work in the woods at my fencing; and - now comes new year, just the same." - - "_A few days later._" - - "Sometimes I begin to despair, as the undertaking I have gone into - requires more money than I really thought it would.... Don't think - by this that I am getting discouraged with the work or prospects—far - from it.... It seems to me that I cannot start to write a letter - unless I make some allusion to money, but I am so anxious to get - straightened up that I cannot help it.... The money has wholly been - expended on the ranche, no folly or stupidities have been indulged - in, and I feel fully competent to take care of anything I get - now.... Winter has set in now nearly two months, and those who - _can_, keep near the stoves. Every day is much the same to me, and - all I hope is, that I don't get hurt, or become ill, as getting out - timber alone is dangerous work; snow slides, bringing rocks and - timber along, may occur at any moment. - - "... Time is creeping along, and spring not far off, bringing back - the horrid grizzlies and panthers." - - "_Jan. 10, 1884._ - - "I am obliged to write in pencil, as my ink has frozen, and adding - water to it has taken away nearly all its colour. The snow is nearly - three feet deep on the level, making it mighty hard work to get - about; however, if it lets up it will make it all the better - sleighing. I am still at work in the woods chopping; up to my waist - in snow, getting down fencing and firewood; uncomfortable. Though - when I have a good soup and get a refreshing sleep I forget all the - discomforts. If it snows to-morrow I shall plaster up my shack - inside, having bought a bushel of lime.... Every day I learn - something new, and expect to do so for years to come. I look forward - to a bright future. All farming operations have ceased long ago, and - nothing can be done until the spring. - - "... I have made several friends out here, but have been very - careful who they were, and sometimes by moonlight I skip away five - miles and have a chat with a good old timer.... My paint box has not - come from Cook City yet; when it does I will try my hand at giving - you some faint idea of this superb scenery." - - "_Feb. 8, 1884._ - - "I told you that S. had disappeared altogether, and with him my - hundred dollars and other money he owed me. Young B. has now come - out here, and has so far joined me that we go halves in expenses, - and he helps me in all work.... The weather the last four days has - been intensely cold, forty below zero. In fact, so cold, that we - dared not go out to work, and though we have just put a floor in the - shack, just in time, at night the cold wakes one up and sends the - creeps down one's back. Our bacon freezes solid, saw and axe only - having any effect. Is there no old aunt to die and leave me some - money? I do hate to be always bothering you.... Of course we 'bache - it' here, and as there is no great variety to cook, cooking is no - great hardship. - - "We have just finished our supper of bacon and beans, and some stray - pieces of meat; and as Burnaby says in his book that _tea_ stays - longer by one than coffee, we have been _teaing_ for some time. - - "Now is the dull season, of course; but we are getting a few hens, - hoping the weather will improve, to make them cackle. It does not - seem like the same place now I have some one with me—much pleasanter - and a great help in working. - - "I must not forget to mention that I hurt my back a few days ago - lifting some logs, and I get up every morning like an old man; - however, B. has put a porous plaister on my back, and I really don't - know which is the greater nuisance of the two, back-ache or - plaister." - - "_March 5, 1884._ - - "Thanks for sending me the papers! I really don't know what we would - do without them; the neighbours make regular calls, weather - permitting, to borrow them. Our anxiety for General Gordon is as - great here as I suppose it is with you.... Although life is hard and - rough here, I like it more and more, and I trust to do well here: - our plans for next year are as follows:—To put in about four acres - of garden produce, onions, potatoes, &c., and sell the produce; and - if we have luck we shall do well on this; not to put any crop in at - all, as machinery is too expensive; a reaper, rake and thrashing - expenses would eat up our profits, especially as the machinery would - have to be bought on time, a system I am not going in for if I can - help it. To fence the whole 160 acres in, the posts for which I have - already cut (640), besides hen-house logs, &c., with barbed wire, - will cost £23, but I hope to sell hay enough off the place to cover - this. When the fencing is done, I shall start out somewhere to get - work, and stay away six months (the law allows this under the - Homestead Act), and B. will run the ranche. - - "I hope to earn three dollars a day, but cannot figure on it, as all - sorts of accidents may happen; I might not get paid, or I may hurt - myself in some way. B. has already six cows from which we hope to - make butter and raise the calves; this is the best and surest - business, they increase rapidly. The natural grass (bunch grass) is - not only good feed, but strengthening and fattening.... - - "During the season B. ought to have time to cut up at least fifty - cords of wood, which left to the fall to season, readily brings in - Bozeman six dollars a cord, or in all, 300 dollars.... As the - 'Rheumatiz' has got a slight hold of me, the result of working in - the snow up to my waist after fencing and timber, I must make an - early start to bed.... A general thaw was followed last night by - eight inches of snow, bringing the average up again to two feet ten - inches on the level." - -[Illustration] - - - - - LETTER No. V. - - - Never had such a hard time—Camping out in the Rockies—Horses - decamp—Left in the lurch—A terrible fright—Crossing a torrent—"Old - Jim" taking a roll—Pack smashed—"Old Jim" in a snow-drift—Woke up - by a grizzly—What the newspapers said of it—Cutting fencing poles - in the snow—Christmas Day—Pickles and plum pudding—The - consequences—A dance—Cowboys and farmers' daughters—"Shall I turn - tail?"—A profitable old cow—The nicest little ranche in - Montana—Start on a sheep drive 300 miles—"The healthiest place I - ever struck." - - _London, August 20, 1885._ - -In the following May, 1884, he wrote: "I never had such a hard time of -it in my life." And in September to his brother:— - - "... The truth is, I have been some seventy miles away from home, - and shall be gone again in a few days to look for a winter job. The - new railway has knocked things topsy-turvy. - - "Labour, when I first came here, was scarce, and well paid for, but - now things are very dull here. However, there is a good prospect for - better things. They all say that one railroad spoils a town, two - bring it to par again, and three make it 'boom.' This seems the - general rule throughout America. On my way out to the mountains - after work, some three months back, I found a good prospect for - copper, and since then we have taken up four distinct veins in the - centre of a good mining camp; but we shall simply represent them - each year to hold them so that it will not ruin us. (Representation - is ten days' work each year on the mine for five years, then you can - get your patent.) We may make a fortune from them, and we may not - make a cent. However, we shall not let it interfere with our work. I - could send one of your papers a decent article—'A Prospector's Life, - or Hunting after Gold.' The newspapers come in mighty handy, and are - read through and through. - - - "CAMPING OUT IN THE ROCKIES." - - "Let me give you a short account of my little trip. Starting from my - log cabin early in the spring, when the snow was still in drifts, in - places fifteen feet deep, I made my way some seventy miles into the - mountains. I had a little Indian pony, and a horse old enough in - tricks, if not in years, to carry my pack, consisting of my - blankets, tent, and grub. Grub! why, certainly. Fifty pounds of - flour, a tin of self-raising flour, labelled 'absolutely pure' of - course, (a lawsuit ought to follow up this libel,) two pounds of - coffee, salt, frying-pan, cup, and a well-stocked box of matches. - The above was to last me a month or more. I am forgetting the bacon. - The day I set out was beautifully clear, and my journey progressed - through ever-changing scenery. Before me and on each side were the - snow-capped mountains, still white as they had been for six months - past, and fringed along their sides by a massive belt of timber, at - the foot of which my little pony and old carcase ahead were picking - their way, treading lightly lest their weight should precipitate - them through the hardened crust of snow. - - "Looking back, I could see my little home nestled close against the - mountains, and I fancied, too, that I could see my little kitten on - the roof, perhaps mourning its late master, or more probably - lamenting its cosy bed inside. I stayed but a short time to - contemplate this scene, a fairer could not be found—a beautiful - valley, surrounded on all sides by high-towering mountains of every - shape and form. Three brooks teeming with trout wend their headlong - way; I say headlong, for they rise from the very top of yon snowy - peaks, and come tearing and roaring down at this season of the year, - when the sun is getting the better of the snow, and feeding these - streams, which eventually fall into the flowing Missouri. - - "Continuing my journey for a short time, my ponies wanted to stop - for a feed, and I felt the same inclination; so I unpacked, - scratched a fire together, made some coffee, and while my gentle - steeds were pawing and nibbling at grass in bare places, took to my - pipe of 'Wills' Westward Ho' (supposed to be) tobacco, dried and cut - fine, but it ought to be labelled 'Old Boot Tops,' instead of 'Uncle - Sam.' So absorbed was I in my pipe, I did not notice that my Arabs - had decamped, leaving me in the lurch. Ascending a higher point, I - could just distinguish them a mile off, and had it not been for the - snow, they would have been five miles away, making steadily for - home, though why they wanted to go there I do not know. Certainly - not for food; at least, I could very rarely find any luxuries there - myself. A brisk walk, with much shouting, 'Whoa! where are you off - to?' &c, brought me up to them. A hasty return, quickened by - prodigious cudgellings, though my pack-horse has a hide like a - rhinoceros, packing up, and giving old Jim a happy reminder, I again - rode along. Towards evening it became excessively chilly. I had - taken a little _eau de vie_ with me, which, however, I always put in - my pack, as its immediate presence on my person might tempt me too - often; so starting my pony at a little quicker pace, and getting - off, I made for old Jim, just a little ahead of me; but no sooner - was I within reach of the old boy's tail than he started off at a - brisk gambol. Nothing would induce him to stop till he had left me - some distance behind. However, being persistent, and by making - little detours, I secured him and the bottle. - - "The place to which I was bound was some seventy miles from home, - and through a rough and wild country, infested with bears, mountain - lions, and wolves. The weather at night was very cold, and my fare - not princely. At sundown I struck off into the timber, lighted my - camp fire, secured one of the horses, and in a short time was fast - asleep, dreaming of delightful trips by land or sea. Let me not - forget a little incident which occurred this first night. It being a - calm evening, the wind having lulled, before retiring for the night - I did not put up my little tent. At somewhere between midnight and - three o'clock I was awakened by a terrible (or it seemed so then) - howl close to my head, which had got out of the blankets, and on - looking up I saw an awful head not a foot from mine, teeth, jaws, - and ears. It did not take as long as it does to recount to find my - head where my toes were; I had performed a sort of double - somersault, landing me in the snow, and then I looked back and found - the terrible monster who was ready to devour me was off at a - two-forty pace in the opposite direction. After all, it was only old - 'Jim.' He must have been scared at a coyote (wolf) or other - marauder, and sought my protection; but he was certainly scared far - worse the second time. Shaking off the snow, and having another pipe - between the blankets just to consider awhile as to whether the old - animal was not going to cause me more trouble, I soon fell asleep - again, dreaming of bears, tigers, and every other household pet. - - "On waking, my blankets seemed heavier than on going to bed. It had - snowed during the early hours, and they were converted into white - ermine. One more snooze, and then to get up, shake my blankets, - light my fire; breakfast through, and horses saddled, away I start - to commence my second day. A few hours after starting I lost sight - of the valley I had come from, but in front of me again was one of - the finest panoramas I had ever seen. From my elevated position, and - for a distance of fifty miles at least, I could see mountain after - mountain towering one above another—high, sharp, rocky peaks, and - undulating table-lands. Leaving this, I broke off down a narrow - divide or cañon, wending my way towards a bright stream, near which - I could discern a small house, some fencing, and cattle ranging - around. - - "Two hours' ride brought me to the little stream, now a raging - torrent. The farmer shouted to me not to attempt the crossing, but - my motto is 'Excelsior.' I had terrible hard work to cross. - - "'Try not the pass!' the old man said, - 'Dark lowers the tempest overhead. - The roaring torrent is deep and wide.' - - "My horses were very nearly carried away down the rushing stream. - However, we succeeded at last; and a warm fire and a chat with a - human being, for it seemed a month since starting, revived my hopes. - I found the house to be owned by a cattle-man whom I met just before - entering, ready saddled, and on his way to hunt up some game. The - house is beautifully situated; the stream furnishes an abundant - supply of fine mountain trout, many of which have been caught in a - little irrigating ditch, which the rancher has run out from the - stream to water his garden, and not having time to put them back in - the stream, and time to eat them, I presume he prefers the latter. - Here, 'midst the heart of the Rockies, lives a man and his wife all - alone, not seeing a human being for a month at a time, perfectly - happy and healthy, letting their cattle range on the vast undulating - lowlands; and here, owing to the amount of wind in winter, they feed - all the year round, bare places being thus kept open. Although a - pressing invitation was given me to stay, I still journeyed on, - following the creek along, and having to cross it no less than nine - times until the route indicated to me took up a rough and dry cañon, - where, I have since found out, the gentle rattlesnake 'loves to lie - a-basking in the sun.' Nothing happened worthy of mention, save old - Jim, who, wanting to give his old back (made at an angle of - forty-five degrees) a scratch, coolly—I may here use the word, as it - was in the snow—squatted down and commenced to roll with my precious - pack on his back. My coffee-pot was crushed square, frying-pan - jammed into the hunch of bacon, and _eau de vie_ bottle smashed. - What did I say? Never mind. At length we got to what seemed to me an - impassable barrier, a terribly deep snow-drift. If I had reached - this place early in the morning all would have been well, but now - the sun had softened the upper crust, and the first step old Jim - took was up to his neck, his poor old front legs and nose were - hidden altogether, presenting a comical picture which I should like - to give you a sketch of. Unpacking him, letting him struggle - backwards, carrying the pack by pieces nearly a half mile, and - letting the horses swim rather than walk through, took me two good - hours at least, landing me on a bare place, only to find that I had - another drift almost as bad to go through. A repetition of the above - landed me near two or three scattered pines, not knowing in the - least where I was or which way to turn, my clothes wet, everything - wet, bottle gone, and generally played out. - -[Illustration: OLD JIM IN A SNOW-DRIFT.] - - "I soon made my camp, pitched my tent, heaped up all the wood I - could find, and then sat down to brood over my folly in not waiting - until a month later, or indeed in making such a risky journey at - all. After awhile I was surprised to see, coming evidently from the - opposite direction from which I had come, a man with two horses. - This, at least, was a blessing, for were he white or black man he - should answer me, and tell me all he knew concerning the route. - - "He turned out to be a miner returning from a camp through which I - had to go, but as he was too anxious to get on, I kindly asked him - if he would not take a drink, when suddenly I remembered the smashed - bottle. Ample excuses and convincing ones, as he had to go through - the same drift, and would there see the mangled remains of my dead - soldier; so we parted, he to continue his journey, and I to bed, - though yet only sundown. - - "The next morning found me up early, only too anxious to get away - from this land of desolation. The preceding evening had landed me on - a bare knoll, and a slight wind having sprung up during the night - and obliterated the tracks of my unexpected visitor, I had to make - my way as well as I possibly could; old Jim now up and now down, - digging him out, unpacking and wearying along, passed the day, and - found me camped alongside a creek surrounded by heavy brush. - -[Illustration: "IT WAS A FINE OLD BRUIN!"] - - "It would have been hard to have awoke me when I did get to sleep, - as I had had a fairly rough day of it; still it could not have been - more than three hours after I had gone to sleep when I was awoke by - a horrible grunting, and the bushes round the tent were torn and - smashed round as if a young cyclone was at work. It could not be old - Jim this time; oh, no! it was a fine old bruin! so, hastily putting - on my pants, and at the same time giving a terrific yell, feeling - for my rifle, which, by the way, I had left at home, and skipping - out of the tent, took a very short space of time. As it was now - pitch dark, and plenty of roots of trees to run against and tumble - over, I had to pull up and listen, and I soon heard with - satisfaction the noise some distance past my tent. I evidently had - either scared him or he had gone to the tent, taken my bacon, and - walked off. Though not fifty yards off, I had a good deal of trouble - to find my tent again, and, when found, lay me down, but not to - sleep, for a while at least, until I could hear no more groanings. - Old bear-hunters since tell me that he would have done no harm if he - had intruded into my tent; if I had feigned being dead he would only - have nosed me round and given me a parting slap for old - acquaintance' sake, breaking one or two ribs. I think here again - discretion was better than valour. The funny part comes later on. - Next day I met two prospectors, and told them about the bear. They - told it in Bozeman, and next day it is in the paper, reading as - follows:— - - "'A man out prospecting was aroused from his midnight slumbers by a - bear. The night being dark, and no ammunition at hand, he beat a - hasty retreat, running two miles, falling into a creek, and then - down a deep gully (fortunately sustaining no injuries) in but very - scanty clothing; staying out all night, and on returning in the - morning, he found his bacon and grub all gone,' &c. - - "So much for newspaper reports! I have had several gentle surprises - since. I hope to do well in time, and do not expect to return home - until I have made a good stake. - - "The remainder of my journey passed without further incident." - - "_December 10, 1884._ - - "Why don't you send me a coloured plate now and then? People in my - low scale of life would hang it up on the wall in place of a - Millais.... - - "I can do well here. It is only a question of time, as I have before - said. If business were more flourishing, the prices would be better, - and this can only be remedied by time. 'Everything comes to him who - waits.' - - "I am now getting out fencing poles, both for myself and to sell. It - is terribly hard work. A walk of three miles, completely up grade, - brings me to the top of the mountain range, back of the cabin, and - here I cut them on the now already six inches of snow, work them - down a 'shoot,' then haul them home on a sleigh. To-day I cut one - hundred, and put them in position with my others (three hundred - already cut). This may seem easy work, but in reality it is very - hard. Even if it snows a foot or two to-morrow, I must still stick - to it. I want about one thousand five hundred (a thousand to sell at - fourpence apiece), and it will keep me rushing to do it. What with - climbing up and slipping down, cutting and clearing the shoot each - fresh snow, walking home again, you may imagine I get pretty fagged - out by the end of the day. - - "If we had not had such bad luck this summer we (B. and myself) - would have been some hundreds of dollars ahead this winter; but the - cattle breaking my garden fence down, and destroying the whole of - the garden stuff, and not getting paid for work, it put me a way - behind, besides the loss of one of my horses.... - - "My mule was looking poor when B. came. So we thought to trade him - off, and we exchanged him for a pony, and then exchanged the pony - for a mare (a good trade). Unfortunately, I lost the mare, but may - still get her back next summer; so I had to get another horse, for - which I gave eighty-five dollars.... The money you sent me helped to - pay for my former team, wagon, harness, tools, and furniture. Though - not elaborate, still it all mounted up. - - "... This winter I shall earn all I can, though it is terribly hard - to make much this time of year. Boots (rubber) are continually - wearing out, and socks too; my heels are like boards. - - "I have come to the conclusion I could learn some language, living - or dead, these long winter evenings, if you would send me some - books. I read continually of an evening.... Wishing you all a merry - Christmas and happy new year." - - "_December 31, 1884._ - - "Since I last wrote we have had a terrible fall of snow, but now all - is clear again; that is to say, the tracks are all broken; good - sleighing and sharp, cold weather. Can you realise 47° below zero? - We had this for a day and a half, and it kept us pretty close to the - stove. - - "B. calculates to buy a piece of railroad land adjoining my ranche, - and we can then fence together.... He can still live with me, and we - can work and help one another. The longer I stay here, the more I - like the life.... Cattle grow at a surprising pace here. My - neighbour, a mile north, sold ten steers at forty dollars a head, - for which he was only offered twenty dollars last spring. Thank all - round for Christmas cards. - - "The hardest thing to do now is to keep warm, and much as we try - with patent socks, running round, eating fat bacon, &c., the cold - will creep to our toes.... A bottle of Crosse and Blackwell's - pickles, mixed with a little plum pudding of my own making, we had - on Christmas Day, quite made me ill for the time being; however, a - dose of horse specific soon put me right again. I really believe the - sight of a mince pie would turn my stomach. Life here is without any - of the festivities of Old England. If there is a dance, you invite - your lady love to go with you, and pay two dollars for the privilege - of dancing in a little cabin no bigger than mine (seventeen by - nineteen), crowded with cowboys and farmers' daughters. As I have no - lady love, nor the money to throw away, I have not given them the - pleasure of my society yet. - - "Sister A. ought to come out and keep my house for me next summer. - Tell her I will build an addition to the mansion if she will come. - The mountain air will do her good." - - "_March 14, 1885._ - - "I have been expecting to hear from you, I may say, very - anxiously.... _Any_ letter would be better than none at all. I feel - it all the more here, as I have been doing my very best to get - ahead. I am still convinced that I can do well here if I can once - get ahead. A little bunch of stock, and my debts cleared, and I can - then go right ahead.... To-day is my birthday. By next year, if I - live, I shall be gray-headed. Snow still a foot deep, though - disappearing." - - "_May 17, 1885._ - - "We are now in full swing of spring work; grass, trees, and my - garden are pushing ahead wonderfully. The season is short here, so - vegetation has to hurry up to take advantage of the time.... I - verily believe I got the last piece of Government land in the valley - worth taking up with good grass on it, and water running through, - but it is too rocky to plough any extent of it. Thirty acres are the - most I could work, but as pasturage it will be worth considerable - some day. - - "I am now in such a position that I hardly know how to look ahead. I - have my ranche, which still requires considerable fencing, and ought - to be done this spring, as grass is getting scarce, and the stock - not only eat it off, but tread it out, so that I ought to take - advantage of this spring to get it completely under fence. This, of - course, costs money. The barbed wire has to be bought. I have - already a good deal up, besides the 1,350 poles and 640 posts that I - cut and put up myself. All this takes time, of course, and prevents - my working out anywhere in the mountains. - - "Now the question is, What am I to do? I still owe —— dollars. I - hardly like to say that I had better turn tail and come home, or get - a berth, if possible, in New York or somewhere. This is not my wish - at all. In truth, I would sooner stay and work on here. I like the - country immensely, and, with the aid of capital, can do well; but, - on the other hand, I can only go on as a day labourer, earning - enough, perhaps, this summer and winter to pay my debts, which are - piling up at a cent and a half a month interest (18 _per cent._). Of - course, you will take into account my early failure in Minnesota; - but though I know it was my own fault, I put it down to a run of bad - luck and want of experience. I assure you I have done nothing but - work since I have been out here, building up my home, and looking - out for a job as the chances came.... My debts paid and clear here, - I can, of course, make a living, but I want to do something more - than that. - - "If you cannot possibly give me the necessary start, I must go off - and wander round from month to month. It seems to me that I have - done nothing but have money since I left England, but since the - first loss it has come in in rather small sums, that have been - swallowed up in odds and ends about the place. - - "You need not think me grumbling or grasping. I long to get a fair, - clear start, and have done with it. Whatever you do, do not think I - am tired or want a change. The more I see of this life the more I - like it. - - "My _Homestead Right_[1] lasts for five years, and until they have - expired I cannot get a title from the Government for my land, so - that I am not likely to throw up my work and right without a good - cause.... - -Footnote 1: - - See Appendix. - - "_P.S.—A trip out here would do you good, and you could see for - yourself how things stand._" - - "_June 26, 1885._ - - "... You ask me whether my ranche does not produce anything—have I - no cattle to sell, &c. If you refer to my letters, you will see that - I mentioned having bought an old cow cheap (for £4), which gave us - milk last winter, but as she was a little too decrepit to raise a - calf, I traded her off this spring for a little mare, which, again, - I sold for 200 cedar posts, worth twenty cents apiece, or forty - dollars. Thus my old cow, which I gave £4 for, will, when the posts - are delivered and sold, bring me in £8. (As the spring has been - unusually wet, the man has not come up to time with the posts, but I - shall have them shortly.) My garden ought to bring me in £20. I have - the finest set of cabbages, peas, and potatoes in the valley, my - team, and this spring I have 130 chickens, 100 of which we raised - this spring, and more are hatching out now. Twenty-five acres broken - ready for a crop of wheat that is ready to sow by September, and one - mile and a half of fence, or 150 acres, enclosed. In addition to - this, I have just finished putting up a little milk house on the - creek, and am terribly proud of it; it looks like a Swiss châlet, - gabled ends, &c. I am all the more proud of it, as I have hewed the - logs and put it up at odd times of an evening. By next autumn, when - I hope to have everything complete, I shall have, if not the - prettiest, at least one of the nicest little ranches in Montana, - magnificent building spot, icy cold water all the year round, and - unrivalled panoramic view, also perfectly healthy. You will - understand from this that what with having bought my team, tools, - &c., it does not leave much for stock. One cow costs fifty dollars, - and _hard_ to get at that. A yearling calf costs from £3 to £5, and - if possible I must try and get some in the fall, as I have put about - seven acres into oats for hay, besides what hay I can cut (this - having been a splendid season for grass). Oats would hardly pay to - thresh on so small an acreage, though the yield ought to be between - fifty and seventy bushels to the acre. Crops are magnificent. On - lots of ranches _wheat_ will go as high as fifty bushels to the acre - this year (seventy-five have been raised). As my team, though - strong, are not very heavy, I have only averaged three-quarters of - an acre breaking sod a day. Three horses are generally used. - - "With five cows I could keep twenty hogs, and what with my crop next - year, garden, and work at odd times, should be considered rich here, - and could put by money. - - "You will perhaps remember my telling you that there was a saw-mill - up the cañon above my ranche some three miles. Well, the 'boss' came - down three weeks ago, and hired me to work for him at thirty dollars - a month until threshing time, or the 1st of September. This suited - me well, as on Sundays and after work, when not too tired, I could - run down home and see that things were all right. B. is still - staying with me, and is a great help.... I started to work two days - after, and stayed three weeks, whereas I had hoped to get a job till - September. He shut down the mill suddenly, and thus threw me out of - work. We have given him a piece of our mind, but as he was young, - and didn't know his own mind, we didn't quarrel about it. This job, - of course, suited me well, as it was handy to home; but the day - after to-morrow I am going after a three months' job on a sheep - drive some three hundred miles, at forty dollars a month. The sheep - are twenty miles from here, and have to be driven down beyond - Custer, which would bring me back home by threshing time. - - "I am glad to say that wherever I have worked or am known at all I - can always get a job, as I am considered to be a 'rustler,' or - night-hawk, as I work early up to dark. The mill-owner is going to - move his mill down to mouth of the cañon, I hear; so this will to - some extent improve the value of my property." - -In July, 1885, he wrote to a friend:— - - "I have only just received your letter. It has been a long time on - the road, as I am now twenty miles away from home, working out at - 'dipping sheep,' dirty and terribly hard work. As to your cousin - coming out, I can only say that _I_ certainly can do well, and I - should say that he could also if he will be content to rough it. I - have done nothing but rough it since I have been out, and find it - has done me no harm, but much good. I am getting as strong as a - horse. - - "Thirty shillings (say five dollars) a week will keep your cousin in - good circumstances; and if he cares to come out to me I can show him - round, and he will be quite welcome. The climate is bracing, and it - is without exception the healthiest place I have ever struck. - - "Try and get 'the Old Man' [meaning _me_] to come out with you; you - will enjoy the trip. I am sending this scrawl by a cowboy, and he - may or may not forget to post it, though I trust he will not." - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - - - - - LETTER No. VI. - - - My last letter before leaving for the United States by the good ship - "Cunardia." - - _London, August 20, 1885._ - -Frank is now about twenty-six years of age. He has had four years of -hard and varied experience, and although fortune has not yet smiled upon -him, he does not seem inclined, so far as I am able to form an opinion -from his correspondence, to succumb. I gather from his letters, by which -alone I can at present judge, that he is still prepared to rough it. He -has youth, health, and strength on his side, and I imagine there are few -young fellows who have been brought up amidst the comforts and pleasures -of a city life who would willingly have gone through so many hardships. - -Circumstances make it desirable for me to visit New York and the other -Eastern cities. I have, therefore, resolved to journey so far as the -Rockies, in order to see for myself, and thus to form a clear opinion of -what he is doing and what his chances of success really are. - -I propose, therefore, to follow up the foregoing sketch of Frank's four -years' struggles by sending occasional letters, giving you an account of -whatever may turn up on my long journey, and to describe what I may see -of his location and surroundings. I am also not without hope of finding -opportunities for some further piscatorial exploits in the lakes and -streams of Montana. If I meet with any adventures in this way, I shall -not fail to record them. - - END OF PART I. - -[Illustration] - - - - - PART II. - - - - - LETTER No. VII. - - - On board the "Cunardia"—Small troubles—The Romance of a rickety old - chair—Arrival at New York—First acquaintance with katydids. - - _New York, Sept., 1885._ - -"In travelling by land," says Washington Irving, "there is a continuity -of scene and a connected succession of persons and incidents that lessen -the effect of absence and separation.... But a wide sea-voyage severs us -at once. It makes us conscious of being cast loose from the secure -anchorage of settled life, and sent adrift upon a doubtful world. It -interposes a gulf not merely imaginary, but real, between us and our -homes—a gulf subject to tempest and fear and uncertainty, rendering -distance palpable, and return precarious!" - -That is just what I felt and thought, but could not find words to -express so eloquently, "as I saw the last blue line of my native land -fade away like a cloud in the horizon." Notwithstanding the fact that -the broad Atlantic is now bridged over by seven-days' steamers, and -linked to its Eastern and Western shores by submarine cables, as it was -not in the Knickerbocker days, the solution of continuity seemed to me -as real when I saw the last bit of rock as ever it was in that bygone -time. - - If I were writing a book of travels I should perhaps be tempted to tell -you of all our little adventures in crossing the Atlantic. We had many -small troubles which at the time we thought large ones; but why should I -record such every-day occurrences? There was a time when we would have -given "a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground—long -heath, brown furze, anything." We had quite enough of the rough to -remind even the best of us that, when rolled and tossed in "the roaring -forties," "we're all poor creeters"—and again, we had enough of the -delightfully smooth to satisfy us that perhaps we are not such "poor -creeters" after all. We reached New York only ten hours after the usual -time. - -One little story may be worth telling. On the fifth day out, when the -westerly gale had partly subsided, but while the weather was still muggy -and cold, I had been sitting on a rickety chair next to what seemed to -be a bundle of rugs. When I got up, a gust of wind tilted the chair -rather roughly against the bundle, and I then observed that it began to -move. I immediately turned to apologize to this living and moving -bundle. A pair of bright blue eyes peeped out, and a pleasant voice -explained to me that my unmannerly chair had been no inconvenience at -all. The bright eyes and pleasant voice were, as I soon found, the -property of a charming young lady, with whom I had a long chat, and we -soon became very good friends. Stress of weather had kept her a prisoner -below, and this was her first appearance in the upper regions. I, as you -know, am only an old "buffer," but my friend and travelling companion M. -is a bright young spark, with a heart like a tinder-box, and when he -came round and I had introduced him, he was at once smitten with the -charms which had gradually unfolded themselves from the rugs. Soon -afterwards my friend M. introduced (though I think with somewhat jealous -misgivings) another young acquaintance; and this fine fellow at once -fell a victim to the fascinations which had already fluttered M.'s -susceptible heart. - -It was amusing enough to such an old fellow as I to watch the antics of -these young people. We supped together, and we paraded the deck. When we -reached New York, our hotels being within a stone's throw of each other, -we frequently met. - -M., whose chivalry at least equalled his infatuation, suppressed his own -ardour in favour of his friend's. They went to the theatre together, -they supped at Delmonico's, and in two days the young and happy couple -were engaged to be married. I don't think I shall betray any special -confidence when I add that the young lady was on her way with her -brother to her native home at the Antipodes, and that the successful -smitten one was a wealthy _ranchero_ of the Far West. When the happy -secret was confided to me I gave them my paternal blessing and we all -separated—he hastening off to his hunting grounds to sell his immense -stock of cattle and sheep, and then to meet his young _fiancée_ and her -brother at San Francisco, thence to proceed together to Australia to -settle affairs with "papa." - -This little episode, probably not an uncommon one on board ship, though -quite new to me, I will call "_The Romance of a Rickety Old Chair_." - -The heat was so oppressive when we arrived at New York, that we were -well pleased to accept the kind invitation of a friend to spend a night -at his pleasant residence on the Sound. - -Here it was that I first heard, and was gradually lulled to sleep by the -incessant singing of little green katydids in the surrounding trees. -What a curious monody their combined song makes! It varies the note, as -it seemed to me, to something like this:— - - Katy-did, Katy-did, Katy-didn't, - Katy-_did_, Katy-didn't, Katy-_did_, - Katy-_didn't_, Katy-did, Katy-didn't. - -Such was the unchanging song of myriads of these little creatures for -hours at a time; and to this was added the chirping of grasshoppers and -locusts, and a perpetual accompaniment of the shrill little shriek of -tree-toads. - -The lovely autumn evening, a pleasant sail on the Sound, the green -foliage of the trees, and these little insect-songs were refreshing to -me after our rough and rolling experiences on the Atlantic. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - - - - - LETTER No. VIII. - - - Up the Hudson River—The Catskills—My first chipmunk—"The Rip Van - Winkle"—"Sleepy Hollow"—The Mountain-House Hotel—Old Indian - squaw-spirit—A snake in the grass—A painting by Holbein. - - _Catskill Mountains, Sept., 1885._ - -After a short time in New York, agreeably spent in spite of the heat, we -started early one bright morning on the splendid river steamer "Albany" -up the noble Hudson River. It is no part of my plan or my duty to -describe the innumerable objects, historical and picturesque, which -command this wonderful river. Why should I attempt to describe or even -to mention points so fully and so well described elsewhere? All I aspire -to record is the passing impression of whatever comes under my own -notice or interests me as a rapid traveller; it would be presumption to -do more. - -The chief object and _ultima Thule_ of my wanderings is that little log -shanty built by my boy thousands of miles away in the heart of the Rocky -Mountains—but our plan is to take in our way as much of this great -country as our limited time will permit. - -The point we are now sailing for is "The Catskills," about 120 miles up -the river from New York. Reaching the Catskill Station early in the -afternoon, we took train for the foot of the mountains, a ride of about -eight miles through a richly cultivated country: every object here, even -the rocks and streams and fruit-laden apple-trees, seemed strange and -new to me. - -At the foot of the ascent, we were met by a stage-wagon drawn by a -couple of stout horses; these had to drag us for three miles and a half -up the steep mountain side. - -The mountain is clad with thick foliage to the summit. The sun was -shining hotly, but we were protected by a canopy formed of the green -leaves of trees mostly new to me. Scattered freely among them were -maples decked in manifold autumn tints, several kinds of birch, and oaks -with leaves differing so much in shape from any English oaks I know, -that I should not have called these young saplings oaks at all but for -the unmistakable large acorns with which they were laden. Then, too, -there were the mountain-ash with large chocolate cones, and the lovely -sumach with red berries. The mingling of this variegated foliage made -for me an indescribably pleasant scene. - -What has much surprised and pleased me in this, the first American wood -I have seen, is the fresh, bright, spring-like greenness of the leaves, -at a time when in Old England leaves are becoming sere and brown, and -are rapidly falling. - -We had no sooner entered the wood than I saw sitting on a rail a pretty -little animal of a kind unknown to me. It was the size of a small -squirrel, but without the bushy upturned tail. I had but a glimpse as it -darted away; it was brown on the back, with broad black diagonal -stripes, and white throat and belly. The driver told me it was a -chipmunk—it may have had three inches of tail. - -The road for some distance up was alive with katydids and locusts; but -birds and other animals seem to be very scarce. I was told there are -plenty of jack-rabbits and partridges in these woods, and occasionally a -black bear is heard of. - -[Illustration: "THE RIP VAN WINKLE."] - -Apart from the music of the katydids and grasshoppers there is perfect -stillness; and one longs to hear the songs of birds in these pleasant -places, but I never heard even "the occasional whistle of a quail or -tapping of a woodpecker." - -Halfway up the hill we came upon an old-fashioned little inn called "The -Rip Van Winkle," and the stone on which Rip slept. His long sleep is -regarded as a true and veritable piece of history about which there can -be no question, for is not the rock still there to attest it? - -Over the porch is a half-obliterated signboard representing Rip Van -Winkle waking up, and underneath is the inscription,— - - "O that flagon! that wicked flagon! what shall I say to Dame - Winkle?"[2] - -Footnote 2: - - It should read "What excuse shall I make to Dame Van Winkle?" - -Here it was that "from an opening between the trees" Rip "could overlook -all the lower country for many a mile of rich woodland. He saw at a -distance the lordly Hudson, far, far below him, moving on in its silent -but majestic course." Here it is that we look down through the foliage -upon "Sleepy Hollow," at least I was told so by the communicative -landlord; certainly the opening does reveal a deep wood-clad valley, -which looks charming, though somnolent enough to merit the title of -"Sleepy Hollow;" nevertheless, Knickerbocker's "Sleepy Hollow" is -certainly not here; it lies away down yonder "in the bosom of one of -those spacious coves which indent the eastern shore of the Hudson, not -far from the village of Tarrytown, in a little valley or rather lap of -land among high hills, which is one of the quietest places in the whole -world." - -Some of us walked up the steep inclines to ease the horses, until we -reached "The Mountain-House Hotel," a great place capable of holding -five hundred people; but the season is over, and there are not more than -thirty here now; the other hotels on the mountains are already closed. I -will only say of this hostelry that it is kept in a very primitive -style, and is certainly fifty years behind the age. - -The view from the front, on the very edge of the cliff, looks over a -semicircle of country extending for sixty miles in every direction, with -the Hudson River winding like a silver streak through the very heart of -it. This prospect, they tell me, is one of the most wonderful to be -found in this wonderful country, but owing to haze and mist it is rarely -to be seen as we saw it. - -We wandered through the woods and down by the lakes for miles, but we -heard not a sound of bird or beast; the dead silence is almost -appalling; not even the noisy little katydids get so far up the -mountains. - -These woods would be perfect if one could only say of them as Longfellow -says of some of the American woods in autumn: - - "The gentle wind, a sweet and passionate wooer, - Kisses the blushing leaf, and stirs up life - Within the solemn woods of ash deep-crimsoned, - And silver beech, and maple yellow-leaved, - Where Autumn, like a faint old man, sits down - By the wayside aweary. Through the trees - The golden robin moves. The purple finch, - That on wild cherry and red cedar feeds, - A winter bird, comes with its plaintive whistle, - And pecks by the witch-hazel, whilst aloud - From cottage roofs the warbling bluebird sings." - -The weather during our stay here has been perfect, the air bright and -bracing; that old Indian squaw-spirit who is said to influence the -weather on the "Catskills," "spreading sunshine or clouds over the -landscape," was very good to us; she gave us nothing but bright sunshiny -days and clear moonlight nights, a sure proof that we were welcome -visitors, for it is said that when she is displeased she "would brew up -clouds black as ink, sitting in the midst of them like a bottle-bellied -spider in the midst of its web; and when these clouds broke, woe betide -the valleys!" - -We visited most of the points of interest within easy reach. There is a -magnificent waterfall near the Laurel House, and many other sights which -it did us good to see. The sunset one night was the most glorious I had -ever beheld. "Real handsome," a Baltimorean enthusiast called it, and -the full silver moon shining over the broad expanse was equally -"handsome." - -One morning, as I was walking along the cliff in front of the hotel, a -snake nearly a yard long sprang out of the long grass under my feet, and -flung itself right over the precipice; it came down flop on the hard -rock thirty feet below, and then shot off into the bushes as if there -was nothing the matter. The whole thing passed so rapidly that I could -not distinctly note the colour of the reptile; but it seemed to be of a -dark-brownish colour. I wondered if that was its usual way of going -home, or if it had made the leap by mistake. - -[Illustration: A SNAKE FLUNG ITSELF OVER THE PRECIPICE.] - -That snake, the little chipmunk, katydids, and sparrows, were the only -samples I saw of the natural history of "The Catskills;" but it must be -remembered that I only passed two days there. Even the idle Rip, -however, could find but little sport for his vagabond gun, for he is -said to have "trudged through woods and swamps, and up hill and down -dale, to shoot a few squirrels or wild pigeons." I was told by the -landlord, who, proud of the grand position he holds as monarch of a -sixty-miles' unrivalled panorama, must have told it scores of times -before, that down yonder in the village of Catskill there resides a -member of the Salisbury family, who possesses a family picture painted -by Holbein which he regards as of priceless value. This good and -loquacious old landlord is full of the history of the great valley and -river in front of him, and if you have patience to listen he will tell -you everything that ever happened from the time when Hendrich Hudson -first discovered it to the present time. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - - - - - LETTER No. IX. - - - Arrival at Saratoga—Season over—Hotel crowded with Deputies for - nomination of a State Governor—Mugwump—Arrival at Niagara—The - Falls at midnight and by moonlight—No letter from Frank. - - _Niagara Falls, Sept., 1885._ - -We left the "Catskills" on a Monday morning for Saratoga; but the glory -of Saratoga had departed; the season was all but over; only a few -stragglers of the flock of the summer birds of fashion remained, the -others had already migrated southward. The shopkeepers were packing up -their goods and shutting up their shops, and resident hibernators were -preparing their winter quarters; but the great hotel was not empty. On -the contrary, we found it difficult to procure a night's lodging there. -The house was crowded, but not with youth and beauty; there was no sound -of music and of revelry, but there was a great clatter of the tongues of -men—strong, healthy, earnest-looking men, who had come from every -village in New York State to "vote their ticket." It was the time of -convention for nomination of a Governor for the State. - -It was pleasant to me to be afforded an opportunity of seeing such an -assemblage of true American men in one hall. I presume that every man I -saw in that great crowd was the chosen representative of his own village -or parish or township or city; and I own I was agreeably surprised to -observe that so very many of them bore such a strong family resemblance -to the best of my own countrymen of the like class; the chief difference -perhaps being one which I regard as favourable to the Americans, for -they did not smoke so much as so many Englishmen would have done, and -certainly they drank far less. Indeed, I noticed that many of them -confined their drinks to iced water, or tea and coffee. There was very -little spitting, and I am pretty sure there was no chewing. Their cheeks -were bronzed and healthy, and they had the appearance of intelligent -men, quite in earnest respecting the business they had come to do. - -I fancy that the men assembled in this hotel were all bent on voting the -Republican ticket, while the Democrats had met in other quarters. Here -it was that for the first time I learnt the existence of a third party -in the State which rejoices in the title of "Mugwump." - -I have not been able to find this word in any American dictionary, but -it seems to have become so thoroughly imbedded in the American language -that you may be quite sure it will be found with its derivation and -application fully described and probably illustrated in that grand new -dictionary now being prepared by "The Century Company." My present -information, however, only enables me to say that a "mugwump" is a man -who has earned that appellation on account of his strict adherence to -the dictates of his own conscience; he votes for principle, not for -party. A "mugwump" is a man who, if he is a Republican, will vote for a -good Democrat rather than for a bad Republican, and probably the -converse holds good. Of course I repelled the idea that honesty was so -rare amongst American politicians as to have led them to invent a new -word to represent such an unusual phenomenon as an honest voter; there -is, I am sure, a better reason to be found, and I commend the word to -the notice of English politicians; the principle it represents may be -valuable if largely applied during our own coming elections. - -We took a rapid survey, by a drive round the park and the lake, and then -went "aboard" the cars for Niagara. - - - THE FALLS OF NIAGARA. - -We had a long cold ride through the night, and our hotel being on the -Canadian side, we caught our first sight of the Falls under unusual -circumstances; in fact, through the windows of a large omnibus occupied -by ourselves alone, and driven slowly over the Suspension Bridge at two -o'clock in the morning. The harvest moon, just at its full, but a little -obscured by passing clouds and mists, was shining on the Falls, and, as -the horses tramped slowly over the bridge, suspended several hundred -feet above the dread waters, we came upon the scene quite unexpectedly: -the sight was a stirring one, I assure you. On the bridge we could see -the whole of the Falls at once, looking down upon them from our great -height. - -[Illustration: THE FALLS, FROM THE SUSPENSION BRIDGE.] - -The Falls looked at in this way, from a moving carriage suspended in the -air, were somewhat dwarfed in height; of course we could get but a -glimpse in passing in the night. We expected to have been stunned by the -roar of the Falls, but our first surprise was at the awful silence; we -could hear nothing but the tramp of the horses and the roll of the -wheels as our carriage moved slowly along—all else was silent as the -grave. Notwithstanding the moonlight, it was not clear enough to -distinguish motion in the Falls above us or in the water far down -beneath us. The great semicircular Horseshoe, as we passed along in -front of it, looked as though a great white sheet had been thrown over -its motionless face, and the foam and stir of the water below was fixed -and immovable as in a painted picture. - -No motion was to be discerned anywhere, the moonlight was too hazy. I -assure you that was a weird and grand picture we saw last night; the -Falls beheld dimly, indistinctly, and really through a glass darkly—and -so we arrived at the Clifton House Hotel. - -The next day arose, like every other we have yet seen on this American -Continent, bright and beautiful. We had only one day to see everything, -so we took a drive round. - -I am not going to attempt a description or to rhapsodize over the Falls -of Niagara—great authors have done so over and over again. Charles -Dickens has moralized about them; Anthony Trollope has described them; -William Black has painted their portraits in bright words—why should I -attempt to describe them? To me these great waters seem to say, "Men may -come and stare at us, and men may go, but we flow on irresistibly and -for ever. We care nought for your staring, your admiration, your poetic -fancies about us. We are matter-of-fact; stare as much as you please, -but come not within our grip. Build your airy roads above us, span us -over if you will, but know that death and destruction await him who -dares to come within the proscribed limit of our rapids above or our -whirlpools below. You may sail on our placid waters up yonder, your -'Maid of the Mist' may approach the outer circle of our Falls below, but -come not within that circle, or we shall have you in a grip from which -no power on earth shall save you." The scene, the picture, is indelibly -impressed on my memory, and there it must remain. I will not spoil that -picture by daring to paint it in feeble words. - -We did what is usual in our limited time. We drove down to the -Whirlpool, we crossed the suspension bridge, we wandered through Goat -Island, we descended beneath the Horseshoe Falls to the utmost point -allowed by the guide. We had our portraits taken in the subaquatic -costume, but so hideously did they come out that we promptly suppressed -them. - -The people who live at the Falls are quite aware of it. Every individual -regards them as his own property; even in the coldest weather dollars -melt there like snow in summer's heat; so we were glad to get away from -Niagara and its army of vampires. - -Here at Niagara I fully expected letters from Frank. I have now been -fourteen days in America, and he knows it, and yet not a line of welcome -to these shores has he sent me. To-morrow we turn our faces to the West; -surely at Chicago, which is 536 miles from hence, I shall get some news -of him. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - - - - - LETTER No. X. - - - Start for Chicago—"The Michigan Central"—Arrival at Chicago—Still - no letter from Frank—Start for St. Paul—St. Paul and - Minneapolis—Commodore Kitson's stables—Falls of St. Anthony—"The - Granary of the World"—Falls of Minnehaha—Telegram to Frank. - - _St. Paul, Minnesota, Oct., 1885._ - -On the morning of our start for the West we were aroused before five -o'clock to catch a train which did not reach our station till 8.30. - -The line over which we travelled to Chicago was "The Michigan Central," -which runs along the north side of Lake Erie to Windsor; at this point -the train is carried bodily across the Detroit river to Detroit on an -enormous barge built for the purpose; from thence we proceed to Chicago. -Nothing befell us by the way, and I have only to remark about the -railway that the carriages were very comfortable, or rather would have -been so but for the stifling extent to which they were heated. The -dining-car is well managed, and the food excellent. We reached Chicago -at ten o'clock the same night, after a long, dusty, and very hot -journey, through not particularly interesting scenery. - -We have now got a thousand miles on our way to look after the young -_ranchero_, but where is he? Why does he not write? I was growing -anxious, for up to this time I had not received a line, and no letter -awaited me here. I telegraphed to him, but no reply came. I wrote -requesting that a telegram might meet me at St. Paul, over four hundred -miles farther on our route. - -We were most hospitably entertained by our friends, and after hurriedly -driving round the points of interest in Chicago, we made another -departure, still for the Far West. Here we take the Chicago and North -Western Railroad for St. Paul. This iron road claims to be "the best and -most perfectly equipped railway in the world;" its luxuriantly furnished -drawing-room coaches are marvels of beauty and comfort, and the -dining-cars are superb; the meals and attendance are equal to what one -might expect to find in any first-class hotel, and I can bear most -willing testimony to the civility we met with from all the officials, -from the chief passenger manager down to the road attendants. - -We left Chicago at 9.55 p.m., and we reached St. Paul at 2.25 p.m. next -day, a distance of 409 miles. - -As regards time, I may mention that American railway companies deal very -arbitrarily with the sun.[3] At Niagara he is bidden to stand still in -the heavens for one hour, and is called Eastern time. Then he makes a -sudden jump to Mandan, 476 miles west of St. Paul; over this space, -viz., one hour, he is called Central time; then from Mandan to Heron -(1,429 miles west of St. Paul), he makes another leap and is called -Mountain time. From Heron to Portland on the Pacific he again recedes an -hour, and is called Pacific time. This hop, skip, and jump across the -American continent, in lieu of his usual steady mode of progression, is -of course a very convenient arrangement for railways, and it appears to -be universally accepted. I suppose he makes the same hourly jumps on the -same longitudinal lines throughout the continent. It will thus be seen -that the sun rises and sets four hours later at Portland than at New -York. - -Footnote 3: - - See Appendix (page 214) for Time Diagram. - -St. Paul, the capital of Minnesota, is a very flourishing and beautiful -city built on a series of terraces on the left or eastern bank of the -great "Father of Waters," over which it commands magnificent views. The -streets are paved with pine-logs, over which one travels in comfort that -contrasts most favourably with the rough and clumsy paving-stones of New -York. Minneapolis is situated ten miles further west, on the right bank -of the Mississippi. In 1860 the combined population of the two cities -was 16,000—to-day it exceeds 250,000. They are rapidly approaching each -other, and the time is looked forward to when they will form one great -metropolitan city. Within the last three years they have doubled their -population. They are now called "The Twin Cities," though their -commercial interests are not identical, and there is considerable -rivalry between the two cities. - -[Illustration: ST. PAUL.] - -We were driven out by a friend of M.'s, whom we met at the hotel, to a -place called Midway Park, where Commodore Kitson keeps his celebrated -trotters. Here we were shown the fastest trotters and pacers in the -world. "Johnston," the "King of the Turf," was trotted out for our -inspection. I am no judge of horseflesh, though I tried to look as -knowing as I possibly could. We were told that in _pacing_—which I think -means trotting by advancing the two right legs together and then the two -left legs, like the celebrated animal in Miss Thompson's "Roll Call"—he -is the fastest horse in the world; to me, who am uninitiated, his trot -looked like an awkward shamble; but he paces a mile in 2 min. 6¼ sec. -Our attention was drawn to the large bumps on his forehead—a proof, his -trainer said, of very unusual intellect. We were also shown "Little -Brown Jug," "Fanny Witherspoon," and "Minnie R.," all well-known names -in the sporting world. "Minnie R." it appears paced a mile in 2 min. 3½ -sec. with "Firebrand" trotting alongside; this I presume is a great -help. - -These stables are admirably arranged. Each animal lives in a sort of -little drawing-room, decorated with flags, pictures, and records of -deeds accomplished. I much regretted my extreme ignorance with respect -to these worldwide wonders, but I was careful not to betray it. There -were many other horses pointed out to us, but I forget their names. I -was told they were not to be matched in the wide world, and not one of -them was worth less than 20,000 dollars—probably there was a little vain -boasting in this. The same day I cut the following from a St. Paul -paper:— - - "The death of George Wilkes, the editor (of 'The Spirit of the - Times'), and 'Goldsmith Maid,' the trotter, on the same day, may not - be a very singular thing, after all, but a St. Paul horseman - remarked yesterday that it was 'a queer coincidence that two such - old and well-known sports should fly the track on the home stretch - together.'" - -I rather think the "Goldsmith Maid" had been a thorn in the side of the -sanguine head-boss of the Kitson stables. I knew poor Wilkes well many -years ago, not however in his capacity as sportsman, but as author of a -work on Shakespeare, the main object of which, if my memory serves me, -was to prove that the Swan of Avon was a "bloated aristocrat!" - -We had not time to stay at Minneapolis, and could only catch a slight -glimpse of its magnificent bridges and corn elevators as our train swept -by. - -Here, somewhere in the immediate neighbourhood of Minneapolis, are the -celebrated Falls of St. Anthony, and also those of Minnehaha, which we -would gladly have gone to see had time permitted. We were told, however, -that their charms are not less practical than poetic. - -The practical charms of Minneapolis, St. Anthony's Falls, and the -surrounding country, are demonstrated in the following cutting from -"Forest and Stream":— - - "THE GRANARY OF THE WORLD. - - "So it has been called, this northern land of lakes and forests and - broad prairies. And the appellation is not altogether fanciful. - Visit Minneapolis and inspect its flouring mills, inquire as to - their number and the capacity of each, and you will find that the - annual product of flour from this source is enough to supply the - world with bread—for a while at least. These mills can turn out - thirty thousand barrels of flour per day, when running on full time, - and at this rate their product for a year would supply one-quarter - of the population of the United States with the bread which they - annually consume. It may be taken for granted that these mills have - not been established here without some good reason. The great - water-power of the Falls of St. Anthony is usually alleged as the - cause of the growth of this tremendous industry, but that alone - would not be enough to have brought it into existence and to have - raised it to its present proportions. The true cause is that the - whole vast country from the Mississippi to the Rocky Mountains, all - through Minnesota, Dakota, and Montana, is a wheat-producing - country, all of the product of which is tributary to the city where - these mills are located." - -And was it not at the wonderful "Falls of Minnehaha" near by— - - "That my Hiawatha halted - In the land of the Dacotahs? - Was it not to see the maiden, - See the face of Laughing Water - Peeping from behind the curtain; - Hear the rustling of her garments - From behind the waving curtain, - As one sees the Minnehaha - Gleaming, glancing through the branches— - As one hears the Laughing Water - From behind its screen of branches?" - -We had now to travel by the Northern Pacific Railroad for 1,200 miles. -Before beginning this long journey I was anxious to hear something of -Frank, for no telegram or letter had even yet reached me. I am indebted -to the general passenger manager at St. Paul, Mr. Chas. S. Fee, for his -great courtesy in sending the following telegram, free of cost to me, to -his own agent at Bozeman:— - -[Illustration: FALLS OF MINNEHAHA.] - - "Mr. ——, of London, desires that his son, Frank M., whose - post-office is Bozeman, shall meet him in Livingston next Wednesday, - on arrival of number one. He desires that he shall come equipped for - a five days' trip in the Park. Drop this telegram in the post-office - at once.—C. S. F." - -Livingston is the station about twenty-five miles east of Bozeman, where -we branch off southward for the Yellowstone National Park; and I thought -surely this would stir the boy up, if alive and well. I need hardly say -that my anxiety was increasing. My feverish desire now is to get on to -Livingston, as quickly as possible, and my next letter will, I hope, be -dated from Frank's abode. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - - - - - LETTER No. XI. - - - The North Pacific Railway—Brainerd—Detroit—Massacre by Sioux—Indian - Reservation—Fargo—Wheat-fields of Dakota—Bismarck—"Bad Lands"—The - Rockies—Arrival at Livingston. - - _Frank's Ranche, Oct., 1885._ - -We took our departure from St. Paul in a Pullman Sleeping Car at 4 p.m., -and found ourselves very comfortably placed; a fortunate circumstance, -seeing that this car had to be our home for fifty-eight hours over 1,032 -miles from St. Paul to Livingston, with no opportunity of even -stretching our legs outside the train. - -The North Pacific Railroad stretches across the great continent from -Duluth at the head of Lake Superior, and from St. Paul, the capital of -Minnesota, to Portland, on the Pacific, a distance of nearly 2,000 -miles. - -[Illustration: DINING CAR.] - -Of its commercial success or the value of its shares in the market I -know nothing, but as a simple traveller over more than 1,200 miles I can -speak well of it; its track is all steel rail, and its road-bed solid. -All its passenger trains are equipped with the Westinghouse air-brake, -Miller platforms, and patent steel-tired car-wheels. Pullman palace -drawing-room sleeping-cars of the newest and most improved pattern run -between St. Paul and Portland; I would, however, caution passengers that -it is desirable to secure berths in these beforehand at St. Paul, by -applying to the conductor, who will telegraph to the ticket agents in -advance. The dining-cars are also very luxurious in their appointments, -and the _menu_ all that can be desired. I may add that the charge for -every meal is only seventy-five cents, whereas I have been charged a -dollar on other lines, and at inconvenient roadside inns, for far -inferior fare. The only complaint I have to make is that the cars are -sometimes heated in a way which is almost unbearable, and if they could -increase their speed, which averages seventeen miles an hour, it would -be a boon to weary travellers who want to get on. One does not object to -moderate progress through beautiful scenery, but seventeen miles an hour -for hundreds of miles of prairie land becomes monotonous. - -From St. Paul our route takes a northwesterly direction on the eastern -side of the Mississippi to Brainerd, where the railroad from Duluth -joins our line. There we cross the Mississippi, and thenceforth our -route is almost in a bee-line due west to the Pacific. On leaving -Brainerd we pass through the Lake Park region, and for some distance the -scenery is charmingly diversified by fine timber and lakes, on which may -be seen flocks of wild ducks and larger water-fowl, sometimes a solitary -prairie chicken, and here and there a well-fenced wheat farm with good -buildings, and surrounded by many large ricks. In the neighbourhood of -Detroit, Mic., is the White Earth Reservation of the Chippewa or Ojibway -Indians, of whom there are 1,500 civilized and Christianized. It is only -about twenty years ago that this country was devastated by the murderous -Sioux, when more than 3,000 men, women, and children were most inhumanly -butchered. - -Now we reach Fargo, and are in the neighbourhood of the famous -wheat-fields of Dakota. - -[Illustration: MR. O. DALRYMPLE'S FARM.] - - "It is in this neighbourhood that those enormous farms are located - which extend further than the eye can reach, and upon which in - harvest time an army of labourers are employed. One of the largest - of these belongs to a firm of which Mr. Oliver Dalrymple is the - chief. They own about 75,000 acres, or 117 square miles."—_Forest - and Stream._ - -At Bismarck we crossed the Missouri river ("the big muddy," as it is -called), over a splendid three-pier iron bridge. The view one gets of -the upward reach of the river and its muddy banks is fine. The bridge -has three spans of 400 feet each and two approach spans of 113 feet -each; it is said to have cost a million dollars. The Missouri is here -3,500 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, and 2,800 feet wide, being still -navigable for 2,000 miles further to the north. - -At Mandan we come upon Mountain time, that is, we lose an hour since -leaving Niagara. We reached Mandan at 12.50, and started at 12.10 by the -time-table, having remained there twenty minutes. We are now approaching -Pyramid Park, the celebrated "Bad Lands," but our train is two hours -behind time, so we shall not see them by daylight, and in fact I failed -to see them at all. - -[Illustration: BRIDGE ACROSS THE MISSOURI AT BISMARCK.] - -When I arose on the following morning at six o'clock we found ourselves -travelling along - - "That desolate land and lone, - Where the Big Horn and Yellowstone - Roar down their mountain path." - -We had passed Bad Lands in the night. I cannot pretend to describe what -I did not see, but I am told that this extraordinary bit of country is -in itself worth coming from England to see; there is nothing else in the -world like it. One writer tells me that "it owes its singular appearance -to the combined action of fuel and water, which have assisted to produce -the most fantastic forms and startling contrasts of colours that the -most disordered imagination could conceive." - -[Illustration: "BAD LANDS."] - -Mr. E. V. Smalley thus describes it:— - - "The change in the scene is so startling, and the appearance of the - landscape so wholly novel and so singularly grotesque, that you rub - your eyes to make sure that you are not dreaming of some ancient - geologic epoch, when the rude, unfinished earth was the sport of - Titanic forces, or fancying yourself transported to another planet. - Enormous masses of conglomerate—red, grey, black, brown, and blue, - in towers, pyramids, peaks, ridges, domes, castellated - heights—occupy the face of the country. In the spaces between are - grassy, lawn-like expanses, dotted with the petrified stumps of huge - trees. The finest effect of colour is produced by the dark red - rock—not rock in fact, but actual terra-cotta, baked by the heat of - underlying layers of lignite. At some points the coal is still on - fire, and the process of transforming mountains of blue clay into - mountains of pottery may be observed from day to day. It has been - going on for countless ages, no doubt. To bake one of these colossal - masses may have required 10,000 years of smouldering heat. I despair - of giving any adequate idea of the fantastic forms of the buttes or - of the wonderful effects of colour they offer. The pen and brush of - a skilful artist would alone be competent for the task. The - photographer, be he never so deft with his camera and chemicals, - only belittles these marvellous views. He catches only bare - outlines, without colour, and colour is the chief thing in the - picture. He cannot get the true effect of distance, and his - negatives show only staring blacks and whites in place of the - infinite variations of light and shadow effects in valleys and - gorges and hollows, and upon crags and pinnacles. Look, if you can, - by the feeble aid of written words, upon a single butte, and see how - impossible it is to photograph it satisfactorily. It rises from a - carpet of green grass. Its base has a bluish hue, and appears to be - clay solidified by enormous pressure. It is girdled by bands of - light grey stone and black lignite coal. Its upper portion is of the - rich red colour of old Egyptian pottery. Crumbled fragments strew - its sides. Its summit, rising 300 feet above the plain, has been - carved by the elements into turrets, battlements, sharp spires, - grotesque gargoyles, and huge projecting buttresses—an amazing - jumble of weird architectural effects, that startle the eye with - suggestions of intelligent design. Above, the sky is wonderfully - clear and blue, the rays of the setting sun spread a rosy tint over - the crest, and just above its highest tower floats a little - flame-coloured cloud like a banner. When I say there are thousands - of these buttes, the reader will perceive that the Bad Lands of the - Little Missouri are a region of extraordinary interest to the - tourist and artist." - -I had done my best to keep awake; I really thought I had done so for -hours, and I know that I peeped out of my bed many times during the -night, but nothing but the dim broad everlasting prairie met my gaze—so -I must have fallen asleep just as we were passing through this -interesting region, to my great disappointment. I was told by those who -had been more wakeful, that they could see the lignite coal a-fire,—fire -which has for countless ages been baking these rocks into actual -terra-cotta. I was inclined to question the exactness of this statement. -Smoke may doubtless be seen; and when I am told by a man that he has -lighted a cigar at a hole in the rock the existence of fire can be no -longer questioned. - -We were told by the guide-books to expect to see hereabouts, herds of -buffalo, deer, and elk,—in fact, we have only seen a few prairie dogs, -and these looked comical enough as they stood bolt upright on their -little hillocks, with their fore-paws hanging down before them. They -only wanted a stick in their arms to look like soldiers on guard. - -Just here we caught our first distant glimpse of the Rockies, some of -the peaks tipped with snow,—and now we are at Livingston! - -I need not tell you how anxiously I looked out for the train from -Bozeman. When it came in I sought in vain through the crowd for Frank; -my heart sank within me when I found that no Frank was there. I could -not get on to Bozeman; the last train for the day had already gone, so -we took the train for the "National Park," and I sat down in one corner -of it, and felt more like fainting than I had ever felt in my life -before. Three weeks had I been in the country, and not a word or sign -from the boy I had come so far to see. What was the cause? If he had -been ill some friend would surely have told me. Was he living? Had he -met with some terrible accident on that long sheep-drive he wrote about -months ago? Had he married a red Indian squaw, and did he not want to -see me? Did he suppose that his old friend M. and I would be too proud -to put up at the little log shanty which he had built with his own -hands? Had he been in the hug of a grizzly? - -These were some of the grim reflections that passed through my disturbed -mind as I sat at the end of the car, gloomily watching the magnificent -scenery through which the train was now carrying us down towards the -Park. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - - - - - LETTER No. XII. - - - The Yellowstone National Park—"The New Wonderland"—"The Devil's - Slide"—The stage driver—Story of a corpse—Driving a circus - coach—Circus Bill "appropriates" a coat—Stealing their own - blankets—Start for the Park—Mammoth Springs—Forest of dead - pines—The Lake of the Woods—Norris Hot Springs and Geysers—"Hell's - Half-acre"—A perilous drive—Fire Hole River—Lower Geyser - Springs—"Old Faithful"—"The Bee Hive"—The Grand Cañon—Rough - roads—Return—"The Golden Gate"—"By Jove! it's Frank!" - - _Frank's Ranche, Oct., 1885._ - -The Yellowstone National Park lies partly in the territory of Wyoming -and partly in that of Montana. It is sixty-five miles north and south, -by fifty-five miles east and west; it comprises 3,575 square miles, and -is throughout its extent 6,000 feet or more above the level of the sea. -The mountain ranges that hem in the valleys on every side rise to a -height of from 10,000 to 12,000 feet, and are covered with perpetual -snow. - -The Yellowstone Park is a perfect little world of wonders. They call it -the "New Wonderland," and there are as many strange things to be found -in it as "Alice" saw in her fairy realm. - -On reaching Livingston, we take a train which runs southward to within -six miles of the entrance to the Park. Soon after leaving the station we -pass through a grand cañon of towering rocks called "The Gate of the -Mountains," and then through pleasant valleys, always near the beautiful -Yellowstone river. - -We then pass, on our right, Cinnabar Mountain, which rises to a height -of about 2,000 feet above the river; a broad streak of red down the -mountain is called "The Devil's Slide," and suggests at the same time -that his black majesty in sliding down must have had a rough time of it. - -The terminus of the line is at a place called Cinnabar City, which at -present contains about twelve shanties; several of these are drinking -saloons. From Cinnabar we take a stage-coach and six horses for the -drive, through some very grand scenery, to the "Mammoth Springs Hotel." -The driver of this stage is a fellow of infinite wit, and tells -marvellous stories in a manner which kept us on a roar the whole way. I -wish I could give you, in his own style and words, the story of a corpse -which he once carried on his coach. - -[Illustration: "THE GATE OF THE MOUNTAINS."] - - "Once," said he, "I was driving a coach down in Utah—a sixty-mile - drive. One night a corpse came along, packed in a leaden coffin, and - then in a wooden one, and then in a box. They fixed him on the top - of the stage. Of course we had no passengers; who would want to - travel with a corpse if they could help it? It was a bitter cold and - pitchy dark night, sometimes snowing and raining, with lightning and - thunder. The way that blessed corpse kept rolling backwards and - forwards on the top of the coach was, I tell you, pretty scaring. - For about thirty miles the road ran along the side of a mountain. - You bet I whipped them horses along, and my off-wheels travelled in - the air most of the way. I got to the end of my journey two hours - quicker than I ever done that journey before. I am not a bit - superstitious; but driving a corpse all alone over the mountains on - a night like that isn't very lively. If I had known the party in the - box it might have been different, but we were strangers. Next time a - corpse comes along wanting a ride with me, I guess he'll have to - walk. I never want to drive another." - -Charlie told us that he was once the driver of a circus coach— - - "And I tell you," said he, "that was an experience! The pay wasn't - much, a hundred dollars a month or so; the rest was made up by - appropriation! I had a trunk full of things when I started, but I - hadn't been driving a week before everything was gone out of it, and - then they stole the trunk. I had nothing left but what I stood up - in, and I asked a fellow-driver what I was to do. 'Do?' says he; - 'why don't you take a coat?' The next hotel we stopped at, 'Circus - Bill,' that was his name, stood round and unhooked a splendid - buffalo coat. I wore that coat all winter, and then sold it in the - spring to a Mormon in Salt Lake City for seventy-five dollars, which - about repaid me for the loss of my own trunk. I once knew two of - them fellows who got drunk and stole their own blankets, and were - locked up for it!" - -[Illustration: PULPIT TERRACE, MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS] - -As we were going along be pointed out an eagle's nest on the top of a -pinnacle of the mountain. Presently we arrived at Gardener City, a -flourishing place of a dozen dwellings. It was now getting towards -sundown. "Won't you have a lantern, colonel, for the rest of the road?" -"No, thanks," said our driver; "the brightness of my face and the -brilliancy of my wit are quite sufficient to light up the road." - -The Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel is large and commodious, and for a summer -resort fairly comfortable; it is capable of accommodating 400 guests. In -the hall is a splendid specimen of a mountain lion, bearing in his mouth -the significant inscription, "Meet me by moonlight alone!" The hotel -faces the famous Mammoth Springs, of which the accompanying sketch gives -but a very imperfect idea. The hill is about 200 feet high, composed of -the chalky deposit of the hot springs, and the series of terraces -present a marvellous scene; but they do not, however, exhibit that -beautiful clear snowy whiteness which some enthusiasts claim for them; -they have rather the appearance of dirty, crumbling, whitey-brown chalk. - -Next morning we started off on a coach and four to view the Park. First -we came to "The Golden Gates," an immense cañon through which a small -stream runs between enormously high limestone rocks. The road, which is -here a splendid one, winds up along one side of the cañon; it is cut out -of the solid rock, and it gradually rises to such a height that to a -nervous person the look down into the gulch below must be rather -alarming, especially if one had not the fullest confidence in the -driver. Then we passed through an extraordinary forest of pines, all -dead, stripped entirely of their bark, even to the gnarled and curled -branches. There must be millions of these naked-burnt trees standing, -and the ground is also strewed with them in every direction. Here and -there the upturned roots present a very weird and curious appearance. -One made a strong impression on me from its marked resemblance to that -wonderful griffin which now commemorates the spot where once stood -Temple Bar. - -[Illustration: "THE OBSIDIAN CLIFFS."] - -We crossed the Gardener river, then passed below an extraordinary range -called "The Obsidian Cliffs." They are composed of glass—perpendicular -cliffs of solid glass; I picked up several small blocks for -paperweights, but unluckily lost them. The range extends for probably -1,500 feet, and the height may be 250 or 300 feet. - -A little farther on we came to the "Lake of the Woods." On this lake is -a beaver-dam and house, and there are said to be a few beavers about -there, but I have met with no one who has seen them. On the lake were -large flocks of wild geese and ducks. The interest of this Park is -somewhat diminished by the distance one has to travel from one -remarkable point to another. After passing "The Lake of the Woods" we -must have travelled about fifteen miles or more, wholly through a green -pine forest, over hill and down dale, but all pine. Then we came to -"Norris Hot Springs and Geysers." Here we found a number of boiling and -bubbling hot springs; some send up small jets, others are great lakes of -boiling water. One, called "The Emerald," is a circular hole of perhaps -thirty feet in circumference. The water is of the clearest emerald -green, so transparent that one could see right down into it for many -yards. Within a few feet was another hot spring of quite a different -character. In this the stuff that bubbled up was of a thick leaden -colour; others were pouring forth streams of red, green, and yellow, all -pervaded with a strong smell of sulphur. A spring called "The Paint Pot" -is a great cauldron of perhaps 150 feet in circumference. On one side -the deposit thrown out is of a bright salmon colour. This is a lake of -pure creamy boiling paint, like liquid plaster of Paris. - -[Illustration: "THE FAIRY FALLS."] - -After lunching in a temporary hotel, consisting of several tents, we -drove on till we came to "The Fairy Falls," which can only be seen by -following a steep path down the side of the cañon—a difficult path, but -quite worth taking. Shortly afterwards we came upon a scene which -probably cannot be paralleled on this earth. They call it, not -inappropriately, "Hell's Half-acre." Here our coachman turned out of the -road on to a wide expanse of white, chalky formation, which seemed to me -like the upper crust of an immense honeycomb; out of this bubbled -innumerable small and large hot springs. Driving over this great crust, -which covered a boiling lake, struck me as being rather risky, for I -could see no reason why it might not give way under the weight of a -coach and four at any moment. Suddenly we came upon a great opening -which had fallen in. Just imagine an apple-pie a dozen acres in size, -and on it you come suddenly upon a place where half an acre or so has -been cut out with a knife; or you may picture the crust as having fallen -in. The coach drives close up to the edge of this place, and you look -down upon a great roaring, boiling cauldron at least half an acre in -size, sending up great rolls of sulphurous steam hundreds of feet into -the air.[4] The terror of it is quite indescribable. I was glad when the -coach got back on the hard road again. The boiling water is of a most -brilliant transparent green, and it boils up great globes of various -coloured gems like potatoes in a pot. - -Footnote 4: - - Lord Dunraven says, "The crust feels as if it might break through at - any moment and drop you into fire and flames beneath, and the animals - tread gingerly upon it.... It is dangerous ground; I have not heard of - any accident up to this time; no modern Korah, Dathan, and Abiram as - yet have been engulfed alive; but the visits to these regions have - been, like those of angels, few and far between." - -Last week, a wild duck flying over the scalding steam was sucked into -the cauldron and immediately shot out again cooked and ready for -table—so said our coachman. As to the cooking there can be no question, -for the temperature is over 200°. - -Passing along Fire Hole River, we could see at intervals small and large -springs, boiling hot, rising right out of the banks of the river. So you -see how perfectly practicable it is to catch a fish in the river and -cook it in the boiling water without moving a yard. - -On we went till we came to the Lower Geyser Springs, and after a look at -them, we drove on to the hotel at the Upper Geysers, completing a -distance of fifty-eight miles. We had been jolted on the stage since -seven o'clock in the morning. This is the scene of the Great Geysers, -and one of them, called the "Riverside," which flings itself up at -intervals of twenty-four hours, did us the honour of starting just as we -came to it; it springs from the banks of the river, where the bridge -spans it, and made a grand display for us as we crossed over. - -[Illustration: "THE RIVERSIDE."] - -Close by the hotel is another marvellous geyser, which, from his extreme -punctuality, has earned the name of "Old Faithful." He rises once every -sixty-five minutes to a second.[5] We walked up over the lava, or chalky -bed, to examine his abode. There we could look down into the circular -crater, from which jets of steam were rising, and great agitated bubbles -of water were struggling to get free. Presently, without a minute's -warning, up shot an enormous column of boiling water, it may be six feet -in diameter, straight into the sky, a hundred and fifty feet or more, -then spread out into a beautiful vase-like shape, and came down in hot -showers all round. Of course we managed to get outside the range of the -spray, but we had some difficulty in steering clear of the little rivers -of hot water which were streaming all round us. The eruption lasts for -about five minutes. - -Footnote 5: - - When Lord Dunraven saw "Old Faithful," ten or eleven years ago, his - time was "every three-quarters of an hour." The landlord now quotes it - as I have stated, and he is confirmed by my own observation; but we - only saw him twice. - -We saw "Old Faithful's" performances just as the sun was setting most -brilliantly over the far-off western mountains. There are scores of -other geysers continually bubbling, boiling, and seething on this great -white plain, which is hemmed in on all sides by pine or fir-clad hills, -forming a scene not to be described by me. The principal geysers have -all names attached to them. "The Giantess" only shows off her powers -once in fourteen days. Then there are "The Castle," "The Lion," "The -Lioness," and her two cubs, "The Grand," "The Comet," &c. One of the -most curious and eccentric is called "The Bee-Hive." She is very -uncertain in her movements; but when she does go off she throws a -strange, solid column of water straight up into the air for 220 feet, -which is then diffused in brilliant colours, like rockets at a Crystal -Palace display of fireworks. We did not see her—her times are irregular; -but there is a small one at her foot called "The Indicator," which, when -it goes off, gives half an hour's warning that "The Bee-Hive" is coming. -Then there is a strange commotion at the hotel, for she sometimes bursts -out at midnight. A watchman on the look-out shouts, "The Bee-Hive! the -Bee-Hive!" and people rush out of their beds wrapped up in blankets, or -whatever clothing they can find, and off they go; there is no time to -dress, for the grand display is as brief as it is magnificent. - -[Illustration: "OLD FAITHFUL."] - -We could not give time (two days or more) to travel fifty miles farther -in order to see the grandest scene of all in this park of wonders—the -Grand Cañon. I am told by everyone who has seen it that it is quite -impossible by words or paint-brush to give any idea of its grandeur. - -As, however, any description of the Park which omits the GRAND CAÑON -would be like omitting Hamlet from the play, I will give you this -quotation from Professor F. V. Haydon's report to Congress:— - - "No language can do justice to the wonderful grandeur and beauty of - the cañon below the lower falls, the very nearly vertical walls - slightly sloping down to the water's edge on either side, so that - from the summit the river appears like a thread of silver foaming - over its rocky bottom; the variegated colours of the sides—yellow, - red, brown, white—all intermixed and shading into each other; the - gothic columns of every form standing out from the sides of the - walls with greater variety and more striking colours than ever - adorned a work of human art.... A celebrated artist exclaimed, with - a kind of regretful enthusiasm, that these beautiful tints were - beyond the reach of human art.... After the waters of the - Yellowstone roll over the upper descent, they flow over the - apparently flat rocky bottom ... until near the lower falls, where - the channel contracts, and the waters seem to gather themselves into - one compact mass, and plunge over the descent of 350 feet in - detached drops of foam as white as snow, some of the larger globules - of water shooting down like the contents of an exploded rocket. It - is a sight far more beautiful, though not so grand or impressive as - that of Niagara Falls." - -The next morning we started back again by another route, on the other -side of the Fire Hole River, and when we came opposite to "Hell's -Half-acre," we saw great streams of boiling sulphur water pouring down -the rocks from the cauldron I have already mentioned, into the river, -where I am told the boiling water runs alongside the cold a long -distance before mixing with it. The fish to be found in this and other -lakes and rivers in the Park are quite uneatable, being wormy, and -sulphurous in flavour. - -I am aware that I have utterly failed to convey anything like an -adequate picture of what I have seen myself in this "region of wonder, -terror, and delight." The geysers are said far to surpass both in number -and in size those of Iceland or New Zealand. - -I must leave it to others to explain the physical causes which produce -these phenomena. It is said by the learned that the entire region was, -at a comparatively recent geological period, the scene of remarkable -volcanic activity, and that its last stages are visible in these hot -springs and geysers. - -At present the roads are, for the most part, terribly rough and -unformed; but the government is active, and the work already done, both -on the roads and bridges, is admirable. Sixteen miles of splendid roads -had already been completed on the route we travelled over. The hotel -accommodation cannot be commended. The food one gets is simply -execrable; but doubtless all this will soon be changed. I am told that a -wealthy company has now obtained leases for hotels, and the public may -hope next year to be better fed and better lodged than they have been in -the past. The hotel charges at present are four dollars a day. - -The stage-coaches are not bad, and the teams are for the most part -excellent. The drivers are very intelligent, civil fellows, and when -once stirred up they tell most amusing stories. - -The proprietors employ about two hundred and fifty horses in the Park, -and as we left on the last day of the season, I was curious to know what -became of the horses during the winter. I was told that they are all -turned loose on the prairie, to paw up their living from under the snow -on the foothills where it lies thin, and in the spring they are brought -in fatter and stronger than when they went out. - -[Illustration] - -Now that nearly all the buffaloes in the country have been killed, very -strict game laws have been put in force for their preservation. I am -told that within the Park there is now very little game of any kind. A -man was recently fined 100 dollars and costs and imprisoned for six -months for killing two elk and eight beaver within the Park, whilst a -premium of ten dollars is given for the destruction of a bear. - -Let me add that there is some capital trout fishing in the Yellowstone -River, just outside the Park, and we had made arrangements to spend a -day there and to sleep at "Yankee Jim's," who keeps a small inn by the -riverside. Jim is a well-known character throughout the country, but our -experience of him did not encourage us to take up our abode in his -little shanty. When sober we are told he is a highly respectable -character; but when drunk (and he happened to be in that condition when -we made his acquaintance) he is a madman, and a spiritualist able to see -through mountains, to boot. On the whole, we did not care to cultivate -Jim's acquaintance, so we had to give up our day's fishing in the -Yellowstone. We may do better by-and-by in the West Gallatin River. - -Just before sundown, and as we were passing through "The Golden Gate," I -saw a pedestrian coming up the road at a rapid pace. I was sitting on -the box-seat, and I said to the driver— - -"Where can yonder fellow be going in this direction at this time of day; -there is not a house of any kind within twenty miles?" - -"It is curious," said he. - -When we came up to the pedestrian, "By Jove! it's Frank!" I shouted. -"Pull up, driver! Jump up, my boy!" He was looking strong and well, and -almost as brown as a red Indian, and he soon explained to me the mystery -of my not hearing from him. He had sent a telegram to Chicago, which I -never received, requesting me to go straight on to Bozeman, and he had -driven in to Bozeman five days successively, twenty-four miles each day, -to meet us, and of course was as much bewildered about me as I had been -about him. The passenger agent at Bozeman had put wrong initials on the -telegram I had sent from St. Paul, and the post-master had refused to -give it up for two or three days; when by chance Frank met the passenger -agent, who told him about the telegram and explained his mistake to the -post-master. At last he got the message, and he then started off at once -for Livingston and the Park, and met us coming out of it, instead of -accompanying us through it, as I had planned. - -In due time we reached Bozeman, and by seven o'clock in the evening of -the day after our first meeting we were safely housed in Frank's little -log hut. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - - - - - LETTER No. XIII. - - - Livingston to Bozeman—Bozeman City—Arrival at Frank's - ranche—Frank's progress—The shanty—Kitten and mice—Aroused - by a ground squirrel—Variation of climate—A snowstorm—Our - beds drenched—"Baching" it—Shaving under - difficulties—Situation—Fertility of the soil—Cultivation of - strawberries—Fine grazing district—Climate—Story of our - holiday on the ranche—Fishing in West Gallatin river—New - bridge and old canoe—"The coloured aristocracy"—Three bear - stories. - - _Frank's Ranche, Oct., 1885._ - -The railroad from Livingston to Bozeman runs through very picturesque -scenery, and after a steep grade of 116 feet to the mile, passes through -a tunnel in the mountain at an elevation of 5,565 feet above the ocean. -The train then runs down the western slope through a remarkably grand -cañon, and passes out into the broad valley of West Gallatin: in a few -minutes more Bozeman is reached. - -[Illustration: CAÑON NEAR BOZEMAN.] - -This delightful little city of about 3,000 inhabitants is seated on the -East Gallatin river at the eastern end of the Gallatin Valley, and is -the county seat of Gallatin. It has a fine court house, three hotels, a -fine opera house, seven public halls, five churches, and two -well-conducted newspapers. - -The streets are well laid out, and there are many very fine, handsome -buildings in the town, and pretty villas in its suburbs. - -Unfortunately, time did not admit of my making any stay in the town, or -of calling upon persons to whom I had introductions; it was necessary to -hurry on to get to Frank's ranche before dark. We hired a handsome -waggonette, and, with a spanking pair of horses, we drove along a -perfectly level well-trodden road across the prairie for twelve miles, -and eventually pulled up at Frank's mansion while there was light enough -to enable us to see it, but not to criticise it too severely. - -Here, then, at last, after nearly six weeks of hard travelling by sea -and land, I had reached the chief goal of my journey. - -I have already taken you so completely into my confidence by telling you -of Frank's disasters and misfortunes, that it is but fair to him that I -should now describe to you his small successes; not that he has very -much to show at present, but he seems to me to be on the right track. He -already possesses by homestead right 160 acres of very good land, which -will be absolutely his freehold in two years' time; he also owns a -hundred acres of good railroad feeding land on the foothills; he has -fenced round the whole of this with strong posts, rails, and barbed -wire; he has built himself a log hut; he has purchased a fair set of -agricultural implements, including wagons, and a handsome buggie; he has -a pair of strong horses, a number of pigs, some poultry, and a few cows -and calves; he has a well-stocked garden, which produces all the -vegetables he requires, and he has laid down about half an acre of land -with strawberries: next summer this will produce a large crop. - -When I remind you that he has acquired this little property with only -trifling assistance from me, and mainly by the labour of his own hands, -in the space of three years, you will understand that I am inspired with -some hopes for his future. - -[Illustration: FRANK'S CABIN, FROM A SKETCH BY HIMSELF.] - -Frank's shanty originally consisted of one room nineteen feet by -seventeen, but in anticipation of his visitors, he and B. built an -additional room of about the same size. The old room having a boarded -floor was breakfast, dining, drawing-room, and library combined, and was -also the visitors' bedroom. Our beds were made upon planks laid upon -four logs, and consisted of a bundle of straw laid on the planks, a -blanket on the straw, and a couple of rugs to roll ourselves in. These -beds were placed one on each side of the room, and when bed-time came, a -cotton curtain was suspended across the middle, and thus each lodger had -a bedroom to himself. - -Our beds being those usually occupied by Frank and his friend, they -rigged up for themselves a sort of long manger or bunk in the new (or -kitchen) compartment, and slept in it feet to feet. - -I cannot boast that I slept soundly under these novel circumstances. The -first night Frank's kitten was left in the room to scare the mice away, -and proved to be a greater nuisance than the mice; the next night she -was excluded, and I was aroused out of my sleep by a crash among some -empty bottles. I struck a light, and after searching about for some -time, I caught sight of a little ground squirrel which had come in -through a hole in the floor. The next night I was aroused by this little -wretch running over my face in a playful mood, and I sat up slipper in -hand for over an hour waiting for a chance to fling it at him, but he -did not afford me one. This little squirrel and a few mice were our only -troubles; otherwise we should have slept quite as comfortably as in our -own beds at home. - -The weather during the first six days and nights had been most -delightful, very hot by day and pleasantly cool by night; on the seventh -and last night of our stay, the thermometer, by way of giving us a taste -of the variation of climate here, suddenly dropped from 78° to 34°, and -snow and rain fell all night. This wintry blast is always looked for -just at this time, and lasts for about twenty-four hours; then the -Indian summer resumes its reign till far on into November. Months of dry -and very hot weather had dried the mud covering of the shanty into -powder, and when my friend M. awoke in the morning, he found that the -roof above him had proved a sieve, and he and his bed were thoroughly -soaked. I had fared only a little better; but we didn't mind these -trifling inconveniences. I found my umbrella very useful to sit under at -breakfast, and M. managed very well when wrapped up in his macintosh. - -[Illustration: SHAVING OUTSIDE THE CABIN.] - -Frank and his friend had, from long practice, acquired the art of baking -and cooking to perfection. While the one lighted the stove, made the hot -cakes, and broiled the bacon, the other started off to milk the cow and -collect some new-laid eggs—the result being an excellent and plentiful -breakfast, eaten with the splendid appetite due to abundant exercise on -these health-giving hills. - -Whilst these preparations were going on M. and I washed by turns; our -basin was a miner's old iron washpan, and our shaving operations were -performed outside. - -Dinner demanded greater efforts, to which our hosts proved quite equal. -They roast, boil, and stew to perfection, and make very nice puddings. -There is but one glass tumbler in the establishment, so we drank pure -water out of teacups; of these there are four, but Frank boasts only one -saucer. - -In the matter of crockery I am sorry to say Frank was sadly deficient; -the kitten and the invading little squirrel had recently played havoc in -his china closet; we managed, however, very well. We had no change of -plates, but we washed them as we progressed with our meals. - -I should tell you that the shanty is situated at the foot of the -foothills of the mountains, and is about 5,000 feet above sea level, -overlooking towards the west an expanse of level country of from twenty -to thirty miles in extent; the whole circumference being the jagged -ranges of the mountains. Some parts of the great plain are rather rocky -and thin, but the nutritious bunch-grass grows everywhere; other parts, -again, are of a deep, loamy, dark-coloured soil, which produces crops of -wheat of forty to sixty bushels to the acre year after year. All had -been cut and gathered before our arrival, but we could easily see by the -stacks and the stubble what the crops must have been. - -[Illustration: LOOKING TOWARDS BOZEMAN.] - -Oats have been grown there this last season which reached 100 bushels to -the acre. - -The following sensible remarks, cut from the excellent paper I have -already quoted, entirely confirm my own impression of this country:— - - "This is pre-eminently the land for the poor man, but only for the - poor man who is willing to work hard. He can raise enough to support - his family, and if he has a few cows their increase will in the - course of a few years make him well-to-do. I spent a night a short - time since in the cabin of a settler who, with his wife and four - children, had located about forty miles from the railroad. He had - ten cows, a team of horses, and a mowing machine. From the cows his - wife made enough butter to pay the living expenses of the family. He - puts up hay for the stock in summer, and then hires himself out to - neighbours at good wages. His calves and colts were in fine - condition, and everything pointed to a most comfortable future for - this sturdy, energetic settler. - - "Who can tell how many families there may not be scattered over the - broad West, who from similar small beginnings have attained by - industry and thrift a competence, or even wealth."—_Forest and - Stream._ - -I was so well pleased with the absolute truthfulness of Frank's reports, -and satisfied with the progress he had made, that I was glad to place -him in a position to acquire an adjoining ranche of 250 acres, so that -he may now be said to possess a capital farm of 500 acres, capable of -carrying at a moderate computation fifty head of cattle, ten pigs, -fifteen to twenty horses, and two hundred chickens. The farm includes -about a hundred and fifty acres of excellent arable land, which may at a -very moderate estimate be expected to produce 3,000 bushels of wheat, -barley, and oats. His garden produces many marketable vegetables, and he -has milk, butter, and eggs. - -Strawberries grow on the land to a large size and of excellent flavour, -and the half acre now planted would, it was calculated, produce a clear -net profit of at least 200 dollars for the first year. Strawberries, I -was told, produce from 250 to 500 bushels to the acre after the first -year—say 250 bushels @ 10 cents a quart. Thirty-two quarts to bushel @ -10 cents = $3 20c. or $750 60c. an acre. Expenses of gathering, 2 cents -a quart = 150 dollars; cost of cultivation, 120 dollars = 270 dollars; -this deducted from product, $750 60c., leaves net profit $480—say £100 -sterling. - -Strawberries are too perishable to be conveyed a long distance, but the -immense mining population in the vicinity can consume all that can be -grown. In course of time strawberry jam may be made here, and sent even -to England, to compete with the English farmer in the new article of -commerce which Mr. Gladstone has suggested for him. - -Frank's neighbour McD. has planted a number of apple and other fruit -trees in and around his garden, and these young trees are thriving, and -give promise in a year or two of bearing much fruit. Frank's land is -equally suited for similar trees. - -On the whole, it appears to me that Frank has now only to go on with the -same dogged perseverance he has hitherto shown, and he will soon be in a -very comfortable position, and make up for his early losses in -Minnesota. I should add that the farm is well watered by a perpetual -little stream which runs down from the mountains, and never freezes or -diminishes. - -This district has the reputation of being the best grazing country in -the world. Cattle rarely require any other food during the winter than -what the native grasses supply. The bunch-grass grows abundantly, not -only in the valleys and on the benches, but on the foothills and -mountain slopes. Cattle do not require housing in the winter, but are -foddered sometimes, or rather allowed to browse round the straw-stacks. -Horses maintain themselves by pawing up the snow as the reindeer do in -Northern Europe. - -The climate of Montana is peculiarly mild considering its altitude; this -is doubtless owing to the influence of the great warm Japan current of -the Pacific Ocean and the prevailing westerly Chinook wind. This warm -pleasant breeze was distinctly perceptible by us as we ascended the -hills, even in the then hot weather. The atmosphere is singularly dry, -pure, and exhilarating, and this is especially the case on the spot -where Frank has chosen his location. They never have the bitter cold -"blizzards" which one hears of in other states and territories; and when -the thermometer stands at 20º, 30º, and even 45° below zero, as it -sometimes does in the winter months, the cold is endurable. - -Now let me give you a little history of our short "Holiday in the -Rockies." - -_Sunday._—There being no church or place of worship of any kind, I -regret to say, within many miles, we had to content ourselves with some -quiet reading at home. The Church Missionary Societies should look after -these boys scattered about here and there in these mountain wilds. The -day was calm and bright, but by no means cool; the thermometer stood at -125º in the sun. In the afternoon we walked a considerable distance in -the shade of the cañon, and then somewhat foolishly scrambled up one -side of it in order to make a short cut over the mountain towards home, -and a risky climb it was; but on reaching the top we were rewarded by a -fine new view of the whole valley. - -There is a remarkable echo up this cañon, equal, I have no doubt, to -that celebrated one at Killarney which, if asked "How do you do, Paddy -Blake?" will answer "Pretty well, I thank you." - -_Monday_ we walked up the foothills to look for some grouse and prairie -chickens to shoot, but could not see any, greatly to my friend M.'s -disappointment; he had come well provided with ammunition, both for -large and small game. Unfortunately our time did not admit of very -extended wanderings in search of sport. We then called upon neighbour -McD., an old rancher who has had many rough experiences, and who tells -long stories of perils he had undergone in the early Californian gold -diggings and in fights with Indians. On his ranche he has built a nice -little house, of which I made the accompanying sketch. A house of this -description, of wood planking, comprising two good-sized rooms and a -kitchen on the ground floor, and two bedrooms, can be built for about -250 dollars. - -[Illustration: NEIGHBOUR McD.'s COTTAGE.] - -He compelled us to stay to dinner. His wife, an active good-looking -Canadian body, bustled about and prepared us an excellent dinner of -hashed chicken, sweet cakes, coffee, and apple tart. She waited upon us -at table and urged us to eat, and was pleased to see with what excellent -appetites we fell to. She was gratified at the well-merited praise we -lavished on her cooking. - -After dinner, we had what I may call a musical evening. Frank gave us -some songs, and his friend accompanied him on the guitar. - -On _Tuesday_ we drove for fifteen miles across the prairie to the West -Gallatin River, where I was told good fishing may be had. We stayed at a -comfortable hotel which had no licence for strong drinks, and we had to -content ourselves with tea and coffee. - -We immediately started for the river—a really fine stream, well stocked -with trout and other fish. You already know something of my enthusiasm, -as well as my bad luck, in matters piscatorial. I caught no trout, but -you will perhaps be surprised to hear I brought home half-a-dozen -half-pound fish called "White fish." I caught these with a large black -fly with a red body. The fish takes this fly freely, but he has no pluck -whatever; no sooner is he hooked than he succumbs at once, and one has -nothing to do but pull him out of the water—there is no sport or fight -in him. Our jolly landlord had taken us to a favourite spot, where he -himself fished with a pole and twine, sitting on the stump of a tree; - - "There sat my friend with patient skill, - Attending of his trembling quill." - - SIR H. WOTTON. - -he baited his hook with grasshoppers and locusts, and with this bait he -was usually very successful, but on that particular evening he caught -nothing, and soon gave up. - -[Illustration: FISHING IN THE WEST GALLATIN.] - -My own success had so much surprised me that next morning I was up at -six o'clock, and had caught six more white fish before breakfast. - -They were cooked for us, and certainly if they afford poor sport, they -are very pleasant, delicate eating. I cannot honestly take much credit -to myself for these feats. Our hostess, a very severe hard-featured -Calvinistic person, took all the conceit out of me at once by solemnly -telling the company at the breakfast table that she could go down to the -river and catch as many white fish as she wanted with a worm hooked on -to a pin. - -I was reminded of the angler in "The Sketch Book":— - - "I recollect that after toiling and watching and creeping about ... - with scarcely any success, in spite of all our admirable apparatus, - a lubberly country urchin came down from the hills with a rod made - from a branch of a tree, a few yards of twine, and, as Heaven shall - help me! I believe a crooked pin for a hook, baited with a vile - earthworm—and in half-an-hour caught more fish than we had nibbles - throughout the day!" - -Our host, a wealthy rancher as well as innkeeper, was of a more jovial -turn, especially when he was not awed by the presence of his austere -wife. He had been a slave-owner in pre-emancipation days, and so had his -fathers before him; and he vowed the niggers were far better off then -than they are now. "God Almighty," said he, "made the niggers black and -unthrifty, and do what you will you can never make them anything else. -The utmost height of a nigger's ambition is to drive a coach or to be a -waiter in an hotel; and it is just all he is good for." - -This reminded me of the many members of the "coloured aristocracy" I had -met with as waiters at hotels and in railroad dining-cars. I remember -one especially—the head-boss of a small army of black waiters at one of -the largest hotels in an Eastern city—a tall portly fellow in evening -dress, diamond shirt studs, and white kid gloves. He stands at the -entrance of the saloon, and receives the guests with a dignified bend -and a patronizing wave of his hand which my Lord Mayor at a grand -reception could not surpass. We, unshaven and dust-stained travellers, -were quite awed in his presence, as he loftily passed us on to another -diamond-studded and gold-chained nigger, who condescended to find us a -table. We soon learned that if you expect to get any decent attention -from a negro, you had better slip a "quarter" into his ready and -expectant palm; then he will wait upon you quickly and well. Pay him -beforehand, and he will serve you in anticipation of further tips—a -quarter in hand is worth to him a good deal more than a possible dollar -in the end, which may never come. - -These negro waiters generally speak good Yankee English; they don't say -"Massa;" and if one may judge by the eagerness with which they will lean -over one's shoulder to peruse a letter one may be writing or reading, I -suppose they have been tolerably well educated. Here is an account of an -aristocratic wedding cut from a Southern paper:— - - "A wedding took place in South Carolina recently, the bride - belonging to one of the oldest families of the coloured aristocracy - and the groom being presumably a man of means and evidently of much - respectability. When the fateful question was asked by the - officiating clergyman (also coloured) it was thus translated by him, - possibly with an eye to the intensely respectable nature of the - whole affair: 'N., wilt thou have this lady to be thy wedded wife?' - &c., and the blushing bride, when her turn came, was asked if she - would have 'this young gentleman.'" - -We returned across the prairie on _Wednesday_ morning, noting as we -passed that the whole route was dotted here and there with substantial -farmhouses; some of these were large and handsome, surrounded by -buildings as good and substantial-looking as any to be seen in the old -country. - -The West Gallatin is all very well if one's only object in fishing is to -catch fish, but I would rather have one day on the pleasant "Dove," with -only a brace of trout in my creel, or, indeed, without any trout at all, -than a hundred days on the brown prairie-bound banks of the Gallatin -with creels full of the stupid white fish. I want buttercups and -daisies, water-ouzels, king-fishers, green meadows, and the songs of -birds when "I go a-fishing." - -On passing over the new bridge we saw an old Indian canoe rotting and -half hidden in the mud. If I were given to moralizing, "the new bridge -and the old canoe" should form a melancholy theme; but I will leave my -readers to compose it for themselves. - -Frank's companion B. being of an inquiring mind, knew every farm and -every farmer on the route, or perhaps in the whole valley. He knew the -value of every man's estate, and how he stood with his banker; one was -worth 50,000 dollars, another 20,000, and here and there an unthrifty -"Rip Van Winkle" with an insuperable aversion to labour and hopelessly -in debt. Amongst them were one or two millionaires. It is a -characteristic of this community that everyone knows to a dollar how -much everyone else is worth. Generally they seemed to be well-to-do and -thriving; and when I looked at the numerous great ricks of wheat, the -abundant stubble, the rich dark soil so easily and so cheaply -cultivated, and the cattle and horses around, it was plain to my -perception that a man of ordinary industry, intelligence, and thrift -must inevitably become not merely well-to-do, but wealthy. - -_Thursday._—B. drove into town for our letters, but found none. By this -time our fresh meat had given out, so Frank and M. went out and ran down -a couple of chickens. Frank chopped their heads off, plucked, and -roasted them very deftly. It was an excessively hot day, the thermometer -standing at 125º in the sun. I remained indoors most of the day clearing -off my correspondence, and in the evening we compared notes as to -Frank's past adventures and future prospects. - -_Friday._—This being our last day, I wandered up the creek in the -morning, and gathered a few wild flowers of bright hues, and packed them -up to carry home. Of course the time for flowers is all but over now, -but I am told that in the summer-time the whole hillside is ablaze with -small wild roses and other flowers. - -[Illustration: ROSS'S PEAK.] - -In the afternoon we had intended to do a little mountain climbing. We -had gone a mile on the road to ascend Ross's Peak, a mountain (of which -I made a sketch) about 10,000 feet above sea level, and at a distance of -about seven miles; but on looking towards the mountains in the west we -noticed that the bright sunshine in which we were walking was obscured -in their direction by heavy, suspicious clouds. And presently a few -drops fell. Before we could get back to our cabin the rain came down in -torrents, with thunder and lightning; and, looking up to Ross's Peak, we -found that he had already assumed his winter mantle of snow. This is the -first rain we have had since our arrival in America, and as it was our -last day we were sorry to miss the fine view to be obtained from the -peak. The ascent, we were told, was in fine weather not difficult, -though no doubt very laborious. In the evening the western mountains -across the valley presented a very interesting appearance. They were now -clad with snow, and a thick black cloud hung just above them, leaving a -clear-cut outline of white peaks; the sunset was glowing like a great -fiery furnace behind them. It was a splendid sight. - -Before night set in the thermometer had fallen from 78° in the shade, as -it stood in the morning, to 34°, and during the night we had the deluge -which I have already mentioned. To-morrow we start on our homeward -journey. - - * * * * * - -I told you in my first letter that it was my intention to spend my -holiday in this region, and here I am sitting in our little log cabin, -overlooking a vast expanse of prairie valley, nearly six thousand miles -away from my native land. So much of one's time is taken up in the -railway trains that little is left for doing anything out of them. I -told you that the three special horrors I expected to have to encounter -would be mosquitoes, Indians, and bears! I saw one or two mosquitoes in -New York, and I _felt_ them in Chicago, but only slightly; the season is -over for these pests, but the present unusual weather stirs up a few now -and then. As for Indians, I have only seen a few wigwams and one or two -horsemen, perfectly peaceable and friendly now, though a few years ago -this Gallatin Valley was the scene of many a bloody engagement between -them and the settlers, and old-timers have long tales to tell of many -terrible affrays. Nor have I yet met with a grizzly, though there are -plenty of these fellows, as well as "silver tips" and black bears, up in -the mountains. - -Last week a big black bear came down through this ranche and found his -way to a slaughter-house in the neighbourhood of Bozeman, where he was -discovered amusing himself by tearing about the offal. Two butchers in -town armed themselves with a couple of rusty old rifles, and starting -off on a moonlight night, kept watch for Master Bruin's appearance. -Eventually they spied him on the top of the roof of the slaughter-house -(a by no means easy roof to get on). They put two balls into him, and he -rolled over dead. His skin was being exhibited in Bozeman as we passed -through. - -While I am on the subject of bears, I may as well tell you another tale -just as an eyewitness told it to me. - -A few weeks ago a party of miners, returning home after prospecting all -summer, were encamped in a fine hunting-ground, up in the mountains near -Ross's Peak, lately the favourite resort of Flat-head Indians. They -started one morning on a deer and elk hunt, and having separated to -scare out the game, one of them suddenly came upon a great grizzly -basking in the sun in front of his den. The bear allowed him to approach -within a few yards, being apparently in a drowsy state, and the hunter, -being a "tenderfoot" (new-comer), did not take the ordinary precautions -which experience teaches; but thinking all the bear stories he had ever -heard were mere twaddle, imprudently fired in the animal's face, -breaking his jaw. This at once aroused the fury of Bruin, and he rushed -on the hunter, who succeeded in planting another ball in his shoulder, -but this failed to stop him. Being now at such close quarters that -another shot was impossible, he tried to jam his rifle down the bear's -throat; they then became locked together in a deadly struggle. After -wrestling for a few seconds, both hunter and bear fell over a log and -down a steep ravine. At this juncture, a dog belonging to one of the -party, hearing the row, came up barking, and distracted the bear's -attention; the hunter thus succeeded in escaping from the deadly hug and -regained his rifle, the stock of which had been split in the first -struggle. The bear then started off, feeling, no doubt, that with a -broken jaw and a dislocated shoulder the odds were against him. The -hunter renewed the chase, and being now joined by the rest of his party, -they followed the quarry in this wounded state for eight miles, and -eventually killed him. - -A short time prior to this incident a man and a boy were up in a cañon a -few miles to the north, cutting cordwood. The man saw a cinnamon bear, -and fired at him, wounding him in the shoulder. The bear turned on him; -and the man having no more ammunition—it being in the boy's charge—threw -down his rifle and scrambled up the nearest tree; the bear rushed up -after him, caught hold of his leg, and tore his boot off, at the same -time tearing the flesh of his leg open to the bone. The man then -succeeded in getting beyond the bear's reach. - -[Illustration: "THE BEAR TORE HIS BOOT OFF."] - -Bruin then turned his attention to the boy, who was manfully engaged in -reloading the rifle. He seized and hugged the lad, and, being on a steep -incline, the two rolled over and over till they came to the bottom of -the mountain, where the bear left his victim for dead, and then returned -to the man, who was still treed. Probably feeling some stiffness from -the wound in his shoulder, he could no longer climb, but having amused -the man in the tree by leisurely walking round and round it for three or -four hours, he then quietly departed. - -It fortunately turned out that the boy was not killed, but terribly -shaken. He eventually recovered from the fearful ordeal he had -undergone. - -These bear stories may be taken as facts, and as substantial proofs -that, although we luckily did not encounter any bears, there are plenty -of them up in the hills just above us. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - - - - - LETTER No. XIV. - - - Saying "Goodbye"—Departure in a heavy snowstorm—Gallatin - Valley—Helena—Garrison—Butte City—Salt Lake City—Polygamy—Articles - of faith—Trial of a murderer—Trial of polygamists. - - _Cheyenne, Wyoming, Oct., 1885._ - -On Saturday morning we found the ground covered with snow, and it was -bitterly cold. It seemed as if this sudden change had come upon us -opportunely to prevent our carrying away a too favourable impression of -the climate. Truly, the day was a rough one, and we had to drive twelve -miles across the prairie to Bozeman in a blinding storm of snow and -sleet, and over a road smooth and level a week ago, but now full of -holes and deep ruts up to the axles. Our progress through the sludgy -snow was very slow. - -I had hoped to make some calls in Bozeman, but the weather prevented my -doing so. - -We reached the station only just in time to catch the train for Helena, -and we were not sorry to get under cover from the pitiless storm. - -Now the time had arrived for saying goodbye to the boy I had gone so far -to see, a great lump came into my throat as I thought of the years that -may pass before we meet again; of his rough journey back, and of the -poor little leaky shanty he had to winter in, and to which he had -voluntarily exiled himself. - -But for this taste of wintry weather, I should have left Frank's ranche -with a more cheerful heart, yet with a false impression of the country -and climate. - -Unquestionably the life on a ranche such as Frank's is a rough and hard -one, and I should be sorry if I have said anything throughout this -narrative that might induce any aspiring youth to adopt a similar mode -of life under a contrary impression. But for a young fellow who is -willing to banish himself from all society and to work as Frank has -done, I can certainly commend this country. - -We left Bozeman in the afternoon for Helena and Garrison, the junction -where we turn to the south on the Branch Line of the Union Pacific. - -As I felt a special and peculiar interest in the beautiful Gallatin -Valley, it was some disappointment to me that my latest view of it was -in the midst of a heavy snowstorm. Our railroad route ran for thirty -miles through this valley, and had the afternoon been clear, we might -have caught a last glimpse of the little log cabin ten miles away up -yonder, at the foot of the Eastern Hills. - -At the head of the valley we came to "Gallatin City." Here "The -Gallatin," "The Madison," and "Jefferson" rivers are lost in the great -Missouri. After crossing the Missouri, the road passes down the Missouri -Valley to Helena. No sooner had we got out of the valley than the storm -cleared off, the evening sun shone out brightly, and by the time we -arrived at Helena, just 100 miles from Bozeman, we found ourselves again -in the same mild, genial atmosphere we had experienced previous to the -storm. No snow had fallen at Helena. - -Helena, the capital of Montana, has a population of 8,000, is situated -at the eastern foot of the main chain of the Rockies, and close to the -famous "Last Chance" gold mines, out of which $10,000,000 worth of gold -has been taken, and which still yields a considerable amount annually. -This circumstance, and the fact that it is the nearest point in the -mining region to the head of navigation on the Missouri river at Fort -Benton, gave Helena a great start in earlier days, and it is certainly -likely to maintain its position as the chief commercial town of Montana -territory. It is surrounded by mountains, rising one above the other, -till the more distant are lost in the clouds, forming a view of striking -beauty and grandeur. - -The town itself, so far as we had time to observe, is not well built; -the streets are narrow, crooked, and steep; but it has all the -appearance of wealth and prosperity. It has four national banks, a fine -opera house, seating 1,200, and two daily papers. The shops are large, -and full of attractive-looking "stock." The city is lighted by the Brush -electric light system. - -The hotel we stopped at is very large and very comfortable, but they -won't black one's boots. If you wish to indulge in this luxury you must -descend to the boot-black's quarters, and mount on his stool. He will -polish you off in five minutes, and scorns anything less than a shilling -for doing it. Why should he take less when he finds full employment all -the day long at this rate of pay? I reckoned that fellow was making -thirty shillings a day by his blacking. - -Next morning we started for Garrison. The route from Helena to "The -Mullan Pass" is most picturesque, taking us through the charming valley -of "Prickly Pear," and past great masses of craggy rocks and boulders. -"The Mullan Pass" takes us over, or rather through the main range of the -Rocky Mountains by a tunnel 3,850 feet in length, and at an elevation -above sea-level of 5,547 feet. - -Now we are at Garrison, where we leave the Great Northern Pacific -Railway, on which we have travelled so pleasantly over 1,200 miles of -country, through scenes as tame and scenes as wildly picturesque as are -probably to be found in any other part of this great country. - -Our route now lies due south for a distance of nearly 500 miles to Ogden -and Salt Lake City. - -The cars being narrow gauge, we did not find them so pleasant as those -we had just left; but as we secured sleeping compartments, and the -passengers for part of the way were few, we had nothing to complain of. -On this line there are no dining-cars, so we had to descend at various -stations for scrambling meals, at not by any means nice hotels. - -At a distance of about thirty miles from Garrison, we passed the great -mining city of Butte, on the west side of the main dividing range of the -Rocky Mountains; for an hour or two our car was crowded with holiday -people from that wealthy city, decked out very gorgeously, and proud of -their display of jewellery. Butte is a city of 18,000 inhabitants, and -is called "a mining camp." It is the county seat of Silver Bow county. -There are over 1,300 patented mines in this district, five smelters, and -nine quartz mills. The mines produce silver, copper, and gold, the -shipments of which amount to $6,000,000 annually. The adjoining city of -Anaconda, which two years ago consisted of two tents, has now 3,000 -inhabitants, and boasts of having the largest smelter in the world. It -cost a million dollars, and the two owners are said to be worth forty -million dollars each—they own two mines. This smelter pays the Union -Pacific a hundred thousand dollars a month for carrying ore over a -little branch line of nine miles in length. - -The train passes through the Cache Valley, which is fifty miles long and -ten miles broad; it is wholly occupied by Mormons. On the south-east -side of the valley is the city of Logan, where a fine temple overlooking -the whole of the valley has been built. There are seventeen separate -settlements in this most fertile valley, and these, seen from the -railway, look like green patches of verdure dotted over the great brown -prairie, each settlement being hidden in groves of green trees. - -We reached Ogden at 5.30 p.m., and took train the same evening for Salt -Lake City, where we arrived at the Walker House Hotel at eight. - - - SALT LAKE CITY. - -A residence of one day and two nights in Salt Lake City does not -constitute me an authority or entitle me to put forth any opinions on -the vexed question of Mormonism, but as I chanced to reach the city in -stirring times, I venture to give two or three quotations from the -current literature, which exhibit the question in its two aspects. The -first is an extract from a very well-written pamphlet by Mrs. H. M. -Whitney _in favour of_ POLYGAMY. She says:— - - "I have been a spectator and a participator in this order of - matrimony for over thirty years, and, being a first wife, I have had - every opportunity for judging in regard to its merits. The - Scriptures declare, "By their fruits ye shall know them;" so I know - that this system tends to promote and preserve social purity, and - that this alone can remedy the great social evils of the present - day. When lived up to as the Lord designed it should be, it will - exalt the human family; and those who have entered into it with pure - motives, and continue to practise it in righteousness, can testify - to the truth of these statements. There are real and tangible - blessings enjoyed under this system which cannot be obtained in any - other way. Not only can the cares and burdens be equally distributed - among the members of the family, but they can assist one another in - many ways, and if blessed with congenial natures and filled with the - love of God, their souls will be expanded, and in the place of - selfishness, patience and charity will find place in their hearts, - driving therefrom all feelings of strife and discord." - -The little _if_ in the last sentence seems to beg the whole question, -and reminds one of Cowper's epigram:— - - "If John marries Mary, and Mary alone, - 'Tis a very good match between Mary and John; - Should John wed a score, O, the claws and the scratches! - It can't be a match—it's a bundle of matches!" - -Another enthusiastic lady says:— - - "Shall we, the wives and daughters of the best men on earth, submit - to the dictation of unholy, licentious, and wicked men? No, never! I - feel that it is high time for the women of Utah to stand up and - defend this Heaven-revealed principle. I am a polygamous wife, and - am proud to say it. I regard those women who are my husband's wives - to be so as much as I am. Our husbands are virtuous and noble men, - and are the friends of all mankind." - -The following is taken from the biennial message of W. M. Budd, Governor -of Idaho, and, I fancy, fairly represents the general feeling of the -United States Government on this very important question at this time:— - - "POLYGAMOUS AND TREASONOUS MORMONISM. - - "While the constitution of our nation guarantees to every person of - whatever birth, rank, or condition, past or present, a generous - freedom in his own thoughts and religious convictions, not only the - common law pronounces against adultery, bigamy, and polygamy, but - every consideration of safety urges against permitting a - self-proclaimed enemy to harbour within our fold while he gathers - strength to strike at our life with the venom he already possesses. - It becomes you to approach the discussion of this malignant - mischief, that has retarded the Territory in the past and threatens - such disaster for the future, with brave and grave deliberation. If - you decide after careful investigation, as I have decided, that - there can be no harmony between virtue and such monstrous vice; that - either—and that at no distant day—pure, moral Christianity, that is - such from fear of God, love of Christ and hope of heaven, or this - leprous legacy of barbarity and sensual riot must possess the land - to the exclusion of the other, then I say, it is not merciful to - temporize with the blow that must be struck to free this Territory - of this social plague and political curse. Polygamous and treasonous - Mormonism stalks wantonly, insolently, and blatantly through this - Territory, to the shame and degradation of every Christian woman and - every man with a love for law and a regard for decency. Crime under - the guise of religion is a hundred fold worse than under the banner - of Satan. The leaders, owners, and bidder of this unholy, - licentious, and treasonable institution are saints to glut their own - vile and selfish purposes. Selfishness, which sees in the world only - a mirror just large enough to reflect itself, writes in their case, - as it always has written, a story of cant, hypocrisy, falsehood, - deceit, fraud, and violence; and the inevitable logic of events, - which is stronger than all the sins that infamy, greed, and - selfishness are heir to, will write the invariable sequel: - detection, retribution, expiation, and the felon's cell. These - law-breakers mock and scoff the power of this great government, - abuse our free institutions, and bedraggle our flag in the muck and - mire of their offences. The guilty may be brought to bay and to - justice even at the time when they imagine themselves most strongly - entrenched. The Mormon leaders were never more defiant than at this - peculiar and particular time. I conjure you to do your utmost toward - destroying the polluting practices of this seditious organization. - Suppress these licentious saints with their plural marriages, and so - wipe away the fetid blotch upon this Territory, that is a stench in - the nostrils of all the honest humanity within our borders. I advise - the enactment of such laws and amendments as shall make effective - the laws of God and man regarding adultery, bigamy, and polygamy, - and compel loyalty to the nation and respect for the flag." - - - "ARTICLES OF FAITH OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS. - - "1. We believe in God the Eternal Father, and in His Son Jesus - Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. - - "2. We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not - for Adam's transgression. - - "3. We believe that through the atonement of Christ all mankind may - be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. - - "4. We believe that these ordinances are: first, Faith in the Lord - Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for - the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of - the Holy Ghost. - - "5. We believe that a man must be called of God by 'prophecy and by - the laying on of hands,' by those who are in authority, to preach - the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof. - - "6. We believe in the same organization that existed in the - primitive church, viz., apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, - evangelists, &c. - - "7. We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, - visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, &c. - - "8. We believe the Bible to be the word of God, as far as it is - translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the - Word of God. - - "9. We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now - reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and - important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. - - "10. We believe in the literal gathering of Israel, and in the - restoration of the Ten Tribes. That Zion will be built upon this - continent. That Christ will reign personally upon the earth, and - that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory. - - "11. We claim the privilege of worshipping Almighty God according to - the dictates of our conscience, and allow all men the same - privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may. - - "12. We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and - magistrates, in obeying, honouring, and sustaining the law. - - "13. We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, - and in doing good to _all men_: indeed, we may say that we follow - the admonition of Paul, 'We believe all things, we hope all things,' - we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all - things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or - praiseworthy, we seek after these things.—JOSEPH SMITH." - -This is all very well as far as it goes, but I find nothing about -polygamy here, and I learn elsewhere that— - - "According to Mormon theology, God the Father, the Supreme Jehovah, - became man in the form of Adam, and thus became the father of the - human race. He is thus represented as a being of parts such as we - are. And all true and faithful Mormons who live up to their - privileges, who take many wives, and who beget many children, will - in the process of time become gods to all those who spring from - them. Brigham Young was regarded as God by some of his followers - even before his death." - -In walking down Main Street I came to a great crowd opposite the -court-house. I was curious to know what was going on, and to see the -interior of a law court in a Mormon city, but the staircase was so -completely blocked that I could not get in. On inquiry I learned that a -murderer named Hopt was receiving his sentence, and that three Mormons -were being tried for polygamy. - -The court, in passing sentence on Hopt, said "The penalty of the crime -for which you have been convicted is death, and must be inflicted by -hanging you by the neck, or by shooting you, at your discretion. Which -mode of death do you elect shall be inflicted upon you?" - -HOPT—"I choose to be shot." - -[Illustration: MAIN STREET.] - -Shortly afterwards, going down the same street, I came upon another -great crowd round a photographer's, and I was told that immediately -after Hopt had received his sentence he had been conveyed here to have -his portrait taken. Whether this was at his "own discretion," or by -order of the authorities, I could not ascertain. - -Salt Lake City has a population of 30,000 inhabitants, of whom 25,000 -are "Latter-day Saints," and 5,000 Gentiles, and just now the Gentiles -seem to be making the city too hot for the saints. I was told that -several of the leading men, including President Taylor, were wanted by -the city marshals on the score of polygamy, but could not be found; and -that one hundred polygamists are now in "The Pen," undergoing six -months' imprisonment (and a fine of 300 dollars and costs) for refusing -to part with their surplus wives. - -Of the three men sentenced this day, the first was a policeman named -Smith, who stood to his colours, as will be seen. - - "THE COURT—Your name is Andrew Smith, I believe. - - "MR. SMITH—Yes, sir. - - "THE COURT—You have been found guilty of the crime of unlawful - cohabitation, and this morning was fixed upon for your sentence. - Have you anything to say why this sentence of the law should not be - pronounced in accordance with the verdict—have you anything further - to say? - - "MR. SMITH then said, in a firm, clear voice—If your honour please: - I have been placed on trial here for living in the practice of my - religion, which I do not intend to relinquish, under any - circumstances whatever, and I have no promises to make. Therefore, I - am prepared to receive the judgment of the court. I cannot under any - circumstances give up any principle of my religion. My religion is - worth everything to me, or it is worth nothing, and I am prepared to - receive any judgment you may see fit to pronounce. That is about - all, I believe. - - "THE COURT—I understand you to state by inference that you - understand your religion authorizes you and makes it your duty to - practice polygamy and unlawful cohabitation? - - "MR. SMITH—That is a part and portion of my religion. - - "THE COURT—Yes, and I suppose from what you state also that it makes - it your duty to advise others, so far as you give any advice at all, - to practise that? - - "MR. SMITH—I have not been an adviser, sir, but that is my feeling. - I am not much of a preacher; but my religion is worth everything to - me. As I said before, I could not sacrifice that under any - consideration whatever. - - "THE COURT—Well, I have so often stated here from this bench that - polygamy and unlawful cohabitation are crimes under the laws of the - United States that it is hardly worth while to state it again. I - presume you understand that they are both defined as crimes, and you - must realize that you are not to determine what the laws of the - United States are for yourself, contrary to the tribunals selected - to interpret and construe the laws and to enforce them. In view of - your statements the law makes it my duty to impose upon you such a - penalty as may possibly reform you and may tend to deter others from - like crimes against society. The object of this law is to protect - society, and it is my duty to enforce that law so far as the law - gives me my discretion, and use the discretion which I possess so as - to accomplish the purpose and to reach the end intended by the law. - You are sentenced in the penalty of a term of six months, and to pay - a fine of 300 dollars and costs. You will also stand committed until - the fine and costs are paid." - -The next defendant was evidently a gentleman of considerable standing in -the city. - - "As the name of John Nicholson was called, there was a buzz of - interest which subsided into a breathless silence as that gentleman - stood up under the judge's gaze. - - "THE COURT—Mr. Nicholson, I suppose it is hardly necessary for me to - state to you—you are already advised that the jury found you guilty - of the crime of unlawful cohabitation. Have you anything further to - say why sentence of the law should not be pronounced against you? - - "MR. NICHOLSON—If your honour please: I will take advantage of the - privilege that the court affords me of stating my position before - the court from my own standpoint. I have been connected with the - Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for about a quarter of a - century. I accepted its doctrines, including the law that is called - in the church 'celestial marriage,' which includes plurality of - wives. At the time that I entered upon that relationship I had not - the slightest idea that I was infringing upon or acting in - contravention to any law made in pursuance of the constitution of - the country, the supreme law of the land. I entered into that - relation in 1871, and, to give the court an idea of my position in - reference to the law, I will illustrate it by stating that when the - Reynolds case was offered in order to test the constitutionality of - the statute of 1862, enacted against polygamy, at the request of the - defendant in that suit I went upon the stand and testified for the - prosecution that a conviction might be obtained. There is no need - for me to state to your honour that the essence of a crime is the - intent to commit it. There could be no intention on my part to - commit a crime in entering into the relationship which I have - mentioned. - - "Years afterwards the Edmunds' law was enacted, which made my status - criminal—that is to say, from my standpoint—my conduct was made by - it _malum prohibitum_, because in my opinion it cannot be made - _malum in se_. That law requires that I should give up a vital - principle of my religion, and discard at least a portion of my - family, and consequently disrupt my family organization. - - "This places me, as your honour will perceive, in a very painful - position: because I have a large family, and the ties which bind - them to myself are sacred, and the affection which I entertain for - them is deep, and I do not think that these ties can possibly be - severed by any law of whatever character it may be, or from whatever - source it may spring; because there are sentiments and feelings that - are engendered in the human heart that the law cannot touch. I will - say here, also, that the lady who would have been the principal - witness in this case, had I not testified against myself, stated to - me that she would decline to testify against me, or do anything that - would have the effect of sending me to prison. And now, after such - an exhibition of devotion to me on her part, the bare contemplation - of cutting her adrift is revolting to my soul, and I could not do - it. - - "People's ideas differ in regard to what constitutes religion. Some - hold that it is merely sentiment and faith, and does not necessarily - embody action. I differ from this view; and I have always been bold - to express my opinions on every subject without fear, favour, or - hope of reward. I am of the opinion expressed by the Apostle James, - who stated that faith without works is dead. The religion that I - believe in is a religion that finds expression in action. - - "I am aware of the attitude of the court, and I presume of the - country, towards the peculiar institution of religion in the Church - with which I am identified, and which I have honestly accepted and - have honestly practised. It is held that this conjugal relationship - threatens the existence of monogamous marriage. must say that, - judging from the attitude of this court, which represents, I - presume, the attitude of the nation, and in view of the assaults - that are made on plural marriage, it appears to me that there is not - very much ground for apprehension of danger in that respect. - - "It is also true that some people hold that my relations in a family - capacity are adulterous. From my point of view, however, I have the - consoling reflection that I am in excellent company, including - Moses, the enunciator, under God, of the principles which constitute - the foundation of modern jurisprudence. - - "Not to weary the court, I will simply say that my purpose is fixed, - and I hope unalterable. It is, that I shall stand by my allegiance - to God, fidelity to my family, and what I conceive to be my duty to - the constitution of the country, which guarantees the fullest - religious liberty to the citizen. - - "I thank your honour for bearing with me, and will now simply - conclude by stating that I am prepared to receive the pleasure of - the court. - - "MR. NICHOLSON spoke in a low, but clear and deliberate tone, which - was maintained without variation to the close. The manner, as much - as the matter of his speech, clearly prepossessed all hearers in his - favour, and even the judge was impressed by it." - -It will be seen from these examples that there is a strong determination -on the part of the United States' government to root out polygamy, and -there also seems to be an equally firm determination of the Mormons to -stand by this, which they regard as an essential article of faith. - -After a long address from the judge, Mr. Nicholson and the other -polygamists received the same sentence as Smith, and were all driven off -to the Penitentiary. - -It may be added that a Bill now before Congress is of a still more -stringent character. I quote the following from a recent evening paper:— - - "The Bill provides that all marriages in the Territories shall be - certified in writing by the minister and contracting parties, - compels the testimony of the husband or wife of the accused in - prosecutions for polygamy, prescribes punishment for adultery in - Utah, and abolishes the present limitation of prosecutions for - adultery to the complaint of husband or wife. It also abolishes - female suffrage, takes away the general jurisdiction of the Utah - probate courts, and annuls the territorial law about the capacity of - illegitimate children to inherit property. The Bill further attacks - the Mormon Church by giving the President of the United States - authority to appoint trustees to take charge of its temporal - affairs, and annuls the Mormon emigration fund, prohibiting the - re-establishment of any such corporation for importing Mormons, all - funds being forfeited for the benefit of a school fund in Utah." - -We paid a visit to the Tabernacle, the Temple, and Assembly Hall. We -were politely received by the superintendent, who showed us round in the -usual way. The wonderful acoustic properties of the Tabernacle, by which -a pin dropped at one end of the great building can be distinctly heard -at the other, were pointed out. I quote the following brief statistics -about these buildings, only remarking that, judged by present -appearances, the Temple is not likely to be completed for many years:— - - Tabernacle: This building is 233 feet long, 133 feet wide, and 70 - feet high. It has 20 doors of 9 feet wide. In case of an accident an - audience of 10,000 people can be cleared out in a few minutes. - Seating capacity, 12,000. - - Temple: The corner-stone was laid April 12th, 1853, and amount - expended in construction to March 12th, 1884, $2,500,000. It is 200 - by 800 feet. Height of walls, 100 feet. Middle tower on either end - will be 200 feet high. - - Assembly Hall: Dimensions of building, 120 by 68 feet. Seating - capacity, 2,500. Cost, $150,000. Services every Sunday at 2 p.m. The - ceiling is divided off into sixteen panels of different shape and - design, each panel having some fresco painting; one of them is a - rather gaudy-looking historical painting of "The angel Moroni - showing the prophet Joseph where the plates were hid in the hill - Cumorah." - - Bee-Hive, Lion, and Gardo Houses: One block east of the Temple, the - latter block now occupied by President John Taylor. - - Streets: There are nearly 100 miles of streets in Salt Lake City. - They run with the four points of the compass. Each street is 132 - feet wide, including the side-walks, and nearly all are bordered - with shade trees. A small stream of water also flows down each side - of many streets. - - Total population of Utah in 1880, 143,965. Population of Salt Lake - City is about 30,000. - - Value of Utah's mineral production in 1884 is estimated at - $9,301,508. - - Great Salt Lake is nearly 100 miles long by 60 miles wide, with - average depth of 40 feet. - -In the afternoon we drove round the city and suburbs, and up to Fort -Douglas, a well-built full-regiment post, situated on a plateau three -miles east of the city. It is well laid out, and the officers' quarters, -in charming little villas embowered in creepers and green foliage, are -exceedingly pleasant to look at. - -Our driver was an Englishman, a thirty-years' resident, who had married -a Mormon wife (now dead), but he was careful to tell us that he was and -always had been a Gentile, though for the sake of peace and quietness, -and, in the early days, personal safety, he had duly paid his "tithing." -He prided himself in having driven Hepworth Dixon during his stay here, -and in having "introduced" Lord Carrington to President Taylor! The -stories he volunteered to tell us were perhaps more facetious than -veracious. - -I will only add that the city in its outward appearance has left a most -favourable impression on me—it is pleasantly situated at the foot of the -Wasatch Mountains, which rise on the east to a height of from 10,000 to -12,000 feet, and are covered with snow nearly all the year. The city -occupies a series of terraces, and, with its houses half hidden in shade -and fruit-trees, it presents the appearance of a beautiful green oasis -in the midst of a desert. - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration: CLIFFS OF ECHO CAÑON.] - -[Illustration] - - - - - LETTER No. XV. - - - Leave for Cheyenne—"Rock Springs"—Murder of Chinese—Mr. Black's - "Green Pastures" and bottle of champagne—"Hell upon Wheels"—Big - Horn Cowboy and Milord. - - _Cheyenne, Oct., 1885._ - -We left Salt Lake City by the Union Pacific Railway on Wednesday at 7.50 -a.m., and we reached Cheyenne at 10.30 a.m. on Thursday. It is -impossible for me to describe or even to mention the many objects of -interest and points of beautiful scenery through which this line passes. -How can one describe in a few hurried words such scenes as those to be -found in "The Echo Cañon," "The Devil's Gate," "The Devil's Gate -Mountain," and "The Devil's Slide"?[6] The makers of this road, or the -early pioneers, seem to have had a great liking for his black majesty, -or they would not have given his name to such splendid scenery. - -Footnote 6: - - It will be remembered that the Devil has another slide in the - Yellowstone Park. - -[Illustration: "THE DEVIL'S SLIDE," WEBER CAÑON.] - -About two hundred miles east of Ogden we passed a place called "Rock -Springs," where a number of Chinamen had been brutally massacred by -white miners a week or two before. - -Two Chinamen had taken up a white man's "chamber," and when ordered out -the Chinamen went at them with their picks. A general battle ensued, in -which two men were shot. At night their village was set fire to, and it -was said that several Chinamen in trying to escape from the fire were -shot down by the miners, and about fifteen others perished in the -flames. - -Soldiers from the nearest fort were sent for, and several miners were -arrested, but it was found impossible to get sufficient evidence to -convict them. The Chinese Consul from Washington had just been there -investigating the brutal affair, and was returning in the same train -with us. - -In Mr. William Black's "Green Pastures and Piccadilly" there is an -interesting description of Cheyenne as it was some twelve years ago. -There was a time, not long previous to Mr. Black's visit, when this now -thriving little city had earned for itself the name of "Hell upon -Wheels," and I was told by an inhabitant who lived there then, when the -Union Pacific Railway was being made, and the city comprised a long row -of saloon tents, that bowie knives and six-shooters were freely used in -the settlement of disputes, and that three or four murders a week were -the average, to say nothing of fights with Sioux Indians. - -Cheyenne had settled down from these exciting times when Mr. Black -arrived there, and he found "nothing about its outward appearance to -entitle anyone to call it 'Hell on Wheels.'" - - "Certainly," he says, "the Cheyenne we saw was far from being an - exciting place; there was not a single corpse lying at any of the - saloon doors, nor any duel being fought in the street." - -Of the outskirts of Cheyenne, he says:— - - "The odd fashion in which shanties and sheds—with some private - houses here and there—are dotted down anyhow on the plain; their - temporary look; the big advertisements; the desolate and homeless - appearance of the whole place, all serve to recall the dismal scene - that is spread around the Grand Stand on Epsom Downs on the morning - after Derby Day, when the revellers have all returned to town.... We - drove out to a lake which will no doubt form an ornamental feature - in a big park, when the Black Hill miners, gorged with wealth, come - back to make Cheyenne a great city." - -Mr. Black will be pleased to know that his prophecy has been, to some -extent, fulfilled. - -Cheyenne is now a most pleasant city. The big park has been formed; the -streets are broad, and lined with trees; the houses are well-built; -there are stores there which would almost rival Whiteley's or -Shoolbred's in the magnitude and variety of their contents, and perhaps -surpass them in their outward appearance. The outskirts are now dotted, -I might rather say crowded, with very charming "Queen Anne" villas, -surrounded by well-laid-out lawns, flower-beds, and creeping foliage, -reminding one not so much of Epsom Downs, as of that æsthetic suburb of -London known as Bedford Park, only that the houses are larger and better -built, and in their furniture display an exuberance of wealth and good -taste. There are two fine hotels, several churches and chapels, and a -delightful little club-house, where we were most hospitably entertained. - -I may add that the place has none of the appearance of vulgar show which -"Black Hill miners, gorged with wealth," might be supposed to have given -to it; on the contrary, it has an air of quiet respectability not to be -seen in many other western cities. The inhabitants are well-educated -people, musical and social, and amongst them is a large community of -well-bred English people. - -As I have a personal interest in the matter, I will venture to give -another extract from "Green Pastures and Piccadilly." - -Mr. Black says that— - - "As he was unanimously requested by his party to pay a tribute of - gratitude to the clean and comfortable inn at the station, he must - now do so; only he must also confess that he was bribed, for the - good-natured landlord was pleased, as we sat at supper, to send in - to us, with his compliments, a bottle of real French champagne. Good - actions should never go unrewarded; so the gentle reader is most - earnestly entreated, the first time he goes to Cheyenne, to stay at - this inn and give large orders. Moreover, the present writer not - wishing to have his conduct in this particular regarded as being too - mercenary, would wish to explain that the bottle of champagne in - question was, as was subsequently discovered, charged for in the - bill and honestly paid for too; but he cannot allow the landlord to - be deprived of all credit for his hospitable intentions merely on - account of an error on the part of the clerk." - -Just before I left England, and knowing that I contemplated a visit to -the Rockies, Mr. Black was good enough to request me to look into his -book and to see, from the circumstances, as quoted above, whether I was -not fairly entitled to have that bottle of champagne produced: he also -desired me to present his compliments to a "very pretty Scotch lassie" -at the hotel. - -Of course I pursued the inquiry; I had by chance stayed at this very -hotel, but I ascertained, alas! that poor old Jones, the good-natured -landlord, had long since made his pile in the good old times when he -could charge crowds of passengers a dollar and a half for their meals -instead of (as now) seventy-five cents only: had retired to a farm -somewhere in Idaho; had died, and left an enormous fortune to his widow. -I may also inform Mr. Black that "the pretty Scotch lassie" is now the -mother of a large family somewhere up in the mountains. - -The inn has become the property of the Union Pacific, and is, in fact, -one of the dining stations of that enterprising company. I regret to say -that the intelligent and civil manager, though perfectly acquainted with -the circumstances (through having read "Green Pastures" in a ten cent -edition), did not feel it to be a part of his duty to his employers to -hand over to me the bottle of champagne, notwithstanding the credentials -I presented. He did not, however, raise the slightest objection when I -invited him to join me and my friend M. in drinking to the health of the -writer of "Green Pastures," to the wealthy widow of the departed Jones, -and to "the pretty Scotch lassie," wherever she may be. - -A local newspaper thus, somewhat erroneously, recorded our visit to this -city:— - - "A. B. and C. D., two Englishmen who have been travelling around the - world, stopped off yesterday morning, and are guests at The Pacific. - They had letters of introduction to Jones(!), the former landlord of - the hotel, and had been told that Cheyenne was 'Hell on Wheels.' - They are disappointed." - -In these western parts it is a dangerous thing sometimes to refuse a -"drink," and to offer to pay for it is a mortal offence. I was told that -in Cheyenne even the cowboys, with their big whips, broad-brimmed felt -hats, and hip-joint boots, were a superior, well-educated class, who had -a large reading-room, crowded of an evening with men who could hold -their own on any subject, political, social, or literary; and that there -were among them good mathematicians, and even classical scholars. - -The following cutting from "The Cheyenne Democrat" exhibits the cowboy -in another light:— - - "HE DRANK. - - "MILORD HAS AN ADVENTURE WITH A BIG HORN COWBOY AND A BIG HORN. - - "Editor Becker, of the Big Horn 'Sentinel,' tells a good story of a - nobby and snobby milord, of British extraction, who travelled from - Big Horn with him and Abe Idelman on the stage-coach early this - week. Milord was excessively exclusive. He wouldn't be social, and - spoke to no one except the two 'John Henry' servants he had with - him, and was altogether as unpleasant as his snobbishness could make - him. At a dinner station there were a lot of jolly cowboys on a - lark, and one of them 'treating' everybody asked the Englishman to - drink. Of course, milord haughtily refused. The cowboy displayed a - dangerous-looking six-shooter, and very impressively insisted on his - drinking. - - "'But I cawn't, you know. I don't drink, you know,' was milord's - reply. - - "Mr. Cowboy brought the muzzle in dangerous proximity to the knot in - which milord's brains were supposed to lie hidden somewhere, and - then he said he'd drink—he'd take soda water, you know. - - "'Soda water nuthin,' said Mr. Cowboy. 'You'll take straight - whiskey.' - - "'But, aw, this American whiskey, I cawn't swallow it, you know.' - - "'Well,' said the cowboy, 'I'll make a hole in the side of your head - so that we can pour it in,' and he began to draw down on milord, and - milord said— - - "'Aw, that'll do; I'll drink it.' - - "Then the cowboy invited milord's servants to drink, which horrified - him. - - "'They don't drink, you know,' he said. - - "'Well, we'll see whether they do or not,' said Mr. Cowboy. 'The - chances are you don't give 'em a "hopportunity." Come up here, you - fellows, and guzzle some,' and the two 'John Henrys,' with a little - show of reluctance, but really glad to get a drink, came up, and the - cowboy passed a tumbler full of torchlight procession whiskey for - milord, and the servants poured for themselves. Then the cowboy made - the 'John Henrys' clink glasses with milord, and all drank, and - there was great fun. Milord tried after that to be very jolly, and - the stimulant assisted him decidedly. But in the coach he fell back - into his exclusiveness and retained it throughout, and has probably - got it yet. - - "Now the fact is that, abstractly, the cowboy was wrong in forcing a - man to drink who had no desire to do so. But, on the other hand, - snobbishness is not the proper thing in this country, and sensible - men generally try, while in Rome, to do as Rome does. At any rate, - they don't make themselves offensive to the country in which they - are travelling." - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - - - - - LETTER No. XVI. - - - We leave Cheyenne—Arrival at Omaha—The barber's shop—Narrow escape - from having my head shaved—Arrival at Chicago—Niagara Falls. - - _New York, Nov., 1885._ - -I have already told you that I am not writing a book of travels, but -merely recording my impressions by the way; these have already occupied -far more space than I had ever contemplated, and as we are now -approaching the more beaten tracks of civilization, I will hasten on to -a conclusion. - -We left Cheyenne on Friday morning at 10.30, and after a continuous run -of 516 miles, we "stopped off" at Omaha for a few hours at 10.30 on -Saturday morning. Omaha is a great rambling city of 60,000 inhabitants -on the western bank of the Missouri. Council Bluffs is an equally -flourishing city on the eastern bank. - -My chief recollection of Omaha is the barber's shop whither I went to -get shaved. I had tried to shave myself in the train, but had contrived -instead to gash my cheek sufficiently to cause much bloodshed. When the -barber had finished shaving me, I asked him just to trim my hair the -least bit in the world. He was an hour and a quarter over the job, and -as I had been travelling continuously for twenty-four hours with little -or no sleep, I fell asleep under his hands. Luckily, I was woke up by an -unusual tickling at the back of my head; he was lathering me there, and -I am quite sure he meant to shave the whole of my head. - -"Confound it," I shouted; "what are you doing?" - -"I was only going to shave the back of your head," he said. - -I found to my horror that my whiskers had entirely disappeared, and he -had not only cut my hair as closely as it could be cut with a pair of -scissors, but he had run it over with a sort of small horse-clipper. I -caught him in time to stop the further operation of shaving. Judging by -the many naked polls I afterwards saw in the hotel, I concluded that it -is the fashion in Omaha to go about with your head shaved. It is a -compliment, I suppose, which those who have hair pay to the bald-headed -ones. - -The Omaha barber has quite destroyed the youthful appearance which I -flattered myself I had acquired since I have been travelling on this -Continent. - -My friend M., when I came out of that terrible barber's hands, passed me -by without knowing me; and when at last he began to have a suspicion -that the bald individual before him was I, he exclaimed, "What on earth -have you been doing? An hour and a quarter of our precious time have you -wasted in that barber's shop, and you come out like a bald-headed boiled -lobster. Our friends in Chicago, Boston, and New York certainly won't -know you." - -Time the destroyer is also a happy restorer, and now while I am writing, -a fortnight after the event, my whiskers have already given indication -of a returning crop, and my hair has grown long enough to enable me to -identify myself. I trust that after the sea voyage, and when I get home, -my wife will also be able to identify me. The rascal charged me -seventy-five cents (three shillings) for this personal disfigurement. - -I was very glad to get away from Omaha the same day at 5.30 p.m. We -travelled by the Chicago and Rock Island line, and we reached Chicago, a -distance of 500 miles, the next afternoon at three o'clock. - -On Monday it rained in torrents all day, and Tuesday was not much -better. On Tuesday night at 8.40 I started for Boston, leaving my friend -M. behind for two or three days. This was the first time we had -separated since we started together from Euston on our outward journey. - -The line I now travelled on was "The Michigan Central." About seven -o'clock next morning we reached Niagara, where the train stopped a few -minutes to give us a look at "The Falls." - -As I have no more superlative adjectives left in my vocabulary, I will -tell you what the "Michigan Central" has to say about Niagara. It far -surpasses my most sublime efforts. - - "THE NIAGARA FALLS ROUTE. - - "'So long as the waters of that mighty river thunder down to the - awful depths below, so long as the rush and roar, the surge and - foam, and prismatic spray of nature's cataphractic masterpiece - remain to delight and awe the human soul, thousands and tens of - thousands of beauty-lovers and grandeur-worshippers will journey - over the only railroad from which it can be seen. _There is but one - Niagara Falls on earth, and but one direct great railway to it._' - - "Trains stop at Falls View, near the brink of the Horseshoe Fall, - where the finest view is obtainable without leaving the cars, cross - the gorge of Niagara river on the great steel, double-track - Cantilever Bridge, the greatest triumph of modern engineering, and - connect in Union Depots, at Niagara Falls and Buffalo with the New - York Central and Hudson River, the only four-track railroad in the - world." - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - - - - - CONCLUSION. - - - _Home, Dec. 9, 1885._ - -There is no place like home, after all. On reaching Boston, I felt more -like being at home than I had ever felt since I left my own country. -Boston resembles an old English city more than any other town I have yet -visited in America. - -It is, however, no part of my plan to describe the "Hub." I think it is -Benjamin Disraeli who says somewhere that "description is always a bore -both to the describer and the describee," and I have sinned enough in -this direction already; nor have I any desire to make intrusive and -impertinent remarks about the inhabitants. I will only say that the few -days I spent in Boston were made very pleasant by the most courteous and -unostentatious hospitality. - -From the classic city I passed on to the Empire City, as New York is -sometimes called. I was told long before I left England by warmhearted -friends in New York that if I ever visited that city their utmost should -be done "to impair my digestion!" They did their best, and I hereby -declare my gratitude to them for their generous intentions. Suffice it -to say that I eventually got away from them with no more serious injury -than could be cured by a few days' tossing and rolling on the broad -Atlantic. - -Our passage was even rougher and more trying on the whole than the -outward passage had been, but we did not mind that; for were we not -homeward bound? - -I have now been at home about three weeks, and I am already beginning to -doubt whether it is an actual fact that such a stay-at-home old fixture -as I have always been, could, within the last four months, have -travelled something like fourteen thousand miles by land and sea! I am -inclined to regard that great land of my pilgrimage as altogether - - "The land of vision; it would seem - A still, an everlasting dream!" - -[Illustration] - -[Illustration] - - - - - APPENDIX. - - -The following information is supplied by the Northern Pacific Railroad -Company. - - - HOW TO OBTAIN GOVERNMENT LAND. - -There are over 40,000,000 acres of the best Government lands in America -located in the extremely fertile regions of Minnesota, North Dakota, -Montana, Northern Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, and traversed by the -Northern Pacific Railroad, open for occupancy by actual settlers. The -laws of the United States provide that citizens of the United States, or -persons who have declared their intention to become such, can obtain -lands as follows: - - - PRE-EMPTIONS. - -Heads of families, widows or single persons (male or female) over the -age of twenty-one years, who are citizens of the United States, or who -have declared their intention to become such under the naturalization -laws, may enter upon any "offered" or "unoffered" lands belonging to the -United States, or any unsurveyed lands to which the Indian title has -been extinguished, outside of the limits of any land grant, and purchase -not exceeding 160 acres under the pre-emption laws. If the tract is -"offered" land, the settler must file his "declaratory statement" in the -United States District Land Office within thirty days after making -settlement; and within one year from the date of settlement he must make -proof of actual residence on and cultivation of the land, and thereupon -purchase the same at $1.25 per acre, if outside of the limits of a -railroad land grant, and at $2.50 per acre if within railroad land grant -limits. If the tract is "unoffered" land, the settler must file his -"declaratory statement" within three months from the date of settlement, -and make final proof and payment within thirty-three months from the -date of settlement. If the tract is unsurveyed land, the declaratory -statement must be filed within three months after the approved plat of -the township is received at the United States District Land Office, and -final proof and payment must be made within thirty months after the -expiration of the said three months. A pre-emptor may submit proofs of -continuous residence at any time after six months from the date of -settlement, and obtain title to his land. The settler in possession of a -valid pre-emption claim may, at any time, convert his pre-emption claim -into a homestead. No person who abandons his residence upon land of his -own (not a town lot) to reside upon public lands in the same state or -territory, or who owns 320 acres of land in any state or territory, is -entitled to the benefits of the pre-emption laws. - - - HOMESTEADS. - -Any person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived at the age of -twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United States, or has filed -his declaration of intention to become such, is entitled to enter -one-quarter section, or less quantity of unappropriated public land, -under the homestead laws. The applicant must make affidavit that he is -entitled to the privileges of the homestead act, and that the entry is -made for his exclusive use and benefit, and for actual settlement and -cultivation, and must pay the legal fee and that part of the commissions -required as follows: Fee for 160 acres, $10; commission, $4 to $12; fee -for eighty acres, $5; commission, $2 to $6. Within six months from the -date of entry, the settler must take up his residence upon the land, and -reside thereupon and cultivate the same for five years continuously. At -the expiration of this period, or within two years thereafter, proof of -residence and cultivation must be established by four witnesses. The -proof of settlement with the certificate of the Registrar of the Land -Office is forwarded to the General Land Office at Washington, from which -patent is issued. Final proof cannot be made until the expiration of -five years from date of entry, and must be made within seven years. The -Government recognizes no sale of a homestead claim. A homestead settler -may at any time purchase the land under the pre-emption laws if desired, -upon making proof of settlement and cultivation for a period of not less -than six months from the date of entry to the time of purchase. The law -allows only one homestead privilege to any one person. - - - TIMBER CULTURE CLAIMS. - -Under the timber culture laws, public lands naturally devoid of timber -may be acquired by planting trees thereon, and keeping the same in a -healthy, growing condition for eight years. Not more than 160 acres in -any one section can be entered, and no person can enter more than 160 -acres or make more than one entry under these laws. An applicant must be -the head of a family or twenty-one years of age, and a citizen of the -United States, or he must have filed his declaration of intention to -become a citizen, as required by the naturalization laws. The Land -Office fee for an entry of more than 80 acres is $14; and for 80 acres -or less, $9; and $4 when final proof is made. Land to be entered must be -entirely devoid of timber. In order to acquire 160 acres of land, 10 -acres must be cultivated and planted with trees; 5 acres must be -cultivated and planted with trees to acquire any legal subdivision of 80 -acres; and 2½ acres to acquire any legal subdivision of 40 acres or -less. The person making entry of 160 acres is required to break or -plough five acres during the first year, and five acres during the -second year. The five acres broken or ploughed during the first year -must be cultivated to crop or otherwise during the second year, and be -planted to timber during the third year. The five acres broken or -ploughed the second year must be cultivated the third year, and planted -to timber the fourth year. For entries of less than 160 acres, a -proportionate number of acres must be ploughed, planted, cultivated and -planted to trees. These trees must be cultivated and protected for not -less than eight years; and at the expiration of that period, or within -five years thereafter, proof must be made by the claimant and two -credible witnesses, showing that there were at the time of making such -proof at least 675 living, thrifty trees on each of the ten acres -required to be planted; also that not less than 2,700 trees were planted -on each of the ten acres. Fruit-trees are not considered timber, within -the meaning of this act. Title cannot be obtained prior to the -expiration of eight years, and final proof must be made within five -years after the expiration of the said eight years. - - - DESERT LAND. - -Any person who is a citizen of the United States, or any person of -requisite age who may be entitled to become a citizen, and who has filed -his declaration to become such, may file his oath with the Registrar and -Receiver of the Land Office in the district in which any desert land is -located, that he intends to reclaim, not exceeding one section of said -land, by conducting water upon it, within three years; and by paying to -the Receiver twenty-five cents, per acre for all the land claimed, such -person may enter said land under the desert land act. At any time within -three years a patent can be obtained by making proof that he has -reclaimed said land, and paying the additional sum of $1 per acre. No -person can enter more than one tract of land, and not to exceed 640 -acres, which shall be in a compact form. This act applies to desert -lands in Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. - -Desert lands are defined by this act to be all lands, exclusive of -mineral and timber lands, which will not without irrigation produce some -agricultural crop. - -[Illustration] - -The above is a diagram of a township, with sections numbered according -to government surveys. - -A township is 6 miles square and contains 36 square miles, or 36 -sections, each section being 1 mile square, and containing 640 acres of -land. - -A quarter section is one-half mile square, 160 acres. An acre of land is -208.71 feet square, and contains 43,560 square feet. Sections 16 and 36 -in Dakota, Montana, and Washington are reserved for school purposes. - - - GOVERNMENT LAND OFFICES - - _In Districts tributary to the Northern Pacific Railroad and Allied - Lines._ - - - ─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┬───────────── - Minnesota. │ Dakota. │ Montana. │ Washington. │ Oregon. - ─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┼───────────── - St. Cloud. │Fargo. │Miles City. │Olympia. │Oregon City. - Fergus Falls.│Grand Forks. │Bozeman. │Vancouver. │Roseburg. - Crookston. │Bismarck. │Helena. │Walla Walla. │La Grande. - Duluth. │—————————————│—————————————│Spokane │Lake View. - │ │ │Falls. │ - Taylor's │ Lewiston, Idaho Ty. │North Yakima.│The Dalles. - Falls. │ │ │ - ─────────────┴───────────────────────────┴─────────────┴───────────── - -The following diagram shows the difference of time on the American -continent:— - -[Illustration: ☞ E before figures denotes time of Eastern trains W time -of Western Trains.] - - - - - INFORMATION FOR SETTLERS - - IN THE - - NORTHERN PACIFIC COUNTRY. - - - Giving Suggestions relating to Farming Implements, Fuel, Animals, - Household Goods, Lumber, Breaking New Prairie, Location of - Markets, and other valuable Information. - - The best time to come to the NORTHERN PACIFIC COUNTRY is in the - spring, but farmers can come to this favoured region at any season, - properly outfitted, and in a short time acquire a comfortable and - prosperous home. - - The breaking season extends from about May 15th to July 15th. Three - horses or mules, or two yoke of oxen, constitutes a good breaking - team for a sulky or walking plough. - - Sowing grain commences as soon as the frost is out of the ground to - the depth of a few inches. The work is generally begun about April - 1st, and completed in 10 to 15 days. Some years the grain can be put - in as early as March 20th. - - Good farm horses can be bought at from $100 to $150, according to - size, &c. Cows are worth from $25 to $40 each, and working oxen from - $90 to $125 per yoke. Standard makes of farm wagons cost $60. - Breaking costs, usually, from .50 to $3.00 per acre, and - back-setting $1.50 to $1.75. The settler opening a new farm can - always find plenty of work among his neighbours, after he has done - his own breaking and back-setting, and cut his hay. He can raise an - abundance of vegetables from the sod the first year. From 150 to 200 - bushels potatoes, and from 25 to 45 bushels of oats can be raised on - the sod the first year. Good common lumber ranges from $20 to $25 - per thousand along the line of the railroad. Car load lots, for - settlers, are carried by the railroad at the same rates given to - dealers. A good house can be built for $350 to $700. Household - goods, farm implements and working stock can be bought at reasonable - prices at St. Paul and Minneapolis, and at various points along the - road. - - Liberal provision is made by law for schools, and, in the towns and - country settlements, school-houses and churches of the several - denominations abound. The people who come to this country believe in - these institutions. - - There is an abundance of cheap fuel supplied from the great - coalfields of North Dakota and Montana, and also from the extensive - forests of Northern Minnesota, Western Montana, Northern Idaho, - Washington, and Oregon. Good water abounds all along the line of the - Northern Pacific Railroad. - - There is a combination of soil and climate in the Northern Pacific - country which makes it the most reliable and productive wheat region - in the world, and in no other section of the United States have - there been, for so many consecutive years, such bountiful crops. It - is as healthy a country as there is in America. There is always a - market for farm products at good prices. Quick and cheap - transportation is afforded by the lake port at Duluth, or by rail - direct, to the great markets of the world; while the numerous mining - camps in the RICH GOLD AND SILVER SECTION through which the Northern - Pacific Railroad passes, afford a western market at good prices. The - United States Government is also a large purchaser of oats, hay and - provisions in North Dakota and Montana for use at the various - military posts. The immense flouring mills at Minneapolis and other - points, which grind over 24,000,000 bushels of wheat a year, are - active bidders for the "No. 1 Hard" spring wheat grown along the - Northern Pacific. The great wheat belt which produces the celebrated - hard spring wheat—Scotch Fife—which is acknowledged to be superior - to any other variety grown, is traversed by the Northern Pacific - Railroad for a distance of over 600 miles, through Northern - Minnesota and North Dakota. - - Reduced rates of fare are given land seekers, and reduced rates of - fare and freight to settlers in North Dakota. - - Settlers will find people of their own nationality in the country - along the Railroad, and the Land Department employs Norwegian, - Swedish and German agents, who are ready to meet emigrants and give - them all needed information and assistance. - - There are splendid openings in this new and rapidly developing - country for carpenters, painters, blacksmiths, plumbers, shoemakers, - tailors, harness-makers, and workers at all other trades. - - It costs more per acre for manure, lime and other fertilizers - annually on many of the eastern farms than the best wheat lands in - the Northern Pacific country cost per acre. - - * * * * * - -=FREE!= For Maps and Descriptive Publications, SENT FREE OF CHARGE, and -for all information relating to lands and the Northern Pacific Country, -apply to or address - - P. B. GROAT, or CHAS. B. LAMBORN, - General Emigration Agent, Land Commissioner, - ST. PAUL, MINN. ST. PAUL, MINN. - - - - - THE BEST HOMES - - -For 10,000,000 People now await occupancy in Minnesota, North Dakota, -Montana, Northern Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. - - THE GREAT NEW NORTHERN PACIFIC COUNTRY. - -[Sidenote: 2,000,000 Families - 10,000,000 Souls!] - -Of the Great Population—no man can predict how great it will -become—which will soon inhabit this vast region, the new comers from the -older States will become the first families, and leaders, socially and -politically, in this newly opened section of the United States. They -will all become prosperous, and many will acquire fortunes in a short -period, by turning the vast wheat-producing lands, ready for the plough, -into productive farms; by stock-raising, on the immense grazing ranges; -by developing the resources of the extensive forests and mineral -districts; by engaging in various trades and manufacturing enterprises; -and by investments in the thriving new towns and other property in the -vast region opened for settlement all along the line of the - - NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. - -[Sidenote: =LANDS!=] - -Millions and Millions of Acres of low-priced Lands for sale by the -Northern Pacific Railroad Company on Easy Terms, and an equal amount of -Government lands lying in alternate sections with the railroad land, are -offered free to settlers, under the Homestead, Preemption and Tree -Culture laws. - - - - - TERMS OF SALE OF NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD LANDS. - - -Agricultural lands of the Company east of the Missouri River, in -Minnesota and North Dakota, are sold chiefly at from $4.00 to $5.00 per -acre, Grazing lands at from $3.00 to $4.00 per acre; and the preferred -stock of the Company will be received at par in payment. When lands are -purchased on five years' time, one-sixth stock or cash is required at -time of purchase, and the balance in five equal annual payments in stock -or cash, with interest at 7 per cent. - -The price of agricultural lands in North Dakota west of the Missouri -River, ranges chiefly from $3.00 to $3.50 per acre, and Grazing lands -from $2.00 to $2.50 per acre. In Montana the price ranges chiefly from -$3.00 to $5.00 per acre for Agricultural lands, and from $1.25 to $2.50 -per acre for Grazing lands. If purchased on five years' time one-sixth -cash, and the balance in five equal annual cash payments, with interest -at 7 per cent. per annum. - -The price of agricultural lands in Washington and Oregon ranges chiefly -from $2.60 to $6.00 per acre. If purchased on five years' time, -one-fifth cash. At end of first year the interest only on the unpaid -amount. One-fifth of principal and interest due at end of next four -years. Interest at 7 per cent. per annum. - -=On ten years' time.=—Actual settlers can purchase not to exceed 320 -acres of Agricultural land in Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, -Washington, and Oregon on ten years' time at 7 per cent. interest, -one-tenth cash at time of purchase and balance in nine equal annual -payments, beginning at the end of the second year. At the end of the -first year the interest only is required to be paid. Purchasers on the -ten-year credit plan are required to settle on the land purchased and to -cultivate and improve the same. - - * * * * * - -=FREE!= For Maps and Descriptive Publications, SENT FREE OF CHARGE, and -for all information relating to lands and the Northern Pacific Country, -apply to or address - - P. B. GROAT, or CHAS. B. LAMBORN, - General Emigration Agent, Land Commissioner, - ST. PAUL, MINN. ST. PAUL, MINN. - - - - - AN AMATEUR ANGLER'S DAYS IN DOVE DALE. - - - BEING AN ACCOUNT OF MY THREE WEEKS HOLIDAY IN JULY AND AUGUST, 1884. - - _Imp. 32mo. fancy boards, 1s.; limp leather-cloth, gilt edges, 1s. 6d._ - - ⁂ _Also a Large Paper Edition, printed on hand-made paper parchment - binding, price 5s._ (_all sold_). - - OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. - - =The Athenæum= says:—"This is an amusing little book, written with - much brightness and considerable literary skill." - - =The Standard=, _Dec. 24, 1884_:—"It is written in an exceptionally - bright and genial style ... his writings bespeak an intense love of - Nature and a keen power of observation. A strong vein of quiet - humour runs through the volume, mingled with thoughts sometimes - serious, sometimes playful. Altogether it is one of the most - pleasantly written little books which we have read for a long time." - - =The Daily News= says:—"Herein is the charm of the book.... For an - amateur, he certainly saturates you thoroughly with true Dove Dale - flavour." - - =The Pall Mall Gazette=:—"This is a pleasant book to read 'now that - the fields are dank and ways are mire.'" - - =The World= says:—"Not merely by brethren of the rod, but by all who - appreciate Nature in her prettiest haunts it will be found pleasant - reading." - - =The Illustrated News= says:—"This charming bit of personal - narrative ... will certainly be preserved on many a shelf where - Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton hold the most honoured place." - - =The Graphic= says:—"Written in a charming spirit, with plenty of - quiet humour in it." - - =Harper's Magazine=, _Jan. 1885_:—"He is _serus stud orum_, he is - only learning to fish, but he can write, and has made a very - charming though brief addition to angling literature." - - =The Field= says:—"Anyhow, the result of 'The Dove Dale Holidays' is - a delightful pocket companion.... The principal charm of the little - work is that it will be equally interesting to anglers and - non-anglers." - - =The St. James's Gazette=:—"Every page of it is good—a bright little - volume. Worthy of gracious acceptance from all sorts and conditions - of readers." - - =The Daily Telegraph=:—"The fisherman, who must be as pleasant a - companion by the waterside, as he is genial as an author, tells us - how he spent three weeks' holidays, &c.... may employ very - pleasantly half-an-hour of any angler's time." - - =The Guardian=, _Nov. 19_, says:—"Tells in a very pleasant fashion - how a delightful three weeks' holiday may be spent in beautiful Dove - Dale." - - =Glasgow Herald=:—"Decidedly interesting and amusing. It is - gracefully and lightly written ... he tells the story ... with much - quiet and quaint humour.... No angler should be without this - excellent little book." - - =The Whitehall Review=:—"This is one of the most charming little - books we have met with for some time." - - =The St. Stephen's Review=:—"No more charming little work than this - has been published for many a day." - - =Army and Navy Gazette=:—"A very pleasant little book." - - =Daily Chronicle=:—"An entertaining little book." - - =Civil Service Gazette=:—"This charming and interesting little - book." - - =The Bookseller=:—"A dainty little volume.... The author tells in a - most charmingly simple style.... There is much quiet humour in the - book.... The dedication is a little gem in its way." - - =The Literary World=:—"Others besides anglers will read with - interest this pleasant record of a holiday." - - =The Sunday Times= says:—"One of those charming little - _quasi-extempore_ books.... We have enjoyed a very pleasant hour in - reading." - - =The Publishers' Circular=:—"All lovers of this picturesque scenery - will welcome this fresh and natural tribute to its merits." - - =Lloyd's Weekly=:—"A genial, pleasant little book, written in the - happiest vein." - - =The Derby Mercury= says:—"We have read no pleasanter book of its - kind.... Always genial, sometimes humorous, sometimes thoughtful, - sometimes playful, and invariably readable, displaying, though - without parade, the signs of considerable culture." - - =Exeter and Plymouth Gazette=:—"This is not the sort of bookmaker - that the critic impales upon his hook. We hail him as the pleasant - companion whose pleasant chat and merry companionship will beguile - the hot hours," &c. - - =The Weekly Dispatch=:—"A dainty little book by a disciple of Izaak - Walton, who shows himself not unworthy to be named with his master, - alike for steady handling of a line and for rambling use of a neat - pen. He gossips pleasantly about the ins and outs of a corner of - Derbyshire." - - =Land and Water=:—"This is a very charming little book.... One of - the brightest which we have read for many a long day, and we look - forward to the publication of some more letters from the author." - - =Spectator=:—"He seems to have got a good deal of pleasure out of - his fishing; and something of this he is good enough to communicate - to his readers." - - =The Banner=:—"Tells most charmingly his successes as well as his - failures." - - =Decoration=:—"Out of very slight materials, by sheer charm of - style, the author has succeeded in making a very fascinating - book.... The author shows a cultured taste." - - =Warrington Guardian=:—"An entertaining series of sketches." - - =Bath Herald=:—"His descriptions of scenery and places of note are - forcible without being laboured." - - =Western Daily Mercury=:—"He is a more skilled handler of the pen - than the rod, and his letters will be read with a great deal of - pleasure, whether by anglers or by lovers of the picturesque in - nature." - - LONDON: - SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, - CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET, E C. - - - - - ON READING "DAYS IN DOVEDALE BY AN AMATEUR ANGLER." - - - I. - - Cheery, chatty, breezy booklet, - Breathing scents of wilding flowers, - Cool and clear as mountain brooklet, - Yet diffusing warmth of sunshine - Thro' these wintry hours; - - - II. - - Whence the power thy artless pages - Have to soothe my weary brain, - Killing cares that Wisdom's sages, - Plying philosophic maxims, - Reason with in vain? - - - III. - - Hence:—because, like him thou ownest - With such modest grace, thy king,[7] - To the heart that's saddest, lonest, - Needing healing, thou dost simply - Nature's simples bring. - - - IV. - - Nature's simples, God's specific, - Pure and sweet as Cana's wine, - Flowing from His hand benefic, - Fresh, by art left uncorrupted, - Living blood of vine!— - - - V. - - Making glad man's heart and lifting - From it all its weight of care, - Till its sorrows seem like drifting - Clouds that fly before the rising - Of a mountain air. - - - VI. - - Thanks for such a breeze, O writer, - Blown from thy pure page to-night! - Night without its darkness, brighter - Far than common days, for with thee - I have walked in light; - - - VII. - - Shared thy hope whilst thou hast angled, - Nor could help a laugh, to see - All thy woes with line entangled, - All thy flyless whippings, and thy - Flight from angry bee! - - - VIII. - - Felt a sympathetic sadness - With thy disappointments: seen - With delight that sight of gladness— - Age and infancy together - Romping on the green! - - - IX. - - O, with Lorna and with Alice, - Far from stir and strife of men, - Rod in hand, refill thy chalice - In the dales of Dove, and often - Prythee write again! - - COTSWOLD ISYS. - -Footnote 7: - - Izaak Walton. - -_Jun 16th, 1885._ - -[Illustration] - - CHISWICK PRESS:—C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO. - - TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. - - - - - TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES - - - 1. Added missing PART I on p. 1. - 2. Corrected quelch to gulch on p. 30. - 3. Corrected cataractic to cataphractic on p. 201. - 4. Silently corrected simple spelling, grammar, and typographical - errors. - 5. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed. - 6. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. - 7. Enclosed bold font in =equals=. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Frank's Ranche, by E. Marston - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRANK'S RANCHE *** - -***** This file should be named 52625-0.txt or 52625-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/6/2/52625/ - -Produced by Richard Tonsing, David Edwards and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This -file was produced from images generously made available -by The Internet Archive) - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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