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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75558 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+  TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
+
+  Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
+
+  This book has only one Footnote and it has been placed close to its
+  anchor [1], in Appendix A.
+
+  Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: (photo portrait of O. B. Boyd, with his signature)]
+
+
+
+
+                             CAVALRY LIFE
+
+                                  IN
+
+                            TENT AND FIELD
+
+                                  BY
+
+                      MRS. ORSEMUS BRONSON BOYD
+
+
+                               NEW YORK
+                        J. SELWIN TAIT & SONS
+                           65 FIFTH AVENUE
+                                 1894
+
+
+
+
+                           COPYRIGHT, 1894,
+
+                                  BY
+
+                      MRS. ORSEMUS BRONSON BOYD.
+
+                        _All Rights Reserved._
+
+
+                         C. J. PETERS & SON,
+                   TYPE-SETTERS AND ELECTROTYPERS,
+                            BOSTON, U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+                             CAVALRY LIFE
+
+                                  IN
+
+                           TENT AND FIELD.
+
+
+
+
+                          TO MY DEAR BROTHER
+
+                                JAMES,
+
+                     I Dedicate this Little Book
+
+           AS A FAINT TOKEN OF GRATITUDE FOR THE LOVE THAT
+                  A WHOLE LIFETIME OF DEVOTION WOULD
+                     NOT BE SUFFICIENT TO REPAY.
+
+                                                       THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+I take pleasure in directing attention to the kind and affectionate
+tribute paid my husband, Captain Orsemus Bronson Boyd, and contained
+in the Appendix of this volume. It is from the pen of a former
+classmate, the gifted writer, Colonel Richard Henry Savage.
+
+I trust my readers will not think this introduction too lengthy. The
+perusal of it seems necessary to a proper understanding of my reasons
+for describing, in the following pages, the pains, perils, and
+pleasures experienced by land and sea in the various peregrinations
+of a cavalry officer’s wife. With Colonel Savage’s testimonial it
+furnishes a completeness to the narrative that would otherwise be
+lacking.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In 1861, when every heart, both North and South, was fired by
+military ardor, two brothers, named Amos and Orsemus Boyd, lived
+in the small town of Croton, Delaware County, New York State.
+Immediately on the declaration of civil war they experienced but one
+desire—to join the Northern Army. The brothers had lost their mother
+when very young, but the stepmother their father had given them
+always endeavored to faithfully fill her place.
+
+Additions to the family circle of a tiny boy and girl had only
+cemented its happy relations. Amos and his brother were, however,
+at the ages when boys welcome any escape from a life of wearisome
+monotony. Farm life, with its endless routine of seed-time and
+harvest, stretched before them a barren horizon. But neither was old
+enough to enlist without his father’s sanction. Amos was less than
+eighteen years of age, and his brother but sixteen. Months passed
+before the father could be persuaded to give even a reluctant consent
+to the fervid desire of his sons to join the army. Finally it was
+gained, though he afterward sorely repented, and begged his wife to
+also spare him from her side, that he might accompany his boys. He
+could not endure the thought of his youthful sons departing for the
+scenes of such dangers without his sheltering presence.
+
+By what means Mrs. Boyd was induced to consent to her husband’s
+enlistment can only be understood by those who recall the loyal
+sentiments expressed by women in 1861. Our country was then aglow
+with patriotism. As in the South women gave their nearest and dearest
+to the cause, so in the North they were bereft of fathers, husbands,
+sons and brothers. In the little town of Croton every family sent at
+least one representative to the army, and many waved adieu to all
+its male members. This left to women the severe tasks of cultivating
+farms and rearing families.
+
+The young stepmother of the lads in question not only lent her
+husband to his country, but during the entire three years of his
+absence tilled and tended the farm, and so well, that on his return
+it had not only improved in appearance, but also increased in value.
+
+It requires little imagination to picture the sad parting when father
+and sons, after having enlisted in the Eighty-ninth Regiment New York
+Volunteers, left the quiet little village to join the army.
+
+The younger son was not at first permitted to act as a soldier on
+account of his youth. Allowed to carry the flag at the head of
+the command, his bravery and boldness caused his father incessant
+anxiety. At the battle of Camden, when the second color bearer fell,
+our young hero seized his flag and carried that also until the close
+of battle. For such an act of bravery General Burnside summoned him
+to headquarters, and sent him home on recruiting service.
+
+Prior to this young Boyd had been with Burnside’s expedition off Cape
+Hatteras, where for twenty-six days the soldiers had lain outside,
+shipwrecked, and obliged to subsist on raw rice alone, as no fires
+could be built. When they finally landed on Roanoke Island our young
+lads were jubilant.
+
+Orsemus took an active part in raising the One Hundred and
+Forty-fourth New York Volunteers, and for numberless acts of bravery
+was commissioned second lieutenant of Company D, September, 1862. By
+reason of the senior officers’ absence he was for months, though but
+eighteen years of age, in command of a company of soldiers in which
+his father and elder brother were enlisted men. Perhaps no incident,
+even in those stirring war times, was more unusual.
+
+The young lieutenant’s father spent much time and effort in
+endeavoring to restrain his young son’s ardor and ambition, which if
+unchecked would no doubt have resulted either in rapid promotion or
+an early grave. The lad knew no fear, and was always in the front of
+battle. His name was again and again mentioned in “General Orders”
+for “meritorious conduct.”
+
+Sadder than their home leaving was the return, two years later,
+of father and youngest boy, who went back to lay the remains of
+their eldest son and brother in the grave beside his mother. Amos
+had served his country well, and met the fate of many other brave
+soldiers.
+
+In addition to this sorrow the father constantly feared lest his
+second son should also experience a soldier’s death; and while the
+father’s heart glowed with pride at the encomiums lavished upon his
+boy’s bravery, and the merited rewards it had already received, yet
+the fear of losing him was strongest, and at that home coming a
+compromise was effected.
+
+The member of Congress from their district, desirous of finding
+an acceptable appointee to West Point, chose the gallant young
+lieutenant, who unwillingly accepted. Two years of active service had
+proved his essential fitness for the profession of arms.
+
+With a heart burdened with sorrow, and yet not entirely hopeless, the
+father of two brave sons returned alone to his regiment, and finished
+three years of service with our noble Army of the Potomac.
+
+Orsemus Boyd entered West Point in June, 1863, after having spent
+a short time in preparation. No doubt his years of service at the
+front had given the lad ideas at variance with the whims of those
+young men who had already passed their first year at the academy.
+
+Any one who has been at West Point knows that a newly appointed
+cadet, or “plebe” as he is called, is expected not only to bow before
+his superior officers in the line of duty, but is compelled to endure
+all slights and snubs that any cadet chooses to impose. In 1863 the
+discipline in that respect was excessive.
+
+The result, in the case of Mr. Boyd, was that he became unpopular
+for refusing to submit to many annoyances. The climax was reached
+when, after having fought with one cadet and come out the victor,
+he refused—having demonstrated his courage and ability—to fight
+with another, a man who had criticised the language used in the
+heat of battle, and was consequently dubbed a coward. This, though
+exceedingly trying to a person of his sensitive nature, was endured
+with the same patience as were subsequent trials.
+
+After the furlough year, which comes when the first long two years
+of cadet life have passed, Mr. Boyd returned to West Point from that
+most desired leave of absence, with renewed hope and courage. Two
+months spent in his boyhood’s home, cheered and strengthened by the
+love of many friends, enabled him to go back animated by fullest
+intentions to ignore all disagreeables and calmly prepare for a life
+of usefulness. But it was not to be.
+
+Shortly after Mr. Boyd’s return he missed sums of money brought from
+home, but said nothing about it, as he had few confidants and was
+naturally reticent.
+
+In the same class with Mr. Boyd was a man who had entered West Point
+at the avowed age of twenty-five, though undoubtedly much older,
+as his appearance indicated. During war time the extreme of age
+for admission there, which before and since was and is limited to
+twenty-two years, had been extended to twenty-five. This was done
+in order to permit young men who had achieved distinction in real
+warfare the opportunity of acquiring a military education. So this
+man, named Casey, had entered at the acknowledged age of twenty-five.
+
+He was absolutely impecunious, and belonged to an Irish family in
+very humble circumstances. Mr. Boyd’s parents, whose ancestors had
+fought in the Revolutionary War, were of pure and unadulterated
+American origin. Yet the superior age and cunning of the elder man
+unfitted the younger to cope with him. Always open and above board,
+Mr. Boyd neither knew nor expected tricks of any kind, and hence was
+not prepared to meet them.
+
+Mr. Casey was compelled to procure money at all hazards. Before
+entering West Point he had married. That fact, if known, would have
+dismissed him at once from the academy, in accordance with the laws
+governing that institution, which permit no cadet to marry. It
+therefore became the object of Casey’s life to conceal all knowledge
+of that which, if known, would have proved a potent factor in his
+downfall. Consumed with ambition and the desire to reach distinction
+in every social way, he assiduously cultivated the acquaintance of
+all cadets who could in any manner help him upward.
+
+In the academy at that time were several cadets, sons of very wealthy
+parents, who, contrary to West Point rules, kept in their rooms at
+barracks large sums of money. That was Casey’s opportunity, for
+he had constant need of it with which to silence the wife who had
+threatened his exposure. So great was the confidence of the academy
+classmates in each other that the money was simply placed in a trunk,
+to which all the clique had free access, and used as a general fund.
+
+Government supplies cadets with all necessary articles, therefore
+only luxuries need be purchased, and the limit of these is much
+reduced by the absence of stores. So even to those generous young men
+the disappearance of money in large sums became puzzling, and led to
+inquiries which developed into suspicions, and a plan was formed to
+mark some of the bills, and thus discover the evil-doer. Mr. Boyd,
+by reason of his unpopularity, was unaware of these movements, and he
+had told no one of his own losses.
+
+The cadets had informed their immediate commandant that money was
+constantly being stolen in the corps. Aghast at such a state of
+affairs, he had authorized and selected a committee of eight—two
+from among the eldest members of each company—to find and punish the
+thief. In an unguarded moment the commandant had said:
+
+“If you find the offender, you can deal with him as you deem
+advisable.”
+
+The most prominent member of the committee was Casey, himself the
+real culprit. After a perfunctory search through quarters occupied by
+other cadets, they reached Mr. Boyd’s, and found nothing to reward
+their efforts. At that juncture Casey glanced upward at a pile of
+books lying on some shelves, and said:
+
+“Let us look in that large dictionary.”
+
+None but a crowd of frantic boys could have failed to have observed
+how promptly he had selected the veritable book in which the money
+was found, where subsequent events, as well as his dying confession,
+proved he had himself placed it.
+
+Casey’s room, shared with Cadet Hamilton, was directly opposite that
+occupied by Mr. Boyd, who roomed alone because of his unpopularity.
+Mr. Boyd’s room was so unguarded and accessible, that no doubt Casey
+had frequently entered it and taken money from the man whom he now
+accused. Casey had skillfully sought to direct suspicion in every way
+toward Mr. Boyd. Long had he wielded his baleful influence, to which,
+though no one had observed it, all had succumbed.
+
+The search took place at noon, when the main body of the corps were
+at dinner. On Mr. Boyd’s return to his room he found it filled with
+cadets, who madly accused him of the crime. White with horror and
+shame unspeakable, he answered their charges in a way which would
+have convinced any judge of human nature that he was entirely
+innocent. Sinking to his knees, and raising his eyes to heaven, he
+said:
+
+“By the memory of my dead mother I swear I know nothing whatever of
+this money!”
+
+To any one who knew the young man’s tender, brave soul, and how
+hallowed was the memory of his mother, that avowal would have
+sufficed. But it was not an occasion for calm and deliberate
+judgment. The supposed culprit had at last been found, and he was in
+the hands of Philistines. No thought of mercy impelled any of those
+young men to hesitate in their cruelty. With brute force—eight men to
+one man—they placed Mr. Boyd in confinement until later in the day,
+when at dress parade they could publicly and brutally disgrace him.
+
+I now quote, from a published account by an eye-witness, the scene
+which followed:
+
+  “It was a cold, sad, lusterless day. The air was full of snow
+  and the cold was bitter. Orders were given to fall into ranks
+  in the area of barracks for undress parade. The cadet adjutant
+  commanded: ‘Parade Rest.’ After a pause he continued: ‘Cadet
+  captains will place themselves opposite their respective company
+  fronts, and arrest any man who leaves the ranks.’
+
+  “There was an interval of the most profound stillness. Then above
+  the wind’s howling came the sound of tramping feet. Across the
+  broad porch of the barracks and down the steps came four cadets,
+  bearing between them a man’s form. They advanced along the
+  battalion’s front. As they turned, the adjutant raised his right
+  hand, and forthwith the drums and fifes beat and wailed out,
+  in unmelodious and unearthly harmony, the terrible tune of the
+  ‘Rogue’s March.’
+
+  “On they came; and now I saw affixed to that man’s breast a large
+  white placard, and on it the words: ‘COWARD!’ ‘LIAR!’ ‘THIEF!’
+  The face above the words was marble white as the face of the
+  dead, but the wild, staring, blood-red eyes seemed to wail and
+  shrink in their horrible misery.
+
+  “The four cadets passed along the full length of the battalion,
+  and with their victim turned down the slope beyond the buildings
+  and disappeared.”
+
+On their way to the South Dock the persecuted man broke away from his
+accusers, but was warned to “beware” how he “ever set foot again
+upon West Point,” and threatened with yet worse treatment should he
+do so.
+
+General Cullum was then in command at West Point. On that particular
+evening he was returning from the direction of the dock toward which
+those heartless cadets had driven Mr. Boyd, when he met the young man
+face to face. Amazed at the temerity of a cadet who could boldly face
+him in civilian’s attire, he halted and said:
+
+“What do you mean, sir? Return at once to your quarters!”
+
+The general’s first and most natural thought was that Mr. Boyd had
+dressed himself in civilian’s clothes, and was stealing off the post
+in search of amusement. But a second glance showed him a face full
+of grief and shame—a countenance on which utter woe was depicted.
+He took the young man at once to his own quarters, questioned him,
+and found to his dismay that the cadets had perpetrated a most
+unprecedented and cruel outrage.
+
+General Cullum determined then and there that the matter should be
+sifted to the bottom. Mr. Boyd was to be tried, and proven either
+guilty or guiltless. His father was sent for, and the son allowed to
+return home pending the investigation.
+
+What greater sorrow can be imagined than that which then fell upon
+this sorely stricken family? A young man who had faced the enemy’s
+fire again and again, who had already won his shoulder-straps in
+the very front of war’s alarms, to be charged with petty thievery,
+untruth, and cowardice! His stepmother said:
+
+“Had our son been accused of fighting hastily, perhaps too readily,
+I could have believed him guilty. But for the sake of money Orsemus
+never could have done wrong.”
+
+Mr. Boyd had been supplied by his father with all the money he
+wanted, and at his own request an account kept of it, which showed
+that before this episode he had spent three hundred dollars—a large
+sum in a place like West Point, where every need is supplied by
+government.
+
+The court of inquiry instituted by General Cullum resulted in a
+verdict of “not guilty.” In the eyes of the cadets, whose insensate
+cruelty had warped their judgment, it was simply a Scotch verdict of
+“not proven;” and, though acquitted, the defendant was thenceforth a
+disgraced and dishonored man.
+
+Mr. Boyd remained at the academy nearly two years longer, until his
+graduation in June, 1867. During all that time he was completely
+ostracized, and, with one, or possibly two exceptions, never
+exchanged one word with any cadet, all of whom regarded him as a
+coward. But none can contemplate such a life without marveling at its
+wonderful courage. Mr. Boyd had determined to graduate with honor,
+and thus show the world that he possessed such bravery as would not
+allow false charges to ruin his whole career.
+
+I was introduced to him in 1866, and before our meeting had heard
+the whole story. The first look into his frank and manly countenance
+made me from that moment his stanch and true advocate. I was then
+attending school in New York, but finished in July, and we were
+married in October, three months after Mr. Boyd graduated.
+
+Then began the hardships born of that West Point episode. Of course
+such bitter and terrible wrongs could not have been done a sensitive
+man without their affecting his whole life. To this may be attributed
+Mr. Boyd’s desire to go West, and there remain.
+
+It engendered in him a great unwillingness to demand even his just
+dues; and when he was ordered to leave California at a day’s notice,
+and given no proper transportation, he submitted without a murmur. As
+I shared all those hardships, and shall always feel their effects,
+I have no hesitancy in saying that I attribute them all to the West
+Point wrong and injury.
+
+Mr. Boyd could have entered the artillery branch of the service had
+he not longed to escape all reminders of that terrible experience,
+and so chose the Eighth Cavalry, which was stationed on the Pacific
+coast.
+
+The subsequent hardships endured were due not only to the crude state
+of affairs at the West in those days, but also to the crushed spirit
+which so much injustice had engendered in my husband. He could not
+bear to ask favors, and be, perhaps, refused. Mr. Boyd even shrank
+at first from his fellow-officers. I know that no enlisted man’s
+wife was ever exposed to more or severer perils than was the young
+school-girl from New York City; and I consider them the direct result
+of those sad years at West Point.
+
+Mr. Boyd was always selected in after-years to handle the funds at
+every post where we were stationed, which distinctly showed how
+his honor was regarded by men competent to judge. But it resulted
+in countless expeditions that were both hazardous and expensive.
+He was sent by General Pope to build Fort Bayard because of his
+incorruptible honesty; but to be so constantly changing stations
+added greatly to our hardships.
+
+“Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” A singular
+evidence of the truth and justice of this text is shown in the meting
+out to those eight misguided young men of sorrow, misery, and sudden
+death, which seems to me a return for their attempted sacrifice of
+the career and honor of a gallant and innocent man. The roll is a
+terrible one. Casey, after confessing his crime, concealed it, aided
+and abetted by Hamilton. In less than a year after his apparently
+honorable graduation, he was shot by one of his own soldiers. Of the
+remainder, two committed suicide, one was murdered, one butchered by
+Modoc Indians; while family sorrow, bankruptcy, and disappointment or
+untimely death have caused the rest to mournfully regret their early
+hastiness and error of judgment, and the acts of gross cruelty which
+sprang therefrom.
+
+                                                           THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+
+
+CAVALRY LIFE.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+Whether or not these personal reminiscences will interest the public
+remains to be determined; for one thing the narrator can vouch,
+and that is they are not in the least exaggerated. Several army
+experiences have of late been printed, and when in recounting mine I
+have often been asked to write them, it was not, as I then thought,
+for the purpose of publication; although, as they have been unusual,
+to say the least, I have been tempted to do so; and now that the
+whole course of my life has been changed I have reasons for issuing
+this book which may perhaps plead my excuse should the narrative
+prove uninteresting to some.
+
+The army world, though a small one, yet extends over a large
+amount of territory. My experience of it, previous to marriage,
+consisted in seeing, entirely at its best, beautiful West Point,
+which I considered a fair type of every army post; so when I
+married, immediately after his graduation from there, a young second
+lieutenant, I thought that however far we might travel such a home
+would always be found at our journey’s end.
+
+My husband, previous to his four years at West Point, as narrated
+in the preface, had been a soldier for two years in the War of the
+Rebellion, where he had so signalized himself by bravery that friends
+united in urging his father to remove the lad from the perilous
+surroundings of active warfare, and permit him to be educated in the
+profession for which he had shown such a decided talent. He was at
+that time but eighteen years old, and was probably the only man of
+that age who ever commanded a company in which his father and brother
+were enlisted men.
+
+Mr. Boyd’s previous career causing him to prefer the cavalry branch
+of the service, application was therefore made for that; so when
+appointed he was ordered to San Francisco. Not knowing whence from
+there he would be sent, as some of the companies of his regiment were
+in Nevada, some in Arizona, and others in California, it was deemed
+unwise for me to accompany him, so I remained in New York.
+
+We had been married but two days, and it seemed to me as if San
+Francisco was as far away as China, particularly as there was then no
+trans-continental railroad. Besides, I had lived in New York City all
+my life, and considered it the only habitable place on the globe.
+
+When Mr. Boyd reached San Francisco he was assigned to a station in
+Nevada, which was so remote, and there appeared to be so little hope
+for any comfortable habitation, that he wrote me the prospect for my
+journey was very indefinite.
+
+However, with the hopefulness of youth, he counted on a far more
+speedy accomplishment of his desires than anything in the nature of
+the situation seemed to warrant. The troops had been sent, as a sort
+of advance guard and protective force for the contemplated Pacific
+Railroad, to a point in the very eastern part of Nevada. The camp was
+named “Halleck,” in honor of General Halleck, and the accommodations
+were so limited that ladies were hardly needed, except to emphasize
+the limitations. Although it was well understood that I could not be
+comfortably located until summer, yet no second hint was needed when
+in mid-winter my husband wrote that I might come at least as far as
+San Francisco.
+
+In the middle of January I left New York on one of the fine steamers
+of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. The three weeks _en route_
+were delightful, and the change from bleak, cold winter to the
+tropical scenes of Panama, and thence to the soft and balmy air of
+the Pacific, was so exhilarating that travel was simply a continuous
+pleasure.
+
+Upon reaching San Francisco, nothing seemed more natural than that I
+should press on, in spite of the protestations of friends, who said
+that the Sierra Nevada Mountains were impassable at that season, and
+who predicted all sorts of mishaps. Nothing daunted, I determined at
+least to try, and so took steamer for Sacramento, and from thence
+train to Cisco, at the foot of the mountains, and the then terminus
+of the Pacific Railway. After leaving the train we continued our
+journey on sleds, in the midst of a blinding snow-storm, that
+compelled us to envelop our heads in blankets.
+
+The snow, however, did not last many miles, and we were soon
+transferred to the regular stage-coach, a large vehicle with
+thorough-braces instead of springs, and a roomy interior which
+suggested comfort. Alas! only suggested! Possibly no greater
+discomfort could have been endured than my companion and self
+underwent that night. Those old-fashioned stage-coaches for
+mountain travel were intended to be well filled inside, and well
+packed outside. But it so happened that instead of the usual full
+complement of passengers, one other woman and myself were all.
+
+A pen far more expert than mine would be required to do justice to
+the horrors of that night. Though we had left Cisco at noon, we did
+not reach Virginia City, on the other side of the mountains, until
+ten o’clock next morning. As long as daylight lasted we watched in
+amazement those wonderful mountains, which should have been called
+“Rocky,” for they have enormous precipices and rocky elevations at
+many points; from the highest we gazed down into ravines at least
+fifteen hundred feet below, and shuddered again and again.
+
+One point, called Cape Horn, a bold promontory, is famous, and as
+great a terror to stage-drivers as is the cape from which it takes
+its name to navigators. We peered into endless precipices, down which
+we momentarily expected to be launched, for the seeming recklessness
+of our driver and extreme narrowness of the roads made such a fate
+appear imminent.
+
+Our alarm did not permit us to duly appreciate the scenery’s
+magnificent grandeur; besides, every possible effort was required to
+keep from being tossed about like balls. We did not expect to find
+ourselves alive in the morning, and passed the entire night holding
+on to anything that promised stability. An ordinary posture was quite
+impossible: we had either to brace ourselves by placing both feet
+against the sides of the vehicle, or seize upon every strap within
+reach.
+
+Long before morning all devices, except the extreme one of lying flat
+on the bottom of the coach and resigning ourselves to the inevitable,
+had failed. Every muscle ached with the strain that had been required
+to keep from being bruised by the constant bumping, and even then we
+had by no means escaped.
+
+We had supped at Donner Lake, a beautiful spot in the very heart of
+the mountains, made famous by the frightful sufferings of the Donner
+party, which had given the lake its name, and which has been so well
+described by Bret Harte in “Gabriel Conroy,” that a passing mention
+will suffice. It proved an unfortunate prelude to our eventful night;
+for in the midst of our own sufferings we were compelled to think of
+what might befall us if we, like that ill-fated party, should be left
+to the mercy of those grand but cruel mountains, which already seemed
+so relentless in their embrace that although haste meant torture yet
+we longed to see the last of them.
+
+The bright sun shone high overhead long before we reached Virginia
+City, where I saw for the first time a real mining-town. It is not my
+purpose to describe what has been so ably done by others, but simply
+confine myself to personal experiences; and I will, therefore, merely
+state that I gladly left Virginia City, knowing that soon after
+we should emerge from mountain roads, and on level plains be less
+tortured.
+
+We were not, however, quite prepared for the method that made jolting
+impossible, and which, being the very extreme of our previous
+night’s journey, was almost equally unendurable. On leaving the
+breakfast-table at Virginia City, we were greatly surprised to find
+our coach almost full of passengers; but we climbed in, and for five
+days and nights were carried onward without the slightest change of
+any sort. There was a front and back seat, and between the two a
+middle one, which faced the back that we occupied. Whenever in the
+course of the succeeding five days and nights it was needful to move
+even our feet, we could only do so by asking our _vis-à-vis_ to move
+his at the same time, as there was not one inch of space unoccupied.
+
+The rough frontiersmen who were our fellow-passengers tried in
+every way to make our situation more endurable. After we had sat
+bolt upright for two days and nights, vainly trying to snatch a few
+moments’ sleep, which the constant lurching of the stage rendered
+impossible, the two men directly facing us proposed, with many
+apologies, that we should allow them to lay folded blankets on their
+laps, when, by leaning forward and laying our heads on the rests thus
+provided, our weary brains might find some relief. We gratefully
+assented, only to find, however, that the unnatural position rendered
+sleep impossible, so decided to bear our hardships as best we could
+until released by time.
+
+Our only respite was when the stage stopped for refreshments; but
+as we experienced all the mishaps consequent upon a journey in
+mid-winter, such as deep, clinging mud, which made regular progress
+impossible, we frequently found that meals were conspicuous by
+their absence; or we breakfasted at midnight and dined in the early
+morning. The food was of the sort all frontier travelers have
+eaten—biscuits almost green with saleratus, and meats sodden with
+grease, which disguised their natural flavors so completely that I
+often wondered what animals of the prairies were represented.
+
+The names of our stopping-places were pretentious to such a degree
+that days passed before I was able to believe such grand titles
+could be personated by so little. I also noticed that a particularly
+forbidding exterior, and interior as well, would be called by the
+most high sounding name.
+
+Alas for my hopes of escape from mountain travel! How gladly would
+I have welcomed some mountains instead of the endless monotony of
+that prairie! Nevada is particularly noted for the entire absence
+of trees, and the presence of a low, uninteresting shrub called
+sage-brush. It looks exactly as the name indicates, is a dingy
+sage-green in color, and, with the exception of a bush somewhat
+darker in hue and called grease-wood because it burns so readily,
+nothing else could be seen, not only for miles and miles, but day
+after day, until the weary eye longed for change. At dusk imagination
+compelled me to regard those countless bushes as flocks of sheep, so
+similar did they appear in the dim light, and I was unable to divest
+my mind of that idea during our entire stay in Nevada.
+
+With such a state of affairs sleep was out of the question, and
+consequently nights seemed endless. I considered myself fortunate
+in having an end seat, and often counted the revolutions of the
+wheels until they appeared to turn more and more slowly, when I would
+propound that frequent query which always enraged the driver:
+
+“How long before we reach the next station?”
+
+I remember one night we made eight miles in fifteen hours, and the
+next day fifteen miles in eight hours. Both seemed wearily slow; but
+according to our driver the roads were to blame.
+
+That night the monotony was relieved by what we considered a very
+pleasing incident, as it afforded some excitement. A rather small pig
+decided to accompany us, and some of the passengers made our driver
+frantic by betting on piggy winning the race: as a fact, he did reach
+the station first. I felt quite dejected at having to leave him
+there; for in our lonely journey we longed for companions in misery,
+and he seemed very miserable during that weary night.
+
+Notwithstanding the level monotony of the country, we were constantly
+being brought up short by gullies which crossed our road. The
+sensation was akin to that one experiences when arrested by the
+so-called “thank-you-mums,” met with in Eastern rural districts.
+
+As the very tiniest streams in the West are designated rivers, we
+were always expecting, only to be disappointed, great things in that
+line. At last, when we reached Austin, and saw that the Reese River
+could be stepped across, all expectations of future greatness in the
+way of rivers were relinquished.
+
+Austin, at that time a very small mining-town, was so insignificant
+as to be regarded as merely a mile-stone on the journey. We gladly
+left it to continue our travels, which soon became less monotonous by
+reason of low mountains that we crossed in the night, before reaching
+what I had hoped was to be the end of my long stage-ride.
+
+Mr. Boyd had arrived first at the military camp at Ruby, where
+we remained two days to rest before continuing our journey. This
+was necessary, as the loss of sleep for five long nights had so
+prostrated me that when I found myself in a recumbent position,
+consciousness to all outside surroundings was so completely lost that
+the intervening day and night were entirely blotted out.
+
+I no longer felt particularly young. Experience and the loss of sleep
+had aged me. Yet knowing that the years which had passed over my head
+were as few as were consistent with the dignity of a married woman,
+I was taken quite aback when one of the employees connected with the
+stage station asked my husband:
+
+“How did the old woman stand the trip?”
+
+I listened intently for his answer, fully expecting to hear the man
+severely rebuked, if not laid flat; but Mr. Boyd understood human
+nature better than I, and in the most polite tones replied:
+
+“Thank you, very well indeed.”
+
+We were then within about one hundred miles of our destination, Fort
+Halleck, Nevada, and the remainder of our journey was to be made
+in an entirely different vehicle from the stage-coach—a government
+ambulance, and in this case the most uncomfortable one I have ever
+seen. Many are delightful; but that was an old, worthless affair,
+and instead of the usual comfortable cross seats had long side
+ones, which covered with slippery leather made security of position
+impossible. My trunk was first placed inside, then a huge bundle of
+forage, which left only room for two people near the door.
+
+We jogged on monotonously the first day, seeing the same scenery:
+it seemed to me a duplicate of that looked upon for days past. Very
+thankful I was, however, for the absence of any steep hills; for
+we fully expected, at the first climb, to be buried under my own
+huge trunk, which appeared to have as great a tendency to shift its
+position as I had.
+
+Instead of feeling a womanly pride in the possession of an abundant
+wardrobe, I ruefully wished most of it had been left behind, more
+especially as the stage company charged a dollar for each pound of
+its weight. The combined amount of this and my stage fare was just
+two hundred and fifty dollars. As my fare by steamer had been exactly
+that amount, I had, before reaching my husband, disposed of five
+hundred dollars, in return for which five seemingly endless days and
+sleepless nights of tiresome travel had been endured, together with
+many bumps and bruises.
+
+One of the objects I have in writing these adventures is to show how
+an army officer is compelled to part with all he obtains from the
+government in paying expenses incurred by endless journeys through
+newly settled countries.
+
+But to resume our ambulance trip. As night approached the motion
+ceased, and I doubt if mortal was ever more amazed than I when told
+we were to go no farther. Not a sign of habitation was in sight!
+Nothing but broad plains surrounded us on all sides! Not even a tree
+could be seen, and the four mules had to be hitched to our ambulance
+wheels, as tiny bushes were not, of course, available for such a
+purpose. A fire was made of grease-wood, a piece of bacon broiled on
+the coals, and a huge pot of coffee served in quart tin cups, which
+is the only way soldiers condescend to drink it, as no less amount
+will suffice, coffee being their greatest solace on long marches.
+
+That, my first real experience in camping out, was indeed novel. The
+knowledge that except one tiny dot in the wilderness—our ambulance—we
+had no resting-place, gave me a curiously homeless feeling that was
+indeed cheerless.
+
+When, a little later, we sought our couch, it proved to be anything
+but downy. My trunk and the forage had been taken out, and the seats,
+always made as in a sleeping-car so that the backs let down, formed
+the bed. It was not, however, altogether uncomfortable, as we had
+plenty of blankets.
+
+Soon after falling asleep I was awakened by what seemed to be a
+complete upheaval of our couch. I was thoroughly terrified and
+prepared for almost anything; but examination showed that our alarm
+was caused by one of the mules, that had worked his way under
+our ambulance, and in attempting to rise had almost upset it. A
+readjustment of the lines by which a mule was tied to each wheel
+somewhat reassured me; but those playful attempts to either upset or
+drag our extemporized couch in any direction in which the mules felt
+inclined to go, resulted in our passing a restless night. Sometimes
+one mule would be seized with an ambitious desire to break away;
+this would rouse the other three, who would each in turn attempt
+to stampede, and but for the driver’s timely assistance it is
+difficult to state what might have happened, as our vehicle was not
+sufficiently strong to withstand such violent wrenches.
+
+When morning dawned we resumed our march, and great was my joy on
+learning that we would have four walls around us during the two
+succeeding nights. I was, however, rather startled to find myself
+disturbing so many that evening, for when we reached the little log
+hut that was to shelter us, it proved to be, though but eighteen
+feet square, the abode of ten men. In all the log cabins at which
+we stopped a bed occupied one corner of their only room. Those beds
+were, of course, only rough bunks of unplaned pine timber; but by
+reason of being raised above the mud floors formed very desirable
+resting-places.
+
+The almost chivalrous kindness of frontiersmen has become proverbial
+with women who have traveled alone in the far West, where the
+presence of any member of the sex is so rare the sight of one seems
+to remind each man that he once had a mother, and no attention
+which can be shown is ever too great. When, therefore, our hosts
+saw my reluctance to deprive them of what must have been occupied
+by at least two of their number, they assured me I would confer a
+favor by accepting the proffered hospitality. Although shrinking
+from the proximity of so many men, yet remembering my shaky bed of
+the previous night, I was glad to find refuge behind the improvised
+curtains which they deftly arranged.
+
+It seemed indeed odd on this and succeeding nights to see huge,
+stalwart men preparing food, baking the inevitable biscuits in Dutch
+ovens over the coals in open fireplaces, and being so well pleased if
+we seemed to enjoy what was placed before us.
+
+Our next day’s journey was diversified by the discovery that our
+vehicle was like the famous one-horse shay, likely to drop in pieces;
+indeed, we had twice to send back several miles for the tires,
+which had parted company with their wheels. Such a condition of our
+conveyance, coupled with several other mishaps, led us to feel very
+dubious as to our destination being eventually reached in safety.
+
+On arriving at the cabin in which our third night was to be passed,
+we found it occupied by fifteen men. As usual, we were ensconced
+in the only bed. I tried to feel doubly protected, instead of
+embarrassed, by the vicinity of so many men; nor did I consider it
+necessary to peer about in an effort to learn how they disposed of
+themselves. I well knew it was too cold to admit of any sleeping
+outside. Being startled by some noise in the night, I drew back the
+curtains, and looked on a scene not soon to be forgotten. Not only
+were the men ranged in rows before us, but the number of sleepers had
+been augmented by at least six dogs, which had crept in for shelter
+from what I found in the morning was a severe snow-storm, that
+covered the ground to the depth of ten inches or more.
+
+On the last day of that long journey I arose, feeling particularly
+happy at the prospect of soon reaching our destination; and even the
+sight of snow did not disconcert me, as I reasoned that we were to
+ride in a covered vehicle, and with only twenty miles to traverse had
+nothing to fear.
+
+Though all might have gone well had our ambulance been strong,
+but two miles of the distance had been covered when we sank in an
+enormous snow-drift. Our mules had wandered from the road into a deep
+gully, and in trying to pull us out succeeded in extricating only the
+front wheels of the wagon, so farther progress in that vehicle was
+quite impossible. Nothing could be done except call upon our friends
+of the past night for assistance, which they promptly rendered,
+sending us their only wagon—an open, springless one—which seemed so
+exposed they begged me to return to the cabin. But my anxiety to
+reach our journey’s end was by that time so great I would have tried
+to walk could no other mode of procedure have been found.
+
+So, seated in the very center of the wagon, with as much protection
+as our blankets could afford, we rode the remaining eighteen miles,
+snow falling continually and rendering it impossible to distinguish
+the road. Travel under such conditions, and especially in a
+springless conveyance, made our previous jaunt over mountains fade
+into insignificance.
+
+The day seemed endless; and though at first I kept shaking off the
+snow, yet when we reached our destination, after riding for twelve
+long hours, I had become so worn and weary as to no longer care, and
+was almost buried beneath it.
+
+It is always the last straw which breaks the camel’s back, and that,
+the last day of our journey, was the first on which I had felt
+discouraged; in spite of constant efforts I finally succumbed to our
+doleful surroundings, and in tears was lifted out and carried into
+what proved to be my home for the next year.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+When courage to look around had at last been mustered, I found
+that my new home was formed of two wall tents pitched together so
+the inner one could be used as a sleeping and the outer one as a
+sitting room. A calico curtain divided them, and a carpet made of
+barley sacks covered the floor. In my weary state of mind and body
+the effect produced was far from pleasant. The wall tents were only
+eight feet square, and when windowless and doorless except for one
+entrance, as were those, they seemed from the inside much like a
+prison.
+
+As I lay in bed that night, feeling decidedly homesick, familiar
+airs, played upon a very good piano, suddenly sounded in my ears.
+It seemed impossible that there could be a fine musical instrument
+such a distance from civilization, particularly when I remembered
+the roads over which we had come, and the cluster of tents that
+alone represented human habitation. The piano, which I soon learned
+belonged to our captain’s wife, added greatly to her happiness,
+and also to the pleasure of us all, though its first strains only
+intensified my homesick longings.
+
+This lady and myself were the only women at the post, which
+also included, besides our respective husbands, the doctor and
+an unmarried first lieutenant. The latter, as quartermaster and
+commissary, controlled all supplies, and could make us either
+comfortable or the reverse, as he chose.
+
+Shortly afterward another company of soldiers, embracing one married
+officer and two unmarried ones, joined us; but at first our troop of
+cavalry was all. The men, instead of living in tents, were quartered
+in dugouts, which, as their name implies, were holes dug in the
+ground, warm enough, but to my unaccustomed eyes places in which only
+animals should have been sheltered, so forbidding and dingy did they
+seem. The soldiers were not, however, destined to spend the summer in
+such accommodations, for by that time very comfortable barracks had
+been erected.
+
+As everything in the life I then led was new and strange, and
+surroundings have always powerfully influenced me, I took note
+of many things which it seemed should have been remedied. One
+which greatly troubled me was the power extremely young officers
+exercised over enlisted men. If the latter were in the least unruly,
+most fearful punishment awaited them, which in my opinion was not
+commensurate with the offense, but depended entirely upon the mercy
+and justice of the offender’s superior officer, who usually but a boy
+himself had most rigid ideas of discipline.
+
+I have always noticed how years temper judgment with any one in
+authority, and thus have come to believe that no very young man
+is capable of wielding it. Situated as we were in tents, so the
+slightest sound could be heard, we were made aware of all that
+transpired outside. When an enlisted man transgressed some rule and
+was severely punished, I always became frantic, for his outcries
+reached my ears, and I recognized the injustice and impropriety of
+some mere boy exercising cruel authority over any man old enough to
+be his father.
+
+Methods have completely changed in the army since that time, and I am
+glad to state that for many years past such scenes as then wrung my
+heart have been unknown; but in those days our military organization
+was so crude many things were permitted which are now scarcely
+remembered by any one. Our soldiers, recruited from the Pacific
+coast, then famous for the demoralized state of its poorer classes,
+were indeed in need of firm discipline; but it required men with more
+experience than those young officers possessed to wield it.
+
+I always have had, and always shall have, a tender, sympathetic
+feeling for American soldiers. In fact, most of the kindly help which
+made life on the frontier endurable to me came from those men. We
+were never able to procure domestic help; it was simply out of the
+question, and for years it would have been necessary for me either to
+have cooked or starved but for their ever-ready service.
+
+To cook in a modern kitchen, or even in an ancient one, is not so
+dreadful; but to cook amid the discomforts and inconveniences which
+surrounded me for many years would have been impossible to any
+delicately nurtured woman. I recall the delight with which an offer
+of help from a soldier in that, my first effort at housekeeping,
+was welcomed. Although I soon became the slave of my cook’s whims,
+because of my utter inexperience and ignorance, yet his forethought
+when the floor was soaked with rain in always having a large adobe
+brick heated ready to be placed under my feet when dining, will never
+be forgotten.
+
+The greatest proof of devotion I ever received was when that man,
+learning that the laundress declined longer employing her services in
+our behalf, saw me preparing to essay the task myself. To prevent
+that he rose sufficiently early to do the work, and continued the
+practice so long as we remained there, despite the fact that it
+subjected him to ridicule from other soldiers; and so sensitive
+was he in regard to the subject that I never unexpectedly entered
+the kitchen while he was ironing without noticing his endeavors to
+hastily remove all trace of such occupation.
+
+As the season was severe—the thermometer during that and the
+succeeding winter frequently fell to thirty-three degrees below
+zero—a large stove had been placed in the outer tent, and a huge
+fireplace built in the inner one. A large pine bunk, forming a
+double bed, occupied nearly all the spare space, and left only just
+room enough in front of the fire to seat one’s self, and also to
+accommodate the tiniest shelf for toilet purposes. It therefore
+required constant watchfulness to avoid setting one’s clothing on
+fire; and among other ludicrous occurrences was the following:
+
+In our inability to find suitable places for necessary articles, we
+were apt to use most inappropriate ones. On the occasion referred
+to, a lighted candle had been placed on the bed, where my husband
+seated himself without noticing the candle. Soon arose the accustomed
+smell of burning, and I executed my usual maneuver of turning about
+in front of the fire to see if my draperies had caught. The odor of
+burning continued to increase, yet I could find no occasion for it.
+
+The cause, however, was discovered when I leaned over the bed, and
+saw that a large hole had been burned in the center of Mr. Boyd’s
+only uniform coat. He had been too intent on shielding me to be
+conscious of his own peril. It was an accident much to be regretted,
+for our isolation was so complete that any loss, however trifling,
+seemed irreparable by reason of our remoteness from supplies. A
+lengthened account of our difficulties in procuring needed articles
+during this and many subsequent years would seem incredible.
+
+I had been delighted to purchase, at the stage station where we
+stopped previous to our one hundred miles’ ambulance trip, and for
+exactly the amount of one month’s pay, a modest supply of dishes and
+cooking utensils. Prior to their arrival we were happy to obtain our
+meals at the house of the quartermaster’s clerk; yet I looked eagerly
+forward to my first attempt at housekeeping, and daily sought to
+induce our quartermaster to send for the goods. At last he informed
+us that they were on the way, and then began tiresome efforts to have
+some sort of kitchen and dining-room prepared.
+
+All my entreaties resulted only in a number of willows being stuck
+in the ground and covered with barley sacking. Even the door was
+composed of two upright and two cross pieces of willow covered with
+sacking; a simple piece of leather, which when caught on a nail
+served as fastening and handle, was deemed sufficient guard. The
+floor was primitive ground, and in time, as it became hardened by
+our feet, was smooth except where the water from above wore it into
+hollows. No efforts of mine could ever induce the powers that were
+to cover the roof so as to exclude rain. At first some old canvas
+was simply stretched over it; but as the roof was nearly flat this
+soon had to be replaced. By degrees, as cattle were killed for the
+soldiers, we used the skins which were otherwise valueless, lapping
+them as much as possible. However, they formed no effectual barrier
+to melting snow or falling rain, as later experience proved, when it
+became only an ordinary occurrence for me to change my seat half a
+dozen times during one meal.
+
+Young people are not easily discouraged, and I was very happy when
+informed that our housekeeping goods had arrived and been placed
+in the quarters prepared for them. An ominous sound which greeted
+our ears as we opened the boxes rather dismayed us; but we were not
+prepared for the utter ruin that met our eyes. What had not been
+so brittle as to break, had been rendered useless and unsightly by
+having been chipped or cracked; and as we took out the last piece
+of broken ware I concluded that what was left might be sold in New
+York for a dollar. On comparing the residue with the inventory, we
+discovered that half the goods were missing.
+
+The articles had been bought from an army officer who was changing
+stations, and were not strictly what I should have chosen.
+Everything, however, was useful there, and I was rather pleased that
+we had duplicates of nearly every article, although results showed
+that this had tempted the freighters’ cupidity, and they had fitted
+themselves out with the primary supply; so when by breakages the
+secondary disappeared, we had really nothing of any consequence left.
+Bitterness was added to sorrow, when of a dozen tumblers only the
+_débris_ of six were found. The common kitchen ware was too solid to
+be shattered, but everything at all fragile was in fragments.
+
+The triumph with which we evolved from the chaos a large wash-bowl
+and pitcher, which though in close proximity to a pair of flat-irons
+had escaped injury, was equaled only by our chagrin when we found
+our little toilet shelf too small to hold them, and were therefore
+obliged to return to a primitive tin basin, though hoping in time for
+enough lumber to build accommodations which would allow us the luxury
+of white ware.
+
+I regret to state that the climate proved too much for our large
+pitcher. One morning we found it cracked from the cold to which it
+had been exposed in the out-door kitchen, in which we were obliged
+to keep it. Our basin was cherished; but on the anniversary of our
+wedding-day I nearly sank from mortification when Mr. Boyd came
+into our tent, which was filled with friends who had gathered to
+celebrate the occasion, carrying the wash-bowl full of very strong
+punch which he had concocted. No thought of apologizing for our lack
+of delicacies occurred to me, but I felt compelled to explain, in the
+most vehement fashion, that the wash-bowl had never been utilized
+for its obvious purpose; in fact, this was the first period of its
+usefulness.
+
+My housekeeping was simplified by absolute lack of materials. I had,
+as a basis of supplies, during that and the succeeding two years,
+nothing but soldiers’ rations, which consisted entirely of bacon,
+flour, beans, coffee, tea, rice, sugar, soap, and condiments. Our
+only luxury was dried apples, and with these I experimented in every
+imaginable way until toward the last my efforts to disguise them
+utterly failed, and we returned to our simple rations. I was unable
+to ring any changes on rice, for after Mr. Boyd’s experience with
+General Burnside’s expedition off Cape Hatteras, the very sight of it
+had become disagreeable to him.
+
+We had at that time no trader’s store within two miles, which was a
+matter of congratulation, for when we indulged our desire for any
+change of fare, however slight, we felt as if eating gold. Nothing
+on the Pacific coast could be paid for in greenbacks; only gold and
+silver were used; and when an officer’s pay, received in greenbacks,
+was converted into gold, a premium of fifty per cent always had to be
+paid. That, added to frontier prices, kept us poor and hungry for
+years. If we indulged in a dozen eggs the price was two dollars in
+gold. If we wanted the simplest kind of canned goods to relieve the
+monotony of our diet, the equivalent was a dollar in gold.
+
+I had always disliked to offend any one; but remarking one day that
+the flavor of wild onions which permeated the only butter we could
+procure, and for which we paid two dollars and a half a pound, was
+not exactly to our taste, seriously offended the person who made it.
+I quite rejoiced thereat when she refused to supply us with any more,
+feeling that a lasting economy had been achieved without any great
+self-denial. The taint of numerous kinds of wild herbs of all sorts,
+during the many years of my frontier life, always made both beef and
+milk as well as butter unpalatable, especially in the early spring
+season, and in Texas, where the flavor was abominable.
+
+There were so many motives for economy that we rejoiced continually
+at our inability to procure supplies. First should be named the
+fact that a lieutenant’s pay, exceedingly small at best, was, when
+converted into gold, just eighty dollars per month. That reality was
+augmented by an utter inequality in the cost of actual necessaries.
+We found, for instance, that we must have at least two stoves—one
+for cooking and the other for heating purposes. Their combined
+cost was one hundred and seventy-five dollars, although both could
+have been bought in New York for about twenty dollars. If we ever
+rebelled against such seeming impositions, the cost of freight would
+be alluded to; and remembering what the expenses of my poor solitary
+trip had been we were effectually silenced.
+
+Among the many amusing stories told on that subject, none was
+more frequently quoted in every frontier station than the retort
+of a Hebrew trader, who, when expostulated with on account of the
+exorbitant charge of a dollar for a paper of needles, vehemently
+replied:
+
+“Oh, it is not de cost of de needles! It is de freight, de freight!”
+
+So when obliged to purchase any article we counted its cost as
+compared with the freight as one to one hundred.
+
+Shortly after we reached Camp Halleck, a team was sent to Austin for
+supplies; and being sadly in need of chairs it was decided that if we
+ordered the very strongest and ugliest kitchen ones they would escape
+injury, and be cheap. The bill was received before the team returned,
+and to our dismay we found that the six chairs cost just six dollars
+each in gold, or fifty dollars in greenbacks. We tried to hope they
+would be so nice that the price would prove of slight consequence.
+But lo! the teamster brought but one chair, and that a common, black,
+old-fashioned kitchen one.
+
+When asked about the other five, the man replied that the roads were
+so bad, our chairs, having been placed on top of the load, were
+continually falling under the wheels, and finally, broken in pieces,
+had been left to their fate. We, however, suspected that they had
+served as firewood. We frequently joked, after the first pangs had
+worn away, over our fifty-dollar chair, claiming a great favor was
+bestowed upon any one allowed to occupy it.
+
+Reading matter was our only luxury, and the weekly mail, always an
+uncertainty, was just as apt to have been lightened of its contents
+in transit, if the roads were at all heavy, as any other package. We
+were never sure, therefore, that we should be able to understand the
+next chapters in serial stories, which were our delight.
+
+I remember being very much engrossed in one of Charles Reade’s
+novels, the heroine of which was cast on a desert island, where I
+thought only her lover’s presence could reconcile her to the absence
+of supplies. The story was published in _Every Saturday_, and at
+first came weekly; but after we had become most deeply interested
+five weeks passed during which not a single number was received, and
+we were left to imagine the sequel.
+
+Several periodicals of a more solid nature always came regularly,
+which fact constrained us to believe that we were furnishing light
+literature to the poor inhabitants of some lonely stage station on
+the road; and in that belief we tried to find consolation for our
+own losses. Rumors of the outside world grow dim in such an isolated
+life: we were unwilling to become rusty, and hence read with avidity
+all printed matter that reached us.
+
+There were, however, other diversions. I learned to play cribbage
+admirably; and as my husband was able to give me a good deal of his
+time we found it a pleasant pastime. The winter seemed well-nigh
+interminable, and we longed for snow to disappear, intending then to
+explore the whole country. I was such a novice in the saddle that
+the steadiest old horse, called “Honest John,” was chosen for me;
+and by the time pleasant weather had come I was ready to ride in any
+direction, having learned that my steed was all his name implied.
+
+We found the streams, so small and insignificant during the dry
+season, enlarged by melting snows from the mountains; and they were
+not only beautiful, as clear running water ever is, but were filled
+with the most delicious spotted trout, which on our fishing-trips we
+caught and cooked on the spot, and whose excellence as food simply
+beggars description.
+
+Though the country remained almost as dreary as in mid-winter, grass
+made some improvement. The lovely wild-flowers, in endless beauty
+and variety, were a ceaseless delight; while our camp, situated on
+a lovely little stream in a grove of cottonwood-trees, was far more
+beautiful than I had ever imagined it could be.
+
+Unfortunately there were no trees to cast their shade over our tents;
+and as in mid-winter we had suffered from intense cold, so in summer
+we suffered from intense heat. The sun penetrated the thin canvas
+overhead to such an extent that my face was burned as if I had been
+continually out-of-doors, or even more so, as its reflected glare
+was most excessive. Then we were almost devoured by gnats so small
+that netting was no protection against them. I had never before, nor
+have I ever since, seen any insect in such quantities, nor any so
+troublesome and annoying.
+
+In after-years I became accustomed to the most venomous creatures
+of all sorts, and in time learned not to mind any of them; but
+while in Nevada I endured tortures from a colony of wasps that took
+possession of the canvas over the ridge-poles which connected the
+uprights of our tents. At first we scarcely noticed them; but they
+must either have multiplied incredibly, or else gathered recruits
+from all directions, for soon they swarmed in countless numbers above
+our heads, going in and out through the knot-holes in our rough pine
+door, buzzing about angrily whenever we entered hastily—in fact,
+disputing possession with us to such a degree that I dared not open
+the door quickly. Whenever I did, one of the angry insects was sure
+to meet and sting me. They remained with us during the summer, and
+when we finally left were masters of the field by reason of their
+superior numbers.
+
+I have often since wondered why we did not dispossess them by some
+means, as they were the terror of my life. One day while in the inner
+tent, where I felt safe, dressing for breakfast, I experienced the
+most intense sting on my ankle. The pain was so great I screamed,
+doubly frightened because confident a rattlesnake had bitten me, and
+too terrified to exercise any self-control. My cries soon brought
+a dozen or more persons to the scene, who found a wretched wasp,
+and calmed my fears; but my nerves had been terribly shaken. Since
+then I have met army ladies who live in constant terror of snakes,
+tarantulas, and scorpions; though no longer sharing their fears, I
+always sympathize with them.
+
+I soon became an expert fisher; and the dainty food thus procured was
+a great addition to our supplies. With all its drawbacks, life in the
+open air then began to have many charms for me.
+
+We made friends with the neighboring ranchmen, particularly those who
+were married, as their wives interested us greatly, they were such
+perfect specimens of frontier women. At first the rancheros were a
+little shy, but soon made us welcome to their homes and festivities,
+where we were always urged to remain as long as possible. Gradually
+new arrivals—always called “sister” or “cousin”—appeared at several
+of the ranches, and soon a rumor gained ground that though not
+exactly in Utah, the Mormon religion prevailed to some extent in our
+locality.
+
+Another source of great interest was the Piute and Shoshone Indians,
+who were so numerous that I soon regarded red men as fearlessly
+as if I had been accustomed to them all my life. They were deeply
+interested in us, at times inconveniently so; for they never timed
+their visits, but always came to stay, and would frequently spend the
+entire day watching our movements.
+
+In one of their camps, several miles away, I found a beautiful
+dark-eyed baby boy, to whom I paid frequent visits, which were at
+first well received. But one day I carried the child a neat little
+dress—my own handiwork—and before arraying baby in it gave him a
+bath, which evidently caused his mother to decide that I had sinister
+designs upon her prize, for on my subsequent visits no trace of the
+baby could ever be found. Had his sex been different I probably could
+have obtained complete possession; but boys are highly prized among
+the Indians.
+
+We considered ourselves well repaid for a ride of twenty miles by
+an Indian dance. It was, of course, only picturesque at night, when
+seen by the light of huge fires; then, indeed, the sight was weird
+and strange! On such an occasion, when depicting so perfectly their
+warfare, the Indians seemed to return to their original savage
+natures. Had it not been for our fully armed escort we might have
+feared for safety.
+
+It was startling to see the Indians slowly circle around their
+camp-fire, at first keeping time to a very slow, monotonous chant,
+which by degrees increased in volume and rapidity, until finally
+their movements became fast and furious, when savagery would be
+written in every line of their implacable countenances. I could
+then realize in some degree how little mercy would be shown us
+should they once become inimical; but seeing them at all times so
+thoroughly friendly made it difficult to think of them as otherwise;
+and therefore, when we afterwards lived among the most savage tribes,
+I never experienced that dread which has made life so hard for many
+army ladies.
+
+With the advent of early spring active preparations were made to
+build houses for the officers before the ensuing winter. We watched
+their slow progress, hoping against hope that we might occupy one
+of the cozy little dwellings. All sorts of difficulties, however,
+seemed to delay their construction, for good workmen were as scarce
+as good food, and we found that while anticipation and expectation
+were pleasing fancies, realization was but a dream. All our hopes
+were doomed to disappointment, for we finally left the post on the
+following January, just one year after my arrival, with the house
+we had longed to occupy still unfinished; thus I passed half of the
+second winter in our two small tents.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Meantime much had happened to make that year an eventful one. My
+expectation of finding the new, untried world into which I was
+ushered a place where all were ready to meet me with open hearts and
+hands had been completely shattered. The captain who commanded our
+company, and the first lieutenant, had taken a violent dislike to
+Mr. Boyd because he was unaccustomed to the lack of discipline they
+allowed; and their almost unlimited powers enabled them to deprive us
+of much to which we were justly entitled.
+
+They were two of the most illiterate men whom I have ever met; and
+shortly after, when the army consolidated, both found more fitting
+occupation in a frontier mining-town. I mention this only to account
+for the unnecessary hardships to which we were subjected. For
+instance, when gardens were planted, and the company was raising fine
+vegetables, we were allowed neither to buy nor to use any, and had to
+continue to live on rations.
+
+But the most unkind treatment of all was shown when my husband
+met with a severe accident. He was returning from a successful
+fishing-trip when his horse—and a more unruly mustang cannot well
+be imagined—fancied some cause for fright, and began to buck on the
+side of a steep hill. Mr. Boyd, deeming discretion the better part
+of valor, jumped off, and fell with his entire weight upon one leg,
+fracturing it just below the knee. His companion decided to ride into
+camp, a distance of six miles, for assistance, and a litter was at
+once sent out. My husband lay there alone, helpless and suffering,
+until long after dark, the coyotes, or small wolves, coming around in
+droves, and it was with the greatest difficulty he kept them off by
+the use of both gun and pistol.
+
+When he was brought into camp late at night, my first remark was
+that I derived some comfort from the situation, inasmuch as he would
+not be compelled to join an expedition which had been for some time
+projected. Mr. Boyd was to have been sent with an escort of twenty
+men on a surveying party. That would have kept him in the field all
+summer, and left me entirely alone.
+
+The officer in command displayed his malevolence by sending with
+the expedition the soldier who had volunteered to wait on us, thus
+leaving me without the slightest assistance in caring for my husband.
+The doctor was exceedingly kind and good, and I could obtain my meals
+where we had on my first arrival; but I was obliged to carry Mr.
+Boyd’s food quite a long distance, and perform every sort of hard,
+menial labor—even chopping wood; for nights, lying unable to move, my
+husband would become chilly and need a fire.
+
+Many other hardships were entailed, and I was quite worn out with
+working and nursing, when, in a month’s time, Mr. Boyd was able to
+walk on crutches. However, the accident had given me his society for
+the entire summer, at which I rejoiced exceedingly; for I had often
+wondered what I should do if left alone, friendless as I felt myself
+to be.
+
+At that time the whole army was in a chaotic state, especially on
+the Pacific coast, where California volunteers, though brave and
+hardy men, were totally unaccustomed to military discipline, and the
+officers not of a character to enforce it. The wild lawlessness which
+had made California a place of terror, and that had only been subdued
+by the vigilance committee, was still extant, and many occurrences
+during our first year of army life showed there were desperadoes
+among us.
+
+Had the officers in command been gentlemen, at least a semblance of
+respect would have been shown; but the enlisted men, treated by their
+officers exactly as they had been while both were volunteers, were
+disposed to dislike a man who after four years of rigid training at
+West Point had grown accustomed to discipline and was disposed to
+exact it.
+
+The first duty which called my husband from home was an expedition
+after some horses that had been sent to Camp McDermott, a distance of
+about two hundred miles. He took with him ten men, and experienced
+very little difficulty in managing them while going; but returning,
+with twenty extra horses, the soldiers were in a lawless state,
+disposed to be unruly, and would become intoxicated whenever liquor
+could be had. Despite the fact that water was obtainable only at
+the stations _en route_, Mr. Boyd made a practice of procuring in
+casks all that would be needed, and marching a few miles beyond the
+stations, so as to prevent liquor being obtained; for in all those
+places, although water might be scarce, a barrel of the vilest whisky
+could always be found.
+
+The plan worked well for the first hundred miles; but one night the
+men stole back to the station and insisted that liquor be given
+them. Mr. Boyd always warned station-masters of the extreme danger
+of allowing his men to have whisky, as with so many horses the
+services of all were required; but that day some had been procured
+from an unknown source, and they were determined to have more. The
+station-master refused to furnish it, and barricaded his door so that
+no one could enter.
+
+The men were infuriated; and just as my husband arrived on the scene
+one of them rushed madly against the door and forced it open, only
+to be met by a ball from a pistol fired by some one inside the room,
+which killed him instantly. That sobered the rest, who obeyed the
+order given to carry their dead comrade back to the encampment.
+Fearing further disturbance my husband broke camp and traveled till
+daylight, when finding the already over-loaded wagon much encumbered
+by the dead body, which had repeatedly slipped off, he stopped and
+buried it by the roadside. After that he had no trouble, as the men
+were completely subdued.
+
+On their return to camp the entire story was related to me; and
+knowing how great Mr. Boyd’s anxiety had been, I fully expected he
+would be commended, if not rewarded. Instead of that he was actually
+called to account, principally for burying the dead soldier by the
+roadside, which the commanding officer seemed to consider wrong, when
+to have traveled so many days with the body uncoffined would have
+been quite impossible.
+
+I was highly diverted by the efforts my husband made to procure
+presents for me, and shall never forget the peculiarity of his gifts.
+In passing through Austin at one time he endeavored to buy fruit, as
+we missed it greatly, and deemed a box of apples at only one dollar a
+dozen a marvelous bargain, as three dollars had been paid for those
+previously purchased.
+
+On another occasion Mr. Boyd had yielded to the temptation to buy a
+sewing-machine, which he thought would please me very much, as indeed
+it would had I been able to use it; but the machine was entirely out
+of order and represented nothing in the way of usefulness, unless a
+month’s pay which it had cost might be so considered.
+
+Another present was of a more noisy sort. Knowing that I had never
+seen a “burro,” Mr. Boyd was induced to buy one for me because it was
+cheap and so docile a child might ride it. The latter it certainly
+proved to be; but living in tents, where every sound penetrated to
+our ears, the animal became a perpetual nuisance; consequently, when
+one day he strayed away, never to reappear, we were not sorry.
+
+The brute was indeed small, but his voice was a marvel of strength
+and volume, and his bray resounded on all sides at the most
+inopportune moments. If military orders were being read, “Burro”
+kept up an accompaniment which drowned all other sounds; and in his
+apparent loneliness, the poor fellow had a way of seeking human
+companionship, and would appear at our doorstep and lift up his voice
+in a manner that made us feel the roof must rise above our heads in
+order to allow the fearful sound to escape. He afforded us a great
+deal of amusement, however, and all his antics were laughed at and
+condoned.
+
+About that time another troop of the regiment was sent from Idaho,
+and we then enjoyed the society of a very charming New York woman,
+who accompanied her husband, and the fittings of whose tent amused
+us much. This lady had a large private fortune, yet she had not been
+with us a month before, resigning herself to the inevitable, she
+bent weekly over the wash-tub and ironing-board, as help was not
+procurable; nor did this officer’s wife find a treasure of a soldier,
+as I had, who would volunteer to relieve her of such unaccustomed
+drudgery.
+
+Deciding that her tent would present a more cheerful appearance if
+papered, all newspapers received were, immediately after being read,
+pasted on the walls. A preference was given to illustrated journals,
+and it was very diverting to inspect those pictures which reflected
+many scenes of our former lives. How often the wish was expressed
+that we could be as well sheltered as were the servants in city
+homes, and my friend frequently longed for as good a roof overhead as
+had her mother’s barn. A year of such hardships sufficed; at the end
+of that time her husband resigned his commission, and for many years
+they have been quartered in New York City.
+
+As the second winter of our camp life approached, we prepared in a
+measure for it by procuring a larger heating stove; but the stove
+took up a great deal of room in our little tent, and so was crowded
+into a corner, with the result of constant danger from fire. I
+attempted to keep account of the number of times our tent had ignited
+and been patched to cover the burned places. Mr. Boyd usually built
+a fire very early, before going to his duties, and on one memorable
+morning the entire top of our sitting-room tent burned away, leaving
+it quite uncovered.
+
+My anxiety to live in a house was so great that I calmly deliberated
+whether or not to call for assistance; but second thoughts concerning
+the probable destruction of our belongings, and the absurdity of
+expecting a house to immediately erect itself for our benefit,
+decided me. I had really grown inured to fire, as one would
+naturally become who was exempt from all personal danger; for if the
+canvas had burned away, open air and sky would have surrounded us.
+
+During all those months work had been actively prosecuted on the
+Union Pacific Railroad; and as it was to approach us very closely,
+we felt that not only would personal benefit result therefrom, but
+it would bring an influx of inhabitants into the country which
+must promote its prosperity through opening mines, irrigating and
+cultivating arable land, and so forth. The latter, however, became
+problematical, as it was found impossible to procure other labor
+than Chinese on the railroad. The class of settlers who occasionally
+appeared were of a restless, nomadic sort; and if they located on a
+plot of land soon tired of the industry required to make of the place
+a home.
+
+The chief result of the increased population was most noticeable in
+the number of accidents which occurred both on the railroad and in
+our neighborhood. The post doctor’s services were in almost daily
+requisition; and as our hospital was also a tent, and many of the
+injured were carried there, my soul was harrowed by the cries of
+wounded men which could not be stifled in that clear atmosphere with
+nothing but canvas intervening.
+
+One of the young officers who knew my terror on that score, delighted
+in giving me exaggerated accounts of their sufferings, and used to
+relate the most remarkable cases, which I fully believed at the time,
+though later his deceit and exaggeration were discovered. It seemed
+to me that the frontier at best was a place where suffering prevailed
+to a degree not commensurate with the number of inhabitants.
+
+We were very near the “white pine region,” where an immense silver
+mine created great excitement, the novelty of which pleased us almost
+as much as if we were to share in the material benefits thereof.
+
+Mr. Boyd’s promotion to a first lieutenantcy, which had been
+expected for many months, was at that time received, and we hoped
+the railroad would enable us to make the journey consequent upon
+such promotion in greater comfort than had been possible on our
+previous one. Alas! how bitterly we deplored the unalterable fact so
+common in army life, that after having endured severe hardships, and
+watched the advent of brighter days, as promised by the approach of a
+railroad and the completion of officers’ quarters, we were compelled
+to leave for distant Arizona without sharing in any of the advantages
+which would naturally follow.
+
+My husband’s promotion transferred him to a company of the regiment
+stationed at Prescott, Arizona Territory. We had first to reach San
+Francisco, go from thence by sea to Southern California, and then
+across into Arizona. One beautiful morning, just a year from the
+time of my arrival, we started for California. We were glad to be
+able, instead of having to endure the discomforts of a stage-ride,
+to strike the railroad twelve miles from Camp Halleck. The road had
+reached that point only a few days before, and the rails having been
+newly laid none but construction trains had passed over it.
+
+We were obliged to wait for a car until the next morning, when a
+hospitable welcome was given us by the engineer in charge, who with
+his wife and family occupied the construction train, and seemed most
+comfortable in their movable home. They had every needful arrangement
+to make them so, for the cars, two in number, were roomy as possible.
+The first car was divided into an admirable kitchen and dining-room,
+which were presided over by a Chinese cook; the second into sitting
+and bedrooms so arranged that they were cozy and comfortable.
+
+Our only fear was of the possibly infested atmosphere, for we
+were told that smallpox had broken out among the Chinese railroad
+employees, and was prevailing to an alarming extent. A delightful day
+and night were, however, passed with our new friends, who shared with
+us their sleeping accommodations, Mr. Boyd rooming with the engineer
+and I with his wife. At nine o’clock next morning we left them,
+feeling very grateful for the kindness received.
+
+Our gratitude was in no wise lessened, though our fears were
+increased, when the following day a telegram overtook us which stated
+that our engineer friend had succumbed to smallpox. He recovered from
+the disease perhaps sooner than we did from our panic: so great an
+exposure was at a most inconvenient time, for, like Joe, we had to
+“move on.”
+
+I was astonished to find that the car which was to take us farther
+West was only the caboose or freight car of an ordinary train; and
+when, having climbed into the huge side opening, the steps were taken
+away, leaving us high and dry, the prospect was far from encouraging.
+There was no accommodation for comfort of any sort, and only rough
+benches for seats. The car, too, was filled with railroad employees,
+and the atmosphere soon became intolerable. The roadbed was so new
+and the jolting so alarming, I concluded a stage-ride would have
+been preferable, as we could at least have seen what was before us.
+
+We stopped frequently, yet were so far above the ground I dared not
+descend, and, in fact, there was no special occasion to do so, for
+we rode until three the next morning before reaching a place where a
+mouthful of food could be obtained. Having anticipated when once on
+the railroad to travel so rapidly that we need make no preparations
+beforehand, our ride of eighteen hours in covering less than fifty
+miles was not only unexpected, but almost unendurable from hunger and
+fatigue. When at three o’clock in the morning a stopping-place was at
+last reached I was quite exhausted. Food and rest were found there,
+and best of all a civilized sleeping-car, in which we went on to
+Sacramento.
+
+The journey through Nevada seemed incredibly swift. As we crossed
+the Sierra Nevada mountains and passed through twenty-five miles of
+snow-sheds, which cut off the view just as one began to enjoy it,
+I felt almost glad to have taken what had become so completely a
+memory of the past—a stage-ride over those grand old mountains.
+
+It was wonderful to observe the marked difference in vegetation
+between Nevada and California. Just as soon as we reached the Pacific
+coast exquisite green verdure contrasted so favorably with Nevada’s
+arid desolation as to cause one to feel as if in a veritable “land
+of promise.” The refreshment to our weary eyes after a year of
+absence from such scenery was a source of the greatest imaginable
+pleasure. Then to cover in a few short hours the same distance which
+had previously required five weary days and nights was not the least
+of our many causes for gratitude. When Sacramento was reached, the
+exquisite beauty of the country was so great we felt that all the
+encomiums California had ever received were fully warranted.
+
+The next day we arrived in San Francisco, and once more felt
+civilized.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+My husband’s first duty was to report to the commanding general,
+who gave him permission to remain there for two months, promising
+to place him on duty in order that he might receive full pay and
+allowances. That seemed a very great boon until we found the duty
+consisted in Mr. Boyd’s being ordered five hundred miles away to
+inspect some horses, which left me utterly lonely in a strange city.
+
+The place to which he was sent could be reached only by water, and
+the steamers sailed weekly both going and returning, so I felt
+particularly forlorn, knowing he could not be back for at least ten
+days. When the first return steamer reached San Francisco without him
+I was in despair, and indeed with reason. I had already found the
+tender mercy of a boarding-house keeper to be all it is generally
+represented.
+
+That night our little daughter was born, and a facetious friend
+telegraphed to my husband: “Mother and child are doing well,” thus
+leaving the sex to be conjectured, which caused bets to be made by
+such officers as were always glad of an excuse to bet on any chance.
+
+But, indeed, “mother and child” were not doing well. A veritable
+Sairy Gamp had taken possession of both: my own sufferings were
+almost intolerable, while I felt sure the poor little baby was being
+continually dosed. The nurse weighed nearly three hundred pounds, and
+at night when she lay down beside me her enormous weight made such an
+inclined plane of the bed that I could not keep from rolling against
+her; and she snored so loudly that not only was it impossible for me
+to sleep, but for any one else on the same floor. The sounds were not
+at all sedative in their effects, and I spent the nights praying for
+morning.
+
+My baby, too, was so restless that her position had to be frequently
+changed; and when the nurse was awakened she treated me exactly as if
+I were a naughty child, and so completely cowed me by her roughness
+that I dared offer no remonstrance, but simply endured.
+
+Matters went on thus for several days until some of the kind ladies
+in the house interfered; but not before I had been left entirely
+alone the night our little one was a week old, and was found
+unconscious with baby screaming so loudly that every one in the house
+was aroused.
+
+The good old days are not so much to be deplored when we consider
+that the nurse was a fair specimen of her class, and had no hesitancy
+in asking forty dollars a week for the services she rendered. Now
+that trained nurses are to be found everywhere, such creatures are
+unknown. Instances of her cruel conduct might be multiplied, but it
+is unnecessary.
+
+As usual I was tormented by fears on the score of expense, as all
+supplies were most exorbitant in price. The increase in rank had
+added only one hundred dollars a year to my husband’s pay, and
+the land of fruitful abundance in which we then were was almost as
+costly, so far as living expenses were concerned, as the frontier,
+and under the circumstances far more so.
+
+After two steamers had arrived without bringing Mr. Boyd, I grew so
+restless under the care of such a nurse that the determination to
+discharge her was formed; yet sufficient courage to do so was not
+summoned until after the arrival of my husband, five days before our
+baby was three weeks old.
+
+We then essayed to minister to baby’s wants ourselves, and some
+of the attempts were ludicrous. Having seen the nurse give the
+child paregoric, once, when she cried desperately, I poured out
+a teaspoonful, and while my husband held baby, tried to make her
+swallow it. Had not the drug in its raw strength nearly strangled
+her, we would, undoubtedly, have murdered our dear little infant.
+
+That was not the only experiment we tried, and looking back I pity
+the poor child with all my heart. Our anxiety to improve her
+appearance was so great that whatever we were advised to do was
+attempted. I cut off baby’s eyelashes one day to make them grow
+thicker; and when she was a little older, while we were in Arizona,
+I found her father pressing that dear little nose between the prongs
+of a clothespin to better its shape. She resented such treatment, and
+her cries filled me with indignation, for at least my experiments had
+all been painless.
+
+The day after Mr. Boyd’s return, notwithstanding the commanding
+general’s promise that we should remain in San Francisco until May,
+orders were received to proceed immediately to Arizona. It never
+occurred to my husband that he should dispute the order, nor to me
+that I could remain for a time in California.
+
+After a couple of days spent in purchasing needful supplies and
+hunting the city over for a servant, we took steamer for Wilmington
+in Southern California. The trip occupied two days, and as we kept
+very near the coast, choppy seas made me extremely seasick and
+miserable. I was so thin and pale as to excite the sympathies of
+all who saw me. The doctor had said that the change would benefit
+me, while, perhaps, I could not improve if left in California.
+His prediction might have proved true had not the journey been so
+fearfully hard. Baby was exactly three weeks old the day we reached
+Los Angeles, from which place we were to start on our long interior
+ride.
+
+Nothing can be more beautiful than were the surroundings of that
+town. As we drove in from Wilmington the air was odorous with the
+perfume of orange blossoms; and trees, heavy with their loads of
+ripening fruits of different kinds, overshadowed our road. I have
+never cared for oranges since eating those brought me still clinging
+to their branches: no packed fruit can compare with such in flavor
+and lusciousness.
+
+Having been housed so long I enjoyed to the full the flowers that
+bloomed on all sides, making a perfect paradise of the spot. My
+recollections of California, for I have never seen it since, are most
+delightful, and I deem any one fortunate who has a settled home there.
+
+That part of Southern California is particularly favored, and my
+recollections of the five days consumed in traveling toward the East
+are among the pleasantest of my life. We stopped every night at some
+ranch, where the occupants not only received us kindly, but where our
+eyes could feast on glorious scenery, which combined with the liberal
+creature comforts that were enjoyed, left little to be wished for.
+
+I longed to remain in Los Angeles; but we were obliged to hurry on
+in compliance with military orders, and also for another reason. An
+entire day spent in San Francisco hunting for a servant had only
+resulted in procuring a Chinese boy twelve years old. No woman could
+be induced to go to Arizona. First, because no church was there.
+Second, and mainly, because many Indians were.
+
+Even the mercenary Chinese had never dreamed of passing into so
+dangerous a region; and when on reaching Los Angeles my little
+servant naturally exchanged confidences with those employed in the
+hotel, such a tale of horrors—principally in the shape of Indian
+cruelties—was told the boy, that he was terrified beyond belief,
+and fairly shook with anguish and fear when informed that he must
+accompany us. Evidently believing that his long queue would prove an
+additional inducement for the Indians to scalp him, he was determined
+to escape at all hazards. Our little servant could be kept from
+running away only by locking him up; he was not released until we
+were ready to step into the wagon, and a more woebegone face I have
+never seen.
+
+It is to this day an historical fact, both in Arizona and New Mexico,
+that we took the first Chinaman into those States which now swarm
+with them, and where only recently they were boycotted.
+
+For some reason unknown to us, we were refused proper
+transportation—an ambulance and four mules with driver. A small,
+two-seated vehicle and span of horses had instead been provided,
+which when loaded with our most needed articles presented a strange
+appearance. A mattress and blankets were strapped on the back, and
+over those a chair. The inside was simply crowded with an array of
+articles demanded by our long journey. We had not only all necessary
+clothing, but as much food in a condensed shape as could be taken;
+there was no room for luxuries. Our first care was to be well armed,
+as we were going among hostile Indians, a fact I could scarcely
+realize; therefore our vehicle held, in addition to all else, a gun,
+two pistols, and strapped overhead my husband’s two sabers, which he
+required when on duty.
+
+Some premonition, which perhaps was the result of past experience,
+made me careful to select all we might need for future as well as
+present use in the way of clothing. It proved a wise precaution, for
+the remainder of our baggage, including all household goods, which we
+had left in the hands of freighters, was seized for their debts on
+the borders of California, and not permitted to cross into Arizona
+until means to liquidate the men’s obligations had been found. It
+took just six months to do that, during which time we waited for our
+property.
+
+With my usual docility in accepting advice concerning baby, I had
+followed the suggestion of an army paymaster’s wife, who considered a
+champagne basket the proper receptacle for an infant when traveling.
+Never was advice given which proved more useful or beneficial. If
+with all the other hardships of that journey I had been compelled
+to hold baby day after day, not only would I have been far more
+fatigued, but she far less comfortable. Cradled in that basket, the
+motion of our carriage acted as a perpetual lullaby, and the little
+one slept soundly all the time, waking only when progress ceased. The
+basket was tightly strapped to the front seat beside my husband, who
+drove, while I sat on the back one with our little Chinaman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+The time-honored “babes in the woods” could not have started on
+their pilgrimage with more childlike simplicity than did my husband
+and myself. The first five days, through the most beautiful country
+imaginable, were like a pleasure trip, and little prepared us for the
+hardships which followed. The roads were good, the scenery superb,
+and each night we were most hospitably entertained by some kind
+family.
+
+Besides good food and comfortable beds, considerable advice as to
+the treatment of baby was thrown in gratuitously. It seemed all the
+more necessary just then, for although during the entire trip our
+little one slept sweetly throughout the day, no doubt lulled to rest
+by the motion of the vehicle, when night came she was tortured by
+that baby’s enemy—colic. As a cure, we kept adding to her coverings,
+until no one could have dreamed that the tightly strapped and
+blanketed basket contained a human being. Many were the comments of
+surprise when the child was exhumed from her manifold wrappings. If
+the custom of traveling by carriage long distances was not almost
+obsolete, I should advise all young mothers to try the basket plan.
+Not only was baby perfectly comfortable, but the saving of my
+strength was great, and that alone enabled me to survive the journey.
+
+We passed the celebrated Cocomungo Ranch, with its beautiful
+vineyards and delicious wines, and many other spots, then unoccupied
+lands, which have since become populous towns. On the fifth day Camp
+Cady, where we expected to take final leave of civilization and
+enter the California desert, was reached. The camp was garrisoned by
+a detachment of only twenty men, and but two could be spared as an
+escort for us. Even then the wife of the officer in charge demurred,
+saying:
+
+“Suppose the Indians should attack us? What could we do with only
+eighteen men?”
+
+When during subsequent weeks I fully realized the dangers we were
+encountering, her remark was frequently recalled. Certainly two men
+were not sufficient to protect us from Indians.
+
+Immediately after leaving Camp Cady we descended into a small cañon,
+and on emerging therefrom found ourselves dragging through deep
+sand, which continued for miles and was wearisome in the extreme.
+Our horses plodded along, and the monotony of desert travel was
+thoroughly established. Only eighteen miles were covered that day,
+yet it took ten hours, as we dared not urge the horses through such
+deep sand.
+
+Our first encampment was a memorable one. Like all desert travelers,
+we did not stop on account of having reached an oasis, but simply
+because our horses could go no farther. I wondered then, as on our
+previous journey, why the particular spot at which we stopped had
+been selected. It always seemed to me that we might have gone on;
+but that was not a common-sense view—merely an eager desire to hasten
+toward home.
+
+I never knew why we had no tent of any kind, not even the tiny
+shelter tent with which every soldier is supposed to be provided on
+all journeys; I do, however, know that we had not a stitch of canvas
+of any sort, and that baby was awakened every morning by the glaring
+sun shining full in her face. As the sun on the desert sand is
+reflective, we soon learned to dread it extremely.
+
+I wish it were possible to impress others with the sensation those
+camps invariably produced upon me! Usually occupying as a spectator
+a passive position, I sat apart and watched the blazing fire and
+the figures of the men sharply defined against its light as they
+prepared supper, and then, peering into the unfathomable distance
+of loneliness beyond and on all sides, I indulged in all kinds of
+visions, none of which were calculated to make me especially happy.
+
+That night, however, the men who accompanied us pretended to be
+unequal to the task of making ready our slight repast, and I essayed
+for the first time in my life, and under the greatest disadvantages,
+to cook an entire meal. A strong wind was blowing, which drove the
+smoke in my face and eyes. The more I tried to avoid this, the
+more it seemed to torture me; while my utter lack of knowledge
+in all culinary matters, especially when prosecuted under such
+circumstances, was very trying. Baby added to my misery by screaming
+with pain from her usual attack of colic.
+
+Want of space in our little wagon had compelled us to forego all but
+the actual necessaries of life; and thus our bill of fare was limited
+to bacon, hard tack, and a small supply of eggs, which, with coffee,
+was our only food during that desert travel of five days. I learned
+to grill bacon and make excellent coffee, but never to enjoy cooking
+over a camp-fire.
+
+Bright and early, awakened by the sun shining full in our faces, we
+started on our seventh day’s journey, which proved almost exactly
+like our sixth, yet closed with a tragic incident. The horses were
+our pride and glory—they were not only beautiful, but strong and
+useful. Watching them as they carried us along so swiftly and safely
+during the first five days had been a real pleasure, and we had
+become attached to the faithful animals.
+
+On reaching Soda Lake at the end of our seventh day’s journey,
+and second after leaving Camp Cady, we were not a little dismayed
+to find that the horses were suffering quite severely from the
+effects of their hard two days’ pull through the deep sand. On being
+unharnessed, one immediately plunged into the lake, and in spite of
+all efforts remained there. The result may be conjectured. In his
+heated and exhausted condition he foundered, and to our great sorrow
+had to be shot.
+
+That was a serious hindrance to our progress; but, fortunately, we
+had with us a pack-mule laden with grain for the horses. Needless
+to state he was relieved of his load, much of which we left by the
+roadside; the remainder, necessary for the animals’ sustenance, was
+placed in our wagon, which rendered us still more uncomfortable. It
+would be difficult to tell what we did with our feet, for not an inch
+of space on the bottom of the wagon was unoccupied.
+
+We left Soda Lake with joy, as its alkaline properties rendered the
+water useless for all ordinary purposes, and a better supply was
+longed for. During that entire desert journey, until the Colorado
+River was reached, we had not a drop of water that could quench
+thirst. Both men and animals were to be pitied.
+
+Our eighth day was dreadful in its manner of progress. The pack-mule,
+quite unaccustomed to harness, had no idea of bearing his share of
+the burden, while our beautiful little mare chafed in the company
+of such an ungainly creature, and seemed so desirous to be rid of
+him that she did all the pulling. For days our minds were occupied
+with the problem of how to restrain her and urge on the mule. Every
+effort to accomplish this only made matters worse, for it invariably
+resulted in the latter breaking into a clumsy, lumbering gallop that
+was very ludicrous.
+
+At length we left the deep sand and traveled over the most level
+country imaginable. It proved, however, even more dreary, for the
+ground was white as snow with alkaline deposits. As far as the eye
+could reach, only an endless, white, barren plain, unrelieved by even
+a scrub bush, was visible. In all my frontier life and travel I never
+saw anything so utterly desolate as was that desert.
+
+We found, after the first day of unmatched steeds, that our little
+mare must be favored or she too would die. It was therefore decided
+to travel mainly at night. The ground was so hard and white that
+the sun’s reflection was most dazzling. When, on the ninth day, we
+encamped with only our wagon to shade us from its intense rays, I
+would have given almost anything for the shelter a strip of canvas
+would have afforded. Long before noon, and long after, the pitiless
+sun poured down upon us, until hands and faces were blistered; even
+poor little baby had to be smeared with glycerine as a preventive.
+
+In that manner we traveled for two days over the desert; and although
+the sun’s heat was almost unendurable, yet our only safety lay in so
+doing.
+
+We started about sundown on the ninth night, and reaching an
+old disused house about midnight, prepared to camp. I had been
+so tortured for several days and nights by the absence of all
+shelter, that my husband readily complied with the request to place
+our mattress inside those old walls. The roof had long before
+disappeared: but it seemed good to be once more in any sort of
+inclosure, and I lay down very composedly. My sleep was, however,
+soon disturbed by the strangest sounds. I awakened to find that a
+veritable carnival was being held by insects, and the uncertainty
+concerning their species was anything but agreeable. Every imaginable
+noise could be detected. I bore it silently as long as possible,
+until confident I heard rattlesnakes, when in great fear I hugged
+my baby closer, expecting our last moments had come, yet hoping to
+shield her from their fangs.
+
+Such a night of wretchedness I hope never again to experience. All
+kinds of horrible sounds terrified me to such an extent that a firm
+resolve was formed never to pass another night in a place of whose
+inhabitants I was unaware. I am confident that every sort of vermin
+infested that old ruined house, and our subsequent perils with
+visible foes gave me far less anxiety.
+
+Having learned to dread being a source of extra trouble to Mr. Boyd
+on a journey which taxed every energy of his mind and body, I always
+endured everything quietly as long as possible. That alone enabled
+me to go through such a night of agony—interminable it seemed at the
+time, but in reality only a few hours, for dawn soon came.
+
+Midday again found us on our way; and when we began to descend into
+the Colorado basin, and caught sight of Fort Mojave’s adobe walls
+and the muddy banks of the river, we felt as if the end of a hard
+journey had at last been reached, and rejoiced exceedingly to see
+friendly faces and receive a hearty welcome. Knowing that each day’s
+travel was bringing us nearer home, we gladly crossed the river and
+shook the dust of California from our feet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+Fort Mojave, at that time a mere collection of adobe buildings with
+no special pretensions to comfort, stood on the eastern bank of the
+Colorado River. It seemed to me, except for the extreme heat which
+made it an uncomfortable sleeping-place, a very haven of rest. The
+muddy river sluggishly wound its way to the gulf many miles below,
+and nine months of the year the temperature of every place on its
+banks was torrid. Fort Yuma, at its mouth, was noted for being a
+veritable Tophet.
+
+A yarn illustrative of the general opinion of its climate is told of
+a soldier who ventured out in the middle of a July day, and never
+returned. Diligent search served only to discover a huge grease-spot
+and pile of bones on the parade ground.
+
+Another tradition, very hackneyed to army ears, is that of a soldier
+famous for his wickedness, who, having died, reappeared, and was seen
+hunting for his blankets; the inference being that the warm place to
+which he had been assigned was not hot enough for one accustomed to
+Fort Yuma’s climate.
+
+All ladies who have lived there supplement these ridiculous tales
+with more credible ones. It is quite true that eggs, if not gathered
+as soon as laid, were sure to be roasted if the sun shone on them.
+It is also a fact that those who had leisure to do so spent the
+greater part of their time in the bath, and Indians would remain in
+the stream for hours at a time, their heads covered with mud as a
+protection from the sun’s rays.
+
+I soon realized that not being obliged to remain in so warm a climate
+was a favor, and rejoiced greatly when once more fairly _en route_,
+although the two days had been very pleasantly passed. We were
+furnished with a pair of mules, so our poor little mare could be led
+the remainder of the way, and we had as escort two men who were sent
+into Arizona with the weekly mails.
+
+Our first day’s travel was pleasant; but when night came on we were
+alarmed at the number of signal fires on all sides, which indicated
+the near presence of hostile Indians. I shall never forget the shock
+experienced when I first realized that we were in danger from such a
+source. The past year had so accustomed me to Indians, that it seemed
+as if all tribes were harmless; yet the constant wariness of our
+escort soon convinced me of the contrary.
+
+The part of Arizona through which we were then passing was such an
+agreeable contrast to our weary desert journey that I thoroughly
+enjoyed the beautiful pine lands; and the change, as we ascended
+daily into more mountainous regions, was delightful. Our second day
+from Fort Mojave, and the twelfth of that long journey, however,
+considerably dampened my ardor.
+
+The road had been rough from the start, but nothing to be compared
+with what we then experienced. After a tedious ascent a long hill
+was reached, seemingly miles in length, and which must be descended
+amid boulders strewn all over the road. I was compelled to walk, with
+baby in my arms, picking my way as best I could from one rock to
+another. The time occupied in making the descent was three hours. My
+fatigue can hardly be imagined.
+
+The wagon wheels were lashed together by ropes, which were held by
+men on either side; and even then the vehicle fairly bounded onward,
+each leap almost wrenching it asunder. I expected every moment to see
+it lying in ruins. That such was not its fate was entirely due to the
+care Mr. Boyd and the men took in guiding it safely between and over
+the boulders.
+
+No hill I have ever since seen was like that, and no words are
+adequate to give any idea of its horrors. I felt every moment as if
+a single mis-step would launch my infant and self into eternity,
+and wondered if I could survive the fatigue, even if successful in
+placing my feet carefully enough to escape the greater danger. When
+finally our little company at the foot of the hill was reached, I
+sank, completely exhausted. Many days passed before I could step
+without feeling the effects of that terrible scramble in mid-air.
+
+We had hoped to reach our destination in four days after leaving Fort
+Mojave; but each day seemed longer than its predecessor, especially
+as dangers increased. Our second night was spent in a military camp,
+and a detachment of troops guarded the highway. I could no longer
+doubt the necessity of exercising constant vigilance against hostile
+foes.
+
+Every animal in the temporary stables had been maimed in some manner
+by Indians, who would steal in under cover of darkness and shoot
+whatever living thing they saw. The men were always in peril, even in
+their tents; and the officer in charge did not lessen in any degree
+my uneasiness when he showed me how his tent had been riddled in many
+places by bullets. He was then recovering from the effects of a
+wound received while pursuing Indians.
+
+We had breakfasted, and were about ready to start next morning,
+when our attention was called to Indians’ footprints all over the
+garden spot which the troops had prepared for their hoped-for supply
+of vegetables. Alas for the poor people who in those days thought
+to make fortunes out West! No amount of energy, perseverance, or
+endurance, to say nothing of hardships bravely borne, could ward off
+the cruel Indians.
+
+Although it may be justly said that our dealings with the red men
+were the primary cause of all the suffering, yet could the hundreds
+of settlers who lost their lives while endeavoring to make homes for
+themselves in the West be avenged, not an Indian would be left to
+tell the tale. My heart was wrung during those travels, when, every
+hour of the day, we passed a pile of stones that marked a grave.
+Arizona seemed to me a very burying-ground—a huge cemetery—for men
+and women killed by Indians.
+
+In after-years I agreed perfectly with the common army belief
+that attempting to settle a ranch in either Arizona or New Mexico
+was simply courting an inevitable fate—death at the hands of
+ruthless Indians. History was ever new in those regions, and kept
+ever repeating itself. I frequently heard it said, referring to a
+comparatively recent settler:
+
+“Well, his time will surely come.”
+
+Whenever a ranch was in an exceptionally isolated region, the sequel
+would be accelerated. Indian horrors were every-day occurrences;
+and yet I never grew accustomed to them. Long residence among those
+much-abused frontiersmen taught me to feel that the early martyrs
+suffered little in comparison with the constant peril in which they
+lived.
+
+But to return to our journey and its growing dangers. A number
+of soldiers escorted us through a perilous cañon outside of the
+little detachment post, where, at ten o’clock, our officer friend
+reluctantly bade us adieu, saying we were in great danger. Could his
+post have been left with safety, he would willingly have escorted us
+farther.
+
+We rode on, feeling indeed very anxious, and soon met a Major of
+the Eighth Cavalry, who with an escort of sixteen men had been
+peppered by Indians’ bullets in a cañon through which we must pass
+the same day. As the escort of two men with which we left Camp Cady
+had not been augmented, our feelings may be imagined. There was no
+alternative; go on we must.
+
+I now see that we were then too young and inexperienced to realize
+the dangers of our terrible position. It was, however, soon
+understood, and before entering the cañon at six o’clock that evening
+all warlike preparations possible under the circumstances had been
+made. A civilian had joined our party at Fort Mojave, and thus there
+were three outriders. The two sabres in our wagon overhead we took
+down and unsheathed, so that, when thrust out on either side, there
+seemed to be four weapons—at least we hoped the Indians would think
+so, and unless they came very close, the dim light would favor our
+deception. The gun was placed so it could be used at a moment’s
+notice. I held one pistol, and Mr. Boyd the other. The soldiers,
+with their bayonets bristling, looked as warlike as possible;
+and altogether we relied upon what eventually saved our lives—an
+appearance of strength which we in no wise possessed.
+
+We had been told that the Indians, at least in that region, never
+attacked unless confident of victory; and we knew that unless they
+were directly beside us, the appearance our wagon presented, so
+covered they could not see its interior, and seemingly full of
+weapons, would indicate a well-armed party of men. Instead, there
+was one man, handicapped by the care of his team and the helpless
+nature of his charges—a feeble woman, an infant, and a diminutive
+heathen, who on perceiving the active preparations being made for
+resisting what he had so feared, became literally green with terror
+and altogether useless.
+
+The cañon was so precipitous on both sides that we seemed to be
+traveling between two high walls. The rocks were of that treacherous
+gray against which I had been told an Indian could so effectually
+conceal himself as to seem but a part of them. The entire region
+was weird and awful. The sides of the cañon towered far above us to
+almost unseen heights, and as we slowly drove onward, our hearts
+quivered with excitement and fear at the probability of an attack.
+
+We had proceeded some little distance and were feeling considerably
+relieved, when suddenly a fearful Indian war-whoop arose. It was so
+abrupt, and seemed such a natural outcome of our fears, that only
+for repeated repetitions I could have believed it imaginary. Others,
+however, quickly followed, so no doubt could be entertained of their
+reality. I had only sufficient consciousness to wonder when we should
+die, and how. I glanced involuntarily at our Chinese servant, who was
+crouched in one corner of the wagon in a most pitiable heap, and
+then at our poor little baby, bundled in many wraps and sleeping in
+her basket. All were silent. No word was uttered, and no sound heard
+but the lashing of the whip that urged forward our mules. Although
+they fairly leaped onward, yet we seemed to crawl. Cruel death was
+momentarily expected.
+
+At last, and it seemed ages, we were out of the cañon and on open
+ground. Even then no time was lost. The mules were still hurried on.
+I have often thought that, like Tennyson’s brook, we might have “gone
+on forever” had not a large party of freighters soon been reached,
+who were camping in front of a blazing wood fire. Their presence
+gave us that sense of companionship and security so sorely needed.
+We joined them; and while I sat in the blaze of their fire, Mr. Boyd
+recounted our perilous ride. The conclusion was reached that we
+had been spared only because apparently so well prepared to resist
+attack. Any doubts which might have been entertained concerning the
+presence of foes in the cañon were dispelled by what followed.
+
+I crawled that night under a wagon, for my nerves were too shattered
+to sleep without some kind of shelter if it could be procured, and
+my last waking thought was that our companions for the night would
+have to pass next morning through the same dangerous cañon, their
+destination being California. They started first, and one of the
+superintendents—there were two in the party—foolishly disregarded
+our warning and lagged behind. His mangled body was afterwards found
+horribly mutilated on the very spot where we had heard the Indians’
+fearful yells.
+
+It was a well-known fact that the savages would lurk for days in one
+place, and if disappointed by any party being too numerous or well
+armed, would invariably later on destroy some careless straggler.
+The freighters, having escaped such dangers again and again, would
+frequently become reckless, when they were almost sure to finally
+fall victims to their lack of caution.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+Only two days were left in which to reach our destination. The
+remainder of the road was level, and no further danger from Indians
+need be apprehended. Our next encampment was at Willow Grove, a
+lovely wooded spot where some of our own troops were stationed, and
+but a short distance from what we supposed was to be our home, at
+least for a time.
+
+At last Prescott, then a mining-town, was gained. Everything seemed
+delightful. Situated among the hills, surrounded by trees, and with a
+most enjoyable climate, never very hot or very cold, but bracing at
+all seasons, it would indeed prove a desirable home to wanderers like
+ourselves, and I fondly hoped we might remain there.
+
+We were warmly welcomed at the garrison, which was situated half
+a mile from town. There were but three houses in the post, and all
+occupied. The houses contained only three rooms each, and one of the
+officers kindly relinquished his room in my favor. The ladies were
+very hospitable in providing me with nourishing food, of which I was
+in great need.
+
+Our dismay on learning that Mr. Boyd must leave the next day to join
+his company, which had been sent eighty miles distant to a post
+called Camp Date Creek, may be imagined. The movement was considered
+only temporary, as the troop was permanently stationed at Prescott;
+so, supposing that my husband might return almost immediately, it was
+decided that I should remain there.
+
+All would have gone well had there been suitable accommodations; but
+no sooner had Mr. Boyd left than the inspector-general, accompanied
+by several other officers, arrived, and their baggage was placed in
+the room I was occupying. There was no alternative but for me to move
+into the adjoining room, an old, deserted kitchen, which had for
+years past been the receptacle of miscellaneous _débris_.
+
+My bed had to be made on the floor between two windows, whose panes
+of glass were either cracked or broken. An old stove, utterly
+useless, occupied the hearth. As the nights and mornings were very
+cold I tried to build a fire; but the smoke, instead of ascending,
+poured into the room in volumes, and compelled me to abandon the task
+as hopeless. I suffered far more from the cold there than I had while
+on the march, and longed for a camp-fire.
+
+The kitchen was a perfect curiosity shop. Garments of every
+imaginable kind, when no longer of use to their owners, had evidently
+been left there. An “old clothes man” would have rejoiced at the
+wealth of rubbish. I counted twenty pairs of boots and shoes, and
+there were quite as many hats, coats, and nether garments. The
+corners of that room were to be avoided as one would avoid the
+plague. My chair, which had been brought from California, was planted
+in the only clean spot—the floor’s immediate center.
+
+I tried to imagine myself camping out, but my surroundings were far
+less agreeable than they would have been in that case, and whichever
+way my eyes turned, they met unsightly objects. No one seemed to
+consider the situation unpleasant, so I simply resigned myself to the
+inevitable.
+
+After I had been living in that way for ten days, the post surgeon
+came in and said:
+
+“Mrs. Boyd, I have observed your disagreeable plight if no one else
+has, and am exceedingly sorry. I am ordered to Camp Date Creek, and
+if you would like will escort you.”
+
+No farther words were needed. I was ready to leave immediately; and
+when told of the disagreeables that would be encountered simply
+laughed, I was so tired of homelessness.
+
+Prescott was in such a healthy location as to be a very desirable
+station, while Camp Date Creek was low and malarious. The post
+statistics showed that eighty per cent of the men were then suffering
+from fever. The extreme heat and numerous supply of vermin were also
+enlarged upon; but nothing daunted me, and I went on my way rejoicing.
+
+The journey was indeed very trying. The road was principally a lava
+bed, and we were fearfully jolted. I disliked making trouble, and
+remember riding for miles, holding on to the basket in which baby was
+lying, which had been placed on the bottom of the vehicle at my feet.
+To prevent the basket—precious contents and all—from slipping out
+under the front seat, I was obliged to cling tightly to it, and at
+the same time firmly brace myself in order to keep from being tossed
+about.
+
+However, everything must have an end—even such a journey. I was
+inexpressibly glad to find a house once more over my head, and to
+receive my husband’s hearty welcome.
+
+Army life is uncertain in the extreme, and our detail proved no
+exception to the rule. The troop was sent to Camp Date Creek for a
+month, but it remained a year, until the regiment left Arizona. The
+consolidation of regiments was at that time being effected. The
+infantry had been reduced from forty to twenty-five regiments, which
+necessitated many moves, and was the occasion for the detention there
+of some troops until more infantry arrived.
+
+It was indeed a desolate and undesirable locality. The country was
+ugly, flat, and inexpressibly dreary. The section stretching in front
+of our camp was called “bad lands” (_mala pice_). The only pretty
+spot at all near was a slow, sluggish stream some miles away, where
+no one dared remain long for fear of malaria.
+
+Our only associate was the doctor, and subsequently, when a company
+of infantry arrived, two officers; but for at least six months of
+that year I was the only woman within at least fifty miles. I found,
+too, that housekeeping was a burden; for in all the travel from north
+to south, and the reverse, through Arizona, every one stopped _en
+route_. Before we left I felt competent to keep a hotel if experience
+was any education in the art. Even stage passengers had frequently
+to be cared for, as in that region it would have been cruel, when
+delays occurred, to have permitted them to have gone farther without
+food.
+
+As usual, I had the help of a soldier; but unfortunately one who,
+when he found that too much was likely to be required of him,
+took refuge in intoxication; then the entire burden fell upon me.
+Our little Chinese boy proved a treasure. He could wash and iron
+capitally, excepting my husband’s shirts and the baby’s clothes, the
+ironing of both of which came upon me.
+
+That year of my life was, in spite of many hardships, a very happy
+one. I have often since wondered how it could have been so, for
+surely no one ever lived more queerly. The houses were built of
+mud-brick (adobe), which was not, as is usual, plastered either
+inside or out. Being left unfinished they soon began to crumble in
+the dry atmosphere, and large holes or openings formed, in which
+vermin, especially centipeds, found hiding-places. The latter were
+so plentiful that I have frequently counted a dozen or more crawling
+in and out of the interstices. Scorpions and rattlesnakes also took
+up their abode with us, and one snake of a more harmless nature
+used almost daily to thrust his head through a hole in the floor.
+Altogether we had plenty of such visitors.
+
+In faithfully recording my experiences, honesty compels me to state
+that although I have encountered almost every species of noxious
+and deadly vermin, from the ubiquitous rattlesnake to the deadly
+vinageroon, my real trials have arisen from the simpler sorts, such
+as wasps, gnats, fleas, flies, and mosquitoes, which, everywhere
+prolific, are doubly so on the frontier. I think a kind Providence
+must have watched over our encounters with deadly reptiles, though
+nothing could save us from ordinary pests.
+
+Perhaps the most trying of all my experiences was when we made our
+camp after dark. On those occasions we would be almost certain either
+to find that our tents had been erected close beside a bed of
+cacti, to fall into whenever we moved, or over an ant-heap of such
+dimensions that cannot be conceived of by any one in the East. The
+busy population of one of those ant-hills was among the millions; and
+evidently each inhabitant felt called upon to resent our intrusion,
+for soon we would be literally covered with the stinging pests. When
+our little ones were the victims, as often happened, we longed to
+live in a land where such creatures were unknown.
+
+But to return to a description of our home. The house consisted of
+one long room, with a door at either end, and two windows on each
+side. The room was sufficiently large to enable us to divide it by
+a canvas curtain, and thus have a sitting-room and bedroom. We felt
+very happy on account of having a floor other than the ground, though
+it consisted only of broad, rough, unplaned planks, which had shrunk
+so that the spaces between them were at least two inches in width,
+and proved a trap for every little article that fell upon the floor.
+
+The brown, rough adobe walls were very uninviting, and centipeds
+were so numerous I never dared place our bed within at least two
+feet of them. The adjoining house, which was vacant, I used for a
+dining-room. Our kitchen stood as far away in another direction, so
+I seemed to daily walk miles in the simple routine of housekeeping
+duties.
+
+The country was very desolate, and the dismal cry of the coyotes
+at night anything but enlivening. Those animals became so bold as
+actually to approach our door, and one night carried off a box of
+shoe-blacking. They evidently did not care for that kind of relish,
+as it was discovered next day a short distance from the house.
+
+We killed so many snakes that I made a collection of rattles. One
+of the tales told about me was that a box of them sent to New York
+was labelled “Rattlesnakes’ Rattles! Poison!” Of course that was not
+true; but our lives were so monotonous we enjoyed any joke on each
+other.
+
+I thought the last would never have been heard of my early
+pronunciation of “Fort Mojave,” which it is probably needless to
+state was exactly in English accord with its spelling. Probably had
+I known the word was Spanish, not understanding the language, my
+pronunciation would have been the same.
+
+I was always delighted when ladies passed through the post, and
+invariably begged them to remain as long as possible. One lovely
+woman, whose husband had been ordered from Southern to Northern
+Arizona, only to find on reaching there that his station was to be
+but twenty miles from the place he had just left, gladdened me twice
+by her presence. When I expressed regret because she was obliged to
+traverse the same road again during such extremely warm weather,
+her assurance that she did not in the least mind it, surprised and
+relieved me.
+
+I found Arizona even worse than Nevada, so far as supplies were
+concerned. We could seldom obtain luxuries of any kind, and when
+procurable they were exorbitant in price. Eggs cost two dollars and
+fifty cents a dozen; butter the same per pound; chickens two dollars
+and fifty cents apiece; potatoes, twenty cents per pound; kerosene
+oil, five dollars a gallon, and I was told it had been as high as
+fourteen dollars. Fortunately we could buy candles at government
+rates.
+
+We were often at our wit’s ends to supply food for guests. I had five
+bantam chickens, that each laid an egg daily for some time, which
+we considered great cause for thankfulness. I actually learned to
+concoct dainties without many of the ingredients usually supposed
+necessary, and they were declared very good.
+
+Finally, after having been at Camp Date Creek some months, another
+lady joined us, at which I rejoiced exceedingly. She proved a very
+great acquisition to our army circle.
+
+Our mail was due once a week, but became very uncertain on account of
+the Indians. Mr. Boyd was twice awakened late at night by sentries,
+who reported the return of one man very badly wounded, and that
+the other had been left dead, and the mail scattered all over the
+country. Whenever the drums beat over the remains of any young man,
+thoughts of his absent friends always came to me. Our miserable
+little cemetery, out on that lonely plain, had not one grave whose
+quiet occupant was more than twenty-three years of age, and none had
+died a natural death.
+
+My husband was the busiest man imaginable. He had not only to command
+his company, but was also in charge of all stores and buildings. The
+quartermaster’s storehouse was a long distance off, and Mr. Boyd
+was there all day long. I used to be in continual fear lest Indians
+should attack him. No greater diligence could have been displayed
+by any one, and no one could have worked more conscientiously or
+faithfully than he did all through life.
+
+We feared to ride over the country on account of the Indians, and
+therefore had less amusement and recreation than while in Nevada, yet
+contentment shed its blessed rays about us. I was always joyful, and
+ceased to wish that the hardships we were enduring might be exchanged
+for even attic life if in New York. My regret on learning that we
+were to leave for New Mexico was keen, although aware better quarters
+were awaiting us. But I had grown to love my Arizona home, if the
+walls were only rough adobe ones. In just nine months from the time
+of my arrival at Date Creek, and in mid-winter, we left for our new
+destination. It was with vexation of spirit that I again took up the
+march.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+As an illustration of the many delays consequent upon frontier travel
+may be mentioned the receipt, just before leaving for New Mexico,
+of a box that had been fourteen months _en route_, though sent by
+express from New York. To recount the mishaps which had befallen it
+would be tiresome; yet that was but one of many similar experiences.
+
+I had ordered the box in December, while at Camp Halleck, fully
+expecting it would reach San Francisco by the time we did. The
+contents were very valuable, and included an army overcoat intended
+as a surprise for my husband, together with many other useful and
+needed additions to our wardrobe.
+
+It was shipped by my brother, who mailed at the same time two bills
+of lading. The box arrived safely by sea, but the mail, which was
+sent overland, was snowbound on the Union Pacific, and consequently
+our letters were delayed. Knowing my brother’s habitual promptness,
+I haunted the express office in San Francisco, only to be told again
+and again that no such box was there. We therefore started for
+Arizona without it. On our arrival, letters and the two bills of
+lading were awaiting us. The box had been in San Francisco all the
+time.
+
+One of the bills was intrusted to an officer going there, who
+promised to attend to the matter, but he never troubled himself about
+it. After months had elapsed we begged another officer to hunt up the
+box, which he not only did, but kindly brought it to us, after its
+arrival had been vainly expected for fourteen months. The strangest
+part of the whole affair, to my unworldly mind, was that the first
+officer was under great obligations to us, while the one who really
+obtained the box was almost a stranger.
+
+The present may not seem a fitting occasion to moralize; but as this
+is a true account of my army life and experience, I desire to state
+that my reward for undue exertions on any one’s behalf was usually
+the basest ingratitude. Of course this is only in accordance with all
+the time-honored maxims of wiser people than myself, but the personal
+experience was none the less unpleasant.
+
+The officer to whom I refer as having been under obligations, had
+brought a sick wife and child to the post for a temporary sojourn,
+but the illness of his wife was so prolonged I was completely worn
+out nursing her. As an addition to my troubles a second child
+appeared upon the scene, which I was not only compelled to care
+for, but supply with a wardrobe, in order that they might leave
+for California in a month’s time. I was ill in bed, the result of
+overwork, for weeks after they left, yet never have received a line
+from them.
+
+My long experience on the frontier plainly demonstrated that the
+absence of civilization and all its appliances compelled any one with
+a sympathetic heart to learn all branches of nursing. Before having
+been married ten years I had acted as midwife at least that number of
+times, and, far sadder, had prepared sweet and beautiful women for
+their last resting-places.
+
+Few who have seen delicately nurtured city girls marry so gladly the
+men of their choice, have any idea of what they must endure in army
+life. The utter absence of so much that is considered indispensable
+in ordinary homes, added to the constant possibility of a move at the
+most infelicitous moment, causes anxiety and restlessness which have
+no adequate compensations in either the emoluments or glory that can
+be gained in the service. Children always enjoy frontier travel, but
+anxiety falls to the lot of mothers.
+
+In one march of our regiment from New Mexico to Texas, nine children
+were born _en route_. In those instances which came under my
+observation, both mothers and babies were on the second day bundled
+into ambulances and marched onward. In my opinion the natural
+desire of army officers’ wives to be with their husbands has cost
+the sacrifice of many precious lives; while those who survive the
+hardships have bitter sufferings to contend with in after years of
+chronic illness.
+
+It is notorious that no provision is made for women in the army. Many
+indignation meetings were held at which we discussed the matter, and
+rebelled at being considered mere camp followers. It is a recognized
+fact that woman’s presence—as wife—alone prevents demoralization, and
+army officers are always encouraged to marry for that reason.
+
+While at Camp Date Creek we formed several pleasant friendships, and
+it is a matter of regret that in the years which have since elapsed
+I have never met any of the ladies. Through the resignation of our
+company captain and promotion of the senior lieutenant, an addition
+was made to our circle of a brave, true soldier a man appointed from
+the ranks—who by his nobility of character graced the higher position.
+
+Consolidation at that time weeded out all worthless men. If an
+officer’s reputation was aspersed, the charges were investigated, and
+if proved, the chances of retaining his commission were very slight.
+
+A second lieutenant of our troop was a scamp. He victimized me before
+receiving his _congé_. I had supposed the mere title, “officer of
+the army,” to be synonymous with honesty, so intrusted to him the
+hoardings of many months with which I had designed to purchase a
+pipe, and present to my husband. The amount, seventy-five dollars,
+was large to me, and evidently to him also, for I never saw the money
+again, nor the pipe it was to buy. Neither did the lieutenant return,
+for he was dismissed the service, or rather dropped for incompetency.
+
+Mr. Boyd had his pipe after all; for not discouraged by my loss I
+began to save again, and although funds accumulated slowly, and a
+year passed before the requisite amount was laid by, the pipe remains
+to this day a memento of my early extravagance.
+
+We had no outside society at Date Creek except a few rough
+frontiersmen, who not only dared the danger from Indians, but also
+that of the low, malarious atmosphere, for the sake of raising
+vegetables, which commanded high prices. True, our small military
+post was the only market, and as all supplies required to supplement
+the gardeners’ stores were by reason of freight equally high-priced,
+I doubt if the men even succeeded in making a comfortable living.
+
+With all its drawbacks life was very enjoyable. Though out of the
+question to go far, yet we explored the country within a radius
+of several miles. Neither game nor fish were found, but it was a
+pleasure to meet the strange characters with which that region
+abounded.
+
+We indulged in one visit to our regimental friends at Camp Willow
+Grove. Everything was delightful when once there, but we had as usual
+a disagreeable time going. Two days were consumed on the way. The
+first night was spent at a stage station where all the strange and
+uncouth experiences of our Nevada journey were repeated. There was,
+however, a woman in this rough home who shared her bed with me; but
+as it was originally intended only for one person, and we each had an
+infant to care for, it soon became a question of whether or not I,
+who occupied the side next the wall, should be shoved through it.
+
+The thin boards of which the house was built were distinguished,
+as is all frontier lumber, by their ability to warp, and therefore
+proved a protection only from the rain, and not from the wind which
+blew through the knot-holes and cracks. The inclemency of the weather
+made matters worse. It was a fearful night! I mentally resolved
+never to spend another in that rickety house. We changed our route
+returning, and passed through Prescott.
+
+About that time we began to rejoice in the prospect of additional
+stores being furnished by the commissary department. After striving
+for nearly two years to vary the monotony of our rations, we felt as
+if the promised treat, in the shape of chocolate, macaroni, prunes,
+raisins, and currants, would be almost too much of a luxury, and
+care must be exercised if indigestion was not desired.
+
+How much we enjoyed the slight variety! The zest with which cook and
+I rang the changes on those different comestibles would seem really
+childish at the present day, when almost all varieties of canned
+goods and luxuries in the shape of grocers’ supplies can be found at
+every military post, however small and remote.
+
+The amount of pleasure which can be derived from the most
+insignificant sources seems incredible; but I attribute much of the
+happiness I found in army life to my delight in trivial matters. Then
+we all were so united in mutual interests. The officers, instead
+of being immersed in business cares, were ever ready to be amazed
+or amused, as the case might be, with the results of our industry,
+and absolute delight was manifested over the most trifling plan for
+social enjoyment, which doubled the pleasure.
+
+I have for many years entertained the greatest regard for
+physicians, because during our army life they displayed so warm an
+interest in my children. One of the merits of frontier residence is
+that little ones thrive so much better there than in a city, and
+rarely suffer from the many ailments to which town-bred children are
+subject. The interest they inspire in every one, especially the post
+surgeon, whose constant presence in cases of emergency gives one a
+feeling of comfort and security nothing else can afford, is very
+gratifying. The result, even in cases of severe illness, is usually
+complete recovery. Both parents and patients unavoidably benefit by
+the surroundings.
+
+Our doctor at Camp Date Creek was a character so uncommon that my
+recollections of him can never be effaced. He was an Irishman, a
+grandnephew of John Philpot Curran, the distinguished Irish wit, and
+himself so full of humor that his very presence was an antidote to
+sickness and sorrow.
+
+The doctor received a government contract after having been in
+America but a few months. He never wearied of recounting the
+impressions American slang had made upon him. Immediately on entering
+our house he would seize baby and hold her for hours, all the time
+pouring forth reminiscences of Ireland, and expressing surprise at
+the difference between the two countries.
+
+Our slang was described as very effective, especially the
+Californian, which had, or so the doctor assured me, a distinct
+vocabulary of its own, that, like adjectives, was capable of being
+positive, comparative, and superlative. As an example he instanced
+the following:
+
+“You bet, you bet you, you bet your life.” “Why,” said he, “here is a
+perfect declension! You bet your boots, you bet your bottom dollar,
+you bet stamps.”
+
+The genial Irish doctor was immensely pleased with our vernacular, if
+with nothing else.
+
+It would afford me much pleasure to prolong the narration of
+incidents connected with those friends who aided so greatly in making
+our life enjoyable, but I must hurry on with the account of our
+journey to New Mexico.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+Our little daughter was just eleven months old when the regiment was
+ordered to move. We started on our long journey in mid-winter. The
+troops from Prescott were to cross directly into New Mexico, and we
+had hoped to accompany them, but were instead sent to join others
+from the southern posts. That made our journey much longer, as after
+going in a southerly, then easterly direction, our line lay north to
+Fort Stanton, New Mexico.
+
+Eve could hardly have felt more reluctant to leave the Garden of
+Eden than I did when we bade farewell to the camp, which though
+indeed desolate, never had seemed so to me, but, rather, the most
+delightful imaginable spot. I cried bitterly for days. My packing was
+accomplished with a heavy heart, I was so miserable at the thought
+of leaving that which had been my first real home.
+
+We were to have no company for some days but that of the troop and
+our dear old captain, who was really like one of ourselves. His true
+and loving nature had greatly endeared him to us, and he formed a
+firm link in the family chain.
+
+Unaccustomed to any comfort on former journeys, I was not inclined
+to exact much on that, so soon learned instinctively to fall into
+the regular routine and discipline, and expected no consideration
+on account of my sex. I had never before traveled with troops; and
+though I did not like to rise long before the first peep of day, and
+after a hurried and scanty breakfast climb into an ambulance and
+drive for hours, I soon learned to do so without a murmur. My reward
+came in the praise our captain bestowed, when he declared that during
+the entire march of six long, weary weeks, I had never caused one
+moment’s delay or trouble.
+
+I have often since questioned whether some plan might not have been
+devised to prevent the officers’ wives from being subjected to the
+stringent rules that must be enforced among soldiers. I suppose that
+just as a woman whose husband is in business regulates her household
+according to the needs or conveniences of its head, so, with the
+same spirit, the wife of an army officer endures the hardships her
+husband’s position imposes.
+
+Our beloved commanding officer had been in the army so many years
+that the possibility of deviating in any degree from the routine
+which had become second nature doubtless never occurred to him.
+Probably no question of expediency—simply that of duty—ever suggested
+itself.
+
+Though a sufferer all my life from army discipline, which has
+continually controlled my movements, yet, when chafing most against
+its restraints, I have admired the grand soldierly spirit which made
+nearly every officer uncomplainingly forego all personal comfort for
+the sake of duty. No one outside the army can realize what the true
+soldier relinquishes when he forsakes home and family for the noble
+cause.
+
+Every one has read or heard of the mad courage displayed in times
+of war, and my knowledge of the soldier is in times of peace; yet I
+have then seen exhibited what to me is by far the truer heroism. It
+is easy to be brave when war trumps sound and the spirit is roused to
+great hopes of personal achievements, when love for a cause deepens
+the ardor which sustains men even in death; but tame submission to
+petty and altogether unnecessary hardships, because in the line of
+duty and part of a soldier’s inevitable fate, is, in my opinion, far
+more praiseworthy.
+
+Our captain was a hero in the truest sense of the word. Like many
+others, he had served for years during our civil war as a private
+before being promoted to the rank of an officer. But after promotion
+the possession and exercise of rare soldierly qualities soon enabled
+him to reach a position of influence. He was intrusted with the
+command of a company, which after a desperate resistance was
+captured. Having been severely wounded, he was released on parole,
+and remained in a little town of Southern New Mexico, where he was
+well taken care of, and during that season of forced inactivity
+recovered his health.
+
+Almost anyone would have considered him fairly entitled to pay; but
+such was his idea of rectitude that he refused to accept a dollar,
+not considering that it had been fairly earned; and to this day the
+five months’ pay due him while a prisoner remains in the coffers of
+our government. The subsequent life of this honorable man has been
+one of duty and devotion to country. His health is ruined by the
+almost incredible hardships a cavalry soldier’s duties entail.
+
+We journeyed south through Arizona to Tucson, then turned east. Our
+outfit consisted of a wall tent, which on encamping at night was
+placed on as smooth ground as could be found, and a mess chest filled
+with supplies. By placing a support under the raised cover of the
+latter, and filling the open space with a board that fitted nicely,
+it could be utilized as a table. The interior contained plates and
+dishes in addition to supplies, and the moment we reached camp our
+cook, a soldier, would begin preparations for a meal, which though
+ever so plain was always done full justice to by appetites the long
+ride had sharpened.
+
+In accordance with my usual habit, I made all necessary preparations
+in advance for supplying our wants; and it soon became more a
+question of quantity than of quality, for the generous hearts of Mr.
+Boyd and the captain always forgot that our supplies were limited. An
+instance of their thoughtlessness in such matters was on one occasion
+evinced by the arrival, unexpectedly to me, of four guests whom they
+had invited to remain with us for a few days. To supply food for a
+week—as it happened in that case—to those extra people, blessed with
+unusually good appetites, taxed my ingenuity.
+
+We had by that time reached the celebrated Indian villages of the
+Pimas and Maricopas. Those two tribes had been at peace with the
+pale faces for a century. They cultivated land, and were industrious
+and prosperous. Their villages stretched along the highway for many
+miles, so we spent six days among them. They watched our progress in
+the well-known, somewhat indifferent Indian fashion, though evincing
+real interest when we encamped at night, and swarming about us with
+various wares for sale, such as pottery and baskets, both unique in
+pattern and very serviceable. The latter were made so fine in texture
+and quality as to hold water. The various designs in which those
+useful articles were woven displayed much taste.
+
+We felt that a land flowing with milk and honey had indeed been
+reached. Not only could eggs and chickens be bought, but so cheaply
+we could indulge in them to our hearts’ content.
+
+The Pima and Maricopa Indians, like all others, were unprepossessing
+in appearance; but aware that after leaving them we would be once
+more among the murderous Apaches, I, for one at least, enjoyed their
+society because of the protection it afforded.
+
+Every night when we pitched our tents the women would crowd about
+and indulge in ecstasies over the little white baby whose ablutions
+were a source of constant and serious wonderment. This can be well
+understood when one remembers that Indians rarely, if ever, use water
+other than for drinking purposes. I never permitted any of them to
+touch baby, being afraid to do so.
+
+Our little Chinaman, with his long pigtail, also caused much
+amazement and no doubt speculation as to what he really was. As
+no attempt was made to disguise this, he evidently became at once
+disgusted with notoriety. It was, I believe, the cause of his one day
+appearing minus that appendage so revered by all Chinese—his cue.
+When I inquired what had become of it, and told him he could never
+return to China, he replied:
+
+“Me no care. Me want to be ’Melican man.”
+
+Our baby was singularly fair and white; and in all our travels, both
+among Indians and Mexicans, all went into raptures over the children,
+who with their sunny heads were such utter contrasts to the swarthy
+races among which we moved.
+
+A few days of travel after leaving the Indian villages brought
+us to Tucson, then an insignificant town of flat mud houses, so
+unprepossessing that we were glad to drive through without stopping,
+and encamp beside a beautiful stream two miles beyond. The town was
+then being decimated by smallpox, which raged among the Mexicans.
+We were obliged to flee from contact with it, especially as our
+soldiers were always ready to explore any new place, regardless of
+consequences.
+
+We spent one day in sight seeing, though the only point of special
+interest was a noted church nine miles from Tucson. I cannot express
+the astonishment excited by the sight of that house of worship built
+in those vast wilds, hundreds of miles from all civilization. The
+edifice, of noble proportions, was of red brick and whitish stucco.
+Both belfry and tower were complete. The interior decorations were
+profuse, and covered the walls. The floor, once hard and smooth, had
+been worn into hollows by the footsteps of countless devotees, whose
+race even was unknown, though surmised to be that of the ancient
+Aztecs, or followers of Montezuma.
+
+I doubt if even in Europe, with its mystic shrines dating back
+countless ages, I could have experienced a more profound sense of awe
+than when standing in that absolutely desert spot, and realizing that
+skilled hands had once erected there such a monument.
+
+In that old church were marriage records dating back hundreds of
+years; but the structure was to me the all absorbing wonder.
+
+The Mexicans living near worshiped most devoutly at its shrines;
+and they were not the only frequenters of that house of prayer,
+for the Spanish priests had a large following of Indians who had
+intermarried with the Spaniards and settled there.
+
+I could hardly tear myself from the spot, and returned again and
+again to ascend the belfry stairs and wonder and speculate upon the
+strange mystery called “San Xavier del Bac.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+At that point we parted with our four guests, who had contributed,
+by their fund of wit and humor, to render the journey pleasant, and
+had added much to our merriment at meal times. It required, however,
+a stronger sense of humor than I possessed to be merry at breakfast,
+eaten in semi-darkness, after having been awakened with military
+precision.
+
+It was certainly not cheerful to watch the tent and its furnishings
+disappear in the wagon while we sat trying to imagine ourselves
+breakfasting, with the sharp morning air of February chilling, or
+the March winds blowing about us. When the dreary meal was over we
+scrambled into our ambulance, and by the time a few miles had been
+passed I would be fairly awake and longing for lunch time.
+
+The strangest part of those travels is that children thrive so well,
+and really enjoy every moment of the journey, however monotonous.
+My baby could not walk, and I was glad of it; for a more thorny,
+desolate country than that it has never been my lot to traverse.
+The innumerable beds of cacti were the spots most delighted in by
+children, and I rejoiced that baby had no chance of being lost among
+those dangerous plants.
+
+After leaving Tucson, we passed many lonely graves dispersed over
+the weird desolation of that uninhabited space, and soon learned to
+discern where savage Apaches had moved. With our escort of fifty
+well-mounted men we had nothing to fear; but those mounds of stones,
+appealing in mute silence to the passer by, touched me deeply.
+
+On arriving at the different stage stations we generally rested a
+while, and usually found there some poor woman who was working day
+and night to assist her husband, and with whom I always made it a
+custom to converse. The comparison of the lives of those women with
+mine caused me to feel additional sympathy for them, and gratitude on
+my own account.
+
+Notwithstanding our large escort, it was necessary to proceed with
+great caution, for one never could tell what might happen when
+passing through the mountainous regions of Southern Arizona. Camp
+Bowie, at which we remained three days, was nestled amid high
+mountains, and Indians often appeared on the bluffs above, from which
+they fired recklessly and sometimes effectively. A large guard was
+always detailed to watch the outposts; and yet so subtle, as is well
+known, are Indians, that although close at hand they were seldom
+caught.
+
+One evening while we were at Camp Bowie an Indian crept into the
+stables, and while the sentry was pacing to and fro at the farther
+end, mounted a fine horse standing near the entrance, and with a
+yell of victory horse and rider disappeared. He well knew that once
+mounted, pursuit could be defied.
+
+That strange little fort in the very heart of the mountain fastness
+sheltered a number of women and children. As usual, we received a
+hearty welcome, and were feasted and _fêted_ in true army fashion.
+The post surgeon vacated his room in our honor; for which we were
+very grateful, especially when one of those terrible mountain
+blizzards came on, in which clouds of dust so thick are formed that
+objects cannot be distinguished at a distance of ten feet. The room
+we occupied was built of logs, and dust blew through the crevices
+until it seemed as if we were a part of the universal grit. The tents
+were simply uninhabitable, though before our destination was reached
+we were compelled to occupy them through what seemed fully as severe
+a storm.
+
+Officers have the habit of beautifying their quarters all
+circumstances permit; and our friend the doctor, who had incommoded
+himself for us, was no exception to the general rule. The rough
+mud ceiling of his room had been covered with unbleached cotton;
+and shelves, mostly laden with books, were suspended from rafters
+by means of the same material torn into strips. One hanging over
+the open fireplace was crowded with bottles of all sizes and
+descriptions, which contained every form of vermin and reptile life
+to be found in that region. In the eyes of one unaccustomed to such
+sights it would, indeed, have been an alarming display.
+
+The collection embraced centipeds, scorpions, tarantulas in their
+hideous blackness, and snakes of all kinds—at least those small
+enough to be bottled. They were not elegant mantel ornaments, but
+having been long accustomed to such sights I did not mind them. It
+was, however, altogether another matter to be brought in actual
+contact with the monstrosities, as happened on the second night of
+the storm.
+
+We were thoroughly worn out combating the omnipresent dust, and had
+retired early, when a tremendous crash suddenly awakened us from
+sound sleep. At first we thought the end of the world had come;
+but soon discovered that the shelf containing bottled tenants had
+fallen. It was some time before a light could be procured; for
+matches and lamps, as well as clocks and watches, were all buried
+under the _débris_.
+
+No description can do justice to the scene. Everything upon the
+shelf, ornamental as well as useful, formed a conglomerate mass, over
+which the liberated monstrosities were scattered in every direction.
+
+The doctor apologized for the accident, but we were none the worse,
+and it added one more to the list of funny experiences that were
+often afterward laughed over.
+
+From Camp Bowie our road lay through grand and gorgeous mountain
+scenery to Fort Cummings, in south-western New Mexico. A mountain
+pass on that route has been the scene of more Indian atrocities than
+any other spot in the entire Apache region. Magnificent Cook’s Peak
+has looked down upon more outrages than time can ever efface. The
+stage road wound through this pass for years, and the number of times
+the Indians have brutally murdered passengers is countless. Even now
+that a railroad has superseded the stage, it is a place of terror to
+most travelers, and the history of its bloody battles and massacres
+would fill volumes.
+
+We remained at Fort Cummings one day, and found it indeed a wretched
+place, devoid of all attractions save the kind friends who made us so
+welcome.
+
+Another day’s march brought us to Fort Selden, on the Rio Grande,
+from whence we caught our first glimpse of that strange river. Rising
+in Southern Colorado, a beautifully clear stream, it flows on for
+hundreds and hundreds of miles, changing color as frequently as does
+the famous chameleon. Now it is bright and sparkling, again dull and
+sluggish, and anon disappears completely, to reappear with added
+volume and intensity. How many have been deceived by that treacherous
+river! Trusting to its apparently listless course, travelers have
+been suddenly swept away in a mad, headlong current, which absorbed
+their lives as the vampire is said to do those of his prey. Ah! if
+the casualties that have occurred on the Rio Grande could be written,
+each of its victims adding but one line to the record, what a strange
+and fearful story would be told.
+
+There is a tradition to the effect that any one tasting its waters
+will be compelled, by some strange, subtle charm or influence,
+to return, even though after the lapse of years. Certain it is
+that people always long to again experience its strange and weird
+fascination, which seems really to follow them, and from which there
+is no respite until the mighty stream is actually revisited.
+
+The Rio Grande, which I first saw twenty years ago, has often charmed
+me since. Though not often again in the same region, I have elsewhere
+followed its banks for miles, and the borders of no other river it
+has ever been my fortune to gaze upon, present so many varieties
+of life. Desolation and beautiful verdure are mingled; while its
+fruitful produce tends to make the country, which without its
+beneficent influence would indeed be a desert, a very paradise.
+
+But I would not forestall my narrative by saying too much of this
+river, to which I so often returned, and which finally became like a
+familiar friend, a part of my very life itself.
+
+We left the Rio Grande at Don Aña, and struck off into beautiful,
+piney Lincoln County, New Mexico, where we had a happy home for
+another year. Before reaching there we encamped for one night at
+White Sands, memorable on account of the peculiarity of its soil. A
+perfectly wonderful mass of pure white sand, which lay in hillocks,
+extended far as the eye could reach. We climbed onward, our feet
+sinking in slightly, just enough to remind us of “footsteps on the
+sands of time.” Those sand hillocks had existed from time immemorial,
+and will remain for ages to come, I suppose, unless some commercial
+mind shall divine their value and utilize the white commodity, by
+converting it into a merchantable article. I am glad to have seen
+them in their spotless purity and beauty.
+
+The remainder of our journey to dear old Fort Stanton was through
+exquisite forests of mountain pines, and beside clear streams that
+yielded delicious trout.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+At Fort Stanton nature was a constant source of joy and pleasure. The
+nearby streams were fairly alive with delicious fish, so abundant
+that a line could hardly be thrown before one would bite. Besides
+fish, we had game of almost every variety, and fairly lived on
+the “fat of the land.” New Mexico had been called “The Troopers’
+Paradise,” and we found the name to be well merited.
+
+Perhaps the very wildness of the country and abundance of game
+provoked a lawless element; for Lincoln County, if a good one for
+natural supplies, has always been regarded as a rallying point for
+desperadoes, and its history is famous in the annals of crime.
+
+At first my wonder and sympathies were excited; but in time the
+peaceful security one always experiences when surrounded by
+well-armed troops deadened susceptibilities to what transpired
+outside. Army officers’ wives hear of bloodshed with much the same
+feeling as is experienced by women living in cities when they learn
+of frightful accidents which involve the lives of others, but of none
+who are near and dear to them.
+
+We passed one happy, peaceful year at Fort Stanton. The houses, built
+of stone, which was very plentiful in that mountainous region, were
+very comfortable. Each had two rooms, with a detached kitchen and
+dining-room about fifteen feet in the rear.
+
+The climate was perfect, the air so exquisitely pure as to lend a
+freshness and charm to each day’s existence. To breathe was like
+drinking new wine. I cannot pity the isolation of settlers in those
+regions, for the beauty of natural scenery displayed on all sides is
+ample compensation, and to live is to enjoy. My recollections of that
+year are delightful.
+
+Several companies had preceded us, so I had companions of my own
+sex. Our amusements consisted in part of driving, and fishing in
+streams where success, however inferior the angler’s skill, was
+certain. Our wildest gayety was a card-party, and we always attended
+military balls. There were not enough officers’ wives to have
+dances of our own; but we always opened those of the soldiers’, and
+thoroughly appreciated their enjoyment.
+
+Some of those affairs would have presented a strange picture to
+people in the East; but the very absurdity and variety of the
+costumes and conduct of frontiersmen and their wives, who were always
+invited, only added zest to our enjoyment, and the recollections
+amused us for days.
+
+One evening so fierce a storm raged that we hardly dared cross the
+parade ground; yet our desire to go was sufficient to induce the
+attempt. We were fairly blown into the room, and to our surprise
+found it filled with the usual throng. How in the world they had all
+reached the place through such a severe storm puzzled us greatly,
+but there they were.
+
+It was a curious sight, and a still more curious sound, that all
+those people produced. The strains of music, the stamping of many
+feet, and the wild howling of the wind, all combined to greatly
+stimulate our nerves. The excitement was still further increased when
+suddenly a loud crash was heard; every one rushed out in alarm to
+discover that a huge flagstaff, which it had taken months to make and
+erect, had fallen and been splintered into a thousand fragments. The
+staff had not been properly secured by stanchions.
+
+The occurrence was regretted, not only because the making and
+erecting had consumed much time, but also because it had been
+difficult to find a suitable tree tall enough for the purpose. Thus
+our towering flagstaff, which had taken many years to grow and
+several months to fashion, had been laid low in a less number of
+seconds.
+
+Soon after I experienced another fright, quite different in its
+nature from the one just related. I now firmly believe an army
+garrison to be the most secure place on earth, and in later years
+almost forgot the use of keys; but in those earlier days I was always
+on the alert.
+
+One night when Mr. Boyd was away I placed a student lamp at the foot
+of our bed, and after looking under it in the usual approved woman
+fashion, lay down to rest. My nervous fears had only just passed
+away, permitting me to fall into a light slumber, when I found myself
+suddenly sitting up gazing at the form of a man entering the door. My
+heart seemed to stop beating, yet fortunately I had the courage to
+exclaim:
+
+“What are you doing here? Leave the room!”
+
+The man promptly obeyed. I sprang up, locked the door, and called the
+servants. When I found that my nurse, who slept in the next room, had
+disappeared, and that cook, on account of the distance between the
+house and kitchen, could not hear me, I felt as if a plan was on
+foot to murder me, and endured a half-hour of absolute agony, such as
+I hope it will never again be my lot to experience.
+
+At last the nurse appeared, and I went once more to rest; but so
+vivid were my impressions of the man that I picked him out next day
+from among a hundred; and then begged, on learning that he had been
+wandering around intoxicated, and merely entered the first door which
+responded to his touch, that no punishment be inflicted.
+
+Beautiful Fort Stanton was not only perfect in natural scenery and
+surroundings, but had been improved by excellent methods. Various
+officers had from time to time planted trees around the parade
+ground; and to facilitate their growth an _acequia_, as it was called
+in Spanish, or ditch, had been dug, and the water, constantly running
+through it, kept the roots of the trees always moist, so they grew
+rapidly and formed a delightful shade in front of our quarters.
+
+We became so fond of our home in that charming spot that everything
+else contented us. The mail came, as before, but once a week, and
+its arrival made that day a red-letter one in our quiet lives. It
+was always devoted to eager anticipations and close watching of
+the long line of road over which the mail rider came. If over due,
+nothing else could be thought or talked of until he arrived, and we
+received our news from beyond the border. Even baby learned to look
+for letters, and to expect some token of love from absent friends.
+She would forsake her favorite playground near the muddy _acequia_ to
+join the anxious group of watchers.
+
+Every one has heard the story of the baby who was taken by her mother
+to some performance in San Francisco in the early days, when women
+were scarce and babies so rare as almost to be wonders; and how, when
+the little one cried and refused to be pacified, an old miner arose
+and requested that the play should cease so they might hear the baby
+cry. His request was applauded on all sides, and a hat passed round
+for the baby, who had reminded those rough men of a home life almost
+forgotten in their pioneer surroundings.
+
+My baby was not only of the greatest importance to me, but if I
+noticed any sign of the devotion she was expected to receive from
+other sources flagging, my displeasure was quickly expressed. I have
+since been told that the officers, after reporting for duty to their
+commander, would say:
+
+“Now we must go see baby, and report her condition.”
+
+Consequently she received as much notice as if it had been her divine
+right. The little one could talk plainly by the time she was fifteen
+months old, and amused us all greatly.
+
+In looking back upon those happy days I often wonder how I could
+voluntarily have left so dear a home. But after residing there a year
+I decided to visit friends in New York, so bade farewell to beautiful
+Fort Stanton, not knowing I never should again see it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+We left Fort Stanton in March, prepared for a seemingly almost
+interminable journey before reaching the railroad at Denver, five
+hundred miles distant. Expecting to find houses in which to pass the
+nights, we took no tent, and besides my trunk very little baggage.
+It was entirely too early in the season for traveling to be really
+comfortable, as in that exquisite mountain air mornings and evenings
+are very cold.
+
+The country between Forts Stanton and Union was simply superb in
+its wild grandeur and beauty. Only the pen of an artist could have
+done justice to its many charms. We stopped every night with Mexican
+families, who in their simple kindness were most truly hospitable.
+They made us welcome, and yet exacted no reward for the time and
+attention bestowed. I always required those hours for rest and
+looking after baby, who with the happy unconcern of childhood had a
+way of wandering in paths unsuited to such tender feet.
+
+In all those rough travels I never met with anything else which
+gave me so much trouble as the cactus plant. Wherever we went, and
+whatever else we missed, that was always present in some shape or
+form. In regions where nothing else could be prevailed upon to grow,
+that useful but disagreeable plant always throve; and the more
+dreary, parched, and barren the soil, the more surely did the cactus
+flourish and expand its bayonet-armed leaves.
+
+If very young children were allowed to wander in the least, one could
+safely depend upon finding them in the vicinity of the dangerous
+cacti. During that journey our little one tripped and fell directly
+upon a large plant, which, it seemed to me, had more than the usual
+complement of thorns, for her little knees were fairly filled with
+them, and days passed before all were picked out.
+
+Cacti are the main feature of Western plant life. Sometimes with
+fluted columns, as in Arizona, they rear their heads aloft in stately
+grandeur. Again they are found in some one of the numerous less
+inspiring shapes and forms the plant assumes in different parts of
+the West. There must be at least fifty varieties. All are supplied
+with that chief characteristic—sharp-pointed prickers—which remind
+the unwary of their presence and power.
+
+It takes a great deal of frontier experience to deal correctly
+with cacti. They have many and valuable properties which the early
+settlers long since discovered. The most common variety is the low,
+flat-land species which requires no seeking. In the far West it
+flaunts itself by all roadsides and everywhere dots the prairies. It
+is very nutritive, and utilized by natives as food for cattle; they
+first burn away the prickles with which it has been so bountifully
+supplied by nature. Even in that land of seeming barrenness for man
+and beast, much can be found to support life. The cactus supplies an
+intoxicating liquor called _mescal_; and one variety bears a fruit
+which tastes somewhat like the strawberry, and is much sought after
+by Mexicans.
+
+The only time when cacti are really pretty is in early spring, when
+they bloom. Then the bright-hued flowers dot the country with color,
+and relieve the eye from the monotonous gray hue which pervades all
+nature in a region where rains are so periodical as to prevent the
+vernal freshness of the East.
+
+There is a rare and nameless charm in the contemplation of those
+extended prairies, with their soft gray tints, dreary to Eastern
+people, but so dearly loved by those who become imbued with the deep
+sentiment their vast expanse inspires.
+
+I shall never become reconciled to localities where the eye cannot
+look for miles and miles beyond the spot where one stands, and where
+the density of the atmosphere circumscribes the view, limiting it
+to a comparatively short distance. I have traveled in New Mexico and
+Arizona for days, when on starting early in the morning the objective
+point of my journey, and an endless stretch of road, perhaps for a
+hundred miles, could be seen.
+
+To mount a horse, such as can be found only in the West, perfect for
+the purpose, and gallop over prairies, completely losing one’s self
+in vast and illimitable space, as silent as lonely, is to leave every
+petty care, and feel the contented frame of mind which can only be
+produced by such surroundings. In those grand wastes one is truly
+alone with God. Oh, I love the West, and dislike to think that the
+day will surely come when it will teem with human life and all its
+warring elements!
+
+On that journey East from my dear Western home everything seemed new.
+After traveling for days, Fort Union was reached, where we remained
+a while, and then went North, passing through beautiful Colorado,
+stopping at Trinidad, Pueblo, and finally, after seventeen days
+of ambulance travel, reaching Denver. It was more like a panoramic
+journey than a real one; for we kept continually advancing toward a
+higher and higher degree of civilization, till its apex—New York—was
+reached.
+
+All those strange, crude, and uncivilized Western villages have since
+become thriving railroad towns. Denver, with its perfect environment
+of exquisite mountain scenery, will always remain in my mind a
+picture of beauty.
+
+Mr. Boyd was to leave me at Denver, and return to Fort Stanton; but
+we first spent a delightful week there. My brother met and introduced
+us to some pleasant people. There was a fine company at the principal
+theatre, which we attended nightly, and I shed tears over dear
+old Rip Van Winkle, who, though not personated by Jefferson, was
+sufficiently well portrayed to merit and receive great applause.
+The absolute freshness of feeling one experiences after years of
+absence from such scenes is sufficiently delightful to make the jaded
+theater-goer envious.
+
+I was exceedingly proud of my introduction to that estimable
+couple, Mr. and Mrs. McKee Rankin, the “stars” in that theatrical
+combination; and we were honored by an invitation to dine with them,
+which was accepted. We had the pleasantest imaginable time.
+
+My brother had been living in Cheyenne for some time, and, in his
+great desire to again witness a fine theatrical performance, had,
+with a friend, assumed the entire responsibility of the troupe’s
+success. A week had been spent in enlisting every one’s interest;
+and although he guaranteed expenses in any event, yet when the
+important night arrived there was a full house, and one of the most
+picturesque audiences ever collected. Every miner, ranchman, gambler,
+and the whole military garrison at Cheyenne, were not only there, but
+applauded everything as a Western audience alone can—in a manner that
+made the very building tremble.
+
+Such an audience is a sight which once seen is not easily forgotten.
+Similar heterogeneous elements never enter into the lives of the
+people at the East, and it is almost impossible to describe such
+a gathering. Imagine a peculiarly picturesque and large audience,
+composed of every imaginable species of the human race, each so
+intent upon the performance that actual surroundings are entirely
+ignored.
+
+In those early days of which I am writing, the population of Denver
+was much more composite than it is at the present time; and the
+experienced eye could readily distinguish men and women of every
+nationality, and from every station in life, from the cowboy to
+the millionaire. Beautiful Denver! my heart turns longingly to its
+perfect climate; and the desire to once again inhale that sweet, pure
+air, and catch a glimpse of its glorious mountain scenery, cannot be
+overcome.
+
+We left that lovely town after a week’s delightful stay, and for
+two days and nights rolled over the prairies in cars, watching the
+endless stretch of level and monotonous plains, relieved here and
+there by herds of buffaloes, which sometimes approached so near as to
+be shot at from the train. It reminded me of the excitement created
+when whales are encountered on a sea voyage, because the passengers,
+after once having seen them, were constantly on the lookout for more,
+and the state of expectancy rendered their journey less tedious.
+These herds of buffaloes have long since disappeared from the Kansas
+plains, and their very memory will soon become a recollection of the
+past.
+
+As we rolled into dingy St. Louis, where brother left me, my heart
+sank at the prospect of again breathing air too heavy and dense to
+be anything but suffocating. The next morning found me in Chicago,
+where I was to be met by another brother. Our little daughter was so
+accustomed to being on friendly terms with every one, that she used
+to go from one end of the car to the other, chatting and enjoying
+every moment of her trip. To ride in cars, after lurching about in
+all sorts of uncomfortable conveyances over rough mountains and
+plains, was like gently gliding; and but for the heavy atmosphere and
+coal dust, it seemed as if I should never tire.
+
+A very enjoyable day was passed in Chicago. My brother pointed out,
+with evident pride, the splendid public buildings, which but a
+few months later were devastated by the fire fiend, only to rise,
+phœnix-like, from their ruins in greater beauty and splendor.
+
+I have the most profound admiration both for Chicago and the spirit
+of enterprise shown by its inhabitants; and when I saw it again after
+the calamity, I bowed in reverence to a community that could evolve
+so much architectural beauty and elegance, to say nothing of comfort,
+from so disastrous a misfortune as that terrible fire.
+
+Twenty hours after leaving Chicago found me in New York. I had looked
+forward with intense longing to that moment, supposing ineffable
+happiness would be my portion when again there; but standing in front
+of the Fifth Avenue hotel, a landmark more familiar to me than any
+other in the city, my disappointment and heart sickness were severe.
+
+I had seen the hotel rise from nothing; had always lived in the
+immediate vicinity, daily passed it going to and from school; and
+when homesick during my army life the mere thought of that hotel
+would awaken the happiest feelings; but when the desire to again
+see it had been attained my heart sank with a bitter feeling of
+loneliness.
+
+No longing has ever equaled in intensity the one which then took
+possession of me—to be back again in my dear Western home, surrounded
+by all the lonely grandeur of its lovely scenery. Though I remained
+East an entire year, it was only because obliged to, and during all
+those months I never ceased to sigh for the day of my return.
+
+I had many joyful reunions with kind relatives and dear friends, much
+to make life bright and cheerful; but I raved about the delights
+of the West until friends thought me nearly crazy on the subject.
+Besides missing my own home, as do all married women, in spite of
+the unbounded hospitality of friends, I missed the quiet and freedom
+from that mad rush which seems an inevitable part of life in a great
+city. I was also in the hands of physicians, which was depressing.
+The hardships of frontier life, at times when I was entirely unfitted
+for travel, had told their tale, and compelled my return East in
+order that my shattered health might be regained.
+
+Three months were spent in New York, and then, with the approach of
+warm weather, I wended my way to the mountains. Although they seemed
+insipid after the rocky grandeur of the West, I preferred them, such
+as they were, to the city with its endless streets and turmoil, where
+tall chimney tops prevented my obtaining a glimpse of the blue sky I
+had seen so freely and loved so well.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+I doubt if any but those who have lived among the prairies or
+mountains of the far West can realize how keenly is felt the loss of
+that endless environment which becomes a part of life itself, and
+which is missed when deprived of, especially at first, almost like
+one’s daily bread.
+
+From the city I went to my husband’s home in New York State, on
+a spur of the Catskill Mountains, where I seemed to breathe more
+freely, and was enchanted during those long summer months by the
+exquisite green of grass, trees, and landscape—in a word, by every
+thing that refreshed the eye after such a long period of gray hues,
+and which certainly my beloved West lacked.
+
+I was enthusiastic over the fresh verdure of our beautiful mountain
+home, just as I had been over the gray loveliness of the West. It
+was, no doubt, the marked contrast which gladdened my eyes. Not a
+moment was spent in-doors if it could be avoided; and when compelled
+to do so, I placed myself where a perpetual feast to the eyes was in
+full view.
+
+One could dwell perpetually amid recollections of the past; so I will
+hasten over that quiet, restful summer to the succeeding fall, when
+my husband arrived on his first leave of absence. Needless to say the
+young soldier was greeted by his family with the welcome befitting
+one, who, having spent three years in distant service, returned to
+his home with unalloyed pleasure, and reviewed with renewed delight
+the early surroundings and memories of his youth.
+
+During the month following Mr. Boyd’s arrival our first boy was
+born, and no prince could ever have been received with more sincere
+delight. Parents and grandparents were unanimous in considering
+him wonderful, and indeed he was a splendid baby! My husband
+celebrated his advent as we would have done on the frontier, with
+much rejoicing; but the Puritan grandparents seriously objected to
+conviviality of any kind, and seized the occasion to obtain their
+son’s promise to abstain in future from intoxicating liquors of every
+description. To gratify his dear father Mr. Boyd agreed, although
+there was no necessity for such a pledge, as he had always been most
+temperate. Our son was ten years of age before Captain Boyd again
+tasted liquor, and then it was by the doctor’s express order.
+
+When our baby boy was three months old his father began to think
+the country a cold place for us, and to debate the desirability
+of a return to New York, especially as he felt we were entitled,
+after our long sojourn on the frontier, to some of the pleasures
+of Eastern life. One entire morning was spent in discussing the
+matter. The conclusion arrived at was, that even if we remained with
+relatives the amount of my husband’s pay would in no wise suffice
+for the ordinary expenses of life in New York. In order to have any
+leisure I should require a nurse for our two little children, and the
+half-pay received was only sixty-five dollars a month.
+
+In relating these experiences of army life, I wish it distinctly
+understood that I am not exaggerating—simply stating facts. A cavalry
+officer was deprived of almost every opportunity of visiting home
+and relatives in the East, and when permitted to do so on leave was
+compelled to plunge in debt, which involved him for years afterward
+in difficulties: so, great as was the pleasure, and most innocent and
+natural, we considered it too dearly bought ever to be repeated, and
+therefore did not again come East until compelled to do so on account
+of our children’s education.
+
+My husband had journeyed from Fort Stanton to New York at frightful
+expense, traveling by stage to Denver, which, as my previous
+experience has shown, was the most costly mode of transit. An officer
+has not only to make all trips when on leave at his own expense, but
+in those days the pay was reduced to half its full amount; and as a
+lieutenant was then allowed only one hundred and thirty dollars, Mr.
+Boyd received but sixty-five dollars a month. Such reduction seems to
+me most unjust, for surely no one can be expected to spend a lifetime
+away from all early associations, or pay so dearly for the natural
+desire to occasionally see parents and friends.
+
+We were indeed happy with the pleasure of again visiting our
+relatives; but when the long, long return journey from New York to
+New Mexico had to be undertaken, and we found that with the utmost
+economy it would cost seven hundred dollars, which, with the limited
+supply of household necessaries absolutely required, and the expenses
+of Mr. Boyd’s journey East added, aggregated upwards of thirteen
+hundred dollars, it was anything but a pleasant outlook for the
+future. We were in debt to that amount, and must provide for its
+payment.
+
+Can any one wonder either at our dismay, or the resolve never again
+to think of leave of absence? For economy we had actually buried
+ourselves in the mountains during the entire winter; and although
+that was no great hardship, yet it would have been very pleasant
+to have enjoyed New York during the season, especially as I never
+expected to come East again.
+
+We realized the stern fact that with an income of only sixty-five
+dollars a month, four people should be thankful to have the bare
+necessaries of life, without expecting luxuries; but it did seem
+rather hard to return without seeing more of the city than a fleeting
+glimpse obtained in passing, and—because we were poor.
+
+While in New York one of my cousins found a servant willing to return
+West with us, which seemed desirable, as a nurse would be needed on
+that long journey, and the amount of her traveling expenses would be
+saved in the wages to be paid—those current in New York instead of
+the double rate demanded on the frontier.
+
+We congratulated ourselves on the servant’s appearance, which was so
+far from pleasing it seemed safe to take her. Had it been otherwise
+she would, we were sure, soon desert us for matrimony. The girl was
+almost a grenadier in looks and manners; and although not absolutely
+hideous, was so far from pleasing that we were confident of retaining
+her services, so made a contract for one year.
+
+Our Western journey was uneventful in comparison with others that
+had preceded it. It seemed a slight undertaking to travel with
+our two little children, who were so good and healthy, and I had
+the assistance both of my husband and the nurse. Besides, the joy
+experienced at being fairly _en route_ for our own home made me feel
+like a caged bird let loose.
+
+After four days and nights of travel from the East into the West, we
+reached Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, where the children, nurse, and I
+were to remain with my brother, while Mr. Boyd went to New Mexico by
+stage, and returned with an ambulance for our long journey.
+
+My heart swells when I think of those perfect days! It was in the
+month of May, and we either camped out every night, or slept in some
+ranch. Each moment was fraught with pleasure. Every whiff of mountain
+air was inhaled with delight, for, like a Mohammedan, my face was
+turned toward Mecca. I so rejoiced that our nurse, who was undergoing
+the same disagreeable sensations I had experienced at the outset of
+my army life in the strange surroundings, was so overpowered she
+dared not express her dissatisfaction.
+
+On arriving at Trinidad, a halt was made, for I had forgotten to
+check our trunks from Denver to Kit Carson, so they did not follow.
+We awaited them there for a while, but finally decided to go on.
+When the trunks eventually reached us, we discovered that they had
+been left standing somewhere in the rain until their contents were
+saturated with water and had mildewed.
+
+I felt badly enough over my own trunk; but the nurse wept, “refusing
+to be comforted,” for all her finery was ruined. My own regrets
+were silenced in listening to her lamentations, especially as I was
+entirely to blame.
+
+We did not return to Fort Stanton, Mr. Boyd’s company having been
+ordered to Fort Union; so the journey, which I regarded in the light
+of a picnic, from the railroad to our home, required only twelve
+days. It was delightful in every respect, or would have been but for
+the sour face of our nurse, “who mourned, and mourned, and mourned.”
+
+When we reached Fort Union, and I asked if it would not be a pleasant
+home for us, she looked out on the wide and desolate plain that faced
+the fort, and with a weary sigh, said she “preferred New York.”
+
+Having known the pangs of homesickness, I sympathized with her
+deeply; but she kept up so continuously her wail of despair over the
+discomforts of our life generally, and it became so tiresome, that
+when, five months afterward, she married a soldier, I was rather glad
+than otherwise, and returned with a sense of relief to the faithful
+men for service.
+
+We had soon discovered the fallacy of our belief that her plainness
+would prevent the possibility of a lover. Women were so scarce,
+and men so plenty, that no matter how old or ugly, a woman was not
+neglected, and our unprepossessing nurse had scores of suitors for
+her hand. She had not been in the fort three days before the man who
+laid our carpets proposed to her. It required but little time in
+which to become aware of her own value, and on learning that he was
+intemperate she quickly discarded him.
+
+The one whom she finally married was brave in every sense of the
+word. Trusting to the old adage, “Faint heart ne’er won fair ladie,”
+that man engaged a carriage at Las Vegas for the wedding-trip before
+ever having seen her. He was a soldier belonging at Fort Union, who
+had been away on distant service for months, and, hearing that we
+had a girl from the East with us, made the necessary preparations
+for their marriage while _en route_ to the post. His pluck must have
+pleased her, for three days after his return she accompanied him to
+Las Vegas, where they were united for life.
+
+She had made my life harder in every way, and taught us the folly of
+taking a servant accustomed to Eastern civilization into the Western
+wilds. Not only had she scorned all our belongings and surroundings,
+but absolutely wearied me with incessant complaints over the absence
+of modern conveniences, which was absurd; for the climate was so
+exquisite, and the houses so compact, there was really no necessity
+for such fretfulness. We had clean, sweet, fresh quarters, which to
+me seemed perfect.
+
+So greatly, however, had the girl deplored the situation, that I
+wondered she thought to better her condition by marrying a soldier,
+who can often give his wife no shelter whatever; in fact, unless
+permitted to marry by the consent of his officers, she is not allowed
+to live in the garrison.
+
+That was a hard summer in spite of my joy at our return. Mr. Boyd
+had been ordered to join his troop in the field immediately after
+our arrival. I had a dear little house, and with new carpets and
+curtains, and the absolute freshness of all, would have been happy
+enough but for the load of debt that was constantly worrying me, and
+the discontent of our servant, which made her incapable to such a
+degree that I had to work so hard the flesh and strength gained by my
+pleasant Eastern visit greatly decreased. Before the summer was over
+I had lost twenty-five pounds.
+
+Our dear captain had taken unto himself a bride, and in accordance
+with the usual army experience had been ordered away immediately on
+reaching the post, where he had hoped to enjoy his wife’s society at
+least for a while. But the fortunes of war are ever the same, and our
+garrison was denuded of cavalry, which pursued Indians all summer.
+The officers always had so many comical stories to tell on their
+return, that even the bride failed to realize her husband’s danger,
+and joined in the general laugh over those recitals.
+
+One night the Indians actually invaded camp, and the officers were
+obliged to fight in their night clothes, having no time even to
+slip on shoes, but rushed immediately into the inclosure, that
+when camping was always formed by the wagons, and within which the
+animals were led. Having succeeded in driving off the Indians they
+laughed immoderately at each other, and considered the whole affair a
+great joke. The colonel was unusually tall, the quartermaster short
+and very stout, and each must have presented a comical appearance,
+fighting for dear life in such attire.
+
+When absent on those expeditions the troop usually encamped on the
+banks of some stream. On one occasion the river by which they had
+camped rose—agreeably to the frequent custom of Western rivers—and
+carried away everything on its banks. When it fell their huge
+blacksmith’s forge was found imbedded in the opposite shore, an
+eighth of a mile lower down.
+
+The rainy season in those south-western countries is mostly confined
+to a few months, either in early spring or midsummer; and as no
+warning precedes its coming, sad accidents not infrequently occur.
+Sometimes in the course of a few hours a tiny little stream grows
+into an angry, surging torrent, so great is the downpour even in that
+short time. One dear woman, an officer’s wife, who was camped with
+her husband on the banks of a river apparently in full security, lost
+her life from that cause.
+
+A storm arose so suddenly, that, seeing their camp would soon be
+under water, she took shelter in an ambulance, to be driven across
+the stream to higher ground; but the treacherous current had grown so
+swift and strong that she and their child, together with the driver
+and mules, were swept away before the eyes of her husband, who stood
+agonized and helpless on the shore.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+We were always delighted to welcome back the troops from their
+Indian reconnoitering, life was so dull without them. During their
+absence the garrison would consist perhaps of only one company of
+infantry, with its captain and lieutenant; and if at headquarters a
+quartermaster and an adjutant, with of course a doctor, who was our
+mainstay, and to whom we rushed if only a finger ached. That summer
+even the band was in the field, so we had no music to cheer us.
+All was, however, made up for on their return in November, when we
+inaugurated a series of hops that were delightful.
+
+The quarters at Fort Union had an unusually wide hall which was
+superb for dancing, and three rooms on each side. We had only to
+notify the quartermaster that a hop was to be given, when our barren
+hallway would immediately be transferred into a beautiful ballroom,
+with canvas stretched tightly over the floor, flags decorating the
+sides, and ceiling so charmingly draped as to make us feel doubly
+patriotic.
+
+Many ladies greatly dislike Fort Union. It has always been noted
+for severe dust-storms. Situated on a barren plain, the nearest
+mountains, and those not very high, three miles distant, it has the
+most exposed position of any military fort in New Mexico.
+
+The soil is composed of the finest and, seemingly, lightest brown
+sand, which when the wind blows banks itself to a prodigious height
+against any convenient object. The most exposed place was between two
+sets of quarters, which were some distance apart. The wind would blow
+from a certain direction one day, and completely bank the side of one
+house; the next it would shift, when the sand would be found lying
+against the other.
+
+The hope of having any trees, or even a grassy parade ground, had
+been abandoned long before our residence there; for either the
+grass-seed would be scattered by the wind, or the grass actually
+uprooted and blown away after it had grown.
+
+In 1886, when I again visited Fort Union, it seemed indeed a
+cheerless place on account of the lack of verdure. The cause is
+simply want of shelter; for with the ample water-works which have
+been built since we lived there, much could be done if it were in a
+less exposed position.
+
+Those sand-banks were famous playgrounds for the children. One
+little girl, whose mother was constantly upbraiding her for lack of
+neatness, contrasting her with our little daughter who was almost
+painfully tidy, determining to be avenged, coaxed my child near a
+large sand-pile and threw her down on it, saying, as she again and
+again poured the dirt over her:
+
+“There, now! I am glad to see you as dirty as I am!”
+
+Every eye is said to form its own beauty. Mine was disposed to see
+much in Fort Union, for I had a home there.
+
+When my husband returned from his long scout we rode horseback daily.
+Our objective point was always the mountains, where trees and green
+grass were to be found in abundance. One day when in the Turkey
+mountains, about three miles from home, we saw two very ugly-visaged
+men approaching. Some instinct, or kind Providence, warned Mr. Boyd
+to keep a watchful eye on them, so he deliberately turned in the
+saddle, and placing one hand on a pistol to show that he was armed,
+watched them out of sight. One of the men, who turned back and looked
+at us, also rested a hand on his hip where the pistol is carried.
+Observing that we were intently watching their movements, they rode
+on, leaving us unmolested.
+
+On our return we were greeted with the tale of a horrible murder
+that had been committed on the very outskirts of the post. A soldier
+messenger, who for ten years had carried the mail between Fort Union
+and the arsenal, a mile distant, had been shot within fifteen
+hundred yards of the garrison, and fallen lifeless by the roadside.
+His horse, instead of being captured by the murderers as they had
+hoped, galloped wildly toward the arsenal, and thus raised an alarm.
+The murderers were actually in sight when the poor man’s body was
+found, still warm, but with life extinct.
+
+A pursuing party was organized without loss of time, and on that
+open, level plain the wretches were almost immediately captured and
+placed in the guard-house. Mr. Boyd at once visited them, and found,
+as he expected, that they were the same men whom we had met in the
+mountains only a few hours previously. They would not, of course,
+reply to his query why they did not kill us for the sake of the fine
+horses we rode. He felt certain the murderers would be dealt with
+as summarily, and told them so, as had been the poor messenger whom
+they so foully murdered, and whose family was then suffering the most
+poignant sorrow.
+
+Late that evening the civil authorities demanded the prisoners. Their
+only safety lay in the commanding officer refusing the request; but
+claiming that he had no authority for so doing, they were delivered
+to the sheriff, though begging and pleading to be permitted to remain
+in the guard-house. The men dreaded lynch law, but saw no mercy in
+the faces of their jailers.
+
+After proceeding a short distance from the garrison, their escort
+increased in numbers until soon an immense crowd surrounded them. Not
+a sound was heard until the very verge of the military reservation
+had been reached, yet a more resolute and relentless body of men
+never marched together.
+
+The very moment the last foot of military ground had been passed the
+sheriff was overpowered, evidently with no very great reluctance; and
+the crowd, producing coils of rope, quickly proceeded to hang the
+prisoners to telegraph-poles, where their bodies dangled for days, a
+warning to all horse-thieves and murderers.
+
+For a time my rides were spoiled; but soon I grew brave again, though
+we were always thereafter careful to be thoroughly well armed on
+leaving home.
+
+I might multiply accounts of our experiences at various garrisons,
+but it would take too long. In a monotonous life days slip away
+almost unconsciously, and one is surprised to find how quickly time
+has flown. Looking back, it seems incredibly short, because there
+were no important events to mark its progress.
+
+We were so happily situated that I hoped to remain at Fort Union, but
+as usual springtime saw us on the wing. It was undoubtedly a high
+compliment to my husband that he should always have been chosen as an
+administrative officer. It not only proved Mr. Boyd’s ability, but
+was a testimony to his honesty, and thus a complete refutation of the
+charges made against him at West Point. It was also a special honor
+to be singled out from among so many men by the general in command
+at distant headquarters; but an inconvenience, particularly when we
+were at a very desirable post or station, to be ordered to a most
+uncomfortable one. Fort Union seemed far enough from the railroad,
+especially as our year East had made us anxious to be as near
+civilization as possible.
+
+We were looking forward to a long stay at our pleasant post, when an
+unexpected order came for Mr. Boyd to proceed immediately to Fort
+Bayard, and build the officers’ quarters needed there. He kept the
+news from me during the day of its arrival, because I was deeply
+engrossed in preparations for a hop to be given at our house that
+evening, and he did not wish to spoil my pleasure.
+
+The entire day had been spent in decorating the hall and preparing
+supper. Unfortunately the first guest who arrived effectually
+dampened my spirits by sympathetically exclaiming:
+
+“Isn’t it too bad you have to leave here?”
+
+I was too unhappy to enjoy a single moment of the festivities which
+followed; but the arrival of the entire garrison, who danced and
+otherwise greatly enjoyed themselves, left in my mind a picture of
+pleasant army gayety surpassed by none.
+
+As usual I packed our household belongings with a heavy heart. That
+move was decidedly for the worse; and even if the journey, with its
+attendant fatigue and expense, had not been dreaded, I would have
+disliked going to a place so much farther from the railroad, and
+where so little could be expected in the way of comfort.
+
+Fort Bayard, six hundred miles south-west of Fort Union, and a
+few miles distant from Arizona, was considered a most undesirable
+locality, both on account of its remoteness, and because no houses
+had then been built for the officers’ use. It required eighteen days
+to reach our destination by ambulance, traveling about thirty-five
+miles each day.
+
+After leaving Fort Union we went directly to Santa Fé, and saw that
+quaint old Mexican town, then across to Albuquerque, down by the
+borders of the Rio Grande to Fort Selden, and from there by ascending
+grades to Fort Bayard, which was in the more mountainous region.
+
+The journey was like all others in which ambulances were used as
+conveyances—tiresome and monotonous in the extreme, but in my case
+always either modified or intensified by the gladness or reluctance
+experienced in regard to our destination. In that case I was heartily
+sorry for the move. We had been only nine months at Fort Union; my
+baby was at a troublesome age and needed constant care, and for
+the first time I was without a nurse of any sort. Besides, it was
+mid-winter, and unusual care must be exercised to keep the children
+warm when camping out, which we were compelled to do a part of the
+time. The season was, however, too cold to permit of that when it
+could be avoided, so we occupied Mexican houses almost every night.
+
+The houses were very warm and comfortable, but oddly arranged
+according to American ideas. In place of windows there were merely
+openings for air, tightly closed or covered by solid wooden shutters
+at night. Several beds were ranged about the walls of each long,
+oddly shaped room, which except for a primitive wash-stand contained
+no other furniture. There was, however, always an open fireplace and
+a cheerful blaze of mesquite roots, which emitted much heat, and a
+curious odor that one never forgets.
+
+The food was always enjoyed, for after long, open-air rides no one
+is ever very fastidious. Mexican cooking is not usually relished by
+those unaccustomed to it, because always highly flavored with garlic,
+much soaked in grease, and almost everything deluged with red pepper,
+without a lavish use of which no Mexican can prepare a single dish.
+
+The most primitive mode of grinding corn—by hand between two
+stones—was then still in vogue; and the tortillas made from meal
+thus obtained, simply mixed with water and baked, were not only
+very sweet, but strange to say also light, probably because of the
+manipulation by skilled hands. They reminded me of the delicious
+beaten biscuits prepared in the South, which are never fit to be
+eaten anywhere else.
+
+The Rio Grande again became our constant companion, and we drove
+for days within sight of its banks. How I envied the Mexicans who
+were able to spend their lives on its sunny shores. Volumes could be
+written about those peculiar people, with their almost deathlike calm
+of manner, seldom, under any circumstances, varied; though sometimes
+the fact is betrayed that volcanic fires slumber beneath, to be fully
+roused and find vent only when their deepest emotions are stirred.
+
+When living among them one feels the necessity of absorbing some of
+their traits, which are indeed needed in a country where progress is
+unknown, and where the customs of centuries past still remain, not as
+traditions but as facts. They were always kind and gentle, and such
+devoted admirers of our fairer race as to make most admirable nurses
+for the children, except for their over indulgence.
+
+The towns of Mesilla and Las Cruçes are as characteristic in their
+way as any of old Spain, and quite as interesting. We passed through
+both _en route_ to Bayard, and my pen would fain linger over their
+many peculiarities. Several days elapsed after leaving the Rio Grande
+before our arrival at Fort Bayard in New Mexico, where we prepared
+to begin afresh the old story of life in a new garrison. Baby had
+climbed over me until I was glad to rest on terra firma again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+Fort Bayard, surrounded by high mountains, is pleasantly situated
+in a very hilly region. The officers’ quarters face the Santa Rita
+Mountains, which rise to an abrupt point directly opposite the post,
+a few miles distant, forming a landmark which is not soon forgotten,
+especially if constantly in view for three years, during which time
+we had the good fortune to remain there.
+
+On the brow of that sharp decline, which rises almost at right angles
+with the hill beneath, a large, irregularly shaped rock had fallen,
+which bears a perfect resemblance to a kneeling figure, and faces
+the higher point. It was called the kneeling nun, and, of course,
+invested with the natives by a suggestive history! The suppliant
+posture is perfect, and the figure conveyed to me a world of deep
+meaning.
+
+That little corner of South-western New Mexico, in which we remained
+three years, a length of sojourn so unusual and unexpected that every
+spring I looked for an order to move, has an unwritten history which
+would cover many pages. It is the mining region of New Mexico, and
+has the most perfect climate of any in the United States, neither
+extremely warm in summer, nor severely cold in winter; and the sun
+shines at least three hundred days in each year with a warmth and
+brightness which render life perfectly enjoyable, if spent out of
+doors as it should be.
+
+The only real storms are in summer, when during the rainy season
+clouds suddenly gather in the afternoon, and are followed by such a
+downpour of rain, with perhaps thunder and lightning, that it seems
+as if everything would be washed away. After the full force and fury
+of the elements have been spent, every cloud disappears, and the day
+ends with a perfect sunset, which is followed by a night still,
+calm, and wonderfully beautiful.
+
+Occasionally, but not often, snow falls in winter; altogether,
+the climate is perfect, and I have often since wondered why that
+locality is not popular as a health resort, for a more bracing and
+invigorating air is never breathed anywhere.
+
+On account of the infrequency of rain, vegetation is not very green,
+but neither is it shriveled and parched. Cattle never fail to find
+succulent pasturage in the bunch grass, which even when perfectly dry
+is nutritious. But for the constant Indian depredations from which
+that region has suffered for twenty years, it would be the garden
+spot of the West. The climate is much milder in winter than that of
+Colorado.
+
+Mines of every description have been found in New Mexico, from the
+famous Santa Rita copper mines, which bear traces of having been
+worked centuries ago, to more recently discovered ones of silver and
+gold. These latter have caused the building of the only American
+town, known there, Silver City, which, with its one hundred beautiful
+red brick houses, is a wonderful place, considering the locality and
+surroundings. All this is, however, more recent, although the town
+had a number of fine residences when we were there nearly a score of
+years ago. It is only an hour’s drive from Fort Bayard, over the most
+lovely rolling mountain road, and the visits to Silver City were a
+very pleasant feature of our life when at that fort.
+
+The Fort Bayard which first greeted our eyes was, except for climate
+and scenery, a sorry place. It boasted a large garrison, but we were
+shown into a perfectly miserable hut that was our shelter for months.
+The cabins or huts in which the officers lived were directly back of
+the new quarters, stone foundations for which had already been laid.
+
+The houses were to be built of adobe bricks, that were made by simply
+mixing to a proper consistency with water the earth obtained from
+excavating in front of our dwellings, shaping in primitive wooden
+molds, and drying in the hot sun.
+
+All the workmen were slow-moving Mexicans, who built houses in the
+same way as had their forefathers for generations. They knew no
+meaning for the word “hurry,” so it took months to erect those simple
+homes; and meantime we not only lived in wretched huts, but could not
+venture out after dark for fear of falling into some one of the many
+pits.
+
+Our experience was dreadful for one long year, then the houses were
+finally completed. The ground had been so torn up that the least gust
+of wind seemed sufficient to start all the loose earth in motion,
+when we would be almost buried in clouds of dust; but our worst
+trouble was during the rainy season.
+
+Our houses were situated on the brow of a hill, and when sudden
+summer storms arose they washed right through the house. We preferred
+to give them the right of way rather than have the buildings,
+wretched as they were, entirely disappear, so the back doors would
+be opened, and the storms permitted to sweep through before finding
+egress at the front doors. The houses, so-called by courtesy, were
+merely log cabins without floors; it was therefore necessary, at
+such times, to mount on chairs or tables if we desired to escape
+mud baths. The roofs, thatched with straw and overlaid with mud,
+had a way of leaking that was apt to result in huge mud-puddles
+being spread in all directions. The ladies always took refuge under
+umbrellas until after the storms subsided.
+
+None could envy others, for all were in the same boat, with no
+comforts whatever. Sometimes the whole roof fell in, but no one was
+ever hurt, and on the two occasions which I recall, bachelor officers
+were the sufferers.
+
+The lieutenant-colonel who commanded our post, having no family, had
+kindly given his house to a little bride, whose husband was a recent
+graduate of West Point. She, like myself, had started out expecting
+to find all military stations like that lovely place, and had brought
+from New York the most luxurious outfit ever seen on the frontier.
+Magnificent carpets and curtains from Sloan’s, fit for any New York
+palace, had been shipped all that long distance, and she proceeded to
+lay the former directly over the mud floor in her house, and to hang
+the latter at her little windows.
+
+The house was in every respect like all the rest, with three rooms
+in a row, and one or two forming an ell; yet she had decked the
+interior to look like a perfect fairy bower. The front room, that
+opened directly out of doors, was the sitting-room; back of that was
+a sleeping apartment, and then the kitchen.
+
+When the first severe storm arose and swept right through that house,
+the rain coming in at the back and going out at the front door, I
+never saw a more dismayed and discouraged woman than was our little
+bride, and no wonder. Her fairy bower had been transformed into a
+mud-bank; the pretty white curtains were streaked and discolored
+beyond recognition, the carpets covered with mud, while the pictures
+and ornaments were unrecognizable.
+
+That lady was like many I have met, both before and since. She
+expected ordinary modes of life to prevail at the frontier, and had
+carried with her at least a dozen large trunks, for which she was
+glad to find simply storage, and whose pretty contents never saw the
+light.
+
+Her experience was pitiable. Having an abundance of money, she
+naturally supposed it would purchase some comforts; but money was of
+no use to her there, and, indeed, seemed only an aggravation. The
+little woman used to send East for articles, which for economy’s sake
+the rest of us went without, and disappointments invariably followed.
+Whatever was received—which would be only after almost incredible
+waiting—was never what she had expected; and if garments had been
+ordered, alterations which none but a skilled hand could make were
+always needed.
+
+I remember being once consulted about a Christmas present designed
+for her husband. She had decided upon a beautiful picture, which,
+although ordered in ample time, did not arrive until long after
+the holidays, and the express charges alone were fifty dollars. Her
+disappointments were well-nigh endless, and led me to believe that
+money was not so much a promoter of happiness in frontier life as it,
+would usually be considered elsewhere; for no matter how much people
+were able to spend they could not buy luxuries, and to send East for
+them meant only tantalization and weary waiting.
+
+Perhaps some of my own experiences in the matter of express charges
+may not prove uninteresting. Every woman is said to love a new
+bonnet; but army women show the greatest unconcern regarding
+fashions, probably because their lives are so different from those of
+their city sisters.
+
+When some head covering became a positive necessity, we usually sent
+East for a plain little hat, dark and useful, as it was needed mainly
+for wear when driving around the country. I had quite worn out my
+Eastern supply after a two years’ residence at Bayard, so ordered
+a quiet little hat or bonnet from New York. Instead, I received a
+very gaudy, dashing piece of millinery that would have been suitable
+for the opera, but was altogether out of place on the frontier. The
+bonnet cost twenty dollars, and the express charges were twenty-two.
+For that entirely useless arrangement, therefore, I had to pay
+forty-two dollars, and then had no bonnet, for I never wore it.
+
+That little lady had all the ambition and pride in a refined way
+of living that naturally arose from having spent her early life
+amid luxurious surroundings. She had passed several years in the
+gayest capitals of Europe, had imbibed most extravagant ideas from
+fond and indulgent parents, had scarcely ever known an ungratified
+wish, and was therefore less prepared for the actual realities of
+life, as developed at Fort Bayard, than any one else I have ever
+known. The desire and attempt to live in accordance with her means
+resulted in constant disappointments and trials. I have never seen
+any one who worked so hard to accomplish what were considered simply
+necessities, and yet whose labor was so entirely unrewarded.
+
+She wanted to entertain lavishly; and having beautiful table
+appointments it was really a treat to dine at her house; but when
+she told of the labor involved, by reason of incompetent help, the
+task seemed too great to include any pleasure. Her utter ignorance of
+household duties made her an easy prey to servants’ wiles, and the
+very fact that she could so lavishly supply materials only made them
+more ready to take advantage.
+
+She tried the same experiment we had—taking a servant from
+New York—but fared even worse, as her maid left when Santa Fé
+was reached, saying she did “not care to go any farther from
+civilization.” The officer’s wife had no redress, although she had
+spent quite a large sum both on the girl’s fare and baggage, as they
+had traveled by stage.
+
+When, a year later, this same lady had a dear little girl born, she
+offered, but in vain, fifty dollars a week to any one who would care
+for herself and child. It was really pitiful to see the beautiful
+young woman lying neglected, deprived of the most common care, when
+if money could have availed she would have been enveloped in luxury.
+Of course, attentions were received from other ladies, but hers was
+one of the many cases I have known where Dame Nature alone was at
+hand to assist.
+
+My pen glides lovingly over the paper when I begin to describe army
+ladies, and fain would linger to fill page after page with loving
+reminiscences of their sweet goodness and devotion to husbands and
+the cause they represented. Surely in no other life can women be
+found who are at once so brave and true.
+
+At each post I formed devoted attachments to some woman, and were the
+love experienced for them all and their perfections to be described,
+this book could contain little else; for one story after another of
+their wifely devotion and absolute self-abnegation, carried to such
+an extent as to be actually heroic, is recalled.
+
+No murmur was ever heard at the order to move, if women were to be
+included; for no matter how hard, long, or wearisome the journey,
+they were content if permitted to accompany their husbands. But when
+the officers were sent away on the many expeditions cavalry service
+demanded, where their wives could not go with them, then were they
+indeed wretched; hours and days seemed endless until the return of
+loved ones.
+
+This intense devotion was the cause of incessant hardships being
+borne; for in many instances, if the ladies would have returned to
+their Eastern homes, care and attention would have been bestowed
+which can never be expected on the frontier.
+
+The difficulty of obtaining competent help in household cares could
+never be surmounted. Even when near Mexican settlements we would find
+that a long line of idle ancestry, together with every tendency of
+climate, surroundings, and viciousness, had so developed indolence
+in the natives as to utterly incapacitate them for any serious
+employment. They were capable only of such tasks as allowed them
+to bask in the sun and smoke cigarettes all day long. As they made
+admirable nurses, and we liked to have our children live out of
+doors, they could be utilized in that way; but heavier household
+tasks were left for more energetic hands.
+
+When I think of that delicious sun and air, and recall those happy
+days, I wonder how any thing can be remembered except the absolute
+content experienced when we finally moved into our new quarters, and
+regularly settled down into sweet home life. The children throve and
+bloomed like flowers, and were never ill.
+
+In the South-western climate ordinary diseases do not prevail, and
+if any of the epidemics which mothers usually dread break out, the
+absolute pureness of the air renders them innocuous; and with even
+ordinary care children speedily recover. Army doctors, in the double
+capacity of physician and family friend, also give most extraordinary
+care, so sickness is rarely fatal. Except from teething and its
+attendant ills, babies are almost exempt from maladies, and children
+live so secluded from outside influences that mine never even had
+measles or any other childish disease.
+
+One beautiful babe died from teething, and during its illness every
+lady in the post passed her entire time at its bedside when allowed
+to do so. But that may be instanced as only one proof of the sincere
+interest felt in each other by people who are isolated from all the
+rest of the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+I have always thought army life would be delightful if there was the
+slightest certainty of remaining at any post for a given length of
+time; but this is so out of the question that many comforts which
+might otherwise be procured are gradually tabooed.
+
+Officers become so accustomed to expect removal, that they are
+unwilling to accumulate comforts which must be left when marching
+orders are received; and every one is apt to give credence in some
+degree to the rumors which continually gain ground, and usually
+emanate from an unknown source, that a change is soon to be made. One
+lives in a veritable atmosphere of unrest until it becomes second
+nature.
+
+At Bayard, for the first time during our army life, we felt somewhat
+settled. Cavalry service consists entirely of unforeseen emergencies,
+dependent upon the country’s condition and its need for the movement
+of troops, either in the pursuit of Indians or horse-thieves. As
+Mr. Boyd had been sent to superintend the building of the quarters
+at Bayard, we felt that unless his regiment moved he would remain
+as quartermaster until they were completed, so quietly established
+ourselves in one of the new houses to enjoy life and a more prolonged
+stay than usual.
+
+We made many pleasant friends in the neighboring town of Silver City,
+enjoyed a great deal of company from there, and always drove over to
+the entertainments they gave, some of which were of a very comical
+nature.
+
+Imagine a ball at which every element is represented, from the most
+refined to the most uncultivated, from the transplanted branches of
+excellent Eastern families, who lured by enticing descriptions of
+great mineral wealth to be found at the West had gone there in search
+of fortunes, to the rudest specimens of frontier life, who had never
+seen anything else, and were devoid of all education, yet, like true
+Americans, regarded themselves as the very quintessence of knowledge
+and good-breeding.
+
+The balls were always held in the courthouse; and when, during court
+session, the judge and attendant lawyers were to be honored with an
+entertainment in consonance with their dignity, the rude room would
+be cleared of benches just before the hour at which the dance was to
+begin, and pretty dresses would trail over the floor which had not
+been cleaned for weeks, and which was the recipient of every kind of
+_débris_.
+
+At one of those balls, held immediately after court had adjourned,
+the window-sills had been made receptacles for all such usual
+appliances of lawyers as paper, pens, and ink. The army-post guests
+laid their many wraps in one of those windows because there was
+no dressing-room. In fact, such a luxury was unknown. When ready
+to return home, our wraps were pulled down, and with them came
+several bottles of ink, which sprinkled their contents liberally
+over shawls and head-gear. As usual, I was a sufferer, and have to
+this day, as memento of the occasion, a very handsome shawl that was
+completely ruined. But to remain at home from the only pleasure our
+circumstances afforded was not to be thought of, and fine clothes
+were willingly sacrificed.
+
+We could rarely indulge in dancing-parties at Bayard because there
+were so few ladies. When, occasionally, a special effort in that
+direction was made, the fact that we had no proper dancing-hall
+would be emphasized, and the large double parlors of our commanding
+officer’s house utilized. With the facilities at hand for decorating
+them with beautiful flags, cannon, stacked bayonets and swords, we
+gave several dances, which contrasted favorably with the town balls,
+and quite cured me of any desire to ever again dance on so different
+a floor.
+
+Yet we sincerely enjoyed our Silver City friends, and our greatest
+pleasure was to drive over and visit them, returning early in the
+evening, very much fatigued, but happy because we lived near any sort
+of town, instead of being cut entirely off from all outside life.
+
+Our cook often rebelled at the large parties of friends who sometimes
+visited us unexpectedly, and, as before in similar experiences,
+showed his displeasure by indulging too freely in “strong water.”
+One day he notably distinguished himself, and almost extinguished
+me, by reeling in before a whole party of friends who were awaiting
+luncheon, and declaring that he was no slave, neither had he engaged
+himself as a hotel cook. His freedom of manner was so natural among
+frontier people, that every one laughed, and all sallied out in the
+dining-room, where we passed around bowls of bread and milk.
+
+We had two excellent cows, and my delight was to work large rolls of
+butter into dainty pats for the table. Never before or since have
+I so enjoyed housekeeping as at Fort Bayard. Our chickens seemed
+fairly to multiply, and I could keep no count of the eggs they laid.
+We were able to supply every one, and still have quantities left for
+our own use.
+
+I was in my element; for I found that by dint of judicious management
+fifty dollars a month could be laid aside, so in two years’ time we
+were entirely out of debt, and fully resolved never again to enter
+the state. That was our golden harvest time, and I look back upon it
+with unspeakable pleasure.
+
+I would like the ability to describe one beautiful friend who was my
+constant companion at that time, but no pen can do justice to the
+admirable traits of so perfect a woman. She is still with her husband
+in the West, a pattern of all womanly goodness. Her example may well
+be followed by all who leave good homes to follow their husbands in
+army life, for only the absolute unselfishness she so beautifully
+exemplified will enable women to endure the same hardships. It was
+her sweet little first baby to whose death I have alluded, and which
+left us all sincere mourners for her dear sake. She always reminded
+me of the virtuous woman described in the Bible, whose “children
+arise up, and call her blessed.”
+
+But I must not linger over those recollections of dear Fort Bayard,
+where we enjoyed a real home for three years, and even flowers in
+abundance. If people in civil life could know of the weeks and months
+of care one little plant has often received from an army woman,
+because a dear reminder of her distant home, they would understand
+what a luxury it was to be able to raise flowers without any
+particular effort. Though one loves work, yet it is pleasant to be
+sometimes rewarded; and we had never before been where flowers could
+be freely indulged in, nor have we since.
+
+There was another especial pleasure we enjoyed at Fort Bayard, which
+to me is the chief charm of army life—constant rides on horseback.
+At that post they were delightful; for, go where we would in any
+direction, excellent mountain roads and superb scenery rewarded us.
+Our favorite jaunt was to the Santa Rita mountains. Having gained
+them, we would dismount and explore the famous mines which were
+tunneled in so many directions that I always feared lest we should be
+buried alive. Those tunnels had been dug centuries before, and the
+then so-called “new industry” was but a revival of past labors.
+
+Mr. Boyd, true to his nature, which was to employ every moment in
+devoted service to the government, rarely found time to escort me
+until after the day’s duties were over; or we would arise very early
+in the morning, and enjoy a ride that colored my mind for weeks with
+a vague fancy that life was not altogether and entirely real and
+practical, but was full of deep beauty; and if we could only live
+more out-of-doors, and be permeated more often and thoroughly with
+the charms of nature as seen in the early freshness and beauty of
+such mornings as were those, we should be elevated, and enabled to
+grasp more of spiritual things than tame and ordinary humdrum life
+permits.
+
+Oh, I envy the woodsman who is content with nature, and never pines
+for the artificial life of cities! Nature is perfect, and in such
+deep solitudes the most prosaic minds must realize this truth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+I have not very often referred in this volume to the character of my
+husband, for in my opinion it needs no vindication. Mr. Boyd always
+left in the minds of every one with whom he came in contact the
+impress of a most noble nature. His devotion to duty was so extreme
+that all else was laid aside at its call; and at Fort Bayard he so
+entirely gave his whole time and attention to arduous and unremitting
+labors as to scarcely find time for any pleasures. Mr. Boyd was as
+much of a worker as ever can be found in civil life, where a man
+expects reward for faithful service. In the army there is none. Of
+course that is well understood, and any one who devotes his life to
+duty there, does it purely from principle.
+
+Two singular occurrences, which have always been mysteries to me,
+happened at Fort Bayard. We moved into the new quarters before our
+new house—a double one—was entirely completed. The part in which we
+lived was separated from the other by a wall that divided the halls,
+and the unoccupied side was filled with shavings and _débris_. One
+night after we had retired, some one laid a lighted candle on a large
+pile of shavings, which of course caught fire, and we were awakened
+from sound sleep by a strong smell of smoke. This was soon traced to
+its source, and we found a fine fire rapidly developing. The floor
+had burned away, leaving a cavernous depth beneath.
+
+It was unquestionably the work of an incendiary; and a few weeks
+afterward the same wicked hand, presumably, fired a huge stack of
+hay, consisting of the entire winter’s supply of six hundred tons,
+which at frontier posts is always stacked near the corral and guarded
+day and night by sentries.
+
+In that absolutely dry climate such a fire, when once started, has
+no hindrance to its progress; and though every available hand was
+quickly on the spot pouring water, of course it was a useless task.
+Though a beautiful sight to see that brilliant blaze of light defined
+against the clear, dark sky, my heart ached when I thought of the
+trouble and worry it would cause Mr. Boyd, and also of the animals’
+deprivation. The entire summer had been required in which to procure
+enough hay for so many; and the fire occurred in early winter, when
+no more could be cut.
+
+It is a custom in the army at the slightest alarm of fire to sound
+a call, which brings every man to the spot with a bucket in his
+hand. It is really marvelous to see how soon ordinary fires yield
+to army treatment. But if a high wind is blowing, the supply of
+water, limited to barrels which are placed between the houses and
+always kept filled, is insufficient, and little can be done to stay
+its devastating progress. In spite of sympathy and real concern for
+losses sustained, one is sure to enjoy the excitement.
+
+I witnessed one shocking fire at Bayard which broke out in a small
+private stable attached to the post-trader’s house. It had made such
+headway that when discovered three beautiful horses were already
+enveloped in flames: they were fairly roasted alive before the eyes
+of the assembled garrison. Most pathetic cries proceeded from the
+helpless animals before death mercifully released them from their
+sufferings.
+
+While the ladies sorrowfully looked on, the men spread wet blankets
+over an adjoining roof in order that it might be saved; for if a tiny
+spark had fallen on the dry shingles they would have immediately
+ignited and the flames spread rapidly.
+
+After three happy years had been passed at that post, orders were
+received to march into Texas and exchange with the Ninth Cavalry.
+
+Christmas Day was celebrated in camp, and in a double sense, for we
+had that morning a narrow escape from almost instant death.
+
+On reaching the Rio Grande, we found the river fairly booming.
+It was a glorious sight, swelled to a huge flood that swept past
+in majestic grandeur. A primitive flat-boat worked by ropes and
+pulleys—nothing but a rude raft with no railing or chain either fore
+or aft—was called into requisition to ferry us across, and we sat
+quietly in the ambulance while it was driven aboard.
+
+A superb dog that belonged to one of our friends, and had been our
+pet for years, was inadvertently left standing on the bank. Some one
+on the boat tried to induce him to swim across, making the same sound
+in calling the dog that would have been used to start the mules. Our
+four mules, supposing it was a signal to them, immediately started,
+and the leaders’ fore feet were actually on the very edge of the boat
+when a man seized them by their heads. Another second, another step,
+and our heavy ambulance would have been overboard.
+
+So rapidly had the occurrence passed that almost before realizing an
+accident was seemingly inevitable, we had been saved from a watery
+grave. The river at that point was at least twenty feet deep, and had
+the mules plunged in, sudden and swift death would have followed.
+
+I have never since been able to sit quietly in a carriage while
+crossing a ferry; though of course no such rude craft, without even a
+rope guard, can be found in civilized parts of the world.
+
+After all was over, I looked at my little children, so unconscious
+of danger, and shuddered at the thought of the horrible fate we had
+escaped. If people should dwell continually on the perils of Western
+life they would be wretched. That journey embraced every element of
+danger, and yet I actually became callous.
+
+Our mules were such superb animals, and so capable of swift progress,
+that every few days they evinced a spirit with which I heartily
+sympathized, running for miles and creating a profound excitement
+throughout the entire command. As nine-tenths of Texas is flat
+prairie with excellent roads, I rather enjoyed the sensation. Nothing
+in my whole army experience wearied me so much as those endless days
+of slow, monotonous travel. When with troops we could not go faster
+than a walk, for the horses must be favored in order that their
+strength might hold out during the weeks those journeys consumed; and
+it was not safe, in the then unsettled condition of the country, for
+us to ride far in advance.
+
+Our march occupied eight weeks; but some of the troops that were
+ordered from Northern New Mexico to Southern Texas were between three
+and four months on the road, and the chapter of incidents which beset
+their path was remarkable. I have before alluded to this journey—the
+one on which nine infants were born _en route_; and in every instance
+mothers and children were obliged to proceed the next day, regardless
+of health or even life.
+
+During one week of our march it rained day and night, and tents were
+pitched in the midst of mud and general discomfort; but after a
+cheerful blaze had been started in our little stove we did not mind
+so very much, though of course it was not pleasant. The real trials
+from which others suffered, and which were therefore kept constantly
+in mind, enabled us to realize that, our lot might be much worse.
+
+The baggage of one woman, who had four little girls to clothe and
+care for, was deluged in crossing the Pecos River, and the fact not
+discovered until their destination had been reached, when the clothes
+dropped in pieces on being touched.
+
+As each family packed all superfluities, and kept only a traveling
+outfit, the trunks with reserve clothing were never opened while _en
+route_; and the treacherous streams, that seemed shallow enough in
+crossing, would often, in some inexplicable way, reach the contents
+of the wagons.
+
+To me the strangest part of that journey was the passing over so much
+territory without seeing any inhabitants. El Paso, then a mining-town
+of very slight importance, was the last we saw in Texas. If there
+were others in that section they could not have been on the traveled
+highway; for except the military posts, we saw nothing but prairies,
+which were indeed a striking contrast to our beautiful mountains.
+
+We had all sorts of experiences before New Mexico was left; but after
+that we settled down to calm travel, which the children enjoyed so
+much, and that was rendered less monotonous to me by the daily use of
+a fine saddle horse, and a delightful gallop over tufted grass.
+
+We remained at Mesilla and Las Cruçes long enough to enjoy a ball
+given in our honor by the residents; and there, for the first time,
+we saw really beautiful Mexican women, who danced with all the grace
+for which the Spanish race is noted. We were obliged to hasten our
+departure, because the soldiers celebrated Christmas too freely;
+during the ball a perfect battle was raging outside, which compelled
+the officers to break camp and resume the march before daylight,
+leaving us to follow.
+
+Those old towns of Mesilla and Las Cruçes would surprise any one
+from the East. They are situated on the Rio Grande, and surrounded
+by dense and forbidding sand-hills; but the location being such
+that much irrigation is practicable, are simply the most fruitful
+imaginable places. I have never anywhere else seen such absolute
+abundance of fruit in its season; grapes such as only a southern sun
+can ripen, and in immense clusters; peaches, large and luscious, that
+loaded the trees till it seemed impossible they could bear the burden
+and live; apricots, and every species of small fruits. The same
+luxuriance prevails in El Paso, and the wine made there is pure and
+delicious.
+
+It seems needless to dwell at very great length on that journey into
+Texas, for all those marches were so monotonously alike. If, as in
+that case, no Indian dangers were to be feared, both on account of
+our cavalry escort, and because at that time no active Indian warfare
+was in progress, we were not allowed to forget the possibilities in
+that line. Not only were the usual sad reminders present in graves
+that bestrewed the country, but we encamped again and again in places
+where the most violent outrages had been perpetrated, and entire
+parties mercilessly slaughtered. It cast a sad shadow over our
+resting-places, which shrinking women would fain have escaped; but we
+were obliged to use the same old accustomed grounds, and even then
+could not always find enough water for the horses and mules.
+
+That journey was on a progressive scale; and guided by previous
+experiences we had taken two wall tents, and even a board floor for
+the outer one in which we dined. It was quite envied by other ladies,
+particularly when we had ten consecutive days of rain; for boards,
+even if laid on wet ground inside a tent, make a flooring quite
+different and much superior to mud. Our floor was, of course, in
+sections, otherwise it could not have been carried. Skins covered the
+earth in our inner tent, which was furnished with two large beds.
+
+A fire was lighted every night in our tiny stove, and I made
+chocolate, custards, and many other dainties. It would surprise
+Eastern people, who deem all the modern conveniences a necessity, to
+see how systematic even such a mode of life can be, when, knowing it
+is to last for weeks and months, proper preparations have been made.
+
+On leaving home we had taken the housekeeping supplies that would
+have been used had we remained stationary. So, when encamped in
+different military posts, at which we always remained several days,
+I occupied the time in making mince-pies and baking them in a Dutch
+oven, which is nothing more nor less than a broad and shallow iron
+pot, with a cover like a frying-pan. On this cover hot coals are
+laid, so when the utensil is placed over a bed of the same, uniform
+heat from above and beneath bakes admirably.
+
+It was a time of rejoicing when we could remain long enough at a post
+to straighten out the tangled ends continuous travel always produces.
+Journeying in that way with women and children necessitated laundry
+work; and when we encamped on the river bank the scene was animated.
+
+Again our route lay for days beside the Rio Grande; in fact, during
+our entire journey we left it only to make a _détour_ and return.
+When finally our destination, distant Fort Clark, was reached,
+we were but forty miles from that famous river, and nearly the
+entire regiment was to find a resting-place on its banks; for soon
+our encampments were dispersed from Eagle Pass, on the river, to
+Matamoras, six hundred miles below, at its mouth.
+
+We heard so many wearisome accounts of those lower camps, with their
+continuous heat and glare, as to deem ourselves fortunate in being
+permitted to remain at one situated on a high hill, where we would be
+sure of a breeze, however warm the Texas summer nights might prove.
+
+A large ball was given on our arrival, and the different posts at
+which we had stopped _en route_—Forts Bliss, Davis, and Stockton—had
+all honored us in the same way.
+
+We were obliged to remain in camp at Fort Clark ten days, as the
+Ninth Cavalry did not leave sooner for New Mexico, and consequently
+houses were not vacated. Never did the same length of time seem
+longer or more tedious, the shelter of a roof once again was so
+longed for. Finally we moved into a very comfortable little house,
+built of limestone, and charming as to exterior; for even in the
+month of February vines were growing rapidly, and beginning to cover
+verandas with beautiful green.
+
+If each woman who has lived at Fort Clark would give a chapter of her
+experiences while there, I know people would be interested because of
+the utter novelty.
+
+No other army post has ever been the scene of so constant a
+succession of regimental changes, and at no other have such a large
+number of people, for the same reason, been made so uncomfortable.
+However little there might have been to expect in all the other
+territories in which we had lived, that little, when once obtained,
+was kept; but at Clark no one seemed sure, from day to day, of any
+house in which he lived remaining his own for a length of time.
+
+This arose partly from the fact of there being an insufficient
+number of quarters, but mainly from the position of the post being
+such that troops were sent there to be held in readiness for any
+emergency—which was generally supposed to be impending war with
+Mexico.
+
+We were so near the border that whenever any marauding band of
+Indians or horse-thieves succeeded in capturing a herd of cattle from
+some neighboring ranch, they would coolly slip over the Rio Grande
+into Mexico with their booty; and by the time our troops, again and
+again called out, could overtake them, the marauders would have
+crossed the border, where capture was impossible, because Mexico
+allowed no American forces to enter her territory without special
+permission.
+
+Matters continued on that basis for years, infuriating our troops,
+who were delighted when it produced results that seemed likely to
+culminate in a war between the two countries.
+
+But that never occurred, though its threatenings filled our post with
+troops until they formed a little army, which when mustered in full
+parade stretched in double columns across the immense parade ground,
+and made a beautiful sight; one which, seen daily, was so pleasing
+that we almost forgot the discomforts of life that surrounded us.
+
+Our first home, a pretty little house with double parlors on the
+ground floor and two large bedrooms above, seemed delightful; though
+we had no furnishings for months, and simply used our camp equipage,
+until carpets, etc., could be sent for. The climate was so fearfully
+hot, bare floors were no hardship; and during the long summer which
+followed our arrival, I was so absorbed in the problem of how to live
+at all, that the absence of luxuries was unheeded.
+
+Leaving the bright and bracing climate of New Mexico for a country
+where one hundred and ten degrees in the shade was only to be
+expected, and for six months of the year, was indeed a transition.
+Ice was an unknown luxury. We had nothing to use for cooling
+purposes except the _ollas_, made of porous earth by Mexicans.
+
+The post was one hundred and thirty-five miles from San Antonio,
+the nearest point where anything except absolute essentials could
+be obtained; and as stages were the only means of transportation,
+charges of course were exorbitant. Even in San Antonio there was none
+but manufactured ice; and to transport it such a distance in so warm
+a climate, required not only much sawdust to prevent its melting, but
+also a heavy box, all of which multiplied its weight, and the express
+charges, as I found to my sorrow.
+
+I never indulged in such luxuries; but an officer, who considered
+himself indebted for kindnesses extended during a severe attack of
+malarial fever, was most anxious to show his gratitude; and when I,
+in turn, succumbed to the fever, that was epidemic, he sent me three
+boxes of ice. I accepted the gift, though, not caring for the ice,
+dispatched it to the hospital. Some months afterward we received a
+bill from the express office which amounted to eighteen dollars. It
+was the charges on that ice—which we paid. The ice having been sent
+direct to us, so was the bill, instead of being presented to our kind
+friend who never imagined the sequel.
+
+After our bountiful supply of good things in Bayard, we nearly
+starved in Texas. The butter was simply oil, if procurable at all;
+the milk thin—not tasteless, but with a decidedly disagreeable flavor
+of wild garlic and onions; and the beef dry, and with so strange a
+flavor we could not eat it. Vegetables could not be procured; and
+potatoes shipped from a distance were a mass of decay when received.
+I never knew a woman who, amid all those conditions of improper and
+insufficient food and severe heat, did not lose health and strength.
+
+For two years I re-lived all my former experiences in trying to keep
+house under every disadvantage.
+
+We had hoped much from the accounts of famous colored cooks, who, in
+our experience, proved delusions and snares. We had a succession so
+worthless that I never have overcome my prejudice against them. They
+must have been field-hands, who trusting to our Northern ignorance
+boldly announced themselves as cooks, when perhaps they had never
+cooked even one simple meal before. Each was succeeded by a worse
+specimen, until finally, in despair, I begged for a soldier. After
+that, housekeeping became once again a pleasure, even if under
+difficulties; for I had a willing coadjutor, who joined heartily in
+my plans to disguise the flavor of meats by every art we could devise
+in the way of seasoning.
+
+When the long, hot summer had worn its weary six months away,
+we began to again breathe freely, and with the advent of cooler
+weather found ourselves able to enjoy every pleasure. The heat had
+been so intense that during its continuance life had been simply
+endured. Then everything brightened and improved, as it always does
+with custom or habit; or rather, we knew better how to overcome
+difficulties as time and experience familiarized us with them.
+
+In the winter we not only had better beef, because of the grass
+which had grown during summer, so the cattle were not obliged to eat
+weeds and vegetables, but, for the same reason, our milk improved in
+flavor; butter also kept its consistency.
+
+The experience of a little bride on whom I called one summer evening
+will perhaps better illustrate the difficulties of housekeeping. In
+reply to my inquiry if she did not find the enforced idleness because
+of heat tiresome, she said:
+
+“I am never idle, because my entire time is occupied in keeping wet
+clothes around the jars that contain our milk and butter.”
+
+In that atmosphere of heat, devoid of dampness, no sooner was a wet
+cloth wrapped about a jar than it began to dry, and evaporation
+cooled the contents. If in addition the jar was placed in a draught,
+great results in that line were attained, but at the expense of
+constant attention.
+
+One reason that made our army life endurable was the constant
+exchange of grievances, and our real sympathy one for the other. A
+group of ladies would naturally fall into conversation regarding the
+peculiar trials of such a life, and yet not one of them could have
+been persuaded to leave her husband and seek more comfortable and
+civilized surroundings.
+
+Fort Clark eventually became very dear to me; but the first two years
+were exceedingly trying, for I had to accustom myself anew to fresh
+modes in every direction. The peculiarities of our colored servants
+would fill a volume.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+It took our first colored cook, a huge, strapping creature, who
+seemed a very giant in strength and stature, three days to scrub our
+tiny kitchen floor; and his ideas, one of which was that he should
+sleep until nine o’clock in the morning, nor did he awaken then
+unless called, were not to be changed to suit our convenience.
+
+I remember so well our first breakfast! Rice batter cakes had been
+ordered; but the strangest looking and queerest tasting dish was
+produced, which, when questioned, the cook admitted was simply rice
+and molasses mixed together and fried in much grease.
+
+Our last colored cook was so surly I was afraid of him, and rejoiced
+when he was finally replaced by a white man. On leaving us he
+moved to the little town of Brackett, and after only a few days had
+passed, murdered a woman, and to hide his guilt burned the house.
+Circumstantial evidence was so strong that he was captured and
+imprisoned in the little jail, which, constructed of heavy stone,
+was the only decent building in town. The murdered woman had been
+the widow of a white soldier, and his comrades-in-arms determined
+to avenge her. So, one night, under cover of the darkness, a number
+stormed the jail. Though well guarded, and the thick doors seemingly
+impregnable, they effected an entrance.
+
+Meantime the garrison was greatly alarmed, for the town was so
+near we could hear the firing and tumult. The ladies were doubly
+frightened, because each one’s husband had been summoned to march at
+the head of his troops and quell the disturbance.
+
+All were terrified, scarcely knowing what had happened, and the
+volume of sound that reached our ears made us dread untold dangers.
+We were frightened at having been left alone, and more alarmed for
+our husbands, because, in the promiscuous firing which began the
+moment the troops reached town, we knew not what shot had or might
+hit one of them.
+
+Altogether we were panic-stricken, and moments seemed hours until
+the troops returned, which they did very soon, and without a single
+officer or soldier having been injured, although the shots were
+numerous enough to have killed an army.
+
+The jail had been forced before the arrival of the troops; but the
+soldiers, though carefully searching every cell, had been unable to
+find the prisoner, and, after vowing vengeance on the authorities for
+having removed him, assembled outside, where they vented their wrath
+and disappointment by firing against the heavy stone building. When
+the cavalry reached the scene, and in their turn began to fire, every
+man disappeared, escaping under cover of the darkness and confusion,
+and found his way back to the fort, where at roll-call all answered
+to their names as innocently as possible.
+
+The officers were inclined to condone the offense, both from sympathy
+with the murdered woman’s friends, and also because the murderer was
+such a despicable coward, as was proved not only by his taking a
+woman’s life, but also in his behavior afterward.
+
+The first officer who entered the jail was Mr. Boyd, who was at
+once told by the sheriff that the murderer was secreted on its
+roof, which, unknown to outsiders, had a stone coping six feet high
+that well concealed him. A more pitiable object was never seen; for
+expecting every moment would be his last he was praying and groaning
+in true darkey fashion, and had the tumult outside been less would
+have been quickly discovered.
+
+Mr. Boyd tried to calm him, but it was useless; the man was so
+thoroughly frightened he could not be silenced, but kept calling on
+the good Lord for protection, and throwing himself about with the
+most grotesque contortions of face and figure.
+
+The sequel proved the soldiers to have been right in not trusting to
+the course of law, for in Texas no crime but that of horse-stealing
+is considered deserving of hanging; the murderer was only imprisoned,
+but fortunately for himself was taken to another county.
+
+On this occasion Mr. Boyd interviewed a murderer to whose tender
+mercies his own family had been exposed, and after that I was allowed
+to have a white cook; for although they sometimes indulged in
+dissipation, colored men and women did the same, and there is no such
+fear known on earth as that a woman experiences when confronted by a
+drunken negro.
+
+The cavalry stationed at Fort Clark previous to our arrival had been
+colored, though the infantry, which composed half the post, was white.
+
+Never having been South before, we had much to learn before a home
+feeling was possible. The level country seemed strange after having
+lived among lovely mountains, and we had a new set of insects to
+deal with. I had thought nothing could be worse than my first
+enemies, the wasps, but soon found the immense roaches with which
+our house was actually crammed much more disagreeable. They not only
+covered the kitchen floor until it was black, but actually flew
+around our heads, and even invaded the bedrooms up-stairs until life
+seemed intolerable. A thorough system of cleaning and scrubbing was
+instituted; for they love dirt, which was, in fact, the original
+cause of such an undue supply. We tried borax and all other known
+remedies, and in time greatly lessened their numbers.
+
+A picnic in Texas was simply impossible on account of the red bugs
+and wood-ticks, which were not only countless and disagreeable, but
+so poisonous that I knew an officer, who had been obliged to camp out
+on the ground, suffer so severely from their attentions that hospital
+treatment was necessary for weeks. The sores caused by these insects
+are frequently very painful, because they bury themselves beneath the
+skin, and actually have to be dug out.
+
+The larger vermin, scorpions, tarantulas, centipeds, and snakes I did
+not mind; for they never molested us, and, like the really weighty
+trials of life, were more easily endured than minor ones. I speak
+from actual experience, having lived out of doors during our five
+years residence in Texas, and allowed my children to enjoy themselves
+in the same way, both because I deemed it necessary to health, and
+because observation had convinced me that those ladies who did
+otherwise suffered indescribably from fear; while to us, after we had
+settled down, every moment was a joy in spite of heat and vermin.
+
+One evening a lady caller started frantically for the door
+immediately after having entered. The cause of her terror was a
+huge tarantula or spider of the most deadly sort, black, ugly, and
+venomous, which measured fully three inches around the body. I picked
+up a heavy basket and killed it. She called me very brave; but I
+thought greater bravery would have been required to permit it to
+live, when perhaps it might bite one of my children.
+
+Our first winter at Fort Clark was delightful. All had comfortable
+double houses; and I felt very proud because of the bright, pretty
+carpets and lace curtains that had been sent from the East. The
+troops were called out only occasionally for Indian raids, but never
+went farther than the river which divides Texas from Mexico.
+
+We enjoyed the game, which was so plentiful that delicious wild
+turkey could be enjoyed every day if desired. The one vegetable that
+grew almost spontaneously was sweet potato, which we luxuriated in
+for months, as it improved by keeping.
+
+I scoured the country on horseback in all directions, and found a
+rare charm in those boundless prairies, carpeted with gray grass so
+thick the horse’s hoofs sank far out of sight, which made the pace an
+exhilarating bound. A stream, which rose from the clear spring that
+supplied us with water, flowed for miles amid groves of wild oak and
+pecan trees which it was my delight to explore.
+
+We hunted jack rabbits a good deal. They were so numerous as to
+destroy all hopes of the gardens in which the early freshets had
+allowed us to indulge. A lady just from the East was appalled when I
+said that each small head of cabbage cost a dollar, and was really
+worth it; for the man who had sufficient enterprise to evade rabbits,
+and build walls against freshets, must also examine each cabbage leaf
+three times a day in order to destroy the ever encroaching worm or
+bug. This will not seem exaggerated to any one who has ever gardened
+under similar conditions.
+
+Our little streams were beautiful, and so well stocked with delicious
+bass and trout that the children used to beg to picnic: after a day
+thus spent, it would take hours of diligent search to find the dozens
+of wood-ticks and tiny red insects which covered their clothing and
+buried themselves in their tender flesh. Sometimes one would escape
+notice, and be afterward found with head imbedded beneath the skin,
+and body distended to treble its original size.
+
+Those torments made scouting in Texas a thing to be dreaded; and yet,
+after the first year of quiet, our cavalry were kept in the field
+nine months out of twelve. Though encamped most of the time on the
+banks of a stream only seven miles distant, yet none the less they
+were separated from us, and as the officers’ wives said, “Compelled
+us to keep up two messes, and incur great expense, besides being
+lonely and forlorn.”
+
+The sun’s scorching heat made it impossible to raise any flowers,
+for if plants grew and budded the fierce heat would burn the outer
+petals so blossoms never fully opened. Only one plant, the Madeira
+vine, throve there, and it was esteemed a special luxury; for as
+the post was located on a high limestone ridge, and the houses were
+built of limestone, the white glare was something to be dreaded.
+Those luxuriant green vines covered our porches so closely as to form
+perfect little arbors, and enabled us to enjoy out-of-door life.
+At least two hammocks were swung on every veranda, and they were
+occupied most of the time, for the air was so hot and lifeless that
+effort was impossible.
+
+Only one of the five summers we passed at Fort Clark was cool and
+comfortable. That year the rainy season commenced late and lasted
+throughout the summer. The other four were so fearfully hot and
+uncomfortable that we were much exhausted when cooler weather arrived.
+
+Nevertheless, strange as it may seem, after we had once become
+accustomed to the life and that routine which alone makes existence
+in warm countries endurable, we were satisfied.
+
+During the day our costumes were the lightest and airiest that
+could be devised. But when evening came—and no woman ever ventured
+out-of-doors until after sunset—we arrayed ourselves in pretty white
+dresses, and started forth to enjoy the breeze, whose never-failing,
+grateful presence was compensation for the day’s intense heat.
+
+In that clear atmosphere the tiniest arc of a moon gives more light
+than does a full one under other conditions; so by the time its
+greatest splendor was reached, nothing on earth could have surpassed
+the perfect beauty of those southern nights. The air was soft and
+balmy, and every one rejoiced to find respite from the sun’s extreme
+heat. Indeed, the change was so grateful that we fell into a habit of
+almost turning night into day in our unwillingness to leave a scene
+of such enchantment.
+
+Even our unsheltered, gray parade ground, on which grass absolutely
+refused to grow, was softened by the moon’s mellow rays into a
+semblance of all we desired it to be; and when, night after night,
+our glorious band played entrancing strains of sweet music on the
+luminous spot, we felt that life in the tropics was not so very
+unendurable after all.
+
+Our limestone houses, which in the daytime could not be looked
+upon because of the blinding glare, were toned by the moon’s magic
+influence into poetic beauty, with their shading vines and groups of
+dainty ladies in white, and gallant officers in uniform.
+
+I became wedded, heart and soul, to that part of our life, which made
+me quite willing to live and die in Texas, despite many more prosaic
+drawbacks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+That unpleasant features were there is not, however, to be denied;
+and as my aim is to present both the lights and shadows of army life,
+I will now describe a few of the latter.
+
+As before stated, the supposed impending war with Mexico was the
+occasion of an influx of troops far greater than our post could
+comfortably accommodate. After we had been at Fort Clark a year and
+a half, occupying that pretty, vine-embowered house, we learned that
+our garrison of ten companies was to be increased to twenty-five,
+with two headquarters and two bands.
+
+The custom that obtains throughout the army of each officer selecting
+according to his rank the quarters which he may prefer, was never
+more fully enforced than at Fort Clark. Fifty times, perhaps, there
+was a general move of at least ten families, because some officer had
+arrived who, in selecting a house, caused a dozen other officers to
+move, for each in turn chose the one then occupied by the next lower
+in rank. We used to call it “bricks falling,” because each toppled
+that next in order over; but the annoyance was endured with great
+good nature.
+
+When tidings of such an unusual expected influx reached our ears, we
+wondered what would become of us, as there were not accommodations
+for half the number who were to arrive. An onlooker would doubtless
+have found the anxiety experienced by the officers’ wives amusing;
+for though prepared for the worst we were, of course, solicitous.
+
+I was ill at the time, confined to my room; and messages were brought
+at intervals from six different officers, who all outranked Mr. Boyd,
+that each had selected our house. Ridiculous as it may seem, every
+one was outranked by another. Finally, a captain of infantry chose
+our quarters, and then the doctor declared I could not be moved;
+consequently, the captain went temporarily into the house which we
+were eventually compelled to occupy.
+
+Next day our third child and second son was born. During the entire
+time of my recovery I indulged a delusive hope that the officer who
+had chosen our home would be content to remain in the little house he
+was then occupying, and which I dreaded to think of living in because
+it was so small for our increased family. Delusive hope! built
+entirely upon my belief in, or knowledge of, our respective needs. I
+felt that a bachelor could live less inconveniently in one room than
+could a family of five.
+
+The very day our baby was born the little fellow contracted
+whooping-cough from his sister, who, charmed to welcome a new
+brother, had repeatedly kissed him. I had no idea such a disease was
+in the garrison, and when we learned of it the harm had been done.
+Not only did all three of our children suffer in the most pronounced
+fashion, but it was pitiable to see and hear that tiny baby coughing
+violently before he was two weeks old. He would turn so black in the
+face, perhaps a hundred times a day, that his nurse hardly dared
+close her eyes, as it would be necessary to raise the infant to a
+perfectly erect posture to prevent his strangling.
+
+In spite of baby’s sufferings he never lost flesh, which the doctor
+said was marvelous, for my neighbors declared they could hear him
+cough a hundred yards away. Our anxiety was great, and Mr. Boyd was a
+veritable slave.
+
+For a week I was at death’s door with fever; and yet the very day
+baby was four weeks old we were obliged to move, that the captain,
+who demanded his house without further delay, might be accommodated.
+Each of the children caught cold, and bronchitis was added to
+whooping-cough; in consequence of which, during that and the
+succeeding winter, I always slept with one hand under baby’s head, in
+order to raise him suddenly when attacked by those terrible fits of
+coughing.
+
+When I state that our new house consisted of but one room, with a
+tiny addition back which was quite uninhabitable, and that we lived
+in such quarters for two long summers and winters, it will scarcely
+be believed. But even those meager accommodations were not deemed a
+very severe hardship by many of the ladies who had been at Fort Clark
+for years before the new quarters had been built, and who told tales
+of far greater crowding.
+
+Among others, the case of a little bride was cited, who, coming from
+a luxurious Eastern home, had been glad to find quarters in a hallway
+between two other families. One morning her husband was told that
+some superior officer wanted his hall, and disgusted he resigned.
+
+The recital of many such absolutely true tales might, perhaps, have
+comforted me in some measure, had we not already endured ten long
+years of hardships; and it seemed as if the time should have come
+when length of service counted for something.
+
+But it never does in the army, as possibly only those know who have
+realized the fact through actual experience. There one must endure
+all discomforts as uncomplainingly as possible, and meekly relinquish
+the refinements of life, which such a mode of living absolutely
+forbids. For a family of five to live in one room through two
+fearfully warm summers and two winters was far from pleasant; and in
+order to relieve ourselves of discomforts so far as was possible, we
+remained out-doors on our pleasant porch nearly all the time.
+
+The winters were delightful in that part of Texas, and yet very
+trying. The only really cold weather there is caused by the
+“northers,” which come up so suddenly as to render it out of
+the question to be prepared for the change. A norther is always
+preceded by a very sultry day; then the thermometer falls perhaps
+fifty degrees in an hour, and there is something in the chill north
+wind which seems to freeze the very blood in one’s veins. When, in
+addition, a rainstorm follows, it is little wonder that the cattle
+interests of Texas suffer, for no living creature can well exist in
+such an atmosphere when exposed.
+
+Our little back room faced the north, so we could not use it in
+winter, for the tiny house, built of wood with a canvas ceiling,
+was then like a barn; and it was so old that in summer the canvas
+and woodwork harbored every species of vermin, with which it simply
+became alive.
+
+I was awakened one night by the raging of a violent storm that seemed
+to shake the house to its foundations. The rain descended with such
+force that I expected every moment the roof would fall in. A glance
+showed me water pouring in under the door which separated the small
+back room from the larger one in which we slept. I quickly arose
+and stepped into the little room to find myself literally wading in
+water which reached above my ankles. The fierce storm had beaten in
+the old, weather-worn roof, and through a large hole which had been
+forced in the canvas ceiling a stream of liquid mud was pouring that
+deluged everything. The opening was directly over an open bureau
+drawer, the contents of which were a strange sight. The mud was
+formed by rain falling on the accumulation of dirt that miserable old
+canvas held; and before the storm had ceased our possessions were
+worthless, and the room, which within our knowledge never had been
+worthy of the name, was still less so.
+
+Every house in the post was in a wretched condition long before
+morning, and each woman thought that her individual experience could
+not be exceeded in misery.
+
+It was so common for roofs to leak and plaster to fall that we
+expected such mishaps; but fortunately, because they left more
+serious trouble in their wake, such furious storms were not frequent.
+One lady, a bride, who until that night had seen only the bright side
+of army life, decided that if such experiences were common she did
+not care to become accustomed to them; so one result in that instance
+was her husband’s resignation from the army.
+
+A large double bed stood in one corner of our only room, and in the
+other a lounge that could be used for the children at night. Over
+our bed I swung a hammock, which served admirably for baby’s cradle,
+and as an economy of space it was a great success. But during warm
+weather the porch, as already stated, was our dwelling-place, and
+at night the hammock suspended there was frequently occupied by Mr.
+Boyd; for in such a climate to sleep with four other persons in one
+small room was not very refreshing.
+
+We were, however, very gay through all our miseries and deprivations;
+for with seventy-five officers and forty ladies in the garrison
+many pleasures could be enjoyed. During the first winter we had a
+series of balls for the exchange of regimental courtesies. Those
+already stationed at Fort Clark gave a large ball to welcome the
+new-comers, even if they did turn us out of houses and homes, which
+courtesy was returned by a very grand affair. Then each regiment—six
+were represented, two of them colored—extended hospitalities on
+its individual account, and each vied with the others in somewhat
+varying the character of the entertainment.
+
+Following that, the bachelors gave a large german where the favors
+were superb. Then the ladies united in a New Year’s reception,
+which was said to surpass all the rest. Afterward we had weekly
+hops, a masquerade and phantom party, at which it was difficult to
+hide our identity; for in a garrison where every personal trait was
+necessarily observed, to disguise one’s individuality was not easy.
+Probably the officer who entered the room encased in a well-stuffed
+mattress did so most effectually.
+
+Studying how to puzzle the rest was great fun. So many amusements,
+combined with the real kindly feeling constantly evinced, made our
+social life very enjoyable. Every excuse for pleasant intercourse
+was freely sought; and so long as life lasts I shall remember those
+years at Fort Clark as not only joyous, but given up to experiences
+so distinctly different from all others as to merit perpetual and
+delightful recollection.
+
+In the first place, every one lived out-of-doors nine months of the
+year. That necessitated, or made more easily possible, a constant
+interchange of friendly remarks, and we became more like one large
+family than like strangers. Our interests were identical. If any
+change was made, it affected so many that all were drawn together by
+that “fellow feeling which makes us wondrous kind.”
+
+When troops were ordered away, their departure was dreaded because
+the officers’ society would be greatly missed. If new-comers arrived,
+as they constantly did, we welcomed them cordially. Every time
+an inspecting officer or one of high rank came to Fort Clark, as
+frequently happened, we rejoiced in the opportunity to give a ball
+in his honor, and the band serenaded him each night of his sojourn;
+in fact, nothing was lacking that would prove our hospitality and
+cordiality.
+
+Riding and driving parties were indulged in daily; for fully half of
+the officers stationed at our garrison were in the cavalry, and in
+addition to their mounts had fine carriages. When the cavalry were
+sent to graze their horses near streams, and permanent camps were
+thus established, we visited them frequently. In turn, they combined
+their forces and gave grand picnics, which were so successful we were
+enraptured.
+
+One night I shall never forget. The moon shone her best and brightest
+on a smooth stretch of canvas, spread so as to form a splendid
+dancing-floor, and on trees hung with fairy lanterns, which extending
+as far as the eye could reach met as background the pretty little
+stream on whose banks lovers wandered. Of course, in that region of
+soft tropic warmth and fervor, romance blended with everything; and
+no eligible young lady was ever known to leave Fort Clark without a
+tiny circlet on her finger, which proved her right to return as an
+officer’s bride.
+
+Meantime, rumors of war kept increasing, and finally all our troops
+were marched into Mexico during the hottest month of the year. This
+was, however, done merely as a menace; for in a week’s time they
+returned, having faced the Mexicans on their own ground without
+even exchanging shots. Blistered feet and swollen limbs, gained by
+marching through parching sands, were the only reminders of the
+affair brought back.
+
+Soon after, Mexico arranged new terms with our authorities, in
+accordance with which incursions over the border were allowed when
+our troops were on the trail of desperate adventurers who were
+escaping with much booty. This caused the withdrawal from Fort Clark
+of the gallant cavalry regiment, which with our own had hoped to reap
+a little glory from the strained relations between our country and
+her sister republic.
+
+Courtesies were exchanged between leading officers in the Mexican
+and American armies, which we shared in by giving a grand ball to
+the general and staff of the Mexican army on their visit to our post
+while negotiating terms of peace. Our third winter at Fort Clark was
+brilliant socially. We organized a theatrical company, which gave
+with great success a number of popular plays, including “Caste,”
+“Ours,” and several farces that were a source of much merriment. The
+soldiers were allowed to fill the hall to its utmost capacity, and
+their appreciation was an additional reward for our efforts.
+
+I doubt if anything can be funnier than a familiar face and form
+rendered unrecognizable by an absurd and ridiculous disguise. The
+night “Caste” was produced, I excelled myself in so completely
+changing Mr. Boyd’s appearance that his entrance on the stage as
+“Old Eccles” was greeted by loud and long-continued shouts, which
+ceased only to be again and again renewed. It was the success of the
+evening. In our sentimental parts Mr. Boyd eclipsed us all, and was
+the cynosure of all eyes in his maudlin drunkenness.
+
+After having studied the book of directions until I understood how
+to make my husband look utterly disreputable and unlike himself, I
+delighted in having him assume various odd characters; for the moment
+he appeared before an audience, deafening applause invariably greeted
+him.
+
+We worked as hard to secure the success of our plays as though
+fortunes had depended upon it, and unhesitatingly robbed our houses
+of ornaments in order that the stage might present an attractive
+appearance.
+
+I would not like to be a professional on the boards if it
+necessitated as much real labor as did our amateur performances. But
+we soon found that a good paying audience could readily be commanded,
+and after the first few evenings raised money enough to build a very
+pretty stage, and completely renovate the only hall in the garrison,
+which had been used for church, schoolroom, ballroom, and theater for
+years without any improvements or alterations having been made, and
+was in sad need of the new floor and ceiling our money supplied.
+
+We also gave performances for several charities. One for the
+famishing Irish, when we “Caste” our bread upon the waters, was
+especially successful; and when at the approach of Christmas, money
+was needed for a tree with which to gladden the hearts of the
+soldiers’ one hundred little children, we had an immense audience.
+
+The actors afterwards went to San Antonio, where they played for the
+Masonic fund; and also to a little nearby town where a church was
+greatly needed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+It was customary for companies of Mr. Boyd’s regiment to be sent for
+six months to garrison the forts on the Rio Grande, which were close
+by; our turn came when we had been two years at Fort Clark, which we
+left reluctantly.
+
+No station immediately on the river was ever considered desirable,
+on account of its unfailing sand and heat; and Fort Duncan, to which
+we were assigned, had no comfortable houses. It was only forty miles
+from Fort Clark, and as but two companies of infantry were stationed
+there, the small garrison was inevitably dull.
+
+Our dwelling consisted of one room in a very dilapidated building. It
+had been previously used as a store-room, and the barred windows made
+it seem prison-like.
+
+The kitchen was so far away that a complete circuit of the house was
+necessary in order to reach it, and the dining-room was a part of the
+kitchen.
+
+Our sorrows were added to when our beautiful ponies, that had borne
+us about the country for miles in every direction during our stay at
+Clark, and which I had confidently expected would relieve the tedium
+of life at Duncan, were attacked by glanders and ordered shot. In
+spite, however, of this caution, the contagion spread; and before
+another month Mr. Boyd’s splendid charger, and our other dear little
+Mexican pony, had also been condemned. Thus we lost four horses
+within one month, and I would have been in despair had we not found a
+superb riding-horse in the troop, which proved so safe and reliable
+that I was often tempted to go far beyond proper limits.
+
+One day, when riding alone, I espied smoke; ahead, and idly followed
+in its direction until I found myself facing a house which I recalled
+as having been described to me as a den of horse-thieves. My mount
+was superb, but I was nine miles from home and conscious that rest
+was imperative. I dismounted, led my horse to the house, and asked
+for water. The man who appeared not only gave me that, but also
+coffee; and when I related the loss of my ponies, offered to sell me
+a fine pair very cheap.
+
+I used my eyes to good advantage, not neglecting to notice a ford,
+directly in front of the door, which could be utilized at a moment’s
+notice for horses to cross into Mexico. But that was none of my
+affairs, and like all rough frontiersmen mine host of the hour was
+exceedingly polite. He led up for inspection several pairs of fine
+ponies. I did not, however, buy any, as I feared the owners might
+meet me some day and claim their property.
+
+After a brief rest I remounted, and on reaching home found that my
+absence had been of five hours’ duration, and the entire garrison was
+alarmed.
+
+We remained at Duncan all that winter, and aside from daily rides
+our only amusement was a trip across the river into Mexico. The
+quaint old town of Piedras Negras lay directly opposite Fort Duncan;
+and the same style of primitive boats as were used in New Mexico,
+and on one of which we came so near to losing our lives, was there
+employed to ferry us across. We were able to enjoy everything Piedras
+Negras afforded in the way of sight seeing, having arrived just
+before the yearly _fiesta_, which is the gala time among Mexicans.
+
+The town, like all I saw in Mexico, was built around squares called
+_plazas_. These were occupied during the _fiesta_ as booths for the
+sale of curiosities, and also for that sport so dear to Mexican
+hearts—gambling. Any game could be indulged in, from three card monte
+to roulette; or, if disposed, visitors might partake of Mexican
+viands, served by bashful señoritas clad in pretty Spanish costumes.
+
+The climax of festivities was, of course, bullfights, when the large
+amphitheater would be crowded by an excited Mexican audience. Having
+heard so much of those affairs, we were, of course, eager to see one;
+but our curiosity was soon satisfied, for a more tame encounter I
+never beheld.
+
+The poor bull absolutely refused to fight, and, after having been
+goaded and prodded by the matador with sharp-pointed spears, gayly
+ribbon-bedecked, kept turning wistfully toward the door by which he
+had entered, and every now and then rushed to it, only to be met by
+more spear pricks, which, though causing his blood to flow, served
+only to still farther intimidate the poor animal. Finally, amid the
+shouts of the people, he would be dispatched and replaced by another,
+that invariably showed the same want of spirit.
+
+To American on-lookers it seemed a cruel sport, unworthy its historic
+greatness.
+
+The only delightful features connected with that so-called pastime
+were the perfect Mexican band and superb drilling of Mexican
+soldiers, who marched and countermarched for at least an hour without
+a single order being spoken, they responding merely to a tap of the
+drum as each new movement was initiated.
+
+The band was superb, and the music so sweet and thrilling we could
+have listened for hours without weariness. On account of exchanging
+many hospitalities with the Mexican officers, we enjoyed numerous
+opportunities of hearing it.
+
+On one occasion the band was brought over to serenade us, and we
+listened as in a dream to its rendering of various operas and Mexican
+national airs, played with such expression that all the sentiments
+they indicated were aroused.
+
+The perfect submission of Mexican soldiers, and the never-ending
+drilling they received, made them more thorough than our own, who
+never could have been kept in such slavish subjection. The Mexican
+soldier is usually born a _peon_, or slave, and never dreams of
+resenting the will of his superiors—nor of having one of his own.
+
+Those men were drilled hours before dawn, and that they might be in
+good marching order were compelled to walk ten and even twenty miles
+a day out in the open country.
+
+We were invited to all balls given by the Mexican officers, and
+found them curious affairs. The women’s costumes were tawdry in
+the extreme, and their manner of dancing so slow as to seem most
+monotonous; yet I have never seen more perfect natural grace anywhere
+displayed than in those measured Spanish dances.
+
+The variety those balls afforded was quite enjoyable until one night
+a Mexican officer of high rank drew a pistol and fired directly at
+a man who moved too slowly out of his path to suit the officer’s
+dignity. I never attended another ball, being unwilling to witness
+such scenes. We had also experienced much difficulty in crossing the
+Rio Grande at night; so I was glad of an excuse to remain our side of
+the river after dark, but loved to drive over in broad daylight, when
+I felt safe and could avoid all midnight perils.
+
+It always seemed to me as if the suave Spanish politeness of those
+Mexican officers concealed smoldering volcanoes. I have known an
+officer to shoot a soldier dead at the first hint of insubordination.
+
+We remained at Fort Duncan until early spring, when the mesquite
+trees, which beautified the parade grounds, were clothed in a tender,
+fresh green whose tint I have never seen equaled. Our recall to Clark
+by exchange in March was heartily welcomed.
+
+A cloud, however, loomed on my horizon in the certainty that I
+must soon leave our dear army life for the East. It is never
+deemed prudent to remain long in so debilitating a climate, and
+malarial fever had fastened itself upon both our elder children,
+completely reducing their strength. We had, however, great cause for
+thankfulness in their being spared; for the disease was unusually
+fatal that season, and, indeed, for three long weeks the lives of our
+little ones hung in the balance, while fear and anxiety harassed our
+souls.
+
+Texas malarial fever burns with an unremitting ardor nothing can
+quench until its course has been run. Our good doctor almost lived
+with us; and whenever the temperature rose above one hundred and two
+degrees he would plunge our little boy into a tub of the coldest
+water procurable,—no ice was to be had,—and hold him there until the
+child’s body became blue, and his teeth began to chatter, when he
+would be wrapped in blankets, and hot bottles placed at his feet.
+
+Heroic treatment that could not fail to wring a mother’s heart! When
+our little daughter fought the same hard battle for three long weeks,
+and came out from it a perfect shadow, with her head bald as any
+infant’s, I realized that our physician was right, and that I must
+leave Texas or we should lose our children.
+
+Better educational facilities also seemed imperative. Thus far I
+had taught the little ones, and they were well advanced, but no one
+expects to find very desirable schools in the wilderness; so we
+began our preparations for departure, feeling that years must pass
+before we could again settle down, as education had become the most
+important need.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+Exactly ten years from the day we had left New York I returned. My
+heart was so bound up in frontier life I had hoped until the last
+moment that the spring rains, which had been unusually severe, would
+keep us storm-bound in Texas. The town of Brackett had been flooded
+just before our departure, and the post, from its high and dry hill,
+looked down upon a scene of devastation and misery. Every house on
+the low lands was undermined, and many were washed away; the people
+sought refuge in trees, where they were obliged to remain for hours,
+until assistance in the shape of boats reached them.
+
+Of course, as in all scenes where the colored race is conspicuous,
+several ludicrous incidents occurred. One old mammy, who weighed at
+least two hundred pounds, in her joy at being rescued, fell into the
+arms of an unusually small white soldier, and swamped herself, the
+soldier, and the boat.
+
+Days passed before the water subsided, and in consequence our journey
+was delayed a month; as with four days of ambulance travel to San
+Antonio we did not dare start until the roads were dry. I was wicked
+enough to hope they never would be in condition for travel; but when
+the mail again reached us regularly there was no farther excuse for
+delay, and with tearful eyes I bade adieu to dearly loved Fort Clark.
+
+Many of the ladies thought my unwillingness to leave Texas could not
+be really sincere, a change seemed to them so desirable. But my fears
+that I should not feel at home in civil life, where everything was so
+different, were verified.
+
+Four days’ travel by ambulance through deep mud was required to reach
+San Antonio. We did not tarry to explore that curious old town, but
+stepped immediately on board a train for Galveston, where we arrived
+in twenty-four hours. At that place I parted from my husband, and
+took a steamer for New York. Seven days’ passage over Southern and
+into Northern seas brought us to the city, where our children saw
+civilization for the first time within their recollections.
+
+It is needless to recount our experiences in New York, or rather
+Coney Island, where we remained through the summer, and which was
+just the place for little barbarians to see strange sights and become
+familiarized with strange scenes.
+
+After all the frontier travel and its dangers through which we had
+passed, it seemed odd that this land of safety should hardly have
+been reached before we narrowly escaped serious harm. I chose the
+boat as a means of transit to Coney Island; and when we reached the
+pier found that our trunks had not arrived, and so waited hours for
+the expressman, who did not come until very late in the day.
+
+I was overwhelmed with our belongings, which consisted of two
+large trunks, the same number of hand-bags, an immense valise, and
+a violin. After we had boarded the boat and fairly started on our
+way, I was dismayed to find night rapidly approaching, and most
+ominous-looking clouds arising. They proved precursors of a furious
+storm, the violence of which reminded me of those experienced while
+at the West. Much damage was done in and around New York Harbor.
+
+When we neared the island after a terrifying trip, I saw to my horror
+that the boat, instead of landing at the first and completed iron
+pier, passed it, and made for the uncompleted pier, which jutted much
+farther out into the ocean, and at that time was simply an uncovered
+walk about a quarter of a mile in length.
+
+Nothing, however, could be done except land—with three children—and
+stand in the maddest rush of rain to which I had ever been exposed,
+watching our trunks and bags tumbled out into the storm. Aware that a
+few moments’ exposure to such a torrent would ruin their contents, I
+looked, but in vain, for a means of conveyance to the hotel. No one
+was in sight, the few passengers who had landed having immediately
+hastened away; and as we were being completely drenched, I decided to
+leave the baggage to its fate.
+
+Carrying as much as possible in my hands, I sent our little girl in
+advance with her small brothers. Judge of my horror when suddenly I
+saw the piles of boards that were stacked in readiness for roofing
+the pier, moving and actually filling the air on all sides. The
+children were directly in the path of that furious hurricane, and
+I could only helplessly watch them. Fortunately it did not last
+long; and my little daughter was wise enough to race ahead with
+her brothers, so no damage was done except the loss of both the
+boys’ hats, which blew into the ocean. Then the rain descended with
+redoubled force; but some one compassionately let us into a little
+house built for the workmen, where, terrified beyond measure, we were
+shut in with darkness.
+
+I was all the while worrying about our trunks, and finally induced a
+workman to promise that he would have them taken to the hotel. But
+the man soon returned, and reported that they had disappeared. That
+was a severe blow; and in the darkness I wandered all over the pier
+until finally a kind policeman was found, who assured me the trunks
+could not have been stolen. Our search was at last rewarded by their
+discovery, when the policeman called a coach and bade me take the
+children to a hotel. I did so, and then sent the coachman back for
+our trunks.
+
+An hour passed without his return, when I made inquiries, only to be
+consoled by being told that the coachman was unknown in the hotel,
+and had probably stolen our possessions.
+
+I started again, in spite of the continued storm, for that pier,
+where to my joy I spied the policeman, who said he had refused to
+deliver the trunks without a written order. Although deeply grateful
+for his caution, I would gladly have been back in Texas, where,
+whatever happened, there was some one to share hardships with me.
+
+The storm was unusually severe. After its cessation sign-boards were
+found scattered all over the island, and some buildings had been
+unroofed.
+
+It is not my intention to dwell at length on our sojourn in the
+East, which lasted four years. This is a tale of army life, and one
+accustomed to it is amazed when living among civilians to find how
+little they know of such an institution as the army.
+
+My husband had long been entitled, by reason of rank and length of
+service, to the one detail—that of recruiting—which brings a cavalry
+officer East. He had always intended to reserve this for the time
+when an education would be demanded for our children, and that time
+had come; so Mr. Boyd applied for and received the detail in the fall
+of 1882.
+
+On reaching St. Louis, where the choice of several cities was given
+him, he selected Boston because of its excellent schools. We spent
+there a winter, which seemed to us, fresh from sunny climes, one long
+succession of rain, fogs, and east winds. Still, the many advantages
+of that well-regulated city were appreciated, and had I been well
+we should have enjoyed its intellectual atmosphere. As it was, we
+were glad when summer arrived, and a little cottage on one of the
+delightful beaches near by could be taken. It was a great treat, and
+we were most thoroughly enjoying our surroundings, when, in the month
+of August, a thunder-clap fell on our ears in the shape of an order
+for that Eastern cavalry recruiting station to be discontinued.
+
+Boston had kept the station for so many years I could not at first
+believe the bad news was true. But it proved to be; and Captain
+Boyd, who had just received his promotion, was ordered to open a
+recruiting office in Davenport, Iowa. After having served faithfully
+as lieutenant for twenty-one years, he had at last been advanced to
+the rank of captain.
+
+It was not deemed advisable for the entire family to be continually
+changing from East to West, and _vice versâ_, so Captain Boyd went
+alone to his new station. Time showed that our decision had been
+judicious; for before his two years of recruiting service were
+over he had been assigned to four different stations, going from
+Davenport, Iowa, to Rochester, New York, and finally spending three
+months at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri.
+
+Our long planned Eastern tour had proved an utter failure, and was
+one more added to the list of many disappointments. After giving up
+our country home near Boston, I went to New York with our children,
+and placing them in excellent schools entered a hospital, where I
+remained for one long year, a sufferer from illness entailed by early
+army hardships. Our little boy was sent to his grandparents in the
+country, and my husband returned to Texas.
+
+After Captain Boyd had been alone there a year, he asked for and
+obtained leave of absence, which permitted us to spend four pleasant
+months at Cooperstown, on Otsego Lake, where we had a glorious time.
+My husband endeared himself to every one, for he was constantly
+helping others.
+
+While he was stationed at Davenport, Iowa, a gentleman from there
+called on me in New York, who described Captain Boyd as the most
+popular man in the city. He said that every white man, woman, and
+child in the town knew and loved my husband, while every old darky
+idolized him.
+
+The ladies connected with one of Davenport’s principal churches were
+greatly in need of money for charitable purposes, and Captain Boyd
+wrote and delivered a lecture in their behalf which netted nearly
+three hundred dollars. It was a humorous view of the Indian question,
+and elicited shouts of applause. He was subsequently invited to give
+the same address in other cities.
+
+On Captain Boyd’s return to the frontier his services as a lecturer
+were in great demand, and he was in that way able to raise large sums
+of money for charitable purposes. My husband became the best-known
+army officer at the West on account of his frequent appearances on
+the lecture platform.
+
+In the early spring of 1885, four years after having left Texas,
+I returned. In all that time not one moment had passed in which I
+would not gladly have been there; so I seized the first plausible
+excuse afforded—a greatly needed change for our daughter—and leaving
+the eldest boy at school in New York, again sailed for husband and
+frontier life.
+
+The sea voyage to Galveston was the most soothing and delightful trip
+of the kind possible. The water never appears rough immediately after
+leaving New York; and for three days, while off the coast of Florida,
+the vessel seemed gently—almost imperceptibly so far as motion was
+concerned—gliding along. On arriving at San Antonio, instead of a
+tedious ambulance-ride awaiting us, we went by rail to Fort Clark,
+which was reached in a few hours.
+
+The sight of dear old familiar landmarks was inexpressibly pleasant;
+and when we were ushered into one of those well-remembered little
+houses, with all the old furniture about, it really seemed too
+good to be true. Everything was more than satisfactory; and the
+gratification afforded by the change can be understood only by those
+who have been away from loved scenes for years, and on returning
+found all expectations realized. Old friends were there to greet us,
+and we were supremely happy in the renewal of our former life.
+
+My content and joy lasted four months, when rumors of Indian
+outbreaks in far away New Mexico reached our ears, and were soon
+followed by an order for all cavalry troops to hold themselves in
+immediate marching readiness.
+
+Captain Boyd had just returned from a trip to San Antonio, having
+gone there in compliance with a request to deliver the oration at
+the National Cemetery on Decoration Day. In that address my husband
+distinguished himself in a way to be long remembered by his family
+and friends. It was the most touching and felicitous tribute to
+our dead soldiers ever written; touching because of the truest
+sentiments; felicitous because in a place where sectional feeling
+had for years run riot, not one word was uttered to which the
+veterans on either side could object.
+
+The address was very lengthy, occupying four columns of the _San
+Antonio Express_, in which it was published next day; but every word
+was listened to with eager interest by the immense audience. Long
+before its conclusion the fervent tears that fell from old soldiers’
+eyes attested Captain Boyd’s eloquence; and when he ceased speaking
+the veterans, mainly of the Southern army, crowded about him with
+words of earnest praise, and begged that he honor them with a visit.
+The Texas papers were unanimous in the declaration that no such
+masterly address had ever before been heard on a similar occasion.
+
+Captain Boyd was obliged to hasten his return because feeling very
+ill; he had been scarcely able to stand in the heat of that day, May
+30, 1885, when, as usual at that season of the year in Texas, the
+temperature was extreme and the atmosphere torrid. After reaching
+home he was confined to his room for a week, and then came word for
+the troops to start for New Mexico.
+
+The order was received in a telegraphic dispatch from Washington,
+and was immediately complied with. Before we could realize it, every
+troop of cavalry had left Fort Clark for an indefinite period. A long
+series of Apache outrages headed by Geronimo had resulted in the
+determination to capture him and his band, if it took the whole army
+to do it. Accordingly, from every post in New Mexico and Texas all
+troops that could be spared were sent.
+
+A cordon of outposts was established, so that the Indians who had
+gone into Mexico could not return without being captured. The
+devastations they had wrought were terrible. The little corner of
+south-western New Mexico, in the neighborhood of Fort Bayard, had
+become a veritable charnel house. Every interest of the country had
+been ruined by their constant raids.
+
+The President’s attention was directly drawn to the state of affairs
+by my brother, who was in Washington at the time. He had edited a
+paper in Silver City, New Mexico, for several years, and had kept an
+account of the number of murders committed by Indians—five hundred in
+eight years. In such a sparsely settled country the loss of so many
+precious lives was not only sad beyond expression, but if continued
+must result in hopeless ruin to that region, which, as I have before
+stated, is the garden spot of the West. Sheltered by numerous hills,
+cattle always thrive and increase there, because of the perfectly
+equable climate and a constant supply of nutritive food.
+
+For those very reasons, probably, it was a paradise for the Indians,
+who could steal in and out more readily on account of the numerous
+mountain hiding-places.
+
+It was very unusual for troops stationed in Texas to be sent out of
+their district; but in that case everything possible was done to
+enhance the safety of the long-suffering people. I shall not try
+to give an account of that long-protracted warfare, which lasted
+eighteen months before Geronimo was captured. During that time our
+troops marched over ground that was well-nigh impassable, and endured
+every species of hardships. The cavalry worked night and day to
+secure those wily Indians, and finally succeeded; but a volume would
+be required if their hardships and sufferings were to be recounted.
+
+It is simply impossible for any one who has not seen the unsettled
+portions of this country to imagine its character and the
+difficulties which beset troops that follow on the trails of Indians.
+Our cavalry has been criticised freely; but I would say to the
+critic: “Go thou and do likewise.” More than they have done, it would
+be impossible to do, and no country could be less grateful than ours.
+If soldiers were rewarded according to their deserts, each cavalryman
+would wear the choicest prize within the nation’s gift. The service
+is very trying. I can scarcely recall an officer who is not a martyr
+to severe sufferings caused by constant exposure, and who in middle
+life is not an old man both in feeling and experience.
+
+After reaching Deming, New Mexico, Captain Boyd’s troop was sent
+into the Black Range, where they encamped at a little place called
+Grafton, fifty miles from the mountains. I have my husband’s diary,
+which contains an account of the march and the country over which
+they traveled. He greatly disliked to settle quietly down in the
+camp selected as a permanent one, and was delighted when a letter
+summoning him away was received.
+
+The letter was sent from a little Mexican town about one hundred
+miles distant, and informed him that ten Indian women had reached
+there, who, if captured, would perhaps prove valuable hostages. They
+were the wives of some members of the band that were on the war-path;
+and if they could be secured the probability of effecting a treaty
+seemed reasonable.
+
+Captain Boyd lost no time in preparations, but started at once with
+twenty mounted men. The march occupied five days, and on reaching the
+town the Indian women were found in an almost starving condition.
+
+The country was very rough, and a few lines received from my husband
+while there stated that he was suffering greatly from the effects of
+bad drinking-water. The man who had sent the letter begged him to
+remain a few days, and not risk the effects of the return to camp
+while so ill. But he refused to stay, fearing the Indian women might
+escape if not speedily taken to a permanent military station.
+
+My husband returned to camp, having suffered intensely during the ten
+days of his absence, and when he reached his troop was dying, though
+still refusing to consider himself seriously ill. He at once ordered
+the only officer with him to proceed with the Indian women to the
+place where the main body of the regiment was encamped, one hundred
+and fifty miles distant.
+
+The young officer was so anxious about Captain Boyd that he sent
+a courier for the nearest surgeon, who was at Hillsboro, eighty
+miles away. It was four days before the doctor could reach Grafton,
+and meantime Captain Boyd was without proper medical attendance.
+Everything his faithful soldiers could do was done; but, alas, to no
+purpose! The army doctor’s first glance showed him that Captain Boyd
+was doomed.
+
+For five days the most unremitting care and attention were given him,
+both by the kind physician and by a captain of the regiment who had
+accompanied him. But all was useless. The fifth day ended the life of
+this noble and true man.
+
+Captain Boyd’s last hard ride had developed violent inflammation
+which was simply incurable, as the disease had been increasing for
+years, having first developed when during the war the young soldier
+had been compelled to drink impure water and go without food for
+days. Subsequent years of cavalry hardships had increased its
+strength until that last exposure proved fatal.
+
+Home in Texas we scarcely realized that he was ill when the terrible
+news of his death came in a telegram that had been two days _en
+route_.
+
+Letters had been received from him so regularly that when they ceased
+I supposed he was still on the march. When the doctor and captain
+began to write, their communications were at first so encouraging
+that we could scarcely believe he was in any danger, and were totally
+unprepared for the terrible sequel. In fact, no one could at first
+accept the sad truth; for Captain Boyd had been the picture of
+health, and had impressed every one with his unusual vitality. When
+the young officer who had been sent forward with the Indian women
+returned to find his beloved captain dead and buried, the shock was
+so great he almost fell from his horse.
+
+That Indian campaign resulted in some terrible deaths, but none was
+more shocking than this sad ending to a long and most faithful career.
+
+Only a few months previously Captain Boyd had spoken very feelingly
+of the double loss army women sustained when death robbed them of
+their husbands—the loss of both husband and home. He realized how
+deeply attached to the life they became, and how sad it was that
+they must be cast adrift from all the associations of years. But
+such, though sorrowful in all its aspects, is the fate of army women.
+
+My grief was intensified by the utter refusal of the Secretary of
+War to remove all that remained of so true and manly a soldier to
+a National Cemetery. After my first request had been denied I went
+to Washington, only to receive there a second from the same source;
+the reason given being that government could not afford to incur the
+expense.
+
+Had I not made every effort possible, there would have been another
+lonely grave in the very heart of a remote mountain region, where
+none who loved him could ever have visited the spot.
+
+Captain Boyd died on the same day as General Grant. A week later
+orders were received at Fort Clark from the War Department, directing
+that the nation’s great general should have every honor paid his
+memory. Guns were fired, flags displayed at half-mast, and the band
+played sad and solemn music, while troops paraded in honor of the
+dead general and his great achievements.
+
+It seemed to me mournful and unjust, that while high and deserved
+honors were paid the memory of one, the other, as noble and true a
+soldier as ever walked this earth, and who had given twenty-four of
+his forty-one years of life in faithful service, had endured terrible
+hardships, and yielded at last even his life for his country, should
+be laid to rest far from home and friends, out on the lonely prairie,
+and except in the hearts of a few his memory should utterly fade.
+
+Captain Boyd sleeps in the National Cemetery at San Antonio, where
+six weeks previously he had touched all hearts with his eloquence.
+Graven on his tomb are the last words of that memorable address:
+
+      “Sleep, soldier, still in honored rest
+        Thy truth and valor wearing;
+      The bravest are the tenderest,
+        The loving are the daring.”
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX A.
+
+_Extract from the proceedings of the Association of Graduates of the
+United States military Academy at its annual reunion, held at West
+Point, New York, June 10, 1886._[1]
+
+[1] This obituary was distributed throughout the corps of cadets at
+West Point by the Commandant at the time of Captain Boyd’s death, and
+its perfect justice has never in the slightest degree been challenged.
+
+
+ORSEMUS B. BOYD.
+
+NO. 2216. CLASS OF 1867.
+
+_Died (in the field), at Camp near Grafton, New Mexico, July 23,
+1885, aged 41._
+
+      “So passed the strong, heroic soul away—”
+
+Born in New York; appointed from New York; class rank, 61.
+
+Entered the War of the Rebellion as a member of the Eighty-ninth New
+York Volunteer Infantry, Sept. 1, 1861, and served until July 1,
+1863, when he was appointed a Cadet in the United States Military
+Academy. He saw active service in our great war, and was mentioned
+for gallantry at Roanoke Island, North Carolina.
+
+He was graduated on June 17, 1867, and appointed second lieutenant
+Eighth United States Cavalry; first lieutenant same, Oct. 13,
+1868; captain, Jan. 26, 1882. He died July 23, 1885, closing in
+_acknowledged honor_ and undoubted manly effectiveness _twenty-four
+years of faithful and gallant service_ in the saddest of our
+wars, and in Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, where he assisted in
+developing our great inland resources.
+
+His family have an honest pride in his unostentatious record, and we
+all may say:
+
+                  “Duncan is in his grave.
+      After life’s fitful fever, he sleeps well.”
+
+
+THE RECORD OF A NOBLE LIFE.
+
+      “I, the despised of fortune, lift mine eyes,
+      Bright with the luster of integrity,
+      In unappealing wretchedness, on high,
+      And the last rage of Destiny defy.”
+
+It is with deep solicitude that the writer endeavors, in a few words,
+to do justice to the memory of Captain Boyd.
+
+For several long and intensely painful years I knew him to be
+an innocent Enoch Arden in a lonely desert of solitude, bereft
+of—dearer to the soldier than wife or life—his HONOR—a sufferer for
+the crime of _another man_.
+
+It was in 1863 that he entered the academy—a veteran soldier, a young
+man whose merits had gained for him the honorable rank of cadet.
+In 1864 the writer joined the corps, and for three years marched
+shoulder to shoulder in the line of the dear old Gray Battalion with
+the man who sleeps far away from the Hudson, and where the foot
+of the idle stranger may stop to mark where a good, honest, and
+much-wronged man sleeps the sleep which knows no waking.
+
+No man ever did better work in the army than Boyd. By steady,
+faithful, and efficient service, he wore out suspicion,
+conspiracy, bad luck, and scandal. Since the establishment of his
+innocence—unsought, unchallenged by him—his defamer has preceded him
+to the awful bar of the Great Judge.
+
+He lived to round a career of usefulness and gallant service with the
+tributes of regimental and army respect, the affection of his brother
+officers, the endearments of family life, the respect of the people
+of Texas and of the territories where he had served. Demonstrations
+by his company and comments of the general press prove that his
+once-shadowed name is now clear and clean, and may be honored by
+those who loved him.
+
+The facts are these: In the winter of 1865-1866 the robbery of
+certain sums of money occurred in “B” Company, United States Corps
+of Cadets. It is unnecessary to refer to the facts other than that
+after repeated robberies and some rather crude detective work, one
+evening, at undress parade in the area of barracks, Cadet Boyd was
+ignominiously brought before the battalion of cadets with a placard
+of “Thief” on his breast, drummed out of the corps, mobbed and
+maltreated. A most intense state of excitement prevailed on the
+post, and the strongest discipline was enforced, the cadets being
+summarily quelled in any riotous actions. Innocent parties had their
+names dragged into the affair, and poor Boyd finished his cadetship
+generally cut in the corps, and endured, till he graduated, a life
+which was a living hell.
+
+The scandal followed him to his regiment, and years of exemplary
+behavior were needed to enable him to live down his trouble. His
+quiet, manly obstinacy in clinging to the army is explained by his
+innocence. To the honorable but hot-headed men who so long made Boyd
+carry the burden of another’s crime, deepest regret must ever attend
+the memories of this affair. It is a matter of strange remark that
+the guilty man who made Boyd suffer for him—John Joseph Casey, of
+the class of 1868—was accidentally shot at drill, by a soldier, at
+Fort Washington, Md., March 24, 1869, within nine months after his
+apparently honorable graduation. The careers and untimely end of
+several who bore down on the suffering man of whom we speak show
+some strange and continued sadness or burdens of expiation. It is
+all over now. The wandering squadron passing poor Boyd’s grave may
+dip the colors to a man whose eyes closed in honor, true to himself,
+to his family, his corps and to the dear old flag that he served so
+patiently, so quietly, and so well. God rest his soul! Amen.
+
+His innocence was publicly established as follows: In the winter of
+1867-1868, Cadet Casey, while sick in the hospital, confessed to his
+room-mate, Cadet Hamilton (now dead), that he (Casey) had stolen the
+moneys for which poor Boyd had suffered the loss of name and fame.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[The records show that Casey was in the hospital from Jan. 24 to Jan.
+31, 1868, suffering from dementia. He was so ill that his classmates
+took turns in nursing him. One night, in his delirium, he spoke of
+the Boyd affair. Hamilton happened to be with him at the time. The
+next morning, when Casey was again in a conscious condition, Hamilton
+told him what he had said. It was _then_ that Casey confessed his
+part of the conspiracy. If it had not been for Casey’s illness the
+facts above narrated would never, in all human probability, have come
+to light.—_Sec. Assn._]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It is unnecessary for the writer to state why Hamilton kept this
+awful secret locked in his breast from 1867-1868 until he died,
+Jan. 22, 1872, from consumption; but he did, alas for him! Casey
+had peculiar temptations. Private matters and a hounding blackmail
+pressed him for money, which he stole from rich cadets. The cause was
+a concealed marriage of Casey’s, that if known would have voided his
+cadetship and destroyed his chance for social elevation.
+
+Poor Boyd lived alone in a room on the third floor, third division,
+“B” Company. Casey lived directly opposite, and concealed marked
+money in Boyd’s books, which caused Boyd to be suspected as the thief
+of all the money previously stolen.
+
+Hamilton, the confidant, feared his room-mate of four years,
+erred, and kept silent, as far as I know, until June, 1871. At
+the St. Marc Hotel, Washington, D.C., Lieutenant Hamilton, in
+view of his approaching death, communicated to me his knowledge
+of Casey’s confession and of Boyd’s innocence. I was shocked, and
+at once communicated the facts to the then Lieut. O. B. Boyd, on
+the frontier. On my return, after three years of absence in the
+Orient, Europe, and the South, I discovered, in a conversation with
+Captain Price of the engineers, that full justice had not been done.
+Duplicate affidavits were immediately made by me and forwarded to
+Captain Boyd and another person interested. I received a letter from
+Boyd thanking me for my efforts—a letter that has made me always
+happy, and which, I regret, is stored with valuable archives where I
+cannot at once find it. It speaks of his struggles, and pleasantly
+says that his character needs no present backing, but that a time
+will come when I may speak and tell all, if I think it will please
+those who value him.
+
+It was in Siberia that I received the letter asking me to commit
+these facts to paper, and by hazard I found a stray copy of the
+_Army and Navy_ which contained a report of Captain Boyd’s honorable
+obsequies.
+
+From the Pacific I pen the last tribute to a man of much-tried worth.
+The subject brings back painful memories of two men whom I loved and
+honored in my cadet days—Casey and Hamilton. I am proud to state here
+that two of my class never cut Boyd, and several others in the corps
+did him some act of kindness in the awful silence of two years. With
+pride I recall that the officers of the post did full justice to his
+barren rights, and that the old and faithful servants of the Academy
+treated him with a discerning kindness which is a wreath of honor on
+their silent graves. I will not refer to one affection which cheered
+him—there are things too sacred for words.
+
+It is all over! There is only one name off the duty roster; an empty
+chair; a lonely grave; an old sword hanging idly in the sunshine
+somewhere; a riderless horse; a void in the little family circle
+which knew and loved the man who is no more.
+
+It is well to know that his name is mentioned with honor and respect;
+that the burden of another’s crime has been cast from him, and that
+Time will quietly and in honor carpet the grave of the honest soldier
+with “the grass which springeth under the rain which raineth on the
+just and the unjust alike.” I believe restitution of honor and
+public consideration has, in so far as possible, been fully made. I
+look back sadly on my waning youth, as I think of this story, its
+actors, and that—
+
+      “The saint who enjoyed the communion of heaven,
+      The sinner who dared to remain unforgiven,
+      The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just,
+      Have quietly mingled their bones with the dust.”
+                              RICHARD H. SAVAGE,
+                                       _Class of 1868_.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX B.
+
+AMERICAN CIVILIZATION.
+
+AS VIEWED BY WEEPING WEASEL, LATE CHIEF OF THE KIOWAS.
+
+
+A LECTURE
+
+  _Written by_ CAPTAIN ORSEMUS BRONSON BOYD, _in behalf of the
+  Charitable Enterprises of the Ladies connected with the —— Church
+  of Davenport, Iowa, and also given before the Masonic Lodge in
+  San Antonio, Texas._
+
+_Ladies and Gentlemen_:—In the first place I am not a lecturer. I
+make this announcement now, for fear you may not discover it before I
+shall have finished, or if the fact should be rudely thrust upon you,
+I will have pleaded guilty in advance to the indictment.
+
+When, a boy, I took part in the debating clubs that were held in
+those old red schoolhouses where all great affairs of state—wars,
+revolution, politics and finance—were discussed with the freedom of
+boys and the ignorance of savages, there was one question which never
+failed to elicit ample talk: “Resolved, that anticipation is better
+than reality,” and on that question I was always in the affirmative.
+In an hour you will all be with me.
+
+I shall tell no tale of personal adventure; nothing worth recording
+ever happened to me. Diogenes, with a lantern, and open sunlight to
+aid the lantern, in the city of Athens failed to find an honest man.
+An untutored Indian from the plains of Texas, amid the common events
+and every-day life of the Pale-faces, discovered that their vaunted
+civilization was a myth, and their boasted culture a delusion. Let us
+at once annihilate the Indian and discredit Diogenes.
+
+In common with all Christians of our kind, we believe that it is
+easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich
+man to inherit the kingdom of heaven. There are other Christians who
+believe that it is easier for a rich man to go through the eye of a
+needle than for a camel to inherit the kingdom of heaven. Who shall
+say which Christian is _the_ Christian?
+
+Before the brothers of this noble profession, this mystic tie, whose
+deeds have been known in every land and under every sun—amid burning
+flames and on frozen mountains, on swollen rivers and tempestuous
+seas, by the bedsides of dying princes, in the cabins of poverty,
+desolation, and disease, in public and private, to bond and free, to
+all brothers who own its symbolic rites—to all brothers and wives of
+the brothers, I can more freely speak of one who, though ignorant and
+a savage, still found in his own faith and his own civilization his
+own Christianity.
+
+Eighteen hundred years ago, in Capernaum by the Sea of Galilee, a
+man, whom the charity of God had sent into the world, was preaching
+to the people. And a certain lawyer, willing to justify himself,
+stood up and asked, “Who is my neighbor?” Promptly came the answer:
+
+“A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among
+thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and
+departed, leaving him half dead.
+
+“And by chance there came down a certain priest that way, and when he
+saw him he passed by on the other side.
+
+“And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on
+him, and passed by on the other side.
+
+“But a certain Samaritan as he journeyed, came where he was; and when
+he saw him, he had compassion on him.
+
+“And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine,
+and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took
+care of him.
+
+“And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave
+them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him: and whatsoever
+thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.
+
+“Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that
+fell among the thieves?”
+
+On the boundless prairies of the West and South, that are in extent
+empires, the white man has learned that devotion which Nature, in her
+grandest forms, most surely teaches. He has learned that tolerance
+which men unfettered by the bonds of conventional society most
+quickly learn.
+
+Two years ago last July I found myself encamped upon the banks of the
+Red River of Texas, with forty horsemen as scouts under my command.
+Like a silver thread the river ran a thousand feet beneath us,
+through the wildest and most precipitous cañon.
+
+At four o’clock one morning, a Seminole Indian, attached to the
+command, brought me intelligence that six hours previously six
+horses, four lodges, one sick Indian, five squaws, and several
+children had descended into the cañon one mile above us, and were
+then lost to sight. I asked:
+
+“Had they provisions?”
+
+“Yes; corn and buffalo meat.”
+
+“How do you know?”
+
+“Because I saw corn scattered upon one side of the trail, and flies
+had gathered upon a piece of buffalo meat on the other.”
+
+“How do you know that one of the Indians is sick?”
+
+“Because the lodge poles were formed into a travois, that was drawn
+by a horse blind in one eye.”
+
+“How do you know the horse was half blind?”
+
+“Because, while all the other horses grazed upon both sides of the
+trail, this one ate only the grass that grew upon one side.”
+
+“How do you know the sick one was a man?”
+
+“Because when a halt was made all the women gathered around him.”
+
+“Of what tribe are they?”
+
+“Of the Kiowa tribe.”
+
+And thus, with no ray of intelligence upon his stolid face, the
+Seminole Indian stood before me and told all I wished to know
+concerning our new neighbors, whom he had never seen.
+
+Two hours from that time, not knowing whether they were friends or
+enemies, I was carefully studying, from the bluff above, through a
+field-glass, the Indian camp.
+
+The lodges had all been erected, and were gay with the robes of the
+buffalo of the plains, the prairie wolf, and the coyote. A great war
+bonnet of eagles’ feathers hung before the door of the principal
+tepee, denoting that its occupant was a chief. From the lodge pole
+floated a blue streamer, bearing the rude device, in red paint, of a
+whip-poor-will attacking a rattlesnake; this told me that he was the
+chief of all the Kiowas. I knew the man. I had met him, with many
+others of his tribe, one night several years before, one hundred
+miles below on the same river, and the meeting had not been pleasant
+to either of us.
+
+In fact, several hours had been required in which to adjust our
+differences; and as the chief left me amid the crack of rifles and
+the swish of arrows, I heard his clear voice solemnly declaring in
+Spanish that he would surely come again “when the moon was young.”
+Fate was too strong even for the chief of the Kiowas; he never came;
+his tribe had been conquered and were at peace.
+
+Returning to my cantonment, I hastily saddled a small detachment,
+and descending the almost precipitous sides of the gorge reached the
+Indian encampment, and dismounting, raised the buffalo skin that hung
+before the entrance of the principal lodge, and stood unsummoned in
+the presence of the chief. An old and shriveled man, with nerveless
+arms and sunken eyes, from which the fire of battle had forever fled,
+lay upon a rude couch of skins. He gave courteous greeting, said he
+knew me, and even spoke my name. As I sat upon the ground at his side
+he told me how, for weeks before our previous meeting to which I have
+alluded, he had been upon my trail when I marched over the short,
+crisp buffalo grass of the staked-plains. He had known my personal
+habits, the disposition of the camp for defense at night, the number
+of men, animals, and wagons; in fact, all that I had known myself.
+
+The chief then told me that he was stricken by death, and should soon
+be in the presence of the Great Spirit, roaming the happy hunting
+grounds of his tribe, and asked that he be allowed to die in peace.
+
+Day after day I visited the dying warrior, who related from time to
+time, as his strength permitted, the story of his life and the story
+of his tribe. He recounted the wrongs they had suffered, and the
+wrongs they had done. He told me of their customs and traditions,
+their marriages, births, and deaths. For days he talked, sometimes in
+the soft Spanish tongue, often in the beautiful sign language of the
+plain Indian.
+
+In my youth I lived near, and of course read the romantic creations
+of that clever gentleman who resided upon the shores of the beautiful
+Cooperstown Lake. I had also read the works of a novelist from the
+South who had invested the Indian character with all the warmth and
+color of his native skies, with all the romance that belonged to
+his Southern forests, gay with flowers and poetic with festoons of
+clinging moss.
+
+In consequence of this I had come to look upon the Indian as all that
+was noble, grand, and heroic in war, all that was gentle, tender,
+and true in peace. I had read with breathless interest of his loves,
+courtships, and marriages. I had admired his keenness of vision upon
+the trail, his untiring energy, fleetness of foot, immunity from
+fatigue, his long fasts, and the halo of romance that seemed to
+ever encircle him. I considered him a “Chevalier Bayard,” a model of
+physical beauty, who resembled, perhaps, the dying gladiator.
+
+My boyhood’s dream was rudely broken, and like many another boyish
+illusion it disappeared in a day. I found the Indian dirty, unwashed,
+and treacherous, a prey to the lowest instincts and the most
+revolting cruelty.
+
+He was no “Chevalier Bayard,” and did not resemble the dying
+gladiator. The romance, color, light and shades—all were gone, and I
+learned that the Indian and our treatment of him were deformities and
+blots upon our fair land and our modern civilization. Between the law
+of force upon one side, and the law of civilization upon the other,
+the Indian has been tossed like an unripe apple, and has not known
+which to obey.
+
+One night the old Indian chief died, and the next morning, with such
+rude and simple rites as obtained among the Kiowas, we carried him to
+his last resting-place upon the platform which had been erected for
+the purpose.
+
+The dawning light was flushing rosy red in the blushing East; in
+the West the darkness of the night still lingered. The songs of a
+thousand birds and the chirp of millions of insects broke in some
+measure the eternal silence of those great plains. The buzzard, a
+mere speck in the sky, with the eye of the eagle waited impatiently
+for his prey. Herds of timid antelopes, with great startled eyes,
+watched us from a distance, ready to dash away on fleetest foot at
+a moment’s warning. Troops of buffaloes were slaking their thirst
+in the rippling river. The great cat-fish, with strong leaps, rose
+bodily from the water in pursuit of prey, and fell back with a splash.
+
+All animal life was awake with the flush of the morning; and as the
+sun’s disk appeared above the horizon’s dead level, we laid the chief
+upon the platform, with his face turned toward the “God of the Dome.”
+His body was wrapped in a red blanket stoutly bound about with cords.
+He had been brave in battle, so all his war implements were laid by
+his side. His great war bonnet of eagle’s feathers was hung upon one
+of the upright poles. His horses were slain by the scaffold. Then, to
+the accompaniment of low-voiced chants, his widows began their work
+of scarification with knives upon the lower extremities. When that
+was finished we left him to the hush of those vast plains.
+
+That night in one of the lodges a great great granddaughter but a
+few months old died. The child was placed in a frail burial canoe,
+covered with trailing vines that had grown upon the river’s banks,
+and gently cast adrift. No doubt the tiny bark was soon caught in
+rippling eddies, or its course stopped by stout rushes, and in time
+its lifeless occupant returned to the dust from which it had sprung.
+
+After the obsequies of the dead chief I returned to camp, and in
+order to divert my mind sought to fatigue my body by stalking
+buffaloes all day. But I had gained a new insight into the Indian
+character, and one which enabled me to respect it.
+
+That evening, lying in a hammock under the awning of my tent, as the
+first shades of darkness came creeping over the plains, there struck
+upon my ears, borne upward from the gorge below, the chant of Indian
+women for their dead. Its tones were the rhythm of sorrow and the
+notes of woe. Until midnight the songs continued, now loud, then
+sinking to the faint whisperings of the wind. Next morning the lodges
+were in ashes, and nothing was left of our strange neighbors but the
+dead chief upon his platform, and the footprints of their moccasins
+as they traveled straight toward the North Star.
+
+These events made so strange and strong an impression upon me, that
+I propose telling you this evening, in as simple words as possible,
+the story of the pilgrimage of Weeping Weasel, late chief of all the
+Kiowas. I shall dwell longer upon his attempts to introduce the white
+man’s civilization in his tribe, what he saw, and the inferences
+drawn therefrom, than upon all the other incidents he related. The
+conclusions at which Weeping Weasel, with the intellect of an Indian
+and the sagacity of a politician, arrived, are not necessarily mine;
+and if their recital should wound any one within the sound of my
+voice, I would beg them to remember that they were told me by a dying
+Indian chief, as he lay in his lodge upon the banks of the Red River
+flowing peacefully through the great staked-plains of Texas.
+
+Years and years before—even for hundreds of summers—the Kiowas had
+been a powerful nation. When the tent of the chief was planted, there
+clustered around it five thousand lodges. The tribe was rich in the
+implements of war, owned thousands of horses, were mighty hunters,
+bold and aggressive warriors. No footprint of man or animal, no
+upturned stone, broken twig or bended grass escaped the keen vision
+of their scouts.
+
+From El Paso, where the Rio Grande del Norte commences its westward
+course, and swings in the arc of a great circle until completed at
+the mouth of the Pecos, where it again flows south, they owned the
+lands of which this river formed the Western boundary; thence south
+across the “Devil’s River” and the Nueces, to where it empties into
+beautiful Matagorda Bay. On the east they had fought for supremacy
+with the Comanches, and been victorious. They had made the Tonkawas
+a nation of beggars and old women. From across the border they had
+repelled invasions of the Kickapoos and Lipan-Apaches. They had
+marched, an irresistible army, across the pine ridges and cedar
+mountains of New Mexico, and fearlessly confronted the Warm Springs
+and Mescalero tribes. The Utes of Colorado had descended from their
+mountain fastnesses, battled with them in the open plain, and
+been defeated. They had measured lances with and beaten the Tonto
+and Jicarrila—Apaches of Arizona. They had destroyed the great
+wheat-fields on the Gila River of the Pima and Maricopa tribes. The
+Yumas had heard their battle-cry. They had pushed their conquests
+amongst the Pi-Utes and Shoshones of Nevada, and from thence had
+marched against the Bannocks of Idaho, and the Nez Perces of Oregon.
+Their spoils of war had been great.
+
+But in course of time the hands of all other tribes were raised
+against them, and through disaster and defeat they had been reduced
+to the occupancy of only the great plains of Western Texas.
+
+At that time Weeping Weasel became their chief. He was then in the
+prime of manhood. The nerveless arm that I saw in his lodge could
+then draw the six-foot arrow to its head, and make the cord of deer
+sinews writhe and moan as in pain.
+
+He saw that peace and industry would perhaps be of great benefit to
+his tribe, and after much communion with himself and consultation
+with the elders, concluded at no distant day to turn his face toward
+the rising sun, and learn the strange and barbarous ways of the
+Pale-faces. He had been told they were as numberless as the leaves of
+the forest when the hot sirocco that comes from the southern islands
+shakes them with its fiery breath.
+
+Marching over these great and silent plains under the blazing sun, he
+had learned in some instinctive way that the Pale-faces would build
+cities there, and people them with busy men and women.
+
+Weeping Weasel had seen the _Pongo_ or smoke-man in the North that
+traversed its iron rails faster than his fleetest pony could gallop.
+He had seen a small wire stretched on poles through which he could
+but dimly comprehend that the men who lived at the rising sun talked
+with their brothers who lived at the setting sun.
+
+But before starting on a journey so fraught with peril, he thought
+best to call to his aid teachers—those of good repute among the
+Pale-faces. Through a missionary he secured the services of two
+devotees from Massachusetts, who came and opened a school for the
+boys and girls of his tribe.
+
+It is true that in visage and mien these teachers did not resemble
+the dusky beauties of the Kiowa race. The ringlets worn at the
+side of the face, the eyes that looked through strange pieces of
+glass, the mysterious scrolls which they held in their hands, and
+the sounding fall of a heavy foot instead of the dewy touch of the
+moccasin, were not calculated to inspire love and respect from
+untutored savages.
+
+Still, with the devotion of their calling, and in their desire
+to do good, these mistaken and misguided women taught on. But one
+fatal day they were surprised by Weeping Weasel while teaching the
+children that the world is round. The Kiowas believed it to be flat.
+Weeping Weasel, with the decision worthy a general of iron nerve and
+unflinching courage in the right, seized and burned them at the stake.
+
+He scattered their ashes to the four winds of heaven, and in a long
+address to the Historical Society of Boston, asked that others with
+less pernicious doctrines be sent. It is perhaps needless to state
+that even the old Bay State, with its advanced ideas and unyielding
+principles, could find no more volunteer missionaries for that work.
+Therefore Weeping Weasel must needs start upon his pilgrimage toward
+the rising sun.
+
+The night previous to his departure all the tribes assembled, and
+with the great Southern Cross gleaming and burning, they performed
+the sacred rites and mysteries of the sun dance. A hundred fires
+flamed brightly. Amid the yells of warriors and the shrieks of those
+fainting from self-inflicted tortures, there arose the monotonous
+chants of the women as they prayed for the safety of their chief.
+
+At break of day he left them, and a great silence fell upon the tribe
+as they mournfully sought their separate lodges.
+
+Day by day Weeping Weasel traveled north and east, sleeping at night
+under the stars, his food procured by bow and arrow, his drink taken
+from limpid streams.
+
+At last he came to the country of the “Smoke-man,” and taking passage
+was borne swiftly over mountains and through the valleys to some
+bluffs upon the boundary of a great State, where other Indians had
+held their councils years before, and where he determined to commence
+his researches and investigations.
+
+His pilgrimage becoming known, the chief was hospitably lodged in the
+house of a Christian gentleman of that town who was a land agent.
+Among the Kiowas the title to all lands and the occupancy thereof
+were considered sacred. Even in their forays against other tribes
+they contended for supremacy, not for a title to the country. Indeed,
+so strong was this honesty implanted in the breast of the savage and
+barbarous Indian, that once, after a great battle with the Comanches,
+rather than do violence to this principle he had ceded to them a
+thousand square miles of his own country, deeming that better than
+to question such undoubted right.
+
+The land agent showed him, in his office, maps of lands which bore
+strong resemblance to those occupied by his tribe. Upon leaving, this
+same Christian gentleman followed him across the State to a city with
+a great bridge and offered to sell, beseeching him to buy, for a
+merely nominal sum, thousands and thousands of acres upon which his
+tribe had dwelt from time immemorial. Weeping Weasel determined not
+to incorporate the land usages of the Pale-faces amongst his people.
+
+In the towns and camps of the Kiowas, great attention had been paid
+to the sanitary conditions of their immediate surroundings. This was
+necessary for the life and health of individual members of the tribe.
+
+In that city by the bridge he found the people in a certain locality
+stricken unto death by a strange pestilence. Upon investigating the
+cause, he learned they all had drank water from a certain well.
+Weeping Weasel concluded that, if he were the chief in this locality,
+there would be sewers and water-mains; or failing these, the
+inhabitants who refused or were too indolent to carry water from the
+river would receive a punishment, compared with which the cholera
+would be a lingering and painless death. But Weeping Weasel was an
+untaught, rude, and barbarous savage.
+
+The “Father of Waters” next attracted the attention of this curious
+pilgrim. Compared with all other rivers he had ever seen, it was as
+the sun to the faintest twinkling star. He worshiped it as a god. Day
+by day he sat upon the banks, watched it through all changing moods,
+loved it best when angry currents brought down yellow mud from the
+far North, and worshiped it most when the setting sun’s ocher light
+fell upon its surging waters, enveloping beautiful islands.
+
+There floated upon its broad expanse numberless strange monsters,
+propelled in some mysterious way. Weeping Weasel found they carried
+grain, fruit, and other produce from one part of the country to
+another, and then first began to understand the law of trade—of
+barter and sale. He took passage upon one of these palaces,
+descending a hundred miles; saw the busy towns upon the banks of his
+idol, filled, as he thought, with crazy men and women. Why all this
+rush, ceaseless activity and strife for wealth, he questioned.
+
+Returning at night, and standing upon the deck with head uncovered
+in the reverent attitude a savage always assumes when awe-stricken
+in the presence of nature, he suddenly became conscious of a strange
+throbbing through every fiber of the monster. He also saw abreast
+another monster all aglow with fire; men were shouting and running
+like mad! Every few minutes its huge furnace doors were opened, and
+the blazing fires fed with pitch and resin. The vessel shook in every
+joint; men and women were crowding the deck all hoarse from shouting;
+money was freely changing hands; from the smoke-stacks long lines
+of fire trailed out through the darkness; the gurgling water at the
+bow was thrown in spray upon the deck. Suddenly there was a terrible
+roar, a great flash of fire, then darkness came, and Weeping Weasel
+knew no more until he found himself safe upon the river’s bank.
+
+He was told that a hundred men, women, and children had been
+sacrificed that night. Burning with anger and righteous indignation,
+Weeping Weasel attended the coroner’s inquest; the evidence was
+conflicting; no one in particular seemed to have been to blame; it
+was an accident. Weeping Weasel went forward to offer his testimony;
+a savage could not take the oath. The coroner’s jury promptly
+acquitted all of blame, even the poor Indian, and the event was soon
+forgotten. Weeping Weasel determined that the civilization of the
+steamboat should never be introduced among his people.
+
+Again he turned his face to the east, and traveled across a great
+State where the fields were waving with ripening grain. Neat
+farmhouses had been erected on every side. The corn and wheat that he
+saw growing seemed to him of no use. Who would require it?
+
+On these undulating plains with cattle, sheep, and horses, where
+peace and plenty seemed to reign and the merry voices of children
+were heard at sunset, our untutored savage began to think perhaps was
+the civilization of which he had dreamed. Still he had the Indian’s
+caution, and arrived at conclusions slowly.
+
+He determined to abide three days in the most peaceful and quiet
+village, and chose one with two churches, a bank, and store.
+
+Upon awakening the first morning, he found that the store had been
+robbed and burned during the night. The following day the two
+churches were in fierce dispute over some minor point of doctrine.
+The third morning it was learned that the bank cashier had absconded
+with all the funds, leaving hundreds of families destitute.
+
+The Kiowas did not steal from each other; the simple faith in the
+Great Spirit which they had in common furnished no cause for dispute;
+and the custodian of the tribe’s public goods never ran away with
+them. They never had thought of such an occurrence; and the event was
+so improbable that those barbarous savages had not even prescribed a
+mode of punishment for it.
+
+Weary, harassed, tormented, and worn out even at the commencement
+of his pilgrimage, Weeping Weasel would gladly have turned his face
+toward the setting sun; but patience being one of the great virtues
+of the Kiowas, he again girded up his loins and proceeded on his
+journey.
+
+But a great fear was coming upon his superstitious soul. One
+afternoon, years before, while hunting, Weeping Weasel had fallen
+asleep by the side of a spring that bubbled from beneath an immense
+boulder, which was sufficiently large to protect him from the sun’s
+rays. As he slept, there appeared before him the god Stone-Shirt,
+followed by Pantasco, or he who robs the living; Kay-Wit, he who robs
+the dead; and Quite-Qiu, who robs both living and dead. All passed
+before the sleeping warrior, to whom Stone-Shirt foretold in the sign
+language this pilgrimage and the events which would follow.
+
+Weeping Weasel could only dimly comprehend on awaking, that in case
+of failure he was to be turned into one of the three horrid shapes
+shown him by Stone-Shirt; and, forever shut out from the Great Spirit
+and the happy hunting grounds, his soul, without arms to defend
+itself, must wander and fall through unfathomable space and darkness.
+
+When he saw the terrible anxiety, woe, and despair written upon the
+faces of fathers, mothers, and children whom the vandal acts of the
+faithless cashier had ruined, Weeping Weasel concluded to ever pray
+that he be not turned into the horrid shape which steals from the
+living.
+
+In the robbery of the store the proprietor had been killed; and as
+this ignorant savage gazed upon the form of the man who had died
+while defending his property, Weeping Weasel, in the agony of his
+soul, prayed to Stone-Shirt that he be spared, both in this his
+mortal, and in his future spiritual, existence, assuming the form of
+him who robs the dead.
+
+In the dispute between the churches, so much rancor and venom had
+been developed that men who were peacefully lying, as they had
+lain for years, in the little cemetery of the town, were publicly
+discussed, and motives and opinions the worst imputed to them.
+Happily they were ignorant of all this.
+
+The living were slandered and the dead vilified. Brother became
+the enemy of brother, sisters were estranged, husbands and wives
+separated. Again Weeping Weasel besought Stone-Shirt, and with the
+sweat of mortal agony upon his brow, that, if he must, he would face
+either of the two horrible shapes to be spared the form of the one
+who robs both the living and the dead.
+
+Weeping Weasel soon found himself in a great city by a lake. Here
+he was lodged in the house of a gray-haired and respectable man, a
+pillar of the church, and one who gave largely, in an indiscriminate
+way, to churches and the poor. He had no time to investigate
+charities, and only contributed to them because he had money, or
+perhaps to ease the gnawings of a conscience not altogether dormant.
+
+Weeping Weasel was taken to church, where an eloquent preacher
+held his audience spell-bound as he impressed upon it the evils of
+gambling. To all his strictures the gray-haired man responded with
+fervent “Ahmens!”
+
+The next morning his host escorted Weeping Weasel to a great mart of
+trade in that populous city. There the savage Indian remembered the
+immense wheat and corn fields he had passed as he journeyed east. He
+saw the reverend gentleman who had spoken so eloquently on the sin
+of gambling stealthily enter a broker’s office and sell thousands
+and thousands of bushels of grain which he did not own, and never
+would. His gray-haired entertainer, who had so graciously responded
+“Ahmen!” stood in the center of hundreds of other men, all of whom
+were shouting and howling as he drove grain up and down by a nod of
+his head; men were ruined and families made destitute by this man,
+who called gambling a sin.
+
+Weeping Weasel learned, but it was difficult to grasp the idea, that
+crops were bought and sold before they were sown; that they became
+a football upon “Change,” even while growing; and when finally sent
+to market they ruined thousands. He found that all this disastrously
+affected the poor brethren of the Pale-faces, and that children were
+hungry in consequence. The chief decided he would grow only enough
+corn to satisfy the wants of his people, and would forever remain
+silent in regard to the gambling transactions.
+
+Once in the history of the Kiowa tribe an old and respected warrior
+had been selected to build a lodge in which public meetings were
+to be held. He was to be paid from the goods owned in common. To
+the dismay and horror of all, it was found that this rude architect
+had not been honest; he had demanded more buffalo hides than were
+needed for the building, and the best he had conveyed to his own
+lodge, and afterward sold to wandering traders. When the man’s crime
+became known he was seized, and the elders sat around him with
+stern visages. His trial was short; he was bound on the top of the
+dishonestly built lodge, and met his death in its flames.
+
+Weeping Weasel was shown a great hall of justice in that city where
+the granite was the finest and the workmanship the most skillful.
+He was told that the builder had taken the best granite and sold
+it to the traders among the Pale-faces. Thinking this had just
+been discovered, our barbarous Indian went early the next morning
+to witness the destruction of the building and cremation of the
+dishonest builder. He waited until noon, and as the building
+still stood and no torch had been applied, Weeping Weasel turned
+sorrowfully away just in time to see the false builder drinking
+champagne at a fashionable restaurant with his friends. This phase
+of civilization would not do for the fierce and warlike Kiowas.
+
+The right of husbands to exact obedience, and the duty of wives to
+obey, was one of the laws of the Kiowas, as unalterable as if written
+upon tablets of stone. So strongly was this doctrine implanted in the
+breast of the savage that once, in a foray against a Northern tribe,
+a favorite squaw of Weeping Weasel’s had, in direct disobedience to
+his command, followed a distance of two days’ march and entered his
+lodge at nightfall. She was beautiful then; but when I saw her on the
+banks of the Red River she was disfigured. A broken collar bone and
+a flattened nose were the results of her disobedience. She returned
+quickly; her only cause of anxiety being that she could not travel
+nights for fear of passing her own village.
+
+But among the Pale-faces Weeping Weasel learned that the custom
+was different. He found the wife frittered away her time while the
+husband was at the counting-room or office. If he commanded her to
+abstain from the round dances, she danced them; if he ordered her
+east, she went west; if he asked her to attend church, she preferred
+the opera; if he expressed a desire for the sea-shore, she chose the
+mountains of New Hampshire. Weeping Weasel, with the cunning of the
+savage, decided that this should never be told the squaws of his
+nation.
+
+As no man, intent upon a great mission, can hope to escape annoyances
+and observation from the idle, vulgar, and indolent, this warrior
+from the South found that his wearing apparel, the dress of his
+fathers, and the habit of his tribe, was a matter of curious comment
+even among those busy people. His clothes were good enough for him,
+and there were no fashion plates and paper patterns in use among the
+Kiowas. Still, at a council held at one time for the general good of
+the tribe, a daring innovator had, as a protection against snakes
+while marching, suggested that the boots of the Pale-face be adopted.
+A pair had been found amongst their war plunder at one time, and had
+been examined curiously by all the tribe.
+
+In an institution for the sick, Weeping Weasel saw in a padded cell
+a maniac, confined and chained to the floor. He held a wisp of straw
+in his mouth, his clothes were torn to tatters, his hands cut and
+bleeding, foam issued from his mouth and mingled with blasphemy
+from his lips. His cries for salvation from invisible enemies were
+piteous. The matted hair and bloodshot eye told the Indian a tale as
+graphic as the pictured rocks of his own tribe. He found that the man
+was young, rich, and respected. He asked the nature of the disease,
+and was carelessly told that it was “snakes in his boots.” Sadly
+Weeping Weasel asked that the wire be at once ordered to carry a
+message to his tribe for the immediate destruction of the boots found
+among their plunder. He also wondered why the Pale-faces did not at
+once destroy the serpent whose terrible folds were coiling around the
+youth of their country.
+
+All this time Weeping Weasel’s perceptions were being quickened and
+his reasoning powers enlarged. The Kiowas had always considered
+the marriage tie sacred. It was true a man might have many wives,
+enough to do all the work of his lodge, while he used his energies
+only for war or in the pursuit of game. But once taken, the man and
+woman were bound for life. No power on earth could dissolve the tie.
+Infidelity in either was punished by death. But in that great city
+he found courts open as the day, in which shameless men and brazen
+women sought the strong arm of the law to break and tear asunder the
+most sacred and binding of oaths. Weeping Weasel learned that only
+a publication in an obscure newspaper was necessary to satisfy the
+goddess whom Weeping Weasel had seen represented as blind-folded,
+with scales in her hand. Incompatibility of temperament was often the
+cause alleged. This the Indian could not understand. Among the Kiowa
+husbands and wives such a thing was unknown. The husband commanded,
+the wife obeyed. Weeping Weasel found after a time that this term
+was used to indicate that wives had become tired of their husbands,
+or husbands had grown weary of their wives. It often meant dishonest
+and unholy loves, and could be construed as indicative of a thousand
+things when the cord that first bound two people together had become
+a gnawing, corroding chain of iron.
+
+The ignorant savage had not as yet found any advantage to be gained
+from the civilization of the Pale-faces. Weary and sick at heart,
+the pilgrim pushed on until he reached the chief city of the great
+nation. He had begun to comprehend the numbers of the Pale-faces
+and their strength. His brain was confused. He was so torn by
+conflicting emotions that he feared his judgment would become warped
+and valueless. Arriving in the great city, he learned that a man with
+unlimited power had betrayed his trust and plundered the city’s
+treasury of millions. Yet the blind goddess had thrown around him
+all possible shields to cover his glaring rascality. He had banded
+with him an army of thieves. Again a great hall of justice had been
+the means used to rob and plunder the people at will. Before public
+exposure the thing had been a byword and a jest at the clubs.
+
+The man who had done all this had risen to power from the ranks of
+the common people. Weeping Weasel wondered if he had risen to power
+by his rascality. But conscious that he was ignorant and a savage, he
+rejected the thought as unmanly.
+
+When a warrior among the Kiowas betrayed a public trust he was
+terribly punished. But one such case had ever been handed down in the
+traditions of their tribe. In that instance the culprit had been led
+in a circle surrounded by all his tribe—every man, woman, and child
+was present—the silence was fearful; then the body of the victim was
+covered with the broad leaves of the prickly pear, and they were one
+by one set on fire. The punishment seemed to have been effectual.
+
+Next morning our Indian appeared at the city hall to witness the
+torture; again he waited until noon, and as no steps had been taken
+against the wrong-doer, he concluded, to say the least, that the
+white man was slow in punishing criminals.
+
+The Kiowas had always paid great attention to the rearing of their
+children, and especially exercised great care and foresight over
+the girls, who were to become future mothers of the warriors of the
+tribe. No Indian girl of six or twelve years could be absent from her
+lodge after the fall of evening dew. She knew no lovers until she had
+arrived at the age and estate of womanhood. Among the Pale-faces this
+custom did not obtain. Weeping Weasel saw misses of tender age, in
+pinafores, give large parties to other children; boys were invited.
+He saw childish eyes sparkle with bandied jest and compliments
+fit only for mature years. He saw children, excited by the dance,
+intoxicated with music, satiated with rich food, spend the best hours
+of the night in gay and reckless dissipation.
+
+At certain seasons of the year the Chickasaw plum furnished much of
+the food used by his tribe. If the pure white dust was brushed from
+its surface when half-ripe, it never fruited in perfection. Weeping
+Weasel found that the Pale-faces often brushed the dust of the plum
+from the cheek of childhood.
+
+The Kiowa woman was to him the model of physical beauty; her large
+waist, broad, strong shoulders, the strength of limb, elastic,
+springing step, and downcast eyes were such as he deemed fitting for
+women who were to rear the future braves of their race.
+
+Among the Pale-faces he found that maternity was a burden to be
+avoided; that the waist was contracted by springs of steel; the body
+thrown forward at an angle upon the hips by strong pieces of wood
+placed under the heels; the face was covered by a vile compound
+which looked like flour, or was painted as the savage paints when
+he marches to battle or prepares for the sun dance. Curious to
+ascertain the exact value of all this nonsense he made calculation,
+and learned that the muslin and silk, velvet and ribbons, paint and
+powder, flowers and bits of steel, amounted to about four hundred
+and fifty-three dollars. That is to say, in the Kiowa computation,
+forty-five and a half horses.
+
+Weeping Weasel determined to be silent upon this manifest absurdity
+of the Pale-face women.
+
+The Kiowa women wore the hair straight down their backs and combed
+away from their eyes. The daughters of the Pale-faces cut theirs
+short in front and allowed it, except when curled by hot irons,
+which the damp strangely affected, to fall into their eyes. The
+meaning and mystery of this Weeping Weasel never attempted to fathom.
+
+Besides the Great Spirit whom the Kiowas worshiped in common, each
+Indian had a personal god to whom alone he was responsible. This god
+was the conscience of the savage, and above it was only the commands
+of the Great Spirit. His religion was always with him; it was his
+shield and strength in the day of battle, his comfort in time of
+peace: he heard it in the whispering of the wind and the sighing
+of the trees; he recognized it in the rustle of the growing grass
+and the ripening grain; he felt it in the songs of birds and the
+whirr of insects’ wings. It warned him in the broken watch-spring
+buzz of the deadly rattlesnake; in the forms of the clouds he saw
+it; in the flush of morning and the darkness of evening he knew it.
+It was his only ideal of the estate of future happiness where game
+would be plenty and peace eternal. The bark on which these mysteries
+were written was to him sacred. The savage accepted as truth its
+teachings, which long generations of Kiowas had confirmed.
+
+He went while in that city to hear a speaker—silver-tongued and
+magnetic, who had all the graces which belong to the polished orator;
+his voice was like the sound of bells to the Indian, whose nature is
+ever open to the charm of this God-like gift. But he heard the man
+revile, distort, and falsify the religion of the white man. He heard
+him read from the sacred book, with laughing mien and careless jest,
+most solemn promises. The mysteries of the creation and the origin of
+the Pale-faces became in the mouth of this man as intangible as the
+will-o’-the-wisp he had seen floating over his Southern swamps.
+
+Listening to him, and applauding to the echo, were sons and daughters
+of the Pale-faces. Fair women and intelligent men accepted as
+eternal truth the words of the speaker. Weeping Weasel was ashamed,
+astonished, dismayed! In this desecration of religion the wild Indian
+of the Southern plains thought he could dimly comprehend the future
+downfall of a great nation.
+
+The pilgrim lost hope. Still he determined to pursue the subject to
+its bitter end, and went one bright morning to the City of Churches.
+Business had ceased, and the streets were quiet. In a darkened
+temple, rich with stained glass, the air heavy with burning incense,
+and stirred only by the notes of a great organ as it kept time
+to the voices of boys who sang in angelic tones the litany of the
+church, he heard an eloquent preacher tell of the wickedness and sin
+of two great cities; and how, because not ten righteous men could
+be found therein, they were destroyed from the face of the earth.
+He also listened to the story of the wife who looked back, and was
+turned into a pillar of salt. The next morning Weeping Weasel bought
+a canopy of asbestos roofing, and thereafter never appeared in the
+streets of either of the cities without carrying it above his head.
+
+Again he was shown the great marts of trade, larger than the grain
+exchange of another city. Here men bought and sold scraps of paper
+and the country’s gold. It was the same old scenes. Stocks went up
+and down by a nod of the head, and again men were made poor in a
+moment. The ruined ones were driven from the exchange, and forever
+after, with wild eyes and fevered pulse, they haunted its doors and
+talked, with the strange infatuation of the Indian hemp-eater, of the
+rise and fall of the stocks that had ruined them.
+
+One terrible day Weeping Weasel saw a coin that the Pale-face used
+in exchange for goods become enhanced in value three times. Wild,
+haggard men clung to railings for support, so faint they could not
+stand. Two unprincipled members of the exchange were the agents of
+this scheme. When night came, the credit of the country had been
+nearly ruined. The two conspirators slunk to a hotel that was soon
+surrounded by a howling mob. Trade and industry were impaired,
+commerce nearly swept from the sea and land, and credit almost lost
+by the act of those two men. Weeping Weasel again determined that
+gambling should forever be prohibited among his people, even the
+throw of the six cherry stones for a quart of Chickasaw plums.
+
+Among the Kiowas the public singer of the tribe’s heroic deeds was
+a warrior, always well paid for his services. He had the warmest
+seat in the lodge, and at the feast of dog-meat the tenderest piece;
+but the newspaper man of the Pale-faces was lean, ill-fed, and most
+lightly paid. Weeping Weasel found that medicines for the cure of all
+diseases were sold in bottles, and that the proprietors waxed rich.
+The savage concluded that all the Pale-faces could drink, but that
+few could read.
+
+In settling disputes among the Kiowas, all matters in question were
+referred to a council composed of fifteen elders of the tribe. Each
+principal laid his case before the tribunal with all the clearness
+possible, in order that a just decision might be reached. Among the
+Pale-faces the Indian found a class of men skilled in the preparation
+of causes in dispute. From long practice, close study, and great
+care, these men, who talked only of others’ rights and not of their
+own, had become so skillful that white was made black, and black
+white, as each argued his own point. Doubt was thrown upon the most
+open and public transactions. Witnesses swore to the most improbable
+events, and to occurrences they had never seen. In their harangues
+before the elders each quoted the same statutes in the same words,
+as applicable to his side of the cause. There were fierce disputes
+and incessant wrangling. Weeping Weasel determined that this kind of
+practice should never obtain a footing in his tribe.
+
+The Kiowas had always considered sacred the life of each member of
+the tribe. In their rude and barbarous code there was no deviation
+from the rule of “blood for blood;” it was as unchangeable as the
+“Laws of the Medes and Persians.” In a court of justice Weeping
+Weasel saw a man arraigned who had wantonly slain a brother by
+sending a bullet through his heart. The crime had been seen by many;
+there was no conflicting evidence; it was premeditated; but again the
+counselors covered the case with doubt. The murderer had a bright,
+intelligent face and an undimmed intellect. Weeping Weasel heard
+him acquitted on the ground of temporary emotional insanity. The
+proceedings of that court were unfit for the uncivilized Kiowa.
+
+Among the Kiowas, the position of medicine-man was one of great honor
+and trust, but extremely hazardous to the incumbent. When a warrior
+sickened the medicine-man was at once summoned. With rude rites, much
+beating of drums and strange incantations, he sought to drive away
+the disease. Sometimes he was unsuccessful and the patient died. When
+the corpse of his mismanagement was ready for burial the medicine-man
+was summoned, and he always came. He was divested of all his titles
+to respect, all the trophies he had gained by successful practice of
+physic, and manfully met his death on the scaffold with his victim.
+
+Such was not the custom among the Pale-faces. Everywhere Weeping
+Weasel saw gilt-lettered signs of the medicine-man of the whites;
+yet the Pale-faces died, and the same medicine-man ministered to
+another. The savage also noticed that in this strange country the
+physician never attended the burial of his victim. Weeping Weasel
+concluded that the death of the doctor had once been a custom among
+the Pale-faces, but having fallen into disuse the fraternity attended
+no funerals for fear it might be revived.
+
+Among the medicine-men of the Pale-faces, Weeping Weasel found a
+class who with pictures and posters attracted the eye to fabulous
+certificates of wonderful cures. They resided in great houses wherein
+were all comforts, and where, with endless noise and show, they
+professed to cure all diseases by water, by physic, by pills, by
+powders, by plasters, by new and strange remedies, even by the laying
+on of hands. He found that while regular practitioners were allowed
+to live, these people fared better even than they. They waxed fat
+and grew rich upon the credulity of an ignorant public. They lived
+and moved in the open glare of the noonday sun. After all he had
+seen, Weeping Weasel ceased to wonder at the strange epidemics that
+sometimes prevailed among the Pale-faces.
+
+He saw long trains, drawn by the mysterious Pongo man, and managed by
+underpaid and careless workmen, collide with other trains, and as a
+result men and women were killed and children maimed; yet no one was
+punished.
+
+Our pilgrim now turned his face toward the capital of the great
+nation. One of the three horrible shapes shown him by Stone-Shirt
+must inevitably become his. But he did not look back. Civilization
+had caused him to think of the exhortations of the Pale-faced
+preacher. He “remembered Lot’s wife.”
+
+The Massachusetts school teachers had displayed in rude letters
+on the walls of the lodge in which they taught this text from the
+scriptures: “The wicked flee when no man pursueth.” In the city in
+which Weeping Weasel had just arrived he found that an officer of
+the Pale-face warriors was a defaulter to the sum of many thousands
+of the coins of his people. He was shamefully untrue! His position
+and name had been used to further defraud. There were no extenuating
+circumstances—there could be none. But the officer escaped, and no
+one followed and brought him back. Weeping Weasel was glad that he
+had burned the teachers at the stake, for he concluded they had
+willfully misrepresented the text hung upon the walls of the lodge,
+and that it should have read, “No man pursueth when the wicked flee.”
+
+In the Kiowa tribe all the councils were held and the proceedings
+argued in a grave and dignified manner. The pipe, signifying good
+will and friendship, was first passed around. Each warrior touched it
+with his lips. That day on the banks of the Red River, when Weeping
+Weasel attempted to tell me of the councils of the elders of the
+white man, his breath was short, and much of what he said was lost.
+
+In that city he was told offices were bargained for; the daughters
+of the Pale-faces solicited them for their husbands and friends. He
+saw a cabinet minister fall from his high place through the sale of
+paltry positions.
+
+Worn, harassed and broken in spirit, his pilgrimage useless, as no
+good could, in his opinion, come to the savage from the white man’s
+civilization, Weeping Weasel turned his face towards the setting sun.
+He traveled as before, sleeping at night under the stars, and again
+his drink came from limpid streams; but his food was procured by a
+revolver and magazine gun of the Pale-faces. Civilization had taught
+him the deadly effect of these weapons which he afterward used upon
+his enemies and the Pale-faces themselves.
+
+He returned to his tribe. His coming was seen from afar. Without a
+word he entered his lodge: he had no greeting for his faithful wives
+who clustered around him.
+
+Three days passed, and then Weeping Weasel told to his people the
+story of his pilgrimage, told what he had seen and heard, and the
+conclusions he had drawn therefrom. With barbarous splendor he was
+tried for the crime of falsehood, which is capital among Indians, all
+the men, women and children of the tribe serving as judges.
+
+In a great amphitheater of rock, at the junction of the Pecos with
+the Rio Bravo del Norte, where the swift rush and meeting of the two
+rivers forms a whirlpool from which nothing can escape, the public
+trials of the tribe were held, the people sitting for days in solemn
+judgment. If sentence of death was decreed the body was thrown into
+this fearful eddy, and watched by all the tribe as it whirled,
+leaped, and sprang in the boiling water until its final disappearance.
+
+For generations and generations the gray and frowning rocks had
+witnessed the trials of offenders among the Kiowas. On one side rose
+sloping to the bluff a half-circle of trees. So thickly grew the
+branches of those pines and cedars that but scant sunlight could
+filter through them. Custom had decreed that if, at the moment of
+passing sentence, a ray of light should penetrate those thickly
+mingled branches and fall upon the face of the criminal, one-half of
+the sentence should be remitted.
+
+The trial was as great as the occasion. Eagle Face, the oldest
+medicine-man of the tribe, was master of ceremonies. Flowing Hair,
+the favorite wife of Weeping Weasel, who had at one time, during five
+days of starvation, fed her first-born boy with blood drawn from her
+breast, was there, but silent, in her great fear, as became an Indian
+woman. Circumstances were against the pilgrim. Those wild savages
+could by no argument be brought to believe that there were such
+uncivilized people upon the face of the earth. If it were true, how
+could they live together? It was decided that sentence of death must
+be passed.
+
+The chief, proud and defiant, took his stand against the half-circle
+of trees. Below, the pool was lashing itself into anger from a rising
+river. Flowing Hair had thrown herself at his feet as if to interpose
+her womanly strength against the dread sentence of an undeviating
+Indian code. At that moment a broad, imprisoned ray of light that
+had been entangled among the pines escaped and fell, in all its
+trembling warmth and pitying tenderness, upon the face of the wild
+Indian who had told the truth. In its soft caress it embraced the
+form of his fainting squaw.
+
+Weeping Weasel escaped capital punishment, but was deposed from civil
+authority over the Kiowas, and was only obeyed as their supreme
+war-chief. His sentence further banished him, when stricken by death,
+from his tribe and from burial with his brethren. This was why I
+found him while dying, surrounded only by his family, on the banks of
+the Red River.
+
+On the night of his death, to comfort a poor, dying soul, whose
+future seemed bright enough—although his religion was not mine—I told
+him, in the sign language, which his glazed and closing eyes could
+but dimly see, that, in my opinion, his tribe was nearer civilization
+than he dreamed, since to advanced ideas his sentence seemed just,
+and that he had only suffered the fate of all reformers.
+
+
+
+
+  TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
+
+  Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added,
+  when a predominant preference was found in the original book.
+
+  Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text,
+  and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.
+
+  Pg 21, 23: Three occurrences of ‘General Cullom’ replaced by
+  ‘General Cullum’.
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75558 ***