The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1859-09-29
NO.s9.

eating bread poisoned by that detested
mineral, was quite wiling to take bis
word for How sensible people who see
their cattle dying daily of this poison can
mix it With their food, and even give it
to their innocent children, is more than
comprehend.
Seventy miles further ou, the Sweet
water makes southern elbow, and our
road U believe there is better which
keeps south of the stream) rises over the
bills on the north aud keeps away for
more than twenty miles. For a good
part of this distance, there is little grass
and less water; but at last we descend
the hills to the vicinity of small lake,
full of water at all seasons, and sur
rounded by fair grass. But the admon
ished teamster hurries on bis faintiug
beasts, hardly suffering them to look at
the aliuring panorama; for that lake is
fountain of death, and the adjacent grass
is only less pestilent. Even the traveller,
unencumbered with the care of stock, has
his attention arrested by the facts that
that grass stands uneaten though hun
dreds of hungry cattle pass it daily, and
that no track leads down to those bright
ly sbiumeriDg waters.
A cross weary hundreds of miles es
such country, where stcrility is aggrava-
ted by constant peril, the long colum Of
the California Emigration is now slowly
toiling, and must be for anxious months
yet to come. Their eyes often bandaged
or goggled as they best may be to shield
them from the eternal glare of these hos
Summer days on this shadeless, glisten-
ing plain, the teamsters move as listless-
ly as their patient, hollow, dropping oxen,
in whose eyes meekness and misery alike
find expression. AS the msil-wagon,
drawn by six mules with one by their
side ridden by a whipper-up, Whirls By
them in a cloud of dust, founders over
the Sagebush where the track is narrow,
or darts from this to that side of the long
train in order to wind its way as rapidly
as may be from the rear to the front,
catch glimpse of sunbrowned wives and
faxeD haired children Nesting in some Of
the great wagons or wearily plodding a.
long in front Gall the women on this great
highway have the good sense to prefer
the Bloomer dress, and the courage to
brave the fools laugh, in obedience to
the dictates of convenience and comfort);
| see them in their evening camps, with
the little sheeiiron stove taken down from
behind the wagon and filed with sticks,
or, at the worst, with Sagebusb, and the
preparation of the evening meal going
busily and tidily forward; I rejoice to
note that the emigrants generally fare
better than we rapid travellers can car
rying with them a hundred little contri-
buttons to comfort which cannot reasona-
big be looked for in rude mail stations IN
a vast and desert wilderness; / see that,
in everything but the duration of the
journey, these moving families, with many
of their household gods around them, have
the advantage of US jerked and jolted tsa-
gers, who are often toiling by their white
tents and sDolderiDg fires long after they
are buried in deep, refreshing slumber;
and yet, as glance at their worn, aDx-
ious faces (for nothing but the Raven is
really jolly throughout this land of silence
and death, and he is so gorged and stu
pefed that be can scarcely rise from bis
putrid feast when our mules seem about
to run over him. am sorely tempted to
cry out, "Wby D countrymen and womenl
this long march through region so de-
structiye and inhospitablel Was there
no room, no chance. to die in your far
Eastern homes, Grant that you should
all at length reach safely the Italy of our
continent, what can it profer to compen-
safe you for the sacrifices, the anxieties,
the priVations, the sufferings of this long
jourueyl Do you not realize that there,
as everywhere else, care, and toll, and
disappointment, and struggle, and be-
make up the wisely appointed
earthly lot of mani Do you not know
that thousands in California are discon-
tented and restless as you ever werel-
Nay, you mus. know it; for some Of you
are every day meetiDgt hem on their way
to the Atlantic States, and must note that
they are, in the average. palpably poorer
and less amply provided than yourselves.
Do you not realize that the States you
have last left embody the most fertile and
inviting portion of our Planet-that to
which many times your number are fond
Iy looking or eagerly pressing from eve-
ry part Of the civilized worldl Why,
then, do you desert it SO recklesslyi--
Can you really imagine that bad harvest,
and low prices, and pecuuiary embarras-
ments, and oil that make up what are
called Hard Times, are peculiar to your
late honesl Do you not know that you
will fnd these, or their equivalents, in
California OF Oregon as we'll Pause,
l pray you, and COnsider!"
Vain the entreaty idle the expostula-
tion-idle, or, at all events, too late.--
The mighty human tide now rolling west
ward will not pause at my bidding-will
be stayed ouly By the fiat of the AL
mighty. In its paths mouutain-ehaiDs
are but hilloeks, lonely rivers but rills,
aud deserts rather stimulants to its cour-
age than serious impediments to its pro-
Uress Remorstrapce is but waste OF