Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-08-22

eral water is q constant source of dsquiet if
not danger; and, when the Platte is left to
strike across to the Sweetwater, of the little
water to be found on that route of thirty odd
miles, the greater part is bad. Just before the
Sweetwater is reached at Independence Rock
we pass close beside a small lake, now dry
whose bottom is entirely white with a mineral
substance said to be pure saleratus and in
place five or six inches deep. Our driver as
sured me that at made as good bread as anu
saleratus," which 1, then sick from eating
bread poisoned with that detested mineral, was
quite willing to take his word for How sensi-
BILE 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 l can comprehend
Seventy miles further on, the Sweetwater
makes southern elbow, and our road / be-
heve there is better which keeps south of the
stream) rises over the hills on the north and
keeps away for more than twenty miles. For
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 surrounded by fair grass. But
the admonished teamster hurries on his faint
ing beasts, hardly suffering them to look at the
alluring panorama; for that lake is fountain
of death, and the adjacent grass is only less
pestllent Even the traveller, unencumbered
with the care Of stock, has his attention ar
rested by the facts that that grass stands un-
eaten, though hundreds of hungry cattle pass
it daily, and that no track leads down to those
brightly shimmering waters.
Across weary hundreds of miles of such
country, where sterility is aggravated by con-
slant peril, the long column 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
hot summer days on this shadeless, glistening
plain, the teamsters move as listlessly as their
patient, hollow, dropping oxen, in whose eyes
meekness and misery alike find expression.
AS the mail wagon, drawn by six mules, with
one by their side ridden by whipper.up,
whirls by them in cloud of dust, founders
over the sage brush where the track is narrow
or darts from this to that side of the long train
III order to wind its way as rapidly as may be
from the rear to the front, catch glimpse of
sun-browned wives and f1axen-haired children
nesting in some Of the great wagons or weari-
ly plodding along in front (all 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 camp, with the little
sheet-iron stove taken down from behind the
wagon and filled with sticks, or, at the worst
with sage-brush and the preparation of the
evening meal going busily and tidily forward
rejoice to note that the emigrants generally
fare better than we rapid travellers can, carry
ing with them hundred little contributions to
comfort which cannot reasonably be looked for
in rude mail stations in a vast and desert
wilderness ses that in everything but the
duration of the journey, these moving families,
with many of their household goods around
them, have the advantage of us jerked and
Jolted stagers, who are often toiling by their
white tents and smouldering fires long after
they are buried in deep, refreshing slumber
and yet, as | glance at their worn, anxious
faces flor nothing but the raven is really Jolly
throughout the land of silence and death, and
he is so gorged and Supplied that he can
scarcely rise from his putrid feast when our
mules seem about to run over him) l am sure
ly tempted to cry out, "Why, 0 country
men and women this long march through a
region so destructive and inhospitable? 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 proiier 10 compensate you for the
sacrifices, the anxietieS. the priyations the
sufterings of this long journey? Do you not
realize that there, as everywhere else care,
bereavement make up the wisely appointed
earthly lot of man Do you not know that
thousands in California are discontinued and
restless as you ever were? Nay, you must
know it; for some of you are every day meet
ing them 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 fer
tile and inviting portion OF our planet-that to
which many times your number are fondly
looking or eagerly pressing from every part of
the civilized world Why, then, do you de.
sert it so recklessly? Can you really imagine
that bad harvests, and low prices, and pecun-
larry embarrassments, and all that make up
what are called Hard Times, are peculiar to
your late homes Do you not know that you
will find these, their equivalents, in Califor-
mia or Oregon as well Pause, l pray you,
and consider"
Vain the entreaty-idle the expostulation-
idle, or, at all events, too late. The mighty
human tide now rolling westward will not
pause at my bidding-will be stayed only by
the fiat of the Almighty. In its paths noun
tain-chains are but hillocks, lonely rivers but
rills, and deserts rather stimulants to its cour-
age than serious impediments to its progress
Remonstrance is but waste of breath-it will
not be arrested short of the Pacific, even if
there. Let me, therefore, see the hand of
benignant though inscrutable Providence in
this mighty movement, and rest in faith and
hope. Press on, then, countrymen firmly
sternly, even though YEARLY, anxiously-to
the Eden of your dreams, and may the bles-
sings of God wait upon your journey and its
end n