Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1861-09-13
Letter fiom Dan De Quille.
SILVER Crry NJ n Auo y


MY DEAR GAZETTE: hasten to assure
you that you still live in my memory. My
thoughts often turn toward my old home and
friends, far, far away among the billowy hills
of prairied Iowa. had hoped, ere this, to
have been once more on Hawkeye soil, but
circumstances over which l had no control,
intervened, and my fondly cherished hope
was shorn its wings--thc" one thing need.
fap' to such an extended flight May the
Lord give US patience! a
All, mel how Oft will fAncy's spells, In slumbcr,
Recall my native country 10 my mind;
How or regret will bid me sadly number
Each lost delight, dear friend left behind! !"
We, of Washoc, who have dwelt upon the
verdant prairies of the West, and beheld the
marvellous aiilucnco of vegetation which is
supported upon the bosom of the far. stretch
ing seas of dark, fertile loam, can never be
weaned from longing"..to refresh our desert,
blinded eyes on thc...cocl, green landscape Of
the prairie-land. We often meet and talk of
the old familiar home scenes Though We
dwell with pleasure on thoughts of the prai-
ries, and their rolling waves of verdure, and
linger lovingly amid the dark forests and
shady groves fringing the crystal rivers,
yet before and above all, our thoughts fly to
what think you? fear you will smile
tits to the fields Of corn You, who dwell
ever in the fertile West, who are born and
reared among valleys darkcncd by dense
fields Of this most beautiful and useful of all
plants, Qor the Creator never made better, J
have become too familiar with it to fully ap-
preciate all its beauties. Put the Western
man upon the arid wastes and rugged, bar
rem hills Of Washoe, with the fierce heat OF
the meridian sun beating upon his head, and
the blaze of it's refracted rays flashing and
darting into his face, and his thoughts turn
on--corn. Don't laugh. He don't think OF
corn cakes, or ripe fields of corn, but of the
green, waving, dense acres Of the unripe
plant-before the tassels have dropped their
golden showers Of fructifying polten. Often,
when toiling over some rocky, burning noun.
tain, or trayersing some fiery desert, have !
mentioned to my companions the cornfields
of the West; asking" How would you like
to be therc?'' "Oh! that were there =
Oh a! that could crawl underneath the green
awning of the arched rows and stretch myself
on the cool ground, breathing again the fresh
more grateful than the odors waited on the
b-eezes from the Western isles ~ All this
may appear very far-fetched to my home-abi
ding readers. They may be unable to dis
cern or appreciate any great degree of the
beauty, and, perhaps, none Of thgpoetry Of
corn Indeed, fear they may consider
what have said above as being merely in.
tended as ga big thing on Snyder" But
let these same hombres pass one year on these
sterile plains and hills, and we shall hear them
sigh, if not for the mush-pot, for the corn.
fields of the West have often heard West.
ern men say: 81 would give ten dollars to
be for one hour in a field Of green corn ~
| But l imagine l hear some reader, who
has corn for sale,' Cat 15 cents a bushel, J
exclaim-"O o, shucks tell us something we
/ don't know" Tell US whether the great
Comstock Silver Lead has petered;;' OF
whether any big things" have lately been
struck ?-don't gas on corn to all eternity ''
Well,-dcpress your back - well, no, the
Comstock has not failed !" it is still "bie
thing" but not the "big thing" The mines
at Gold Hill arc the very biggest thing we
have. Some claims there are selling al
$4,000 per running foot. That looks like a
big price--it is not. From some of these
claims, of ten to twenty running feet, they
take out weekly $35 900 to 10000. All the
mills in the country are crushing Gold Hill
rock. --., ga. 0........ ... ...s .-resr.- ..s.
A new mining region has been found on
the slope Of the Sierra Nevada, near the head
Of the Carson, and several very good leads
are now being prospected. Some of them
are selling Git is said at twenty five dollars
per foot. Hayn't been there myself went
on trip to the eastward among the deserts
was out some twenty days. That will last
me some weeks, if not longer. Got broke
got ragged; got hungry got thirsty got
mad-in short, everything, but rich. Had
some fun, though saw a good deal Of tho
country learned some Pinte, and shot some
game; but taking tho trip all round it was
q "joke on Murphy" '1's'
Our Governor has been here several weeks
and is we'll liked He is middle-aged man,
stout-built, full-faced, good-natured, and
grey-headed. II he has a taste for hanging
| hope he will crafty it; we have plenty oi
men that would do the country great service
by submitting that operation. One of our
bullies, however, has escaped the rope by
getting himself recently shot--I refer to
!" Fighting Sam Brown" He had killed in
this country and California, seventeen men.
In the graveyard at Carson City he had six
men buried side by side. But he became a
little too bold, and though the people feared
him much worse than they did the devil, they
turned out and hunted him down. They
followed him as though hunting wild beast
and shot him down. A double e-barreled gun
knocked him off his horse, and afterwards
each of his pursuers rode up and cmpted his
revolver into his body. lie was shot all to
pieces; verdict Of the whole country" "good
for him--and the community" ."rsjiIaga53
notice that ye editor of ye GAZETTE had
a good time on the Fourth-glad of it. I
didn't-was out in an internal desert. Had
for breakfast the toughest kind of an old
rabbit, q never did ike rabbit, cold pan
cakes, Il never did like cold pancakcs(, and
cold water to wash aforesaid down withal !;
for dinner / had the remembrance of what
/ bad eaten in the morning, and thoughts of
the good things being eaten in the States
But, then, amt sayin nothin-I don't find
fault with any one. If men will run after
the !" big thing" they must take tho conse-
qIenceS. q. ya .sf ,g.l.5s .f
Z reached home on the evening Of the 4th,
and found our towns all blaze with patri-
otism, gay with the Red, White and Blue,