Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1866-12-06
Nebraska.
BY D. T. TAYLOR.

-
sand, eight hundred and eighty-twe
square miles Of the earth's surface
are called Nebraska" They com
prise what was left of the Louisi ana
purchase after carving out Arkansas,
Iowa, Missouri and Minnesota; about
the largest exchange of real estate
ever contemplated, if we except Sa-
tan's proposition TO the Savior, when
from the mountain-top he offered
him the kingdoms of the world for q
consideration. you should pack
England and Ireland in some corner
of its area, almost two thirds Of Ne
braska would yet be wilderness; and
all their clustering English islands,
the Shetlands and Orkneys, Man,
Wight asd the Hebrides, ranged
dswn its center in = row, would look
like buttons on 4 waistcoat.
And the contour of this magnifi-
cent territory is readily indicated;
beginning at the river and gradually
receding and rising, you have an
edge of Missouri meadow; narrow
shelf of prairie; low hills and ridges,
fringed with timber along the seams
and around the ankles, like an Indi-
ans leggings; bluffs growing mod
erately ambitious, until ut, last the
genuine prairie, starting out frOm
the top of the bluffs, rolls away in
swells $40 miles to the broken re-
gions where the w0rld begins to
stand up, and to be called Reclsy
Mountains. 1t is a land without G
lake. and with nothing approaching
the dignity of q mountain but the
BLACK Hills. But no matter; the land
that gave birth to the Missouri can
owe the world nothing.
Let me paint you a picture if
can. Standing any where on the
foot of Black bird Bluff, in Decatur,
you face eastward. Across the
river stand the woods, the rude We
neering of Iowa. The jets of steam
from the mill show against the trees,
as small and white as the plume OF
Henry of Navarro. Just opposite
you the Iowa shore does what Iowans
never did-retreat The river makes
a great bend and comes about as il
it had some notion of not leaving
Nebraska at all. You can see the
chimney-tips of o steamer just over
the trees, looking like couple et
bats. 1t is ten miles oil by water,
and only four across the meadow
and through the corn. At this dis
tance it moves as silent "as painted
ship upon n painted ocean" The
smoke dots the horizon all along,
just over thewoods, like those little
feeces when the enemy diseloses his
batteries. Pretty soon the steamer
slips round the wooded point, into
view, white like the rest of its race,
and lettered like 4 sheep upon its
side. See thousand tGBs vi grass
growing up to the little city's edge
The forest of corn standing in solid
columns; the encampMent of huge
cones Of grain, the yellew wigwams
OF the harvest.
See those human heads drifting
about over the tops Of the grass, as
if they all wore Mercury's caps and
SO had wings. Those heads have
owners, and the owners are in the
saddle, Hear the tInlxle of bell
hut the wearer is invisible. A COW
in that meadow is as insignificant Al
a rabbit. A carriage and horse:
growl across little bridge. Yor
get fair view of them, and, in Al
/ instant, with twinkling Of wheel:
they are gone. 1t IS as II a wood
chuck had tumbled into his burrow
And the grass has no trace of hu
manity; it is wild as the hawk tina
dropped down into it minute ago
Ycnder goes the stage from Sioul
City, bound for Omaha, sixty mile
down the river. II is red, woodeI
box, something like = menageri'
cage, with two seats inside pis-a gis
and no room without for any thing
but "W. S. CIV estern Stag
Company. II is one of the latte
glories of the country, and the i'm
mediate successor, two little months
ago, Of a "Luck- k-board.'' which i
nothing more than long teeter upol
fsur wheels, and on that festiv
board, three times. a week, cam
news from Eastern homes. No pa
per every day, damp from the press
to open silently flower; no quicl
touch Of telegraph to make you kin
in second, to any body dear and ia
, away. But the railroad will inns
them, and the harp of a single strint
, will be played for them, and dis
tancing all the world behind them
the dwellers here upon the righ
! bank of the Missouri will read o
: events ia New York an hour an'
, twenty minutes before they happen
You look over yeur shoulder; ther
swells the bluff, and along the roa'
winding at its base streams cut . FL
of mounted Omahas. They chal
lenge you back to the wilderness;
The wilderness? It is over beyon
THAT bluff. You can nlmoss touch
with yeur hand. Decstur stand
Just without the berders Of there
tserve Of four hundred square rilei