The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1867-10-31
LETTERS FROM THE INTERIOR.

LETTERS FROM THE INTERIOR.
FoRr DoDoE, Oct. 18th, 1857.
Dear Adpertiser:-I said in my last
that / would write you again from
boone. 1t has become necessary for me
to remain over Sunday, and thought
I would say what I have to cay Of Ft.
Dodge now. I left Boone at 8 A. n. of
Thursday morning. The roads were bad,
but the stiff breeze and the bright sun
shine soon improved them vastly.
Nearly all the way the soil 10 the same
a. in Cedar county-I mean, like the
prairie soil. Occasionally along the
streams the soil is grxvelly, with large
boulders; but do not now remember
having seen any of the tough clayey soil
as we find it in some of our roads.
Our course was along The course Of the
Des Moines River-on the east side, keep
ing all the way In sight of the timber
only far enough away to avoid the bluffs.
Arrived at Ridgeport, apost-town, eight
miles north of Boone, at 10 A. M. The
next stop was at Ross, six miles farther
on. Two miles farther passed Hooks
Point, in Hamilton county, two miles
from the Boone River. Here there is q
large farm, conducted on grand scale.
1t is owned by Mr.. TenEyck, Of New
York City. He has fine sawmill, large
cheese factory, large barns, and vast
droves of sheep and cattle.
We stopped for dinner at Boone River,
four miles above its confluence with the
Des Moines. On both sides the Boone
aud Des Moines Rivers there are ex-
haustless supplies of wood. The Boone
flows through deep guich or ravine,
the bluffs being SO high and steep that
passengers usually walk up them. The
gentlemen ION board" the stage walked
up in this instance, and from the sum-
NIT we had one of the finest views / have
witnessed in Iowa. It would have made
New Yorker or Pennsylvania think
Of the lofty mountains and deep valleys
of their far-ofr homes. I must here
write you of the vast army of grasshop-
pers about which your readers have seen
SO much. You recollect they were so
plentiful that train of cars was stopped
10y them near Boone. You can't con-
ceive of the vast millions and millions
of them that are passing east through
this land. At this point captured two
specimens, in order that you may see
what they look like. They are deposit
ing countless myriads of eggs in the
ground; and think, next year, unless
the winter is SO severe as to destroy the
eggs, you will have plenty of them. In
many places they have left nothing but
the naked corn stalks-Every leaf being
eaten. Cabbage and turnips are their
favorite food-notl'ing being left but the
ribs Of leaves to attest their generosity.
l noticed where a good housewife was
particularly anxious to preserve her
''krout.' The heads were wrapped
with clothes. They came too late to do
any serious damage, though there are
apprehensioDs for next year. I also
knocked from tree OH the banks of the
Boone, q few black walnuts, that / ex-
pect to take with me in my peregrina-
tions. These, with the grasshoppers and
other interesting relics, since collected,
can be seen, for nothing, when return.
We reached Homer, in Hamilton
county, at two p. NJ. Here we almost
loose sight Of the Boone. The timber
can be seen away, off to the right, with
the Des Moipes still near by. At three
p. NJ. we cross Brnshey Creek, twelve
miles from TT. Dodge. l was here
shown place where a gentleman
slaughtered, in one day, nine hundred
rattlesnakes. A person would have
thought there would have been more of a
scarcity of snakes" than recent events
have shown. Passing little beyond
this l saw blackbird pelched OH the
back of a horse, that was grazing along
the road. Although the beast switched
its tail in its efforts to drive off the flies
yet birdie remained true to his post, and
as long as could see the horse the birG
kept picking the flies from his back
About eight miles below Ft. Dodge live
two practical amalgamationists, immi
grants from North Carolina. On my
right lives fair skinned Irishman
whose wife is black as ebony. On m,
left, her brother, quite as black, has .
beautiful white wife. The cousins ar,
rather mixed up as regards race ant
color. There is no accounting for wo
mans taste.
I noticed, few miles out of Ft. Dodge
some muskrat houses, built in SOM
sloughs. Two were three or four fee
high, conical in shape, with base 0
six or eight feet in diameter. A mile o
two before we enter this city the prairi
stretches away off to the east as far a
the eye can reach, without tree or
shrub to be seen. Here and there a soil
tary house stands out in bold relic
against the eastern horizon, suggestiv
alike Of loneliness and of future anima
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