Smyrna times., 1869-06-30
.MISceIINW ~ eOUS.
THROUGH TO THE PACIFIC.
FROM OMAHA TO CHEYENNE.


A correspondent of the New York Tribune
gives the following account of trip over the
Pacific Railroad:
have waited to pass over both new railroads, |
from end te end, before writing of either. We |
left Omaha at p. m, and travelled until dark, |
among rich prairies of vivid green, broken by |
black, plowed fields, little dwellings, and rows
of planted locusts and cottonwoods. An hour
out we struck the broad, blue, shining Platte,
to follow up its smooth valley for 400 miles
1t is wonderful inclined plane, with regular
ascent of six feet to the mile, as if nature had
taken grading contract from Durant & Duff.
| No other road was ever built upon route so
easy. Practically, there are neither cuts nor
embankments in the Platte Valley and for
one 40 miles the track lies as straight as an ar
row, making the longest tangent in the world.
1t was hundred miles, but has been broken
up to secure more frequent water stations.
The company is just bringing its only valua-
BILE farming lands into market-S00 900 acres
along the line for 200 miles west of Omaha.
The prices range from 81. so to $40 per acre !;
payments: one fourth cash, and the balance
in one, two and three years.
Our train had less than fifty California bound
passengers People are waiting for emigrant
rates, and for more information about the COM
fort and safety of the trip. The heaviest ira
vel thus far is eastward; but within thirty days
the tide will set toward the Pacific
A night in the Pullman car, and morning
finds US crossing the half brid &c over the
North Platte. 300 miles out. and $500 feet
above the sea. Thirty minutes for break
fast /" Antelope meat for those who like it +;
beef for the barbarians who don't. Then OH
we roll, leaving the Platte far to our left; on,
over the great desert: never tree or patch
of green grass in sight; no birds but wood
peckers, which bore into all the telegraph
| Il opl oocrO1DO fO roliSb fhat 1ru fnra
miles upon miles of prairie-dOg towns, the Gun
ming little inhabitants erect upon their hind
legs, and winking slyly at us while we pass
f within five yards of them; antelopes, BY
twos, 10y threes and by tens grazing half mile
n away or galloping over the hills SO arily tha
their feet hardly touch the ground. One
# affrlghted and bewildcred, bounds along only
few yards from us, in mad race with the train
g "Bang bang! go half a dozen revolver
from our windows. The ladies cry, "What
n shamel' but the antelope is never struck ant
n finally, in despair, he falls painting back, aDC
abandOns the unequal chase.
l. On, on, past lonely frame section houses
where the g track men live, past lonelier lO
ranches where the coaches used to stop, pas
!, slow moving emigrants, with whlte-covere'
" wagons and herds of cattle, all half hidden il
s. clouds of dust. The fine, flying sand, too, silt
~ in through our double windows, and penetrate
b. clothing to the skin. Pullman must add bath
g house to his hotelcar; then it will leave moth
ing to be desired. He will do it, toO-he, o
some one else-before dozen years roll round
AS the sun lowers and we weary of thes
wastes of sand, some one shouts, :" the mouI
tains the mountainsl" There they are agai
= ON the south, Longs Peak, dim and whit
with snow on the west, the Black Hills, dir
reach Cheyenne, SIG miles out, and 5000 fee
above the sea, but gained by an ascent so gel
tie as to be nowhere perceptible. Here L leaN
the train and stop to study the new city.
has sprung up on the bare desert, and has NJ
y q solitary tree, except half dozen newly pla
ted, faint hearted pines. AT mid day the 81
YER scortches and the dust chokes but on Il
western horizon lie the mountains, forever co
and calm.
Cheyenne is the capital Of Wyoming, Il
ne desert city of desert State. 1t is watersd
hc' Crow Creek, little stream which feeds q
yer Lodge Pole, and then the Platte. 1t boasts
'nu great locomotive house of sandstone sto
,sd machine shops just rising for the railway col
- pany a long, porticoed frame hotel, also
,ck longing to the Union Pacific, which will di
400 people and lodge so; few large wa
. wooden shops, full of goods; many scatteri
tents and shanties; two daily newspapers; t
churches; q score or two of drinking, gan
.z ling, and dance-houses, which are crowd
Il after dark and population of 5000.
For wonder, it has neither an Opera Hou
T nor an Academy of Music But l find instc
the enormous tent Of a travelling circus fir
the States In the evening, it is Grove
with 1000 people, all eager for the " gr
moral spectacle which some have come
miles on the railway to enjoy. There sat
d tanned youth, eating molasses candy, "
3 their +" girls; :" the boys yelling with degh
'9y the little mule, and everybody applaudinag
= clowns time-honored jokes, in the good, {
fashioned country way.
AT Cheyenne diverges branch to Denve
IO2 miles to the south: The road is graC
and the cars will probably run over it in
tember. :, .,,
Cheyenne is wofully destitute of II