The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1871-09-21
RED RIVER TRAINS.

try. You say that the Red River is in
Arkansas, andempties into the MISSISSIPPI.
So it does, but there is another Red River
away up in the North, which runs through
q wonderful valley, where you can see
some things that you can not see anywhere
else in the world, and which soon will
not be seen even there-I mean the Red
River trains and carts. tt#a afd5 ~
have seen a great many of the rivers of
the world, and many fertile fields, but
do not know of another valley like this
one in the North. You will see by look
inc on the atlas that the river runs north
into Like Winnipeg, and from thence its
waters g. out into Hudson Bay. The
ground is very level How would you
like to pillow furrow fifty miles long !?
You can do it here. You might start your
team IN the morning on its eastern bor-
der and drive west all day until sunset,
and YOU would have to whip up the oxen
well t. get to the center Of the valley by
sunset Then crossing the river, you
might start the next morning and drive
all day. still towards the west, and you
would be leg-weary and tired out lOrg be-
fore YOU reached the western border. And
all the while you would be turning up
rich Hack loan, and the oxen would be
tramIhng through luxuriant grass. This
would be blowing furrow across the
valley.
NoN let us turn one lengthWise this
field. We will travel northward from Its
southern border We shall have here and
there to cross a small stream but were it
not for these, we could pillow furroW
straight as q line the entire length OF the
valley without turning the pillow from the
sod. [, would be long furroW-tull
three hundred miles in length Think Of
DloWioo from New York to Washington !;
or. from Boston to Philadelphia; or from
Chic 20 to St. Louis or from Albany to
Buff ) Fifteen miles day is good
dista ce for an OK team to make. We
shou be twenty days then in blowing a
singla rurrow, or six weeks in making one
bout We should have to carry our camp
keith and stew pan with US, and lay over
two cr three times to wash our clothes !
We sI.uEd want telegraph constructed
so that we could communicate once in
Will with the folks at home. Three
hundred miles and not stone, hillock
or knoll to prevent us from turning an
unbT ken furroW. Wonderful!
But the Red River trains are almost as
much curiosity as the valley itself. They
come from Manitoba-the Winnepeg coun-
try md ale made up of carts, leach drawn
by a0rse or pony, or an OK or a cow,
You Guild laugh to see one of the carts
with Is broad wheels, seven Or eight feet
high It's wooden axle, so loose in the
hub aat the wheel wobbles in all direc
tions nd squeaks, squeaks, squeaks at
ever furn. There are two great bund-
che q l..
then The concern is made wholly Of
Woo md rawhide. There is not an ounce
Of iI.n about them. The bands to the
hubs are of rawhide; the tires OF the
whet are Of hide; the rack is tied to-
getbes with hide. Shake the concern aud
it almost rattles itself to pieces, and with
your OK knife you could cut the thongs
and it fall apart IN a minute or two.
1t is craziest Gait you ever saw. The
peopse who drive these carts are half In
dian I'd half French. They like to hunt
buff Ia, and race over the prairies on their
pom and they had much rather smoke
thei pipes and tell stories than to hold
the pow or hoe corn, and so they lead a
shift S life
Every summer long train of these
carts-nearly three thousand Of them in
ali-om from Winnipeg to Minnesota,
brin ng buffalo robes, and fox and wolf
skins. and carrying back goods.
You would like, I am sure, to see one
Of tleae trains-the men and boys on In
dian 30nes, and the women and black
hair girls riding in the carts, whipping
up the oxen or when they stop at night,
cooking supper in o stew-pan; milking
the COWS; then all gathering round the
camp fire in the evening, smoking their
pipe telling stories, and budding togeth-
er U Ter the cart or in it,wrapped in their
biap cts, and sleeping just as soundly and
es sv aetly as you in your bedrooms.
Thy always have a great number of
spar horses and ponies that keep along
will The train, nibbling the grass and
Kick g up their heels.
It great fun to see them cross the
rive They do not care to swim across,
alth Ugh they have no objection to wa
ding 10 a little ways. At first they at
tempt to get away, run up the bank, and
dart through the bushes, but the men and
boy mounted on the fastest ponies of the
hero, head them off and lash them back
into be current. The little colts, fearing
notl ng, give leap and are head and
ears under water, but they quick
ly ne to the surface, and snort, and puff
and blow like donkey engine. First
one, chen another, and then the whole
here plunge in. 1t is very funny to see a
hundred noses and ears, nothing else,
pusl ng across the stream. IT..
But what a shaking of names when they
are u across, and then they caper off and
nav jolly run, as if they felt refreshed