Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1871-09-19
(HERALD Correspondence
TO BARABOC AND BACK.
j 0ttings OF the JOurney-Mazn Manie-A Stage
Ride -Jolllty-Barab9O--e etc., etc.

took tuo eastward bound morning
train at Boscobel Every other wax
ing passenger in the car was reading
the Terrible Temptation"-reading
it openly and without blush, in de-
fiant opposition to the adverse criti-
cism of addle>headed moralists and
other amiable fellow mortals of the
same useful description. Soon the
prosperous town Of b. began to van
ish, and presently our travellers were
| looking at the great watermelon
patches bordering the railway track
a mile or two up in the direction of
Blue River station. At Mazo Mamie,
in Dane county, they got of the
train and were at once solemnly pi-
loted to the Carlisle House, passa-
bic hotel with rates proportionate to
its pretensions After dinner, they
roped in Prof. Wadsworth, with
whom they strolled leisurely about,
viewing the town. 1t was Saturday
afternoon, and the place seemed very
pleasant and very drowsy. Every
thing was lazily looked at-even the
miliner shops didn't 'scapc wistful not
to say yearning, glances. The Print
err made notes on what was seen, but
for sundry cogent reason of his own
he fatty refuses to let tho present
historian work them into this nara
tive.
When FIVE o'clock came, the twain
started for Bsraboo, enshrining them
selves and their effects in one of Bax-
ter's comfortable stage coaches drawn
by four well-drilled but indifferentlT
fed horses. Distance, % miles fare,
four shillings everybody says shil-
ling in that country; reason of low
fare, opposition time on the road,
from five to six hours. Tho road
much of the distance between Mazo
Mamie and Sank City is a continuous
bed Of treacherous black sand, into
which the the toiling horses sink
over their knees and the coachwheels
cut to the very hub. This makes
a part of the journey just trife te-
dious, and about as interesting as a
newspaper once read Albeit our
brace of innocent and amiable tour
lists had divers equally innocent and
amiable travelling companions, and
80 it gives us fathomleSs JOY to state
that they did not suffer half as much
as the good-natured reader may
think or hope they did. There was
the inevitable drummer" with his
/ M ~ ai nf N and bia YNifi FIJI
airs of grandeur and superiority
there was the singularly handsome
lady, das schonste Bid con eRem
IVeibe that Goethe or Swinburne ev-
or heard of,-but then you know it
would't take much mercantile math-
emafics TO tell the exact cost of all
that bewilderng loveliness, there
was--but no matter. If Homer and
VISIT Whitman do delight in making
catalogues Of their poetry it does by
no means follow that We are to do
the same with our bald and UMPIRE
tentious prose.
Before reaching Sank City on the
gradually dwihdiing Wisconsin, the
boys were shown a battlefield where
Black Hawk fought in bygone days,
and where, according to the drivers
exhaustive knowledge of the whole
matter, "the-old cuss got licked
like, but just look in your Bret
Harte, and find out for yourself
whereunto the big Indians defeat on
this occasion bears the most striking
resemblance. But somehow Histo-
tory's old workshops are not 50
very attractive after all, at any rate
they had precious few charms for our
travellers who even gazed at the
Black Hawk Battlefield with lack
lustre eyes.
Sank City has beautiful and ad-
vantageous location on the right
bank of the Wisconsin. It's popula-
ton is mostly German, its industries
are varied, and it's trade sufficiently
brisk to keep the town alive and
growing. Our travellers saw maid
ems sitting under leaf-embowered
porches in the dying twilight, await
ing the arrival of their sturdy beaus,
and looking
-as peart you sec.
That was romantic. But had they
passed through those streets early
Monday morning these same embod-
iments of muslin and beauty would
have appeared at front doors, tresses
loosely flowing, broom in hand, and
clad in brief but gaudy-colored bal
morals. The PIONEER am Wisconsin,
German newspaper with a fair cir
culstion, is published at Sank City,
Crusius & Klelnpell editors.
Prairie du Sac is several furlongs
further on toward Baraboo. Here
horses and coaches were changed,
which operation gave our friends
barely time to bolt a lukewarm sup
per. The printer observed thas the
teacups were ornamented with red
stripes and green flowers, aud the
pedagogue thought that the beverage
they held was rather more fatterer'
than the laws OF appetite require.
After supper the stage rolled away
again at most refreshing rate. The
moonlight was splendid, and all the
passengers enjoyed the occasion keen.
Iy. Like Mr. Tapley, they felt Gun.
common jolly, sir" laughing and
} talking in highly hilarious manner
But when toiling up the long and
rugged hill in the neighborhood o.
DEVILS Lake, their spirits suffered
, some abatement and many of the par
ty relapsed into state of melancholy
f moodiness. Going down on the 9th
er side, q few of the travellers, b.
, dint of the most extraordinary anC
! extravagant ck-stretching on rec
t ord, managed TO catch moonli
t glimpses of the famous Lake lyina
t to the right perhaps half mile OF
3 the road
; By ten o'clock they were 10 Bara
boo, aud in less than half an hour lat
er two fthem might been found fas
asleep in room No. IL of the Westerl
g Hotel, VIM. Wallace proprietor.