Mower County transcript., 1871-06-29
Miscellaneous.
THE GCNrOWDER PLOT.
THE STORY OE A kOI1RTH

WHENEVER one writes with photo
graphic exactncss of frontier lite, he is ac
Cssed OF inventing improbable things.
"Oll Davv Lind>ley' lived in queer
cabin ON the Ponme de Tcrre River. II
you should ever ride over the new North.
ern Pacific when it shall be completed, OF
over that branch Of it which crosses the
Pommc de Ferrc, yo'i can get out at sta
tion which will, no doubt, be called for IN
old settler, Gagers Station; and if you
would like to see some beautiful scenery,
take canoe and float down the fOmme de
Tcrrc River. You will have to make
some portagcs. and you will have good
appetite for supper when you reach the
old I.inuslcy house, ten miles from Gager's,
but its present owner is hospitable.
A queer old chap was Lindsey the last
time saw him. rep"mber how he took
me all over his claim, and showed me the
beauties of Lindsleyville, as he called it.
His long iron gray he.lr fluttercd in the
wind, and his face seemed like wizards,
penetrating but un.arthly That was long
before the grea. tide Of immigrants had
begun to find their way into this paradise
through tn, highway of tho Sank valley
Lindsey qille was hundred and fifty miles
out OF the world at that time Its popula-
tlol numbered two, Lindsey and his
daughter. The old man had tried to
make fortune in many ways. There was
no sort OF useless invention that he had not
attempted, and you will find in the Patent
Office models without number of bee
hives and cannons, steam cut-otfs and baby
jumpers, lightning churDs and flying ma
chimes, on which he had taken out pa
tents, assured Of making fortune from
each one. lie had raised fancy chickens,
figured himself rich on two swarms of
bees, travelled with magic lantern, writ
ten a philosophic novel, and started a
newspaper. There was but one purpose
i'll which he was fixed: which was to
guard his daughter jcalously To d. this,
and to try the experiment of building an
Ctopan city. he had Travelled to the sum
Hft Of this knoll on the right
baAk Of the Pomme de Terre. There
never was more beautiful landscape than
that which Lindsleyville commanded.
But the town did not grow, chiefly be-
cause 1t was SO far beyond the border,
though the conditions in his deeds intend.
ed to secure the character of the city from
deterioration were so many. that nobody
would have been willing to buy the lots.
At the time I speak of, David Lindsey
had dwelt on the POmme de Terre for five
years. He had removed suddenly from
the Connecticut village in which he had
been living because he had discovered
that his daughter had, in spite of his
Watchfulness formed an attachment for q
young man who had the effrontery to dis
close the whole thing to him by politely
asking his consent to their marriage.
Marry my daughter!" choked the old
YNn " "vxyhN
have educated her upon the combined
principles of Rousseau, of Pestalozzi, of
Froebel, and of Herbert Spencer And
you! you only graduated at Yale, an old
fogy medieval institution! No, sirl not
till meet philosopher whose mind has
been symme:rically developed can con-
sent for my Emilia to marry"
And the old man became 80 frantic that.
to save him from the mad house, Emilia
wrote letter, at his dictation, to young
Brown, peremptorily breaking off all rela.
tions; and he, sensitive, romantic man.
was heart broken, and left the village. He
only sent farewell to his friends the day
before he was to sail from New Bedford on
whaling voyage. He carried with him
the impression that an unaccountable
change Of mind in Emilia had left no hone
for him.
10 prevent recurrence of such an un-
toward accident as this, and, as he ex-
pressed it, Ito bring his daughters mind
into intimate relations with nature" the
itnatlcal philosopher established the town
OF LIndsleyville, determined that no
1amliy In which there was young man
should settle on his town-plot, unless, in
deed, the young man shOuld prove the
paragon he was looking for
Emilia's motherless life had not been a
cheerful one, subjected to the ever-chanp.
ing whims Of visionary father. with
whom one of her practical cast of mind
could have no point Of sympathy. And
since she came to Lindsleyville it was
harder than ever, for there was no neigh
Dor nearer than Gager's, ten miles away,
ana there was not woman within fittv
miles. There is no place so lonesome as a
prairie; the horizon is so wide, and the
earth is so empty!
Lindsley had spent all his own money
long ago, and it was only the small annuity
o. his daughter, inherited from her
mothers family, the capital Of which was
tIed up to keep it out of his reach, that
prevented them from starving E Emilia
was starving indeed, not in body, but in
soul: Cut off from human sympathy, she
used to sit at the gable window ofthe cabin
and look out over the boundless meadow.
until it seemed to her that she would lose
her reason The wild geese screaming
!" one another overhead, the bald-eaglts
building in the solitary elm that grew by
the side OF the river, the flock Of greot
White pelicans that were fishing on the
beach of Swan Lake, three miles awav.
were all objects Of envy to the lonesome
heart of the girl; for they had companions
OF thch kind they we're husbands and
wives and parents and children, while she
.here she checked her thoughts lest she
should hc disloyal to her father. To her
w N'totred t.ncy the universe seemed to be
heei. The sun and the stars came up
ana went down over the monoton0us sen
OF grass with frighttul regularity, and she
could not tell whether there was God or
not. When she thought of God at all, it
was as relentless giant turning the crank
That kept the sky going round. The uni
verse was an awful machine. The PRAYERS
her mother taught her in infancy died upon
her llps,, and instead of praying to God
she c'ied QUITO her mother. Un-protest.
ant as the sentiment is, l cannot forbear
saying that this talking to the dead is one
o, tne most natural things in the world.
10 Emilia the dimly remembered love of
hcr mother was all of tenderness there
was In the universe, the only revelation of
Il od that had come to her. except onlv the
other love, which was to her a Paradise
lost. For the great hard Fate that turned
the prairie universe round with crank
motion had also, 80 it seemed to her
snafched away from her the object of her
love: This disordercd, faithless state was
all the fruit she tasted of the peculiar edu
cation so much vaunted bv her father. She
had eaten the husks he gave her and was
hungry.
SAID she bad NO company. An old da.
gu,rrentvpe Of her mother and carefully
n,u"cn ~ photograph (marked on the back
sa,'aa GO ia.ner immature hand: "E. Browns)
oo.Aeu W ans wer with looks Of 1--we and
sympathy when she w.ttrd tbor, u;th 1nu hn.
tears. They were her roa,r,, ~ and sn.. Iton nei
cillx; they were the gifts of nu tn, n1i cru
NE, through which God shone i'''iueu ;n 5;.r;.l
upon her. Ill dlmly
This poor girl looked and longed ~ g.
the company of human kind that shl or
counted those red letter days on which h"e q
half-breed voyageur travelled over the tr,;, !,
infront OF the house, and even marty of
begging and beggarly Sioux, hungry for
all they could got to eat, offering impor.
tunately to sell hompoes'-m0ccasinsl
TO lier father' were not wholly un welcome.
But the days Of all days were those on
which Edwards, the tall, long haired
American trappcr, tished in the POmme de
Tcrre in sight OF the Lindsey cabin. On
such occasions the old man Lindsey would
leave his work and stay about the house,