The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-01-23


Senate proceedings was q resolution offered
by Mr.. Blair, Of Missouri, directing the Pres-
dent to open negotiations with Spain for the
acquisition Of Cuba. This also was laid over
for future action.
An Idyl Of tho Piains-The Grand Duke
Among the Bulaloes.
His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke
Alexis will carry back to Russia one idyllic
memory. The din and hustle of New York,
the many balls and dinners, the successive
popular demonstrations" were agreeable, no
doubt, and showed hearty American friend
illness. He has been accustomed to these
things in his life. The incense of adulation
and flattery hovers over the princely journey
through the world Alexis has eaten dinners
as savory as any given him In New York He
has been hustled by mobs as gay and inviting
as those which marched through the clumsy
dances at the Academy. He has reviewed SOL
diers certainly as martial and attractive as the
jaded militiamen who swarmed up Broad
way In his train. Our city evidences OF
friendliness have gratiAed the young sightseer,
even If they have bored him. The pains Of
lionizing have never been recorded. They
are among the most acute Of physical miseries,
no doubt, and we can fancy the vast comfort
and the sense of relief and respite with which
Alexis welcomed Phil Sheridan's invitation to
the Plains.
| Many of us whose lives have not passed even
beyond the midsummer years will remember
| he IL boI linz hioh
over the maps of the Western Territories in the
school Biographies. Here was ''the Great
American Desert, and to the young imagina-
ton 1t had as many terrors as Equatorial
| Africa. There were wide, sandy reaches,
alkali plains of stunted sage-bush; trees
would not grow and the rain rarely fell; the
| wild beasts found o dominion which was only
unchallenged by tribes of Indians. whose
| ferocity was told In many ''thrilling
romance" of frontier life. At times we heard
of an adventurous trapper who had returned
alive to tell an impossible story Of hairbreadth
escapes and soul-harrowlng adventures
Again we heard how nature in her angry
moods would sweep the prairie with food of
devastating fire. Now and then we saw the
pale, devoted Jesuit with his crucifix and robes,
quietly pass into the desolate, unknown land,
to seek out the Indian and teach him the holy
mystery of salvation. We knew that band
| of fanatics, driven from civilization, had made
an exodus to Utah and wero practising. the
rites of barbaric faith. We knew that far
beyond, by the calm Pacific seas, few stray
| Cling Mexican and Spanish settlements were
striving to rival the glory and splendor Of
CASTLE. Beyond this all was dark. What we
knew was terrible, and we cared to know no
more.
Enterprise and zeal, the energy and courage
of pioneers and the road builders have dis
solved the sombre vision of the school geo.
graphies. ''The Great American Desert Is
valued by us as the garden of the Continent.
America has no fairer domains than these
countries of the Plains. Colorado is our
Switzerland, and towns as inviting and
beautiful as any in New England nestle at
the base of mountains as majestic as Mont
Blanc. It Is not necessary to cross the seas
to find the Alps. The broad, apparently end
less Plains, which look like the boundless,
swelling ocean, and which were supposed to
be as barren as Sahara, are bursting with
fertility. Droves of buhaloes outnumbering,
as good judges have told us, the horned cattle
Of the country, wander for hundreds Of
miles. The railways have favored the
Plains with invigorating streams of life,
activity and wealth. Every year pours thou
sands of settlers from the North, from the
East, from the older nations beyond the seas
to become tlllers and laboring men, and found
new States and Commonwealth and this
generation will probably see the Great Ameri-
can Desert as populous as Illinois or Wis
consn.
The royal traveller and his gallant and
merry retinue saw a phase of American life
more fascinating and instructive than anything
an Eastern civilization could boast. The am
bilious hunter and the lover of the sports Of
the field find a profusion of opportunities for
amusement and recreation on our Plains
that no other country can afford. The
widest phases of nature are face to face
with luxury and wealth. BY our rail-
way system we go to the buffalo herds In pal
ace cars. Science has taken Delmonico and
the Irvis Freres into the heart of the Arapa-
hoe and Cheyenne reservations. We step at
once from the luxurious and enervating atmos-
phere of the Fifth Avenue Club into the very
heart of the wilderness The philosopher
could not but have had his own thoughts about
this when he saw Alexis and Spotted Tail
greeting. The son Of mighty potentate, born
to power, splendor and command, with
the blood of kings In his veins, claiming to
20 back and mingle with that Of the Caesars