Rapides gazette. (Alexandria, La.) 1869-187?, 1873-11-01

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him. and if he icoutd 90 out in that dread
him. But L left half my heart and half
my youth, and half of so many things be-
hind me that was quite lapsided crea-
ture, and never got over that gone" feel
ing that took possession of me when the
carriage went round the corner, and the
last faint outline of mamma was lost to
me. tr s-
The first sight got the prairie hated
It. never saw anything so dreary in my
life The infinity of it appalled, me, and
the monotOny of it disgusted me. If there
had been tree, or rock, or shanty. or tele-
graph pole, or anything to break the view,
il might have been endurable; but looked
at it till my eyes ached, and the more
looked the worse II appeared to me.
My desperation took the guise of cour-
age. and acquired the reputation of being
a strong-minded woman. When we got
out of the wagons, and the ''corraling"
was gone through with, everything avail
able in the way of material about US being
used as sort of protection against the In
dians, Charley always said to me the last
thing before we went to sleep:
Remember, Kitty, remember, my
brave little wife-death before being drag
ged away by the red-skins!'
"Oh, yes" | said, certainly" and
looked to the printing of the pistol with
great interest. Charley went right off to
sleep; but many and many an hour went
by and lay wide awake. looking at the
queer gloomy skeletons in the clouds, and
wondering how coldly and mockingly the
stars glittered in the great desolate sky
| suppose the food had something to do
with it. | always hada an instructive aver
sion to pork and saleratus and dried beef,
and really never supposed there could
be so loathsome and repelling a thing as
coffee without milk. must say think it
was very careless and thoughtless
for Charley Pierce to forget to pro-
cure some necessary articles of food
i'm the " stores" as he called them.
He personally superintended the trans
! pOrtation of great deal of material for
his uncle, and it wouldn't have hurt him to
have provided us with at least plain, coarse,
wholesome provisions. Because he had the
digestion of an ostrich. it didn't follow that
everybody else had; and 1 wasn't the only
one that suffered i'm that wretched caravan.
I'm sure mamma took the trouble to have
everything nice for him at our table, and
he seemed to enjoy his meals at our house
wonderfully. The beautiful light mullins
and the delicious French coffee, that
mamma made ,cih hen. otcn hands, were
absolutely famous (; and as for the jellies
and preserves, they were in everybody s
mouth, in every sense of the word. L
never spread that old wretched tarpaulin
under me and squatted on that horrible
prairie, finding before me the same pork
and tough yellow dough. hard beef, and
black coffee, but simultaneously that glad,
sweet vision of home trembled before my
aching eyes. / saw the dear old front
basement, with its glowing fire in the
CRATE, the great oleander bush in the cor
| ner all i'm bloom. and the canaries singing
away in the sunshine ; the long table gilt
tering with snowy damask and well-bur-
nislied britannia-ware, and the quaint, old
fashioned china. plate after plate heaped
up with delicacies too delicious TO dwell
upon. At the head of the table dear papa,
who bore so nobly the grand old name OF
gentleman. and opposite him. in her after
noon black silk and lovely India muslin
cap, her slim, delicate hands busy with
that delicious golden coffee, my dearest,
best mamma; and all around the table
scrambled the boys, while like skeleton
at the feast there sat Kitty Malcolm's emp
ty chair-and she, poor child. sitting out
in the damp, cold, snaky prairie!
The dear desperate little woman, no
wonder she wasn't much afraid Of q
pistol!
We got to the city at last-it don't mat
ter what city. / won't injure it or its in
habitants by this sad retrospect. Unless
they are greatly changed, they are quite
wretched enough already. We got to what
they called city! A few sheds thrown
loosely together, so that when the inmates
get used to them, and have a few nails
ready to hang clothes on, and screen by
way of partition the faintest perceptible
signs of human habitation beginning 10
dawn upon these boards. they can imme-
diately be battered to pieces and put into
the wagons again, and carted "out West. v
Never could these unhappy creatures,
cursed with 1.-THE spirit of enterprise, y
find rest for the sole of their foot. There
was always some FL Dorado farther on,
beckoning them with CHASTITY pertinacity
to an Elusive paradise that went by the
name of" West" | always thought the
whole thing was fearful embodiment OF
the Wandering Jew. We became part and
parcel of this unhappy community. II
would take manv quires ofpaper and tai.
ented scribes to depict the trials that filled
every hour in the day, the petty torment:
that edged into the marrow of ones bones
Iaklng LDe lie anu suDStdIlct Out vi tiltli
When / think ofthat wretched thing
they called street, +" with its struggling
rows of dilapidated sheds on either side
great patches of country stretching be
tween. swept by fierce hurricanes, scathet
by icy frosts, scared by burning heat, de
voured by an implacable mud, haunted
through the desolate night by grim gaun
Indian phantoms riding wildly and weird
ly one after the other, always with terrible
precision keeping that grim order in th'
procession, c,using the blood, that hae
barely been savedfrom congealing by cold
to cllrdle in ones veins from fright, anC
numbering the few snatches of sleep vouch
safed from other horrors-when L thinl
upon all these, / can only look upon th'
ridiculous tales l hear about that regioi
now as absurd and fallacious fancies OF dis
eased brains.
After had been there three years look
ed for the first time into n looking-glass Il
was lust before my little blessed darling
came into the world, and Charley did hi
best. poor fellow. to have things at leas
| decent about mel, and | was positively
friohtened. / started back in terrO