The weekly Shasta courier., 1873-11-08
The Indian Question.

AS intend this article to be a political
one, shall endeavor to keep personalities
out of it but somehow the subject always
takes me back to the time when Charley
and first went out West.
You see, it was our wedding tour, and
that alone would be sufficient to make one
remember journey for a lifetime. | was
not at all eager that this grandeur should be
added to our espousals, and would much
rather have dispensed with it. Fashion was
not SO extremely rigorous at that time and
oh, how glad ,coutd have been to have not
gone away one step from home, but boarded
with mamma
We might have had that big sunny room
on the second floor, with the little snuggery
off, and mamma would have given me that
pretty white and green set, curtains and DOR.
celain and every thing to match, and could
have had my own dear little rocking chair
and work box and writing-desk, and we
could all have shared the piano; it needn't t
have been moved an inch out of its old place
in the back-parlor. Mamma and I could
have been together the whole day long, and
when evening came, Charley would have
come in with the rest, and what a dear old
jolly, splendid life it might have been, if
Charley's rich old uncle had never been born
or hadn't gone out West, or hadn't made
Charley that very advantageous offer to bring
his young wife and come out there and get
rich.
Get rich! That was the poison that iu-
fused itself into our vitals, and cast that
glimmering glamour over every body's Wis
ion but mine-thank God not mine
was too young and too much in love to care
about getting rich, and | wasn't so selfshly
in love with Charley that could quite
gladly give up my people and dear old home
to feed an unholy ambition. Every kindly
and gracious line in my mothers face was
dear to me; loved every hair, gray or
black, in the head of my father; and al
though my brothers and l were continually
having little petty disputes about something,
we kissed and made up afterward, and loved
each other all the more dearly.
But what with "witely duty" and wom-
anly devotion" and the grand spirit of en-
terprise," the sacrifice was decked out in
such gaudy colors that one was forced to
stop and wonder if 1T could be possible that
i, Kitty Malcolm, was really going away
from home and kindred, to travel thousands
Of miles-almost, in fact, to the exact spot
where the sun really set to leave father
and mother and the boys, and go away out
there in that desert with Charley Pierce
My wedding dress was, of course, ruined.
While | lay perfectly unconscious and un-
able to demonstrate flor tainted dead away
at the end of the ceremony, they drenched
me water, never even putting rug or any
thing to catch the deluge, and three entire
breadths were spoiled beyond redemption.
Then | wiped my eyes on my bonnet-strings,
and spotted my gloves, and rumpled my
travelling dress, and was altogether a very
disconsoate and bedraggled piece of matri-
monial woe when We started on that direful
journey.
Of course / loved Charley Pierce. Once
having known him, couldn't live without
him, and if he oomd 90 out in that dread
full region, was compelled to go with him.
But left half my heart, and half my youth,
and half so many things behind me that |
was quite lopsided creature, and never
got over that "gone feeling that took pos
session of me when the carriage went round
the corner, and the last faint outline of
mamma was lost to me.
The first sight | got Of the prairie hated
it. / never saw anything SO dreary in nv
life. The infhity of it appalled, me, and
the monotony of 1t disgusted me. If there
had been a tree, or rock, or shanty, or tele-
graph pole, or any thing to break the view
it might have been endurable but | looked
at it till my eyes ached, and the more l look
ed the worse it appeared to me.
My desperation took the guise OF courage,
and | acquired the reputation of being a
strong-minded women. When we got out
of the wagons, and the corralling" was
gone through with. every thing available in
the way of material about us being used as
sort of protection against the Indians,
Charley always said to me the last thing
before We went to sleep,
Remember, Kitty, remember, my brave
little wife death before being dragged
away by the redskins
"Oh yes" said. certainly" and looked
to the priming of the pistol with great in
terest. 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 had an instructive aver
sion to pork and saleratus aud dried beef
and really never supposed there could be
so loathsome and repelling thing as coffee
without milk. must say l think it was
very careless and thoughtless for Charley
Pierce TO forget to procure some necessary
articles Of food in the stores" as he called
them. He personally superiptended the
transportation Of great deal of material for
his uncle, and it wouldn't have hurt him to
have provided US with at least plain. coarse.
aohoiesome provisions. Because he had the
digestion of an ostrich, it didn't follow that
every body else had and | wasn't the only
one that suffered in that wretched caravan.
I'm sure mamma took the trouble to have
every thing 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 NAM
ma made nth her otcR hands, were abso-
lutely famous and as for the jelles and pre-.
serves, they were in everybodys mouth, in