Omaha daily bee., 1874-06-12
NEBRASKA SKETCHES.
From Blair to P~lattsmouth.

this Valley, and in the vicinity Of
arizona beautiful groves of timber
give variety to the otherwise monot-
onous dead level of the landscape.
Tekamah is the commercial CEN
tire of this portion of the State, and
is decidedly the most thriving town
we have seen in our travels. Here
we found Mr.. George Tanner, for
merly of Omaha, occupying an ele-
CANT jewelry store his show cases
and shelves well stocked with
watches, clocks and bijoutiere of the
most beautiful kinds. Mr.. Tanner
is a universal favorite, for he is one
of those genial, manly gentlemen
with whom it is a pleasure to trans
act business, and in Mr.. Tanner Te-
kamah has gained a finished work.
man whom Omaha could lily afford
to lose. At the next door We stopped
to see Mr.. Hole, formerly with j..
J. Brown & Co, Omaha, who is
now i'm partnership with MI. Nelson,
doing a thriving business in a large
well-filled general store in which
is kept everything Imaginable from
a skein of silk thread to a cable
rope. Mr.. Hole was so busy wait
ing on a large crowd of customers
that we had no chance for a visit
there, but in the evening we
smoked q fragrant weed and talked
of the olden times i'm Omaha. The
next morning we reluctantly bid
goodbye to our friends and started
for Fremontacross the high prairies.
The road Is not confined to section
lines, but follows the high ridges,
which gives a magnificent view OF
the rich cultivated valleys below.
Along Bell Creek and down the
Elkhorn Valley we passed through
a garden like country which Is GER
tainly unsurpassed anywhere for
fertility of soil and variety of pro-
duets. At Nickerson Station, on
the ElkhOrn Valley Railroad, we
noticed a fine large elevator with
ABOUT u uOZeu tediilS Ndi'ipS ~
charge their loads.
We thought it very strange that
Omaha with her vast wholesale
trade, could not compete with even
NickersOn Station (Which has not a
single STOREY in facilities for hand
ling grain. AT Fremont everything
indicated prosperity. Real Estate
being especially lively, so much so
that it ''fiew through the air with
the greatest of ease" Fremont is
undoubtedly the dustiest town In
Nebraska on a windy day.
At the hotel we met Judge Lake,
District Attorney Connel and sever
al members of the Omaha bar who
had just arrived from WahOO, where
they had been holding a session of
the District Court. At this point
we crossed the Platte on the new
bridge which Is certainly an archi-
tectural curiosity. 1t Is wide in
some places and i'm others a team
can scarcely get through. 1t makes
as many crooks and turns as a poll
tician on election day and almost
touches the stream over which it is
built, That bridge must be seen to
be appreciated.
About four miles from Fremont
on the south side of the Platte, the
Changers have erected a cOmmOdi-
Gus hall which will be completed
this summer. We talked with the
people in this vicinity in regard to
the bridge question and nearly every
farmer said that he would market
his grain and stock in Omaha, if
there were a bridge at Valley or
Waterloo, but that now they had to
he content with wading through
the Fremont sand hills and receiv-
ing the terms given by a market
which had no competition.
WahOO, the new county seat, is
nearly i'm the centre of Saunders
county, and has more buildings in
course of erection than completed
buildings. From here we travelled
down the rich and beautiful valley
of Wahoo creek to Ashland, which
town feels keenly the loss of the
county seat, still trade was in a
fiourishing condition,
The cruel wal is over here, that is
the whisky war. The crusaders
were triumphant, and there is not
at present a saloon i'm Ashland.
We picked up at this point a
parody on Excelsior" which a
certain genius had composed in
order to describe the struggles, per-
sistent perseverance, and final sad
fate of an agent of the Excelsior
School Furniture Company, who
had passed through that portion of
the country. We give it here as a
specimen brick of Nebraska poetry,
which We propose to enter at the
State Fair this fall, although it may
have the genius of a Hitchcock to
contend with for a premium:
The shades of night were falling fast,
As through n western villa passed,
youth who sang, with noise and din,
A word of singular meanin'-
Excelsior
Els nose was red, his moustache curled,
As IL the very ground he spurned;
And like a bovine clarion rung
The accent Of that unknown tongue.
Excelsior
In saloons he saw the glowing light
al Bourbon whisky sparkling bright;
But on lbe prairies he must roam,
While from his lips escaped a groan-
Excelsior.
'Oh, say" an ex-crusader said,
The road is rough and | want to we'd"
A tear stood in his bright bl We eye,
But stfl he answered, with 4 sigh,-
Excelsior,
'sTry not the road,' an old man said,
"a thunder storm brews overhead,
And Wahoo Creek is dark and wide"
But loud that clarion voice replied
Excelsior!
"Beware the bays of Billv's Ranch;
Beware the roaring Muddy Branch"
This was the Grangsr's last good night.
voice replied, far out of sight,
Excelsior!
traveller by the faithful hound,
HILL buried in the mud was foaud,
ttll trying a school board to entice,
To buy a desk with the strange device,
Excelsior
There In the mud the agent Law,
Till he sank benesth his kindred clay;
But from under the ground q sound Is heard,
Very strangely like the vord,-
Excelsiorl
On our road to Plattsmouth, we
found there was not a single ferry
in operation across the Platte, below
~ h. Jona