The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1875-04-01
FOR the TKxHGxArH.
lettings From the West.
NUMBER SIX

lives over again 90 IN the remlnicences
OK the sports, pleasures and pastimes of
youth AS Shakespeare has marked
the seven stages of human life, so with
US the sports of each period are but the
milsstones that mark the successive sta
gss of our journey. What older boy
hes not distinctly embalmed in memory
the skating frolies of the "fairy moon
light" or when he forgot the effort of
tugging his sled up the long hill in the
anticipated pleasure of riding down,
or the glorious sleigh rides when hcofs
kept time to the merry chime Of the
oslls az they "tinkle, tinkle, tinkls IN
the icy air of night, while the stars that
over-sprinkls oil the heavens, aeem to
twinkle with crystalline delight ~
But though poets have We'd with each
other in heaping the shrine of tho merry
sleigh bells with the incense of postical
Offering, 1t has Jared far different with
the shaggy protection without which
the merry riders would soon feel neither
comfortable nor poetical. Such injuscice
has the soft and comfortable baffalo
robe suffered ct the hands of poets, that
nothing but the most utter abandonment
OF the muses. upon that subject, has kept
me from attempting to rival Pos's
Hear the sledges with their BELLS"
"sse the sledges with the buffalo
robes" would not only smack of plagia-
rism, but ! 0id'nt like the rythm quite
as well as Poe's and so it has come to
pass that / have never resented the neg
lects of his bufaloship by the poets.
What has Joaquin Miller been about in
his songs OF the Sierras,' that he has
not come to my aid 2 think his mus
tang pursuing feet buffalo, would oe
much more poetical picture than his
, fleeing from the prairie fire, and much
more safe and comfortable for horse and
rider. In my ssi1eot boy days as 1 sat
on the hard bench, coming my Peter
Farley while my teacher with fsrule
and birch occasionally gave me fresh
impulse along the fowery path of Sci
ence, used to stare with wonder
those uncouth wood cuts of Indians
hunting bufalos in thelr snow shoes.
or on horse back, until could not help
wishing that / vas an Indian, with no
restraints to endure, no tasks to spoil
my enjoyment, no penalty to undergo
for truancy, no frowning pedagogue to
dread. If have since seen little more
of that life that | then imagined would
make me so happy, I am sure that sue
ceeded in extracting mych more delight
in the contemplation of what | saw in
that old geography, than | ever do
from the reality. If Campbell had
never written more than that one line.
cts distance lends enchantlnent to the
view," he would have proved himself a
poet. The Elder Sheridan was once
demonstrating with his SON who was
! going to descend the shaft into coal
mine. Why do you want to expose
yourself to fire damp IN that black hole
for ? said the parent. SO that can say
that / have been in coBl mine replied
the hopeful. "You block head, replied
the parent, "what prevents your saying
so now ?" Having what the E. der Sher-
idan had I doubt not might entertain
both my readers and myself better than
shall be able to after my little cxpe-
Renee. Experience often takes all the
starch out of romance and imagination.
A little knowledge often spoils many
fine picture jast as I saw not long
since picture of an Iowa breaking
team, but the unlucky artist though
sympathiziDg with the farmers wsones,
while he drew the breaking Of land up
on which to raise corn at sixteen cents
per bushel, evidently had never taken
the first lesson in driving oxen for he
bad his driver on the off eide. Not
knowing how to drive oxen he could
keep clear conscience, and not be very
faithful TO facts. If I had sta;d at home
and written my letters I might have
enjoyed an enlarged liberty like the
artist. | should not have passed an un-
comfortable night camping out, should
not have got sick IN alkal, .ga+or