The Cheyenne daily leader. [volume] (Cheyenne, Wyo.) 1870-1884, 1877-04-08
eli's Ecceasrsciuss.

-WNhF G1 . 6CCGWUStCeUU8s
The following is Eli Perkins letter
! to the president of the Congregational
social, announcing his intention of lec-
| turing here:
On THE CARS lat large)C
In Maryland, April I'd, 1877.
C. N. Potter, Cheyenne:
DEAR SIR-This morning 1 received
the following telegram from the New
York Lecture Bureau:
"You are engaged in Cheyenne
April 18th. Don't miss"
Now the bureau does not explain
whether this engagement is with n
young lady or a whole town full. Or
whether it is an engagement to lecture
or to be lectured. But whatever it is,
I will be on hand at all hazards-or,
rather, at Cheyenne. If you have any
doubts about my being present, L will
say that L am always present when l
lecture-always!
Then, everything seems to conspire
to push me OIL toward Cheyenne. The
people here in Maryland who have
heard me lecture follow me around In
great crowds, enthusiastically cheering
me and inviting me to go away-to
move on.
The people out west are kind to me,
too. The citizens of Moth Platte,
where 1 lecture on the 18th, have kind
ly offered to escort mt to Cheyenne in
"a special car rather than have me re-
main in their town a second night.
And Mr.. Dillon, the president of the
Union Pacific, kindly offers to keep m
in perpetual free passes on his road,
hoping, IS lie says, that 1 may eventu-
ally be killed on the cars.
1 remember visiting Cheyenne many
very many years ago-I should say
about 800. Mr.. Glafcke was there-a
fair-haired boy-innocent and blithe-
some. He had just emigrated from
Ireland, where he left a wife and 81
children, bringing with him THE
LEADER office, struggled away in a
Saratoga trunk to avoid paying duty.
Fifty years afterward came Mr.. Slack,
from Germany where he still has sew
eral wives, all waiting for remittances,
when they too will swell the popula-
tion of Cheyenne.
1t is understood that Cheyenne was
named after a Cheyenne paper. Mr..
Slack, if I am rightly informed, walked
through a bowling wilderness from
Omaha in 1913, and established his Of
fee in the middle of a bounding prai-
rie, where Cheyenne now is. Then the
people came pouring in from Denver
and Ogden, and built houses, just to be
where they could take the newspaper.
The story that Mr.. Claiche was ex-
PEELED from Ireland for telling thetruth
is not true. 1t is a base fabrication
that any fair-minded returning board
would rule out. I am informed, how
ever, that Mr.. Claiche once came near
being expelled from Denver for believ-
ing in christianity. l think this story
must be true, because to this day, you
know, nc nj suspected of believing in
christianity is permitted to live there.
No such suspicion has ever attached it
self to Mr., Meeker, of the Greeley
Tribune.
Far different. l am told that down
in Greeley, where they have no liquor
saloons, the people have become SO
skillful In the mixing of drinks that
many of them have accepted large sal
aries to come to Cheyenne and "tend
bar" Greeley, moral Greeley, where
every man is his own bartender, is the
place for me.
But l must not linger!
If l like Cheyenne as well this time
as 1 did before, it is my intention to
settle among you, but if, for financial
reasons. l am not able to settle in your
beautiful city, my old friend, Col. Muir.
rim, will settle for me- to 8.
But, as 1 before remarked, I must
not linger. Lingering too long recent
ly caused my uncle William to lose his
life. 1t vas under the gallows. Alas!
my cousin, John D. Lee, fingered too
long in front of those soldiers, and here
arises the question:
Brigham, why lingereth thee?
l close this note with the hope that
Heaven will always protect you. From
your friend. ELI PERKINS,"