The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1882-03-22
FOR LIFE.

Eleven days on the road. BY no
means the Union Pacific, or any other
line of continuous travel, where the
minimum of bounce and jerk is com
bined with the maximum of comfor
possible under steady motion. A road
still unknown to surveyor or engineer,
beyond reach or thought of railroad
man or speculator, and but just open
ing mp its two hundred miles or more
Of primeval forest. A road trodden
only by Indians or crossed by stealthy
fox or lynx, its length winding through
treacherous marsh and bog, and swift
stream and deep, unbroken forest, only
" blaze" here and there. indicating at
some points the course to be followed,
and where too obtrusive trees were cut
away, the stumps left standing at just
the right heieht for impaling wagon
bodies and stirring upa degree or two
of profanity in the drivers,
From Pembina to Grow Wing, and in
those two hundred miles of q loneliness
only the traveller of that region can
know, what bad not the patient oxen
undergone? Twelve miles the average
days accomplishment, until Leech Lake
and some suggestion of a civilized road
had been reached. Heavy rains, swol-
len streams. fathomless mud-holes.
Often morning was spent in hauling
wagons across turbid and turbulent
little river, and. while the oxen stood
dreDched and dripping after their re-
luctant swim to the other side, bringing
over the loads, package by package, on
fallen tree, if such bridge could be
discovered, or waiting while the two
half-breeds swan across with them on
their heads Neddo, silent and calmly
acquiescent in whatever Efate might
bring, served as fore and background
for Boulanger, who swore in all dialects
from French and English through to
Greek and Chippewa, his black beads
of eyes shooting fire, his small and
gayly- -bedecked legs dancing wildly
among the packages, and his lean arms
emphasizing the whirlwind of invective.
Even this had ceased to amuse.
Drenched through by constant rains,
tormented day and night by mosquitoes,
in size, numbers and ferocity beyond
the widest imagination of the Eastern
mind, endurance was all that RENAME d.
Even water. lilies palled, and for weary
body and more weary mind but one
desire had force-to see the low stock
ade of the Crow Wing agency, and an
actual inn, where O real bed, even il
one of four in row, would be hailed
as deliverance, and where one would
find postotfice and a daily stage, con-
Meeting this last outpost of civilization
with st. Cloud, eighty miles below, and
the first point where railroads could be
reached.
Again q broken bridge gave another
morning of unloading and swearing
and reloading, and when at last the
rushing river was passed and the wagon
once more under way, treacherous and
shelving mud-hole suddenly swallowed
up oxen and fore-wheels, dumped load
and owners into its very depths, and
for FIVE minutes seemed likely to hold
them there. Then all struggled out
together, and while Boulanger shriekeG
with rage and Neddo examined pole
and wheels and fished out the provision
basket, putting the contents on damp
log TO dry, patience at last took fight
and like the ancient prophet in one o.
his very many trials and predicaments
"I spake with my tongue opened
wide my mouth"
"I will not stay in this nest of mos
auitoes and flies and wait hours fol
this final catastrophe to unsnarl. l shal
march on to Gulf Lake, where there il
a beach, unless this last food ha
turned it to water, and there can 81
in the sand and get dry. OF course
now there. is no reaching Grow Winl
tonight, and we must make our CAM
at the lake."
For this journey was by no means
first or second one, and the ox-team wa
simply one more experience of frontie
travelling. Canoe and fiat an'
Indian pony had all been tried, anC
either was better than this frightfu
crawl, inch by inch, as it were. A
Gulf Lake, the first camping point tn
previous year, ten miles above CroV
Wing, had been a solitary wigwam, ten
anted by toothless but amiable squaw
who gave me fresh pickerel roasted Il
the scales over her fire. and affording
new sense Of what flavor and saVo
natural methods may hold, and pots
toes hardly bigger than walnuts, bu
dug in my honor from the field she ha
planted. Perhaps she would be ther
to-day. In any case, alone or with sue
eeiety Is she could giye, there waite