The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1883-10-18
ACROSS THE CONTINENT.
How tho Tourists Appear to tho Denizens
OF Cheyenne.

From the Cheyenne (wyomins) teader.l
They come in crowds ut this season.
Sometimes they are members Of the
peaceful order of the Young Mems HUI
manity Union and their families, some
times members Of the semi-military Or
ganizatioD, the Bayonet and Sword So
ciety, and their families; sometimes they
are Raymond excuvsionists, but by the
time they reach Cheyenne they have the
travel-worn appearance common to tour
lists. Local Western travellers get off
the train md tramp it up town; CONNER
cial travellers take the 'bus with the
cattle men from Texas, and are driven
to the hotels, but the tourists pour out
OF the sleeping cars and make direct for
tho railroad dining.room. The mon
wear black caps, pulled down on their
heads till the bands touch their shirt
collars, and busters 30 long us to almost
sweep the ground, and which are creased
and limp rs if they had been used to
sweep the car floor. Ono man tourist
always looks like every other man tour
lst. His costume is q disguise, Just as
his manners, talk, and way of living or
tour give him an identity different
from that which belongs to him at home.
But II tho mon are commonplace and
uninterGsting, it must bo said of women
tourists that they look dowdyish. They
wear on their heads shapelcss "wallzing"
hats of style fashionable Bomc years
ago, adorned with dull-lued artificial
flowers, which have been mashed fiat
while the wcarcrs havo been lolling
against the backs of rar-scnts or on con-
yCnlcnt shoulders. Tho woman tourist
who picks her way in slippers from tho
car to tho dining hail, or who clumps
along in her husbands rubbers, also
wears dustcr. 1t is unused" into n
thousand Jumps and folds, and has
strcaks of dust and cindcrs on it running
iii every direction. There are two char
actcrstics, aside from slovenliness, which
mark the woman tourist Tho first is
that her face is utterly devoid of COM
plcxion, and the sccold that instead of
speaking she always squcnlts.
When mob OF tourists hnvo assault
cd the dining-room they tallc posscssior
of it, There is no ono in tho dining
room to be considered, excepting those
of their party. And how we'll they al
know each other. Such familiarity as
prevails among them, one would think
could only be the result of living for
years as members of tho same house
hold. But they have been acquainted,
III most cases, no longer than ii takes nn
express train to run to Cheyenne from
the wilds of Jersey or Egyptian Illinois.
In the dining-room, they clatter the
dishes, "hisst" at tho waitress, rattle
knives nnd forks, scrapo chairs noisily
on the floor, talk from ono tablo to an
other dozen Mt timc, and make Il bed
lam of it beautifully. Tho meal over
they walk up and down tho station plat
form in couples or fours; or, selecting n
"nntivc," q knot of them will set to work
pumping him. Then their wit and
knowledge crop ont. They know they
are west Of the Missouri Kivcr and that
they have passed many shanty towns
along the Union Pacific. Therefore they
arc on the fronticr-in tho western wilds
and they proceed to SHOW that they
have left their civilization behind them.
1t was too thin to wear this journey
throngh. When they talk with one of
tho bcmghtCd here. whose experience
away from home has not perchnnce been
limited to single trip, they sniggcr and
gi%glc, and ask whether this towns
namcis really Siam, or Shanghai, or Shy
Ann? and whether there is really any
town back of the Phoenix Block, the
Inter Ocean Hotel, and the Opera house?
They have heard all about the cattle
business. Where do the ranches begin?
Whc1o do the cowboys keep themselves?
Where arc all tho IndiarS? Arc there
buflaloes near town? What State is
Cheyenne in? Is there such Territory
as Wyoming? Do the people here ever
go East? What is tho population?
Were there never any trees here? Is it
NlWayS as hot or aS cold Or 90 ,vnf ~,
rs dry as today? But tho boil rings,
there is q scramble for the car steps, the
tourists disappear into the doorways of
the sleeping cars, notebooks are soon IN
hand, and many interesting data con-
corning prairie dogs, antelope, owls, rat
tlesnakes, the profits of stocl-raising,
and the "hiGh altitude" of tho region is
entered with tho purpose of instructing
and astonishing when the journey is
over.