The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1884-07-31
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE
NORRIS GEYsRR BASIN, Natl PA

verboslty, would find cure Tor his all
ment in my present position. L neglect
ed to bring writing material from the
hotel this morning. l am now IN the
mountains, and will be for six days to
come. The government has stations at
regular intervals throughout the Park.
The one near which / write is collection
of canvas tents. In those tents a large
party must sleep tonight. A ride OF "a
miles over mountains and plains de-
prives persons appetite of any fastld-
iousness it might naturally have, and
though indications OF plentiful and
clearly repest are by no means pronis-
ing, l await the summons to supper
With some degree of impotence. l ask
ed the government officer for sheet OF
paper and he told me l could have one
if the need was pressing. OF course the
conditions answered his ideas of urgency,
and / am now writing an editorial letter
on single letter head procured by pre-
varication. My seat is stone and my
knee serves for table.
Ny last letter left the excursionlsts at
Moorhead, stop over made necessary
by the conscientious scruples OF some
clergymen against travelling on Sunday.
Their sensitive consciences cost each
member of the party about S.. But
they received compensation IN prayer.
The clergymen had the people corralled
in the cars and prayed and preached
There was no escape except retreat to
| the platform and the heathens congre-
gated there and heard Gods word in Wis
ible language in the broad plains over
which we were speeding towards the
| westering sun. No human tongue can
speak more eloquently of Gods glory
and power. or more impress man with
sense of his own littleness than Natures
grand work. And it may be the few
heathens we're in closer communion with
divine goodness than those whose lips
kept time to the prayers of the ministers.
! Dakota is broad land and much of it
is fertile. These northern prairies, how
ever, do not impress one by their i'm
mensity as do those OF Iowa. Their
rolling surface brings the horizon too
near the beholder. He has not the idea
of sxpanse i'll its completest sense. The
I - f. ,J,r
have invested in real estate near Dawson
have secured as good land as there is in
Northern Dakota. The rapidity with
which the place seems to be settling up
is astonishing. There seems to be no
one point from which settlement. radi-
ates, but every where clear up to the
Bad Lands the hardy pioneer dots the
vast prairies with marks of his industry.
But the little home on these vast treeless
plains must offer insufficient shelter in
the winter when the storm is at its tierc
est. The struggle for existence seems
more clearly defined and more uncertain
of success on the prairie than where the
forests hold sway. Man seems the mer-
est atom on the prairie and his work the
labor of pigmies. But he brings these
broad lands under subsection small as
the beginning is, and small indeed it APP
pears in the Empire Of the Plains.
The Bad Lands lie in the western part
Of Dakota and the eastern part of Mon
tana. They are now known by the more
euphonious name of Pyramid Park, tho
the first is more appropriate. These
hills are a queer formation, rising alb
ruptly from the plains, barren. bleak and
stupendous, they give the surrounding
country the appearance of being
blighted by curse. They are mass
of clay, without life, without vegetation,
a corpse of clay with no hope of future.
Their appearance is an explanation of
their origin, volcanic eruption; boiling
without an outbreak, as uninviting
piece OF work as ever Nature fashioned.
Some OF the scrubby trees common to
this section, started a sickly growth on
the uninviting sides of these hills. But
the inhospitable soil did not afford them
means of life and they persisted. A Wig
orous tree on the Bad Lands would be
the marriage of Death and blooming
Life. The eastern ridges of the Rocky
Mountains are the Bad Land Hills on
more stupendous plan. Bare, barren,
snow clad and forbidding, they frown
on the valleys at their feet. Distance
does not soften their rugged features
and their sides and SUBMITS are devoid
of verdure. Their ragged crests cut the
blue sky sharply and the snow glistens
in the sunlight. But one turns from the
view with anything but a feeling of
pleasure. The valleys even, are not fer
tile, and seem fit complement for the
sterile hills. Colonies OF prairie dogs
sit on their Launches and look uncon-
cernedly at the passing train. Passen-
gers with revolvers and little sense, blaze
away at the little animals but it does not
make much difference to them.
In village in the Yellowstone Valley
the ladies of the party were gratifed by
seeing g lot of cowboys. They were of
the noisy sort and putting spurs to their
horses, galloped with the train, firing off
their revolvers the while. There is no
need for q revolver in this country, but
it is the style to wear one.
Tuesday evening the tourists had the
pleasure of witnessing snow storm on
the mountains. The settlers say this is
matter of weekly occurrence.
Col Bob Ingersoll is in the Park about
40 miles in advance of our party. The
great ln6del may never see a genuine
hell, but he will see much at this place