The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-11-12
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ENGRAVING TO THE WEST.

Mr.. ED1roE Thinking it might be
of interest to many who are thinking on
the subject of emigrating to the West, I
give short sketch of observations on the
way.
Atst. Louis and Kansas City, Mo-, are
very large Grand Union Depots, and in
each are large spacious halls called
"emigrants waiting rooms" written
above the DOORS. A peep in this large
hall, with It's teeming mass of varied
humanity, will give one an inside view Of
the worlds discontinue, discomfort,
woes and eagerness for the gold somewhere
in or on the great soil of the Western
frontier. lam told that every day these
spacious halls are filled with very much the
same class of people. There are bundles,
baskets, sacks and packets of all sorts,
containing eatables-sometimes dog,
cat or chicken. There are round
dozen crying babes, nnrsed by an equal
number of poor, care-worn and tired
mothers; there is the four and six year
old chaps rowing around, some crying to
"go home," others want to so to papa,
(perhaps thousand miles away others
want something to eat. Over yonder is a
quiet couple caressipg each other, with
handkerchiefs to their eyes, whose
thoughts you can plainly read are wan.
dering far, far away to dear friends left
behind. Occasionally low sounding
moan and long sigh is heard from the
old and perhaps decrepid who will never
liYe to grasp the gold that prompts most
of this emigration. The life of this
grand scene, as we'll as all the world at
large, is the youngsters, who seem to
enjoy everything, and make up all the
bright side of the scene there is. Upon
the whole, the person who can take in
this whole scene and not find his eyes
moistened with sympathy for the mass,
"has heart of stone." At Kansas City
most of these people branch out to
Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas. Most of
this Territory have been partly over.
All the best lands have been taken up
long ago, and are now in a state of high
cultivation, and are worth from $8 to $50
per acre. went up as far in South
western Kansas as tho homestead and
.pre-emption claims are staked off, There
is no land not taken up in less than so
miles from railroad, and in some places
it is 200 miles from railroad, and not
a solitary thing on it except few buffalo
bones and prairie grass. 1t is from 100
to 250 feet down.to water, and coal is
worth, back at the railroad, from 20 to 40
cents per bushel in extreme cases. How
these settlers expect to live through the
Winter cannot see. To begin with,
they have to dig perhaps 200 feet for
water, and haul their lumber and coal in
some cases $50 miles. There have been
and are yet to be seen a great many sod
houses, that have within them surpris.
ing degree of comfort, happiness and
cheerfulness. Think Of treading over
the prairie, and all at once hear the sweet
voice of q young girl singing to an
accompaniment Of nice organ, and when
you find her she is in o sod house with
roof perhaps Of long prairie "slew grass"
All the original "bufalo grass" is fast
giving away to kind of fine, small sedge
grass, called here "blue stcm," their
sole dependence for hay, that We would
call next to nothing as feed. l notice
that the native horse stock have to fill
their stomach so full of this inferior hay
in order to get the required nourishment
to sustain life, that they are out of cred
liable shape; their paunches are cut out
on either side down underneath, and
their backbone is actually bowed up, all
to give room for the barn of coarse hay
that had to be carried to sustain life. I
noticed our native team travelled over the
prairie fast and in good style, except the
COW movement of their hind legs that
were "kinder" thrown wide out in order
to prevent striking their big stomach.
Some ten or twelve years ago this
whole country was covered almost at
times with buffalo, and all the changes
one has from the monotonous plains Oh
cfciy oIOc, pcIudPo uuGuleus vi ullCo,
ia an occasional dried carcass of starved
or frozen COW of last winters victim,
pile of buffalo bones, and every now and
then "buffalo wallow." This is 8 hole in
the ground, something on the order of
hog wallow, only very much larger and
deeper, and dug out by the paving and
wallowing of the bufialoes. All Of tl,is
whole prairie country has the appearance
of extremes. When it is hot I am told
it is extremely hot, and when it is cold
it is extremely cold, and the same is said
Of rain and droughts. I saw Medicine
Lodge" the bottom where eight emil
grants we're drowned last Spring, by q
waterspout coming on them without
warning. Every now and then VIC could
see from three to Il dozen "prairie
schoouers," covered emigrant wagons,)
moving slowly along to the frontier but
my honest convictions are that they will
surely earn all they may accomplish at
the front, and they all deserve small