Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1885-03-26

- VI tuODIIA us
said to be the oldest m he VEIL ~
De In view on one side. On the 9TH
mere VIII be old S~tadacona, with il
indian and pioneer traditions. Peonl
say That John c. Emo has shown GOO,
taste IN selecting such a spot for h;
proposed speculation, but [ found nuh
Emo. aoie U
The Decadence Of the Red River Cart
Huge wheels, out of all ~pronor,;o,
10 IT'S carrying cap city, with felloe
roughly ax-cut from native wood. an,
bound together by ShaGanappi-pre
pared buffalo hide-tires: STRAIGHT
hewn sticks for shafts: wooden aIIe
treei wooden linch-pins; rustic-worl
frame Shdgdndppi ~fastenings every
where's sha9andppi "hitchings;t not T,
grain OF iron in its whole anatomv-
such was the far-famed Red River Oar
IN Its palmy days. Musicale Rather
Music and axle-grease were too pre-
clous when 1.-THE cart" was in its prim,
70 Dc lightly wasted. To have dis
Pehsed the latter would have been to
dispense with the former-sometbino
not to be thought of. Hence IL was
that the ''freighters" and old settler.
IN the northw est always went ON thaiI
expeditions heralded by strains from
thelr cart-wheels that would have en-.
Uttered with envy the heart of a cali.
ope.
In all outward seeming the Red
RIVER Cart was pre-eminently not a
thlng OF beauty. 1t is needless 10 oh.
serve that it is not likely to be a ioy
forever. Already it is far on its iour.
ney towards the mount of rememb.
rance Soon it will finally have Ia
Ken up its station thereon, side by side
with THE noble red man of the plains -
The 'lnjun,'' however, and the do.
generate descendant Of 1.-THE cart
VIII continue to adorn contemporary
history. A very uninteresting We
hlcle Is this descendant, as compared
win It's great forebear. A SNUG, paint
adorned, rOn-bcstudded, unmusical
hybrid, 1t differs as greatly to its own
disadvantage from the grim, uncom-
promising combination of wood and
ShdgdndppI from which it is sprung, rs
a New York aldermanic RESIDENCE
differs from an Irish round-tower.
But, lighting upon days like these"
what better could we look for ? Gone
Is that generous devotion, that LOYALTY
OF hear to the artistically cumber-
some IN Industrial and domestic appli-
ances which so distinguished worthier
ages! A generation that prefers the
telegraph to the carrier pigeon, and a
pullman to the coach-and-four, il at
least not inconsistent in taking TO its
bosom the commonplace successor of
the Red River Cart. But in so doing
1t gives a pitiful exhibition of the pat
ent-otiice spirit by which it is actuated,
n which seems to govern every
where in these modern times.
One thing car be said in favor of the
Manitoba cart"-it were disrespect.
ful to the memory Of the great de-
parted to call it a Red River Cart-it
is useful. As much cannot always be
affirmed of the illustrious descended.
1t has enabled many a poor immigrant
to reach in safety his selected home on
the vast northwestern prairies, whom
its more distinguished predecessor
might have brought to grief. Itmakes
less noise about its undertakings; but
they are perhaps none the worse per-
formed for that. 1t supplies its pat
rons with no gratu3tous music: but the
hest pound Of tea or coffee is not
always accompanied by a chrome. 1t
makes no pretensions to undue COM
plicity of get-up; but those who frown
on fashion have turned out at times TO
be still a step removed from perfec-
ton. In justice to the Manitoba
cart" these suggestions of the posi-
bility of a partial excuse for its exist
ence being discOverable are made. To
hope for a full vindicatIon of its en-.
croachments on the domain of its ro-
mantle prototype would, of course. be
unreasonable. As we'll might il be at
tempted to justify the unseemly philis-
tinism which has driven away the
lordly buffalo, that his grazing grounds
might be occupied by mere tillers of
the s~oil-vulgar growers Of wheat and
makers of butter.
But of what striking features have
''these days of advance" robbed north
western landscapes! No longer do
'freighters' trains" move across our
prairies-sometimes a hundred or
more Red River carts, and saddle
ponies by the score, in a train with
varieties of costume and accompani-
ments of sound that would gladden.
the hearts of the masculine youth OF a
whole city, and make the fortune Of a
Barnum in a street parade" A sim
gle ~-ailway-car now holds more goods,
perhaps, than the hundred carts could
have carried, and bears It's burden
farther in a day than they were able
to transport theirs in a month. Start
Ing from St. Paul, or in later days
from Winnipeg, the 'freighters" were
often nearly the entire seaso in reach
ing the far posts of the Saskatchewan
and the Rockies. Many of them were
of Indian descent, or ven pure-blOod-
ed natives. and they frequently car
ried their families with them on their
summer journeyings. Most pictur-
esque were their nightly eneamp-
mcnts. The "carts"-Shafts pointing
inwards-were disposed in a circle on
the prairie, beside a stream when pos
sib!e. Around the great drove of
beasts of burden, ponies and oxen in
termingled, grazed or rested. Within,
the tents and tee-pees were pitched.
Beside these. the evening meal having
been disposed of, the men lounged and
smoked. The women-always in the
brightest oblainable colors-and the
children mingled with them in mer.
rily- chattering groups. Ligbt-hearted
and social beings were the freight.
ers." But they have disappeared
from our prairies forever. The north
west has passed through the Red
River cart period" 1t is now in the
''railway-bonus age."-W. Il. Aactet-
Ian, ia The Current.
A Well of Castor Oil.