Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-08-02
ALeffer From Alex. Irer.

Chicago Thursday night, for Cop1-
Gil Bluffs, arriving Friday evening, and
found Commander Fairchild and Ad
jutant Phil. Cheek making arrange
ments for the Wisconsin delegation to
start Saturday morning for the Golden
State The Grand Army boys were en-
tertained by the city fathers. Fair
child and others made fine addresses,
etc, in response to the reception. On
Friday morning we passed over that
muddy old Missouri River to the lively.
dust-covered city of Omaha. If you
want to see the effects of dry weather
this is the place; it surpasses everything
l ever saw The dust will average about
four inches deep on the streets. Well,
away we 90 for Marshalltown, arriving
there at 10 q m. This is a fine looking
country, and farmers are busy cutting
grain, corn looks good and they say if
they get rain within two weeks they
will have large crop While at Mar
shaltown we tried to see II. Halbert but
failed to find him.
Well, on we SO, over the vast prairies
till we reach Ames, a city of about
5000 inhabitants. The city was named
after Ames, the great shovel man, as l
am told. Here we also find the Ames
College of Agriculture, fine building
built out of white granite. The next
city Of any Importance is Boone, hav-
ing about 1000 inhabitants, and ap-
pears to he quite lively city. The
streets being lined with teams, it made
me think of our own little city on
Saturday.
We reached Carroll about three
o'clock. and here it rained very hard,
for which all on our train of fourteen
cars were glad, for we then thought the
clouds of dust that had so far been an
noying us were settled and our future
ride would be made pleasant and agree
able, which we soon realized to be a
fact, and for such blessing to us and
the dry and thirsty land, we made
the prairies ring with the sound of
many voices and united in singing the
old army melodies as we'll as new ones.
1t would have done you good to see,
hear and know how well my comrades
Baxter and Schreiner, can sing. tell
you they are enjoying the trip, for they
have left all cares and troubles behind
and are determined to get all the good
to be derived IN this grand trip.
We are in a car containing all Wis
consin people; it takes two cars to hold
all of the Wisconsin folks. We have
quite number of ladies with us, which
makes it pleasant.
Well, | cannot tell all about the towns
and cities that we passed through, nor
tell the boys and girls about the prairie
dogs and their little cities, nor get &C
quainted with for it would make my
story too long, but will say that we ar
rived at Denver, Colo, Sunday, about
II a. m. and will stay until Tuesday l
p. M, when we shall start for the
Mormon city, and intend to stay there
one day to see if we can learn how those
gentlemen can take care and support so
many wives. etc. Well, Denver is
painted red with q. A. r. boys, their
wives and daughters. They are here
from every state east of this. The
little state of Maine has about one hun
dred and fifty here, so no doub. the
parade on the Sd of August in San
Francisco will contain 10000 of the old
army boys who stood as barracade be-
tween the foes and the friends of this
grand old United States, over which
floats the prettiest, the noblest, the
most far-reaching flag of the world
the stars and stripes. God bless our ma
tive land.
On Monday, July &c, we took trip
to Graymont via Golden and George
town, over the Loop, which is the most
magnificent peice of railroad engineer
ing ever saw. 1t does really beat our
our own horseshoe bend from Fenni-
more to Woodman and leaves the horse
shoe bend of Pennsylvania clear out in
the cold. Any persons eyer visiting
Colorado should never miss this trip.
Golden was the second capital of