The Opelousas courier., 1886-03-13
ESTAGING IN THE HILLS
Taking a Trip by Stage to the
City of Deadwood.
A Journey in the wild West" that is In
vested with Many Novelties.

The name SDeadwood, a city that is
! still in the "wild West" in spite of the
rapid Improvements thirty years have
seen west of the Mississippi, is familiar
to many people who know nothing what
ever of it except that it lies somewhere
out in the mining region.
Travelling from the East, it can be
reached within one hundred miles by rail
the remainder of the distance must be
taken by stage. The railroad ends at
Buffalo Gap. Six horses, carrying a stage
coach with three seats in it, await the
Deadwood traveller. If there are more
than six passengers and any of them are
inclined to obesity, there is apt to be a
lack of comfort.
If it is during the spring or autumn
rains, there is much jolting and careful
driving, and perhaps some seasickness
among the passengers.
In the bitter winter weather, warm
wraps, furs and heated soapstones are
necessary. Perhaps the ride is most de-
lightful in the autumn, when there is gol-
den morn, and lazy winds and a cloud of
purple haze in the west.
The one hundred miles are travelled in
thirty-siX hours or thereabout. Every
ten miles the horses are changed, and
every twenty the drivers change.
The stations are simply large barns
where the horses are kept. These are as
well trained, and enter into their task
with as much spirit and seeming delight
as the horses of the fire department in
cities. They grow to be familiar with
every step of the journey and know their
driver as children know a parent. The
coach stops for meals at regular stations,
three times a day. Quite an excited in
terest is visible at all the towns passed
through. The coming of the stage, with
its g%alloping horses, its air of mystery
and restlcssncss and the charm of know
ing it has come from the outside world,
which, like Rasselas in his valley, every
one envies to be in occasionally, is quite
an event in the lives of the village people.
Caesar in his commentaries, speaks of the
Inhabitants of inner Gaul gathering
around the merchants when they came to
trade, and asking questions innumerable.
The merchants were often tempted to ex-
aggerate and sometimes to invent stories
of the outside world, which temptation
they often yielded to, and were eagerly
believed by the Gauls. So the stage
coach driver after answering many ques-
tons to slit himself amid the admiring
gaze of the populace, with a flourish of
his whip, a word to his horses, is gone.
Gone for a wild ride over dangerous roads,
now winding along a mountain path,
now between rocks, To- along a river
bank, and again out into the level mesa |
like stretch, that seems to reach in infinite
distances on every hand. The drivers
End their work to possess a strange fas- |
eination. No stage driver ever feels con-
tent to go back to the tame life of a town /
dweller. Each one of them has his repu- |
tation and is known by his peculiar char |
acteristics all along the route. In the
lower part of the stage, under the seats,
is a place for baggage, much like the
hold in a ship. The trip is worth taking,
especially in spring or autumn, when the
driver is glad to give a share of his seat
for at least "a few hours each day or night.
Deadwood is a very pretty town hem
med in by mountains. It is in the ex-
treme western part of Dakota, not far
from its boundary line. 1t is only $50
miles from the Yellowstone Park, and is
surrounded by mountains upon every
hand. Some valuable gold and silver
mines are located near the town.-De- |
trUit Free Press.
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