The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1888-07-05
'fCOpu10M Secured An Rights RsseYped.l
Driven From Sea to Sea,
\ Or, JUST A CAMPIN'. I,
By G. o. POST.

VA y WA "A Sl1Iux
By O. o. POST.
PUBLISHED BY PERMISSION or J. E. DowxsY
+ Co.. PUBLISHERS. CHICAGO.
CHAPTER ".
EVICTION.
The explorers were gone ten DAYS.
Returning just after nightfall on the
evening of the tenth day they paused in
front of the little grove surrounding
Ritchie's shanty to arrange between
themselves the route which they should
take on the morrow in notifying those
interested of their return and readiness
to report.
The Suscol Ranch is not . prairie.
but succession of low ridges or hills.
Occasionally bit of the rock founda-
ton crops out on some blufly point, but
generally the ridges are tillable clear to
their submits and produce wonderful
crops of wheat, an average of fifty and
sixty bushels to the acre beng consid-
cred no surprising yield even upon
fields of several hundred acres. In
their natural state they are dotted over
with little groves of white and live oak,
usually in groups of from dozen to a
hundred trees, and it was in one of these
little groves that Ritchie's shanty was
situated.
When the two men had agreed upon
their separate course for the morrow.
and also upon the place at which the
sguatters were to be asked to meet and
decide upon their future action, they
separated; Richie turned his pony's
head toward his shanty, while Parsons
looscned the rein upon the neck of his
beast already showing signs of uneasi-
ness at being held back when so near
home, and started at brisk pace in the
direction in which he knew his family
were anxiously awaiting his coming.
lie had gone but a few yards, how
ever, when he heard an exclamation OF
surprise from Richie. who almost in
stantly rejoincd him and crowding his
pony close up to that Of his companion
exclaimed, in voice shaken with emo
ton and excitement:
MY God, Parsons, they've torn down
my shanty, and Heaven only knows
what has become Of my wife and
child
II was true.
Those to whom the Suscol Ranch,
comprising thousands of acres of the
finest lands, had been given by the pur-
chased votes of corrupt Congressman
and Senators, had decided to resort to
eviction In order to obtain immediate
possession, and sent a posse Of men
with orders to destroy number of
dwellings as warning to all others.
and Bill Ritchie's shanty had been
among those selected.
For moment the two men sat upon
their horses like statues. looking at each
other through the darkness; and then,
with one impulse. they put spurs to
their animals and dashed away in the
direction of Parsons house. Neither
spoke, but both leaned forward in their
saddles. and rode at full specd-rode
with batcd breath. while alternate hope
and fear struggled with fierce anger fol
possession Of their bosoms.
Had they stopped TO reason they
would have known that there was little
probability of bodily injury having beer
done TO the evicted family; but who
would stop to reason of the probable
amount Of injury when he came sud
denly upon the ruins of his home ant
realized that those whom he loved bet
ter than all else in the world, defense
less woman with babe ut her breast
and had the shelter torn from over thei
heads, and that they Were gone, h
knew not where or how?
Naturally they would seek shelte
with their new neighbors. the Parsons
since they were nearer than any other
and the two men would return together
but suppose the Parsons cottage wa
destroyed also? Surprising all the cot
tages in the neighborhood were de
stroyed, what then?
And John Parsons? Can the suffer
ings which he endured during that rid
be measured or told? That ride of ;
quarter of mile before coming u
over the intervening rise they saw light
in the window and a campfire burnin
brightly in front of the cottage?
II life were flame feeding upon tn
body which it inhabits, then it would b
easy to understand how men sometime
grow old in q day-how the hair ma,
turn white in a night; for one man ma,
live more, suffer more in an hour. thai
comes to others in lifetime.
The posse sent to cvict the home
stcadcrs had gone directly to John Par
sons cottage from Ritchie's; but the,
were preceded by Mrs. Richie, who
frightened by the threats of men to tea
the shanty down over her head if sh
A;l mt ~ opco looro - hoA o,urh% 10
babe from its cradle and ran directly t
the Parsons homestead, where she al
rived almost as much dead as alive, an
had impaired the dreadful information
believing it to be true, that every dwel
ling on the ranch was to be torn down
and had urged Mrs. Parsons to take tn
children and fly with her to some plac
in the hills where they could hide fror
those who were bent upon mission {
destruction, and whom her excited in
agination had magnified into a sma
army, ready for any outrage upon tn
persons as well as the property Of thos
against whom they were sent
Mrs. Parsons was scarcely less az
tated at the terrible news than was sh
who brought it; and Erastus who ha
A1ssShSW "aNAOos WIN "
story Of the outrage, made no objectio
to the proposition, but helped to max
into bundle the scanty wardrobe {
the family, and in company with til
frightened women and children crosse
the creek upon little foot bridge mad
OF planks, and placed them all With
the shelter of the bluffs on the opposit
side, and little further down, wher
they would be out of sight of the poss
either from the cottage or from an
point on the road over which they woul
pass in continuing their work Of Dc
struction.
This done, in spite of the pleadings {
the little girls and Mrs. Richie, and tn
almost commands of "Aunt Martha,
as he had always called Mrs. Parsons
he returned to the cottage and careful
y examined the rifle which he had bee
allowed to purchase when the journe
across tho plains began. and also thu