The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1888-06-21


Ella Dare. in Chicago Inter Ocean,
tCoppfgn Secured. Al Rights Reserred.I
Driven From Sea to Sea-,
Or, JUST A CAMPIN'.
By G. G. POST.
PUBLISHED ny PERMISSION OF ]. f. DovNEY
Co., PUBLISHERS, CHICAGO.
CHAPTER l.
THE LETTER.
DEAR MARTIAL can't come home after
you and the babies like l hoped to do. cause
I'm broke again; leastwisc I hcv ben since 1
wrote you last, and aint squarely got onto
my feet yet but I'm goin ter send you some
money by next steamer: all | can scrape
together, and l want you and the babies to
pack up and come out.
know it looks hard fer you to have to make
the trip across the plains alone with the chill.
dren. but l don't see no way to help it unless
We are never to see one another again, and |
cant stand that, nor l don't believe you want
10 either. And there's Rastus: he must be
Gettin most man now, and will help you a
heap and I'll do the square thing by the boy
when he gets out here.
writ 10 that he Is gOin to come out this sum-
mer with company, and you can come with
him reckon.
You remember Sy. He's q Twin up near
Perkinsville now, bein driv OF of his land
long OF the rest of us. Sy will be glad 10 do
you good turn know. for when we was both
brnke up back in New England by goin Sc
cHrity at the bank, he and swOpped sym-
pathy with one another, and now that the
railroad corporation has gobbled us both. Sy
Will be wiin to do some more swopin Of the
same kind i reckon, rs swopn sympathy
means swopin help with poor folks.
spose you'll want to know what kind of a
place am askin You to come to, and tell
you honest Marty, when | say that natur
done n way up job when she made this coun-
Try: Just about the best she is capable of dOin,
reckon: an oil I'm askin for now is to have
you an the babies. an III be satisfied for all
me nard work and losses we've had, and
they've driv us from sea to sea almost COB
bin up one home after another after we had
made EN- by hard work.
Seems to me thct ther must be somethin
wrong with the law. fer the poor don't stan no
chance with the rich. an the mere law the less
the fellows that works gifts.
When wrote you afOrc was rakin i'm the
uust pretty smart, me IN my pard. but some
fellows from New York came up there and
proposed to form a iint stock company, and
offered TO put in lot OF machinery for histin
out the ore, agin our claim; an bein we was
anxious To get at the dust as fast as possible
SO as we could go back to the States fer our
families. we agreed to il, but some way II
; didn't pan out like i ort to a done.
The other fellows elected themselves
directors an pinted one of themselves
ook-keeper, and pard and me never exactly
understood how 1t was, but there was assess
ments instead of divics, and finally we wus
both frozc out of the mine entirely after pay
hDack 10 the company all the dust we had
with en-.
After that knocked around in the dicgns
Tor spell, an then hearin of this Suscol
Il ltfsk TnN and hn,.1 n
tell yon wife, she's Just the most glorious
BIT OF country on this side of the big range
which nobody doesn't come back from when
they hev crost il, and hev took up 100 acres
OF land, and will hev cabin up AN a good bit
OF the sile broke afore you git here, and wei
be comfortable In our old age yit, in spite Of
This here's the finest valley in the State and
would AL have been took up long ago only
some rich fellows pretended TO have kind OF
spanish claim on to y, ana folks were afraid
TO settle here, most OF EN-, for fear of bein
driv of like we have been. but finally some
teller took the case up 10 court and it was de.
clded in favor of the squattcrs: that Is, them
as was on the land maxim of themselves
homes: and now everybody is a-rushin in and
prc,empt,n quarter sections. and you needn't
be afraid of bein lonesome, for we'll have
heghbors on every side in less than year
Well. this is an awful long letter, but you
eoe , wanted n TO tell you al about everything
cant cUme for you. You know Id like to ii
could, but cant and l promise you shan,
eNeF nave 10 move 6klu Iney cant drive us
much further any way. unless they make Us
take ship fer II: an they cant do that, fer the
courts hes decided that no body hes any claim
on To this here ranch, ceptin the fellows tina,
think Sy Peters will be down to see you
within a week from the time you get this fol
the time possible for getlin ready
liopin this will ind You and the babies ~
well AS il leaves me, Iremain
Your loyin husband.
john PARSONS.
The above letter was read by Martha
Parsons, first silently, and then aloud
to her two little girls, eight and ten
years Of age, as they stood in front OF
their mother and listened with breath
less attention and wide open eyes, as il
seeing wonderful things, half glorious,
half frightful, but altogether strange
and unexplainable.
These were the babies that John Par
sons had left six years before, when a
corporation representing a railroad laid
claim to large tract Of land upon
which he and hundreds of others had
settled. having bought and paid for it,
and holding, as they supposed, incon-
testable titles thereto.
When it first became known to them
that n corporation would contest with
them the right to their homes and
farms, a portion of the settlers threat
ened vengeance and declared they would
give up their own only with their lives;
but John loved peace better than con.
tcntion, and knew by experience the
difficulty of lighting bodies that have nc
souls within them, and he had said to
his wife:
1T is no use, Marty. The Philistines
are upon us agin, and we have got to
git. It's hard, | know; harder fer YOU
ner for me, for you was brought up sort
o tender like and ust to better things,
an you've worked hard and gone with
out much, and now when we was Just
gettin' start agin' after losin' what
your father Civ us an all we had added
TO 1t, on the spot where YOU was born,
its mighty tough, bur Wen have to
stand il.
They can't put us off the place for a
time, any way, for some of the fellers
are goin' to fight EN- with the law.
though 'taiu't no use, for they'll take
everything they want in the end: and
they want it all. But while they are a
doin' it Ill try an win enough to make
another home for you and the babies.
Ingo to California, Marty, and make a
fortune, while you stay on the place
with the youngsters, and by the time
they git ready to turn you out of this.
never fear but I'll come back with
enough to take you to another home
an better one. May be it is for the
best, after all. May be III git rich
enough to 60 back East and buy the
old place where you was born"
And SO John Parsons had got to-
gether what money he could by the sale
Of their few head of cattle and sheep,
.eaving the family with one COW to sup
NV than with milk had kissei fha