Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1891-03-07
CHAPTER IT.
CHAPTER III.
LEAVES FROM A YOUNG GENTLEMAN's
JOURNAL.

CHAPTER II.
LEAVES FROM A YOUNG GENTLEMAN's
JOURNAL.
Before setting forth on this memora-
bic pilgrimage to nowhere, l promised
a certain friend of mine, in literary Bo-
hemia, to keep notes of my adventures,
with view of future publication, illus
trated by my own brilliant sketches. |
fear the promise was rash one-firstly,
hecs.,,se / aFss- iana.llv law al,sl
averse 10 literary eXertion, and, second
ly, because l have, as yet. met with no
adventures worth writing about. Not
that have altogether lost my first en-
thusiasm for the idea. There would be
novelty in the title, at any rate, Cruises
in a Caravan by Charles Brinkley with
illustrations by the author; photo
graphic frontispiece, the caravan, with
Tim as large as life, smirking self-con-
sciously in delight at having his pictur'
taken. My friend B. has promised
to find me publisher, if l will only
persevere. Well, we shall see. IL the
book does not progress, it will be entire
ly my own fault; for have any amount
of time on my hands. Paint as hard as
may all day, have always the long
evenings, when | must either write,
read, or do nothing.
$50 l am beginning this evening, ex-
actly fortnight after my first start
from Chester. purchased the caravan
there from morose individual, with
one eye, who had had it built with a
view to the exhibition of Wild Man of
Patagonia; but said wild man having
taken it into his head to return to
County Cork, where he was born, and
the morOse individual having no def
mite idea of novelty to take his place.
the caravan came into the market.
Having secured this travelling palace,
duly furnished with window-blinds, a
piece OF carpet, achair-bedstead, table,
a stove, cooking utensils, not to speak
of my own artistic paraphernalia, sent
over to Mulrany, County Mayo, for my
old servant, Tim-na- Chalnig, or Tim o.
the Ferry-otherwise Tim Linney; and
with his assistance, when he arrived, /
purchased a strong mare at Chester
Fair. All these preliminaries being set
tied, We started one fine morning soon
after daybreak, duly bound for explora-
tions along the macadamized highways
and byways of North Wales.
II am pleased to say that Tim, after
he had recovered the first shock of see-
ing a peripatetic dwelling-house, took
to the idea wonderfully. Sure it's just
like the ould cabin at home,' he aver
red, 'barrin' the wheels, and the windies,
and the chimley, and the haste to pull
it along;' and think the resemblance
would have been complete in his eyes,
If there had only been two or three pigs
to trot merrily behind the back door.
AS for myself, took to the nomad life
as naturally as If had never in my life
been in civilized habitation. To be
able to 60 where one pleased, to dawdle
as one pleased, to stop and sleep where
one pleased, was certainly new sensa-
tion. My friends, observing my slug
gish ways, had often compared me to
that interesting creature, the snail; now
the resemblance was complete, for Twas
a snail, indeed, with my house comfort
ably fixed upon my shoulders, crawling
TRANQUILITY along.
@Of course, the caravan has its incon-
veniences. Inside, to quote the elegant
simile OF our progenitors, there is
scarcely room enough to swing cat in;
and when my bed is made, and Tins
hammock is swung just inside the door,
the place forms the tiniest of sleeping
chambers. Then our cooking arrange
ments are primitive, and as Tim has no
idea whatever in the culinary art, be-
yond being able to boil potatoes in their
skins, and make very doubtful stir
about there is acertain wantof variety
In our repasts. To break the monotony
of this living, ! endeayor, whenever we
como to town with decent hotel in
1t, to take square meal away from
home.
Besides the Inconvenience which
have mentioned, but which were, per-
haps, hardly worth chronicling, the car
avan has social drawbacks, Laore par
ticularly embarrassing to q modest man
like myself. 1t Is confusing, for eltam-