The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1893-08-03
PRINCETON
For the UNION.
From st. Paul to ..The Angels

ern California could offer nothing more
uncomfortable at this season, and it was
with almost sense of relief that we
started on June fifteenth evening,
upon our journey toward the setting
sun.
Our first change, at five o'clock the
following morning, necessitated an
early rising and we were glad enough
to exchange our stuffy Pullman
sleeper with it's brocades and pushes,
for an hours rest in hard depot seat |
at Grinnell, Iowa.
At this point we boarded the s'Over-
land Flyer" on the Rock Island route
and were borne briskly westward upon
it's tireless wings. Through Iowa with |
it's well-cultivated grain-felds and oc-
casional apple-orchards, through it's
capital city where a distant view of
the State House with gilded dome sent
our imagination travelling eastward to
''Boston on the Bay,'' across the
muddy waters'' at Council Bluffs and
into Nebraska with it's growing towns
and thrifty farms dotting the wide
prairie where groves of young forest
trees bow to the breeze and send out
their cooling influence to pay tribute
to j. Sterling Morton and that blessed
VI LID W1ouOlu-z 1AIUOI DCty
| An occasional school-house standing
to mind the thrilling experiences of
some of the brave little school ma'ans
in their battles with Thea billiards., but
| the billowy fields and golden sunlight
made these PARKWAY wintry terrors diff
| ticult of conception and we watched
with regret the darkness fall upon the
PASTORAL beaItV of the scene
Presto, change! A glance from the
window of our berth upon awakening
in the early morning revealed a
picture SO different, we rubbed our
eyes vigorously to make sure that we
were not still in the land of dreams.
A vast plain, clad only in a scrubby
covering of wiry buffalo grass,
stretched away to the horizon with
never a tree or a shrub to break the
awful monotony and the sun arose,
literally, that morning, from a sea of
sand. Soon a settlers ranch appeared,
a tiny enclosure in that vast desert,
then others, few and far between, and an
unmistakable school house filled US with
wonderment as to whence came the
"young idea." Miles of this made the
foothills and later, the veritable Rock
les welcome sight, and at A. M. we
passed under the shadow of Pixies
I Peak and Cheyenne Mountain and en-
tered the beautiful city of Colorado
Springs where we were to connect with
4 the Denver and Rio Grande railway.
i Finding that our train was not due
| for something more than two hours,
we were conveyed to the Elk House
where a warm breakfast and a good
hours rest made it possible to look
about the city with some degree Of
comfort. 1t is a truly beautiful place
with broad avenues, fine buildings and
well-kept grounds, and is a great re-
sort for invalids, many of whom make
their home in the city and go tc
Manitou, six miles away, for treatment
at the springs. =.
We would like to have climbed to the
lonely spot upon Cheyenne mountain
chosen by Helen Hunt jackson for he1
last resting place, but could not in the
time allowed us, though, had WE
known in season we might have
visited the cemetery where her re
mains are now laid. Pixies Peak wa
crowned with the first snow-cap W.
had seen and this fact no less than it,
name in history and it's Importance a.
It a signal service station made it a pOin
u of great interest to US. '~
Leaving Colorado Springs we passed
. through extensive tracts of sage brush
relieved only by an occasional field O
! alfalfa or the wooded outline of
mountain stream, stopped for few
moments at Pueblo, with it's EXTENSIVE
steel works and smelter visible in tn
distance and entered the Grand Cano]
at about 1 P. M. just at the entranc
to the canon the State penitentiary i
located and many convicts were a
work under guard by the roadside
while far up on the mountains W
could see sentinels pacing back an
forth, each under a little leafY canop
| and with gun glistening upon hi
shoulder, mercilessly ready, it SCENE
} to us to blot out the life of that less
fortunate fellow creature who shout
presume to lift his eyes toward free
DOM
The turbulent Arkansas which W
had been following for some time, no
leaped and tumbled over the rocks
: its narrowing channel, fretting NOR
! and more as we neared the Roys
s and here we left the car to sit upO
the platform where we might have "a
Il unobstructed view of the grandeu
< through which we were passing. VIII
= can describe it? That wild rus
;. through this rent in the rocks, shut j
with the mad torrent that Tapped il
foaming sides as if hungry to engu
US; OF plunge forward in a seemingl
insane attempt to break through th
D imprisoning walls; a sudden opening s
narrow that it seemed we must b
crowded into the surging current;
dash through the fissure, around I
curve and out upon the suspende
bridge while the shrek Of engine an
clatter of cars rebounded from tt
3 rocks in demoniac laughter and "
held on, breathless, with eyes fixe
upon the jagged line Of sky far, f.
: above us-the only remaining link
connect us with the outer world. N,
long after the canon, we passed Said
@ a famous mountain resort, and sti
climbing up, up, up, reached Lea,
vile, the ''city above the clouds, -
6 p. M.
Ter Here, at an altitude Of more tina
.1ot trNc,o -. L l.