Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1894-03-09
Pact II.
The Country Of TIE Saints
on TIE GREAT ALRAII PLAIN.

an arid and repulsive desert which for
| many a long year served as barrier
| against the advance OF civilization.
/ From the Sierra Nevada to Nebraska
| and from the Yellowstone river in the
north to the Colorado upon the south
is region OF desolation and silence.
| Nor is nature always in one mood
throughout this grim district. 1t COM
| prises snow-capped and lofty noun
| tains and dark and gloomy valleys
| There are swift-howing rivers which
dash through jagged canyons, and
| there are enormous plains which in
winter are white with snow and in
summer are gray with the saline alkah
dust. They all preserve, however, the
common characteristics of barrenness,
inhospitality and misery.
There are no inhabitants of this land
of despair \ band of Pawnees or Of
Blackfeet may occasionally traverse it
| in order to reach other hunting
| grounds, but the hardest Of the braves
are glad TO lose sight of those awesome
| plains, and to find themselves once
more upon their prairies. The coyote
skulks among the scrub, the buzzard
flaps heavily through the air. and the
| clumsy grizzly bear lumbers through
the dark ravines, and picks mp such
sustenance as it can among the rocks.
These are the sole dwellers in the will
derness.
In the whole world there can be nc
more dreary view than that from the
northern slope of the Sierra Blanco.
As far as the eye can reach stretches
the great fat plainland, all busted over
with patches of alkali, and intersected
by clumps of the dwarfish chaparral
bushes. On the extreme verge of the
horizon lies long chain of mountain
peaks, with their rugged SUBMITS
fieclzed with snow. In this great
stretch of country there is no sign of
life, nor of anything appertaining to
life. There is no bird in the steel-blue
heaven, no movement upon the dull,
gray earth-above all, there is abso-
lutte silence. Listen as one may, there
Is no shadow of a sound in all that
mighty wilderness; nothing but silence
complete and heart-subduing silence.
It has been said there is nothing APP
pertaining to life upon the broad
plain. That is hardly true Looking
down from the Sierra Blanco. one sees
a pathway traced ont across the desert,
which winds away and is lost in the
extreme distance. 1t is rutted with
wheels and trodden down by the feet
of many adventurers Here and there
are scattered white objects which
glisten in the sun, and stand ont
against the dull deposit of alkali Ap-
proach and examine them! They are
bones; some large and coarse, others
smaller and more delicate. The for
mer have belonged to oxen, and the
latter to men. For fifteen hundred
miles one may trace this ghastly cara
van route by these scattered remains
of those who had fallen by the way
side.
Looking down on this very scene,
there stood upon the 4th of May, 1s47,
solitary traveller. His appearance
was such that he might have been the
very genius or demon of the region.
An observer would have found it diff
cult TO say whether he was nearer TO
forty or TO sixty. His face was lean
and haggard, and the brown, parch-
ment-like skin was drawn tightly over
the projecting bones; his long. brown
hair and beard were all flccked and
dashed with white. his eyes were
sunken in his head, and burned with
an unnatural luster, while the hand
which grasped his rifle was hardly
more ficshy than that of n skeleton.
As he stood, he leaned upon his weapon
for support, and yet his tall figure and
the massive framework Of his bones
suggested a wiry and vigorous consti-
tuition. His gaunt face, however, and
his clothes, which hung so baggily over
his shriveled limbs, proclaimed what
IL was that gave him that senile and
decrcpit appearance. The man was
dying-dying from hunger and from
thirst.
He had toiled painfully down the
ravinc and on to this little elevation,
in the vain hope OF seeing some signs
of water. Now the great salt plain
stretched before his eyes, and the dis
tant belt of savage mountains, without
q sign anywhere of plant or tree, which
might indicate the presence Of moist
urc. In all that broad landscape
there was no CLEAN OF hope. North
and east and west he looked with wild
questioning eyes, and then he realized
that his wanderinRs had come to an
end and that there, on that barren
crag, he was about TO die. why not
here, az well as in feather bed, twenty
years hence" he muttcred, as he seated
himself in the shelter OF n bowlder.
Before sitting down, he had de-
posted upon the ground his useless
To- 1a JrYa11e. fif.1
In gray shawl, which he had carried
slung over his right shoulder. II APP
peared to be somewhat too heavy for
his strength, for, in lowering 1t, 1t
came down on the ground with some
little violence. Instantly there broke
from the gray parcel little moaning
cry, and from IL there protruded a
small. scared face, with very bright
brown eyes, and two little speclled
dimpled fists.
you've hurt mel" said childish
voice, rcproachfully.
"Have though?' the man answered,
penitently; 81 didn't 20 for To do it."
As he spoke hc unwrapped the gray
shawl and cxtricated "a pretty little girl
of about five years Of age. whose
dainty shoes and smart pink frock,
with its little linen apron, all bespoke
a mothcr'a care. The child was pale
and wan, but her healthy arms and
legs showed that she had suffered less
than her companion.
How Is IL now?' he answered, anx-
ionsly, for She was still rubbing the
toyvgy golden curl5 which covered the
back Of her head.
kiss IL and make il well" she said,
with perfect gravity, showing the in
jurcd part up 20 him. That's what
mother used 10 do. Where's mother7"
Mothers gone. / guess you'll REQ
her before long"
Gone, eh." said the little girl.
funny, she didn't say good-by; she
most always did If she was just goin'
over 20 auntie's for tea, and now she's
been away for three days. Say, it's
awful dry, amt IL? Amt there no
water nor nothing 90 eat?"
mo. there amt nothing, deGrie.
You'll lust need TO be patient awhile,
and then you'll be all right. Put your
head up agin me Hike that, and then
you'll feel better. IL amt easy TO talk
when your lips Is like leather, bat
guess, ia best let you know how the
cards lie. What's that you've got?"
pretty thingsl fine things" cried
the little girl enthusiastically, holding
up two glittcring fragments OF mica.
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