The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1894-08-02
PART IL.
The Country of the Saints.
CHAPTER 1.


Eorth American continent there lies I'M
arid and repulsive desert, which for
MANY a long year served as a 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 a region of desolatiOn and silence.
Nor is nature always n one mood
throughout this grim district. 1t COM
prises snow-capped and lofty mountains
and dark and gloomy valleys. There
are swift flowing 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, 1nhoSplt-
atty and misery.
There are no inhabitants of this land
of despair. A band of Pawnees or of
Blackfeet may occasion lily traverse 1t
i'm order to reach other hunting grounds,
| but the hardest of the braves are glad
to lose sight of those awsome plains,
and to find themselves once more upon
the prairies. The coyote skulks among
| the scrub, the buzzard flaps heavily
L
bear numbers through the dark ravines,
and picks up such sustenance as it can
among the rocks. These are the sole
| jewellers in the wilderness.
In the whole world there can be no
| n ore dreary view than that from the
| a Wiharn slope of the Sierra Blan %.
AS far as the eye can reach stretches
| tile grt at fiat plainland, all busted over
i all an1 iatnrSpnfA6
by clumps of the dwarfish chappHral
bushes. On the extceme verge of the
horizon lie long chain of mo I4tain
peaks, with their rugged SUBMITS
| fIecked with snow. In this great
| stretch of country there is no sign OF
life, nor of anything pertaining to life.
There is no bird N the steeEblue heay-
en-, no movement upon the duh gray
| earth-above all, there Is absolute ST.
lence. Listen as one may, there Is no
shadow of a sound in oil that mighty
wilderness; nothing but silence-com-
plete and heart-subduing silence.
/ It has been said that there is nothing
arpertaining to life upon the broad
plain. That is hardly true. Looking
down the Sierra Blanco one sees q
pathway traced out across the desert,
which winds away and is lost in the ex-
IRENE distance. It is rutted with
wheels and trodden down by the feet
of many adventures. Here and there
are scattered white objects which glis-
ten in the sun, and stand out against
the dull deposit Of alkah. Approach
and examine them! They are bones,
some large and coarse, others smaller
and more delicate. The former have
belonged to oxen, and the latter to
men. For fifteen hundred miles one
may trace this CHASTITY caravan route
by these scattered remains of those
who have fallen by the wayside.
Looking down on this very scene
there stood on the fourth of May
eighteen hundred and forty-seven, q
solitary tFaVeleF. His appearance
was such that he might have
the region. An observer would have
found it difficult to say whether he was
nearer to forty or to sixty. His face
was lean and haggard, and the brown
parchment skin was drawn tightly over
the projecting bones; his long, brown
hair and beard were all fiecked and
dashed with white; his eyes were sunk
en- In his head, and burned with an un
natural lJistra; while the hand which
grasped his rife was hardly more
feshy than that of a skeleton. AS hS
stood, he leaned upon his weapon fol
support, and yet his tall figure and thu
massive framework of his bones sug
gested wiry and vigorous constitu
ton. His gaunt face, however, and LII:
clothes, which hung so baggily over hi!
shriveled limbs, proclaimed what j
was that gave him that senile ana de
crepit appearance. The man was dy
ing=vdying from hunger and from
thirst.
He had toiled painfully down the IA
vine, and on to this little elevation, u
the vain hope of seeing some signs O
water. Now the great salt pIail
stretched before his eyes, and the dis
tant belt of savage mountains, withou
sign anywhere Of plant or tree, which
might indicate the presence Of moist
ure In all that broad landscape Their
was no CLEAN of hope. North, an,
east, and west he looked with wild
questioning eyes, and then he realizes
that his wandRripgs had come to al
end, and that there, On that barrel
crag, lie was about to die. 4Why no
here as well as in feather bed, TWEEN
ty years hence" he, muttered, as h
seated himself in the shelter Of
boulder.
Before sitting down, he had depos
tied upon the ground his useless rife
and also q large bundle tied up in
gray shawl. which he had carried
slung eveY his right shoulder. 1t al
peared to be seMewhat too heavy fo
his strength, for, in lowering it,
came down on the ground with son,
little violence. Instantly there bTok
from the gray parcel little m9anip
cry, and from it there protEuded
, small. scared face, with very ligl
brown eyes, and two little specklct
4 ,Yo1 Qoku