Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1898-12-29

Il Will cure after few appli-
cations, and make the
lis muscles timber and strong.
The mountains were grand but will
tell you all about it.
We reached Council Bluffs at IL, in
the morning and at our train came in.
AS we had to wait an hour spent the
time IN watching our travelling COM
panions. -Four or five sections were
occupied by minister, his Wife. sis
ter and four little boys. The minis.
ter was fussy little man in black
skull cap, who kept trotting up and
J down after his little boys who kept
running all over and into everything.
They most always kept out of his
way but when he did succeed in catch
ing one he would sit him down so hard
upon seat that it would almost crack.
His wife was a good deal like him but
liked his sister very well and we
soon became pretty good friends.
There was also an elderly overdressed
lady who kept talking to me all the
time when | didn't want her to, and
when was lonesome she was asleep.
These were the only people on the car
but they were enough. 1t was even
ing when we crossed into Nebraska
and the preacher brought forth two
books. One was the Bible and the
other was "Puckn. He read about
two minutes in his Bible and the re-
mainder of the evening in Puck.
About this time / was pretty home
sick and wished myself at home in my
little white bed; however the porter
came and made my berth and l went
to bed. | didn't sleep much that
night and | always woke up every
time the train stopped. Once ] had
got nicely to sleep and | woke with
a start to find something slowly
crawling over me. 1t was dark in
the car and | was just ready to give
one terrific" yell, when a little
piping voice said +" whyee l must be
in the wrong berth y, and one of the
little boys tumbled out and trotted off.
didn't sleep any more that night,
and was rather afraid it was so dark.
The next morning | opened my shut
ter and watched the sun come over
the prairies of western Nebraska; it
was beautiful. AS far as / could see
was level land broken only by a dug
Out OF Il log caDln.
At 10, we drew into Cheyenne and
had to wait an hour for the Denver
train. The sister, and / got out
and took walk. 1t was very cold.
We could see quite a good deal of the
city from the depot; also the state
house. About two miles west of this
| saw my first mountains, and then
we began gradually to go up until we
were right on top of them. We stop
ped up here at little town called
Sherman, and the sister, and l got
out. 1t was very Geld and very high
up; $3.50 feet and the highest point
along that line. The air felt so good
and bracing; 1 just breathed and
breathed, it seemed as though l never
had before. Being so high up made
"our old lady's" nose bleed, and She
was very sick for awhile. Then we
began to descend and rushed through
a tunnel and several snow sheds and a
very high bridge, the highest on the
Union Pacific. There were some
houses down below in the CANYON
that looked like inverted chalk boxes.
AT Granger, all of our party changed
cars and were joined by another fam
lily from Denver. When | awoke the
next morning. we We're in Idaho.
Idaho, is very funny country; all
alkali plains covered with sage brush
and buffalo grass. Near some Of the
streams would be small pieces of Gull
tivated land, with irrigation bitches
running all over it. The stations are
not very large towns, sometimes moth
ing but sign posts with the names on
them. liked it here very much.
The sage is such pretty green and it
covered the mountains clear up to the
snow lines. Some times out here in
this, what might be called desert
we would see lonely looking covered
wagon, almost swallowed up In a sea
of sage. Or an indian camp, or a
group of western ponies and some COW.
boys. This fully met my idea of the
wild and woody west" In the after
noon, we seemed to be going towards
range of mountains that i had no.
ticed in the distance AS we got
nearer was surprised to find a pink
mist which seemed to hang right
around the base OF the mountains.
| asked pa what was the cause of this
and he said there must be some large
body of water there; and sure enough
we came upon the Snake or Shoshone
river which wound and twisted around
among these mountains very much
like a snake indeed. The railroad
went right along with it, and oh!
tell yon the scenery here was beauti-
full. The mountains wer9 sage green
with white tops; the river is dark
green with pink mist over it and the
sun shining on; all this was very
beautiful. 1t seemed to me as though
sometimes we We're going right
straight into a mountain but the river
would make a sudden turn and we
would go with it. At Bennington we
turned our watches back a couple of
hours. AT Weizer an aunt of mine
whom had never seen got on the
train and rode quitea ways with. us.
The next morning we were within
thirty miles of Portland and running
along the Columbia river 1t was
very beautiful but we had passed the
most beautiful scenery along the
river during the night. At Portland
we saw some steamboats, and some
sailing vessels from Liverpool. l also
saw what / thought was very funny;
some house boats in which people
lived.
At Ora0On City va COW, cow, wow,