The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1898-12-16
From MankatO to the Pacific
Ocean.
Interesting Description of Sights and
Scenes on the Trip Across Half
the Continent.
Los Angeles, Cal, Dec. 3. 1898.

seems like dream OF travel. Like
Nellie Bly,, We flew; or Jules Verne,
we winged our way over hill and dale
and prairie and desert, as If shot from
one of DeweY's great guns. Our train
consisted only OF palaJial SleeperS, no
day cars, with Diner, reading room,
barber shop, and all the luXuries of a
first.rate hotel with electrical lights,
and an observation car in the rear.
The modern railway has reached the
ideal in travelling.
We passed rapidly through Iowa,
with its elegant towns, and superb
farms, d noble panorama or the best
product OF American civilization. We
reached Kansas City, that rich en-
porium OF pigs and steers, IN the early
morning, and sat down TO Il good
breakfast. / recalled the day when,
as Provost Marshal General OF the de-
partment of Missouri, this city was in
my control. 1t was full OF guerillas,
bush whackers, thieves and murderers
in those days, aud they gave me
world Of trouble. We captured and
tried scores OF them, guilty Of every
imaginable crime, from murder, down
through all the gradatiuus of vice
and with my A provost marsha!s, |
ruled and governed three-fOurths OF
the state by martial law only
/ remember Que woman who came
all the way from Kansas City, TO nay
headquarters at Sd. Lou)S, TO get me
to grant her divorce from her hus-
band, who, she alleg2d d, was bush
whacker, murderer, and generally
bad | told her the only release l
could furnish her at my court was to
catch her husband, shoot him and
make her a blooming widow. She
told me where l would probably tnd
him, and wished me speedy success.
Leaving Kansas City, we passed di-
agonally, from NE to SW through
the state Ct Kansas, The state looks
rich and prosperous, till you get to
the southwest. Good homes and
farms have then disappeared. That
part of the state is as level as a be-
Gained sea. They raise nothing but
alfalfa and cattle in those parts.
There was not an undulatioD to break
the monotOny Of the dead level. 1t
is the native haunt of the festive
cyclone. Near by the few houses we
passed, we saw the curious cyclone
cellars, which by no means invite one
to immigrate. When you purpose to
emigrate, don't so to any part of
Western Kansas. 1t is as level as
your shirt bosom, and as dreary as
level.
We now entered Colorado, and soon
began to climb the mountains, rough,
ragged. Spanish Peaks" loOmed in
the distance, and their tops were
covered with snow. La what we saw
OF the state, there was no prosperity.
We hugged the edge Of the mining
districts, with perhaps many a vein
of gold or silver beneath our flying
wheels.
Though the mountains were grand,
what we beheld of the state looked as
though IL was imp JVerlShed by the
disease called free silver" And yet
there are stores of wealth IN the
bowels Of those ragged mountains.
Dropping rough Colorado TO the
rear, we entered New Mexico, with
its long stretches Of valleys, anu Curl
Gus spurs Of mountains, which con-
tinuously threaten TO ObstrucJ your
path, but which your serious course
avoids. Hours upon hours, you pass
the same repeated scene Of valleys
and mountain spurs, with scattered
herds and fiocks, till you reach Las
Vegas, where you are surprised TO
find a real city, quite as large as Man
kato, well built aud q COMPOSITE
D ace Of lie American aud "greaser
Around the Depot and ware houses
hundreds of bales Of wool were piled,
awaiting shipment, and which clearly
4 linz hnSjnnC Of 40
country. Near this city are famous
hot springs, where they par-boil
rheumatics Of all classes, and give
mud baths, like pigs in walloW.
Along the valleys, as we pursue cur
rapid way, the adobe houses appear,
the homes Of the Mexican ''greaser
They are built OF unbdked, mud
bricks, and are low and cherries
human habitatiOns. They dot the
landscape in nearly every valley.
Long ropes Of red peppers festooD
nearly every doorway and WINDOW,
which are called 'chillis" and are not
as strong as our red peppers The
sgreasers" eat them with meat, beans
and every dish Of soup is hot with
them. In these hot ATTITUDES, the
pepper is considered antimalarial,
antiseptic, antiscorbutic, antifebrile,
AUTHORIZATIONS, or any other anti
which you may be pleased to place
this prefix against.
The same dreary, tame and tire
some scene presents itself, till you
reach Albuquerque, lively city with
a railway Junction for old Mexico We
have already passed by Santa Fe.
leaving it II p lies away from the
main line, and the city is reached by
a spur of the Santa Fe.
Being here in this curious land, re-
called the time when President Lin
coin, in 1861, offered me the position
ofsecretary OF the then far-tff terri
tory of New Mexico. l respectfully
declined the offer, which came
Through my noble friend, the late
Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase. But
what change in my career might
have followed had accepted?
But on we whizzed and whirled,
marking here and there herds of cattle
and fiocks of sheep. browsing on
bushes, or nipping the thinest Of
grass, till we entered the arid wastes
of Arizona. Here the fiocks began to
disappear. aud the sandy, stony
wastes OF barren land to increase. We
saw some Pueblo Indians, who looked
as worthless as the country. On