The leader., 1900-07-11
THE GREAT WEST.
Interesting Features of the Late
Editorial Excursion, rs Seen
by The Leaders Little
Representatives.

Mr.. and Mrs. l.. III. Bowen the editor
and his wife of the Lincoln County
Times, had planned together to go on
the Mississippi editorial excursion
West. | say "We," because for the
time embraced in the trip, j was
to lose my identity and be known as
something more impressive-the rep
resentative of THE LEADER, of Brook
haven; and if nobody had seen me they
might have thought was as equal to
the occasion as we're Mr.. and Mrs.
Bowen, who were solemnly charged to
take good care of me. You will
know more about that later on. Well,
we left for the Wild and Woody West on
the longest day in all the year. We
needed every minute of that day to
''get ready" in, to pack up and say
good bye" to the servants and the ba-
bies and the neighbors, to think of
something we had forgotten, to buy
something we might need, to laugh and
anticipate, and then when the unre
lenting and heaving engine pulled in,
for one, wanted even the minutes longer
that l might weep out my farewell, for
have to acknowledge that my first
thought on realizing that l was going
so far away, after staying just where l
was born for nearly fourteen years,
was, "will l ever get back homer
At jackson we foundsthe two Pull
man sleepers which were to be our
homes for the most of the next two
weeks, and after the unavoidable CON
fusion of hunting up baggage MIR.
Bowen said we had ten(?) valises, three
baskets ~ and bird cage (?), and de-
posting the same with ourselves, while
| was straining my eyes to see The
LEADER editor, my own father who was
to meet me at Jackson and whom | was
to represent in the now famous galaxy
of Mississippi's literary lights we
were comfortably settled in our sec
tions. Mr. r. II. Henry, the handsome
editor of the Clarion Ledger who was
very kind to me and who | have since
learned enterprisingly sent kilograms
abroad that things had happened be-
cause he knew they were going to hap
pen, was made captain" of one car
and Hon. J. G. Mcclure, Secretary
of the Mississippi Association and
editor of the Yazoo Herald, command
er-in-chie of the other.
There had been heavy rains in the
northern part of the State and in sew
eral places the cotton and corn were
under water. Wet as the ground was
in many places, we saw parties of ne
groes "scrapin' cotton We passed
through Tennessee and Kentucky in
the night. Many of us missed the
Cairo bridge, although few stayed
awake until we passed over it.
When we awoke next morning, after
enjoying the luxury of Palace Car
sleep, which may be "only dream"
we were on the prairies Every where
were fields of wheat and corn and oats
We saw great many fields where corn
at least two feet high, was under water.
The trees on the prairies are very diff
ferent from those in the South. There
is only one kind of oak and none of the
trees are remarkable for size Nearly
every residence has its little grove or
orchard, but they have all been plant
ed of late years. The houses have
very small rooms and smaller galleries
and often no galleries at all. On the
prairies we noticed only one house
with gallery running the entire
length of its front. The broad, long
inviting verandahs seem characteristic
of the South
We reached Chicago at about noon
and were taken to the Palmer House
where we had dinner, after which two
big tally with the compliments of
Barnhart Bros & Spindler and the
Butler Paper Co., arrived and we all
enjoyed the novelty of tallyho ride
at least a tallyho ride in Chicago
The windy city" evidently felt anx-
ious to show that it deserved its title,
for when we arrived it was not only
windy but cold. Wraps were in de-
mand and the numerous well-stuffed
valises looked relieved as we donned
them. We were driven along Lake
Mich igan, up Michigan Avenue, the
residence street of the city,
and out to Lincoln Park where nearly
all. the beasts of the field and birds of
the air have been collected mean
they were proxies" for those on the
outside who don't feel responsible for
what is done by their committee"
Perhaps the most interesting of the
animals was little buffalo calf.
We rode on the Ferris Wheel, which
is 265 feet high, about as high as any of
us want to go in the flesh.
At night we went to the theatre The
next day we were left to our own de-
vices until evening when the train left
for the West. The next morning, Sun
day, we arrived in Omaha, where we in
tended staying about half an hour, but
as we were too late to make connection
with the train which was to take us on
to Salt Lake we had to stay all day.
We put up at the Her Grand Hotel
during the day and in the evening we
were entertained with a trolley ride
by the Merchants Club of the city, af-
ter which we went aboard the cars.
We travelled all night; and the next
day found US on the plains with little
in sight most of the time except rocks
and sand, sage brush and prairie dogs.
OF course there were towns once in
while, most of them small and strag
Cling And we could see mountains