Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1900-08-23
Communicated.

Communicated.
EDITOR TlMEs:- fewdays sojourn
in Omaha a short time ago brought to
mind doggerel which appeared in
some of the papers in theearly sixties.
Omaha was then post" whose con.
nection with the great west beyond,
was by OK team, instead of as now, by
teel rail, spreading like fan in every
Erection.
Here too, came the mobile red man,"
to buy his bullets and tire-water; here
came the gambler and the outlaw, the
adventurers, and he who sought to re-
trieve a lost fortune.
1t was indeed a strange comingling
of vice and savagery, civilization and
vice. 1t was the tidal wave of civili-
cation mastering here on this border
line of the great desert, the discordant
element, forming the "semi -barbaris
hords" of the great west.
Here were the lines, and any one
who visited the place in those days.
will certainly admit that the writer
chad been there"
Hast thou ever been to Omaha?
Where rolls the dark Missouri down.
Where four Strong horses scarce can
draw,
An empty wagon through the town.
"Where sand is blown from every
mound,
10 Till your eyes, and ears and throat.
Where all the steamers are aground,
And all the shanlies are afoat.
"Where Bowie knives are all che run,
And bloody scalpers came to trade,
Where everything is overdone,
And everybody underpaid.
where whisky shops the livelong night
Are vending forth their poison juices,
Where men, are always pretty tight,
But women are trille lOOser.
..If you should go to Omaha,
You'll find it sir, as have found it,
And ii it lieth in your way.
For Gods sake, stranger, pray go 'roun
it,"
But times have wro ught many chan
ges. No longer the plodding river stea-
mers carefully feel their way among
the hidden snags and shifting sand of
the dark Missouri" but in their place
the iron horse speeds his way in sun
and rain, in summers heat and winter
Id, through drouth and food, and
storm, all undeterred. No longer does
the tired horse mire in the streets; for
far away and beyond what was then
the city, or post, the electric railway
cars rumble over stone. paved streets,
and electric lights cast their welcome
rays, where the willy red man stalked,
or pitched his tent in solitude or the
deer and elk rOamed at will.
Neither does the shifting sands blind
the traveller, for grand and stately 1es-
licences occupy the space once lilled by
drifting sand.
No steamers are aground, but to the
north, skirting the bluffs, and along
the line of the b Il NJ, and the c. St.
z. NJ. Il o r. RS, are "shanties" which
Deed but goodly rainfall to be atloat,
and brings back vivid picture o.
what Omaha was in the early days.
The Bowie knife is thing of the
past, hut in its place IS the equally de
structiye cigarette, and Omaha boys,
as we'll as Missouri Valley boys, take
very kindly to them. Scalpers are in
d led scarce, and their work ploodless,
consisting chiefly is scalping tickets
and fleeing the unwary.
One thing is certainly unchanged,
for not only during he livelong night,
but the whole day as we'll. the whisky
shops are vending their poison juices,
and with such zeal and assiduity Is the
business carried on that water is al
most an unknown quantity. There
are no public fountains where the
weary traveller can slack his thirst with
a glass of pure water, but if you are
determined to have water, just step in
to some small grocery, or restaurant,
and ask for drink, and they will refer
you to the next door, either side, or
just across the street where you can
get glass of cool beer for five cents:
but then you want drink of water.
and if they do not deny having any on
the premises. they will take you into
the third room back, and down stair
into the basement, aud there you can
draw a glass of w.to. wh;o,,