The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1905-04-20

llCS WHICH, picSeulg a " 4sWS1COlucs W tAS
home seeker. 1t is true that the troll.
ley systems do not fail to keep the rec
ord of accidental killings up to those Of
the east, and other killings and crimes
are not unknown in this model city,
and before mans genius and industry
made it what it is today, it was perhaps
in striking harmony with the descrip-
tion of some of the earlier visitors from
the eastern states. which EremifliIiis one
of what General Sheridan once said Of
Texas.
In the summer of 1855 at the close of
the Civil War, the writer took his reg
iment from Virginia to Brazos Santa
go, Texas, from which we with other
troops, built the first railroad ia the
western part of that state between Bra
zos and Brownsville, across General.
Taylor's Resaca de La Palma battle
field in the Mexican war. The jcoun-
try was sandy and the only vegetation
most of the way, was cactus, or cacti,
sage brush and mosquito wood. In the
fall General Sheridan, who command
ed that southwestern country with
headquarters at New Orleans, came
over to visit the troops along the Rio
Grande watching Macmillan, and
with his staff, mounted flat car one
morning at Brazos for his trip to
Brownsville. The party was seated on
chairs placed on the car for their ac-
commodation. I can see them now af-
ter nearly forty years, "Little Phil"
seemed to be almost as wide as he was
long, he had evidently grown since he
won that title. When he returned
from our part Of Texas to New Orleans
after his trip, some body asked him
how ne liked Texas and he replied: 81 i + +
I owned Texas and hell I'd rent out
Texas and go to hell"
We left Los Angeles by way Of the
Santa Fe road on the evening of March
22nd, and after climbing the Coast
Range, fifty miles from our starting
point, entered region which for hum
dreds of miles east through California,
Arizona and New Mexico awaits the
coming of the blessings Of the irriga-
ton system which the general govern
ment has wisely established, when
much of it will be changed from q des-
ert to veritable paradise; the red soil
which characterizes it foreshadows this
changed condition in the little green
patches which smile IN thankfulness
for the moisture they get from the wa.
ter tanks near the railroad stations
along the line.
The morning after we left Los An
geles we reached "The Needless on
the western line of Arizona, named, /
suppose, from several sharp, pointed
rocky shafts near by. Not far away
we crossed the Colorado river which
sweeps along with its waste of waters
into the Gulf of California, while the
fertile plains on either side are thirst
ing for the nourishment which at no
distant day will be given them and all
others in the territory, at the expense
of this river and other streams, and
they with other parts of the irrigable
territory will thus add incalculable
millions to the wealth of Arizona and
New Mexico, much of which will be
poured into the lap of Los Angeles,
the commercial metropolis of the south
west, with that of the mountains along
the new Salt Lake and Los Angeles
railroad, and the oil business Of the
Pacifc's southern California shore
Our trip over the plains and noun
talns of Arizona and New Mexico was
surprisingly and intensely interesting,
and the steady strain of the eye all day
long and we'll into the night to take in
the view proved to our satisfaction that
the labor of the eye was more exhauft
ing than that Of the brain or the mus
Gle.
We came into Colorado on the morn
ing following the third night out and
where we first saw it, at La Junto,--
called "La Hunta, ut differed little
from western Kansas that we reached
a little later and once more looked upon
a land which. although sparsely popu.
lated, had the general appearance OF
South Dakota. We arrived at Newton
about five O'Clock in the afternoon and
atWichita, one of the great boom towns
in the booming times, which is still
enjoying a large measure Of prosperity
with it's forty to fifty Thousand people
where thirty five years ago was the
end Of the Texas COW puncher's trail
an hour or two later.
We spent a week in that part of Kan
sas which with the territory west anC
east of it has grown so mary trees anc
hedges for improvement that they arr
no longer troubled to any great exten
with the hot winds that once were th,
scourge of Kansas, Nebraska and Da
kota. 1t is probable lie that by such tre'
| rrnxUinr in Kancac NohroolYo op1 Ol-