The Norfolk weekly news-journal. (Norfolk, Neb.) 1900-19??, 1910-12-02
A Ride over the Rosebud

A Ride over the Rosebud
Norfolk, Neb., Nov 26. Editor The
News: Recently we traversed by auto
the ancient realm of the Sioux In.
dians, travelling from Carter, s. d., to
Valentine, Neb. The plowshare of civ.
ilization has yet scarcely obliterated
the trails of the Indians and the wal
lows of the buffalo in all that vast
region and much of it is primitive as
age The genius of man will ultimate.
ly overcome all difficulties regarding
the settlement of this region and It
will some day sustain large popula-
ton a journey across these lands is
an eXhilirating experience. over the
rugged canyon walls and terraced
Duties, we spurned distance as the
miles receded and the shimmering
horizon unfolded before us in illimit-
able perspective We loitered betimes
in some hill-encircled valley where
in lakelets nesting in bowls of gold
en- sands, and here we took toll of
myriad floCks of ducks basking in
the sheen of sunlight and ripping wa
ter. Always, however, speeding or
lettering, we Sazed with awe and rev.
erence upon the wonderful buttes,
consecrated through unreckoned cen
turtles by the graves and council fires
of race whose beginning of days is
recorded among the mysteries of the
infinite and whose end of life is now
decreed by the inhexible destiny of
evolution. Darkly, as if bathed in an
elixir of amber, purple and gold, the
buttes doomed athwart the horizon
miniature mountains, superimposed
hap-ha2ard and in fantastic shapes
upon the level table lands as if ante
deluvian giants had suddenly aban-
doned their whe elbarrows and left in
completed sections of mammoth forts
and railway grades higher than the
Norfolk poStotiice. 1t is a land of H.
fusion, where the witchery of the mi
rage mirrors in the sky the panorama
of butte, valley and lake, where the
mented as if ny the hand of giant
sculptors. The lights and shadows
soften, gid aud glorify even the des
ert until it glOws with tints OF trans
cendent loveiLess and the mind is
lost in contemplation of the entrance
ing picture. Above the golden haze
of autumn an eagle scars in the
cloudless sky, the wind is hushed, the
silence and sublimity of the wilder
ness awes the senses and fills the
heart with ineffable peace. The gor-
Seous tints of the setting sun radiate
and scintillate from the variegated
augmented strata of the buttes, they
cast silvery SianCes upon the lakes
and battle the shadows with a mystic
purple CLEAN. The hypnotic spell of
nature is rudNly disspated by whir-
ring wings that arise almost from be-
meath the wheels of the car and the
aIluring picture of a fat prairie chick
en- in the frying pan dispells other
pictures for the time. Once we dis
turbed a coyote from his sieSta and
raced with him for about a mile. AL
though we attained a thirty-five- mile
speed, Mr.. FrOwsy simply set his
speed lever up another notch and kept
ahead with that deceiving lope that
fairly eats up distance. A ditch across
our course compelled us to slow down,
but we felt that we had given the coy
ote workout such as he had never
enjoyed before. Up in the Rosebud
country the settlers all look upon Nor
folk as their metropolis. They are
vitality interested in what we are do
ing and all that concerns our inter.
ests.
Gently the twilight fails and the
riot of colors and cleaning sunlight
gives place to soft after glow suf-
fusing earth and sky. The shadows
lengthen from the tall buttes, the ci-
cada has hushed its stridlent note, ant
a cool evening breeze whispers down
the canyons. In the gathering dusk
the mind can almost see the vast cav
alcades of buffalo, elk and deer that
erstwhile roaned these plains and val
leys, and in the plaintive howl of The
coyote the imagination easily con
jures up the chant of some dusky war
rior wooing his mate or worshipping
the great spirit. The illusion is so
natural-so much part If the set
ting of the picture that it becomes for
the moment a realization and we
scarcely can grasp the conviction that
only the bleaching bones remain of
the vast herds OF game and an insig-
nificant and degenerate remnant of
the whole race of warriors who once
peopled the land. j. II. Mackay.
Flene Trial This Week.
Ponca, Neb., Nov. 26.-NeXt week in
the district court at PonCa, the case of