Connecticut western news., 1922-03-02
CHAPTER II.
Wherein Is a Brief Account of Sundr
 Curious Characters Met on the Road

At Utica they bought provisions with a real porcelain face for Betsey, and turned into the great main thor oughfare of the North leading eastward to Boston and westward to a shore of the midland seas. This road was once the great trail of the Iroquois by them called the Long House, be- cause 1t had reached from the Hudson to Lake Erie, and in their day had been well roofed with foliage.
 Soon they came in view Of the famous Erie canal, hard by the road. Through 1t the grain of the Far West had just begun moving eastward in a tide that was flowing from April to December. Big barges, drawn by mules and horses on It's shore, were cutting the still waters of the canal. They stopped and looked at the barges and the long tow ropes and the tug ging animals. ..s. --.
 There is a real artificial river, hundreds O miles long, hand made of the best material, water tight, no snags or rocks or other imperfections, durability guaranteed" said Samson Tt has made the name of Dewitt Clinton known everywhere"
 T wonder. what next" Sarah ex- claimed. -ts ah
 They met many teams and passed other movers going west, and some prosperous farms on a road wider and smoother than any they had trav- eled. They camped1 that night, close by the river, with Connecticut fam fly on its way to Ohio with a great load of household furniture on one wagon and seven children in another.
 So they fared along through Canan- daigua and across the Genesee to the village of Rochester, and on through Lewiston and up the Niagara river to the falls, and camped where they could see the great water flood and hear it's muffled thunder. When near ing the latter they overlook a family of poor Irish emigrants, of the name of Flanagan, who shared their camp site at the falls. The Flanagans were on their way to Michigan and had come from the old country three years before and settled in Broome county, New York. They, too, were on their way-to land of better prom ise. Among them was a rugged freckled, red-headed lad, we'll along in his teens, of the name of Dennis, who wore tall beaver hat, tilted saucily on one side of his head, and a ragged blue coat with brass buttons, as he walked beside the oxen, whip in hand with trousers tucked in the tops of his big cowhide boots. There was also handsome young man in this party of ,the name of John Me Neil, who wore a ruffled shirt and swallow-tail coat, now much soiled by the journey. He listened to ,Samson's account of the Sangamon country and said that he thought he would go there.
 Sarah gave the Irish family good supply of cookies and jerked venison before she bade them gooc-by.
 When our travellers left, next morn ing, they stopped for last look at the great falls. .l
 Children" said Samson, "I want you to take good look at that It's the most wonderful thing in the world and maybe you'll never see it again"
 '"'The Indians used to think that the Great Spirit was in this river" said
 "Kind O seems to me they were right" Samson remarked thoughtfully, Kind O seems as if the great spirit of America was in that water. It moves on in the way 1t wills and no- thing can stop it. Everything in its current goes along with it."
 "And only the strong can stand the journey" said Sarah.
 These words were no doubt inspired by an ache in her bones. A hard seat and the ceaseless jolting of the wagon through long, hot, dusty days had wearied them. Even their hearts were getting sore as they thought of the endless reaches of the roads ahead. Samson stuffed a sack with straw and put it under her and the children on the seat. At a word of complaint he was wont to say:
 'T know it's awful tiresome, but we got to have patience. We're goin' to get used to it and have a wonderful lot of fun. The time'Il pass quick you sec" Then he would sing and get them all laughing with some cu- riouc hit Of drO1JaTv Tbov Spout tbo night of July third at a tavern in Buffalo, then a busy, crude and rapid growing center for the shipping east, and west
 There were emigrants on their way to the Far West in the