Year: 1876

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Musings of a Traveller In tho Westerl


Desert.-A Prairie Incident.


As for me, says a correspondent O
the World, crossing the plains, I like *
get out on the platform, late at night
when the moon is shedding her radi
ance over the awful, desolate, yet beau
tiful scene, and think the thoughts anG
recall the legends which are appropriate
to it. Once in a while the tracts of al
old trail appear. How many a white
man, how many a white woman crossed
this dreary country long years ago, never
to return to or even to hear from home
and friends againl How many nights
were passed by pioneers here! How
many tragedies, as gloomy as that de.
scribed by Cooper in "The Prairie, u
have been enacted in these solitudes,
unknown to Eastern men and Eastern
lawl What episodes Of tenderness and
honor, of grief and pleasure, have
stirred the hearts of those who perished,
or who have since triumphed in the
great struggle upon the Pacific coast !
Looking out toward the pale bluffs that
serrate the southern horizon, the spec
ters of wagon trains arise, and voices
from midnight camps. Distant fires
flicker. The coyotes cry-the "wolf-
music " whose only grace was that while
it lasted it assured the absence of hostile
Indians-offends the listening ear. The
coyotes were the natural watch dogs of
the white mans Diyouac.


Years ago, before the railroad or the
overland stage route, or even the over
land pony express was thought of, soil
tary family of seven persons, accom-
panied by three men, started from IL
inois to cross this waste. They had
wagons, mules, provisions and house.
hold furniture in abundance.


The family was of good origin. 1t
consisted of the grandfather, father,
mother, three daughters (the eldest,
aged nineteen, being very attractive)
and two little muscular sons. OF the
three men outside the family two were
past their prime. The youngest, the
lover of the eldest girl of the party, and
by her beloved, was befriended by her
grandfather, her sisters and both her
brothers, encouraged by his elderly
male companions, and cordially hated,
on account of an hereditary feud, by the
girls father. (the chief of the expedition)
and his wife.


One night the young man was missed
in camp. So arbitrary was the rule the
chief pioneer had established that no
allusion was made to the circumstance
during his silence at the evening meal.
Next morning the girl was gone. Still
the father said nothing; nor did the
mother make one sign. The rest of the
train were silent and subdued. Toward
noon it was noticed thatthe grandfather,
whose affection for the absent girl was
well known TO amountto devotion, had
likewise quilted the camp, carrying his
weapons. This discovery was the sig
nal for the pioneers action. Shoulder
ing his rifle he commanded his two sons
to stay in camp, and then started off in
an eastward direction at pace that in
dicated his perfect knowledge OF the
whereabouts of the absentees. The rest
of the story T give as closely as I can
recollect it in the language of one OF the
two elderly men who soon left the camp
on the trail of the departing pioneer:


"We didn't like the looks OF old
Sam1," said tho narrator, "and 80 we
followed him. It was about seven or
eight mile stretch, and just afore we
come to the place We begun to sort OF
suspicion where it was. 1t was bluff
like. We walked fast, and got around
where we could see what was goin' on,
afore old Sam'l come up. It seemed
that old Sam'l, the second night previ-
GUS, had 'ticed young = offn the
trail around by this here bluff and shot
him through the chist and left him for
goner. The girl had watched which
way they went, and when the boy didn't
come back next day she skedaddled the
next night. So when we got there she'd
got him down by the brink of little
water hole; and there they both was,
she a-holdin' his head on her arm and
keepin' the sun off his face with her
apron. Pretty soon old Saml come
along the other side O. the bluff. He
looked around second or 30, and got
his eye on the gal. Iseen him raise his
rife and pint it at her, and I raised
mine and p'inted it at him. We both
fred at the same time, for just as he
keeled over looked, and the girl was
a.lying face down, fiat across IS
body. The old granddaddy- be just
then riz up longside O. the water hole.
But T didn't stop to see anv more. Me
and my partner both Lit ont, and only
stopped long enough in camp to git
away with our blankets and a little
grub. I never hearn of any one O. that
family sence."