En Avant. 241 



reversed. The attention of all is directed to the external landscape, and for 

 the twelve hours ensuing each tires his senses with observation of the vary- 

 ing scenes through which he whirls along, or stores his memory with such 

 facts and fancies as have pleased him most. 



Our first twelve-hour tunnel reached from Southeastern Kansas to the 

 central part of the Indian Territory. The morning of the 13ch found us in 

 the country of the Choctaws and the Creeks. The scene had already changed 

 from the conditions out of which we had come. An occasional village of the 

 red men took the place of the accustomed country station, with its post- 

 master, its express agent and its company of loafers. The red man, how- 

 ever, is not above loafing with the rest of us. At the time of our passage 

 through he was also enjoying the advantages of another peculiarly American 

 virtue. He was in the midst of an election. This is said of the Creek nation. 

 The citizens of that commonwealth had just closed the polls after a great 

 contest in the choice of a governor. The writer was surprised to learn, in 

 a conversation with ex-Governor Ferryman, of the Creeks, that the issue 

 involved in their election was also peculiarly American. It was a kind of 

 state rights or nationality question. With this, also, was mixed up a certain 

 amount of bloody shirt. Ifseems that some of the civilized Indians of the 

 territory were, in their antecedents, strong Union men, while others had 

 sympathized with the Confederates. It is true, moreover, thai the questions 

 thus arising have their roots in old differences of tribal organization existing 

 among the Indians before the present order was established. This is to say 

 that, in the most ancient times, the Indians were strongly state rights in 

 their methods and proceedings. The nations were broken up into tribes,, 

 and every tribe did as it would. From all that I could gather from the ex- 

 governor, it would appear that the Indian races of the territory are greatly 

 in need of some Hamilton or Madison to set them right in the fundamentals 

 of politics. 



On the afternoon of the 13th the sections of our excursion drew up at 

 the first major point of the journey, that is, Denison, Texas. Here arrange- 

 ments had been made for a reception of the Society by the authorities and 

 people of the city. A sufficient reason for this courtesy could be found in 

 the fact that Denison is the residence of that most genial, able and popular 

 gentleman, Mr. T. V. Munson, Senior Vice-President, past, present and future, 

 of the Society. 



Denison chooses to call herself the Gate City. This is to say that here 

 the traveler passes as under an archway, and enters the empire of Texns. 

 The city has a population of about 15,000, and is rapidly growing in extent, 

 enterprise and wealth. She is fairly specimental of what the jargon of our 

 times calls the New South. One of the characteristics of Denison is the 

 activity displayed by her merchants, business men and citizens. It is a 

 handsome place, and the inference is easily drawn that the city is backed up- 

 by a region of great productive resources. Here are situated some of the 

 shops, including the great round-house, of the Missouri Pacific Railway; and 

 it should be mentioned that on the night after our departure the last-named 



