CHAPTER X. 



PLAGUE OF CBICKETS AND BEETLES PBEPABATION FOE THE PBAIEIES 

 A GUIDE FOE THE PLAINS WEETCHED QUADEUPEDS AN AGBEE- 

 ABLE DEIVE AMEBICAN FEONTIEB USAGES "KNOCKED UP " AMEEI- 

 CAN HOESE-DEALING SCENES MY STUD FOE THE PEAIEIE AMUSING 

 ILLUSTEATION OF AMEEICAN LIBEETY THE HOTEL BABBEE's SHOP 

 ENCAMPMENT OF MEXICAN MULETEEES AN UNDESIEABLE AC 

 QUAINTANCE THBOWING THE LASSO PUECHASE OF MULES TBUST- 



, WOBTHY AMEEICAN BLACKSMITH, 



I HAD not been long in Kansas city before I began to 

 find out that I had indeed left all the delicacies or luxu 

 ries of life behind me. Ice, for which I had hitherto 

 found America so famous, and in which great comfort I 

 had revelled from the moment I had set my foot on 

 board the " Africa," was no longer to be procured; the 

 last fraction of it had gone on in the " Skylark" to the 

 further limit of her voyage, and with the ice the art of 

 plain cooking and tolerable viands. Brandy, whiskey, 

 or sherry, if asked for, were to be procured ly name only 

 at the stores, and, when procured, the former two were 

 coloured spirits of wine, and the other a strange concoc 

 tion of inventions, not one of the component parts of 



