CHICAGO TO DAVENPORT. 397 



tainmeut and their good wishes for your success in your ride across 

 the continent. Should you ever again visit our city you can rest as- 

 sured you will be most cordially received. 



Very truly yours, 



R. C. Stephens, 

 Late Colonel U. S. Volunteers, 



T 



®ne ffjuulireLf aub ulljirtg-nintl) Sag. 



Farm House, 



Between Genesseo and Moline, Illinois, 



September Twenty-seventh. 



Started away from Aniiawan at nine o'clock but 

 after riding about a mile and a half I discovered that 

 I had left my journal and was obliged to return for it. 

 All day I was on a seemingly endless prairie, dotted 

 here and there with cornfields and apple orchards. 

 Illinois takes the lead in stock-raising, and the horses 

 and cattle seen in this day's ride were fully up to the 

 best standard. 



Had dinner at the house of a coal miner, whom I 

 found very intelligent, and was well entertained by 

 a talk on mining industries in Illinois from a practi- 

 cal point of view. This is a bituminous coal region 

 and there are mines in operation all over the State. 



My host, Pullman by name, had recently returned 

 from tjie Pacific coast and to my e^ger inquiries was 

 able to tell me much about the country between 

 Omaha and Sacramento. 



At night, after having made twenty-one miles, I 

 reached this place and was domiciled with the family 

 of Mrs. Charlotte Bills, who came formerly from Jef- 

 ferson County, New York. As my native county of 

 Saint Lawrence adjoins Jefferson, the Bills and I had 



