22 NEW TEACKS IN NORTH AMEEICA. 



My fiiendsj Stuart tind Captain Blair, were even in greater 

 demand tlian any of us ; for on tliem devolved the task of 

 organising the commissary and quartermaster's departments. 

 But as old soldiers, thougli young men, they were by no 



r 



means novices in these branches, so necessary in an expedition 

 like ours. And lastly, while unpacking my glass, making my 

 collodion, trying my camera, and fitting up my ambulance, I 

 could not altogether be put down as an idle man. The idle 

 man in fact was not represented. 



The day but one before we started was long remembered, 



and talked over by us around our camp fires. 



One of those large excursion parties so mucli in vogue in 

 the United States, had been given by Mr. John Perry, presi- 

 dent of the company. Many ladies and gentlemen from 

 far-off Philadelphia (2,000 miles away), and many more 

 from St. Louis, had all come to learn how railways were built, 

 to travel over the plains, to see a buffalo hunt, and, in many 

 cases, to bid good-bye to sons and brothers already amongst 

 us at Salina. 



If senators and congress-men, "literates" and railway kings, 

 could make a party distinguished, this company certainly had 

 no need to fear obscurity. But when we met bright laughing 

 faces at our doors, and heard sweet voices in our tents, 

 when, for the last time, little gloved hands touched ours, 

 and fair ones wished us '^ God-speed, and a happy return," I 

 fear we would have forgotten the congress-men's presence 

 altogether, had they not carried off so soon our sisters and 

 friends. 



