FOKEST AND STREAM. 



97 



stand them. Some time ago our attention was called to a 

 paragraph which ran the newspaper cycle. This told how 

 two men in a buggy with a pair of horses ran down wild 1 1 o rses . 

 Sighting their herd of wild horses, they always kept them 

 in view, following them up day after day until they tired the 

 wild horses out. Now, plainsmen, to whom we showed that 

 paragraph, fairly split Iheir sides with laughter. " What 

 must you people down East believe ! There ain't no turn- 

 pike road over a prairie. Catch horses that way ? If the 

 wild horses get tired out don't you think the man's team 

 would get used up, too ? It's iust confounded nonsense." 



We have been looking up this wild horse business for quite 

 a number of years, and thi3 is the upshot of our researches ; 

 The untamed steed of the Ukraue (at least in the United 

 States or territories) exists no longer, save in combination 

 troupes with peripatetic Mazeppas in flesh tights. Possibly 

 twenty-five years ago there might have been found some few 

 herds, where now are the territories of Nebraska and 

 Wyoming. There is the barest chance that south of what is 

 called the Stinking Water country on the Loupe, some few 

 might be discovered, but even this is doubtful. We have 

 from the best authority that four years ago three horses were 

 run down in a snow storm, worn out and famished, which 

 were supposed to he the last of a band, but reliable trappers 

 and hunters doubt if these horses were wild ones. Dr. 

 Carver tells us that he has never heard of any wild horses of 

 late years, and other guides and explorers affirm the same 

 thing. Following up our wild horses led us to inquire about 

 creasing. Now. we have always believed that creasing was a 

 mythical performance. Neither Carver nor John Omohon- 

 dru believe in it. Carver said to us •. "I have tried it on a 

 horse that we couldn't catch, and it always resulted in killing 

 the horse. I have planted my ball just where I wanted to, 

 some inches or so below the mane, so as to clear the spinal 

 column, and the horse keeled over it is true, but he never got 

 up again. Only once a horse seemed to recover, but he died 

 in the long run. You read "about creasing mostly in dime 

 novel literature, but it's all bounce. Just possibly, in old 

 times, with a small calibre or a spent ball, a horse might have 

 been knocked down, but with the rifles used on the plains it 

 is death to a horse. Such loose horses as may be caught are 

 not really worth much. Endurance they have, but uot great 

 speed. When you break them they lose spirit, save to buck 

 when the fit is on them." To conclude, the Bucephalus of 

 the plains does not exist in 1878. 



K 



MIDSUMMER JAUNTS OUT WEST. 



BY THE EDITOR. 



Jatjnt the FouBin. 



Neritah, Wisconsin, 1878. 



Brethren : Since I sent you " Jaunt the Third " my roving 

 pen has been gathering facts through half a dozen States — 

 here, there and everywhere, pretty much as the bee sips : and 

 it is only just now that I have been able to line the busy 

 worker home. 



Hence my long hiatus. 



When I "lit out" from Louisville, Ky., lately, to escape 

 the stifling heat, I made tracks due north, 500 mile3 or more, 

 as you know, until I reached the Rhores of beautiful Winne- 

 bago Lake, in Wisconsin. There under the shade of the 

 Treaty Elm where Gov. Doty sealed his compact with the 

 Indians forty years ago, I found that peace and bodily com- 

 fort which was assured at the time when the pipe of peace 

 was smoked. The ancient tree stands on a point projecting 

 far into the lake, so that all the coveted zephyrs which blow 

 etir its drooping fronds. These cover an area ninety-six 

 feet in diameter, and whenever a chance breeze sways and 

 lifts them a little, I catch glimpses of either shore from my 

 reclining place on the grass beneath. Under the edge of the 

 canopy, far away to the right, are the blue cliffs of Clifton, 

 which are scarcely distinguishable from the summer cloud on 

 the hazy horizon. Against the blue are the while sails of a 

 dozen yachts strung out in a line, motionless, and diminished 

 to mere specks in the offing. They have loitered there the 

 long day through, like maids in sulks, gazing abstractedly at 

 their reflections in the glassy surface: illustrating the vicissi- 

 tudes of ardent yachtsuun in a midsummer regatta — no wind, 

 out of ice and patience, and everything red hot and limp ; 

 time allowance discounted, and the foremost in the race no- 

 where. From my weather quarter the shore sweeps around, 

 leftward, in a great arc, first receding until it scarcely defines 

 the distant head of the lake, and thence advancing nearer and 

 nearer, until the hardly discernible trees which fringe the 

 margin begin to develop, and gradually take form and comeli- 

 ness. JuBt where the line of growth breaks off, the Fox 

 River leaves the lake and a lighthouse stands sentry. Two 

 miles this side, and abreast of the point where the great elm 

 stands, another affluent of the river leaves the lake, and the 

 two uniting, enclose a pretty island, six miles in circumfer- 

 ence, the wooded shores of which fill up the features of the 

 landscape on my left. It is called Doty Island, and Gov. 

 Doty's log mansion is the most conspicuous object seen across 

 the channel. Forty years ago the Winnebago Indians used 

 to paddle in from their fishing excursions on the lake, and 

 drawing their bark canoes up the sloping shore, without fear 

 or prejudice of white man, saunter up to the Doty house and 

 salute the Governor with an emphatic " How I " This fa- 

 miliar monosyllable usually carries with it an intimation that 

 a plug of tobacco for the pipes and a handful of sugar for the 

 squaws would be acceptable— and 1 believe the Governor 

 never bestowed grudgingly. Thereby was cemented a friend- 



ship so lasting that the Winnebagoes have never blackened 

 their faces toward their white brethren. 



Close beside the old mansion, nearly hidden by the trees, is 

 the Island Jlouse, kept by John Roberts, which is allowed to 

 be one of the most charming summer resorts in the State. 

 Being on the line of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, 

 it is much frequented by Chicago people, including the fami- 

 lies of the company's officials themselves. The Wisconsin 

 Central Railroad also has a station two miles distant ; so that 

 the house enjoys a constant and considerable patronage. 

 From the piazza a lawn slopes to the margin of the lake, 

 where a little wharf finds sufficient depth of water for the 

 largest steamers which ply between the towns of Mcnasha, 

 Oshkosh and Fond du Lac. Eruit trees and arbors diversify 

 the lawn, and a fringe of large forest trees skirts the shore. 



Winnebago Lake is thirty-eight miles long and eighteen 

 milcB in greatest width. It abounds in sturgeon, bass, sheeps- 

 head, muscalonge and pike perch, and affords unlimited sport 

 to the angler. Excursion steamers take out fishing parties 

 daily, and it is not unusual to see a dozen skiffs strung out in 

 hue, towing astern, en route for well-known islands, reefs and 

 sand bars, in mid-lake, where the fish most congregate. On 

 one of the larger islets the Oshkosh Yacht Club has a rendez- 

 vous, with commodious house and picnic grounds. Experi- 

 enced and enthusiastic anglers take to the small boats and 

 troll with spoon and minnow, or fish along the reefs with fly ; 

 but many remain on board the steamer, preferring the com- 

 pany of ladies and the grateful shelter of the awnings, and 

 these often catch large numbers of bass and other fish trolling 

 from the stern at low rate of speed. There is excellent bass 

 fishing in July and later in the outlets of the lake, the branches 

 of Fox River, and bass may be raised with fly along the rushes 

 and lily pads which edge the shore within a stone's throw of 

 the hotel. 



Doty Island is the joint possession of the sister towns of 

 Neenah and Menasha, twin rivals which cannot be induced to 

 affiliate. The factories and business houses of Neenah are lo- 

 cated on one branch of the Fox, and those of Menasha on the 

 other, each town occupying both sides of its respective river. 

 A broad avenue divides the island, and the streets of the ri- 

 vals rim parallel and side by side. Each has a population of 

 about 5,000. The drives in the vicinity are very charming, 

 and taken all in all, there are few places where the summer 

 season can be passed in a more enjoyable manner. 



Five miles down the river is the town of AppletOD, the 

 busy centre of the large manufacturing district to which the 

 Fox River furnishes inexhaustible water power. Products to 

 the value of $2,500,000 are annually manufactured there, and 

 include baskets, barrels, bricks, carriages, furniture, flour, 

 iron, leather, lime, lumber, machinery, paper, wood pulp and 

 woolen goods— the item of flour alone reaching nearly 

 $1,000,000, and of iron $100,000. Appleton is only in its in- 

 fancy. In a quarter of a century it will lead nearly all the 

 great manufacturing qentres of the Union, because its water- 

 power is greater, inexhaustible and constant; and because it is 

 the geographical centre of great economic interests, and lies 

 directly upon the line of a trans-continental highway, which 

 will soon be made practicable by a navigable ship canal from 

 Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River. .It does not depend 

 upon mountain stTeams and the caprices of droughts and 

 freshets for a precarious supply, but it has 500 square miles of 

 water always in reservoir in the lakes Winnebago, Poygau, 

 and Butte des Mortes. This great water route follows the 

 Wisconsin River from its debouchure at Prairie du Chien half 

 way across the State to Portage, and thence by a short canal 

 into the Fox River which connects a series of large lakes, and 

 finally empties into Green Bay, on Lake Michigan. The Fox 

 River improvement, of which so much has been heard, was 

 initiated nearly forty years ago. It contemplated the opening 

 of this great water route to commerce, and the utilizing of its 

 power for manufacturing. After bankrupting several com- 

 panies, it recently passed into the hand3 of the United States 

 Government, and is making rapid and substantial progress 

 toward the great consummation. Light draft craft long since 

 passed through the entire water-way, but it is believed that 

 four years must elapse before the commercial dream of prac- 

 tical navigation will be fully realized. Already there are six- 

 teen dams across the river, of which six are massive stone 

 constructions, 700 feet in length or more, at each of which 

 large manufacturing interests cluster. It was my good for- 

 tune to traverse the entire distance in a steam launch in- com- 

 pany with Gol. C. A. Fuller, U. S. Engineer in charge of the 

 improvement, and the enjoyment and diversity of such a 

 voyage — now in the canal, and anon in the broad picturesque 

 r j ver — may well be imagined. At Appleton are no less than 

 thirty large factories, which line the sides of the river and oc- 

 cupy the busy islands in the centre. The boats of the canals 

 and the cars of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad take 

 up the manufactured wares and merchandise at their" very 

 doors. Those who have contemplated with amazement the 

 industries on the Merrimack, the Genessee, the Connecticut, 

 and the Mississippi at St. Anthony, would bo more than 

 startled to observe the visible water-power at Appleton and 

 on the river below. The amount of power running to waste 

 can hardly be estimated. 



The town of Appleton is romantically located. The houses 

 of the wealthy occupy the verges of the bluffs which flank the 

 river and overlook the busy industries below, Back of the 

 residences are the business streets, which lead to several 

 bridges which span the river. The surface of the suburbs is un- 

 dulating and pleasant for building sites. A pretentious hotel 



occupies a shaded spot near the bluff, and a band stand in a 

 little park opposite is the source of agreeable music in sum- 

 mer evenings. A mile below the town, across the river, is a 

 park with a little menagerie of wild animals, a half-mile race 

 track, and the popular Tellulah Sulphur Springs, where one 

 can drink his friends' health with a flavor of hard-boiled eggs. 

 Conveniences for guests, and row-boats on the river, which is 

 here bvoad and deep, make the resort more enjoyable. All 

 along down the river the bold shores are dotted with farm 

 houses and enlivened by ripening grain. Cultivated flelds al- 

 ternate with forests. Broad stretches of smoothly flowing 

 river contrast with the vivacious tumble of the foam over the 

 great dams and the swiri of the eddying water below. At 

 sixteen long intervals sinewy arms swing open the great gates 

 of the locks which bar the passage : a stone sarcophagus re- 

 ceives the launch and its living freight, which gradually set- 

 tles down from the daylight into the watery sepulture below ; 

 there is a temporary sense of dampness and a stifling fish-like 

 smell, such as one experiences in a vault j stone walls sixteen 

 feet high enclose us on all sides, and all that is needed to make 

 a first-class tomb is, to hermetically seal the top. Deliverance 

 can come only through the open door ; and when at last the 

 gigantic leaves fold back, and the escape valve of the little 

 steam engine emits a Bigh of relief as we emerge into the sun- 

 shine and pure air, we feel like the astonished Saducee at the 

 last day, who foolishly believed there was no resurrection. 

 However in a July day the occasional change from the heated 

 atmosphere into the lower temperature is rather grateful than 

 otherwise. To me the journey was as much a novelty as the 

 passage across the Styx into Hades will be, with the advan- 

 tage in my favor that no fee was demanded, Charon being 

 so much engaged in watching Cerberus that he had no time to 

 attend to legitimate business. 



One of the quaintest places on the Fox River is Depere, 

 where great blast furnaces belch continually and the air is 

 black with smoke. Depere was an old French mission two 

 hundred years ago. Green Bay, at the mouth of the river, is 

 cheerful and enlivening. It wears a busy aspect, with its 

 many brick warehouses by the river side ; its beautiful pri- 

 vate residences on eminences ; its crowning spires ; the round- 

 houses and slopes of the Wisconsin Central Railroad on one 

 bank, and of the Chicago and Northwestern on the other • 

 great drawbridges spanning the river and uniting both ; puff- 

 ing steam tugs whistling for passage, and great lake steamers 

 lying at the wharves. It has 8,000 population. Until recent- 

 ly it was a thriving and growing place, but has lost much of 

 its importance by reason of a decline of the lumber interest in 

 that particular district. With the full completion of the great 

 canal across the State it will doubtless revive and become an 

 important outpost and entrepot. As a summer resort Green 

 Bay has always been popular, and especially visited by 

 Southerners. Its yachting and fishing are fine and the hotel 

 accommodation excellent at Cook's, the Beaumont and the 

 National. The greatest loss which the town has to deplore is 

 the historical "Green Bay Horse with Switch Tail," which 

 has skipped. Hallook. 



[from a staff correspondent.] 



ROCKY MOUNTAIN WANDERINGS 



No. 2. 



rpHE railroad and its aecompaning civilization have greatly 

 _L changed the character of the Western outlying towns 

 and of their inhabitants. Many of the old time desperadoes 

 have perished by the bullet or the rope, while others have 

 turned from their evil courses and become respectable (sic) 

 citizens ; not a few, however, still haunt the small railroad 

 towns and eke out a precarious existence by gambling, horse- 

 stealing or robbery. Their numbers are happily growin less 

 each year. 



A little occurrence which took place at Rock Creek Station 

 while our train was stopping for supper recalled to my mind 

 some of the scenes of early days. A number of bullwhackers 

 (Western vernacular for the drivers of ox teams) wero in camp 

 here, and were collected at the station to see the train come 

 in. A few moments before its departure, while walking up 

 and dowu the platform, I saw a very large man, armed with a 

 four-foot club, beating a much smaller man who was appar- 

 ently unarmed. The latter fled at once, and was pursued by 

 the large man, who soon caught up to him and struck him 

 agaiu. At this blow the smaller of the two, who was called 

 Wild Texe, turned, and, springing at his assailant, stabbed 

 him three times, cutting him in the side near the heart, in the 

 small of the back and in the arm. The large man, Irish Mike 

 by name, dropped as if he had been shot, but almost immedi- 

 ately sprang up again and recommenced the pursuit. Wild 

 Texe, however, kept well ahead of him and gained a position 

 of safety near the rear of our train. Mike fell again on reach- 

 ing the platform, and, when the train passed him, as we 

 niovedj west, he was apparently in artieulo mortis, and was 

 howling lugubriously ; he was covered with blood — a sicken- 

 ing sight. Wild Texe, after loitering about for a few mo- 

 ments, stalled off south over the prairie, but had only made 

 about sixty yards when a number of the wounded man's 

 friends, with fierce oaths and threats, but most of them with- 

 out arms, started off after the fleeing wretch. As we passed 

 the bullwhackers' camp, which was but a few hundred yards 

 from the station, we saw a lithe, active man, hatless, but with hi 

 rifle in one hand and his cartridge belt in the other, running 

 over the prairie with great swiftness, and in a short time I 

 could see the flashes which indicated that the Texan was 



