226 



RECREATION. 



mental trees in abundance, and the 

 sand hills on the left crowned with 

 fine country residences. That this 

 time will come, I have but little 

 doubt. All the country wants is 

 fuel, and no doubt coal beds will be 

 discovered after a while, or in case 

 they are not, railroads will be built 

 communicating with the wooded dis- 

 tricts which are in some places not 

 over 30 or 40 miles distant from this 

 river." 



This semi-sarcastic prediction has 

 been more than realized in the 

 31 years since it was playfully writ- 

 ten to amuse the " old folks at home." 



the Indians, many prominent men of 

 the country, who made speeches in 

 favor of justice being done to the 

 Indians. In the midst of the pro- 

 ceedings Mr. Wm. Welsh, well 

 known for his prominence on the 

 Indian question, noticed one of the 

 chiefs seated on the rear of the stage 

 looking very sad and despondent, 

 and Mr. Welsh tried for some time 

 to draw from him the cause of his 

 sadness. At last he was induced to 

 tell his story, which was this: Some 

 years before a delegation from his 

 tribe had gone East. They returned 

 with such wonderful stories of what 

 they had seen regarding railroads, 



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SECTIONAL VIEW OF THE PLATTE VALLEY. 



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Tree 



A great transcontinental railroad 

 now runs along the valley divided 

 into beautiful cultivated farms, "with 

 fruit and ornamental trees in abun- 

 dance." The trains on this road 

 carry thousands of passengers every 

 year, and thousands of tons of coal 

 from the coal beds of almost unlimi- 

 ted extent that have been discovered 

 farther west. Not only are these 

 things true, but along the valley are 

 thriving towns and ' villages which 

 have sprung up since the road was 

 built, and are calculated to remind 

 one of the experience of an Indian 

 which I heard related once as com- 

 ing from the mouth of a chief who 

 was one of a delegation visiting the 

 East, from one of our western tribes. 

 A large delegation of Indians 

 was brought from the West, and after 

 visiting Washington, they were taken 

 to New York, Philadelphia, and 

 other large cities. At Philadel- 

 phia a number of those friendly to 

 the red men got up quite an ovation 

 for them in the Academy of Music, 

 The house was densely crowded and 

 on the stage were seated, beside 



steamboats, houses, etc., but especially 

 in regard to the number of whites, 

 that the tribe said the white man had 

 put "bad medicine" in their heads 

 and they could tell nothing but lies ! 

 The man who told the story was then 

 a young and ambitious chief and made 

 aspeech, tellingthetribe that heknew 

 just how the white man fooled the red 

 man in regard to his numbers; that 

 they crowded in front of them and 

 then, when the red men started ahead 

 again, the white men slipped around 

 the hills and got in front, so that the 

 Indians counted them over and over 

 again, and that the next time a dele- 

 gation was sent East the tribe must 

 select him to go and when he came 

 back he would tell them the truth. 

 In a few years another delegation 

 was called for, and the tribe, remem- 

 bering what he had said, selected 

 him to go. He then determined he 

 would keep an account of every 

 white man he saw, and when he left 

 his camp took with him a stick upon 

 which he notched down every one he 

 came across. This was easy for a 

 while, but when he began to enter 



