68 
AMEEIOAIs^ ACiKIOULTUEIST. 
[Febuuaby, 
On the Road. 
Coming ISack.— We came upon them at the close 
of a September day,five miles from Columbus, Neb., their 
“ schooner” aiicliored on the prairie sea for the night 
and the wanderers preparing their evening meal. Tiie 
little Arabs tossed about in an extemporized hammock 
while father fetched the water from the stream and 
mother boiled the potatoes and broiled the grouse shot 
two hours before. Close by the liorses were coralled. Old 
Towser, the faithful watch dog during all these long 
jonrneyings—stretched under the wagon waiting his fin¬ 
ish at tlie victuals, which, however, a soaring hawk ap¬ 
parently believed would fall to his lot. It was a most 
picturesque scene, as the sotting sun cast a flood of 
light upon all around, and then disappeared beneath the 
and elsewhere. For example how Huron, which two 
years since had no existence, is now a flourishing place, 
with any number of liotels, churches, etc., etc., and 
how Blunt, which at the beginning of 1883 was not lo¬ 
cated, now has a thriving population, and an opera 
house capable of accommodating six or seven hundred 
people. A letter just received from Wolsey, a few miles 
west of Huron, says:—“ Since you passed through Huron 
(last Septemher) the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul 
K. E., lias passed through Wolsey, 
and the latter place, at the time 
of your visit having but three or 
four buildings, has now two hotels, 
two depots.three lumber yards.quite 
a number of stores, two saloons, a 
school-house, and a prospective five 
thousand dollarPresbyterian church. 
I should be able to show my comrades at Pinkham’s, 
when they rose for breakfast. Judge of my chagrin and 
remorse when, upon drawing near to the dying animal, 
I discovered that I had shot a doe. Instead of scamper¬ 
ing rapidly away, as they naturally would have done, the 
fawns remained close to their mother in her death strug¬ 
gles. With their beautiful gazelle eyes they cast such pit¬ 
eous, reproving looks at me, as one could never forget; 
it was a scene to move a heart of stone. For days af¬ 
billowy grass, just as one sees the bright orb drop below 
the ocean waves.—They had been travelling all day, poor 
things. Man and beast were weary and worn. They 
had been to the far West, and were now wending their 
way slowly b.ack home east of the Mississippi, heartsick 
and disappointed with days and weeks of travel before 
them. We did not question them too closely, but it was 
plain to observe that they belonged to that large class 
who push for the far West witliout sufficient forethought 
and preparation. Very many reach their destination in 
safety, construct a sod house, break a few acres, and 
then have not means to tide them over until they can 
harvest a crop. Others lose their crops and are unable to 
winter. Still others become discouraged owing to sick¬ 
ness and other causes, and are bound to get back East 
again, no matter at what sacrifice. If they have not 
funds to carry them back by rail they drive back, con¬ 
suming weeks and even months in making tlie return 
trip. So it transpires that at certain seasons and 
in certain localities in the Western States and Ter¬ 
ritories, claims and breakings can be bought from 
discouraged owners at a fraction of their value. Fre¬ 
quently the disheartened settler, after he has built his 
house, made his first payment, and broken thirty acres 
or more, will ” let the whole business slide ” for enough 
to carry him and his family out of the 
country. During the grasshopper period, 
the prairie roads of Kansas and Nebraska 
were at times fairly alive with returning 
settlers, whose crops had been devoured, 
and whose claims were being bought at a 
song by cormorant speculators or old and 
new comers who had more faith in the 
future of the country. In 1875-6 and 7, 
the railroads experienced great difficulty in 
selling their lands in some portions of 
Kansas and Nebraska, the abandoned claims 
were so numerous and sold at such low 
figures. Often the deserters after remaining 
East for a year or more, will return again 
to find the claims which they gave up 
now held by thrifty occupants and very 
valuable. So they have to push on still 
further away from the railroads, where 
lands are cheaper, and begin all over again. Moral— 
Don’t be tempted by the alluring advertisements of 
some railroad to start for the new West, before you are 
fully equipped. And when you do start, go expecting to 
encounter hardships, and determined to stick it out, 
though grasshoppers, or short crops, or rainy seasons, 
or blasting winters are among your earlier experiences. 
Then time will bring you out all right. 
Rapid Xransforinatioii Scene.s in tlie 
Far West. —In previous numbers we have spoken of 
tlie wonderful growth of villages and towns in Dakota 
Woonsocket, without existence at the time you passed 
liere,located midway between Mitchell and Wolsey. on the 
Milwaukee Eoad, has had a more phenomenal growth.”— 
Wliile towns and villages spring up with wonderful ra¬ 
pidity in the far West they often disappear with equal 
rapidity. At various points along the Union Pacific and 
other roads in Wyoming and elsewhere, the traveler is 
pointed out the ruins, at times almost indistinguishable, 
of what were once, when the railroads were building, 
villages of one, two, three, five and as high as seven 
thousand inhabitants; now all vestiges of many of these 
have disappeared. One evening a party of us were sit¬ 
ting in the superintendent’s office at Oneida, Utah, the 
then terminus of the Utah Northern Eoad, when we were 
informed that upon the following day tlie entire village 
was to be moved to the termination of anotlier section 
of the Eoad, whichhad just been completed. We did not 
remain to take part in the transfer, but were subsequent¬ 
ly informed that the entire village was bodily transferred 
in twenty-four hours’ lime, on wagons and upon cars, 
My First Antelope.— We scurried over the des¬ 
ert plains south of Laramie, Wyoming, skirted Sheep 
Mountain, entered North Park, and after a fifty-five 
mile drive, rested at far-famed Pinkbam’s for the night. 
All daylong we kept up a fusillade at antelope in the dis¬ 
tance, but without effect. At daybreak I swung my 
Sharpe's carbine over my shoulder, mounted my horse, 
and started for a group of antelope a mile or more away. 
When within a thousand yards I dismounted, and for 
three liundred yards crawled cautiously through the long 
grass. They appeared to be a buck and two does. Ee- 
clining at full length, and, taking long and deliberate 
aim at tlie larger of the three, I was highly elated to see 
the supposed buck spring in the air and fall to the 
ground. Eeturnlng, and remounting my horse, I rode 
rapidly towards the wounded animal, elated at the prize 
terwards on driving from point to point in North Park, 
we encountered large droves of these antelopes. Fre¬ 
quently they remained, just like so many calves in the 
barn-yard, until we had ridden fairly on to them. I could 
never persuade myself to shoot another of these beauti¬ 
ful animals except as needed for food. Sportsmen who 
deliglit in shooting the beautiful creatures one after 
another, are nothing less than inhuman butchers. 
Wonderful Pliysical Formations.— Tlie 
rugged foot-hills, the buttes and configurated rocks, in 
tlie far West, are a source of not a little curiosity to the 
sight-seer who looks upon them for the first time. Mov¬ 
ing westward from Bismarck to the Yellowstone, one sees 
these physical formations for miles and miles away, 
standing boldly out on the prairies like so many lonely 
sentinels. In Central and Soutliern Colorado they are 
perhaps more frequent than elsewhere. Eiding down on 
the railroad train from Denver to Colorado Springs and 
Manitou, the traveler sees these sandstone and other for¬ 
mations of every shape and variety. The engraving rep¬ 
resents one wtiich every visitor to this region of the State 
does not fail to visit. It is located not far from Manitou, 
and like many other similar configurations around, it in¬ 
dicates what a wonderful upheavel our Continent must 
have been subject to, not so many centuries 
away, eitlier. Tlie Garden of the Gods, 
near Manitou, comprises a most wonderful 
collection of these geological formations. 
We spent a day very pleasantly in studying 
them, and at some future time shall describe 
them at length. 
Rail Roact Rail ding'.— As com¬ 
pared to population, rail road building is 
now far greater in the far West than in the 
Middle or Eastern States. It will not be 
long before Kansas, Nebraska, and Dakota 
will be covered with a network of railroads, 
fully as extensive as prevails any where in 
the older States. Thefareson these Western 
roads, which have generally been too high, 
are now coming down. Of course the new 
roads have no land grants which have proved 
such signal aids to Western railroad pushing in the past. 
It is not impossible that some of the grants now held 
may be repealed by Congress during the coming winter. 
Farming versus Mining.— Very many of the 
earlier adventurers who came to Montana and Colorado, 
expecting to make their fortunes in mining operations, 
have now turned their attention to farming. Cattle and 
sheep raising, and farming, where too much irrigation 
is not required, are more certain of profitable returns In 
the long run than any mere mining operation. Western 
Colorado promises to soon show very handsome farms. 
