And Conveying This Motley Assortment Of Human Beings, The
Cars Dashed Along, None Of Their Inmates Heeding Each Other, Or Perhaps
Him
" - - Who heeds and holds them all
In his large love and boundless thought."
At eleven we came to an abrupt pause upon the prairie. After waiting
quietly for some time without seeing any vestiges of a station, my friends
got out to inquire the cause of the detention, when we found that a
freight-train had broken down in front, and that we might be detenus for
some time, a mark for Indian bullets! Refreshments were produced and
clubbed together; the "prairie-men" told stories; the hunters looked to
their rifles, and polished their already resplendent chasing; some
Mexicans sang Spanish songs, a New Englander 'Yankee Doodle;' some
guessed, others calculated, till at last all grew sleepy: the trappers
exhausted their stories, the singers their songs, and a Mormon, who had
been setting forth the peculiar advantages of his creed, the patience of
his auditors - till at length sonorous sounds, emitted by numerous nasal
organs, proving infectious, I fell asleep to dream confusedly of 'Yankee
Doodle,' pistols, and pickpockets.
In due time I awoke; we were stopping still, and there was a light on our
right. "We're at Rock Island, I suppose?" I asked sleepily. A laugh from
my friends and the hunters followed the question; after which they
informed me in the most polite tones that we were where we had been for
the last five hours, namely stationary on the prairie. The intense cold
and heavy dew which accompany an American dawn made me yet more amazed at
the characteristic patience with which the Americans submit to an
unavoidable necessity, however disagreeable. It is true that there were
complaints of cold, and heavy sighs, but no blame was imputed to any one,
and the quiescence of my companions made me quite ashamed of my English
impatience. In England we should have had a perfect chorus of complaints,
varied by "rowing" the conductor, abuse of the company, and resolutions to
write to the Times, or bring up the subject of railway mismanagement in
the House of Commons. These people sat quietly, ate, slept, and smoked,
and were thankful when the cars at last moved off to their destination.
On we flew to the West, the land of Wild Indians and buffaloes, on the
narrow rims of metal with which this "great people" is girdling the earth.
Evening succeeded noon, and twilight to the blaze of a summer day; the
yellow sun sank cloudless behind the waves of the rolling prairie, yet
still we hurried on, only stopping our headlong course to take in wood and
water at some nameless stations. When the sun set, it set behind the
prairie waves. I was oblivious of any changes during the night, and at
rosy dawn an ocean of long green grass encircled us round. Still on - belts
of timber diversify the prospect - we rush into a thick wood, and, emerging
from it, arrive at Rock Island, an unfinished-looking settlement, which
might bear the name of the Desert City, situated at the confluence of the
Rock River and Mississippi. We stop at a little wharf, where waits a
little steamer of uncouth construction; we step in, a steam-whistle breaks
the silence of that dewy dawn, and at a very rapid rate we run between
high wooded bluff's, down a turbid stream, whirling in rapid eddies. We
steam for three miles, and land at a clearing containing the small
settlement of Davenport. We had come down the Mississippi, mightiest of
rivers! half a mile wide seventeen hundred miles from its mouth, and were
in the far West. Waggons with white tilts, thick-hided oxen with heavy
yokes, mettlesome steeds with high peaked saddles, picketed to stumps of
trees, lashing away the flies with their tails; emigrants on blue boxes,
wondering if this were the El Dorado of their dreams; arms, accoutrements,
and baggage surrounded the house or shed where we were to breakfast. Most
of our companions were bound for Nebraska, Oregon, and Utah, the most
distant districts of which they would scarcely reach with their slow-paced
animals for four months: exposed in the mean time to the attacks of the
Sioux, Comanches, and Blackfeet.
There, in a long wooden shed with blackened rafters and an earthen floor,
we breakfasted, at seven o'clock, on johnny-cake, squirrels, buffalo-hump,
dampers, and buckwheat, tea and corn spirit, with a crowd of emigrants,
hunters, and adventurers; and soon after re-embarked for Rock Island, our
little steamer with difficulty stemming the mighty tide of the Father of
Rivers. The machinery, such as it was, was very visible, the boiler
patched in several places, and steam escaped in different directions. I
asked the captain if he were not in the habit of "sitting upon the safety-
valve," but he stoutly denied the charge. The vernacular of this
neighbourhood was rather startling to an English ear. "Who's the alligator
to hum?" asked a broad-shouldered Kentuckian of his neighbour, pointing to
a frame shanty on the shore, which did not look to me like the abode of
that amphibious and carnivorous creature. "Well, old alligator, what's the
time o' day?" asked another man, bringing down a brawny paw, with a
resounding thump, upon the Herculean shoulders of the first querist,
thereby giving me the information that in the West alligator is a
designation of the genus homo; in fact, that it is customary for a man
to address his fellow-man as "old alligator," instead of "old fellow." At
eight we left Rock Island, and, turning my unwilling steps eastward from
the land of adventure and romance, we entered the cars for Chicago.
They were extremely crowded, and my friends, securing me the only
comfortable seat in one of them, were obliged to go into the next, much to
their indignation; but protestations were of no use. The engine-bell rang,
a fearful rush followed, which resulted in the passage down the centre
being filled with standing men; the conductor shouted "Go a-head," and we
were off for Lake Michigan in the "Lightning Express," warranted to go
sixty-seven miles an hour!
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