off to see the land of icebergs and glaciers; the land i have often visited in my imagination. it seems but yesterday that the first geography was put into my hands. o, that dear old geography, the silent companion of my childhood days.
the first page to which i opened pictured an iceberg, with a polar bear walking right up the perpendicular side, and another bold fellow sitting on top as serenely as patience on a monument.
“what was an iceberg? what were the bears doing on the ice and what did they eat? was that the sun shining over yonder? why didn’t it melt the ice and drop the bears into the sea? no, that was not the sun, it was the aurora borealis. aurora? who was she and why did she live in that cold, cold country, the home of hoder, the gray old god of winter?”
the phenomenon of the aurora was explained to us, but to our childish imagination aurora ever remained a maiden whose wonderful hair of rainbow tints lit up the northern sky.
we talked of aurora, we dreamed of aurora, and now we are off to see the charming ice maiden of our childhood fancy.
off to alaska. for years we have dreamed of it; for days and weeks we have breakfasted on rocky mountain flora, lunched on icebergs and glaciers and dined on totem poles and indian chiefs.
much of the charm of travel in any country comes of the glamour with which fable and legend have enshrouded its historic places.
america is rapidly developing a legendary era. travel up and down the shores of the historic hudson and note her fabled places.
the “headless hessian” still chases timid “ichabods” through “sleepy hollow.” “rip van winkle,” the happy-go-lucky fellow, still stalks the catskills, gun in hand. the death light of “jack welsh” may be seen on a summer’s night off the coast of pond cove. “mother crew’s” evil spirit haunts plymouth, while “skipper ireson” floats off marble head in his ill-fated smack.
with a cloud for a blanket the “indian witch” of the catskills sits on her mountain peak sending forth fair weather and foul at her pleasure, while the pygmies distil their magic liquor in the valley below.
“atlantis” lies fathoms deep in the blue waters of the atlantic, and the “flying dutchman” haunts the south seas.
we have our siegfried and our thor, whom men call washington and franklin. our “hymer” splits rocks and levels mountains with his devil’s eye, though we call him dynamite.
israel putnam and daniel boone may yet live in history as the theseus and perseus of our heroic age.
certainly our country has her myths and her folk lore.
in time america, too, will have her saga book.
yonder, black hawk, chief of the sac, fox, and winnebago indians, made his last stand, was defeated by general scott, captured and carried to washington and other cities of the east, where he recognized the power of the nation to which he had come in contact. returning to his people, he advised them that resistance was useless. the indians then abandoned the disputed lands and retired into iowa.
just north of chicago we passed field after field yellow with the bloom of mustard. calling the porter i asked him what was being grown yonder. he looked puzzled for a moment, then his face lighted up with the inspiration of a happy thought as he replied:
“that, madam, is dandelion.”
“o, thank you; i suppose that they are being grown for the chicago market?” said i, knowing that dandelion greens with the buds in blossom and full bloom are considered a delicacy in the city.
“no, madam,” answered my porter wise, “i don’t think them fields is being cultivated at all.”
i forebore to point out to him the well kept fence and the marks of the plow along it, but brought my field glasses into play and discovered that the disputed fields had been sown to oats, but the oats were being smothered out by the mustard.
wisconsin is a beautiful state. had the french government cultivated the rich lands of the mississippi valley and developed its mineral resources as urged by joliet, wisconsin might still be a french territory. but all his plans for colonization were rejected by the government he served. a map of this country over which joliet traveled may be seen in the archives de la marine, paris, france, to-day.
the soil is light and farming in wisconsin is along different lines from that of her sister state, illinois. in every direction great dairy barns dot the landscape. corn is grown almost entirely for fodder. the seasons here are too short to mature it properly. in planting corn for fodder it is sown much as are wheat and oats.
the principal crops of this great state are flax, oats, hops, and i might add ice. large ice houses are seen on every side. much of the country is yet wild. acres of virgin prairie just now aglow with wild flowers, take me back to my childhood, when we spent whole days on the prairie, “where the great warm heart of god beat down in the sunshine and up from the sod;” where marguerites and black-eyed susans nodded in the golden sunshine, and the thistle for very joy tossed off her purple bonnet.
here and there in northern illinois and wisconsin kettle holes mark the track of the glaciers that once flowed down from the great névé fields of manitoba and the hudson lake district.
in traveling across wisconsin one is reminded of the time when witches, devils, magicians, and manitous held sway over the indian mind.
milwaukee is a name of indian origin,—mahn-a-wau-kie, anglicized into milwaukee—means in the language of the winnebagoes, rich, beautiful land.
according to an indian legend the name comes from mahn-wau, a root of wonderful medicinal properties. the healing power of this root, found only in this locality, was so great that the chippewas on lake superior would give a beaver skin for a finger length piece.
the market place now stands on the site of a forest-clad hill, which had been consecrated to the great manitou. here tomahawks were belted and knives were sheathed. here the tribes of all the surrounding country met to hold the peace dance which preceded the religious festival. at the close of the religious services each indian carried away with him from the holy hill a memento to worship as an amulet.
it was the greatest wish, the most passionate desire of every indian to be buried at the foot of this hill on the bank of the mahn-a-wau-kie.
recent investigation has shown that wisconsin was the dwelling place of strange tribes long before the advent of the indian.
the dells of the wisconsin river was a favorite resort of the indian manitous. yonder is a chasm fifty feet wide, across which black hawk leaped when fleeing from the whites. he surely had the aid of the nether world.
in this beautiful region, hemmed in by rugged bowlder cliffs, lies a veritable sleepy hollow. in a dense wood back of the cliff stands the mythical “lost cabin.” many have lost their way searching for it. the strange thing about it is that they who have once found it are never able to find it again. weird stories are told about it. its logs are old and strange, different from the wood of the dark old forest in which it stands. there are stories afloat that it is haunted by its former inhabitants, who move it about from place to place.
at the foot of this rugged cliff lies devil’s lake. at the head of this fathomless body of water is a mound built in the form of an eagle with wings outspread. here, no doubt, lies buried a great chief. nothing is left in wisconsin to-day of the indian but footprints,—mounds, graves, legends and myths.
at devil’s lake lived a manitou of wonderful power. this lake fills the crater of an extinct volcano. now this manitou, so the tale runs, piled up those heavy blocks of stone, which form the devil’s doorway. he also set up black monument and pedestaled bowlder for thrones where he might sit and view the landscape o’er when on his visits to the earth. these visits have ceased, since the white man possesses the country. one day this wonderful manitou aimed a dart at a bad indian and missing him, cleft a huge rock in twain, which is now known as cleft rock. at night, long ago, he might have been seen sitting on one of his thrones or peeping out of the devil’s doorway watching the dance of the frost fairies or gazing at the aurora flaming through the night.
every night at midnight gitche manitou appears in the middle of the lake.
in days gone by a strange, wild creature, known as the red dwarf, roamed the region of the great lakes, haunting alike the lives of red man and white.
the snake god, the stone god, the witch of pictured rocks, were-wolves and wizards held sway in that charméd region where san souci, jean beaugrand’s famous horse, despite his hundred years, leaped wall of fort and stockade at pleasure.
at lacrosse we crossed black river into minnesota and shortly after crossed the mississippi. lacrosse, although french, originally, means a game played by the indian maidens on the ice. the heights on either side of the mississippi river remind one of the catskills along the hudson. indeed, the scenery is very similar. you easily imagine yonder cliffs to be the palisades. here, a spur of the catskills range and the little valley between might be sleepy hollow. but you miss the historic places—washington’s headquarters, tarrytown, west point and others. like forces produce like results. when you have seen the hudson river and its environs you have seen the upper mississippi.
st. paul and minneapolis form the commercial[10] center of the north. although the ground freezes from fifteen to sixteen feet, the concrete sidewalks and pavements show no effect of the touch of jack frost’s icy fingers. the street-cars here are larger and heavier than any i have ever seen. then, too, they have large wheels, and that sets them up so high. this is on account of the snow, which lasts from thanksgiving to easter, good sleighing all the time.
the french and indian have left to this region a nomenclature peculiarly its own. there is bear street and white bear street. in the shop windows are displayed headgear marked black bear, white bear and red cloud. there are on sale indian dolls, indian slippers, french soldier dolls, red indian tobacco, showing the influence still existing of the two peoples. one sees many french faces and hears that language quite often on the streets and in the cars.
the falls of st. anthony are at the foot of fifth street in minneapolis. the water does not come leaping over, but pours over easily and smoothly in one solid sheet. on either bank of the river are located the largest flouring mills in the world. not a drop of the old mississippi[11] that comes sweeping over the falls but pays tribute in furnishing power for these mills. huge iron turbine wheels that twenty men could not lift are turned as easily as a child rolls a hoop.
on the site of these mills long ago were camped the dakotas. they had just come down from another village where one of the men had married another wife and brought her along. the woman was stronger than the savage in wife number one, and when the indians broke camp and packed up their canoes and goods for the journey to the foot of the falls, the forsaken wife, taking her child, leaped into a canoe and rowed with a steady hand down stream toward the falls. her husband saw her and called to her, but she seemed not to hear him and she did not even turn her head when his comrades joined him in his cries. on swept the boat, while the broken-hearted wife sang her death-song. presently the falls were reached. the boat trembled for a moment, then turning sideways, was dashed to pieces on the rocks below.
minnesota was the land of gitche manitou the mighty and mudjekeewis. mackinack was the home of hiawatha and old nokomis. there[12] gitche manitou made adam and eve and placed them in the indian garden of eden. one day manitou or great god made a turtle and dropped it into lake huron. when it came up with a mouth full of mud, manitou took the mud and made the island of mackinack.
as we steamed up the mississippi to the falls of minnehaha we had a good view of the bank swallows in their homes in the sandstone banks along the river. the action of the air on sandstone hardens a very thin crust on the surface, and when this is scraped off one can easily dig into the bank. the swallows are geologists enough to know this and hundreds of them have dug holes in the perpendicular walls. here the chattering, noisy little cave-dwellers fly in and out all day long, flying up over the cliffs and away in search of food or resting in the shrubbery which grows in the water near by. it is a pretty sight to see the happy little fellows skim the water. it makes you wish that you, too, had wings.
at the entrance of minnehaha park we were greeted by a merry wood thrush, whose voice is melodious beyond description. there he sat on a swaggy limb not ten feet from us. we were familiar with his biography and recognized[13] him by his brown and white speckled coat. we advanced cautiously. we had come six hundred miles to see him and i think he knew it, too, for when we were so near that we could have taken him in our hands he recognized our presence by nodding his graceful head first this way, then that, and sang on. we spent some ten minutes with him, then “bon voyage” he sang out as we passed on.
three miles above minneapolis are the beautiful falls of minnehaha, laughing water. these falls are beautiful beyond the power of my pen to describe. the water does not pour over, but comes leaping and dancing, like one great shower of diamonds, pearls, sapphires and rubies. the vast sheet of water sixty-five feet high reminds one of a bridal veil decked with gems and sprinkled with diamond dust.
“where the falls of minnehaha
flash and gleam among the oak trees,
laugh and leap into the valley.”
it was here that hiawatha came courting the lovely maiden minnehaha. the falls are surrounded by a government park. hurrying along through glen and dale, looking for the falls, we met a party of young ladies who were having a picnic in the park.
i accosted one of them, “beg pardon, mademoiselle, can you tell me where to find the falls?”
she looked astonished for a moment. “the falls of what?”
“the falls of minnehaha.”
“o, i don’t know; never heard of her,” replied my maiden fair as she turned and tripped away.
it has always seemed so strange to me that people living near places of interest are oftentimes ignorant of the fact.
we next met a youth of some fourteen summers, who knew the history of st. paul, minneapolis and their environs. he could tell you all about the big mills, the soldiers, the barracks and old fort snelling. he knew the story of minnehaha, too; had been to the falls hundreds of times, and knew the song of hiawatha as he knew his alphabet. gitche manitou had but to set his foot on the earth and a mighty river flowed from his tracks. mudjekeewis was a great warrior, but hiawatha was his hero. it was with genuine regret that we bade good-by to this interesting youth.
our next visit was to old fort snelling, three miles out from st. paul. this fort was built[15] in 1820. it is round, two stories high and is constructed of stone. the old fort, of course, is not used now. the regular soldiers stationed here are located in delightful quarters. the barracks are just beyond the old fort. the hospital is a large, commodious building of stone. the parade field is a delightful bit of rolling prairie. the barracks are quite deserted now, most of the regiment being in the philippines. only a small detachment of twenty-five troops remains to take care of the property. fort snelling was the rendezvous of the chippewas and the sioux in the old days of indian occupation.
while the two tribes smoked the pipe of peace and made protestations of friendship they might not intermarry.
at one of these meetings a sioux brave won the heart of a chippewa maiden. their love they kept a secret, but when the tribes met again at old fort snelling a quarrel arose among the young warriors which resulted in the death of a sioux.
the sioux fell upon the chippewas with the cry of extermination.
in the midst of battle lover and loved one met, but for a moment. they were swept[16] apart and the young warrior knew that the fair maiden lived only in the land of shadows.
there dwells in the river at the falls of saint anthony a dusky undine. she was once a mermaid living in a placid lake, longing for a soul which the good manitou finally promised her upon her marriage with a mortal. the mortal appeared one day in the form of a handsome ottawa brave, and to him the beautiful mermaid told her tale of woe. the two were wed. the mermaid received her soul and the form of a human, but her new relatives disliked her. they quarreled over her and at last the ottawas and the adirondacks fought over her, and threw her into the river. there she lives to this day, thankfully giving up her soul for the peace and quiet of a mermaid’s life.
this is the home of the pine and the birch. the white melilotus grows rank in the byways of minneapolis.
the horse may not have to go, but the bicycle has surely come to stay. a unique figure on the streets of st. paul is a window washer, black as the ace of spades, mounted on a wheel. rags of all sorts and conditions hang from his pockets. he carries his brushes aloft a la[17] “sancho panza.” he rides up to the curbstone, dismounts, leans his steed against the curb, washes his windows and rides away at a pace that would make don quixote’s sleepy squire open his eyes in amazement.
a beautiful morning in june finds us aboard the great northern flyer, bound for the pacific coast. we were soon up on the river bluffs. here is some fine farming land, the only drawback being the lack of well water. the geological formation is entirely different from that of indiana and illinois, where water may be had on the bluffs as easily as lower down toward the riverbed. here the underground water current lies on a level with the bed of the river and a well must go down five or six hundred feet through the bluff before water is obtained.
our route here follows the mississippi, which in places is jammed with rafts of logs on their way down to the saw mills. each log bears the owner’s mark. one sees many logs, big fellows worth ten or fifteen dollars, which have slipped from their rafts and like independent boys, get lost in all sorts of places.
george monte was an indian lumberman of the north. he worked at a chute where the logs[18] were floated down to the river and held back by a gate until it was time to send them through en masse. when all was ready the foreman ordered the log drivers to open the gate. one chilly night the order came to open the gate. the night was dark and the men drew lots to see who should attempt the dangerous feat. monte drew what was to him the fatal slip. without a word he opened the door and passed out into the night. the jam was broken and the logs passed through, but hours passed and monte failed to return. then his companions went in search of him. investigation showed that the big gate which sank by its own weight when the pins had been removed, was held by some obstruction. the object was removed with long spike-poles and proved to be the mangled body of monte. the chute was soon abandoned, for every night at midnight his ghost walks the banks. his moans can be distinctly heard above the swish and lap of the water.
on the coteau des prairies (side of the prairies) in minnesota, pipe-stone, a smooth clay, from which hundreds of indians have cut their pipes, forms a wall two miles long and thirty feet high. in front of the wall lie five big[19] bowlders dropped there by the glaciers. under these bowlders lies the spirit of a squaw, which must be propitiated before the stone is cut. this quarry was neutral ground for all the tribes. here knives were sheathed and tomahawks belted. to this place came the great spirit to kill and eat the buffalo of the prairies. the thunder bird had her nest here and the clashing of the iron wings of her young brood created the storms. once upon a time, when a snake crawled into the nest to steal the young thunderers, manitou, the great spirit, seized a piece of pipe stone and pressing it into the form of a man, hurled it at the snake. the clay man missed the snake and struck the ground. he turned to stone and there he stood for a thousand years. he grew to manhood’s stature and in time another shape, that of a woman, grew beside him. one day the red pair wandered away over the plains. from this pair sprang all the red people.
from st. paul to fargo not a stalk of corn was to be seen, but there was field after field of fine wheat. this part of minnesota is much more thickly settled than immediately around st. paul and minneapolis. morehead in minnesota and fargo, across the line in dakota,[20] are thriving towns. the country here looks like illinois. the lay of the land is the same and groves and houses dot the landscape. here dwelt the dakota tribes from which the states of dakota and minnesota take their names. here came hiawatha and his bride, minnehaha, whom he won at st. paul when the tribe was visiting that country, for minnehaha was a dakota girl, you remember.
hiawatha’s fight with his father began on the upper mississippi and the bowlders found there were their missiles. hiawatha fought against him for many long days before peace was declared between them.
the evil peace father had slain one of hiawatha’s relatives. he engaged him in combat all the hot day long. they battled to no purpose, but the next day a woodpecker flew overhead and cried out, “your enemy has but one vulnerable point; shoot at his scalp-lock.” hiawatha did this and the peace father fell dead. taking some of the blood on his finger the victor touched the woodpecker on the head and the red mark is seen on every woodpecker to this day.
dakota as well as wisconsin has her devil’s lake, about which hang many legends, but unlike[21] that of wisconsin the great spirit, gitche manitou, does not appear in the middle of it every night at twelve o’clock.
indians as well as whites believe in a coming messiah. in 1890 a frenzy swept over the northwest, inspiring the indians to believe that the messiah, who was no less than hiawatha himself, and who was to sweep the white people off the face of the earth, would soon arrive. dakota was the meeting ground of the tribes. sitting bull, a sioux chief, told them in assembly that he had seen the wonderful messiah while hunting in the mountains. he told them that having lost his way, he followed a star which led him to a wonderful valley, where he saw throngs of chiefs long dead, as they appeared in a spirit dance. christ was there, too, and showed him the nail wounds in his hands and feet and the place where the spear pierced his side. then the old rogue returned to his people and taught them the ghost dance, which caused the whites so much trouble.
dakota is a beautiful state. the land along the route of the great northern railway lies more level than in minnesota. the crops are looking well in this region. there seems to be but one drawback to farming here and that is the[22] famous russian thistle imported a few years ago. the principal crops are oats, barley and wheat. rye bread is plenty and good, too. out there on the broad cheek of the dakota prairie the weeds are holding high revelry. some of the same old weeds we have at home and many which are new to the writer. wild ducks build their nests in the tall grass of the ponds just as they did in illinois thirty years ago.
at minot, dakota, we set our watches to mountain time, turning them back one hour. we arrived at minot at 11:10 p. m., remained fifteen minutes and left at 10:25. at 9:15 o’clock the sun was just sinking in the west. it does not get dark here, only twilight. at 10 o’clock the moon came up and we bade good night to saturday.
sunday we spent in the bad lands of montana. “hell with the fires out” is the popular name given to the bad lands in the wild, fearless nomenclature of the west. it is an ancient sea bottom. the lower strata is clay and the one above it is sand. they are wild and rugged beyond description. the action of the air, wind and storm have worn them into towers, citadels and fantastic peaks.
the highly colored scoria rocks crop out here and there, adding a beauty of their own. summer and winter, long before the advent of the white man the coal mines in this region were burning. looking down into the fiery furnace one may see the white-hot glow of the coal and the heated rocks glowing with a white heat. rattlesnakes wriggle through the short grass. quails and grouse fly up and away.
there is a banshee in the bad lands whose cries chill your blood if you happen to hear her, which i did not. she is most frequently seen on a hill south of watch dog butte, in dakota, her flowing hair and her long arms tossing in wild gestures, make a weird picture in the moonlight. cattle will not remain near the butte and cowboys fear the banshee and her companion, a skeleton that walks about and haunts the camps in the vicinity. leave a violin lying near and he will seize it and away, playing the most weird music, but you must not follow him, for he will lead you into pits and foot falls. the explanation of all this is the phosphorus found in this vicinity, which glows in the night air.
standing rock agency is the best known of our frontier posts. the rock from which the[24] post takes its name is only about three feet high and two feet in width. this rock was once a beautiful indian bride who starved herself to death upon her husband marrying a second wife. after her death the great manitou turned her to stone, and here she stands to this day.
glasgow, montana, lies in the midst of the sioux reservation. like the spartans of old, these warriors of the plains dwell in tents during a part of every year. just beyond the town tepees now dot the landscape where for a brief space the red man forgets the things taught him by his white brother and resumes his old wild ways, but at the approach of winter he abandons his tent and returns to his log cabin and to civilization.
the indian costume is a mixture of savage and civilized dress, looking more like that of the raggedy man than any other.
blackfoot is a village in the heart of the blackfeet reservation, lying just west of that of the sioux. these people, like the ancient greeks, reverence the butterfly.
“ah!” exclaim these red children of nature when they see one of these psyches of the prairie flitting from flower to flower over the green[25] meadow, “ah, see him now. he is gathering the dreams which he will bring to us in our sleep.”
if you see the sign for the butterfly which is something like a maltese cross painted on a lodge, you will know that the owner was taught how to decorate his lodge, in a dream by an apunni,—butterfly. a blackfeet woman embroiders a butterfly on a piece of buckskin and ties it on her baby’s head when she wishes to put it to sleep. wrapped in their blankets the indians stood about blackfoot village as we came in reminding us of longfellow’s address to “driving cloud:”
“wrapt in thy scarlet blanket, i see thee stalk through the city’s
narrow and populous street, as once by the margin of rivers
stalked those birds unknown which have left to us only their footprints.
what in a few short years will remain of thy race but footprints?
how canst thou tread these streets, who hast trod the green turf of the prairies?
how canst thou breathe this air who hast breathed the sweet air of the mountains?”
when one has trod the velvety green turf of the prairies and breathed the sweet air of the mountains he is quite ready to sympathize with “driving cloud.”
the government schools for the blackfeet indians are located in a valley beyond blackfoot village. the schools are conducted exactly as our public schools are, only that the blackfeet children must go to school ten months in the year. think of that, boys and girls. during july and august these dusky redskins get a vacation, which they spend with their parents and for the time being return to the savage state. the agent told me they were always quite wild upon their return to school after two months of hunting, fishing and living in tepees.
now and then a fine covey of quails or prairie chickens flies up and away. how glad they would make a sportsman’s heart!
with our glasses we see easily two hundred miles in this rarefied atmosphere. i discovered several coyotes running along a ledge in the bad lands that i could not see at all with my naked eye. the sweet grass mountains, sixty miles away on the canadian line, loom up so plainly that they appear to be only two miles distant. with the aid of the glasses we could see the vegetation and rocks on the sides of the mountains quite plainly.
the united states geological survey reports[27] montana the best watered state in the union. it has more large rivers than all of the states west of the mississippi combined. milk river is five hundred miles long. this valley is one of the finest in montana. here irrigation is a perfect success.
here one sees the cowboy in all his picturesqueness. the saddle is your true seat of empire. montana cattle bring a big price in the chicago market. the top price paid in 1897 was five dollars per hundredweight, and was paid to george draggs for a shipment from valley county. i would almost be willing to live in the bad lands if i might always have my table supplied with the juicy mountain beef which we have been eating since we arrived at st. paul.
this is a fine sheep as well as cattle country.
montana is not all sage brush, coyotes and rattlesnakes.
montana has according to the report of the secretary of the interior seventy million acres of untillable lands. a great portion of this land can be reclaimed by irrigation.
we passed the little rockies sixty miles to the north (the distance looked to be only about two miles). the bear paw mountains are[28] west of these. the indians are very superstitious about the mountains. the great spirit, manitou, they tell us, broke a hole through the floor of heaven with a rock and on the spot where it fell he threw down more rocks, snow and ice until the pile was so high that he could step from the summit into heaven.
after the mountains were completed, manitou by running his hands over their rugged sides, forced up the forests. then he plucked some leaves, blew his breath upon them and gave them a toss in the air and lo they sailed away in the breezy blue birds. his staff he turned into beasts and fishes. the earth became so beautiful he decided to live on it and starting a fire in mt. shasta he burned it out for a wigwam.
an interesting part of life on the plains is the prairie dog and his town, the streets of which were not laid out by an engineer. each dog selects the site of his home to suit his taste. the houses are about the size of a wagon wheel, almost perfectly round. as the train whirls by they sit on top of their houses looking much like soldiers standing guard. the dogs are three times as large as a gopher and of a pale straw color. as one walks toward them, down[29] they go through the door, but they are very curious and presently back they come for another look. they are agile and graceful in movement. one handsome fellow lay on the projecting sill of a house basking in the sun. we approached very near before he saw us. the flies were annoying him. he shook his head and blinked his eyes at the flies, paying little attention to us.
the wild flowers of montana are as abundant and beautiful as those of the alps, and more varied. shooting stars greet the spring. dandelions abound but do not reach full rounded perfection. the common blue larkspur, however, revels in the cool air and warm sunshine. the little yellow violet which haunts the woods in the eastern states makes herself quite at home here. blue bells nod and sway in the breeze, little ragged sun flowers turn their faces to the sun and mitreworts grow everywhere.
along the shady streams wild currants flaunt their yellow flags while hydrangea, that queen of flowers, lends a shade to the violets blooming at her feet. wild roses strew the ground with their delicate petals. stately lilies, their purple stamens contrasting strangely with their[30] yellow petals, are abundant. the most dainty of this fair host is the golden saxifrage, and the most delicate gold thread, whose dainty, slender roots resemble nothing so much as threads of pure gold.
at havre, montana, the twenty-fourth united states infantry came aboard. they are stalwart colored soldiers who will do credit to the uniforms they wear. they go to san francisco, where they take transports for manila. the good-bys at the station between the soldiers and their friends and relatives were pathetic indeed. not one of the brave fellows but acted a soldier’s part.
just as the train was pulling out a handsome girl ran along one of the cars to the window calling out to her sweetheart:
“o, lift me up till i kiss you again.”
we were glad when two big black hands came out through the open window and strong arms clasped the maiden for a moment.
every heart beat with the same thought; how many of these brave men would return from the deadly philippines?
we were proud of the twenty-fourth when they bade good-by to their friends at havre; we were proud of them when they marched up[31] the street at spokane; we are proud of them still.
the officers of this regiment are white. they and their wives came into our car.
the conversation was enlivened with tales of camp life. when a private, one officer was greatly annoyed by the indians, who came day after day to sit in the shade of his quarters, when having been on night duty he wanted to sleep. he bought a sun-glass and when they began talking he would sit down at the window and carelessly with the glass draw a focus on one of his tormentor’s feet. with a yell worthy an indian with the bad spirit after him he would bound away, followed by his companions. soon they would return, when the glass would be brought into play with the same effect. at last the indians came to believe the house haunted and our captain was no longer troubled by his red brothers.
after forty miles of mountain climbing we reached the summit of the rockies. at nine o’clock we were still in the mountains and the sun was still shining.
the smallest owl in the world has his home in these mountains. it is the pigmy owl, but you must look sharply if you see him as he flits[32] from limb to limb and hides in the dense foliage. the rocky mountain blue jay is not blue at all. his coat is a reddish brown, he sports a black-crested cap and has black bars on his wings like his illinois brothers.
flowers, ice, snow and mountain torrents spread out in one grand panorama. fleecy white clouds not much larger than one’s hand float up and join larger ones at the summit of the peaks. there is no grander scene on earth than this range of snow-capped mountains spread out in mighty panorama, peak after peak and turret after turret glistening in the golden sunshine against skies as blue as those of italy.
“come up into the mountains—come up into the blue,
oh, friend down in the valley, the way is clear for you;
the path is full of perils, and devious, but your feet
may safely thread its windings, and reach to my retreat.
the mountains, oh, the mountains! how all the ambient air
bends like a benediction, and all the soul is prayer.
how blithely on this summit the echoing wind’s refrain
invites us to the mountains—god’s eminent domain.
oh, soul below in the valley where aspirations rise
no higher than the plunging of water fowl that flies,
come up into the mountains—come up into the blue;
leave weary leagues behind you the lowland’s meaner view,[33]
the autumn’s rotting verdure, the sapless grasses browned,
come where the snows are lilies that bloom the whole year round.
here in the subtle spirit of all these climbing hills,
man may achieve his dreaming, and be the thing he wills.”
—joseph dana miller.
when one has felt the inspiration which the air of the mountains gives, he feels that he may achieve his dreaming, may be the thing he wills.
ten o’clock found us going down the western slope of the rockies in the twilight. daylight comes at two o’clock in the morning. all along the track over the mountains are stationed track walkers, who live in little shacks. before every train which passes over the road each walker goes over his section to see that all is well.
all the indians east of the rockies located the happy hunting ground west of the mountains and those west of the divide thought it was on the eastern side, and that every red man’s soul would be carried over on a cob-web float.
at spokane we turned our watches back another hour. we are now in pacific coast time.
