Sketches and Extracts from “The Old Journey”

SKETCHES AND EXTRACTS JSy Alfred How rapidly we have grown! What used to be dreams of the future first changed to reality, and then sank away until they are but a dream of the past ! No more the long trains of dust-covered wagons, drawn by the slow and patient oxen, wind across the level plains or through the deep defile. No more the Pony Ex- press or the lumbering stage coach brings the quickest word or forms the fastest transport between the inter-mountain region and "The States." How hard it is to understand the briefness of time that has passed since this great interior country was practically a howling wilderness, inhabited by bands of savage Indians, and penetrated only by intrepid trappers or hunters! Before us was the land of Kit Carson; of the Sioux, the Cheyenne and the Ute. In

FROM "THE OLD JOURNEY." Lambourne. our path was the home of the prairie dog, the coyote, and the rattlesnake; of the antelope, the buffalo and the bear. Day after day we trudged along, day after day the prairie un- rolled before, or, day after day the red hills of sandstone looked down upon us. The days grew into weeks, the weeks into months, and still the cattle, freed from the yoke, hastened to slake their thirst in the passing streams. Now we behold a land giving promise of future greatness, where peace, wealth and happiness shall go hand in hand, and where al- ready it is well-nigh impossible for the youth of today to compre- hend the struggles and privations of their Pioneer Fathers.