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Show 62 NATIONAL WAGON ROAD GUIDE. THE FRAIL MONUMENT. The emigration to California, overland, in 1852, ;as very great, and attended with much of sickness and death. Hardfy a company that was not decimated, and ma.ny doubly so. Newly made graves, that during the ~rst ten days up~n the plains, possessed at least a pass .. 1ng, melancholy Interest, sufficient at least to turn the steps of the passer-by, if only just to learn the name of the occupant, from the rudely cut record upon the head .. board-if snch boarcJ..they had-at length became so nu .. merous as hardly to attract a passing notice, unless in the immediate vicinity of our camping grounds. We had encamped upon the banks of a clear little streamlet, surrounded by a world of green grass. We WP-re all joyous and happy; our animals as yet in ex .. cellent condition, our company all in good health, and we had not been long enough upon the plains to know or fe.el fatigue ; our tents were pitched, horses quetly grazing, and mirth and gaiety resounded throughout the camp. More than one of us had observed a little strip of boa.rd, no wider than a man's hand, standing upright amid the green grass but a few rods from .our wagons. ~ne ~f our company thinking that it would make good ktndhngs for our camp-fire, went out to get it · but re .. turned witho u t 1• t , sayi· ng not h.I ng. Another w' ent, and he too returned without it!' and yet another, and as they returned seemed less joyous than before. Our curiosity , NATIONAL WAGON ROAD GUIDE. 63 • was excited, and we too, with a lady companion, went out to see it, and to discover, if possible, the reason of its apparent sacredness. On nearing it, we found ourselves approaching a lone, little grave ! The puny mound of earth ,vas fresh, and the green grass around it, had hardly recovered from its recent trampling, and newly cut as with a penknife, upon the little tnonument, were these words : OUR ONLY CHILD; ' LITTLE MARY, FOUR YEARS OLD. But we had no way of ascertaining whose " Little }lary" it was. As the sun was yet up an hour or more, it was pro-posed that we move on a few miles to other camping ground; and without a question being asked, or reason given, it was unanimously approved, and carried into effect ; but the true and only reason was, the nearness to our camping ground, of that lone, little grave, and its. fr·ail monument. A STAMPEDE. - "f This is a term applied to a herd of animals, that being suddenly seized, as by a frenzy, rush from all human control, and at a speed only limited by their utmost powers of action, and in any direction they may happen |
