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Show A WESTERN CHARACTER. 3J " Biraeby we got righted up an' on dryer ground, an' went on after killin' two or three hosses an' leavin' one wagon. The trains got strung out all along the trail, so we had grass an' game plenty along up the Blue River an' over to the Platte. There we struck the Mor-mon emigration an' all the Californy trains that went that way. The whole country was et out, an' the Injins threatened, an' the men got to quarrelin'. I tell you it takes a mighty good set o' men to travel together three thousand miles an' not fuss. Sometimes it was Whig and Democrat, an' then it was Tennessee agin Geawgey. I tell you when men are tired an' dirty they'll quarrel about any thing. About half a dozen swore Californy was all humbug, an' turned back, an' at Laramie Forks the company split into two. At South Pass our half split agin, an' ten of us went off with a company to go the new route, south of the Salt Lake. We got to the Mormon City all beat out, an' more'n half a mind not to go a mile further. Plenty got there in worse humor than us. Some had split up till it was each man for him-self, an' some actually divided wagons, an' made two carts out o' one, or finished the trip on hosses. We took a rest, an' traded every thing with the Mormons, givin' two of our hosses for one fresh one, an' finally got off in pretty good shape agin. " But all we'd seed was nothin' to the country from there on. Rocks an' mountains an' sand; an' sand, an' rocks an' mountains miles on miles of it. Sometimes the water was white as soapsuds with alkali, an' sometimes as red as brick- dust, not one time in five sweet an' clean. I reckon I swore a thousand times if I ever got home agin nothin' stronger ' n cold water should pass my lips. I've drove all day ' thout seein' a spear o' green, or a speck of any thing but sand; an' if we got grass once a day, we was in luck. Every day the men swore nothin' could beat this, an' the next day it was always worse. I reckon God knows what he made that country for he haint told any body, though. " At last we got into a region that was the hind end o' creation seventy miles ' thout a drop o' water or a spear o' grass! Nothin' but hot sand an' beds of alkali as white as your shirt. The trains used to start in one afternoon an' drive two nights an' a day, an' get to water the second mornin'. The whole way was lined with boxes an' beds an' clothes, an' pieces of wagons, one thing an' another the trains ahead had left, an' the last ten miles you might a' stepped from one carcass to another on the dead hosses an' mules an' oxen. Two o' our men got crazy as loons you can see such strange things on them deserts. My head was clear as a bell, an' yet half the time I could see off to one |