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Show CHAPTER XIV. JOURNEY TO THE RIO GRANDE. No THOROUGHFARE from Oklahoma westward. The country was safe enough for three hundred miles from the eastern border ; but be-tween that and the settlements in New Mexico intervened five hun-dred miles of marauding Kioways and murderous Comanches. Stage coaches run from Fort Smith out to Fort Sill ; beyond that the trav-eler must take his chances for a government train, which might go in a month or a year. For two men like us, unskilled in wood- craft, such a trip alone was courting death. Another line of coaches trav-erses Northern Texas to Fort Concho, but we preferred a more north-ern route at that season, and turned toward the Kansas Pacific Rail-road. Traveling leisurely northward through Kansas, we still gained rap-idly on the season. Montgomery County presented a succession of fertile vales and rolling hills, the latter often rising into picturesque mounds crowned with clumps of timber, and over all the rich green of advancing spring. In 1868, Montgomery contained twenty settlers and one post- office ; in 1872, it cast a vote of 3,000, indicating a pop-ulation of at least 10,000. The stream of emigration had filled all the valleys, then rolled on westward, and after covering the best parts of Wilson and Cowley counties, had turned north, and was flowing up the Arkansas Valley. The Kansians thus summed up the changes since we visited them a month before: " Fine chance o' corn planted, an' doin' well ; splendid prospect for fruit peaches sure of a whalin' crop but wheat don't look well. In fact that crop ain't a certain thing yet in Southern Kansas. Garden spot o' the world, sir; no doubt o' that; but we haven't quite got the land worked down to the right pitch for wheat." At midnight of May 2d we left the State Line Station for the long ride to Denver ; and at daylight of the 3d were at Junction City, last point of connection with any eastern line of rail. Thence the Mis-souri, Kansas and Texas Road runs south- east, down the valley of the Neosho to Parsons, in Labette County. So far we see no signs of a diiferent country from that on the eastern border; timber is plenty ( 21?) |