OCR Text |
Show MINNESOTA. 387 " Ten- n- cen- nts a man- n ! ten- n- cen- nts a man- n !" the result being money enough to treat the band to white sugar, of which they are passionately fond. Near by a white roud was trying to strike a bar-gain with a rather pretty Chippeway girl of fourteen years or so, who was in charge of an older sister, a withered hag at least thirty years old, and therefore past all show of comeliness, as is the nature of In-dian women. Behind stood a half- breed squaw, about as " pretty " as a wild- cat struck with a club. Ten rods away, afternoon service was in progress at the Episcopal Church, the only one in the place ; and across the street a maison de joie kept open doors, its inmates at the windows with a lavish display of mammiferous wealth. No work was in progress; most of the men had on clean shirts, and the holy Sab-bath was strictly kept in Far Western fashion. The " city " had one great advantage over Union Pacific towns : the houses were all of lumber, and the native pines still lined the streets. Here the great Mississippi has at last shrunk to a stream no more than a hundred yards wide and perhaps ten feet deep ; a hundred miles north would bring us into that circle of lakes Itasca, Leech, Cass and Plantagenet which jointly form its source. Around, mostly to the east, are ten thousand square miles covered with the white and yellow varieties of Norway pine, constituting the great wealth of Upper Minnesota. Next morning a lowering sky gave no-tice that the first storm of the season was at hand, and as the train moved westward the air hinted of snow. For seventy- five miles the country is nearly worthless for agricultural purposes; then we move down a gentle slope, and enter the fertile valley of Red River. The little lakes are beautiful. In winter they are frozen almost solid, and then is the best time for freighting f the sled routes take a direct line from point to point without regard to lakes or sloughs. Moorehead, on the eastern bank of Red River, is the end of a pas-senger division, and the nominal head of navigation ; but it is only in the months of June and July that any steamers run to that point. Frog Point, sixty miles below ( northward), is the head of navigation for the rest of the summer, though boats rarely ply before the latter part of May. As Red River has a general course due north, the thaw occurs at the head first, and forces a great break up and massing of the ice down at Fort Garry and other ports in Winnepeg. Straw- ticks, beef, bread, and potatoes could be had for $ 2.00 per day in either of the new frame hotels then adorning Moorehead; but there was noth-ing to be seen requiring more than a night's stay. Omnibuses were not, so we carried our baggage a mile, across the bridge and through |