And Conveying This Motley Assortment Of Human Beings, The
Cars Dashed Along, None Of Their Inmates Heeding Each Other, Or Perhaps
Him
" - - Who heeds and holds them all
In his large love and boundless thought."
At eleven we came to an abrupt pause upon the prairie. After waiting
quietly for some time without seeing any vestiges of a station, my friends
got out to inquire the cause of the detention, when we found that a
freight-train had broken down in front, and that we might be detenus for
some time, a mark for Indian bullets! Refreshments were produced and
clubbed together; the "prairie-men" told stories; the hunters looked to
their rifles, and polished their already resplendent chasing; some
Mexicans sang Spanish songs, a New Englander 'Yankee Doodle;' some
guessed, others calculated, till at last all grew sleepy: the trappers
exhausted their stories, the singers their songs, and a Mormon, who had
been setting forth the peculiar advantages of his creed, the patience of
his auditors - till at length sonorous sounds, emitted by numerous nasal
organs, proving infectious, I fell asleep to dream confusedly of 'Yankee
Doodle,' pistols, and pickpockets.
In due time I awoke; we were stopping still, and there was a light on our
right. "We're at Rock Island, I suppose?" I asked sleepily. A laugh from
my friends and the hunters followed the question; after which they
informed me in the most polite tones that we were where we had been for
the last five hours, namely stationary on the prairie. The intense cold
and heavy dew which accompany an American dawn made me yet more amazed at
the characteristic patience with which the Americans submit to an
unavoidable necessity, however disagreeable. It is true that there were
complaints of cold, and heavy sighs, but no blame was imputed to any one,
and the quiescence of my companions made me quite ashamed of my English
impatience. In England we should have had a perfect chorus of complaints,
varied by "rowing" the conductor, abuse of the company, and resolutions to
write to the Times, or bring up the subject of railway mismanagement in
the House of Commons. These people sat quietly, ate, slept, and smoked,
and were thankful when the cars at last moved off to their destination.
On we flew to the West, the land of Wild Indians and buffaloes, on the
narrow rims of metal with which this "great people" is girdling the earth.
Evening succeeded noon, and twilight to the blaze of a summer day; the
yellow sun sank cloudless behind the waves of the rolling prairie, yet
still we hurried on, only stopping our headlong course to take in wood and
water at some nameless stations. When the sun set, it set behind the
prairie waves. I was oblivious of any changes during the night, and at
rosy dawn an ocean of long green grass encircled us round. Still on - belts
of timber diversify the prospect - we rush into a thick wood, and, emerging
from it, arrive at Rock Island, an unfinished-looking settlement, which
might bear the name of the Desert City, situated at the confluence of the
Rock River and Mississippi.
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