CHAPTER L.
ACROSS THE CONTINENT.
Across the Continent in search of a Fortune. Omaha. A Meeting with the veteran General Harney. Governor C. asks me to introduce him to the General. The Backwoodsman and the veteran Soldier. The General induces me to tell the Story of my Career, and gives me some good Advice. Off for a long Stage-coach Ride. Rough Fellow-Travellers. An unmannerly Army Officer taught Politeness. Julesburg. An undesirable Place for a permanent Residence. An atrocious Murder. More unpleasant travelling Companions. Cheyenne. A frontier Hotel. Lack of even decent Accommodations. An undesirable Bedfellow. A Visit to Laporte. Again on the Road. A Water-Spout in Echo Canon. The Coach caught in a Quicksand. Mormon Hospitalities. Salt Lake City. Arrival at the City of Austin, Nevada.
N my return to the United States, I found the financial and political situations, especially at the South, more deplorable than ever. The era of true reconstruction seemed to be even farther off than it did when Lee surrendered, and the freedmen and carpet-baggers were having things completely their own way throughout the length and breadth of the late Confederacy. The people were oppressed and harried without mercy and without hope
of redress by the black and white adventurers whom
the fortunes of war had given the control of their affairs, and it was very apparent that there could be no revival of business worth speaking of while such a state of affairs existed. I greatly desired to settle in the South, but my own fortunes were at a low ebb, and I saw very plainly that if I expected to improve them it would be necessary to go elsewhere.
After giving the matter mature consideration, and making inquiries in a number of quarters, I determined to try my
luck in the mining regions of the Pacific slope, as they seemed to hold out inducements that no other part of the country did. Apart, however, from all questions of pecuniary profit, I
570
