Anna Dickinson Family Correspondence [August 2, 1873-August 28, 1873]Swampscott, Mass. Aug. 2. 1873 My dearest Marmee, --John's letter will tell them our decision & destination--I hope it will be a right & satisfactory one.all round. - I have so wanted to go to the mountains that I am sure they will do me good, - & I suffer here as much from sleeplessness as I did at home. The Doggetts an off our their Canada trip, & so I have no news of them for thee. Yesterday a dead body was thrown up on the sands, & the whole house ran out to see & enjoy it.--Fanny & I fled into town that we might neither see nor hear of it.--It hadbeen long in the water & must have been a terrible sight. - Last night a tremendous storm went over us, after a sickeningly hot day - but there is very little trace of it, this still close morning. I hope Marmee is well & happy - I send her my heart. -No. 1326 Arch St. Phila. Aug 18 1873 Dear Marmee, I got on safe enough. Betty kept me company till the train fairly started, & I met one of my old adorers on the train whom I have not seen for years - a rich little Jew - who heldon to me so that Julie thought he would never let me go. - She was at the train to meet me. We were over at the house to-day, All looked straight enough there. But I think it would be well for Rebecca to sweep all the carpets. Mrs. Mac. & Miss Constance send much love to thee, likewise to Martha, & all here desire to be remembered - I got my trunk without the check, & think I shall be able now to get the check without the ticket, - saw thebaggage-master last night. What have cos. Wm & Rebecca decided on,--& what of the small Edwinns?--Dear love to all.--I send Marmee my heart AnnaDennison Ohio 12-M August 12th All right - every thing lovely J.D. [*There was some delay from a freight train wreck but we are again off-*] On the cars 9 P.M. Aug 12, 1873 Dear Maumee, We are near Bradford Junction, well and prospering, and skipping over the ground now after our long delay, - more & more liberal news anon. Great store of love now. Anna On the cars 9:30 am. Aug 13--near Vandalia Dear Dickey - we are in a very stupid country at present but are looking for better things beyond. Are flourishing, but didn't have an epicure's breakfast this morning. --John is dirty, --So am I.-- & we both send much love. A E D. Kansas City MO Thursday Aug 14 - 5 P.M. Reached here this noon tired and dirty, but well - Have enjoyed the trip much Start at 10:50 tonight, hoping to see Buffalo tomorrow and reach Denver Saturday A.M. The weather is hot. Western Missouri is a beautiful country Spent a few pleasant hours yesterday in St Louis and admired the bridge building across the Mississippi at that point. Get [?] & well by fall [&] have a good winter With love John Kansas City MO - Thursday - Aug 14 5:30 P.M. Spent a few pleasant hours yesterday in St. Louis - reached here at noon - leave at 10:50 tonight - hope to see Buffalo tomorrow and reach Denver on Saturday morn - well, dirty, tired - hopeful - affectionately John Kansas City MO. Aug. 14 1873 9:30 P.M. Dear Maumee - Here we are, 24 hours behind time, just starting out at last onto the plains. - We are well, but quite cooked, tho' we still retain life enough to send a great deal of love. - Anna Aug. 15 - - Near Wallace - 8:30 P.M. Dearest Marmee, We are just off the front of the Engine. Hurrah! - What a ride. If Marmee could have taken it, would have made her young again. Both send dear love to all. Anna Monday Eve 9:10 P.M. We are nearing Altoona - are well. have had a pleasant day. Expect to take breakfast at Columbus. With love to all. I am son JohnMary E. Dickinson Mount Vernon New York Mary E. Dickinson Mount Vernon New York Aug 14th Mary E. Dickinson Mount Vernon New York Mary E. Dickinson Mount Vernon New York Susie E. Dickinson Pittston Penna Mary E. Dickinson Mount Vernon New York Susie E. Dickinson Pittston Penna Mary E. Dickinson Mount Vernon New YorkDennison Ohio Aug 12, 1873 Dear little Maum - here we are, stuck and very much against our will. Yesterday at noon, I found John safe & sound on the train in possession of the most comfortable section, middle, & on the north side. We each had a curiosity-shop of things to organize. He by reason of his shopping in N.Y. in the morning and I by reason of things I had to bring over to the train without a bag2 since I had left mine behind me. However, we put all our bags - thru - in better array, - & added thereto our shawl straps, & finally had the procession in decent order, the porter taking charge of most of them. Then we snoozed for a space & refreshed. Then we sat-up & looked at what is certainly the richest & most bountiful farming country to be found in this land. The country through Eastern Pa is delicious in its outlines, hilly, rolling 3 wooded thickly, & wooded in clumps, - one sees a common field here & there, with a group of trees here, a little stream of water meandering through, & a bunch of bushes there, making a picture that no landscape gardening could improve. - No where else does one see such huge comfortable looking barns, such a many of outhouses, such big substantial stone dwelling places, with an addition here & there, & grand old4 trees that show how many generations have lived & worked, & died there. The country is green as in June. - the heavy rains of the last two weeks doing away with all the dry ugliness of the months preceding. At Lancaster John went foraging & found nothing but some half ripe apples, & some heavy green apple pies, - they give us no dinner till we reach Harrisburg near five in the afternoon - a very decent one 5 when we get at it, with a tidy dining house to eat it in, but the long fast is an outrage on the New York passengers. The country beyond Harrisburg for 15 or 20 miles is very beautiful, long blue spurs of mountains with the Susquehanna flowing by - one bridge across that gives the ends of two such spurs on either bank with a bend in the view that makes it seem to end against the base of a long range that cuts across the farther6 space. Farther range spurs bends River bends spurs Bridge Here's a fine picture! My ideas of perspective rival a Chinamans. — — after that there is nothing of special interest or beauty till we get well on towards Tyrone. Densely wooded hills, many of them standing quite clear from their base, and a few low spheres here and there, but nothing really bold till we get towards Altoona, & unhappily it was not till 9.20 our train was due there. 7 Nice time for supper truly. - John dived out & fed himself, & brought me a roll which I nibbled while I stood on the rear platform of the rear car & tried to "enjoy the scenery"? Heavy clouds had settled down by six o'clock, making the air dark by seven, — & more than dark by ten. - There were however almost constant flashes of lightning, & for a little while the half-moon tried to illumine the8 valleys. - Overhead dark clouds & a thick atmosphere filled with driving rain, on the left the wall of the mountain, - on the right, now & then a wall where there was a cut, & now & then clear open space from which we could have looked to far off ranges & lovely lowlands between, but which we could only see in dim outline as the moon brightened the mists floating over or settled down on them, - or by blinding flashes of lightning, - by & bye our clouds 9 swallowed the waning moon, & we went in from what was only darkness. Even in a dim light or by flashes, a mountain country never seems the same as level space, - there is a sense of weird vastness, immensity, that is never to be mistaken when one has once experienced it. John poked me out for some "cholera medicine" to bestow on a suffering fellow passenger, - what has been the result of his doctoring I know not, - & then we settled to what ought10 to have been sleep, but had, I'm afraid, very little of refreshment in it. — Even when one does sleep in the cars ones brain has but slight repose tho' ones body be somewhat rested. I suppose the constant sway & jar irritate it. This morning we woke to find ourselves standing still, — in which position we, or rather our train has remained now five hours & a half. a freight train smashed just ahead of us, & the utmost patience(!) manifested 11 on the part of those who should get it out of our way. We trudged up past both trains, & got onto a shabby car that brought us into Dennison, — a mile's run, for breakfast, & here have remained. As usual I have been in a rage over the organization of our American eating houses. — a long low room, with pea-green dirty walls, — dirty swinging lamps over head, — rough- planed boards, filthy under foot. The table12 cloth well enough as to material, but put on crookedly, & dirty. The napkins well enough ditto, but only half ironed, & wet, --the dishes, plenty of them pitched onto the table, & looking as tho' they had had a fire fight after they got there.--The food --hot bread, cold bread, buckwheat cakes, steak, ham, potatoes in three different styles, eggs, milk toast, cut tomatoes, stewed peaches, cantelope, all massed in one wild confusion,-- half of them not 13 property cooked,--or if so, brought & clapped down before you cold. A specimen of American waste & folly. Three dishes properly cooked, & served hot would have been delightfully appetizing --but this!-- Luckily I did not see the kitchen till after I had fed-- otherwise I should certainly have fasted. New food & old, clean things & dirty things dogs, cats, greasy hands & filthy clothes, &14 towels used as handkerchiefs mingled in wild confusion. If Dickens had dared to tell even half the truth about us, in some ways, he would have been torn asunder. After breakfast we visitated the telegraph office where John entered his protest against extortion --with reason. --of course, since the "Western Reunion" has no competition it can make what rules it chooses,--& some time ago it gave some 15 preposterous orders touching compound words,--by which for instance the demand was made for pay for two words instead of one, for Good-bye.--They might as well try to make two words of Mt-Vernon. After our telegraph experience we dived into the Company Shops to look at the Engines,--two dozen or more run into them, in divers stages of cleaning & repair, --John was explaining part of the workings16 of one of the machines to me, & I was amused watching the face of one of the young fellows at work on it. At first he held his nose as tho' he were mightily tickled at the mistakes he expected to make, but as John went on, wholly unconscious of him, in his perfectly lucid way, the fellow sat stone still, swallowing every word,--I suspect getting more pleasure, & more knowledge of his own work, combined in a quarter hour 17 than he ever did or ever will get in the same space of time before or since. Columbus 5.30 P.M. We got away from Dennison about noon, & ran in at a tremendous speed with results of dust & smoke & cinders past description. --It is a shame the companies do not try some methods of burning their own smoke & cinders,--& collecting the dust in boxes under the cars. --While John was meandering about alone, just before the train came up,--a18 rough fellow, engineer or engine worker of some kind, came up to him & asked "Was that Miss Anna E Dickinson who was walking about with you looking at the machinery?" "Yes" said John. "Miss Anna Dickinson the great novelist & writer?" (oh!) "Tis" answered John unblushingly. "She's interested in machinery, is she?"-- So John expounded what we had been looking at, & had been busy about, & the fellow seemed 19 greatly pleased at my august interest in what was his work --& so after a few more words they amicably separated & went on their way. In the cars a disagreeable, old fellow who was discoursing with a disagreeable young fellow, fell upon John & demanded "Is she your sister? "She"--what she? "Sister?"--what did he take me to be? "Tis" growled I. "How old?" demanded the inquisitive boor. --To which question I saw fit to make20 no response whatever. The country between D. & C. is wholly uninteresting, --indifferent looking houses & fields, with a commonplace surface of land.-- We reached Columbus at near four o'clock half famished, & fell upon our dinner in the tidy eating place with great avidity,--we had a very good oyster soup, a beef-steak & vegetable, & John an ice cream, I a cup of tea to wind up with. --After which we prowled up the main street of Columbus for an hour's observation 21 before our train came in. Columbus has beautifully wide airy streets, up the main one of which we went to the State House. It is surrounded by a lovely green --a gentle slope all round, down to the streets,--the grass green & smooth as turf, & just enough trees, the most of them beautiful lindens, with low branches & short trunks,--the sidewalk around, path to door, building itself with its large fronting pillars are made of22 fossil limestone, all sorts of queer little white shapes show in it, over which John grew interested.-- The rotunda has in its centre a large store of variegated marble,--& the rest of the floor is filled in with stones of marble & the fossil limestone, on the right & left as you enter are two ugly statues from which you are requested to keep your "hands off"--& facing on the west side, to the left a huge daub of Perry's Victory,--to the right a pedestal, oblong, on which is mounted a queer looking white marble box, on the 23 face of which is raised an apple tree, with five little figures on either side facing one another, & a horrid head on either side in in the background,--the whole supposed to be the famous surrender under the Appomattox apple tree,--mounted on top a huge, ugly bust of Mr. Lincoln. --Our public ornamental will certainly give a fine idea of our art taste to any one who looks at them in the future. The Hall of Reps is patterned after the House of Reps. at W.--but is dingier, of course, but24 far better ventilated, with two queer looking little galleries, that look no wider than an entry. The Senate Chamber has no gallery, but comfortable, old fashioned horse hair sofas on each side the floor. We went into the "Flag Room" where are the flags of all the Ohio Regiments,--some of them looking quite new & fresh,--some so torn & beaten by shot & wind & weather as to have only shreds clinging to almost bare staffs. --We saw too 25 some little packages carefully done up & addressed.--Things found on men dead on the field or in hospital, sent here, because they had left no special mark of home.--&, if any one claimed them, [these] could find the little relics in this exposed place. Poor fellows! in some cases it would seem they left no one to mourn for or care for them,--save their country;--. & this seems to be forgetting them, & for what they died. St Louis Aug 13 We got back to our26 train,--out of Columbus about 5.30, came through a pleasant farming country, & saw a beautiful sun set, tho' one that threatened rain.--Which rain fell through the night. Both had a far more comfortable night than the one before. The Pa. Central cars sway so as to make any one sick & so wakeful, but our run last night was a smooth one. There are a lot of new fellows on board, --took possession at Columbus--who are 27 on their way to Texas, Jews, I think,--who amuse me by reason of their rings & dirt. Two of them carry enough of the last to furnish forth a small garden, & wear more diamonds & rubies in the first than they will find safe in a dangerous country. The country all along is without interest, save in the change I can mark in it through no longer space than the last eight years. When I first crossed it to St. Louis there was 28 scarcely a fence or a tree to be seen,--now fences abound & certainly add no beauty to the scene, & small forests are growing up in all directions, as certainly to its improvement. We ate breakfast at Effingham, Ill in a room with lavender colored walls, picked out in deep maroon lined, green shades at the windows, & bright blue ones over the glass of the doors,--checked red & grey table cloth, dirty,--not a 29 whole piece of crockery ware on the table. Wicked & dirty,--plenty of food, but all fried --probably in salt pork, for the things were as salt, as they were oily & tough. --From there to St Louis nothing of note. Kansas City Aug 13. 11 a.m. We still have to change cars at East-St Louis, the wonderful bridge they have been so long building being not yet finished. Divers bridges have been here before, but have been washed away by30 valor of the tremendous floods, & the shifting treacherous bottom. This time they sunk the piers some 100, some 120 ft below the river bed, & so built up from that. [Bell] Thee will [----------] remember I [River bed] wrote something about this when I was last in St Louis.--They sunk an air tight bell with a platform under, or rather in it in which the men worked, with 31 diving bell arrangements for breathing, but the pressure must have been awful. The men were tempted by the high wages, 7 & 8 dols. a day, but I remember that the told me then that scores of men had died, & other scores been wrecked for life. Civilization exacts its prices. Now, the whole thing is nearly done. The little arches are built in the masonry on the river banks. I have made the piers (1) too broad32 but they will serve. In them are sockets into which round iron tubes are securely fastened & one tube after another screwed on till the arch is completed.-- The arches or tubes (b) were just so far done as marked, & balance one another by being fastened to iron bars (a) in such fashion that if one should fall the drag on the other would pull the other up, & keep the lame side suspended till it could be put back & in order.-- --The bars cross the 33 top of the pier, & bend down to the tube. So holding & balancing as a farmer does his wheat or meal bags on horseback. I'm afraid I'm not making it very clear, but mechanics is not on my list of sciences,--I understand the thing myself but can't convey information so as to make it clear as sunlight.--If thee has not forgotten about it, by the time John gets home, he can expound. St Louis is growing enormously in all34 directions, but no growth will ever make it beautiful. The soft limestone of its foundation makes the air full of chalkey dust that blinds, & cuts one, the watering carts are so inartistically used as to make thick mud where there is not thick dust,--& the soft coal makes even this whiteness dingy. I am glad to report that the city is to have a new hotel. Early in the war the Lindell House was opened with a great ball, at which the Union colors were every where shown, 35 & the house beautifully draped with our flags --& it was always thereafter the great gathering place of the Union people. Gen Rosecranz lived there while he was in command, & it was there I was his guest for a week in Jan. 1864.-- --And had a remarkably pleasant time, I remember. The Southern was opened about the same time.--of course they didn't really dare to show the rebel flag, but they used up more than a thousand36 yards of bunting to make the "red white & red" colors.--& the house has always since been the head quarters of succession. I didn't care about that. But some years ago the Lindell was burned, & the Southern has had everything its own way in the matter of exhorbitant charges, discourtesy &c, & I'm glad its hour has come. John prowled out on some errands, after we had each had a hot bath & dined (we lost our connection 37 by reason of the delay in Ohio) & I took a drive with an old friend of mine here-- Col. Slayback,--Martha will remember him, he desires to have his faithful regards sent her. We went to the new Fair Grounds where everything is on the most immense scale. The Amphitheatre will hold not less than 20.000 people, the race course is fine, the space for stables huge, the buildings of all sorts, for telegraph & newspaper people38 headquarters of societies &c numerous & tasty, --with pleasant woody grounds all around. St Louis is making a great blunder in the matter of a park. --It is already 7 miles in one direction & 13 in another, without any breathing space left open. As we came back we drove past a stately & beautiful building, covering an entire square, built of some light granite. The front of it given over to the different courts;--the rear of it 39 dark & forbidding, no display save of solid masonry & iron bars,--used as the City Prison. I would not but think if society wasted less money in divers fashions (with Gov stealing thrown in) as in the front of the building, & used a little, or much of its savings among certain wretches before they come to the front door, there would be far fewer of them to be locked behind the rear one. We got our car40 at 8 P.M.--& were due here at 8.25, but did not reach here till nearly 11.--a freight train detained us (off the track) for nearly two hours, in the early morning,-- & we had another little detention by reason of a broken brake on our own car but that was soon over Missouri looks-- well! like nothing specially interesting. prairie land, pretty well cultivated, wooded & watered,--growing a little bolder as we reach Kansas City 41 and the river.--K.C. is built on high-bluffs. You are dumped down on the line of the river bed, & have to take omnibus up the graded side of the hills to get into the city.--Looking down, as you clamber up, you see a perfect net work of iron rails --'tis a great railway centre--& a very fine iron bridge over the Missouri. The streets, unfortunately for a new town are narrow & steep,-- & the place is horribly hot & dusty. We have to waste our day here, by42 reason of our broken connections.--Ohio still following us, & do not get away till 11 o'clock to-night, when ho! for Denver! I was amused at one of the signs I spied on a little shanty on our way to the hotel, Fresh Ice Cream 5 cents A. DISH Try-it The "a.dish" with its period looked just like somebody's name. 8 P.M. We had here a very 43 bad driver & a very good supper, as, I have often noticed, is the way of these western towns,--& we had an odor of African brothers at both meals, --The Ethiopian abounded here, tho I noticed they had none but white servants at the St Louis hotel--probably they couldn't abide "free niggers. Our colored brother amused me by diligently fanning himself with the big palm leaf that was entrusted to him for our delectation. In all my life44 I never suffered more from the heat than I have this day,--It has been simply awful, --the blood has boiled in my head till I am not sure my brain is not quite softened, & yet they tell you here it is a comfortable day. I enjoy hot weather, but not in the midst of a long journey & on top of three almost sleepless nights. Near Wallace Kansas 8.30 P.M. Aug 15 We gathered up our goods & chattle, piled 45 into a street-car about 10 o'clock & made for the train.-- Our sleeping-car was on the track waiting for the different connecting trains from the East,--so we clambered in, had our section made up & clambered onto our roosts.--It was very hot in the car as it stood, so I pulled my curtains to put up my windows, & lay in my bed looking "owdoors" or stood outside the depot on the outskirts of the town46 --Here was the elegant car, the epitome of civilization in travel, outside some partings fencing it off from the street or road, opposite a half-dozen drinking & gambling saloons,--one story, white washed shanties, some cheap pictures on the wall showing in the flaring gas lights, some [?] music sounding from their midst,--& just beyond the silent, solitude of open country & night, a few trees standing out black 47 in the soft gloom, a quiet sky, some stars looking down solemnly here & there, a few clouds like smoke slowly sailing up. It affected me so, I did not get to sleep till hours afterward, & when I wakened at six o'clock this morning we were far out on the Kansas plains. For a little while we ran through such country as I long ago tried to describe to thee in Western Iowa &48 Nebraska, enormous swells rolling one out of the other, like the billows of a sea belonging to a world of giants, --but that we soon passed, ran into a rain storm, & out of it.--but enough had fallen all over the country through the night to put an end to the dust, & the sky has been softly overcast all day making perfect weather for travel. --The country is 49 not prairie, it is plains, very little swell or irregularity, & yet, oddly enough one realizes constantly that one is rising, rising--from Kansas City to Denver the lift is nearly 5000 ft. We follow for a long time the Smokey Hill fork, & so see timber skirting it, but all the afternoon we have seen no wood. Endless stretches of yellow grass, very short & curled,--that is Buffalo grass-- it is like Buffalo50 skin & hair, wirey & curled, & only about two inches long. Here & there are patches all over it of a bright-green. Here the great herds lie down to make wallows in which the rain settles, & so produces richer growth. This morning we saw a many of wild flowers, some of them beautiful in shape & hue,--a huge number of sunflowers,--in some cases growing closer & more solidly, & covering larger 51 spaces than a great field of corn,--six feet high,--they must be worse than Charley Warner's "pusley". Alas! for our Buffalo, we have seen more,--tho' we leave behind plenty of heads & whitening bones, some strewn all along, & in various places gathered up into heaps to send east to make bone dust, & at one place we saw thousands of buffalo hides cured & tied into bundles.52 I have been on the platform almost all day now wearying of this endless solitude,-- there is something about or in whom more solemn & great have the sea,--& looking over them have seen a few antelope scudding away, three or four times, a gopher or two,--& once some big grey wolves,--(all at a little distance from the track. Finally towards 53 sunsetting Ralph Meeker (who had come down to meet us & got aboard about noon) John & I all put for the engine. Its against the rules, but both conductor & engineer suspended the rules "for this occasion only" & allowed us to mount the cow catcher. My! Hurrah! It was worth coming here, to take that ride!54 Air that exhilarated like wine to breathe --a sky soft greys to the south & southwest, over at the west a heavenly clearness, in which hung a splendor of golden clouds, the still, great spaces all around & stretching away indefinitely,--not a solitary sign of habitation nor a human creature anywhere,--& we on the forward edge of our live machine, nothing in front 55 of us, cutting the air like,--no not like birds,--they couldn't begin to keep up with us. We watched a great many of these flying beside us, & making to cross the track in front of the train, but the great monster rushed at them so as to make them retreat, in terror. When I said "habitation", it reminded me I had not told thee that in this56 inhospitable country where stone does not abound, & wood is more than scarce, & storms are awful, the people who must be here or who are here, make for themselves "dug outs" which are just what their name indicates, with walls built up a foot or so & banked & turfed in & over. Miserable looking spots to shelter human life. A great deal of this has been written in the 57 cars, with the cars in motion, & I do not know whether thee can read it,--& being read, I doubt if it will "pay".-- However! such as it is I send it. This will go into the mail at Denver early in the morning & I cannot tell of the last of our ride till next time. Meanwhile know that I carry thee always in my heart AnnaWest Pittston Aug. 15. 1873 My dear Brother & Sister, Anna's welcome letter written at Mr. V. & mailed in Phila reached me Monday, and the joint telegram from Dennison O. on Wed. telling me that you were speeding safely on your way. I had of course seen the Tribune on Sat., and was exceedingly pleased with the way that thing was done - as I was sure anything would be taken to Reid. The firstbusiness letter came in the last mail (from Z. Pope Vase, the envelope says, Rockland, Me.) and goes to Bernard to-day. None for Denver yet. I do hope Bernard will prove a full success, not merely leaving A's vacation free, but making a satisfactory route in every way. I hope and pray that the trip may bring health and enjoyment to the utmost to you both, and specially that it may speedily bring sleep and quiet nerves to Anna. Nothing ever troubles me so much about her as that sleeplessness, and its inevitable result on that stomach nerve-ganglion. How nice it is that mother had cozs Wm & R. with her when you left, and that M. & she are going to take that little trip - she won't feel half so lonely, not miss you so much, in the midst of the little excitement those will give her. I am glad to hear she is "frisky". This widespread storm has been with us also - haven't seen the sun since Monday except for a few minutes yesterday. Hope it hasn't delayed nor inconvenienced you. With dear love to both, sister S.Denver Col. Aug 16, Mungers Hotel 7.30 a.m. Dear Dickey,00 Just in,--Safe & well & hearty,-- Had a ride of 20 miles on the Engine looking out towards the "Delectable Mountains" Ralph Meeker is here at the breakfast table, & John is here,--& they both send love,--at least they ought to,--as does Anna-- Denver Col. Munger's Aug. 17. 1873 Dear Dickey--Such rides as we have had yesterday & to-day! Looking out & across to the great range.--Tomorrow morning we start for the Garden of the Gods. Pikes Peak Cañon City, Mt Lincoln &c. If little Dick could brave such a ride! We are well & flourishing & send great store of love. Anna Denver Col. Aug. 17. 1873 Dearest Marmee.-- --we have had two rides yesterday & today out of Denver, looking out & across to the great Range.--Ah! What a sight it is, & how I wish thee could see the sun go down behind them. I hope all goes well in the East,--all goes well with us here in the west,--& we send great store of love.--To-morrow we go back into the hills. Anna. Aug 20th 11a.m. Top of Pike's Peak. This week we have "done" Garden of the Gods, Cheyenne Canon, Colorado Springs. Manitou & at last we climbed up to [Lap????] alta 10000 ft above the sea & there camped for the night. early this a.m. to this place over 14000 feet above the sea where we are enjoying the most indescribably wonderful view of sky & cloud & earth snowy ranges, lofty peaks, infinite plains, solemn mountains the South Park, Long's, Mary's & Spanish Peaks, Mt. Lincoln Arkansas & Platte valleys-- & all out of doors. We are well & tired--with love JohnUnited States Postal Card DEN PACIFIC Aug 18 WRITE THE ADDRESS ONLY ON THIS SIDE-THE MESSAGE ON THE OTHER To Miss S. E. Dickinson Pittston Pa. United States Postal Card WRITE THE ADDRESS ONLY ON THIS SIDE-THE MESSAGE ON THE OTHER To Miss Susie E. Dickinson Pittston Pennsylvania United States Postal Card WRITE THE ADDRESS ONLY ON THIS SIDE-THE MESSAGE ON THE OTHER To Mary E. Dickinson Mt. Vernon [New York] Bridgeport [?] United States Postal Card WRITE THE ADDRESS ONLY ON THIS SIDE-THE MESSAGE ON THE OTHER To Susie E. Dickinson Pittston Penna1 Colorado Springs. Aug. 22. 1873 Dearest Marmee. - each day I have been trying to get something written in the way of description & beyond a mere postal - card, & each day I have found it impossible, in this crowded life, to do more than get through the needs of the day. Just here is an involuntary breathing spell, - stationary without meaning to be so, so I must at - least begin this long delayed epistle. To go back then to my stopping place. - Saturday morning, the 16th we were routed out by the conductor according to orders before the sun rose, & while I was dressing I looked out of my window over the broad swells, dark & cold, like a dreary sea, & saw the great orb come up like a crimson flame, warming & lighting thegreat space, as by a magician's wand, – in what seemed a moment. Dressing, we scrambled out of our car, & ran at the next stopping place, 22 miles out of Denver, to the engine & mounted the pilot once more (the pilot is the flat face, a foot wide, against which the "cow catcher" is fastened) – the engineer bestowing on me his leather cushion for a more comfortable seat. – John stood up, his arm hooked in a steel-elbow at one side, & Ralph Meeker sat beside me on the other. There is a wonderful sense of exhilaration in riding after such fashion, through still scenes, & quiet landscapes. – Nothings is before you, nor at your side, – the sky is overhead, the surface of 3 things – "all outdoors" – about you, the great monster behind you choo! choo! chooing! tugging & moiling away like a huge giant, [behind you] & you flying through the air almost as a bird flies – without sense of motion save one of delight & ease. But through such a scene! All about us the enormous sweep of the open plains, – the air crystal clear, the freshness of morning blowing on our faces, the sky a slow retreat of darkness on the one hand, & shady advance of soft yet glowing light on the other, – off at our left, & ranging up fromthere to a straight line before us peaks & lines of mountains, – solid, vast, – a deep purple, & a pale purple struggling together on them as the sun struck the different sides of their cañons, – the clouds drifting up & down them, retreating, blown aside, massing themselves together, lying seemingly on the ground here, & the mountains lifting themselves from these as a vase, – a vase of fairy land; there so high & white & shining, where the sun struck them, as to look like snow-clad peaks, & leave one in doubt as to which indeed 5 was mountain & which cloud, – colors of all sorts coming out on the side of the rock, a rock that is beautiful in its native coloring, without help of air or cloud effect, – a deep, rich red, – Tyrian purple rather, – & gradually back of the stretch of plains, back of the foot hills, back of the first solid line of rock, dense & grand, back to the peaks of a farther range lifting here & there, the blazing line of snow. "Foot-hills" I said, tho' in fact there are no proper foot hills in these mountainsThere is first the long rise from the sea, Denver lying 5200 ft above its level, then the first line of mountains, & no space between, but out of these another lift, & out of these yet a third one. Well! We swept into Denver getting off our engine (on which we had run for 20 miles without seeing fences, or farms or houses. – only the telegraph poles scudding by) at the junction just outside the city, & scrambling back into our Pullman [car] came into the civilization of a town in civilized shape. – 7 Being there, we mounted one of the omnibuses that belong in this western region & that you see not elsewhere. – as long as two of those you see in the east, with four prancing steeds attached, – not skeletons of horses such as do run in public harness up our way, – & so wended our way to the Munger House which is the swell house out this way, & first class really in nothing but its prices, which are awful. The people out here evidently suppose that the tourists whocome here are - made of gold, & they propose to skin off a good deep hide of it. - Saturday morning John & Ralph ran to & fro asking questions about routes & prices of travel & the like, & I, with my goggles mounted on my nose marched to & fro, or sat still on the railing of the upper, unroofed piazza of the hotel. (I do not mean that I marched to & fro on the railings.) What a sight is this they have from Denver, providing they get high enough on their houses to look at it! 9 - Like idiots they have laid it out at right angles, so that you can stand nowhere & get an unbroken view of the magnificent sweep of mountains, somewhere an angle of roof, or chimney or even low house cuts off the whole or almost the whole view. Well! get where you can see it, & you have at the east & south of east, & north the plains that look where the swell shuts in the horizon like a green, or purple sea, endless, & with a shining, whitenesswhiteness & clearness of light that one never does see over the ocean itself.- Extending from Long's Peak a little north of west, to Pikes Peak east of south you have a solid wall of rock for 150 miles, & beyond this wall the majestic heads of farther mountains, black, or purple, or blazing white with snow. In the afternoon, after dinner we clambered into an open carriage, we three & no more, & drove away, leaving Devon behind us - & out on the ridge to the east. The ridge of [one of] 11 the plains, we fell into the line of the sorrowful procession of the grave, - a long line of carriages, with their black head. - It seemed all out of place here. There are places a plenty on the face of the earth with which Death seems in keeping, - & looking at which you say - this ground was made for graves - but not here. No one who has not been here, can have any idea of this sky & air, - clear, crisp, magnetic, - the sky deep as sapphires in its blue, the clouds, masses of dazzling glory - the air- without dimmings of mist or vapor, a transparent medium of light, so white & [dazzling] resplendent as to be actually painful to an eye or brain that is the least tired, or weak. One sees its effect on eyes, everywhere, - inflamed & blood-shot balls, & often lids, - & its effects must be felt on brain & life in the long run, exhileration that in time cuts life short, - too much strain, too high pressure for a long run. Only you can't realize that it means anything but life, as you breathe it. 13 We drove off the road & across the grass, & away from the desolate companionship, - & had our time of times watching the air & clouds & mountains shift & change as the sun went slowly & magnificently to the west. - There is no use in trying to describe these sun & air effects, - one might as well try to grasp them in one's hand & hold & transmit them so, - as [to] try to send them from a pen's point. The next day we heard the story of the life that hadgone before this ending & grave in Colorado. - The old, old story, - a young girl, beautiful, accomplished, the daughter of rich & well placed people in St. Louis, - Seduced, abandoned, outcast, - going from depth to depth till in a few years, out in sight of these mountains, & in such a face of nature the grave shuts over her last sleep. God knows all. - Doubtless she will find what his mercies are, after this hideous injustice of man. As I looked over sky & mountain & plain 15 - a heavenly glory, & then at her grave, I said this last is her life past, - this first must be a prototype of the life to be. Nothing stirs & enrages me like this question of so called morality. - a woman in many a case is never so near to heaven, in love, sweetness, unselfishness, all things fine & lovely as in this hour that the world calls her fall, - & out of this hell is assigned her, no matter how she struggles,--for time, to eternity. We got back to supper & had, at the table a call from Mr. Byers, proprietor & editor of the Rockey Mountain News,--the oldest & best paper published in the territory. He is to this country very much what Horace Greely used to be to New York & the Tribune. He looks like a Scotchman, is keen, shrewd, practical & wide awake, & we had a very pleasant time with him marking out plans for the next fortnight. 17 After he had gone & we were out on the upper piazza once more Gov. McCook sent in his card.--or rather Ex. Gov.--He was Gov. when we were here before. He belongs to the famous fighting McCook tribe, is a man full of information since he has been a ceaseless wanderer on the face of the earth & has journeyed with eyes & ears, & sense wide open. But he is a politician, & when you say that all is said.--I don't like them, --there is something false, treacherous, two faced, in[sincere]insincere, & coarse, essentially coarse in all of them. His wife used to be considered the handsomest woman in Washington, but I hear she is much broken. We did not see her as she was too ill to leave her room. - They are, I believe very unhappy in their relations, yet in spite of that she was in her room with a baby a few days old. How people can make out of such marriage as that, & its results, anything save legalized prostitution is beyond my ken. 19 The next day we were up late. John & Ralph went late to Church, & I sat & looked out, - as I could sit & look by day & night, at the mountains. In the afternoon, as per agreement we went out riding with Mr Byers, & squinted at the town. It has wide streets, pleasantly shaded, quite a many of most excellent stone, & fine houses, - & looks like all mountain towns. - They all have the very wide streets, - widesidewalks, low houses, a story, or story & a half high, --which gives a curious effect of lifted streets (as tho' they were tunnelled & graded above the space around.) The houses would amuse thee, some of them. There is the little one story house,--in front of it they build up a wall of boards with nothing behind them so as to make the front of the house so--making believe 21 it is a two story - a cheap sham. - All through & round the place run irrigating ditches, to bring water from the mountains, since nature is niggard as to rain. There is no long dry time & rainy time as in Cal. but very little rain falls at any time. We saw the sun go down again,--& again felt what must be a ceaseless feeling of wonder, delight & awe in the face of this majesty. The next morning we got started on our journeyings. --The price of tickets on this little road is enormous at the rate of more than 10 cts amile, - but Mr Byers had kindly used his influence to get for us the sort of ticket used by officers of the road, a "mileage ticket" for which we paid a comparative trifle. The road is one of the wonders of this region. - Built now from Denver to Pueblo - abut 115 miles with the intention of pushing it on, when they get the money - & the power from Mexico to the City of Mexico. The cost of an ordinary road would be so enormous, & the travel & freightage through such a region so 23 comparatively small as to forbid its building. Besides this road has neither asked nor received gov. help. - It gives no passes, asks no unjust favors, & tries to hold its own honestly. - Almost all the capital so far invested in it is English, - & the English of wealth are spreading themselves out mightily through this whole region. The width of an ordinary road is 4 ft 10 1/2 in, the weight of iron 75 lbs of iron to the yard, the length of cars from 50 to 60 ft. - Imagine this "baby road"3 ft wide,--the weight of iron to the yd of rail 30 lbs.--the lengths of cars 40 ft.--comical little fellows with low roofs,--the windows pushing not up, but down into the walls of the car, swung low on the trucks,--one side down half way seated with single seats, the other with double ones,--& the arrangement reversed for the other half so as to make the weight even. The road can be constructed & run at infinitely less cost,--& can be switched round curves 25 with ease, that would swing off an ordinary train in a jiffey. We rode out of Denver in civilized shape in the car, and stared and stared at the mountains,--the train running south, the mountains at our right hand. We rise 1800 feet to the Divide--a long ridge putting out East from the main range, dividing the waters that feed the Platte on the one side & the Arkansas on the other.-- When we got to within 20 miles or so of the top ofthe ridge, we got out of our little car, & clambered onto the pilot of our little engine, & so streaked it on our way. My! it was jolly. - The bit of a road, the fierce little engine, the rocks that had taken the place of the great mountains cropping out in strange shapes, the sparks falling down on us, the engine blowing away at intervals to get the loose cattle off the track. - Scarcely a sign of human habitation, or even life. - And then reaching the top of the Divide to streak it down grade. - the engine quite quiet behind 27 us, - the train seemingly running of it own weight, the few people we met gazing at us as tho' they thought us wild Indians, - & so into Colorado Springs. What a red nose I had, & what fiery cheeks & crimson eyes, - & what a comfort it was to find on reaching our destination that John had left my valise in which was my baggage, kicking somewhere around Denver. Fortunately my name was of use with the chief officers of the road so that they telegraphed so speedily, fully, & explicitlyas to have it forthcoming the next day. I met on the cars coming here & have since met here some English people, Mr & Mrs Lillard who interested me,--or rather she interested me greatly. They are from that old, old English town of Chester, where they have side walks on top of the shops,--so crowded are they--to this town of less than 24 months growth. He is the Editor of the paper here, & I called on his wife according to promise, & enjoyed not only her, but the comical place in which she lives. 29 It is a corner house, with the steam-engine & printing arrangements taking up the greater part of it.--On the one side a long, narrow high room, covered with a comfortable rag-carpet. In it a cook stove,--a table crammed with fine books, a dining table,--a shelf with more books, another shelf of plants, another table with a box of prairie dogs,--a cupboard with dishes & a curtain hung before it,--an upright piano against a screen,--back of thescreen a bed & some pegs. --over all a charming air of refinement & culture. It was delightful--to look at.--I fancy I should not like to live there long. Colorado Springs is but two years old. Yet is full of pretty places, new little trees, 28 miles of irrigation ditches,--& all the neatness & comfort that most western towns need a generation & more to accomplish.-- It has been built chiefly by English capital 31 for a watering-place.--& very sensibly.--You are here within easy reach of some of the greatest wonders of this region. The Garden of the Gods, Glen-Eyre, Monument Park, Cheyenne Cañon, Manitou Springs, & this spur of the Main Range, with grand Pike's Peak. Keeping watch over all.--You are here six thousand feet above the sea, & no words can do justice to an air that is made of all delicious & stimulating elements.We had a very good dinner, a little spoiled for me by a call from Grace Greenwood in advance. - She saw Ralph Meeker whom she knows very well, & who has done her a multitude of favors, who told her I was in the hotel, & asked her to come in & see me. She could not refuse, & so came in to make her little call, trying desperately to look cheerful & hospitable, and really looking as tho she wanted to snap my head off. She has been skirmishing round here for 33 two or three years, - has had given her divers building places, & is putting up a cottage at Manitou Springs. It is really funny to look at the people at this hotel where we dined. They are nearly all immensely rich, & killingly fashionable, - & come here into these splendors & majesties of these vastnesses as tho they were going to Cape May, or Saratoga, - with 20 trunks & the rest of it. After dinner Ralph brought in & introducedto me. Mr. Nettleton, the Chief Engineer of the road, - and of these springs & the town below. - a man who knows Colorado better than almost any one else here. - 40 or thereabouts with soft brown hair & whiskers. - a clear beautiful honest face burned by sun & wind to Indian shades, yet so manly, frank, & kindly in expression as to warm & cheer one like the sun.--I say all 35 this because we have seen so much of him, & because he has done & is to do so much for us. He came in to see if he could be of any help to us & has been ever since. First of all, he drove us to the Garden of the Gods,--five miles away. You go out of the city(?) past the face of the range across a broad high table land called the mesa (pronounced as tho' it were spelled masa) & reaching its edgelooked down upon a narrow, green, velvety valley called Camp Creek, - opposite on the high bank corresponding to the one on which we were standing came out in bold relief the gates of the Garden of the Gods. - Two long rocks of red sandstone one of them 1200 ft long & 300 high; the other smaller, yet when you drive through the opening between them seeming almost as high. opening gypsum The rock on the right is almost in the 37 shape of a kneeling camel, - & both are a deep brick[e]y red, opposite the gate, so that it is like a door across it stands a rock of perfectly white gypsum. - In the rock to the right are holes and caves washed out by wind and weather, & one of these, at the base makes a cave, 80 ft long, 30 ft high, 10 ft wide, - of Stygian darkness. - Mr. N. & I went up into it, - & John and Ralph hooted at the entrance - the echoes sounding like theshout of a multitude. Mr. Nettleton struck some matches, one after another, but they made literally no impression, --the blackness was a thing to be taken hold of, --felt. The Garden itself is simply part of the this elevated tableland, about three quarters of a mile long, & half a mile wide,--covered, or rather dotted with the strangest, & most weird shape of this soft red rock.--Wind & weather have washed & beaten them off here,--in there, till 39 you stand still & wonder how nature ever played such pranks.--The same formation exists, I suppose, through hundreds of miles, & here & there crops out into these most wonderful shapes. The rocks, in some cases are huge masses, tilted on their sides on another rock,--or with huge heads & little bases,--these too standing on their little bases till you marvel how they hold their positions at all. There is no use in trying to describe them.--I have a lot of stereoscopic pictureswhich will give thee an exceedingly good idea of it all, but nothing else, save actual sight, can. From the Garden we drove to Glen Eyre--which is like the Garden, only covering a much smaller space, & hedged in up vast rocks on all sides, & the strange shapes of red sandstone are far higher. There is one, called the needle, 110ft high & so narrow that a stout rope put round it could pull it down--a great mass, lined & cut & washed into pipes & sounding 41 boards, called the organ--standing near this, shouting or calling one hears echoes repeated & re-repeated, loud yet musical &, dying away tone after tone almost like an organ indeed. The pictures I have will show thee this spot, too, far better than my words can tell it thee. From there we drove to Manitou, where are the famous mineral springs, iron & soda, bubbling up, clear, cold, sparkling, to be drank "without money & without price"--There is herea hotel that will hold 150 people, & divers little cottages round, constituting the head quarters for the journeys off into the mountains, - & a stopping place for the rich, the lame, & the lazy who will go no farther. - It has baths of the soda water, hot & cold, - which water feels like velvet on the skin, & cleans one without aid of soap. - But the by you cant use soap with it, - that put in turns the water to a milky & greasy compound. This place too is shut in with high hills, - in one 43 direction Pikes Peak lifting its head, tho' not its great body into view. From Manitou we drove back to Colorado Springs, ate our supper, & slept, soundly enough in good beds. - The next morning, bright & early we drove to Cheyenne Cañon. The range here branches east & then west, - the western turn being on Cheyenne Mt. - a vast three headed pile, cut deep with cañons, one of Cheyenne Mt Pikes Peak & otherswhich takes the name of the mountain. You can drive, 5 miles, to its mouth, & then take to your feet, up the sublime alley, - a sort of Yo Semite in miniature & darker shades. A little stream dashes through it, & you follow the narrow trail up its side, sometimes one side, some times the other, across it on stones, or fallen trees, - looking up at domes, & towers, & sharp finger points of huge red rock. - Sometimes with rounded faces, sometimes 45 sheer walls of rock, looking flat as this paper, - 600 & 800 ft high, the trail twisting & turning so as to give you constant surprises & constant delight. - We clambered to its end, where the high rocks close in, almost cut in two by the stream which here rushes down in a succession of seven waterfalls 1800 ft long. - You can lean against the flat rock & look at the flying white mass up, up, - & at the spume flung into the airtill you imagine yourself in fairy land. From this point you have only 3 falls in sight, - but we went back a little on the trail, & clambering up what looked like a perpendicular rock, 600 or 700 ft high got out on its thumb, & looked at the beauty of the whole seven tumbling down nearby opposite. Again, in despair, I tell thee I have pictures to enlighten thee, here as elsewhere. - 47 We did some tall walking & climbing. - The trip is generally considered a day's work, but we got back by noon, - ate our dinners, & put ourselves in battle array for the trip of Pike's Peak. - The old trail, going up from Manitou is an easy one, but we, being venturesome tried the new one. Easy, I say, tho' to be sure they told us that the week before, of 40 who had attempted this trail, butfour had reached the top. The Gov. is building or about building a weather observatory (I don't know the scientific name) on top of Pike's Peak, & is putting in order this new trail. - So far as it is done it is 15 miles long, & not completed. Behold us then. - Two horses, one mule, one little black donkey. - Mexican saddles with high horns in front, behind these saddles each fellow with his roll of blankets & comforts of divers kinds for the night, - on the horns of the saddles, field-glasses, cups, a coffeepot & divers other goods & 49 chattels slung, - all the masculines in rough clothes, the [third] fourth member in a little blue flannel suit, bloomer, blue stockings, low shoes, & a man's soft slouch hat on her head, - & really looking very well. One & all astride our beasts away we go over what looks like a few city blocks, - & is really five miles, - to the cañon of the mountain. - Nothing deceives you like this air, with its marvellous clearness. We started at 3 o'clock, & rode eleven miles up the mountain to Alta Laguna(High Lake) before it was fairly dark. - Most of the way the trail is through trees, & by the side of one of these beautiful White Mountain streams, & you see very little save what is about you, - tho' looking up you can see in the early part of your journey the same strange outcroppings of rocks, with which you speedily grow familiar here. But you are soon above these. There is one place where the trail runs at a steep51 pace up a long straight grade & you turn at its turning almost abruptly & look down an almost sheer precipice of a thousand feet, into the beautiful cañon below & off to the quiet, yet immense beauty of the far off plains. Well! We went along to the Lake which was to be our camping places for the night, - unsaddled & bridled the beasts, & fastened them by long ropes in a little meadow where was plenty of grass &water, - then spread a buffalo robe on the floor of the tent, & our blankets on it, - which made our bed, - then looked after supper. - We had two enormous fires, - (the back-logs being trunks of fallen trees), that could be seen at miles away. - Huge flames, cheerful & ruddy, the sparks flying wide through the night air, - on one our coffee pot boiling, - presently boiled - our supper of bread & butter, cold chicken & pickles, with coffee thrown in, put on a stump & presently thereafter transferred53 transferred to our stormjackets, - - our fires fixed for the night, - ourselves gone to bed. - But first of all what a night. - The still lake, - the tall white trees standing in serried ranks up the sides of the mountain about it, - the dark lines of peaks rising against the quiet sky, - the sky seemingly nearer, the stars larger & brighter than one sees in the eastern land, - our great camp fires blazing, - yet save for these & ourselves, theabsolute solitude of nature filling space, so far as we could see, everywhere. - Well! about ten o'clock we went to bed. - I first on the inside, then John, then Ralph, then Mr. Nettleton on the outside. - Sleep? - Well, not much, - the novelty of the thing, & - low be it spoken the discomfort of the thing kept me wide awake, - the rest dozed a little. Up at 2:30 - had to be since we were to be on our way up first break of day. - The fires poked up, the breakfast eaten, the horses55 & mule & donkey saddled & we away, up, up, through the timber now growing thin till at 5 o'clock, 11.000 ft above the sea, we saw the sun rise. There are some things about which it is better to be silent than to say too little, this sight is one of them. There is something amazing about this timber growth. Elsewhere, [where] there would be everlasting snows. - here are trees a plenty, beautiful & green (save where the fireshave gone over them,--& high above this, grass thick & long & beautiful, & even on the very top, among the harsh boulders, & great broken masses of granite, the most delicate & lovely flowers peeping out here & there. A little after we left the timber line the trail ended, & we plunged off into space.-- Then came the work.-- It was decided before leaving that I was to try to ride the donkey to the peak.--a feat heretofore regarded as impossible,--so I stuck to it with a will.57 up & down, over steep places that looked like hopeless tasks till you had attempted them, - the 3 toiling along ahead of their beasts holding them by the bridles drawn over their heads, - I sticking for dear life. - By & bye we reached the cone, from whence we had to clamber still a long 2 or 3 miles to the peak. One solid mass of broken boulders & granite. The donkey's legs would go through holes up to his body, - would jump overrocks big as a flour barrel, would shake under him like aspen leaves, would take heart of courage, steady themselves & toil on. - The others tethered their horses. - Ralph was determined if he did not ride, to lead his mule to the top, & Mr. Nettleton marched at my donkey's head. The air was so cold as to nearly freeze our feet, - clear as crystal, - the sky a dome of lapiz lazuli, the far-off peaks growing grander & grander, instead of dwarfing as we went on, 59 & at last, at 8 in the morning we reached the summit. Can I tell anything about it? - Nothing. - Away off at the east the vast stretch of plains, purple like a great sea. - To the south-east & south, two long ranges of mountains, the Sangre de Christo, & the Greenhorns, - the end of the farther range, the de Christo's, ended by the two stately domes of the Spanish Peaks - 110 miles away to the south-west & west fully a half-dozen ranges of mountains, the far-off ones blazingwith snow, - valleys lying between, silvery lines of rivers flowing across, - depressions between billows, billows of a sea that is made of thousands of awful mountain peaks, - & off at the north west & north still the mountains, headed up the majestic dome of Long's Peak 150 miles away. The four great heads (making a line from the north-west to the south-east) of Long's Peak, Grey's Peak, Pike's Peak & the Spanish Peaks, - we standing on 61 one of them, & feeling as tho God were very near, & his world, poor & small as we are accustomed to call it, a thing to awe & yet elevate the lookers on to more than a level with the angels. We prowled to & fro - we gazed & gazed again, - we sat on the edge of the top here & there, & looked across creation, or straight down sheer precipices of 200 ft. - so we spent 3 long, never to be forgotten hours, &then started for our return. Mr. Nettleton led my donkey, Ralph dragged away at his mule for awhile, & then either he or John had to go after the tethered horses, - for we had wandered far from the region up which we had clambered since there was no trail at all to guide us. As for me, I plunged & plunged down after Mr. Nettleton & the donkeys until we got off the cone & sat down to rest for a 63 little while, & looked back to see how the others were getting on, - Ralph was tugging away at his two horses, & making such slow work that Mr. N. went to help him, & then when they were nearly down to where I & my donkey were, Ralph had to go back & help John. I suppose it was tragical to John, but I was convulsed watching him! - The mule would not stir, & stood still looking at all outdoors while John sat stock still & looked at him. He had pulled athim till he could pull no longer & had given up in despair, till help should arrive. - Arriving in the person of Ralph we could watch the three process down the mountain, Ralph pulling - John punching occasionally with a stick, & the mule slowly meandering between. Well! we did get off the cone, & then leading our beasts, scrambled, & plunged, & toiled down towards the 65 trail, - at last we found it, but not before we had enjoyed some wonderful views of far-off mountain & near sky, - on two of the peaks close at hand it was snowing, & the effect was like the dense white vapor from a waterfall, dropping in long line. On us, too, it snowed. It never rains so high, but only a spitting & soon over. - The peaks were huge & hard, & rolledunder at the corners so as to seem like hail, - tho' whiter & far more beautiful than that ever is. Reaching the trail we mounted steed & pressed for our camping ground, gaining it at 4 in the afternoon having had nothing to eat since half past two in the morning. Scanty pickings were found, yet we devoured them, rested our beasts & our selves a little, & at 5 were in the saddle plunging down again, - & reached Manitou about midnight, 67 after which supper & bed. The next morning we got up late, prowled about the springs, took a delicious hot bath of the soda water, ate dinner, & a very good one, & drove towards evening over to Colorado-Springs, where I had promised to speak. 'Tis a bit of a place but there are a many of English & of tourists there, & they turned out in force, in the absurd little church, & gave a seemingly delighted hearing to "Joan of Arc."I found my great(?) performance of riding my donkey to the top was the (Colorado Springs) world's wonder, & proved a capital ado. Mr. N. was very anxious we should go to the queer town of Pueblo - 40 miles below, - old, as the territory goes, - but with a new town, laid out by him beside it. - He is the chief engineer here, thee is to remember. So the next day we rested, prowled, rode out to Glen Eyre to make a call &c, & came round to 69 Manitou, to spend the night. The next morning, Saturday the 23, Ralph & I (after we had all had another of the delightful baths) put up one of the near cañons, - Williams Cañon, - for a couple of miles, strange walls of rock - not broken ones, but a steady wall like a built one, - more or less in mines, - towering on either side, - so narrow in some places as to enable one to touch one's handsto the water on either side, & high, high above us. We had a run on it to get back to the stage, - a Concord Coach, on top of which we clambered & got into Colorado Springs again at about noon. Ran round, always in the face of the sublime mountain range, buying pictures &c. & took the train, on the queer little baby road at 1.15. Great storms were blowing to & fro on the 71 mountains, which we presently left behind, but did not leave the storm, - it travelled after us, broke over us, & went its way eastward. For us we travelled into a new atmosphere & a new country. After passing Cheyenne Mountain - we sweep away from the range, or rather it sweeps away from us westward, & soon there after we were in country that looks almost like the desertcountry of the plains, - high table lands on either side burned, & dreary looking, adobe soil, fiery heat. - The storm came after us into this land like a hurricane, - no rain, but a swirl of land that was beautiful yet horrible, - great clouds of it carried into the air, & columns of it 20 & 40 ft. high through which the sun made a golden splendor. We reached Pueblo about 4, clambered into our carriage & went our way 73 in the hurricane. - First of all we drove through the new city - where city is home. Thousands of young trees set out, & irrigating ditches running in divers directions The soil here is alkaline, as westward, - & like that is almost without rain & quite without water, save the Arkansas River which is almost without tributaries. The old town has in it a plenty of adobe houses, - all dirty, - some Mexicans, dark dingy, dirty creatures, & old settlers, who in the main are as bad-looking as the Mexicans. - The town is a horrid looking place, &we were quite ready to drive out to the rolling ground, - or rather table land round the city. To the west we had a full view of the Greenhorn Mountains, - a long, glittering line, - thrust out at their end the Spanish Peaks, - a lift of 11, or 12,000 ft. perfectly distinct from one another (they are about 8 miles apart) but look as tho they were almost touching) & clean from their base. The air was full of fine dust, that was turned to blazing gold in the sun. - The sky full of vapor that was turned in like manner 75 to dazzling gems. To the east a resplendent rainbow, & from the horizon in the east a semicircle of rays - like the rays of the sun, only in broad lines spreading up to the granite, part of these resplendant lines crossing the beauty of the rainbow. One peculiarity of the rainbows here, is the extreme vividness of the colors, especially the beautiful distinctness of the inside violet, which you almost never see in the east. - I spoke in the evening in a comical little church, to people who seemed well satisfied.The next morning back to Colorado Springs, - & in the afternoon we drove out to the "Monument-Park. A wonderful place! - 4 or 5 miles long - a mile or so wide, filled with amazing shapes of white sandstone. - The whole surface has been originally filled with sandstone, - its top permeated with iron making [its top] that harder than what is below. Elements have worn through this, wind & water, or both. - The top has been slower to wear away than the substance below, so that long lines of strange looking figures, vases, columns, anvils, - all 77 sorts of thing, with flat dark heads are to be seen, - in all directions these figures are to be seen standing quite alone. It is the strangest, weirdest place I was ever in, - & of this, as of so much else that I have seen, I can only say the picture must give thee some idea. We made arrangements that night, for our trip over here, - (I am writing now from the Twin Lakes, Aug. 28) & beyond. - Mr Nettleton still serving as our companion, guide & friend. - We had a two seated buggy, - or high swung phaeton, orwhatever the thing is to be called, with a pair of good horses. Behind, our bags & blankets strapped, inside more bags, - packages, collections of divers kinds, a bucket to water the horses, - tin-cups field-glass, telescope hung on the sides, John & Ralph behind, Mr. N & I in front, - the top thrown back & away we go. We made 33 miles the first day, - starting from an elevation of 5960 - that of Colorado Springs - nearly as high as Mt Washington (by the bye, there is a little mound, with two pretty trees growing on it, 100 ft high from its base, just out of C. Springs, that is 79 just the height above the sea of the great Mt W. of New Hampshire) - we went from & through air that was refreshing yet broiling, - a peculiarity that never could be comprehended in our climate. Over to Manitou, five miles, & from there up the Ute Pass. - A road cut on the side of a mountain, steep seemingly as steps, - the wall of rock on one side, a chasm below through which dashed a mountain stream white & full of rapids, - the wall of rock of the other mountain opposite. There is in this river, a mile above Manitou, a fallof 60 ft - white & beautiful, - & as we passed it we were at an elevation of 6500 ft. Getting through this wild, ragged & almost sublime ravine, the mountains spread wide apart, leaving almost a valley, covered with clumps of beautiful trees, aspens & pines. - (Does thee know that where a fire has gone through the woods & destroyed the pines, pines come not up again but aspens take their place) & so swung round to the north side of Pike's Peak, - on through this beautiful country to Hayden's Pass, - where on either hand the mountains come nearer, - & on each side 81 the road, a vast pile of boulders, enormous stones ranged side by side & piled up to the height of 600 ft (from their base), as regularly & symmetrically as tho' done by a mason's hand. Our elevations had been 7395, 7950, 8530, 8950, & here were 9040, - (Mr Nettleton had an instrument with him that marks the elevation above the sea) - far above any of our Eastern Mountains, yet the country looking like the richest & most beautiful of our land, & the air balmy as June. - As the afternoon wore on we went through country that looked almost exactly like that of the mountains cut through up the Pa. Central,& then toward sunsetting drove off the line of our travel a mile or so, to see some petrified stumps of trees. - I may try to tell thee first what that place was but I am afraid both pen & tongue will fail. A place like an enormous basin, the sides gently sloping up to the level line of elevation all around, - grey soft short grass covering the ground, timber on the uplifted line, each twig & leaf of which miles away, stood out clear as an ivory painting in one's hand, - a sky & air the clearness of which must be like the pearly clearness of the celestial city, the coloring shot through it reflected from the [mountains] clouds & the [reflected in] sunken sun 83 making a "light that never was on sea or land" - the grey [?] stumps, turned to stone, ghostly & cold, of what had been wood, ages before the deluge, - not a sound, - not a chirp of cricket, nor stir of twig or leaf, or blade of grass, nor whisper of song of bird, - not a light or vestige of human existence. - It was awful, yet filled with enchantment. - There, one said, God looked down, ages & ages before the creation of man, upon such life as existed then, & just as it was then it lies under our life this night. - When I came out of it it felt as tho' I must have lived millions of years ago, here or elsewhere, I had come to this sphere of action after an eternity almost of ? & forgetfulness. - It was a long space of time before the uncanny feeling left me & I realized I was in the world that was yesterday & will be tomorrow. I'm afraid I am not clear in what I write, but there are some things you can feel, - & never forget, - yet never make plain to another by speech, or otherwise. From there we drove on to our stopping place for the night, Costello's Ranch. - (Where, by the by, we were at an elevation of 8100 ft). - 85 a long, low, one story house made of rough logs, lined with canvass, & papered with innumerable copies of illustrated newspapers. - Looking small outside, yet with more than a dozen rooms in it, - the stable, built after the same fashion, but without the canvass & paper, & an outroom of what use I don't exactly know, that had in addition to the ornaments of the house an enormous open fireplace, the sides & top of which were made of petrified wood, - a great beautiful fire burning in it, some weird looking specimens of humanity, herders, sitting on curious looking home-made chairs, - the roof & floor ofimmense unhewn logs. - We ate our supper, smoking hot, & very good, & got into our beds of straw speedily. - Clean, wholesome beds they were, & I tumbled out in the morning to discover my floor had on the end of it that was covered, a huge buffalo skin. - All round the house ran a sort of open veranda on which was piled up antelope horns, deer horns, horns of Rocky Mt sheep, - petrified wood, mineral specimens - a menagerie. After breakfast we clambered up a little hill back of the house, where were piled together the rough rocks, in just such shape as the Lava Beds, they say, where had been 87 an Indian fight, & near which Indian bones lay bleached & whitened. Off on this morning of the 26 we drove for five miles to the crossing of the Platte & through the Platte Valley. (our elevations being 8000, 7721, 8480, 8490, 9245, 8750, 8580, 9000. -) the country being very like, again, to the Pa. Mts, but with a wide plain between, & finally entered the south-east corner of the South Park it being in nearly such shape here, & straight across the narrow point out of the south west corner. - Hot, high, dry & dreary looking now, tho' generally the pasture is excellent, but there has been herealmost no rain this season, - at noon we came to a long horrible stretch of white alkaline country, & at two stopped at some sulphur springs to eat our lunch, - a horrible smelling place, - on through sun, & dry wind blowing from far-off western mountains, past huge salt works built up the side of a great spring, & creek that bubbled up & ran pure salt to our stopping place for the night. Chubb's Ranch, [there] There [Well, the least said of] [that dirty, disagreeable hole] [the better. -] [The next morning the 27, we had breakfast in town] were galloping to & fro in this region two drunken fellows apparently, who may have been all right, but who made such remarkable gyrations with their beasts & 89 behaved in such queer shape that John & Ralph got out their shooting irons, - but fortunately the fellows finally betook themselves to another region, - tho' we had quite a lively little breeze of feeling over the matter for awhile. They served one good purpose. - Looking back to watch them, through the sunsetting, we saw, far away, 60 miles off, through the open country, or what looked like the open country between, Pike's - Peak standing out an enormous pile of Tyrian Purple, - a vast mass of glowing, resplendent color, - the air about it, & between it & up, &above it, & behind it without a stain of vapor, - vast, solitary (from this distance,) majestic, resplendent in color, - it made one ache to look at it, - & up & up, the same strange refraction one constantly sees here in the Eastern sky at sun-set came out on it, - a semi-circle of dazzling rays shooting out from it, the arc made from horizon to zenith, while the sun went down in a splendor of clouds in the west. We reached Chub's Ranch about 8. - My! - 91 logs like Costello's, - but small & dirty, & bare of floor, & buggy, - with herders & people who smelled enough to burst the walls asunder. I was first in the post of honor, - the one sleeping room down stairs, & John, for protection & the rest of it, roosted on a pile of buffalo robe on a bed in the next room. Off early the next morning - on the road up 7.30, - for five miles up a steep mountain road, wild, tangled & beautiful, till at an elevation of 9475 ft wecrossed the Divide of Trout Creek & the Arkansas River. What a sight burst on us! The greatest I ever saw, the finest probably I ever shall see in life. A descent to the broad beautiful valley of the Arkansas, - the Arkansas fringed with timber flowing through its midst, - mountains, high (but dwarfed by what was opposite) behind us, & the vast life of the Backbone of the Continent, the Main Range of the Rocky Mountains, opposite, before us. - The timber line marked 93 dark, half way up the sides of rock that was almost [light] white, turned to pale pink, & warm light amethyst in the sun, patches of everlasting snow on their heads, & in ravines in their sides, 12, 13, 14, 15 thousand ft high, majestic & overwhelming in their proportions rather than beautiful, tho' with one great peak, balanced on either side by lower ones, - a single mountain, the most tremendous, & at the same time graceful & symmetrical object my eyes ever saw. - We drove in face of these for some miles, down the [divide]slope of the divide to the valley, then straight north, mile after mile, - the mountains on one side, - the river on the other, beyond, to the east, elevations we sniffed at here, - higher than any of the Alleghenies. By & by we stopped, about noon, at Leonhardy's ranch. - - Like Costello's only more picturesque. - Leonhardy himself is a Swiss, & an interest in himself. - The ranch originally belonged to a Frenchman, - Leonhardy has put up his clean, pretty, yet tremendously substantial house to live in, & all the Frenchman's old 95 buildings for stables, hen-houses &c. - They are things to look at, - all of huge logs, - & then of other huge logs put across them, - queer little windows that show the walls two feet at least thick, & warm as a toast - without fire. Need of it, one would think, at an elevation of 8120 ft above the sea. His nearest neighbor is three miles away - a solitary man; & next after that one, more than five miles. - Frost every night in the year, yet the winter never as cold as it often is with us, even in Phila. - Here we watered thehorses, had a nice lunch put up & went our way. Soon after we left there the Arkansas river - following its course, - led us into a Cañon that was wild & savage beyond anything I ever saw. The river foamed & boiled beneath, - the road was cut on the side of rocks that rose, almost sheer a thousand miles above us - mated up others like them on the other side, - ragged & torn, cliffs, & edges thrust up at cruel angles over the whole space of the mountains. - The river, through 97 long ago had cut its way, down, down, - & left the marks, unmistakeably, of its merciless persistence. In the midst of this, - or rather just as we were emerging from it, we stopped under a tree, took the horses out & gave them the oats that had travelled under my feet, & strewing ourselves on the ground fed our hungry selves. - On again, the cañon opened into wider spaces & grew less savage, tho' the ground was seamed & torn by the river bankfrom the labor of miners prospecting for gold. These miners have made the little town of Granite through which we soon thereafter passed, - a desolate sad-looking place, a few houses, built of some sad-colored wood, deserted apparently, standing out in relief against the sad-colored ground, covered with sage brush, like the wide dreary desert region of the plains. There we turn off, & follow up Trout Creek to the Levin Lakes, where we now are, at Gerry's ranch. 99 Here lie these lakes, at the base of mountains 13 & 14 thousand feet high, - themselves 9130 ft above the level of the sea, - between 2 & 3 miles long, almost alike in shape & size, of the same depth, 75 ft, & connected up a [wide &] narrow yet deep channel. A sight to behold. We reached here about five o'clock, had our horses put up, & straightway went off across the first lake, opposite which is our ranch. - John prowled on the farther bank, & wewandered across to the other lake, & sat there till almost sun-setting, - on one side high, dark mountains covered with sombre timber, thick clouds over them, - on the other low, smooth hills, grey & soft, with a sky over them of amber & gold to sapphire, - behind us the other lake, & the lower mountains bordering it, - before us the majestic peaks of the main range, snow on them, seen blazing across them; a deep cañon cut through them, - in this cañon a light rain 101 falling, like a huge white lace veil, - the sun [blazin] burning through it, - a rainbow spanning it, & beyond it, at the end of the cañon a three cornered bit of sky, the color of turquoise. Well! - it had to come to an end, - so we rowed back, & home, ate a supper of lake trout, hot potatoes, & delicious new veal, raised here - & so went to our clean straw beds. Up this morning, - & away to the Trout Creek falls, - a ride past the lake (first one) - past the face of the mountains, into the woods, over stones, & trunks of trees, that an [?] carriage wouldride in rebellion against, - through four such miles, then taking to our feet we went our way a little beyond to the Trout Creek Falls, - beautiful anywhere, yet here we are so overwhelmed with things strange & wonderful as to think it simply a very nice thing. Back to dinner. - Eat, write, write, write, then while John burrows in his specimens, we three go & row & paddle about on the lake for hours & come home at sunset to supper. The ranch at which 103 we are, is one of the nicest of its kind. Hewn logs without, great whole logs for rafters within, the walls & ceilings papered with Harper's magazine, the floors & doors of dressed pine, that looks like the most exquisite satin, floors bare save for some bear skins, beds of straw on boxes, big open fire place with jolly great fire. - Oh! & the roof: that is a curiosity. - Fruit-cane baked, & opened, flattened& then put, lapping one another, over the log roof, - no storm could ever penetrate them. Here these people live, seeing camping parties, & those like us, every day, & probably laying eyes on scarcely a human creature for nine months in the year. I have had no chance to send this letter before, & cannot send it for a day or so: still to come. - We have been quite away from post offices. - And 105 now I am afraid thee cannot read this, tho' I will send it first to Sue, to let her make the absolutely illegible, readable. - Since I have no time to go back & read it over myself. When thee is done with it please send it at once to the Longshores. I am flourishing, a great deal better than when I left home, & having a wonderful time. Every day I thinkof thee, & send store of love to thee. Give my love to Martha & to the bad little man if he is still with you. I send thee my heart. AnnaD Twin Lakes Col. Aug 28 1873 Dearest Dickey, - we have been away from the Post Offices & could so send thee nothing, tho' I have thought of thee every day. Here is the news, I want thee to begood, & while thee reads this awful scrawl, draw thy pen, wherever it may be headed, & put it on such shape as will make it possible for Ma to read, or for Martha to read to her. I hope thee is well, & that the summer goes well & happily with thee, & that thee is gaining all that the wants & needs, - & I am always thine from the heart Anna Sue West Pittston Aug. 25. 1873 My dear Brother & Sister, Anna's card of the 17th from Denver is lying before me. Before this you have been seeing some of the wonders of which she spoke, and I hope you are finding each and every day crowded full of pleasure and bringing store of health. Yes, I should dearly love to have the ride. Perhaps it may be in the future. I don't know. One ought to see one's onewonders first, from one point of view, but if I ever travel my old hunger - revived - will take me to Europe,not by any means chiefly, or just, for scenery either. - The years do go - but I'm by no means sure the richest or the ripest have gone by for any of us. The receipt for the Nation has arrived on a postal card. Birdie's are moulting, but flourishing. Ma writes of having received a long journal letter from Anna. I don't know whether the weather has let them get up to Bridgeport yet. I had a letter from coz. Harry yesterday written after his return home ; they all seem to have enjoyed being at Mt. V. Take good care of yourselves, and drink in every atom you can for soul and body. With dear love to both, Sister S. My very kindest regards to R.M.