Hesperothen; Notes from the West, Vol. 2 (of 2): A Record of a Ramble in the United States and Canada in the Spring and Summer of 1881Russell, William Howard, Sir
History
Hesperothen; Notes from the West, Vol. 2 (of 2): A Record of a Ramble in the United States and Canada in the Spring and Summer of 1881
Russell, William Howard, Sir
United States -- Description and travel
Education--Free Schools--Influence of Money in
Politics--Corruption in Public Life--Crime on the Western
Borders--The Great Rebellion--Anniversaries--Great Courtesy to
Strangers--Manners and Customs 151
CHAPTER IX.
THE RED MAN AND HIS DESTINY.
Captain Pratt--Carlisle Barracks--An Indian Bowman--The Indian
Question--The Pupils' Gossip--The "School News"--Indian
Visitors--The White Mother--The India Office--White and
Red--Quo Quousque?--Indian Title Deeds--The Reservations--The
Indian Agencies--Missionary Efforts--The Red Man and the Maori
186
HESPEROTHEN.
CHAPTER I.
ARIZONA.
Deming--The Mirage--Ruined Cities--American
Explorers--Self-Tormentors--Animals and
Plants--Yuma--California--Los Angeles--Santa Monica--The
Pacific.
_May 30th._--At an hour as to which controversy might arise, owing to
the changes of time to which we have been subjected, the train, which
had pulled up but seldom during the night, stopped at Deming Junction,
where the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fé Railroad "connects" with
the Southern Pacific, on which our cars were to be "hauled" to San
Francisco. Jefferson time and San Francisco time differ two hours, so
at one end of the station we scored 6 A.M., and at the other 8 A.M.
The sooner one gets away from Deming in any direction the better. A
year ago--as is usually the case hereabouts--there was not a trace of
a town on the dry ugly plain covered with prickly acacias and "Spanish
bayonets"; now Deming flourishes in gaming and drinking saloons,
express offices, and all the horrors of "enterprise" in the West. The
look-out revealed a few tents, wooden shanties, a station, at which
workmen were running up a frame-house, ground littered with preserved
provision tins, broken crockery, adobes and refuse of all sorts. At
the door of one hut, swarming with flies, swung half a carcase of beef;
two women were washing, pale-faced, but not uncheerful creatures, who
had not a good opinion of Deming and its population. "They carry out a
dead man a day, or used to," said one informant. The lady washerwomen
did not quite corroborate the figure; but, remarked the chattier
of the two, "there was a considerable shewtin' about last night!"
To the observation of one of the party that he was "going to have a
look about," the other lady made reply, "I guess if you dew it will
be 'hands up' for ten cents with you." On the platform was a United
States marshal, with a revolver stuck in his belt, but his duties were
considered to be punitive rather than preventive. Here Mr. Chase and
Mr. Hawley left us to return to Topeka. At the abschiednehmen Sir H.
Green was affected by a proof of interest in his welfare of a touching
character and very full of local colour; one of our friends beckoned
to him, took him aside, and pulling out a revolver ("It is hands up!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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