John Stevens' Courtship: A Story of the Echo Canyon WarGates, Susa Young
General
John Stevens' Courtship: A Story of the Echo Canyon War
Gates, Susa Young
Latter Day Saints -- Fiction; Utah Expedition (1857-1858) -- Fiction
The soldiers reached the outskirts of their own camp late that
afternoon, and as Col. Saxey gazed at the crowded hive of huts and
tents, filled with men, a few women, and many squaws, which composed
the nondescript village just across the stream from Camp Floyd, he felt
a sense of horror and dislike for all that this motley crowd signified,
which he had never before felt, and which was as surprising as it was
new to him.
Camp Floyd had been laid out with the care and skill which
characterized all the labors of General Johnston. At the hillside
lay the officers' quarters, while down the river a little lower were
stationed the quarters of the men, with the parade ground between. All
the tents had been pitched on a low three-foot adobe foundation, thus
giving some measure of comfort to their temporary structures. Outside
the camp, and across the bridge which spanned the small mountain
stream, was a collection of rude log huts, one or two small adobe
houses, and a great many tents of all sizes, all pitched on the low
adobe walls. Here were gathered the usual camp followers, those who did
the store-keeping, the washing, the ironing, the makers and vendors of
every commodity bought and sold in the camp. In this place all grades
of camp-followers were sheltered.
Men were there, some few decent and eager only for the labor and
exchange of money for that labor which came to them; others willing
to buy and sell anything on earth which could be traded off. The most
of them were drunken, carousing, miserable wretches, possessed of
no impulse but that of a selfish and sensual gratification. Here a
coarse woman, with a flaunting air and a ribald jest, passed through
the throng, and there a squaw sat beside the road, her eyes red with
the whisky she had sold herself for, and her face horrible with the
soulless leer of savage, half-drunken invitation.
A wave of horror passed over the sensitive face of Col. Saxey as
this accustomed scene appeared to him for the first time in its true
colors. He almost hated himself that he was a man. Sherwood noticed
nothing unusual, and as they passed a woman with a red scarf across her
shoulder, he tossed her a coin, as he said lightly:
"There is enough for two drunks, Liz, and don't try to run them both
into one, either; for the last time you did that, you raised such a row
that the Colonel threatened to have the whole place cleaned out."
Louisiana Liz, as she was called, screamed back her thanks, and with
her large, dark, but bleared and blood-shot eyes she flashed up at the
young man her most fascinating gaze.
Arrived at their own quarters, the officers were met by an orderly, who
instructed them to report at headquarters that evening.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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