SILYEELAND. SILVEELAND. BY THE AUTHOE OF "GUY LIVINGSTONE," &c. iv Difficile est, propriS communia dicere. LONDON : CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. 1873. LONDON : BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. SILVEELAND. CHAPTER I. ON a certain afternoon in last October, we drove seawards over the Cornish uplands. It was the seventh day of the week, and over all things there brooded a very Sabbath calm ; we were out of ear- shot of the stream-ripples in the dell ; even the leaves were silent in the covert-belt where we sprung the first woodcock of the season yester-even ; there was never a wave or rustle in the ferns and grasses fringing the high field-banks ; and the air was still as a dream. Ere long, the silence was troubled with a sound, vague and faint from distance at first, but waxing in volume and distinctness, till it might be likened to the beat of a mighty drum, heavily muffled such an one as used to be smitten long ago in the B 939865 2 SILVERLAND. courtyard of the Great Khan when the battali Tartary was set in array. Said my companioi answering the question of my eyes, " The ground-sea is on to-day. There will trouble with the nets, before morning/' I did not wonder that he said it gravely ; for, as the hop-bins are to those whose ensign is the White Horse of Hengist, and the wine-vats to the Rhinelander, so are the pilchard-seines to every true Cornishman bred and born within hail of the coast. Soon, we came to a narrow gorge, trending shore- wards so steeply, that at sight thereof an up-country horse might have sweated from, fear ; but our hardy moorland galloway scuttled down it without break- ing his trot, till we halted on the wide stretch of ribbed brown sand underlying the cliff-walls. A sight awaited us there to me, at least, wonder- ful and strange. On the ocean we were looking over the At- lantic, remember, with never a rock or islet nearer than Cape Race there was no more sign of storm than in the air ; for the sullen heave and welter in the offing was not discernible from where we stood. Only two or three thin white lines of foam, SILVEKLAND. 3 following each other regularly, showed that there was stir in the waters where they began to shoal : but each great billow, on reaching a certain point, upheaved itself with a motion, slow and solemn, yet inexpressibly suggestive of strength, till it was reared like a wall betwixt us arid the low westering sun ; and then, curving ponderously, fell with a dead massive shock, that seemed to make the very sands shake and quiver. And the sound. Well I have listened to many voices of the sea ; to the hiss of the under-tow, ravaging pebble ridges; to the rattle of the surf, grinding great boulders as the mill grinds corn ; to the crash of waves repulsed from granite bulwarks ; to the thunder of billows, penetrating into the bowels of the land through caverns that have never seen the sun : but, before or since, I have heard nothing like this sombre monotone. After a while, we considered what manner of turmoil it must have been in mid-ocean, of which those rollers were but the faint outward ripple ; and, speaking of the humours of the Atlantic, I called to mind a certain storm wherein I was buffeted some eight years agone the storm that proved the sea- worthiness of the Monitors, off Cape B 2 4 SILVERLAND. Hatteras, with fatal issue. And so we fell to talking of men and scenes, encountered in that same luckless journey ; and to my comrade's question, " Would you like to see them all again ? " I made answer, carelessly, as one is wont to speak of any scheme utterly vague and impracticable, " I should like it of all things." The subject dropped then ; and, during a fort- night of better wild shooting than has often fallen to my lot, it was not again recurred to. Turnips thrive right well on the light upland soil ; and the birds plentiful enough for reasonable desires- will actually lie, even in late October, to steady setters ; furthermore, snipe and fowl are not among the myths of North Cornwall. Therefore, as you may guess, I carried away grateful memories when I set my face eastwards : but the memory of those words spoken on the sea-shore, was not among them. I was much taken aback when, in the January ensuing, my host appeared before me, and quoth lie, " Have you forgotten what you said, that Sunday afternoon down in Trevenna Cove ? I must start within a fortnight for the West for the very far West. Am I to go alone ? " SILVERLAND. 5 Albeit I fully endorsed his purpose when I heard the nature of his errand, I fell into a great per- plexity. Travel across the Atlantic and the Kocky Mountains in mid- winter, with all possible advantages of convoy thrown in, is not tempt- ing ; and, under ordinary circumstances, I should surely have declined with thanks, and without parley. But there are comrades and comrades you see ; and, since the worthies who went out with Pendragon to war, I think there has not breathed stauncher backer, in field, feast, or fray, than he who stood looking on me, then, with wistful eyes. So I said I would think about it. Now most men and many women, for the matter of that know what such a concession comes to. Thus it befell that, on about the sunniest morning of a darksome January, Tressilian and I his is a name of travel, of course stood on the deck of the good ship ' China,' outward bound. Fair weather kept us company all down the Channel ; and we made smcli good way, that, rounding Eoche's Point early in the forenoon, we were forced to anchor for some hours, wait- ing the mails. The tardy steam-tug took us on shore, too late to visit any of the beauties of the 6 SILVERLAND. harbour. There is nothing to see, immediately around the railway station ; and we saw it tho- roughly. Some half-dozen passengers full of wassail, as it seemed, though the day was yet young drove up and down on low-backed cars, out- yelling their charioteers. Watching such enthu- siasts, you begin to understand, how the swings and merry-go-rounds at fairs and races are filled. Eight years had brought no changes to the dull squalid landing-place ; there was the same beggar with his hoarse blessings, ten for sixpence, that sounded so like malisons, the same harridan, proffering sickly shamrocks, the same colleen., with dusky elf-locks, and broad blue eyes a fleur de tete, cackling treasonable ditties in a subdued treble, as though in fear of instant arrest ; albeit she is probably subsidised by our indulgent rulers, to ensure the emigrant's latest sniff of Irish air having a flavour of faction. The farce does not re- pay a second visit ; and we were well content to set foot on the c China ' once more. The clouds began to bank up as we weighed anchor, and there was menace of foul weather in the watery moon. Before we passed Cape Clear, the good ship had given us a foretaste of the ' lively ' I SILVERLAND. 7' qualities for which she is renowned ; and, when dawn broke on the morrow, a sullen ? grey sky brooded over a leaden sea. My experience of nausea is entirely vicarious ; nevertheless, I am acquainted with no such detest- able winter quarters as the mid- Atlantic. There, you soon realise that ( unrest in rest ' is not such a paradox after all. Without any pretence to sea- manship, there are many who feel a kind of per j sonal interest in a battle with winds and waves, under sail ; but you can hardly throw your heart into the efforts of mere machinery. The log sup- posing you have no bets on the result resolves itself into a question of knots and hours : if the ship has made extra good time, she has done her duty no more ; if otherwise, the British grumbler, keeping well out of earshot of the Captain, asserts himself very freely. An ungracious, un- christian frame of mind ; but what would you have ? The struggle with garments and bath, at- tending each rising up and lying down, the struggle over meals, when the dishes, despite their leading-strings, tumble about in an idiotic infantile fashion, the struggle with an atmosphere innocent of fresh air, and laden with the stale odours of SILVERLAND. baked meats, the struggle with the sloping slip- pery deck, when you make a pretence of taking- exercise, the eternal tremor and grind of the screw, that seems to vibrate through nerves and brain at last ; all these minor miseries make up rather a high trial of the 'old Adam.' A practical divine, I believe, once estimated that "an even temper was worth 500/. a year." According to this tariff, and from this source alone, Tressilian's income ought to be about 2000/.," paid quarterly. But even he succumbed to the malign influences, ere long, in the form of a mild melancholy, which would have been quite touching, if one had had any compassion to spare. The monotony of ' strong head winds from the west ' may, occasionally, be broken by a real tem- pest ; and this diversion we did not lack. On the sixth forenoon, during a treacherous gleam of sun- shine, the mercury began to fall, faster than it had ever done during our captain's long experience of these seas. Then, with a sudden flaw, Round veered the gusty ska^Y ; and, at nightfall, we were running at full steam- power, and with every stitch of canvas set that SILVERLAND. 9 could safely be carried, before a furious south-easterly gale. The deck being impossible, and the saloon intolerable, I was 'bouning myself to rest,' seated on our scanty couch, when there came a lurch of lurches. At the moment, I was about as helpless as Agamemnon when he was stricken by the felon blow being indeed entangled z>i XITWI; and, being hurled bodily across the cabin, I was only brought up by the woodwork of the opposite berth, with ' serious damage to figure-head.' An hour later lying swathed in wet bandages, stupid, and still half stunned I was aware of a shock, a crash, and a quiver of the ship from stern to stem ; and my servant, entering hastily, told us that "the saloon was knee-deep in water." Since, some years ago, lie first followed my fortunes, I had not seen his sedate countenance seriously perturbed ; and, with a certain satisfaction, I now noted a ruffling of its serenity. Though we were going all sixteen knots, one of the billows ravening in our track had got more way on yet ; and, tumbling inboard over the quarter, stormed the saloon through a shattered panel ; crushing in the roof of the wheel-house to boot, and knocking a quartermaster or so completely out of time. However, the gale, as if satisfied with 10 fclLVERLANI). having proved its power, began thenceforth to abate ;. and, though we never saw the sun, or rode on a level keel, till we had left the Newfoundland banks far behind, the Atlantic refrained from further violence. Our fellow-voyagers were a very level lot : the com- mercial element, of course, largely predominating ; for few, at this season, travel for their pleasure. Yet we made some pleasant acquaintances notably that of an American ex-minister, who, in long sojourn in the sunny South, had nearly lost his nationality. The slow soft voice, languid gentleness of manner, and thorough insouciwwe, savoured far more of Castile than Kentucky. Also, he had lived in close intimacy with the luckless Maximilian ; and, though loth to broach the subject, he told us enough to revive regrets for as good and gallant a gentle- man as any that have died fur Ehr und Reclit. The passenger-list held another name, known to all who have perused a certain famous 'Diary/ Here was the irrepressible Wigfall whilome Con- federate senator and general ; now, as a sardonic Yankee put it, " loafing around on the mining tack ; " but still Impiger, iracundus, inexoralnlis, acer, SILVEKLAND. 11 as when he bearded our Arch-Special under Fort Sumter's guns. This ' outrage/ perchance, brought him evil luck ; for the world seems to have gone hardly with him since, and amongst his own country- men he had little honour. Some of these last looked on that inroad of the sea as a kind of judgment on his rebel talk, that then chanced to be in full swing. Nevertheless, an honest heart, I warrant it ; and none of us Britishers wished him other than good speed down in Colorado. At the close of Atlantic voyages, certain ceremonials are seldom omitted, unless from stress of weather. All these were duly performed, the chorus-singing the mock trial (the criminal was represented by an ' Is- raelite indeed,' the like of whom I have not seen off the stage) the lottery of the pilot-boat's number the vote of thanks and confidence to the Captain ; albeit this last was more than a mere formality. Early on the fourteenth morning we sighted Sandy Hook. CHAPTER II. THE low shores were deeply fringed with snow and rime ; the bare branches on the ridge of Staten Island stood out sharp against a steel-blue sky ; and, crossing the New Jersey ferry, we encountered more than one ice-floe driving seaward from the Hudson. Thus, we began to realise that there might be germs of truth in those rumours of trouble in the far West which, on the landing stage in the Mersey, sounded like idle words ; and these misgivings were strength- ened that same evening. We were scarcely housed at ' The Brevoort/- cosy, and full of Apician appliances as of old, when two or three of the kindly folk, for whom we brought letters, came to make us welcome. From these we learned that, for fully three weeks, no pioneers had been found strong or bold enough to force the en- trenchments within which the Erl King held his SILVERLAND. 13 own against all comers, laying embargo even on the mails. The limits of the blockade were ill defined : men spoke of it vaguely as stretching westwards from Cheyenne the most formidable obstacles lying along the Laramie plains, and on the slopes of the Wahsatch range. Provoking news, certainly, for those who were bound to press forward ; yet the en- forced delay lacked not solace. I think, one ought to be unfettered by any busi- ness or mission, to thoroughly appreciate the hospi- talities of the Empire City. It is so pleasant to believe, that there is nothing venal or official in the frank and free courtesies proffered at every turn. I do not speak of banquetings and junketings alone ; though a dinner at the Manhattan Club, prepared by an artist whose salary might have lured Ude across the Atlantic were that Chief still in the flesh is a joy to be remembered ; but of the considera- tion and indulgence shown even to the prejudices of the stranger. This, remember, was an exceptional time. The controversy concerning the Alabama claims was in its first bitterness ; the ultra-Eepublican press teemed with warlike leaders ; and the sporting editor of the Herald had backed up his sensationals SILVERLAND. with a wager of 3000 to 2000 dollars on cartels being exchanged with England within six short weeks. Nevertheless, in not one of the clubs whereof we were incontinently made free in not one of the houses in which we were made welcome, did we hear aught to disquiet the most patriotic Britisher ; and we all know with what promptitude, especially when on foreign soil, act tit sua cortum Taurus. And we communed with lawyers, whose opinions carry weight, not in the courts alone ; with senators, who seldom lack heedful audiences when they catch the Vice-President's eye; with soldiers, whose renown dates back beyond the civil war; and with more than one editor, never sus- pected of Anglican proclivities. Furthermore, Tressilian, in his legislative capacity, was a tempting mark for argument. That cloud lias happily vanished, like others that seemed pregnant with storm ; but, if the tempest had broken loose setting commercial interests wholly aside I verily believe there would have been heaviness at more true and wise hearts on that side of the Atlantic than on ours. It is unfair to read the American aristocracy using the word in its original, not in its applied and SILVERLANI). 1 5 conventional sense by the light of journalism or platform-oratory ; especially on the verge of a General Election. And even for the 'tall talk' there is some excuse, when you remember what an infinite variety of personal interests are at stake 1 . Perhaps, the candidates for the Presidency them- selves are not more keenly alive to the result, than the postmaster of Muddy (Jreck. or the collector at Poverty Flat. Like the ring in the wedding-cake, the omnipotent ' dollar ' lies at the core of almost every < and convention. 'Needs must when the devil drives/ applies not to Transatlantic politicians alone ; and, at such a season, Mammon rs himself with a will. A very brief stay in Xe\v York will convince you that the temptations to money-making must be quite -rrong as when licctr x7 ^asWx was penned. Paris, Naples, and Vienna would hardly be selected for purposes of retrenchment ; but, in comparison of -tliness, the Empire City wins, with something in hand. It needs time, experience, and ingenuity to procure any article, necessary or superfluous, at a moderate price ; excepting, perhaps, oysters, apples, and scats in street-cars; P>ut these edibles alone will not satisfy all constitutions ; and, if a man 16 SILVEELAND. could lodge on the tramways, he must still be clothed in civilized fashion. The tariff at some hotels and boarding-houses does not sound so- exorbitant ; but liquors rule fabulously high ; and ' quenchers/ at fifty cents, will tell at the year's end. After careful calculation, you realise that a dollar about represents an English shilling rather an up- setting of one's ideas of exchange. At every turn, you meet evidences of overweening wealth and luxury. Taking up the * Ledger ' a serious journal, specially adapted for the perusal of families and schools you find its proprietor proffer- ing sums that might have bought Favonius, before a leaf dropped from his chaplet, for any trotter that can beat Dexter's time ; and this is no gambler,, remember, but a decent 'sponsible burgess, setting his face against public matches and wagering like a very flintstone. Calling in Fifth Avenue, you learn that the morning dress, that does ample justice to the svelte figure, is fresh from the Eue de la Paix ; and that your hostess " thinks it almost the cheapest plan, on the whole/' Fancy an economy, with "Worth as its fountain-head ! Dining at Delmonico's excellent well, no doubt if allowed a glimpse of the bill, you will find your share of meat, drink, and SILVERLAND. 17 tobacco amount to about eight sovereigns sterling. For the transit from the club to your hotel a brief bowshot for a practised archer whilst the night is yet young, your hackman demands a couple of dollars or so, without a shade of compunction on his ignoble face, or a twinkle of mirth in his lowering eyes. [Parenthetically, I wish someone, well versed in acclimatisation, would explain why the Irish car- driver, who had ever a jest albeit somewhat mild and stale on his lips, and would liever have earned a crown at a meet of the 'Ward' than a pound- note at a prayer-meeting, is transformed, by a few gulps of American air, into a covetous, sullen savage, with rather less notion of humour or amenity than attaches to his Parisian compeer.] If you ' plunge ' at all in gloves, on the Jerome Park, or other race-track, and the good things come off wrong, you will find your account not much easier to settle than after a disastrous Newmarket meeting. To be sure, the money that circulates so rapidly is oft-times lightly won ; for the audacity of our ' bulls' and c bears ' pales before the ordinary operations of Wall Street not taking into account such crises as the Black Friday, or the recent conflict over 18 SILVERLAND. Erie's. I doubt if the financial history of the worl can match, at least in rapidity and subtlety of construction, the stupendous fortune now owned by Vanderbilt, of whom more hereafter. But taking all in New York, enticing as it may be for brief sojourn, is scarcely the abiding-place for a pauper troubled with a conscience. The papers, at that time, were still redolent of the Fisk tragedy ; indeed, scarce a day passed without a legal wrangle about the assassin's impending trial. But Society seemed somewhat weary perhaps, some- what ashamed of the subject; only a very few vouchsafed contemptuous pity to the dead, such as might have been felt in old times when a knavish court-buffoon had come to a violent end. About the City and Custom House frauds, how- ever, and the like misdemeanors, people were thoroughly in earnest ; and the public was not apt to err on the side of clemency. At any rate, the huge mansion has a fair chance of being swept, if not garnished ; and, whilst the ' other seven ' are barred out, the motley household may hope to liv< cleanly. Our courteous hosts backed their invitations with warnings, against the folly of trusting to the tender SILVERLAND. 19 mercies of the Union Pacific ; and, as a purely un- commercial traveller, I was moved to tarry amongst these convivial prophets. But the chiefs of our company, in their austere virtue, decided otherwise. So, on the sixth night we set our faces towards the West. The party had been gradually augmented, till we counted eleven in all ; the latest addition being a bride, whose matronhood was not a full week old. Would even Mrs. Malaprop have approved of such a honeymoon as awaited this intrepid couple ? The other notables comprised a Professor of great re- pute, studious and careful, yet brisk and gay of demeanour withal under each and every trial; a Senator, who, before he represented his State, had been a luminary of Western law ; a Lieutenant, B.K, with whom we had formed alliance on the voyage out ; and last, though certainly not least, the eminent person who for the next two months was to be our guide and guardian. Very soon, in honour of his wondrous talent as director and purveyor, he was dubbed ' Commodore ; ' and many titles, civil and military, on that side of the Atlantic, are less justly earned. I once sojourned at Homburg, in a right pleasant c 2 20 SILVERLAND. company, now scattered widely over the earth anc beneath it, for that matter. For first and foremost was a famous inditer of prose and rhyme ; and, years ago, Multis ille bonis flebilis, occidit. Like most men of that grand stamp, he was merry as a school-boy in his holiday ; and, wasting not his substance at the tables, was free to enjoy to the uttermost the varied entertainments. Partly in jest, partly in earnest, he was wont to avow a grateful and implicit trust in the Administration, who pur- veyed so liberally for their guests. One morning, a comparative stranger required his opinion as to weather prospects. Folding his hands meekly, ' with a child-like and bland-like smile/ answered the Professor, " I cannot say. But I shall be content with what- ever my ' good gentlemen ' are pleased to provide." Into some such beatific frame of mind, before we had been long under the Commodore's tutelage, both Tressilian and I subsided; taking no more thought of the morrow, so far as transport and food were concerned, than if we had been a couple of errant sparrows. The traveller, indeed, who would SILVERLAND. 21 grumble at a Palace Car, so conducted, had best bide at home. It is the very sublimation of the old vetturino system ; omitting the venal element and preliminary fight over the contract. We left the streets of New York ankle-deep in mire ; but it was mid- winter again when, on the following forenoon we stood over against Niagara. A white haze, denser than the thickest spray-mist, veiling the Fa]ls nearly to their crest, clung to the cliffs on either hand ; through which, rank above rank, glimmered the giant ice-spears. The view upwards from the Suspension Bridge was somewhat blurred and dim : but there was reality enough in the awful turmoil immediately beneath it and below. The encroaching shore-ice seemed rather to provoke than allay the fury of the current, that in a few seconds ground huge bergs into clots of seething foam ; and this side of the great picture was assuredly more marvellous than when I looked on it last under a July sun. The stunted woodlands were all a-glitter, and rime lay thick on the hungry tilths, but not a deep drift appeared anywhere; and one or two of our party, arguing from the average of Canadian winters, began to hope that rumour had exaggerated the 22 SILVERLAND. difficulties farther west. At Detroit, however, which we reached about midnight, I fancy the last of these illusions vanished. The passage of the St. Clair river the strait betwixt the inland seas of Huron and Erie w T as decidedly sensational. By dint of incessant driving to and fro at the top of her thousand horse-power, the steam-ferry had maintained her right of way ; but, before our train had been run aboard in a double section, the floes had closed in ; and, as her mighty bows grided through, there arose an angry roar of tormented ice ; whilst great splinters and fragments leapt up against her sides, like prairie wolves besetting a buffalo bull. A faulty axle the first of many such disasters- caused us to miss the Western train at Chicago ; so that we were constrained to abide there the third night. The delay was easy to endure ; for what we saw that afternoon was worth a greater sacrifice. On one side of the picture was the sorry image of a fair city, lying in a ruinous heap ; but on the other was such a presentment of commercial courage and energy, as, I believe, lacks parallel in this world of ours. From amongst hillocks of shivered stones, from amongst tottering walls riven and distorted by SILVERLAND. 23 the strange fantasies of fire, from ghastly hollows of foundations laid bare, went up the diligent sound of trowel and hammer ; nor was the frost, that keeps most masons at home, any hindrance to these sturdy craftsmen. We saw one six-storied block of good substantial brickwork, that was roofed within eleven weeks of the digging of its founda- tions. One of the proprietors of the Sherman House a hostel which has few superiors in the West averred to us that his old home was still blazing, when he completed the purchase of the building in which we found good entertainment; and, on the first night after the flames abated, he was able to shelter therein some three hundred homeless heads. I was told not by a native, but by one of the few strangers who watched Chicago throughout her terrible ordeal that, for just one day after the actual panic had subsided, people sat down, sul- lenly, face to face with the utter ruin. Thence- forward, a healthy elasticity was almost universal each man setting his hand to his appointed work, in the spirit of the steadfast Consul who 'never de- spaired of the Eepublic/ Assuredly, ere long, the Queen of the West will lift up her brow, vauntingly 24 SILVEllLAND. as heretofore ; though, for years to come, it mus bear seams and scars. There was pointed out to us one strange caprice of the Destroyer. In the very centre of the quarter that suffered most severely, stands a dwelling of fair proportions, built entirely of wood, with a tiny grove around it meant rather for ornament than shelter. When the flames came near, the family fled, like their fellows ; and returned, when the tyranny was over- past, to look upon the ashes of their homestead. It bore neither scorch nor scathe ; the foliage of the limes was scarce more shrivelled than is usual in arid autumn ; and there the house still abides opposite a stately stone church, riven and blasted from spire to threshold, such a wonder as, perchance, has not been matched since the time of the Three Children. When time is of such vital importance, it is un- fair to criticise too severely builders' handiwork ; yet one would have thought that people, still half crushed by such a disaster, would have been more careful to avert its recurrence. If pitch and asphalte are excluded, there is still too much of flimsy brick- work, too little of iron and stone ; and, were I director of an insurance office, I should not, even now, be over-anxious for business in Chicago. SILVERLAND. 25 The waterworks, however, which, with great damage, barely escaped min, have been greatly strengthened and enlarged ; the supplies, drawn through a tunnel running far out into Lake Michi- gan, are quite inexhaustible ; and, after such a warn- ing, even supine officials are not likely to be taken unawares. Amongst other signs of reviving commerce, is a tolerably brisk trade in relics. No stranger is suf- fered to depart without investing in one or more of the miniature bells made, nominally, out of the metal of that one which went on tolling in the Court House, till it was half molten. In almost every Western town and hamlet, you hear their tinkling ; and the original must have multiplied itself, in the miraculous fashion of Peter's nose, and Bridget's toes, And Apollouius' hair. Early on the morrow we embarked on the ' Ar- lington/ which, for the next two months, was to be more or less our home. The interior of these Palace Cars, I suppose, has been often enough de- scribed, the saloon, bright with polished woods, gilding, and harmonious colours ; opening into state rooms that you may turn into hermitages if you 26 S1LVEKLAND. will, the cosy tables, so temptingly spread at meal hours, the compact caboose, more wonderful in its faculties of production and reproduction than any conjuror's hat, the sleeping appliances of sliding seats and descending panels, from which arise a double tier of couches decorously curtained, more than spacious enough for the repose of ordinary mortality. But it needs long and actual experience of these institutions, to do full justice to their merits. We were, perhaps, exceptionally favoured. Pur- veyors like the Commodore are rare ; and one might not always find such amiable and amenable officials as the conductor of the Arlington, or waiters deft and zealous as his sable subordinates. Nevertheless c Henry ' meekest and merriest of created beings by nature was, when the devil of drink possessed him, too often overcome by an insane desire of ' putting a head ' on the world in general, and on his coloured brethren, in particular. He had repented tearfully, and, at our intercession, had been forgiven seven times at least, when the Commo- dore, refusing again to temper justice with mercy, left him in ward amongst the Mormons. I trust that the wife, whose letters or silence were the in- SILVEBLAND. 27 variable excuse for his backslidings, has, long ere this, taken the simple sinner back to her ample bosom. Smoothly, if not swiftly, we swept on through the rolling corn-lands of Illinois ; and there first began to realise the marvels of Western agriculture. The rail traverses, we were told, one maize-plot of a thousand acres, in a ring-fence ; and it was easy to believe this ; for, on either hand, far beyond ken, bare stalks peered above the shallow snow. Fur- ther south in the State, there is farming on a yet more colossal scale ; but we saw quite enough, to feel assured that the reports which have reached Europe fall rather short of the truth. The price of land varies, of course, in proportion to its remoteness from town or rail perhaps from twenty to twenty-five dollars an acre would be a fair average, after Chicago is left some score of miles behind. In Iowa scarcely inferior in its fertile resources prices are still more moderate. Taking this tariff, and allowing that it is worth something to abide a little while longer under the old Dominion, I admire rather the energy than the wisdom of the settler who prefers hewing his way, inch by inch, through a Canadian clearing, to the trenching of 23 SILVERLAND. soft prairie loam, where neither stock nor stone wil blunt a ploughshare. A year ago, one of our party watched an Iowa farmer breaking up virgin soil : the first furrow ran straight, for hard on a league, before the team was turned. Crossing the Mississippi at Burlington, we rolled on, without notable let or hindrance, till Council BluEs towered on our right. A pile-bridge, chiefly supported by Missouri ice, took us into Omaha, a dreary depressing town enough ; though, they say, its future looms large, and it can boast already of having made the fortunes of George Francis Train. Here we halted another night for repairs ; and, hence- forward, time-tables became things of the past. To English ears a snow-blockade may sound a small matter, of lighter interest than a single grave casualty. Do you know what it means out here ? It means nothing less than utter stagnation of commerce, involving ruin to many, privation and distress to all a moral twilight, during which none can commune with his fellows, save by use of the overtaxed wires, that often prove faithless to their trust. Figures in these parts are not always to be swallowed ' unsalted ' ; but, after careful inquiry, we SILVERLAND. 29 could not believe that the estimate of eight million dollars, set on the merchandise locked up in this fatal spring, was much exaggerated. On the hard- ships, perils, and sore sickness mortal in not a few cases endured by those who were actually- in thrall, I have not space to dwell; yet, if you had tra- versed a car, in which forty human beings had been cabined for over a week, with every outlet barred against the cold, cooking their scanty victuals on a couple of greasy stoves, and sleeping almost pell-mell, you might have thought this last item not the lightest in the heavy score. And with w T hom is reckoning to be made ? The scope of Western malison is so extensive, that it may be doubted if the Directors of the Union Pacific have deserved all the strong language levelled at them of late. There is, of course, the excuse of the exceptional season ; but this will scarce suffice. The clemency of nine winters, gave the authorities no right to reckon on perpetual immunity ; and the troubles that have crushed them ought to have been foreseen when the first sleeper was laid. So say their accusers, with no mean show of truth. It was 'shapen in wickedness/ this unlucky line ; for its chief promoters were deep in a certain 30 SILVERLAND. Credit Mobilier, which, after a brief, unhealthy blaze, flickered out with an ill-savour of dishonesty. So, as the vast subsidies poured in forty-five millions from government, besides land grants, and large monies raised on bonds they flowed through the hands of one Direction into the coffers of the other, in the guise of accommodating contracts. Then, naturally, came the question, how to accom- plish the absolutely necessary work at the least cost, preserving a fair outward seeming. A rail over the Eocky Mountains. Hath it not a brave sound, even in these days of engineering Anakim \ Bierstadt's famous picture conjures up a chaos of torrents, cliffs, and canons ; and we marvel at his hardihood who first brought level to bear thereon. The great painter is doubt- less accurate to a leaf and a line ; but his brush was wielded in the inner heart of these hills. Travellers through many lands become familiar with disillu- sions : yet cannot I recal such an imposture as these same Kocky Mountains, approached by railway from the east. From Omaha to Sherman, is all against the collar ; but the rise is so gradual, that there seems no change in the dull champaign, adust or * Vide Appendix A. SILVERLAND. 31 hoary according to the season ; you are always looking at the same rim of low steep cliffs on the far horizon at the same muddy creeks, welter- ing through stunted willows. You mount nine thousand feet above sea-level, without encountering as much broken ground as lies round Aldershot ; and the grades, with a very few exceptions, would be child's play to a skilful engineer. The Directors might have defied King Winter, if, at the beginning, they could have hardened their hearts, like their rivals of the Central Pacific. The cost of forty-three miles of nearly continuous sheds, even with timber felled on the spot, rather dwarfs that of the flimsy plank-fences, hardly stiff enough to stop a clever hunter, let alone snow- waves sweep- ing over scores of miles. An official, high in autho- rity, averred to us that, for less than half a million of dollars, cuttings might be deepened, embankments raised, and bulwarks fortified, so as to make the line comparatively safe. Therefore, to some extent, out of their own mouths these men are judged. There has been a change of direction of ]ate ; and Vanderbilt is said to control the road. Under the iron sceptre of this truculent old despot, much may perchance be amended. When abuses have 32 SILVERLAND. come to a certain pass, there is much profit in tyranny. We reached Cheyenne, 500 miles from Omaha, without grave mishap ; and, during the mid -day halt, made our first acquaintance with Western jewellery. Some chains and bracelets, of delicate fragile workmanship, would have seemed more in place at Genoa, or in the old Palais Eoyal, than here, on the skirts of the wilderness. But, side by side with these, were ponderous gimmals, on which might fitly have been inscribed For the Amal, Amalric's son Smid, Troll's son, made me. The miner, who has made his ' pile,' has grand Gothic tastes, in more ways than one ; and likes to see the ruddy metal glitter royally, both on his own person, and on that of his lawful or lawless love. Some of the watches, heavily chased in solid gold, would have outweighed any ship's chronometer. But the chief temptation to us Britishers were the moss-agates quite the loveliest of their kind I have ever seen. The fairy sprays are so perfectly defined, that it is hard to believe real vegeta- tion is not shrined in the crystal. Luckily, the best specimens were unset ; so, after much embar- SILVERLAND. 33 rassment of choice, we were able to please our fancies at no ruinous cost. As we were about to start, a train came in which had been blockaded, for some days, near Sherman. There was scant time to talk : but the Eastward- bound travellers seemed strangely sullen and taciturn. A week later we should not have wondered at such churlishness. There was some sardonic laughter when one of our company asked, in his simplicity " If there was a chance of our getting right through ? " " You'll hear all about it at Laramie," the other conductor shouted through his grimy, unkempt beard. And so we went each our own way. That night's halt was at Sherman, the very highest point of the Union Pacific line. Our Pro- fessor's barometers, carefully collated, made us 9150 feet above the sea-level. Crossing a deep rugged ravine, early on the morrow, near the Black Hills (the rocks were the very reddest of granite), we got our first and last taste of all the e savage grandeur ' we had looked to find hereabouts. And so, through ever deepening snow-cuttings, we crept on to Laramie long familiar to us by name. Six trains lay in port here ; and on the morrow 34 SILVEELAND. the whole Imge caravan set forward the intelligent Superintendent " hoping that, with luck, we might fetch Ogden within the week." But he looked almost too intelligent as he spoke ; and there was some- thing ominous in his courteous advice to such as had letters to post, " not to hurry themselves." More- over, we discovered that the provision-train in at- tendance carried a full month's provender. Constantly slackening speed, often stopping, not seldom backing a furlong or so, our carriage sides grating and rasping along the high snow-walls, we made a kind of progress, till, at sundown, some forty miles from Laramie, we came to a full halt. On the period of rebuke and blasphemy ensuing it is not pleasant to dwell ; though it was certainly an ( experience ' in its way. There could be no fear of privation in a Palace Car, chartered and commanded by the Commodore. The prairie-hens, and other delicacies laid in at Chicago, held out bravely ; there was wealth of all manner of drink, simple and compounded; and, whether by day or night, our sable servitors were ' all there/ Steady whist, at dollar points, was usually available ; varied by occasional plunges in the perilously fascinating SILVERLAND. 35 "Poker/ On one occasion, I remember, we sat down ' just to while away an hour before turning in : ' we were still c whiling,' when, almost simulta- neously, through the curtained window of our state room peered in the pale winter sun, and the scan- dalised face of the" bride. There was no lack of light literature on board ; furthermore, two or three of our company had stories of personal adventure to narrate, with a real ring in them, which they told graphically. Here, I first began to understand the intense bitterness of feud which prevails, and, in spite of preachers and politicians, must prevail along the Indian frontier. The chief spokesman on this sub- ject, though he had, of necessity, been out more than once on the foray, seemed, by nature, little prone to take offence, or think evil of his neighbour : no wild roysterer, or vaunting Draw- cansir ; but a gentle, domestic being, whose thoughts, even in his schemes of profit, turned oftenest, I am sure, towards the pleasant homestead, just without the hum of San Francisco, where his young wife sat alone. Directly this theme was broached, the man seemed utterly transformed ; his quiet face would flush darkly, whilst an evil light D 2 36 SILVEELAND. came into his eyes, and liis discourse contrary to its usual tenor was larded with strange oaths. " There's only one good Indian ; and that's a dead one" was the essence of his simple creed ; and I believe it to be shared by many, not really harder of heart than the mass of the humanitarians. There is not a little of the ' platform ' about all this philanthropy, you must remember; and it is tainted occasionally by the spirit of lucre to boot. The chief ' sympathisers ' stand, perhaps, above suspicion ; but Indian agents, unless they are belied, are less scrupulous than the average of public func- tionaries ; and it may be doubted if the full tale of the subsidies chiefly of goods voted annually, ever reaches the Redskin. The fraud, not the good intent, is set down in the account ; and * Spotted Dog,' or l Flying Cloud,' or whatever other name the chief rejoices in, leaves the Agency with more malice than gratitude at his sullen heart. To judge the question fairly, you must clear your mind of the Mohican ideal. It would be easier to find Phyllis and Corydon in our Black Country, than Uncas or his sire in Nebraska or Arizona. Possibly, the virtue of stoical endurance does still abide with the dregs of the race ; but their SILVERLAND. .37 brute courage seems a thing of the past : of late years instances can scarce be quoted of Indians con- fronting armed whites, unless at absurd numerical odds. Does it avail to speak of honour to negociators whose diplomacy is founded on broken treaties ; of chivalry to warriors who count babies' curls and girls' tresses among their scalp-locks the last, per- haps, shorn from heads bowed to the dust with the agony of shame ; of mercy or charity to those whose outrages are wreaked on the dead ? For mutila- tion is carried to a science ; so that eyes, versed in these ghastly characters, can tell, looking at a corpse, whose hands have been busy in the massacre. I shall have occasion hereafter to record testimony bearing on the question, whose bias must have inclined rather Indianwards. But it is evident that moral, no less than physical levers, must have a fulcrum; and where are you to find one in natures such as these 1 In no one point of their home-policy ^does the American Executive seem to have evinced so much weakness and inconsistency as in their dealings with the Kedskin. When the appeals from the frontier can no longer be ignored, or when some deed of unusual atrocity has made even distant ears to 38 SILVERLAND. tingle, they send out a few squadrons, supported by a regiment of infantry and a battery of light guns, commanded by some Indian-fighter of renown, who has instructions to act 'vigorously/ It may be that the brigadier somewhat exceeds the letter of his orders (for in this infernal warfare the barbarities lie not all on one side) : but, at any rate, suppose the savages reduced to that state of salutary awe which is their nearest approach to peaceful citizenship. In nine cases out of ten, before this influence has had time to solidify, appears on the scene a sort of Mode- rator usually a civilian, with powers utterly nullifying those of his military colleague. It is the old story, on a very minute scale : few Eepub- lics, founded since the Christian era, have been found liberal enough unless the crisis be imminent to allow their generals to act with unfettered hands. Now, the Indian cunning displays itself. In his progress, the Commissioner sees faces inno- cent of war-paint ; if fresh scalp-locks hang in the wigwams, they are not flaunted at the belt of the sententious chief, always ready with his stale, cut- and-dried professions of amity towards the ( Great White Father ; ' and an odour of peace not to say ot sanctity pervades the land. When this is reported SILVERLAND. 39 at Washington, there is triumph, amongst the hu- manitarians ; and largesse of woollen stuffs and guns cements the treaty, which is to throw all others into the shade. Before the first are worn out, the last-named gifts are in full play. And then the ' fighter ' comes to the front again ; and the whole dreary farce is repeated, for the fiftieth time. In a paper, not a fortnight old, I read the account of the massacre of an entire family, in which the grandame, and the baby in the cradle, perished alike ; with General Sheridan's remarks thereon. " When a white man robs," says this plain-spoken commander, " we send him to the penitentiary ; when he murders, we hang him. When a Kedskin commits both these outrages, we give him more blankets. At this rate, the civilisation of the Indian is likely to progress but slowly." He writes very much to the point, as it seems to me. On the other hand, if Indian amalgamation be ever so impossible, there is no need to cry for ever, Delendi sunt. Drink, disease, and debauchery would play havoc with a nation in its prime to say nothing of one in the last stages of decrepitude. There is no law more inexorable than that of races : by this law, I believe, these savages are doomed, 40 SILVERLAND. even as are the Australian aborigines. Human efforts, or errors, may possibly retard, but they will hardly avert the end ; and it seems more imminent in the first case than in the last. There were presented to us, moreover, other curious lights and shadows of frontier life ; for the Commo- dore had spent much of his youth up in the mining camps, and bore token thereof in the shape of a scar on his broad chest, through which the life had nearly flitted, whilst his antagonist escaped not so easily. And the Senator had practised at the Western bar, in times when matters rolled not smoothly, as now-a-days, in the groove of dull decorous routine ; when pleaders did not confine themselves to mere wordy warfare; and when judges were almost forced to follow the example of the famous Lord Norbury, who was ever ready to ac- count for his decisions ' elsewhere/ and carried his pistol-case on circuit as regularly as his wig-box. Our friend must have had some queer cases to conduct, and some queer clients to boot. Though the sympathies of the country trended chiefly north- wards, during the latter part of the Civil War, Cali- fornia and Nevada were turned into a kind of * Vide Appendix B. SILVERLAND. 41 Debateable Land, by the frequent incursions from Texas ; so that party-feud was added to other ele- ments of discord. How many and various were these, it is not hard to imagine, when you realise what a strange congeries of nationalities were crowded together in a comparatively narrow com- pass ; and remember that each man's hand was not more against the rest of the world than against his brother Ishmaelites, with whom he had, perchance, but one passion in common the lust of gold. ' Take no thought for the morrow,' was the prevalent motto, of course ; and it applied to life no less than to lucre. Listening to these stories of blood and broil, I wondered less at the desperate recklessness of the chief actors therein than at the wild-cat tough- ness of their vitality : howsoever maimed by shot or steel, the power of rending seemed to abide with them, so long as they could crook a talon or gnash a fang. The last exploit of one famous Mohock, with whom the Senator had been brought, once or twice, professionally in contact, may be worth recording ; it was narrated to the latter by an eye- witness. Captain Hewson (I am rather vague as to the 42 SILVERLAND. heroic name) reckoned, with pardonable pride, over a dozen victims of his knife or pistol only death wounds counted, remember and, though scarred like any vieux de la vieille, the strength and sleight of his hand rather waxed with years. On this especial night he was not ( on the rampage ; ' but was consuming a pacific whisky-skin, his feet tilted on the high stove-fender, when there entered the drinking-booth a stranger, likewise of inoffensive demeanour. The new-comer peered round keenly, as though in search of some one ; then he walked straight up to the stove, and without uttering a syllable, shot Hewson through the breast as he sate, and, turning, fled away swiftly. The murderer for this was no homicide even by border-law had just time to lock himself into an inner chamber, when Hewson hurled at the door, which yielded to the shock ; he issued forth again in ten seconds, leaving a corpse behind riddled with five bullets. Steadily and silently pressing his hand hard on his side the victor strode back to his seat through the admiring crowd, and replaced his feet on their old resting-place. Then " Pull my boots off," quoth he, " and look d d sharp about it. My old mam " (meaning the mother SILVEKLAND. 43 that bore him) " always said I'd die with 'em on. I don't mean her to crow/' He was dead, almost before his bidding was done ; and the autopsy, with which such rare merits were honoured, revealed a wound through the apex of the heart. Less truculent tales, moreover, beguiled the time. Indeed, Western mining-chronicles would furnish materials for more than one sensational romance ; and it w^ould be no romance after all. It is noi^ only below ground that the lodes are ' worked ;' or colossal fortunes would not be made and lost within such an incredibly brief space of time. If the stones of California Street worn down already, though they have been quarried within ten years, by the tramp of eager spectators could give tongue, they would tell some odd stories of veins mysteriously vanishing, and reappearing just as mysteriously when the shares had ebbed to their lowest, and weak holders were worn out with ' calls/ All's fair in brokerage it appears, and ocoupet extremum scabies. But despite all diversions and distractions, alea- tory, literary, or conversational shall I own how heavily hung the hours ? A dead calm at sea is 44 SILVERLAND. sufficiently trying ; but, if you cannot pretenc fish, you make friends with vagrant gulls ; and any minute the dark ruffle may line the horizon, bringing the breeze on its back ; moreover bar the Ancient Mariner's luck the atmosphere carries no intoler- able burden, and there is rest for the eye when the sun is low. But the sameness of these accursed white wastes is never broken by hoof or wing ; for the buffaloes have fled southwards long ago, and antelope and elk keep close under the lee of the cliffs, or in the valleys where some acrid herbage under-lies shal- lower snow ; whilst you deprecate the wind as your worst enemy. There is monotony even in the inces- sant disappointment of moving forward a furlong or so, and then retrograding, as it seems, nearly as far. And the indoor temperature, spite of all precautions, was at times simply stifling ; though it was light and pure compared to that of other cars notably the one alluded to above. That atmosphere, as the Commodore observed, " might have been sliced with a bowie-knife :" it literally haunted me. There was a little excitement, at first, in watching the steam-plough, driven by four strong engines, swish through a drift previously loosened by pick SILVERLAND. 45 and spade ; but soon it became a question whether the sight was worth the tramp through loose snow, under a blinding glare we were nearly the hind- most train of the league-long caravan then it ceased to be a question at all. Our comrades bore themselves bravely ; and the women, of course, were bravest. But one and all got beat at last. The twitter of our love-birds waxed feeble and faint ; the Professor was as chary of his jests as dead Yorick ; the Commodore's robust appe- tite could only .dally with the savoury meats in which his soul delighted ; the comely face of the Sailor grew lined as with age ; and the Senator, with his solemn straight-cut face, might have sate for a doge in exile. In the last two days of durance, I do not believe that an honest laugh was heard aboard. On the seventh morning, we had made just six and forty miles ; but cheering news came from the front. Moving stealthily onward, we crossed an eastward-bound train before nightfall, and knew that thenceforth the road was clear. Before dawn we reached Ogden, where the Arlington parted with its fair freight ; and, two hours later, swept along the shore of the Great Salt Lake, glimmering under a level sun. CHAPTER III. platform was thronged when we rolle< into Salt Lake City; and no wonder. During three weeks neither passengers nor mails, to say nothing of merchandise, had come through from the East. And these good people had not only to wel- come coming, but to speed parting guests ; for the outgoing train carried away the Japanese ambassa- dors and their suite. We were not much over-awed by the distinguished foreigners. Under European costume, even solemn Armenians, and stately Turks, can hardly maintain their natural dignity. These puny mortals seemed very husks of men in their ill-fitting garments ; and their smooth sullen faces were not improved by their fashionable head-gear, as they flattened their noses in most cases quite unnecessarily against the win- dow-panes. Neither did the princesses quite fulfil SILVERLAND. 47 one's idea of those born in the purple. Certainly, they suffered by contrast with their American chaperone a gorgeous and majestic dame, whose ample charms seemed to dwarf her surroundings, including her own diplomatic spouse. We had brief time for criticism, however. The Japanese train moved off before we had half got through our introductions, and the inevitable hand- grips ensuing ; for the Commodore, the Senator, and the Professor, met divers old acquaintances on the platform. Salt Lake City does not shine in its hotels ; and it was decided that the Arlington should continue to provide us with bed and board. So the good car was put into port there and then, and we went forth to lionise. When the notes of the three aliens were compared, I think the result was disappointment. In summer or autumn, when the frequent fruit-trees are in flower or full bearing, and when the water, that never ceases to ripple through the street-channels, must have a pleasant sound, it is just possible that the town and valley may contain certain attributes of a ' paradise } using the word in the original Greek meaning. Truly, strangers, not wont to soar into wild flights of enthusiasm, have waxed eloquent 48 SILVERLAND. over the attractions of the bird's-eye view from the Wahsatch. It is only of late that the place could be reached without long wheel-travel over arid plains and bleak hill-ranges ; and much must be conceded to the first impressions of eyes weary of barrenness or sated with monotony. Nevertheless, I think it needs a strong afflatus of the Mormon spirit to gush over the Mormon city. There is no lack of air, nor of greenery, doubt- less, at the fitting seasons. But one hardly looks for close alleys and noisome courts, where building ground may be had for the asking, and where any man who will turn a rivulet may sit under his own vine and fig-tree. I do not cavil at the huge Tabernacle, wherein some twenty thousand can sit at ease ; nor at the granite Temple that, ere it is roofed, will swallow up countless dollars ; nor at the President's mansion, with its gardens and dependencies ; nor even at the pretentious dwellings of certain leading Elders, where bad taste has run riot at no small cost ; because these things pertain more or .less directly to the hierarchy. Howso- ever vain be his creed, no man can be blamed for postponing public convenience to exigencies that he holds divine. But it did occur to us that if some of SILVERLAND. <49 the large monies, derived from the weekly contri- butions in kind to the Tithing House, had been thrown into the streets, so as to make the foul quag- mire between the trottoirs at least fordable in wet weather, it would have been a sage civic policy. And those same streets are sound going, compared to the main highways leading countrywards. The absence of luxury, under the circumstances, is natural enough, if not laudable ; but the absence of ordinary comforts is not so easily accounted for in a city whose inhabitants, financially speaking, must be waxing fat as Jeshurun. The hotels judging from the complaints of their guests must be models of mismanagement; and, having proved both, I would back the cuisine of most up-country mining camps against the best restaurant of Salt Lake ; whilst the same characteristics seemed to pervade the entire domestic economy. It may be alleged, of course, that the Saints never much given to hospitality are, just now, leading a specially self-contained life ; and that the Gentiles sojourning there have rarely, if ever, troubled themselves to mount an establishment wishing that nought should hinder their flitting so soon as their ' pile ' is made. Nevertheless, that so much squalor should 50 SILVERLAND. co-exist with rapidly swelling wealth and exorbitant prices, is certainly rather a puzzle. In spite of all the business transacted there, Salt Lake is far from a bustling place. Throughout the forenoon there is a concourse on the pavement of the main Avenue, in the vicinity of the chief banks and telegraph offices ; but none of the eager faces, strained voices, or hurry ing footsteps that you would notice in Wall or California Street : the nearest bar swallows up each group before it is well formed ; and the loungers appear much more intent on cock-tails and apple-jacks than on a serious 'deal.' Yet, every day, there is exchange and barter of interests scarcely less grave than those which are dealt with on the exchanges of New York and San Francisco. What business may be privately transacted in those dingy offices and upper chambers, it would be impossible to guess. A stranger can only record that the city supplies few external evidences of her increasing prosperity. Brains and capital must find fair scope there in more than one branch of industry ; but, if no other commerce thrived, bankers, at least, ought to flourish like bay-trees. Imagine two and three per cent., monthly, for monies advanced on securities, SILVERLAND. 51 real, or nearly as substantial as ordinary mortgages. As an eminent bookmaker observed, after reading a feminine account of a Grand Military, in which long odds were laid on each and every starter " If that ain't good enough, I don't know what is." Things are widely changed since the primitive days of purism, when blasphemy in public was no venial offence, when strong liquors were only covertly sold, and when the vierge folle de son corps dared not show her face ever so discreetly veiled. Tongues wag now with the large Western licence, in the fre- quent drinking bars, in the vast billiard-saloons, and in the bowling-alleys, where more healthful pastime is found ; and in the streets, there is no lack more's the pity of bold eyes and brazen brows. But, though the Gentile element is already powerful, it is far from leavening the whole -.mass ; and the Mormon takes both his pleasure and his profit sadly it may be, more sadly than heretofore. A sober sedate folk are the males, wearing, for the most part, rather a downcast look ; yet, watching their visages narrowly, you will be prone to doubt if humiliation has, in all cases, brought humility, and if forgiveness of enemies be essential to a Saint's salvation. It may have been mere imagination ; but E 2 52 SILVERLAND. I fancied many countenances bore the reflex of their Chiefs expression. Brigham Young was in custody of the United States marshal at that time, and on his trial for murder in the second degree ; but it was by no means a close arrest, and we met him occasionally taking his walks or drives abroad. A remarkable face, assuredly, and far from attractive ; but a certain square firmness of outline saves it from ignoble sensuality ; and, though seemingly incapable of benevolence, the deep-set eyes are rather calculating than cruel : nevertheless it is a face that even friends must sometimes have distrusted, and in which foes would hardly look for grace. His photograph does not impress one so forcibly ; but, watch the man in the flesh, and in an unstudied pose, and see if you can help suspecting that there is solid ground of truth in some of the charges on which he has been arraigned. Ill deeds, not less than good, thrust each other out of memory ; and Western annals teem with such crimes ; but the Mountain Meadow massacre is not quite forgotten yet, when saintly hands were dipped wrist-deep in Gentile blood, and knife or toma- hawk spared neither woman nor suckling. The SILVERLAND. 53 outrage was imputed to the Indians, of course, by- Mormon advocates ; but the balance of proof goes far to show that the few real Kedskins engaged in that murderous foray were mere stalking-horses and hirelings. It would be unfair to rely over much on the recent ' Confessions ' of one Hickman, who avows himself to have acted, for years past, as bravo, or executioner, to the President and his privy- council ; but that obnoxious persons have been, from time to time, quietly suppressed, without scruple as to the means, is beyond doubt ; and to many cases, where steel or lead left no traces, the famous Indian verdict would apply ( Died by the visitation of God, under very suspicious circum- stances/ Perhaps, there is nothing in all this to cause much horror or wonderment. Scarcely any faith false or true has been founded or promulgated without human sacrifice. The Mormon President might allege that he at least believes implicitly in the Creed which we contemn, and that, in removing its opponents or detractors, he did but smite the heretic after more merciful fashion than did Tor- quemada or Calvin ; if fanaticism can no longer plead exemption from human justice, he has 54 SILVERLAND. only lived a little too late ; and, if private feuds or interests sometimes coincided curiously with religious zeal, I suppose to this, too, he might find historical parallels. In fine, I am inclined to believe there was sound common-sense in a Gentile's reply to my query, as to "what would ensue if the United States forces were withdrawn from Utah, and the Mormons left once more wholly to their own devices ? " He was well posted in the ways of the place and people, my sturdy interlocutor, and could hold his own in a ' free fight ' with the best. " I don't know what they'd do," quoth he ; " but I know what I'd do make tracks before sundown." However, if I differ from the sympathisers who found in the settlement by the Salt Lake an Arcadia, replete with pastoral and patriarchal virtues, and void of offence against its neighbour, I cannot withhold a mite of praise, where so much is really due. There is no mystery perhaps no great difficulty in the process which has turned sandy wastes into fertile tracts, sufficing all the colony's requirements, even with the late influx of strangers. The simple word f irrigation ' explains it all. But, if you re- SILVEKLAND. 55 member that only within the last quarter of a century have our English farmers developed in earnest the watery wealth of the hill-country, it would be churlish to deny the merit of these in- genious and patient pioneers, who must, for the most part, have worked by the light of nature, with scant theory or practice to aid them ; for mechanics and tradesfolk far out-numbered the agriculturists among the early settlers. The rapid increase of the city is not surprising ; for in this Western country frame-houses sprung up like mushrooms, and brick- stores like gourds ; but the valley, lying betwixt the Great Lake and the lower buttresses of the Wahsatch, ought to keep an abiding place in the chronicles of human industry. Whilst doing justice to the people, we will not refuse it to the President. Allow that he is stained with all the crimes imputed to him luxury, avarice, cruelty, and blacker vices yet, if such there be. Still you cannot deny that the man has evinced administrative talent, and tact of no mean order. To have made such materials as he had to deal with not only cohere but work harmoniously, as a rule, implies more than a smattering of political economy. Truly howsoever unscrupulous may have been their 56 SILVERLAND. chiefs the mass of the Mormons have ever been peaceful, not to say feeble folk, and the elements of discord in Salt Lake City in the old times, before the late bitternesses crept in, were probably less than might have been found in any ordinary mining- camp. Nevertheless, in such a mixture of nations and languages there must have been constant con- flict of feelings and interests ; and Brigham Young contrived if he did not utilise all these to keep them at least within decent control. Under his direction, a territory, that thirty years ago was simply valueless, has mounted almost to State dignity ; and if, whilst adding to the common wealth, he has filled to overflowing his own coffers, he has but followed the example of certain Vice- roys whom we and our forefathers have delighted to honour. How powerful if not for good the man has been in his generation, would be proved by one fact alone. Since his health began to fail, politicians have begun to pore more hopefully over the Mormon puzzle ; for by his strong influence, and stronger will, all projects of consolidation and mutual conception have hitherto been thwarted, more effec- tually than by the fears or prejudices of Elders, Council, and people. SILVERLAND. 57 It would be hard, at this juncture, to prophesy aright concerning the immediate future of Utah. Retrospective action against polygamy seems utterly impossible ; yet scarcely more so, than that it should be connived at hereafter in any American state. Even at Salt Lake it does not seem to have spread of late, if its roots are not loosened in the soil. The fact that a book, like Mrs. Stenhouse's, directly impugning the morality and utility of the institution, from long personal experience thereof, should have been printed and largely sold within the precincts of the city, speaks for itself. How would it have fared with authoress and publisher some five years ago I wonder ? If polygamy be a grave breach of divine as well as human law the which I am far from denying the criminals in Utah can plead less excuse of temptation than the average of sinners. Putting such memories in order, I have doubted whether Baltimore, Verona, or Aries at fair-time stood highest in the beauty-scale ; but, since quitting Salt Lake, I have never hesitated where to assign the palm of homeliness. It is almost incredible, that in a community numbering some 25,000 souls, 58 SILVERLAND. where whatsoever may be the inner restrictions of the seraglios the women-kind walk freely abroad unveiled, a stranger may pass days and weeks without encountering a face or figure worth a second glance, or even a case of ugliness redeemed by graceful gait or eloquent eyes yet more incredible, that such barrennesss of attraction should exist in Western America. Eude and plain words ; yet, perchance, therefore, the more suited to the subject matter. Certainly, unless he were morbidly uxorious, any man might be satisfied with two or three, at the outside, of such consorts. Of course, if you look on these hard- featured females simply as household drudges, or spinners of webs, there need be no limit to their number, any more than that of slaves on a planta- tion. But put them in the lowest scale of help- meets and you will find much to admire in the courage and obstinacy of the Mormon male. At first, we are prone to wonder how women are found ready to abdicate all wifely dignity, and feed on mere crumbs of parcelled affection : after a few strolls through Salt Lake City, we cease from thus wondering. The sex, cynics say, is apt to wax exceeding bold when on the verge of perpetual SILVERLAND. 5i) virginity; and a fraction of a spouse be it ever so ' vulgar ' is, perhaps, preferable to a cipher which cannot be dealt with by any rules of feminine arithmetic. And the goods if I may speak coarsely invoiced hither, would have been apt to hang on hand even in that brisk Australian market where, according to the legend, proposals were made through speaking-trumpets, before the good ship l St. Ursula ' cast anchor. Tout vient a point a lui qui salt attendre is an excellent maxim; but, surely, it applies to old maids less than to any other order of created beings ; and desperate emergencies need desperate remedies. I am speaking now of the late immigrants and converts : the native damsels are, of course, c as young as anybody else, if not younger.' But the same stamp of dowdy homeli- ness seems impressed in all alike ; and even for the 'devil's beauty' you may look in vain. At the theatre, for instance, one of the actresses she was of the blood Presidential, by the same token had to play a coquette of rather an advanced order ; and her costume, though in nowise audacious, was evidently intended to match the part. I have discovered more chic in a Quakeress, clad in hodden grey, meditating with folded hands. In GO SILVERLAND. fine, I am inclined to believe that considerations of profit or policy, rather than passion, might account for the most of these unholy alliances. Looking at matters dispassionately, the gulf between the present condition of the Mormon, and complete American civism, does not seem so im- passable. There are fanatics, no doubt, amongst the dwellers by the Salt Lake, who would hold out against concession to the last, with the irra- tional courage of bigotry; but the majority are quite alive to the advantages likely to accrue to Utah so soon as she shall rank as a State. By infinite sweat of brow, and toil of hand, they have made their surroundings pleasant and fertile ; nor would they lightly embark on another Exodus, if a vacant Canaan were within ken. The vitality of Mormonism is quite unimpaired ; but there are symptoms, everywhere, of the c old order changing/ and polygamy is already rather a doctrine than a practice. Supposing the rest of their creed be left intact, and they be free to worship after their own fashion, the rising generation may be apt to doubt if the theoretical advantages of this institution are worth isolation from the great Kepublic and com- parative disfranchisement. SILVERLAND. 61 Indeed, if the question were, even now, put fairly to the vote of the entire people Gentiles, of course, being excluded I believe Conservatism would go to the wall. At any rate, though the Elders may harangue themselves hoarse, it would be a mistake to suppose that the popular feeling on this matter verges on real excitement. Putting aside the covert malice of certain visages (with which, as was afore said, our fancy may have had much to do) ' listlessness ' seems best to describe the condition of those who have no immediate voice in the hierarchy or Council, and who are not directly interested in the new commerce which has of late, morally and physically, almost revolutionised Utah. But this last topic may not be broached at the fag-end of a chapter. CHAPTEK IV. MINING. That word strikes the key-note of many thoughts, and hopes, and fears, not in Salt Lake City alone, but for leagues and leagues around it ; and even in England it would find sympathetic chords enow. There is the more reason for handling the subject warily ; and under favour I must needs, here, briefly ' liberate my soul/ I have never yet puffed any man's wares for hire ; in the matters whereof I am about to treat I have no interest, direct or indirect, beyond the sym- pathy that we must needs feel in the fortunes of friends or acquaintances by whom we have been courteously and kindly entreated ; and, up to this moment, I have never been blessed, or cursed, with a share, ever so humble, in any mine, native or foreign. Quasi-anonymous assertions carry but little weight : yet I am fain to hope that my readers SILVEELAND. 63 will credit me thus far. If it be otherwise, this chapter had best be skipped in its entirety. After all, singularly little delicacy need be felt in treading on ground furrowed by so many ploughers ; or in touching a topic that has been pitch-forked to and fro by savage controversialists, discussed in the leaders of more than one public journal, and ven- tilated in Congress. Ever since General Schenk set the teeth, not only of his American colleagues, but of divers diplomats, on edge, by appear- ing on the Direction, the * Emma Silver Mine ' has been so prominently before the public, that others, besides those who have credit and coin actually at stake, may care to hear the truth there- anent. This truth, without colour or ornament, so far as I have been able to trace it, I propose to tell. Even if force of circumstances had not influenced the choice, I should still have selected this mining ensample ; simply because many persons, not at Salt Lake alone, but in California and Nevada, whose interests, as rival owners, were antagonistic to the c Emma/ concurred in quoting it as the representative of the limestone formation ; and, furthermore, because, to the best of my belief, on 64 SILVERLAND. this spot only have the subterranean resources of Utah been, hitherto, satisfactorily developed and fairly tested. He must be a very idler, whom mere curiosity would tempt at such a season to traverse some thousand leagues of sea and land ; and, besides the Sailor and myself, each and every one of our small company had duties or business far away from Salt Lake. They had been drawn thither by the com- mon object of examining such mines as were attain- able, or open to inspection, in the Wahsatch and contiguous ranges, with a special mission to the ' Emma.' Therefore, after brief dalliance in the Mormon Eden, the ' Arlington ' rolled forth again, and conveyed us as far as Sandy, some score of miles from the City; where the car was anchored to await our return : the rest of the journey was to be saddle- work. There was scarce a rent or a stain on the pure white mantle of the Wahsatch, and the air, though not bitterly keen, was pregnant of snow, as we rode over the barren champaign lying betwixt Sandy station and the mouth of Little Cottonwood canon. Not a tree or a shrub within ken ; nothing but the eternal sage-brush, save where a few sour marsh- SILVERLAND. 05 herbs mark water-tracks soaking sullenly and vaguely through the loam. The soil is, probably, neither better nor worse than that which has been turned to such good purpose along the shores of the Great Lake ; and nothing but irrigation, and drainage of the simplest kind, are needed to fit it for culture. There would be fair grazing, if you could put ' heart ' into the pasturage ; for there is shelter under the lee of the mountains from northerly and easterly blasts ; and, even in this exceptionally in- clement spring, the frost had gotten no hold of the ground. As it is, the only animal you are likely to encounter hereabouts is the long-eared ' buck-rabbit ' a feeble, foolish creature, with none of the verve of the British coney, and an easy prey to man or beast. We saw one coursed down in about three minutes by a mongrel lurcher, scarce out of puppyhood, who, without invitation, had attached himself to our party. It was winter again, when we were fairly within the jaws of the canon; but, for four miles or so after entering the gorge, we made good progress over a fairly beaten track, and began to think that the good townsfolk had erred in predicting for us ' a rough time.' An artist's eye might find attrac- 66 SILVERLAND. tions here, even at this dreary season; though the sternness of the huge cliff-walls on either hand is enhanced rather than softened by the fringes of stunted pines, clinging and climbing where- ever they can find foot-hold ; and there are studies for the geologist, in the rapid and abrupt changes of ' formations ' wherever the rocks stand out bare. A notable feature in the scene are the stupendous granite boulders bestrewing the comparatively level ground near the entry of the cation. There they lie, some singly, some in clusters, as if they had never stirred since they were hurled hither and thither in some pre- Adamite sport or broil. An unscientific mind will almost be tempted to question how, other- wise, they could have come there ? For, not only is it impossible to discern the niches above from which they were rent, but usually they differ in grain, texture, and colour from the overhanging cliffs. A whole chapter of glacier-history would be needed to explain the puzzle. At any rate, this freak of Nature has spared the builders of the Mormon Temple infinite time, cost, and toil. By a simple process of drilling, and insertion of wooden wedges, slabs and blocks are detached ready for the SILVERLAND. 67 mason's hand : neither are there extraordinary diffi- culties of transport ; for such quarries are rarely very accessible. This industry has founded a little hamlet here ; and, should the projected branch-rail from Sandy to the mouth of the canon ever become an accomplished fact, Graniteville will soon find place in the map of Utah. So we rode on, cheerily enough, incessantly cross- ing and recrossing, on the rudest of bridges, the stream that struggles down the gorge, till we reached the half-way hut, and halted for a frugal ' nooning/ About a furlong higher, the enemy that had, thus far, only hovered on our flanks, showed himself in force : the snow-wreaths we had passed were light skirmishers ; but the drifts ahead marked a battle set in array. It is easy to make metaphors at leisure ; but we had neither time nor inclination for such vanities just then ; for, as the ground rose more steeply, the fair broad track faded into the narrowest of trails, which it was necessary to follow warily in single file. Here, too, veils and tinted glasses came into requisition ; for the glare from the unbroken white surface was intolerable. Glancing aside, I marked a slender iron cylinder peering quaintly over the snow on our right, and 1 O J Y 2 68 SILVERLAND. questioned my nearest mate 'lie was a famous native pioneer as to the use and fashion thereof. " It's the smoke-stack of an assay-house," he made answer. And thus I realised, that some four fathoms' depth of the most treacherous of all substances then Lore up our horse-hoofs. If the British shareholder, who is wont to grumble at tardy or intermitted shipments of ore, had ridden in our company that day, I think, being a just man, he would have repented and recanted. To me it seemed simply incredible that the teamsters despite their reputed recklessness- should venture down with laden sleighs. Yet we met four or five such before we reached Alta City- all mining camps are c cities ' hereabouts. These encounters were not the pleasantest incidents of the journey. Turning aside is a necessity, of course ; and so is dismounting, for a- riderless horse sinks to the girths the instant he quits the beaten trail. The leading of a floundering mustang, through loose snow more than knee-deep, is not quite so easy as it looks on paper ; and a stray fore-hoof left its mark on more than one of our party ; whilst our SILVERLAND. 69 poor Commodore, by a sudden plunge of his frigh- tened beast, ' got a nose put on him ' that was truly a ' caution ' to behold. However the chim- neys of Alta City no walls worth speaking of were visible received us at last ; and, leaving our cattle to be harboured in some sub-nevadean shelter, we crawled up a kind of snow-stair to our own quarters, in the house of the manager of the ' Emma/ You would hardly expect to light on so cosy a dwelling, near ten thousand feet above tide -level ; and there was no lack of homely plenishments : yet, even within doors, there were signs of the sea- son. The paper on the walls was furrowed and wrinkled, like the brow of age, by the terrible pres- sure on the planks without ; and, after this was ex- plained to us, I think some snow-stories, told in Salt Lake City, came home to more memories than mine specially as the sky, hitherto cloudless, began just then to darken, and the wind to moan. But, if any man had misgivings, he would scarcely have con- fessed them in presence of the manager. Through- out the wild winter and wilder spring, that sturdy old Rechabite had claven to his post ; never asking fur- lough from his employers, or quarter from the ele- 70 SILVERLAND. ments. Only the rugged, weather-beaten face was very grave ; like that of one who, often confronting danger, has not learned to despise it. We arrived too late to visit the mine that day, and there were no other attractions out of doors ; so, with appetites worthy the occasion, we addressed ourselves to the serious business of the evening meal. They live largely, these stout mountain- folk ; and I have fed, in populous cities, on viands infinitely worse cooked than those set bounteously before us. We had brought a jar or so of liquor from the Arlington ; for, though our host neither used nor countenanced strong drink, at few seasons or places would a ' hot Scotch ' taste more toothsome than early in February, in the heart of the Wah- satch. Then came whist, and pipes innumerable, and then bed this last quite a triumph of pack- ing : yet I did not hear of much broken rest. We were afoot early on the morrow ; and the first glance at the weather made us bless the luck, or foresight, that had brought us hither in time. It would have been difficult, if not dangerous, to have ridden far in the teeth of the savage tourmente sweeping straight down the canon, and progress on foot would have been scarcely possible ; for, even SILVERLAND. 71 where it had not drifted, there was large increase of fresh-fallen snow. From our quarters to the mine's mouth might be some 200 feet of climbing ; but wind and limb were sorely tried before we stood, blinded and breathless, under cover in the main driftway. There is no need of cage or skip here ; neither are you entrusted to the uncertain mercies of a man-engine : for a hundred yards or more, after lighting candles in a kind of vestibule, you walk, d plain pied, into the heart of the mountain through a tunnel of ample proportions, in which a tramway is laid. Above and below this are hori- zontal floors, communicating through short vertical or oblique shafts, and numbering, at the time of our visit, seventeen in all. From the centre of each of these floors side-drifts diverge, like the feelers of a cuttle-fish, varying in length from 50 to 300 feet, according to the promise of the ore re- vealed. The tramway once left behind, progress is no longer luxurious ; but, though it is necessary often to stoop, sometimes to crawl, at no one point is there a shadow of real difficulty or danger. Along many of the driftways the daintiest dame might pass dryshod, and with no worse soil of 1'Z SILVERLAND. garments than a feather-brush would amend. The veriest ignoramus could not fail to remark the absence of all the drip and slime familiar to sub- terranean explorers. But this seemed less extra- ordinary to the Sailor and myself than to Tressilian, familiar from his childhood with mining ways. Indeed, I fancy the instances are rare where the earth has been penetrated so deeply without the opening up of divers hidden springs. But hitherto the c Emma ' adventurers have encountered nothing worse than surface-water ; though this, in inclement seasons, may prove no trivial peril. Most of our party looked on the surroundings with a professional eye ; but the next matter of wonderment to us laymen (once for all, I bracket myself with the Sailor), was the apparent waste of valuable hewn timber. Everywhere recrossed and doubled at the brink of each shaft, and at the angle of each driftway we saw a network of stout joists and square beams, till it seemed as if half a forest must have been swallowed up here. Indeed our conceptions did not much outrun the truth ; and it is fortunate that the wooden wealth of these hills will be, for years to come, practically inexhaustible : though there are grievous gaps in their ranks, they SILVERLAND. 73 still hold their own gallantly ' the shadowy armies of the pine/ But there is really no waste of labour or material here. The ' caving ' of the soil or rock is the very bane of western miners ; and by no care or cost can absolute insurance be effected against this disaster, as has been proved over and over again at the famous ' Comstock Lode ' in Nevada, where the quartz, from the toughness of its texture, must be far less prone to collapse than the Wahsatch lime- stone.* The temperature of the workings was singularly level : the intense outer cold scarcely penetrated beyond the vestibule ; and, if the atmosphere in some of the extreme driftways was somewhat dense and heavy, it was never absolutely oppressive ; neither did the lowermost shaft exhale the hot mephitic fumes that meet you before you have des- cended far into most metalliferous mines. It was rather weary work, the incessant clamber- ing of ladders, and dodging of beams, and creeping in single file through passages where one could rarely stand erect. But, even to us flaneurs, each step brought something of interest. * Vide Appendix C. 74 SILVERLAND. Of course, the quality can only be determinec by assay ; though skilled miners are often sur- prisingly accurate in their guess-work. But, when a, simple code of signs and tokens is once mas- tered, it does not need an expert's eye to trace ore through a limestone formation. Almost all the workings, examined on that and the ensuing day, were fresh since October last ; and quite inde- pendent of that vast treasure-chamber which first made the mine famous, and which its opponents characterise as an exhausted ' shell/ They diverged, as was aforesaid, infinitely ; but each one that my companions tested and that the work was not done negligently I can aver proved more or less remunerative. The veins would vary from a mere thread, to a belt broadening beyond the furthermost pick-mark ; but there was always presence of ore ; and always, brightly or faintly, the baser soil was tinted with those tender shades of colour that are only laid on by the pencil of the Gnome. I say ( soil/ advisedly ; for you can scarcely dignify as ' rock ' matter so friable. A common hunting knife makes deep impression ; and six or seven tons daily might easily be dislodged by a practised miner. Proving this, one ceases to wonder SILVEELAND. 75 at the paucity of hands employed here not two score, including every official. It is hard for an unscientific pen to set forth these points lucidly ; but ocular demonstration makes it easy to understand how, by simple cubic measure and comparison of weight, the amount of ore included in this net-work of lateral drifts and vertical shafts can be accurately calculated. Moreover, in this ' prospecting/ the quality of the ore can be estimated with no less certainty than the quantity, if it be sampled without fear or favour, and honestly assayed. The importance of this last condition is obvious ; for, however just in the letter, it would hardly be just in the spirit, to bring up the balance by the addi- tion of rare isolated specimens, such as may be found in almost any mine, whose proper place is on the shelves of a cabinet. On the present occasion two or three such one assaying near 1300 dollars were purposely set aside. Though the value of the ore thus ( exposed ' can be so nicely calculated, certainty, or even absolute confidence, with the most experienced miner ceases here ; for the caprices of the veins, to say nothing of the l pockets/ as the large isolated deposits are 76 SILVERLAND. termed, are infinite. As a rule, however, the coy metal seems to wax kinder from pursuit ; and the richest ores are oftenest struck in the deepest workings. The rage of the tourmente was abating when we saw light again, though heavy flakes still cumbered the air. But, if the day had not been so far spent, outdoor work would have been impracticable ; for the fresh snow would not carry, and the drift against the front of our ' stoop/ yesterday scarce two cubits deep, was heaped up now in a wall shoulder-high. Communication even with the City below was not so easy ; and, I believe, our sole visitor that afternoon was a rotund, ruddy urchin, bearing a message from a telegraph office. He was very self-possessed, this small envoy ; and a largesse, that must have transcended his wildest hopes, in no wise altered his calm stolidity. Ques- tioned as to how he had clomb up hither, he 'reckoned, he'd squirmed along somehow/ Indeed, to us watching his downward progress, he seemed to make no more impression on the feathery drifts than might have been left by a weasel or a bull- frog. And we, on our parts, got through the evening SILVERLAND. 77 ' somehow/ But, though there were no blue devils in our company, the rarefied atmosphere had begun to tell more or less on all who had not o been previously acclimatised. The Sailor suffered terribly from headache ; and, for myself, I began to understand what James of Scotland must have endured, when At each turn lie felt The pressure of the iron belt ; for I had brought a severe chest-cold out of the blockade. I did not know till afterwards or I might, perchance, not have taken things so easily that lung-inflammation is the very pest and bane of the mountain miners. Oddly enough, it seems more fatal to strong men than to women and weaklings. The next morning broke clear and cloudless, and, rising betimes, we completed before noon the ex- ploration of the ' Emma ; ; so that Tressilian was enabled to visit two other mines, or rather shafts, sunk hard by. The most distant of these might have been a long rifle-shot from our quarters ; but every fathom of steep ascent through deep, loose snow, tells heavily, as all mountaineers will aver ; and our stalwart comrade had had rather more than 78 SILVERLAND. enough of it when he returned about sundown, especially as he had seen nothing to repay his toil. The reason of this will be made plain hereafter. Though the time had passed neither unprofitably nor altogether unpleasantly, I think we were all glad to get the ' route ' on the morrow. Whilst our companions tarried to inspect yet another mine, the Sailor and myself went down to Alta City. We were surprised to find it such good going ; but the snow at these heights hardens rapidly, and sleigh traffic below had already begun. Under ordinary circum- stances nothing would be found in Alta more notable than in other hill camps ; but it presented, now, a very curious spectacle. Till I stood in, or rather on, the street of that hamlet I never appreciated the potency of drifting snow brought to bear on human handiwork. I saw something like it, years ago chamois- hunting in the Savoy Alps when the autumn fall had begun, and we were glad enough to find a night's shelter in the uppermost chalet of the Allee Blanche, deserted long since by the cowherds. But there, the uncouth hovel seemed to match not ill with the desolation around ; no sign of animal life was within ken ; and only by our own SILVERLAND. 79 voices, or the whistle of a marmot, was the dead silence broken. Here, there were tokens not of life alone, but busy life, and certainly no lack of sounds. Yet Pompeii was scarce more completely, if more durably, entombed than Alta. Over the humbler habitations the snow swelled half way up the chimney-stack ; small shafts were pierced to admit light and air, otherwise the population lived like prairie-dogs. Into the principal store, a fair two- storied frame-house in its normal condition, we de- scended through a cutting abutting on a gable window, and down a ladder fixed within. But, if these stout mountain folk had been bred and born within the Arctic circle, they could not have taken things more coolly. Kound the stove of the store in question, there was the usual smoking, chewing, argumentative crowd ; the trade over the counter seemed unusually brisk ; and, with large experience of Western hospitality, I cannot call to mind having been, within the same space of time, so often solicited to ' smile/ We all made tracks for the plain about noon ; my comrades mounted as before, whilst I embarked in a sleigh also bound down the canon. I would not wish to sit behind a more skilful or intrepid whip 80 SILVERLAND than my Judicial charioteer : but, more than once, I wished myself back in the saddle ; for so much extra exercise was not good for such a cough as was racking me. The track was intersected by multitudinous dips and hollows, some mere gutters, some almost ' gulches ' in breadth and depth. In these last we would come to a full stop ; and only emerged by dint of much snorting, rearing, and plunging, with a shock like to dislocate the back of the sleigh ; albeit it was expressly built for rough usage. However, at the half-way hut we left broken ground behind ; and glided on at top speed over a fairly level track the snow waxing shal- lower and less reliable, till it softened into slush at Graniteville. Thenceforward, we were fain to trust to wheels. Such wheels as they were ! The Judge's buggy had, by mistake, been sent back to Salt Lake, and the only spring vehicle which Graniteville could boast was hopelessly out of gear ; so we chartered a goods-dray to convey us across the plain. It was a change of motion, no doubt ; very much like the change from pitching to rolling in a heavy cross sea. At first we made little headway ; for the driver, a swarthy beetle-browed half-breed, would SILVERLAND. 81 only plod along at a foot's pace rather, I fancied, with intent to vex his passengers, than out of mercy to his beasts. The twilight deepened and darkened ; and still the twinkling lights that showed where the Arlington lay anchored at Sandy seemed no nearer. At last, waxing desperate with aches and weariness, I proposed a drink all round, with a special invita- tion to our driver. Now, my hunting-bottle, hold- ing nearly a pint, was filled, not with mild ' old rye/ but with whiskey from the Alta store, which, if less potent than that famous liquor which slew men at rifle range, carried abundance of fire and sting. The merest sip sufficed the Judge and my- self; but the half-breed drained the flask. The draught acted like a witch's potion. The dull black eyes began to roll and lighten, the slouching shoulders were straightened, the flaccid hands gripped the reins savagely ; and, whirling the long lash round his head, he crowded up his team with a will. It was a weird, fantastic journey, the ^est of it, like the hurry-skurry of a nightmare ; sweltering through sloughs and mud-holes, splashing through marshy pools, jolting over half-buried logs or boulders, and taking a rivulet or so, as it seemed, in our stride ; wrfti a running accompaniment of G 82 SILVERLAND. yells and thong-cracking. Kemonstrance would have been absurd ; we could only press our feet against the rail of the dray, and 'let her rip/ Nevertheless, there was method in the half-breed's madness. If he did not always keep the road, he kept his line ; and drunkard's luck brought us to Sandy at last more thoroughly bemired, than if we had been riding to hounds over Naseby Field after heavy rains. The good old car looked cozier than ever, with its lights, and curtains, and garnished tables ; the cheerful countenances of our coloured brethren had gotten^ an extra polish ; and Krug's ' dry creaming ' seemed improved in flavour. But we all turned in betimes ; and, before we were well awake, on the morrow, were rolling back to Salt Lake City. CHAPTER V. MY personal researches into the mineralogy of Utah, I am sorry to confess, began and ended in Little Cottonwood canon ; for when the rest of the party, after two days' respite, went off prospecting again, the doctors expressly forbade my venturing again into the high snows. So I remained behind to be physicked and blistered at their pleasure ; the Sailor, in the kindness of his heart, electing to keep me company. It may seem presumptuous, to speak at all con- cerning matters in which one has such scant experi- ence ; but Tressilian did not waste his abundant opportunities; and on his observations I can rely, as implicitly as if the facts had come within mine own ken. Furthermore, where there is such conflict of interests, an unbiassed opinion may, perchance, be worth recording. Though individual reports may, for obvious G 2 8 1 SILVERLAND. reasons, have outrun the truth so far as the trutli has been ascertained I do not, in my conscience, believe that we in England have formed an ex- aggerated estimate of the mineral wealth of Utah. That idea of the superior certainty of the c fissure- veins ' running through quartz, will, probably, soon be ranked among buried fallacies. The fluctuations of the Stock Market at San Francisco are unex- ampled elsewhere ; and almost all the mines, there dealt with, lie in the granite formation. The ' fissures ? have an awkward habit of losing them- selves in the innermost bowels of the earth, and it may need infinite toil and cost to knit the broken clue ; sometimes it is never recovered, or, worse still, picked up at hazard by some neighbouring explorer. The silver ores of the limestone formation appear usually, it would seem, in a network of veins, swell- ing out at intervals into arteries or 'pockets;' and the danger, of course, is that, the artery once exhausted, the precious current may cease thenceforward to flow. But it may be long before the heart of the mountain be drained ; and, in any case, I fail to see how a lesser risk attends mining in granite. As for permanence of profit, a property, paying divi- SILVERLAND. 85 clends through a couple of centuries or so, may be considered fairly durable. Now, some Chilian mines, almost identical in formation with those of the "Wahsatch, with the rudest appliances, have out- lasted this date without sig-n of exhaustion : and O ' Germany, I believe, can supply still more forcible parallels. Furthermore, it must be remembered that the cost of working quartz and limestone cannot even be compared. In the one case, you have to deal with a substance so hard and tenacious as some- times only to be conquered by dint of drill in the other, with matter so friable that the pick must often be plied warily lest the treasure-seeker fare like Tarpeia. Yet I am far from inferring that capital should be sown broadcast in the Utah canons ; or that even the modest aspiration of ' small profits and quick returns' can always be realised here. It is un- doubtedly true that, with one or two exceptions, the mineral resources of the country have only been prospected by a few surface workings and shafts driven almost at random. This state of things can- not possibly endure ; but, whilst it does endure, the fact cuts both ways. 86 SILVERLAND. Very few Utah mines, hitherto offered to the public, have been so far opened up as to enable even an expert to speak confidently as to their probable value. It is probable, of course, that some of these will eventually prove more remunerative than the c Emma.' Only the development of this mine, thus far quite unparalleled in the district, warrants the details given above. At any rate, had it been otherwise, I should have sought elsewhere for an example ; or, failing this, have ignored the subject altogether. A tinge of the gambling spirit must ever attend the search after the 'irritaments of ills : ' but prudent adventurers will prefer a modest certainty to superb probabilities ; and it is next to impossible to guess, even approximately, at the value of a property prospected only by a single shaft, and one or two cross-drifts or ' winzes/ For this reason, that afternoon's toil through the Wahsatch snows was to Tressilian labour in vain ; and to this is to be attributed the fruitlessness of most of his later explorations. Another point should never be lost sight of. Whilst things remain in their present condition, the quantity of ore must be of subordinate importance to its quality. Even in the case of the ' Emma,' SILVERLAND. 8/ where, in ordinary seasons, no great difficulties of transport exist, the freightage per ton amounts to thirteen pounds sterling when it touches English ground; and mines more remote or inaccessible must, clearly, pay heavier toll. Second-class stuff, which, in time to come, may bear no mean value, is now not worth loading on the drays; and large masses of ore, actually exposed, may be practically useless as treasure-trove on a desert isle. The one great desideratum of this country is smelting power. Efforts have already been made in this direction; but they are the merest tentatives; and it were easier ( to drink up Esil' than to tackle the mineral resources of Utah with the toy-applir ances hitherto brought to bear thereon. Doing ample justice to American skill and energy I question whether this grave problem can be worked out, without help from our side of the Atlantic. I hear from reliable sources that there are smelting secrets, and, as it were, sleights of hand, which can scarce be imparted by an instructor ever so willing to pupils ever so diligent. If a man be not to the manner born, such can only be mastered by long study and practice at the head-quarters of 88 SILVEKLAND. the trade ; and this applies not only to the officials, but, in some sense, to the working rank-and-file. It would need, perhaps, the importation of an entire ' plant' to make a concern, adequate to the exigencies, work smoothly and profitably ; but, speaking under correction, I can see no insuperable difficulties here. In almost every Western mining camp, of any importance, Wales and Cornwall are fairly repre- sented ; and the men, who now cross the Atlantic by twos and threes, could surely be tempted to emigrate m a body, especially when the expatriation need only be for a term ; for this class are, as a rule, wise enough to prefer large fixed emolument to any precarious chances. About the emolument there can be no question. When a working miner, capable of -nought beyond plying pick and spade sturdily, can earn from three to five dollars daily, being liberally boarded to boot, it is easy to calcu- late what manner of hire really skilled labour might command. Neither should I apprehend any grave obstacles or dangers from native prejudice or jealousy. With all their national vanity, and desire to keep American market and produce entirely under American control, the folks out here easily recognise where SILVERLAND. 89 they must perforce rely on foreign aid ; and, so long as the necessity existed as it must exist for years to come they would be no more likely to annoy the useful aliens, than to turn away a customer because he worshipped Brahma. The present high price of coke is, no doubt, a serious drawback ; but the rates were lowered even during our brief stay; and, if there be any leaven of truth in the reports of recently discovered coal- fields, the supply may soon nearly equalise the demand, and Utah will not need to envy Pennsylva- nia her ' diamonds/ For the sake of a country where we received no small kindness, and wherein many Old World inter- ests are already bound up, I have good hope that, before we are much older, a stout tree transplanted root, bole, and branch from the black Cam- brian forest, may flourish under the lee of the Wahsatch hills. British capital has been risked lavishly, often enough of late, on wilder ventures, with less tempting prospect of prompt and large return. Albeit in poor visiting form, I contrived to struggle through the mud, in some places axle-deep, up to Camp Douglas, to return the call of General 90 SILVERLAND. Morrow ; and I had reason to rejoice at made that effort. The officers of the American standing army, as at present constituted, need not fear comparison with those of any regular service with which I am acquainted. They are great readers, as a rule, and extend their studies beyond purely professional subjects ; but you will find little of Prussian pedantry here ; and West Point, with perhaps less congenial material to work upon, turns out as sterling stuff as issued from Saumur or Sandhurst in their palmy days. They contrast still more favourably with the crop of ready-made soldiers that sprang up, so rankly, during the Civil War. Do we not remember some of us with good cause those bragging brigadiers, cursing colonels, and crapulous centurions, who, when they could not bully, were forced to cajole their men, to keep up any show of discipline, and whose uniform always seemed a masquerade or disguise ? These worthy creatures were, doubtless, well adapted to the profes- sions for which they were originally intended ; but they never could realise that something beyond courage and patriotism is needful to make a perfect soldier. They could fight, certainly, after a fashion; SILVERLAND. 91 and they could talk like stump-orators about American grandeur and British perfidy ; but the drilling of a squad, or the giving a decent word of command, was not in their province ; and tactics were to the majority what Pure Mathematics are to the vulgar. o Things are wonderfully changed now. The U. S. A. officers seem no more inclined to slur over their duty than their European compeers ; their training embraces the theory as well as the prac- tice of their profession ; and, if their appointments would not always pass muster at our dress-parades, slovenliness and squalor have quite disappeared. If Anglophobia still prevails to any extent, where political leaven is not at work (the which I take leave to doubt), no class is so free from its influence as the higher grades of this service. During our Western tour, we heard many subjects freely discussed in military circles including the Alabama question, then at its knottiest point : but we did not meet with a single exception to the general kindliness of feeling towards the mother country ; and I am sure this went far deeper than mere surface-courtesy. General Morrow had had large experience of 92 8ILVERLAND. frontier life, and his quarters were a perfect museum of Indian curiosities ; though there were more tro- phies here of peace than of war. Indeed, though he spared not the sword on occasion, he was famous for his tact in dealing with the savages ; and amongst the buffalo robes, and bear-claw necklets, were tokens of amity from more than one formidable Sachem. Therefore I was curious to learn, whether he could dispute or modify the character I had heard assigned to these tribes. He only shook his head rather sadly, and confessed, with evident reluctance, " that you could trust the best of them just as far as you could see him ; not a gunshot further." I gave up the Redskin after this, I own ; for it was impossible to look in the speaker's face and doubt the charity or honesty of his verdict. The small-arm system of the American army is in process of remodelling, and several rifles were then on trial at Camp Douglas. Two or three of these made excellent practice up to GOO yards range the longest at which we saw them tested. A modification of the Martini-Henry, from the famous Hartford factory, scored, I think, the most points for accuracy and rapid loading ; but, though some- what lighter and better poised than the English SILYERLAND. 93 pattern, the cartridge-cases seemed apt to hang, after incessant firing, from the heating of the chamber. A repeating carbine on the Winchester principle, not a very recent invention, impressed us most favourably : easily manageable from horseback; with very slight recoil, considering its penetration and straight trajectory not liable to get out of order with common care it appeared the perfec- tion of a weapon for desultory or frontier warfare. We were twice or thrice at the camp after this visit; and, on one occasion, witnessed a review of the small garrison. The dressing of the line was very creditable, though not much attention seemed paid to the c sizing ' of companies ; and the marching in quick time was fairly steady, with a springiness that looked very like work. So much for the infantry. However efficient on scout duty or in border-fight- ing, the American trooper must always make a sorry show on parade. ' Setting up ' can scarcely be included in the drill ; if the trapping and accoutre- ments were better cleaned, the hideous spatter- dashes over the stirrups would be fatal to smartness ; and both men and horses seem singularly indepen- dent of the riding-school. Though we had made some cheery acquaintances V4 SILVERLAND. at Salt Lake notably ' Dick ' of facete memory, and that convivial Captain, who, ' just to prove that he bore no malice/ was always ready to ' smile ; I cannot remember to have been so bored in any town, unless it was at Geneva in early spring. Therefore, very meekly, I accepted the necessity, according to the doctors, of seeking a more genial climate without delay. Indeed, the Mormon City, lying 5000 feet above sea-level, at this season of melting snow is not the likeliest place to cure obstinate pneumonia. We were loth the Sailor and I to leave the old Arlington, and our comrades, in the lurch; but the contingency had been foreseen before their departure, and they had, moreover, strongly advised our moving westwards without awaiting their return. So the last afternoon of February found us twain fairly embarked on the Central Pacific, and rolling across the dreary desert dividing Ogden from the Humboldt hills. A singularly monotonous journey, for the first twenty-four hours at least. Always the grey sage brush, streaked with ghastly white patches here and there, where the alkali crops up through the acrid soil ; lines of stunted alders and willows showing SILVEBLAND. 95 where the Humboldt river, or a tributary turbid as itself, welters sullenly along a country that could never have had natives, and where the few settlers along the rail look like exiles a country that tempts the traveller to take his uttermost pennyworth out of the sleeping-cars. Halting for breakfast at Elko, we made acquaint- ance at prudent distance with the Indian, in flesh and blood. Till now, I had thought that