nce a company of soldiers are stationed
here to protect the railroad and the long bridge just east of the town.
All along the road, at each station, are troops also for protection,
who usually "turn out," range in file, and "present arms" as the train
approaches.

Here we met a white man named Pratt,--that is to say, if he were washed
in the river he would look white,--who said that he had lived with the
tribe for sixteen years, and had nine (half-breed) children, and they
were more filthy and squalid than those of any other lodge.

A squaw had died here, and was buried as usual, by elevating the body
upon upright poles. A stock of food was left with her at night, to eat
on the way to the other country. But lo! in the morning she came down
and ate it all up, saying to her friends, "She wanted to see her aunt
before departing." She lived a week longer, and died, as it was
supposed, again. It is said that her friends got tired of such fooling,
and being determined to end the matter, adopted the white man's mode of
covering her up in the ground! Again she rose up and preferred some new
request; but thinking the old enchantress had stayed long enough this
side the hunting grounds, they forced her down and laid sufficient turf
upon her to keep her quiet for a long last sleep.

Among the Pawnees at Columbus, on the reservation near the railroad, an
Indian trader makes a good thing out of the poor fellows in this way:

For instance, the Indian Bureau pays off the tribe twice a year. In the
spring, blankets, etc.; these are worth at least three dollars each.
The Indians sell these blankets for a double handful of coffee and
sugar. Then they buy them back in the fall with money and buffalo meat,
which they sell to the trader at six cents the pound. He then cures the
meat and sells it back to them for twenty-five cents the pound; thus
making nine per cent. on it. Some one, it is said, complained to the
government about it, and they sent a new agent to them; but the Pawnees
had confidence in the old agent or trader named Platt, and they stoutly
refused to trade with the new man!

ACROSS THE PLAINS.

When Vice-President Colfax and Horace Greeley, and Governor Bross of
Illinois, made the journey overland to California, about twelve years
since, they went all the way by stage from the Missouri River to
Denver, Colorado, to Salt Lake, etc., through the mountains of the
Sierra Nevada. It took them about thirty days to go.