An overland journey from New York to San Francisco in the summer of 1859
Horace Greeley
Hardcover
(Knopf, March 15, 1964)
FROM NEW YORK TO KANSAS. ATCHISON, Kansas, Mny 15, 1859. 1 LKFT New York by Erie Railroad on Monday even- ing, 9th inst., just as our fortnight of bright, hot, plant- ing weather was closing. Two hours later, the gathered clouds burst upon us in a rain which continued through the night, though the city was not refreshed by it till some hours later. We had glimpses of sunshine as we skirted the southern shore of Lake Erie on Wednesday, and some more after a heavy shower at Chicago on Thursday; beside these, cloudy skies, easterly winds, and occasional rain, have been my portion since I bade adieu to the hot, dusty streets of New York. But it is breaking away as I write, and I hope to see Kansas, for the first time, under skies which image her sunny future rather than her stormy past. Coming up the Erie Eoad, I tried a " sleeping-car" for the third time, and not very successfully. We all " retired" at ten o'clock, with a fair allowance of open windows and virtuous resolutions ; but the rain poured. Table of Contents AN OVERLAND JOURNEY. From New York to Kansas, 7 Notes on Kansas, 20 More Notes on Kansas, 35 More of Kansas, 48 Summing up on Kansas, 61 On the Plains, 71 The Home of the Buffalo, 80 Last of the Buffalo, 86 The American Desert, 98 Good Bye to the Desert, 107 The Kansas Gold Diggings, 115 The Plains The Mountains, 128 The Gold in