see how Kennard came so near to Grand Island and did not smell that brewery.)

The travel in those days from the river to the Mississippi required a great deal of fortitude. I remember in the winter of 1867 of going from Council Bluffs in a stage to Iowa City. We had three on a seat. The fare was $21, and meals at stations consisting of sausage and hot bread and coffee, one meal $1 each. I wish to say that there was less grumbling about the facilities and comforts of traveling by stage coach then than there is in the Pullman car now. People now demand everything that the imagination can conceive of. In those stage coach days there was less fault-finding with methods of transportation, with the rates of transportation. I remember pretty well I filed an original paper with our State Historical Society some time ago. I had great good fortune in raising potatoes one year. I found that the Denver market demanded potatoes and I sent out two wagons loaded, and they' sold in Denver at 22 cents a pound, but the cost of transportation was 12 cents a pound, and after I paid the commission man and the other expenses I had about $55 left, so that the extortion of the mule society of that time was as great as the railroads today. So that I think while I have a great regard for the good old times, that the present times are rather preferable to men of our age.

The experience related by Mr. Stolley about the ox reminds me of a trip taken with Mr. Woolworth in 1867. We got to Nebraska City, arriving there at dark. At that time Woolworth had to appeal a case in the supreme court. In driving out we drove over a dugout the same as he describes, and knocked down the stove pipe, and the proprietor of the mansion emerged from under cover in great rage.

There is one thing among the old timers, we all felt our isolated condition. There was more cordiality in those days than in these civilized times. We loved company, and it was a God's blessing when some one came to the home out on the prairie, a long ways from neighbors and you could shake a friendly hand. There was a certain open-hearted cordiality

that was heartfelt all over these prairies everywhere in the West. I am sorry to say that with the luxuries of more refined civilized life that cordiality that existed then has largely passed away.

I remember Judge Bradford, whom we met in Iowa. He said it was a very cloudy night, and he and Judge Bennett arrived at a cabin and asked to stay all night. They said, "Yes, but we can not give you much. We have nothing but corn meal and salt and water," and he said the cake was made and they could judge of it. After supper he lighted his pipe and then heard the woman of the house say to her husband, "John, if those pups sleep in the meal much more it will not be fit for bread."

PRESIDENT FURNAS: The women did their part well in pioneer days. I see before me a lady who was a pioneer school teacher on an Indian reservation. She is here with us as a pioneer today, Mrs. MacMurphy.

MRS. MACMURPHY: It is true that I was a teacher in the very early days when I was a girl of fourteen, and moreover I was a teacher under one of the friends who is with us today. I taught in Governor Furnas's family on the Omaha Indian reservation, in the year, I think, of 1864. In fact, one of the pupils that I have just been passing the usual salutations with, that have been a pleasure between us for a good many years, never ceases telling me how I treated him and how I was under contract to make him behave, and I in turn tell him that he didn't seem to be under contract to behave, and now this we enjoy very much. This pupil was one year younger than I was.

After riding over the prairies of Iowa, day after day, my father and his family, the most of them in a wagon, which he had covered and made comfortable, and back of it a buggy with one horse driven by myself, a girl twelve years old, with my little twin brothers beside me. We went as you have, starting in the morning from a house where we got shelter the night before, and would go perhaps all day long over the hills, not seeing another house until we reached some place

where we could get shelter at night. We came to the Missouri, and a vivid picture is before me-beside it a young girl standing out there barefoot, a beautiful girl, as the average would make of that class. We learned afterwards that she was even then only about fifteen years old, and a widow of Jules, for whom Julesburg was named. We waited there for the ferryboat to come to the landing to take us across the river, and then we were in Nebraska. There are other pictures still more beautiful. I feel that I stand here as a representative of several generations of pioneers. One of them whom you know well.

My husband was even earlier than I to come to Nebraska, up the Missouri river in the boats as it has been related, in the year 1867 to Decatur, the town almost the earliest to be settled and to which the first railroad was laid out, an air line from Chicago to Decatur. That town is still waiting for its railroad.

My husband and I in the years after had planned that when the railroad reached Decatur we should go into Decatur on the first train. He has passed out, and it may perhaps be my pleasure yet to go if such an event should occur, because but very few of you can understand, unless you did live in that section, the stage difficulties, and the efforts and desires of a number of marked individuals who lived in that queer little town in their efforts to have a railroad there.

PRESIDENT FURNAS: We haven't the acquaintance of the other ladies here. Those of you who have please call out their names that they may take part in these reminiscences. If not, I will call upon General Vifquain.

GEN. VICTOR VIFQUAIN:1 Mr. President-We are not young men any more. Years have whitened our hairs, besides myself, and I hope for most of you that the heart is still

1General Victor Vifquain was born in Brussels, Belgium, May 20, 1836. He received a military education in an academy of his native town, and in 1858 emigrated to America and established his home on a tract of unsurveyed land in Saline county, Nebraska. With the beginning of the Civil War he enlisted with the 53d New York as a private and was mustered out eight months later with the rank of adjutant. In 1862 he was appointed adjutant of the 97th Regiment, Illinois Volunteers, and rose to

We didn't think to

young, but I assure you I remember with the greatest pleasure the friends I made forty-five years ago in the state of Nebraska. I received my first lessons from Morton. I have been steadfast ever since; I will remain so. We made it a matter of pride then as young men to honor the state by whatever we might be called upon to do. make money. We thought the world was going to take care of us. Some of us have been sadly disappointed. The world takes care of those who take care of themselves, because this is a very selfish world, Mr. President. And when I thought of this meeting this morning I was hoping that I would meet more of the old settlers of the state, of the continentals you might call us, the Old Guard. There are too few to hear our old friend, Mr. Cox. There are more that ought to be here. I don't know of a single one of the old citizens of the state that have been conspicuous who has disgraced the state; most of them have honored the state, and the young generation owe them a great deal, but they don't think they do. One thing that I regret very much is that some people don't take interest enough in the education of the fireside to teach their children what they owe to those who have made the state and who have kept it. This is a good time to speak of such matters. I think we have all thought of that, but know we have been derelict in teaching them that which they should know. I hope at some other time when we meet again there will be more of us. We will feel more free to talk because the number is larger. I thank you for your attention.

[Applause.]

the rank of brigadier-general. He was awarded a medal of honor by the Congress of the United States, and was the only Nebraskan to ever receive such distinction. He was mustered out at Springfield, Illinois, in October, 1865. After the war he returned to Nebraska, and in 1867 was the democratic candidate for Congress from the fourth district. In 1871 he was elected a member of the constitutional convention of that year. In 1879 he established the Daily State Democrat at Lincoln. In 1886 he was appointed by President Cleveland as consul at Baranquila, and was promoted to the consulate at Colon in 1888. In 1891 he was appointed adjutant-general of Nebraska by Governor Boyd. In 1893 he was appointed consul-general to Panama, serving until 1897. In May, 1898, General Vifquain joined the 3d Nebraska Regiment for the Spanish-American War, and was commissioned lieutenant-colonel. With the resignation of Colonel Bryan he became colonel of the regiment. He was mustered out with the regiment May, 1899. General Vifquain died at Lincoln, Nebraska, January 7, 1904.

PRESIDENT FURNAS: I knew Nathan Blakely when he ventured as far west as Gage county. That country was then of very doubtful character, whether it could be civilized. He and a few others went in an early day, and have made that county bloom as a rose with one of the finest inland towns in the state.

MR. BLAKELY :1 Mr. President-I don't know as I can make any remarks on this occasion. I have been very feeble in health and have been for a number of years. I located in Beatrice in July, 1857, in company with a brother of mine and a cousin and four or five wagonloads of immigrants. We started from Iowa towards Omaha, expecting to locate there. When we got there in June, 1857, we found that all of the land was claimed between Omaha and the Elkhorn river, a distance of about twenty miles. There were no settlements on this land; there were one or two small buildings put up, but there were stakes driven in the quarter-section corners with some person's name on who had claimed that quartersection. We had a great desire to jump some of those claims that were unoccupied, but we were told that if we did that the men before leaving would have thrown us into the river or tar-and-feathered us. We didn't desire to go through that ordeal, and so we started to go out as far as the Elkhorn with our ox teams and wagons, and stayed there about a week. There was but one claim at that time of 120 acres that was not claimed by some one. We went to examine that, and it was very rocky and sandy. The members of that club in Omaha, they said that they would certainly perform some very severe operations upon us if we dared to jump these

1Nathan Blakely was born in Roxbury, Connecticut, July 25, 1824. He was educated at Roxbury Academy, and during his young manhood was a teacher in New York, New Jersey, and Illinois, and an editor at Birmingham, New Jersey. He settled in Gage county, Nebraska, July 17, 1857, and resided on a farm until 1864, during which time he also engaged in freighting across the plains. He then engaged in the general merchandise business in Beatrice until 1875. In 1861 he was elected to the territorial legislature, and again elected in 1866. He was elected to the state legislature in 1868, and served during the first session held in Lincoln. He was receiver of tue United States land office at Beatrice from 1869 to 1875. Mr. Blakely died in 1907.