Fremont Weekly Freeman, 1853-01-13

From. theTrrets i'rc'SS. Extracts from the Journal Of Mrs. Zucia JIT. Shoemaker, who went to Cal California - ifornia California by the Overland Routs. . ' LETTER XL July 20th, 1852. Have been suffering, this hottest of all days, with headache, and find 'lying by," far more tiresome tuna traveling. Wo did not stop where we first reached the Meadows, but camped two miles beyond where we obtained poor water from a slough, but so much better than in any former year, that we do not com complain. - plain. complain. July 27th.. Still at the meadows very sultry oppressively warm, and musquitoes swarm like bees. We left this place at hve o'clock P. M. and rode all night hero ttie Humboldt sinks into the ground ; and we feel no reeret in bidding adiue to so mean a liver, Here we ventured to water our stock running a risk which has never been attempted before but as we could not drink it ourselves, we brought water from the Meadows to cook with and to.dimk, but cold coffee is much better. ' July 28th. We hare passed the most te tedious - dious tedious day here at the sink. The sun shines intolerably hot! and were it not for an occas occasional - ional occasional breeze, we should nearly suffocate! Buked salt rising bread, currant pies, rice pud pudding, - ding, pudding, and boiled a ham, to last to (Jarson Valley. We left our camping place at 5 o'clock P. M. and stopped two hoars at midnight to rest nnd feed our teams. The moon is shining as brightly upon this barren desert as though clothed with the richest ver dure. - July 29th. At daylight we stopped an hour for breakfast, having made 23 miles from the Sink. It is 12 miles from hereto Carson River, through deep gravelly sand by far the worst portion of the Desert Here we saw hundreds of waggons! some of them in fragments, other perfectly good, standing besides the road the cattle having given out, and gone on for water. . The old iron scattered along here, would make quite a lit little - tle little fortune. 1 rode this 12 miles on horse back, in advance of the tram and arrived at, the river by' 9 o'clock. By 1 1, our train came in, all of them very tired but had no troub trouble, - le, trouble, except leaving a few head of slock which they brought in at night, by carrying back water to them. We found men on the Des Desert - ert Desert with water to sell, at fifty cents per gallon. Having accomplished the journey of this long dreaded Desert, I will say, that it is nothing to what I expected. Cattle that died in '49 and '50 (and there are hundreds of them) re remain - main remain perfect yet. July 30th. Carson River affords excellent water, and it is quite a treat to obtain .that hich is free from a!k:s!i. We stopped on the river, two miles after reaching ii- To-night a Mr. Lincoln was buried from the Okaw train who are camped with us. lie had been sick some lime with the Moutain fever, and had suffered very much. We left camp after dinner, and proceeded up the river u few miles, where we stopped in a beaiitilui t . ... i -i t i ir spui surrounueu uy iaige uee ui.; iyc (Emma FoIlet.4 brotber) am, a ,A U,C!ouu, who hud co.ne to Carson Val- to buy cattle. They stayed to supper, and J J . J -l y e exerted ourselves to ive them toe very best '-the house afforded" coffee, light bread maple mulasses, ham, peach pies, and some fruit cake which I brought from home. July 31st. Mr. Smith, ate breakfast with us, and stayed in camp till we started,- The . .i i i... i-..-. roiiu, ucre vry rocsy, icn liio river - . - teen miles. We are now stoppiug under some large trees-, and find their shade quite a lux- "fy- Three m'.les furthor campal for the tor lour- ni'-ht, August, ,4th. We have had no goad roads i bince we came to this river; they have been either very rjouy, or very ueep ana sandy. We find Trading Posts or Groceries, every few miles, Reached Carson Valley to day, which is truly beautiful. It is very wide, and watered by the purest streams flowing from the mountains on either side, into the river, which wanders through its centre. Here we found an abundance of the finest grass. Whisky is the principal article found at the Trading Post, which is sold to the poor emi grant, at 50 cents per drink, and, pies at 1 a piece. The mountains are covered with large Pine and Ceder trees, and' look beautiful. The day has been pleasant, but to-night the wind blows cold from the snow-clad summits of the Siera Nevada. , August 5. Six miles after starting our road led into a canon, where for some distance we had the finest roads through, groves of beauti ful trees, vbich, however were not . to last long- The road gradually become bad. In fact all the rocky hills since we left Indepen Independence - dence Independence were nothing but heaps of stones piled upon eacb other, with scarcely, a space be between - tween between the.m. .None of them smaller than a barrel. arid many of them, four times as large! It seemed impossible to pass over them ' with without - out without breaking our waggons all to pieces a We crossed Carson river, over bridges three times to day, for $15. After this descended into a most beautiful valley, where we are camped for the night; and shall remain to tomorrow, - morrow, tomorrow, that our teams may rest and recruit on Ithia fine. grass. - We are surrounded on all sides by lofty mountains, without any visible opening; and I often wonder, how the first person ever found "a roaci over the difficult and dangerous beightss -; j,.. We have come 19 miles to. day, and I have not been so much' fatigued since we started. Have walked nearly all. the way this fore noon, from choice this afternoon from neces sity. ' '"' ' August 6th. How pleasantly has passed the dav. in this delinhtfui vallev. where we have good water, and plenty of dry cedar to ourn. vie are giau to oiu auiuu to wmows, grousewood, and sageoreiie-. , , ' Have baked light bread, rusk, and goose gooseberry - berry gooseberry pies to-day, and spent some tims in washing and dressing Mrs. Allison's children, and repairing their, wardrobe, which I found eadlyfnegiected, .",!L;...-, .. ....... August 7th. We came to a large late : this morning, soon after starting, where 'we" Com-' menced our asdent up the mountains, over the rockiest of roads, three miles to the summit, and two more to Hockey . Vallyy, where wej "nooned" a short time, but found no grass. We then came down a steep mountain to Grreen Wood Lake j from thence wo ascended

profligacy has taken the place of virtue. Hope has departed from some, and lamenta tions and wailmgs have followed. Good op portunities have been slighted, warnings , un heeded, vows broken, duties neglected, sins accumulated, and vengeance defied. ' Expec Expectations - tations Expectations have been cut off', and hopes blighted and again others built which will share the same fate. Yes, time has witnessed all this, nnd much more. Time never slumbers. It speeds while I write. And each stroke of his vast pendulum alters each of us for better or for worse, and which of the two depends upon our own wills. Whether Iwe sleep or wake, time moves on with equal rapidity, bearing us onward, onward ! And tee are yet to pass through changes which we have never expe experienced. - rienced. experienced. Yes, kind reader, you may stand firm against every thing else, but time will crumble you. You are not always to wear that blooming face, and exercise those sprightly limbs. Time will make his own im impression. - pression. impression. The hand and the eye- that trace these eyes will soon become motionless. Our places will be filled by others. The wealth. honor, fame, beauty, wisdom, and power of this world all combined, cannot save us. Like the leaves of the forest, when our season comes we will fall. Friendly reader, you may call this a dark picture, but it is true. Then think of it, ponder over it and let wis wisdom - dom wisdom be seen in thy conclusions. D. Wall. o WIIAT IS LIFE ! " What is life '! Darkness and formless va vacancy - cancy vacancy for a beginning, or something beyond all beginning then next a dim lotos of hu human - man human consciousness, finding itself afloat upon the bosom of waters without a shore then a few sunny smiles and many tears a little love and infinite strife whisperings from par paradise - adise paradise and fierce mockeries from the anarchy of chaos dust and ashes and once more darkness circling round, as if from the begin beginning, - ning, beginning, and in this way rounding or making an island of our fantastic existence, that is hu human - man human life : that the inevitable amount of man's laughter and his tears of what he suffers and he does of his motions this way and ' that way to the right or to the left backwards or forwards of all his seeming realities and all his absolute negations his shadowy pomps and his pompous shadows of whatsoever he thinks, finds, makes or mars, creates or ani animates, - mates, animates, loves, hates, or in dread hope antici anticipates; - pates; anticipates; so it is, so it has been, so it will be, tor ever and ever. " Yet, in the lowest deep there still yawns a lower deep ; and in the vast halls of man's frailty, there are separate and more gloomy chambers of a frailty more exquisite and con consummate. - summate. consummate. We account it frailty that three score years and ten make the upshot of man's pleasurable existence, and that tar before that time is reached, his beauty and his power have fallen upon weeds and forgetfulness. But there is a frailty, by comparison with which this ordinary flux of the human race seems to have a vast duration. Cases there are, and those not rare, in which a single week, a day, an hour sweeps away all vesiiges and land landmarks - marks landmarks of a memorable felicity ; in which the ruin travels faster than the flying showers up upon - on upon the mountain-side, faster ' than n musician scatters sounds;' in which ' it was' and ' it is not' are words of the self-same tongue, in the self -same minute; in which the sun that at noon beheld all sound and prosperous, long before its setting hour looks out upon a total wreck, and sometimes upon the total abolition of any fugitive memorial that there ever had been a vessel to be wrecked, or a wreck to be obliterated. ' These cases, though here spoken of rhet rhetorical! - orical! rhetorical! v, are of daily occurrence; and, though they may seem few by comparison with the infinite millions of the species, they are many indeed, if they be reckoned obsolutely for themselves; and throughout the limits of a whole nation, not a day passes over us but many families are robbed of their heads, or even swallowed up in ruin themselves, or their course turned out of the sunny beams into a dark wilderness. Shipw.recks and nightly conflagrations are sometimes, and especially among some nations, wholesale calamnities; battles yet more sq; earthquakes, the famine, the pestilence, though rarer, are visitations yet wider in their desolation. Sickness and com commercial - mercial commercial ill-luck, if narrower, are more frequeut scourges. And least of all, or with more darkness in its train, comes the sickness of the brain lunacy whioh, visiting nearly one thousand in every million, must, in every pop populous - ulous populous nation, make many ruins in each partic particular - ular particular day. ' Babylon in ruins,' says a great au author, - thor, author, ' is not so sad a siirht as a human soul overthrown by lnnacy.' But there is a sad der event than ttat,--the sight of a family-ru-in wrought by crime is even more appalling. Forgery, breaches of trust, embezzlement of private or public funds -(a crime sadly on the increase since the example of Fauntleroy, and ., . . .ir . ' tue suggestion oi its great teasiouiiy ursi uir by him) these enormities, followed too' and countersigned for their final result future happiness of families, by the jt catastrophe of suicide, most natural' ry wealthy nation, or wherever p the modes of property are ma constitute the vast mjority under the review of public these is sufficient to mat ' peace and comfort for a f deed.it happens that the plished within the cour- often the whole dire r its total consequene. and made known concerns witutn o mighty Juggenv wards with i! not for a. moo asidej but r as the mr' whom it results few.''

excited hearts could be felt, though not heard ! It was here where we began to realize, what we had expected long ago to find on this trip to California, viz: I bat 4 and 5 yoke of oxen were needed to draw a wagon up such steep sidling, and rocky roads. As we neared the summit, we passed over snow two feet deep! which will Reera strange to others, but not to us, accustomed as we are to almost every everything. - thing. everything. The view from the summit of this mountain, is truly magnificent. We could see Green-Wood Lake, before mentioned, and Tragedy Le, as large, in advance of us. I picked from these barren heights a great va variety - riety variety of beautiful, small flowers, and different kirtgs of moss, which spring up between the tho rocks wherever there is the least particle of earth; and as Igatheted handful after hand handful, - ful, handful, and saw them wither and die, I could not but wish I had the power to show them to my friends at home. Cut this wish like so many others, was a vain one. We are camped to-night in Tragedy valley so named from a battle which Kit Carson had with the Indians, in which three of his men were killed. Their graves are here be side the road. They drove our tired and hun hungry - gry hungry cattle, three miles for grass, to Tragedy Lake which we saw this morning from the mountain, bnoiv is all around us and it is so ccjd that water freezes every night. Time begins to move on leaden wings, over this tire some part of our journey. 1 his is ..sabbath day, but it brings no quiet rest to us. We consule ourselves, however, by thinking that before another one, we shall be at the end of our journey. August 9th. Passed Leek Springs this morning grass is very scarce, and we have several times, bought . hay at 15 cents per pound. Nothing very now to-pay. Have been continually climbing over steep sandy moun mountains. - tains. mountains. August 10th. Very tire l to-night. Hard roads to-day, and awful dusty. Traveled 20 miles over a beautiful country. It is just one hundred days since we started 10 of which we laid by to rest. This is making the trip much sooner than you expected, and we think very quick, for so large a train. We were much disappointed in not visiting Salt Lake. Wu have since seen a number who went that wav, and were treated in a most re spectable manner. They bought everything very cheap; and speak ot the city as being bnautifully situated. Ne.trly all the horse teams we have seen, went that way to recruit as they will hardly draw through a vagon without August lltb. We arrived here (at Ilang- towu) this aflcruoon, and took supper at the hluorado, where we shall stay to-night lhls town is built in a ravine, and consists of cloth and loa cabins most of them with awnings in front, over a plank sidewalk. The streets are narrow, and very dirty crowded all the lime with men and mules. A great deal ot business is done here, both honorably ; and dishonorably. There is as much noise and excitement here, as in New York. The larg largest - est largest gambling establishment in the place is next door to us. The town contains ,000 inhabi tants. As we rode in we saw plenty of miners digging and washing gold; but the business is rather dull at present, owing to scarcity ot water. I have no doubt but you have borrowed a great deal of troubles about us, as we hear that the back emigration have suffered very much by sickness, and many have returned home discouraged, after traveling several hun hundred - dred hundred miles. If this be true, how much you have thougbt of us, and how welcome will be this letter, assuring you of our safe arrival at the borders of this golden land. I have not, with the exception of headache, been sick a single day since we left home. From your affeotionate : JXCIA. '0 ' TIME. How time flies ! Soou another year will have flown away. Day after day and week have glided noiselessly by, and quickly we who remain will enter upon a New Year. And O! bowmany reflections crowd upon the mind as we take a retrospect of the past. What changes have been wrought during the last year. How many have been laid in their graves; how many buried in the briny deep; how many hearts have been made to bleed; what tears have been wrung forth; what desolation has been poured into some souls. Are there not many who have been made wii'ows and orphans? Others have been disgraced and plunged into vice ;. some have just begun a. downward course ; others have been making rapid strides towards ruin ; some, again, have' made the fatal leap. Brothers have fallea ; sisters have left us ; fathers and mothers have bid us "good bye." The great, the small, the rich, the poor, the white, the black, the bond, the free, the meek they, too, have fallen, have fallen ! Friends have forsaken us, foes have arisen, and ad adversity - versity adversity has become our companion. The voice of the oppressed has been stifled, they are handcuffed, pinioned,, gagged, torn asunder, bereft of family endearments, and degraded beneath the brutes ; and yet, if weary of such n existence, they try to ele elevate - vate elevate themselves to men. and women, the de decree - cree decree has gone forth : Thou shall not bid them God speed, but shall help to return thern "to their abject state; - Human ' rights have been disregarded, the law of God tram trampled - pled trampled under foot ; nations have followed their own whim and.- pleasure, at the nod of the Devil,, their chief captain' Might has been fiirhtins; against right, until her flag is all stained with blood. '.. ' ; By many, . God has ,beeni forgotten, hell Crowded out of .sight no preparation has been made for heaven, religion has been slighted, neglected death, ' judgment, and eternity excluded from the memory, and the immor immortal - tal immortal soul lft to provide for its own wants.

A candid observer of men and things, who will carefully watch the progress and incidents of the grand drama of life, as enacted by the present generation, cannot fail to be forcibly impressed with the idea, that 'Reform' is the ruling passion of the age. Prof. Buchanan, In a lecture ok man, delivered at the Cincinnati Eclectic Medical College, stated that man ap appeared - peared appeared to exhibit in his actions, the predomi nance of a single faculty of the mind in each different age, and that the whole history of the human family might be divided into three epochs or ages, each age being characterized by the excessive action of distinct faculty, and that there would be ' as many divisions or epochs, as there are distinct sentiments, feel ings or faculties. Although the correctness of this doctrine may well be doubted , yet, ac according - cording according to it, the present age may properly be termed, at least with regard to the 'universal lYankee nation,' the age in which there is an excessive exercise of the desire for change, combined with the mechanical ideas of power and velocity, or, in other words, the age of 'reform,' steam and lightning. And this miirht be done with the same propriety that the Prof, applied the term, 'Architectural age,' to the time of the existance of Babylon, Palmyra, and those mighty cities whose memory is only preserved upon the pages of 'grey tradition,' and whose localities are now only marked by heaps of rubbish, broken obelisks and columns prostrate in the dust. Whether there be any truth in the observations of the Prof, or not, every one will agree, that this is substantially the age of 'reform.' The records of the.last half century show a union of individuals into societies for purposes of reform, to an extent never before witnes sed. The first evil that engaged the attention of the philanthropic-minded, was intemperance. Temperance societies .sprung up, mush room-like, in every neighborhood, and a union of these several societies formed a grand or organization - ganization organization under the name and title of the National, and Washingtonian temperance so societies, - cieties, societies, and thus organized, the reformers sai sailed - led sailed forth to the assistance of the 'weak against the strong.' Some were saved and many were not The more strenuous the efforts of the reformers to destroy 'King Alcohol' the more deadly did his subjects love him, resolv resolv-ving - ving resolv-ving to stand by him to the last, and thus prove their loyalty to their liege lord in his. misfortune. But the object aimed at by tem temperance - perance temperance reformers was not sufficiently exten sive to occupy the world-embracing views of some Radical. He saw bis aged grand-moth er preparing that well known evening bever beverage - age beverage tea. An idea struck him ; he pondered mused, and calculated the cost of the bev erage; he studied anatomy, physiology, phar macy, and consulted medical men, and finally announced the result to the world, that they must abstain from the use of tea, or be pre prepared - pared prepared to pay their debt to mother earth with in a few years. The temperance reformers caught the enthusiasm, and incorporated with their temperance pledge that of total absti abstinence. - nence. abstinence. Thus the society became tetoSalers and commenced a new dispensation. ' Boarding School Misses were frightened with the idea, that thepoisonous. stuff would drive the color from their dear cheeks. Chil dren were wisely told that tea would ruin their constitutions, 'For,' said the sage and en enthusiastic - thusiastic enthusiastic parent, gravely, 'if I had never drank tea, I should be healthier than I am.' Thus the tetotal dispensation continued till superseded by a grander idea. A discarded quid of tobacco lying , in the gutter, found companionship in the proximity of a yet reeking cigar stub. 'In their lives they were united And in death they were not divided.' The spectacle caught the attention of ' former,' and a train of ideas ori"' for once, crept slowly through ' scratched his ' progressive' - excluded himself fro fro-much - much fro-much made midnigh' istry, and finally pi nil important far form of cigars carrying its 1 whence no listened was a1.-Thr

(than they did fifty years sgo, when but little or nothing was heard about 'reform of thi kirn!. v- . - ". r ,,,, Of this assertion we will say nothing; but hope better things for the intelligence of com community, - munity, community, The reforms here hastily glanced at,' comprise only a smalIportion of those pro progressive - gressive progressive movements which are constantly agi agitating - tating agitating the public mind and which will prob ably form the subject of another communica communication - tion communication from ... TIMOTHY. , f Amusing Care of Drunkenness. ; , ! The late Earl of Pembroke, who bad many good qualities, but always persited inflexibly in his own opinion, which, aw well as his con conduct - duct conduct was often, very singular thought of an experiment to prevent the exhortations and importunities o those about him. This was to feign himself deaf; and under pretence of hearing very imperfectly, he would always form his answer by what be desired to have said. Among other servants was ono who lived with him from a child, bad: served hint with fidelity and affection, till at length .he became his coachman. ' This mn by degrees got into a habit of diinking, for which his la dy often desired he might be dismissed. - j My lord always answereed. 'Yes, indeed, John is an excellent servant. -, 'I say,' replied the lady, 'he is continually getting drunk, and I desire that be might bo turned oil. ' - ; - ., ... , : 'Ay,' said his lordship, 'he has lived with me from a child, and as you say a trifle should not part us.' - John, liowever, one evening as he was dri driving - ving driving from Kingston, overturned his ludy in Hyde Park ; she was not much hart but when she came home, she begun to rattle to the Earl. ' ' 'Here' says she, 'is that beast of a John, so drunk that he can hardly stand; be has over overturned - turned overturned the coach, and if he ia not discharged he may break our necks!': . 'Ah,' says my iord, 'is poor John sick ? , A A-las. - las. A-las. I am sorry for him. , : ; . . , i 'I am complaining,' says my lady, that ho is drunk, and overturned me.' ,.i 'Ay,' answered his lordship, 'to be sure he has behaved well, and shall have proper ad advice.' - vice.' advice.' ; ' .' My ludy finding it hopeless to remonstrate, went away in a pet and: my. lord, ordering John into bis prusence,. addressed him very cooly in these words: 'John you know I have a regard for vou, and as long as you behave well, you shall be taken care of in my family ; my lady tells me you are taken ill, and indeed 1 see that you can hardly stand : "o to- bed. and I will uke caro that you have jjroper ad-. vice.-.-:-- ,''' ' -. -;:. .. John, being thus dismissed was taken to bed, where, iy bis lordship's ;order,, a large blister was put upon his,, bead,,: another be between - tween between bis shoulders, and sixteen ounces; of blood taken from his arm. John found him self next morning in a woful plight,, and was soon acquainted with the . whole process, and the reason upon which it was commenced., trie had.no remedy, however, but to submit; for he rather would have incurred as many more blisters, than to lose his place. ' My lord sent very formally twice a day to know how be was, and frequently congratulated my . lady upon John's recovery, whom he directed to directed to be fed with only water-gruel, and to have no company but an old nurse. In about a week, John having sent word that he was well, my lord thought fit to understand the messenger, and said, he was extremely lad that the fever had left him, ana desired to see him. 'Well, John.' says .be, 'I hope this is about over.' , 'Av. mv lord.' says John. 'I humbly ask your lordship's pardon. 'I promise never to commit the same lault again., 'Ay ay,' says my lord, you are right: no body can prevent sickness, and if you should be sick again, John, I shall see to it, though perhaps you should not complain;' and I -mise you shall always have tr"- -vice and the same ttenr'- 'God bless yr yr-there - there yr-there wT

the about six miles to the top. We could see the highest peak of Sierra Nevada, being about six miles to the top.. We could see the road in advance of us, almost above our heads. We camped part way up, and drove the cattle down a ravine two miles for grass, which is hard to find, and very scarce, Have walked nearly all day, the road being so bad I could not ride in a wagon and dared not ride on horseback. August 8th. We started very early this morning, our road a good part of tho way lying in the rocky bed of a stream, much svyollen by the melting of snow from a neigh neighboring - boring neighboring mountain ; and in its rapid flow and roaring sound, the strong beatings of our own I

Riches, tionor, and fame havo been sought with ardor and neal ; time, labor, means, and talents have' been expended for these ; and O, how many have failed have fuiled ! The Bible lies upon the shelf covered with dust, while novels and other trash have been read with avidity. Evil habits have taken a firmer hold, and good ones have been thrust aside. Wo all are where we never were be before. - fore. before. Some Bre nearer endless punishment others are nearer home. Many have been treasuring up wrath against the ibiy of wrath, sinking themselves deeper and deeper in sin and guilt Morality has been crimsoned, and