country being the watchwords.

On the 28th of August, 1894, the second session of the 53rd Congress
closed. It was a laborious session. Its principal act was a
measure that did not satisfy anyone. It laid the foundations for
insufficient revenue, an increase of the public debt and the general
defeat of the party in power.

I was much fatigued, and had already arranged to accompany General
Nelson A. Miles and his party on a military inspection in Nebraska
and South Dakota. I arrived in Chicago on the 2nd of September,
where General Miles was stationed. There I was met by the reporters
and told them all I knew about the intended trip. I got as much
information from them as they did from me. What they wanted was
prophecy of the future, and I wanted to get into the wilderness.
Here our little party was made up, consisting of General Miles,
his wife, daughter and son, a lad about thirteen years old, Dr.
Daly and brother, two staff officers, and myself. We had a car
and lived in it, and the cook supplied us bountifully with good
healthy food, largely of game. I cannot imagine a more delightful
change to a man weary with talk in the hot chambers of the capitol
at Washington in August than the free, fresh air of the broad plains
of Nebraska, with congenial company in a palace car, and with no
one to bother him. Our first stopping place was called Woodlake,
a small village on the railroad in the northwestern part of Nebraska.
We arrived there in the afternoon; our car was detached from the
train and became our home for a week. Around us in every direction
was a broad rolling plain as dry as a powder horn, with scarcely
any signs of habitation, but the air was pure and exhilarating and
imparted a sense of health and energy. My first inquiry to one of
the denizens was "Where is your wood and your lake which gave a
name to your town?" He said that when the railroad was located
there was a grove near by, and water in the low ground where we
stood, but the trees had been cut and utilized in constructing the
railroad, and the lake was dried up by a long drouth. Woodlake
had neither wood nor lake in sight! We took long walks without
fatigue, and our hunters, of whom General Miles was chief, supplied
us with prairie chickens, the only game of the country.

After a few days thus spent we left our car and followed after a
company of United States Infantry, from Fort Niobrara, then engaged
in their usual drill, to a lak