Very truly yours,
R. C. Stevens,
Late Colonel U. S. Volunteers.
The La Salle County Press noticed the lecturer in the following terms:
"We have not often met with a more agreeable and pleasant gentleman than Captain Willard Glazier, who entertained a very respectable number of our citizens at Opera Hall on Saturday evening by delivering a lecture on 'Echoes from the Revolution.' The captain has a fine voice and his manner of delivery is decidedly interesting, while his language is eloquent and fascinating. His description of the battles of the Revolution, and the heroes who took part in them, from the engagement on the little green at Lexington down to the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, was grand indeed, and was received with frequent and enthusiastic applause. In conclusion he referred in an eloquent and touching manner to the 'Boys in Blue' who took part in the late war for the Union, and all retired from the hall feeling that the evening had been spent in an agreeable and profitable manner.
"Captain Glazier served under Generals Kilpatrick and Custer during the late war, since which time he has devoted much labor to writing, and is now making the attempt to cross the continent from Boston to San Francisco on horseback, for the purpose of collecting material for another work. He left Boston in the early part of May, and will endeavor to reach the Sacramento Valley before the fall of the deep snow. His horse, 'Paul Revere,' is a magnificent animal, black as a raven, with the exception of four white feet. He was bred in Kentucky, of Black Hawk stock, has turned a mile in 2.33, but owing to his inclination to run away on certain occasions, was not considered a safe horse for the track. The captain, however, has broke him to the saddle, and also convinced him that running away is foolish business; consequently he and the captain have become fast friends, and with 'Paul' for his only companion, the gallant cavalryman proposes to cross the continent. Success attend him!"
Having heard at La Salle that he would find no difficulty in securing a night's lodging at a village named Hollowayville, Captain Glazier pushed on for that point, but on applying at the only place of accommodation for travellers, was looked upon suspiciously by the German host and his frau, who politely intimated their belief that he was either a highwayman or a horse-thief! These latter gentry had for some time infested that section of Illinois, and Glazier inferred from the manner of the people that they more than half suspected him to be one of the James or Younger brothers, whose exploits they had probably read of.
Turning his back on the "Grand Pacific Hotel," he at length succeeded by dint of much perseverance, in lodging himself and "Paul" at a farm-house for the night, but not before he had fully satisfied the worthy farmer and his wife that he had no evil designs in desiring to spend the night with them.
On the following day, September twenty-fifth, the captain rode through a rich farming country, replete with "corn-fields, fine stock and oceans of fruit."
Passed through Wyanet, Annawan, and across the prairie—smiling corn-fields and ripe orchards occasionally relieving the seemingly interminable ocean of grass—and arrived at Milan, Illinois, on the evening of the twenty-seventh, remaining for the night.