CHAPTER XXXV.
RETURN FROM CALIFORNIA.
Returns to the East by the "Iron Horse." — Boston Transcript on the journey on horseback. — Resumes literary work. — "Peculiarities of American Cities." — Preface to book. — A domestic incident. — A worthy son. — Claims of parents. — Purchases the old Homestead, and presents it to his father and mother. — Letter to his parents.
We now accompany our subject on his return journey to the east. His family and friends had naturally felt great concern for him during his long and perilous ride, and he was anxious therefore to allay their fears for his safety by presenting himself before them. He accordingly purchased a ticket and left San Francisco by rail on the twenty-eighth of November, and after a journey more rapid and comfortable than the one he had made on horseback, arrived in New York city on December sixth.
Several of the eastern papers, on hearing of the captain's safe return, furnished their readers with interesting, and, more or less, correct accounts of the journey. We can find room only for that of the Boston Transcript:
"It will be remembered that on the ninth of May, 1876, Captain Willard Glazier, the author of 'Battles for the Union,' and other works of a military character, rode out of Boston with the intention of crossing the continent on horseback. His object in undertaking this long and tedious journey was to study at comparative leisure the line of country which he traversed, and the habits and condition of the people he came in contact with, the industrious and peaceful white, and the 'noble' and belligerent red. According to the captain's note-book, he had a closer opportunity of studying the characteristics of the terror than the toiler of the plains.
"Accompanied by certain members of the 'Grand Army of the Republic,' on the morning of May ninth, as far as Brighton, he there took leave of them, and with one companion, rode as far as Albany, the captain lecturing by the way wherever inducement offered, and handing over the profits to the benefit of the Widows' and Orphans' Fund of the G. A. R. Many of these lectures were well attended, and the receipts large, as letters of thanks from the various 'Posts' testify.
"From Albany Captain Glazier pursued his journey alone, and rode the same horse through the States of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska, as far as Omaha. Thence he proceeded on whatever quadruped of the equine species he could obtain, which was capable of shaking the dust from its feet nimbly. That he was fortunate in this respect is proven by the fact that he rode from Omaha to San Francisco, a distance of nineteen hundred and eighty-eight miles in thirty days, making an average of about sixty-seven miles per diem. The distance from Omaha to Cheyenne, five hundred and twenty-two miles, he accomplished in six days; the greatest distance accomplished in one day of fourteen hours was one hundred and sixty-six miles, three mustangs being called into requisition for the purpose. The entire time occupied by the journey was two hundred days, the captain reaching the Golden Gate on the twenty-fourth day of November. The actual number of days in the saddle was one hundred and forty-four, which gives an average of twenty-eight miles and seven-tenths per day.
"During this strange journey of more than four thousand miles, Captain Glazier delivered one hundred and four lectures for the object before mentioned, and also for the benefit of the Custer Monument Fund, and visited six hundred and forty-eight cities, villages and stations. He tested the merits of three hundred and thirty-three hotels, farm-houses and ranches, and made special visits to over one hundred public institutions and places of resort. He killed three buffaloes, eight antelopes, and twenty-two prairie wolves, thus enjoying to the full all the pleasurable excitement of hunting on the plains.
"But on the thirty-first of October, while in the company of two herders, the tables were turned, and a band of hostile Arrapahoes suddenly disturbed the harmony of the occasion. After a lively encounter, in which one of the Indians was despatched to the Happy Hunting Grounds, Glazier and his companions were taken prisoners, and one of the herders was gradually tortured to death. All that now seemed to be required of the two survivors was patience—if they desired to share a similar fate. But in the early morning of the second of November, while their captors were asleep, they contrived not only to escape, but to secure the arms which had been taken from them; and, mounted on two mustangs belonging to the Indians, soon placed a considerable distance between themselves and their too confident guards. In the chase which ensued, Captain Glazier was separated from his fellow-fugitive, and made good his own escape by dismounting two of his pursuers, and eventually, after a long, hard gallop, dismounting himself and hiding in a gulch. What the fate of the herder was he had no means of discovering.