[Omaha—Sunday, 17 October 1875]
October 17. Sunday Omaha Nebraska. It is all nonsense about getting into palace cars and not getting out again till you reach California! What about Council Bluffs, if you please, what about Ogden, earlier yet Suspension Bridge & Chicago. Let us not be misled. Travelling is not yet musk and roses. We are pretty tired after a long night and half day from Sterling thither. The whole distance was like some noble garden, exquisite in sunset, moonlight & morning. Here a fierce wind is blowing; it is dusty & we begin to perceive the life Bret Harte describes in the faces, manners and bearing of the people who pervade the street & the hotel.
“Gilt-Edged Butter” is printed on a large grocery sign opposite—yesterday I saw—“Dry Goods and Yankee Notions”—also a butcher’s cart in Sterling with “Jim, the Butcher” on the side. “The Gem Druggist” was on the apothecary’s sign opposite our door.
