FORT HARKER — ANOTHER MEETING. 15

W.N. W., about forty miles west of Fort Riley, is one of the most
picturesque and fertile regions we have seen; and although the rail-
road only reached it this spring, ] am informed that a thousand set-
tlers are init already. Solomon City——-near where the railroad crosses
the stream—#is a brisk and rather pretty business place. It looks like
a town that is destined to thrive. Salina, another new town, a few
miles further west, is still more thrifty, containing, according to the
best information I could get, nearly two thousand people. We dined
there yesterday. I mingled fora while with the Denver ox-teamsters,
a hardy, robust, and sociable classof men. One little party, who were
cooking their dinner, wanted me to go with them. They said if I
wished to go to Denver, it was the best way I could go. I asked how
long it would take to make the trip? ‘Only a month and a half.”
“Are you not afraid of the Indians?” ITasked. ‘No; you fellows out
Hast think and talk more about the Indians than we do,” was the
answer. I declined the invitation.

The Union Pacific Railway from the Missouri to Fort Harker is a
substantial and good road—better than any we found between Steu-
benville and the Mississippi. Between Salina and this place, where
the road runs across a long southern bend in the river, there is some
heavy cutting and filling.

Fort Harker is about two miles east of Ellsworth, on a beautiful
piece of ground at a moderate elevation above the river. There are
but few valuable buildings, nor is it likely there ever will be more;
for the railroad will render even a military post at this place unneces-
sary. General Hancock declared that every forty miles of this road
finished enabled the Government to dispense with the services of a
regiment of men, at a saving, in this distant region, of more than a
million of dollars a year.

At Fort Harker, this afternoon, we had an enthusiastic adjourned
meeting of the excursionists, at which Senator John B. Henderson,
of Missouri, presided, Gen. Cameron and a small party of friends
having returned last evening. Brief but animated addresses were
made by Hon. John B. Henderson, of Missouri; Major General Han-
cock, U. 8. A.; Hon. G. 8. Orth, M. C. of Indiana; Hon. A. F. Stevens,
of New Hampshire; Hon. J. A. Nicholson, of Delaware; A. H. Laflin,
of New York; Wm. HE. Niblack, of Indiana; Hon. Wm. E. Chandler,
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Washington; Hon. C. D. Hub-
bard, West Virginia; Hon. B. M. Kitchen, West Virginia; Hon. Frank
Jordan, Sec. Com. Pennsylvania; Hon. Jas. S. Thomas, Mayor of St.
Louis; Hon. C. H. Clark, of Kansas; Hon. R. F. Van Horn, of Mis-
souri; Gen, Thos. L. Price, of Missouri; Hon. C. A. Newcomb, of Mis-