WESTERN INCIDENTS. 81

duly organized and established upon a firm, and it is to
be hoped an enduring basis.

The excursionists, with their insignia of ribbons and
rosettes, were soon to be seen in all parts of the town,
and among the extensive workshops of the Railroad
Company, evidently delighted, and somewhat astonished
to find themselves, after a week’s journeying westward
from New York, still among people of wealth, refinement,
and enterprise.

The ball in the evening, however, was perhaps the
greatest surprise. The presence of General Phil-
lip St. George Cooke, commanding the Department,
with his staff; Governor Saunders, Chief-Justice Kel-
logg, Secretary Paddock, Senators Thayer and Tipton,
all of Nebraska; together with the city authorities, and
the wealthy, enterprising, business and professional men
of Omaha, with their families, all conduced to make it an |
entertainment which would have done credit to any gather-
ing of a similar character in Chicago, Washington, or
New York.

The dance, alternating with the promenade, and a
judicious sprinkling of excellent and substantial refresh-
ments, occupied the time most pleasantly till the small
morning hours, when all separated in the best of spirits,
ready for the new and exciting scenes which were to open
upon them on the morrow.

Here we will leave them for the present, and be pre-
pared to accompany them many hundred miles farther
westward, towards the never-setting Star of Empire.

4