WESTERN INCIDENTS. 91

ARRIVAL AT CAMP No. 2.

Here, as at Columbus, on the previous evening, a large
and brilliantly illuminated encampment had been pre-
pared for the reception of the guests.

A military encampment had also been established
during the previous day by Colonel Mizner, in command
of Fort McPherson on the opposite side of the Platte, so
near the excursionists’ camp as to preclude any fear
from the roaming bands of Indians, which were said to
infest this portion of the country.

Comfortable quarters were immediately assigned to
each one of the party, and very soon thereafter an
elegant supper was announced, and partaken of with a
gusto, known only to a party whose only sustenance for
hours had been the pure bracing air of the illimitable
plains.

When the excursion party left New York, it was under-
stood that it would overtake the western end of the Union
Pacific Railroad track, at or about the one hundredth
meridian of longitude, some two hundred and forty-
seven miles west of Omaha; and that then and there the
great celebration would come off, as per invitation and
programme. But here we now were, more than thirty
miles west of the one hundredth meridian, and no end of
track yet visible. Nothing remained for the excursionists,
therefore, but to take another night’s rest, and endeavor
by an early start on the following morning, to overtake
this long-sought-for goal, which to many of the party
seemed only a myth, or most perplexing illusion.

The spacious headquarters tents, which had been hung
about with transparencies, and elegantly decorated with
flags for the occasion, were therefore soon bereft of their
occupants, who had sought the greater retiracy of the