Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 22.djvu/154



144 S. H. TAYLOR

of it on the barren sage plains, our cattle are almost every one in good flesh and some of them good beef. I say only what all admit, that our teams are in better condition than those of any other train we can hear of on the road. For four weeks our oxen have been remarked by those who have seen them, for their good condition, while in every train near us, there are some failing from leanness, and quite a large share of them are so thin that we would not put them in our yokes. We are quite surprised at this difference especially that it should be so great. To-day a company that was to reach the summit of the Pass a fortnight ahead of us, is en- camped here, satisfied to stop with us over Sunday. A heavy drover, now going through the third time, is satisfied on the point and now lies by with us. A train composed of very prudent men, acquaintances of some of us, left Illinois one day ahead, traveling Sundays. The character of the men was a guaranty of the best management of their team, and it -was predicted that they would go through in ten to twenty days less time than we. At the Missouri they were a week ahead, having gained six days. Fifty miles above Laramie we found a note from them, and they were two days only in advance. Another train starting and traveling under similar circum- stances, has had to stop to recruit, and is now behind us. We have probably lost a far less per centage of cattle than any other company going over the road.

These are not the only good results of lying by on Sunday nor are they the most important. Our people have an oppor- tunity that otherwise they cannot possibly enjoy, for those attentions to personal cleanliness, necessary to a healthy con- dition of body and for the relaxation and rest required as much by their moral and physical constitutions. While travel- ing we are necessarily constantly exposed to the vexing, har- rassing influences, incident to the road, and which has done much to deprave and dehumanize those who have gone over it. We need relief from these causes. The patience cannot bear a constant, perpetual abrasion. Even with the healing influ-