Ocean to Ocean on Horseback

birth. Passing from the schoolroom to the War of the Rebellion and thence back to the employments of peace, the old longing to make a series of j

; to cross the Great Plains; to scale the mountains and to look through the Golden Gate upon the far-off Pacific were amon

ich confronted me for a time. Without the former I could not prosecute my jo

of my native town and sought to raise the necessary funds by trapping for mink and other fur-bearing animals along the Oswegatchie and its tributary streams. This ventur

nt that if I continued at the Normal I would soon be com

schools of Rensselaer County as teacher-the latter course being resorted to whe

ion. Books were thrown aside and the pursuits of the student and tea

xtent my desire for travel and to see much of interest as the shifting scenes of war led Bayard, Stoneman, Pleasonton, Gregg, C

Danville, Macon, Savannah, Charleston and Columbia, from which last prison I escaped in November, 1864; was recaptured and e

ished my ardor for travel and adventure and hence it is possibly not strange that on leaving the army I

ain confronted me. I desired first to continue the course of study which had been interrupted by my enlistment, and secondly to carry out my cherished plans for exploration. Having

a royalty which to me at least seemed consistent with the time and labor expended in preparation. I had now spent my last dollar in the Metropolis in pursuit of a publisher, and in this dilemma it was thought best to return to Albany, where I had

friend to whom I frankly stated my plans and circumstances. He immediately loaned me twenty dollars w

s engaged in composing, stereotyping, printing and binding the work, I employed my spare time in a door-to-door canvass of the city for subscriptions, promising to deliver on t

re, Prison-Pen and Escape," the book had a sale of over 400,000 copies and netted me $75,000, This remarkable success, rivalling in its financial results even "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which had

n the pen and began preparation for my long contemplated and oft deferred journey across the Continent. Being now

hways and over the hills after the cows, as well as numerous boyhood adventures in which this noblest of animals frequently played a

t which are constantly brought to his notice. Again, a journey in the saddle, wherein the rider mounts and dismounts at will as he jogs along over the highway, chatting with an occasional farmer, talking with the people in town and gazing upon ru

own, horses of every grade, weight and shade were thrust upon my attention and after some three weeks spent in advertising, talks with horse fanciers and in the livery and sale stables of

undred pounds, with an easy and graceful movement under the saddle; his make-up was all that could be desired for the objects I had in view. The price ask

into a livery stable on Portland street, was that he had acquired the very bad habit of running away whenever he saw a railway train or anything else, in short, that tended to disturb his naturally e

, smashing up vehicles and scattering their occupants to the four winds, was considered by his new master a virtue rather th

scussion among friends that he should be christened Paul Revere, after that stirring patriot of the Revolution w