William Hepworth Dixon, White Conquest: Volume 1

[318]

Chapter 32: a frontier town.

From Caddo to Red River is a bee-line of thirty miles. A clearing in the jungle has been made near the river-bank, and the name of Red River City has been printed on local maps; but not a single shanty, not even a ticket-office, or landing stage, or a drinking crib, has yet been built. The city consists of a rock cutting and a trussle bridge. Red River city is not even a ghost of a city, with imaginary squares and roads, like those unborn paradises on the Bay of San Francisco, which are waiting for “ the good time.” As yet the Chickasaws and Choctaws lie too near. In time a town may look across Red River into the Chickasaw country, but the time will not arrive until the Redskins shall have ceased to live in tribes, to hold their lands in common, and obey the orders of despotic chiefs.

Yet, as a town was needed on the frontier, not