KIT CARSON, COLORADO TERRITORY,
October, 1871. 

IT is late, so this can be only a note--to tell you that we arrived
here safely, and will take the stage for Fort Lyon to-morrow morning
at six o'clock.  I am thankful enough that our stay is short at this
terrible place, where one feels there is danger of being murdered any
minute.  Not one woman have I seen here, but there are men--any number
of dreadful-looking men--each one armed with big pistols, and leather
belts full of cartridges.  But the houses we saw as we came from the
station were worse even than the men.  They looked, in the moonlight,
like huge cakes of clay, where spooks and creepy things might be
found.  The hotel is much like the houses, and appears to have been
made of dirt, and a few drygoods boxes.  Even the low roof is of dirt.
The whole place is horrible, and dismal beyond description, and just
why anyone lives here I cannot understand. 

I am all upset! Faye has just been in to say that only one of my
trunks can be taken on the stage with us, and of course I had to