the Democratic State Senators. The next day he rose to
a question of privilege, had the report read to the Senate,
denounced me in very violent language, and moved that
the usual press privileges be withdrawn from me, or, in
other words, that I be expelled from the floor. The motion
was carried, and it terminated my brief career as a
legislative reporter in the Indiana capital, during which I had,
however, formed some valuable acquaintances among
Indiana politicians. This was my first conflict as a journalist
with legislators, but not my last one.
During the fall and winter of 1858, reports of gold discoveries in the easternmost chain of the Rocky Mountains, in the vicinity of Pike's Peak and along the head waters of the Platte River, began to circulate in the press and to attract a great deal of attention throughout the country. The “gold news” had roused my adventurous spirit before my loss of employment, and now suddenly prompted the idea of going to the Rocky Mountains as a correspondent. There was a general hope that the opening of such new sources of national wealth might bring relief to the country from the lingering effects of the crisis of 1857. Its numberless victims — the vast army of the unemployed — began to get excited, and the newspapers to state more and more that great numbers were yielding to the allurements of the new Dorado and preparing to seek it.
On my reaching Cincinnati from Indianapolis, Mr. Halstead, who had vigorously defended me in the editorial columns against the attacks of the Indiana Senator, very readily responded to my suggestion that I should make an investigation of the facts in the Pike's Peak case on the spot for the Commercial. We agreed on the conditions of my new engagement, which were to be twenty dollars a week and reasonable travelling expenses. The length of my stay in the Rocky Mountains should depend on the developments there.
It was natural that, at my age and with my sanguine temperament, I should feel the highest elation at this, to
