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ORRIN HENRY INGRAM
and that we would join them there. We were delayed longer
at Glens Falls than I expected we would be, and there had
been a wreck on the railroad from Buffalo on, and it seemed
advisable to take a steamer from Buffalo to Detroit. A day
or two before our arrival in Buffalo one of the steamers plying
between Buffalo and Detroit had burned, and of course that
fact appealed to our nerves; but we didn't know how long
we might be delayed, and decided we would take the chance
of being lost on the lake. We left Buffalo about nine o'clock,
found plenty of room (not many persons wanting to make the
trip then). Of course your mother felt more nervous about
it than I did. Before taking our staterooms, to retire, we met
a young lady who had come to Buffalo on the steamer which
had been burned, and her account of her escape did not make
the trip seem so much like a pleasure trip as it would have seem-
ed if we had not talked with her, or known about the accident,
and of her being saved by another boat before the steamer
was entirely burned. She told us she had clung to a rail at the
stern of the boat, and that the fire was getting near to her when
she was taken off by another boat When we retired it was a
question with your mother whether she would remove her
clothes, but I prevailed on her to remove most of her garments,
but she said she would keep her stockings on, anyway. We got
some rest, arrived in Detroit in good time the next day, and
took a night train to Chicago. There were no sleepers and we
had the seats turned. In the night a thief stole your mother's
pocket book and money. We arrived in Chicago the next day
and found that Mr. Playter and the maid had left for Eau
Claire. We took the first train for Milwaukee, where we had
to remain over Sunday; then took the first train Monday to
Prairie du Chien. There were some good passenger boats on
the Mississippi. We took the steamer War Eagle, and among
the passengers was Thurlow Weed, the then widely-known
editor of the Albany Journal. Mr. Weed was well advanced
in years, took much interest in us when he learned we intend-
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