From The Kansas Herald of Freedom, Lawrence, November 20, 1858.

     The following is an extract from a private letter, written on the summit of Pike's Peak, by Mrs. Holmes, to her mother in Lawrence, K. T.:

     I have accomplished the task which I marked out for myself, and now I feel amply repaid for all my toil and fatigue. Nearly every one tried to discourage me from attempting it, but I believed that I should succeed; and now, here I am, and I feel that I would not have missed this glorious sight for anything at all.

     In all probability, I am the first woman who has ever stood upon the summit of this mountain, and gazed upon this wondrous scene which my eyes now behold. How I sigh for the poet's power of description, so that I might give you some faint idea of the grandeur and beauty of the scene. Think of the huge rocks projecting out in all imaginable shapes, with the beautiful evergreens, the pines, the firs, and spruces, interspersed among them, and then the clear cold mountain Stream, which appears as though it started right out from under Some great rock-and on it goes, rushing, rumbling, and hissing down over the rough mountain side, now sparkling in the Sunbeams, and now hiding behind some huge rock, and now rising again to view, it rushes on, away down, down, until at length it turns a corner and is lost to our sight.

     Extending as far as the eye can reach, lie the great level plains, stretched out in all their verdure and beauty, while the winding Arkansas is visible for many miles. We can also see distinctly where many of the smaller tributaries unite with it. Then the rugged rocks all around, and the almost endless succession of mountains and rocks below, the broad sky over our heads, and seemingly so very near; all, and everything, on which the eye can rest, fills the eye with infinitude, and sends the soul to God.

     From the Lawrence Republican, April 25, 1861.

TO THE PEOPLE OF KANSAS.

     I have sold my interest in the Lawrence Republican to H. H. Moore. He is as clever a fellow as I am. V. N. SMITH.

     From the Junction City Weekly Union, April 8, 1871.

     Davis, of the Topeka Commonwealth, and Baker, of the Record, are calling each other damned scoundrels. The proof submitted on both sides is very satisfactory.

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