In the upper story about fifty rooms have been fitted out for the accommodation of the public, and the other half of the upper story is one immense hall with oak floors used by the people of the country wide as a meeting and dance hall. It is one hundred and seventy-five feet long and twenty-four in width.

Around about this building the barren severity of soldier's quarters has been changed into

fs Resting and Playing Mumblebeg.

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

a wilderness of green, and a bower of trees, all planted by the busy hands of Mr. and Mrs. Wilde, since the departure of the soldiers, and in the foreground stood the host, his irrigation shovel in his hand, and his wife, whose sturdy German intelligence complemented that of her husband in the building of this part of the west.

Back of the home, upon a hill, there stood a ruin of apparently medieval architecture. Once it was the hospital, where soldier and civilian went, or were taken, in the days when roughing it meant occasionally broken limbs and bullet wounds. It was not uncommon in those early days of rough men for quick retort and challenge and resort to arms. And many a man was buried in the cemetery with "boots on" to lie in unmarked graves.

To the west and south of an oblong square formerly used for parade grounds, stands what is left of the officers quarters, which were excellent, well-built domiciles, and in the midst of them is "Bedlam." This interesting structure obtained its name from the scenes enacted therein by the rough soldiery of early years.