USA > Indiana > Monroe County > The new purchase : or, seven and a half years in the Far West > Part 21
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2 Some politicians plead strenuously for the abolishing of Capital Punishment in all cases, who yet insist on the right of self-defence, de- fensive wars, and the propriety of firing on mobs with powder and ball! Of course, it is very proper to kill any number of persons intending either to rob or murder; but very wicked and impolitic to put any body to death after his crimes shall have been committed!
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but I will give you also ten dollars ; but if you won't tell, why then we'll flog you into it-come, what do you say?"
"Well, he be some-thing'd if he know'd; and if he did, he wasn't going to be lick'd into tellin-and he'd sue them for salt and battery."
Peril, indeed, was in this illegal process; but the party had good reasons for believing the fellow a desperate robber, and so they seemed to be preparing for a severe flaggellation, when he supposing all was solemn earnest, said he was ready to confess, and, provided Mr. G. would forgive and not prosecute, he would conduct the present party to the plunder, or a part of it. The promise was readily given and the fellow was unbound and re- mounted without any trammel, but with this comfortable assur- ance, that if he tried to escape or to betray them into any rendez- vous of robbers, he should be instantly shot down, and that whether they died themselves for it or not. 3
Accordingly, away all started through the woods, where the prisoner yet rode, confident, as if following a blaze, and stopping only at intervals to look at the sun, or the moss, or to examine a tree or branch, and shewing if he had one hundred yards fair start, it would be no easy matter either to catch or shoot him. At last, a wild turkey was seen trotting across their course, fully eighty yards off, and then Glenville, nearly as good shot as the writer, merely stopping his horse, levelled and fired from his sad- dle, when to his own surprise, as well as that of the others, the bird fell dead in his tracks! After this the guide would check his own horse, if he voluntarily stepped faster than the others, lest he should seem meditating an escape; for if a moving turkey could be shot, so he seemed to think could more easily be a mov- ing man.
The fellow, however, led at length into a deep ravine on Big Wolf Creek; and there, sure enough, some in a cave and some in a hollow tree were portions of the merchandise-it being evident also that within a very few hours a still larger portion had been removed to some other depot! By the force of additional threats, promises and entreaties, the rascal named the other robbers, he be-
3 It was intended only to frighten the man, unless he did actually betray the party to the robbers-when, of course, it would be life for life.
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ing merely a subordinate; but as no small hazard would be en- countered in attacking the temporary cabin, where the principal robber and the remaining goods were, it was determined first to get additional volunteers and make more suitable preparation. Packing the damaged and soiled goods on their horses, the sher- iff's party returned with their prisoner to the village of Shante- burg, and redelivered him to the jailor, intending if his informa- tion proved substantially correct' to have the fellow not only liberated, but otherwise rewarded.
Here, also, two others volunteered to join in the robber hunt; upon which all, with loaded rifles, and knives and hatchets in their belts, soon mounted, and were plunging again into the darkness of the forest, now black from a moonless night. Early on the next morning they came in sight of the cabin. When within fifty yards, the robber stepping to the door let his rifle fall in that peculiar manner that belongs to a practiced marksman, at the same time warning off his visitors, and solemnly swearing he would kill the man that first approached his barricade. At the instant, however, of the man's appearance and even before he had . faily uttered a word, our friends had "treed" in a twinkling, and now stood with pointed weapons and keen eyes towards the bold thief. Glenville, on leaping from his horse, instead of treeing, stood boldly out and thus exclaimed loud enough to be heard by all: "Sheriff, you are all running this risk for me-'tis my duty to lead. I'll attack the scoundrel; if he shoots me-avenge my death!" With that he fearlessly advanced with his levelled rifle and then halting, called to the villain: "Throw down your gun- in ten seconds one of us is a dead man-one, two, three:" and so the two stood, each with his bead darkened by the other's breast- the sheriff's men, also unwilling to shed blood; yet with a finger every man on his set trigger-till Glenville called "seven"-when the robber suddenly threw up his muzzle, and cried out, "surren- dered !" The next instant he was seized and bound. This was the leader. His main accomplices were not discovered, and only another portion of the stolen goods, which, together with the robber, were now conveyed in triumph to Shanteburg. That after- noon the fellow was lodged in jail, and of necessity in the same room with the subordinate thief : yet, while all possible care was
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used to prevent escape, in less than forty-eight hours both con- trived to get out ! and from that hour to the present, neither they, nor the remainder of the merchandize was ever seen or recovered. It was, indeed ascertained that they belonged to a small foraging party from the grand gang of outlaws, whose head-quarters then were among the islands and cane-breakers of the Missouri: and so doubtless they escaped by the aid of concealed comrades and all got safe off with Mr. Glenvile's balance in trade, to the army of the confederates. Perhaps they lived to rob again-may be to murder ; and for which latter service our modern pseudo-philan- thropists would pity and feed them! Many neighbours out there will always physic such with lead pills-at least till Reformers have prisons prepared to hold their pets longer than a few hours !
This pleasant adventure, terminated Mr. G's first essay at store- keeping. It gained him, however, a character, and no one would have become popular in the New Purchase,4 but for mistaken opinions in the neighbours about "Mr. Carlton's bigbuggery and stuckupness." As it was, Glenville nearly went over Simpson rough shod. And all these little affairs aided our firm in sore disappointments and losses; for then the senior would say-
"Well !- we might have had better luck."
And the junior reply,
"Why, yes-and another consolation : this is not the first dis- appointment, and it wont be the last!"
We, in short, thus learned to imitate the sailor, who, in witness- ing a conjuror's tricks, was pitched into the yard by the accidental blowing up of some gunpowder; but which supposing to be one of the tricks, he held on to his bench, and exclaimed : "Well !- what next?"
+ Our part of it.
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CHAPTER XXVI.
" - O Cromwell! Cromwell ! Had I but served my God with half the zeal I serv'd my King, he would not in mine age Have left me naked to mine enemies."
Is the way of a transgressor hard? that of a politician is not much easier. He is usually a slave first, and a timeserver after- wards. In the Purchase the sovereign people are the most un- compromising task masters ; and he that wishes to serve them, had better first take a trip to Egypt and learn the art of doing brick without straw. In certain districts, fitness, mental, and moral is a secondary qualification in a candidate; he must be a clever fellow in the broad republican sense. For instance, he must lend his saddle to a neighbor, and ride himself, bareback; he must buy other people's produce for cash, and sell his own for trade or on credit ; and, on certain solemn occasions, he must appear without a coat, and in domestic muslin shirt-sleeves : his overalls hung by half a suspender, and a portion of the above named muslin curiously pouched between his vest and inexpressibles. His face must wreathe, or wrinkle, with endless smiles; and his ungloved hand be ready for a pump-handle shake with friend and foe alike: because a foe often presents his hand to ascertain if "the fellow aint too darn'd proud to shake hands with a poor man !"
Is the man of honour invited to eat ? he asks no questions for conscience's sake, or the stomach's-the two things being in many people the same. Is he asked to stay all night? he never wonders where they will find him a bed-there being only three in the room, and the family consisting of one old man, and one old woman, two grown sons, three daughters, and some little folks-he naturally lies down on the puncheons with his certifi- cate wallet for a bolster. Or does he share a bed with two others? -then he recollects it is a free country, and if one man needs votes, another needs brimstone. And why turn up a nose at an oderiferous blanket ?- has a bed any right, natural or political, to more than one sheet ?- and why should not the sheet be under and the blanket above you ?- Let go your nose! has not a long suc-
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cession of "your dear fellow-citizens" slept in the same bed, and between the same articles; and what, pray, are you better than they to wish clean things? "Yes-but I'm nearly stifled." Tut man !- you'll never mind it when you get to sleep. "But it cer- tainly will kill me!" Not it: men of honour are not so easily destroyed.
Would a candidate cough ?- he puts no hand up, nor turns aside his head. Must the nose be blown ?- he draws out no handkerchief. Would he spit ?- he neither goes to the door, nor uses a perfumed cambric, like a first-rate clergyman. Why ?- because all such observances are regarded as signs of pride, and if you despise them not, your election is hopeless.
"But, Mr. Carlton, we might transmit something offensive to a gentleman's garments."
"Well, what then! he will certainly some time or other return your favour. Be satisfied, my dear Mr. Eastman, it is only by giving and taking all sorts of matters out there, you can, in some districts, ever secure your election."
"And do any politicians endure all this !"
Certainly : and persons who aspire to rule ought surely first to serve. Many remarkable men in Congress, be it known, had a long training in some Purchase-their meannesses are not of toadstool growth, if they are of toadstool flavour.
Reader! are you religious? Then do write a tract to be scat- tered any where on election days ; and here is your text or theme : -"Give diligence to make your calling and election sure." Among other matters, set forth how it requires not one fourth the labour, toil, anxiety, watchfulness and none of the base sacrifices of time, comfort, and independence to save a man's soul as to win an elec- tion; and, how the worldly honour is not worth after all even the worldly price paid for it, and much less, the immortal soul usually thrown in with the rest to boot.
We, of course, did not do some things, and hence Mr. Glenville was soon permitted to remain in private life; still we were com- pelled, for electioneering objects, to attend this summer, several Log-Rollings. Folks in the Purchase had no special days for political gatherings, or at most, not more than two dozen in a whole year; for, in lieu of such, every militia muster, cabin-
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raising, scow-launching, shooting-match, log-rolling and so forth, was virtually a political assembly, where our great men and their partisans made stump speeches, and read certificates. For the benefit of our surplus young lawyers, and other ambitious gentle- men who have neither trades nor stores, and who are desirous of rising above the political horizon, and are meditating to emigrate to the west, we shall here give a full account of one Grand Log- Rolling, which Glenville and Co., attended this season.
On reaching the place, we found a large and motley assembly of fellow-creatures-men, women, boys, girls, horses, oxen, dogs -all of whom, and which, came either to aid or listen, except the dogs, and these came simply out of philanthropy. They spent the time mainly in wagging their tails, barking at rolling logs, and thrusting in their noses wherever there was a pretext for seeming busy while others were so hard at work; and yet, excepting some three dozen snakes, four skunks, two opossums and a score or two of insignificant field rats and mice and ground squirrels, the dogs caught nothing the whole blessed day.
Indeed, some secretly thought it would have been just as well if the musk-cats had been allowed to escape, for, after their capture, the dogs were not altogether so agreeable; yet no candidate or candidate's friends or even their enemies kicked or whipped a favourite wag-tail. It was hardly politic to curl your nose. What was a fellow fit for, that minded such things ?- was he the man to go to the legislature and carry skins1 to a bear.
The whole intended field, however, was resounding with all kinds of cries, noises, and echoes, such as shouts-orders- counterorders-encouragements-reproaches-whoas, gees and haws-hold-on's and let-go's, and that's your sort's-up-with -. him's to male logs, pull her this way, to female ones, and down- with-it to neutrals; with clatter of axes and tomahawks; the thunder of rolling trunks; the crash of brush; the crackling of flames : and, over all, agreeably to the "Music of Nature,"? were heard the shrill outcries of females; the screeching of boys; the snorting and winnowing of horses; and the howling and barking . of dogs! Never was scene more exciting; and our appearance in ,
1 Sausage sort.
2 Gardiner's.
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working trim, was hailed with the most enthusiastic cheering; which compliment being suitably returned, we speedily joined the nearest working party. As for myself, surely I never did haloa (holler) louder in my life : and I certainly never did work harder for a whole entire hour, dressed en costume, to wit :- in tow- trousers, cow-hide boots, and unbleached hemp linen shirt, but without coat or vest, and with shirt sleeves rolled above the elbows.
We did not attend the gathering purely out of rabblerousing feelings; we wanted to hear the speech of ours John intended to let off at Jerry ; for something was expected today of Glenville, and he was only a novice in stump elocution, and so we had, being "high larn'd" and a "leetle" of a politician, made John's first speech ourselves! Had John been as great a nincompoop as Jerry, he could just as readily have spoken nonsense off hand; but he knew too much to speak sense without preparation : and so Mr. Carlton had prepared the maiden speech. This, however, our friend, like some manuscript preachers, delivered more than once, yet always with variations and additions, till at last the very theme and text were both changed, and our stump orator gave towards the end of the campaign a much better speech than he had commenced with.
Our historian, as has been hinted, did not figure a very long time with the handspike, having luckily discovered some pretext for soon joining a squawking and frolicsome squad of boys, girls and young women, engaged in the 'niggerin-off." Where it is de- signed to make "a clearing," the owner has all the trees, except some six or eight on an acre, cut down, the others being "dead- ened;" that is girdled by a deep cut two inches wide. If the majority of the trees are thus girdled, the field is called-"a deadening,"-otherwise it is a clearing. Now, it is to a clearing the log-rolling, or, for brevity's sake, "a rolin," pertains. In order to the rolling the owner has had all prostrate trunks cut into suitable lengths, and the bushy tops preserved for fuel to the log-heaps; still many trees remain to be prepared even on the grand rolling day; and such of course require the neighbours' axes and hatchets.
In fifty or more places of the clearing, and in many parts of the
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same trunk, logs are making, and with wonderful celerity by another process-an almost noiseless process, too, and requiring, like Yankee factories, only women, girls, and children. And this is the niggering-off. It is thus performed. A small space is hacked into the upper side of the trunk, and in that for awhile is maintained a fire fed with dry chips and brush; then at right angles, with the prostrate timber is laid in the fire a stick of some green wood, dry fuel being yet added at intervals, till the incumbent stick, sinking deeper and deeper into the burning spot, in no very long time, if properly attended, divides or niggers the trunk asunder.
The terms of this art are derived from the marvellous resem- blance the ends of charred logs have to a negro's head-another fact on which abolitionists may dilate with great pathos in the next batch of popular lectures, on the wickedness of our preju- dices : although it must be remembered that our black rascals out there invented the terms themselves !
The axe is truly a mighty agent in the civilization of new countries. Fire is a greater-and only in a New Purchase and in the niggering operation is the famous copy-book sentence illus- trated properly-"Fire is a bad master, but a good servant :" its mastership belongs to our log-burnings. Without the aid of fire, the stoutest heart must be appalled at the thought of hewing out with the axe a farm from our forests; and yet with the aid of fire even females may achieve that enterprise.
When the logs are all cut or niggered, they are then rolled, but often dragged together, in different parts of the clearing; and usually to the vicinity of some huge tree deadened, or perhaps living, and waving its melancholy arms over the mutilated bodies and mangled limbs of its slain children and friends. Ah! happy if the tree be dead; for it is destined, if not dead, to a dreadful end-to be burned alive! Oh! poor tree! thy former friends are compelled to become thy worst enemies-their severed trunks are gigantic fagots! Alas! the pile rising up, as log after log rolls heavily against thy quivering column, amid our labour, and shout- ing, and uproar, that pile, now surrounded, and crowned with a tangled world of brushwood, is thy sumptuous and magnific pyre! Monarch! of a thousand years, thou shalt die a
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kingly death! Nor would'st thou be spared-only to sigh among strange harvests soon to spring around-to sigh for the shades and . shadows and touching branches and kissing leaves of departed trees! No-thou would'st not choose to survive thy race!
The piles are sometimes lighted at the end of the rolling; oftener by the settler's family at their leisure. To-day, however, as we were a very large party, and had, therefore, finished the rolling early in the afternoon, it was resolved that immediately after the candidates should have done speaking, all the heaps and piles should be kindled at once. Now to their praise be it forever 3 recorded, that both John and Jerry had, as their friends allowed, "worked most powerful hard and steady :" but their ene- mies must determine whether this diligence was out of disinter- ested love to the settler, or with a single eye to the vote of the settler's eldest son, who, as his father accidentally remarked, would be entitled to a vote at the next election. Indeed, as the zealous partizans had closely imitated their respective candidates, more unfigurative, practical and innocent log-rolling was done to- day than was ever witnessed; and I secretly made up my mind that our next log-rolling in Glenville should happen just before the fall election; when we could get the opposing candidates to lead the work. It is not improbable that our host to-day had had the same thought ; at all events our candidates certainly sweat for their expected honours ; and if John did gain them he worked for them-but Jerry ! alas! he toiled in vain! and alas! it blistered my hands ! but then after this, I was unanimously voted "a right down powerful clever sort of a feller!" and more than one very pretty young woman, "allowed she'd be Mr. Carltin's second wife, when his old woman died !! "
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After all, candidates are of some use ; and the great majority can do more good in natural log-rolling than in the metaphorical sorts common among the dirk and pistol law-givers of deliberative as- semblies. Nay, a very few hundreds of rival and zealous candi- dates would, in a year or so, if judiciously driven under proper task-masters, clear a very considerable territory.
The candidate + to-day stood not on a stump to make his address,
3 In a finite sense-the life of this book.
4 Mr. Jerry Simpson declined speaking.
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but on a very large log heap, sustained by a living oak more than three hundred years old !- an incident to me full of interest. Our first speech, the first of the sort I ever wrote-the first he ever uttered,-our first speech was poured forth over the ruins of greatness-a prostrate wilderness! The youthful speaker, the dear friend of many years, stood on a funeral pyre! while above him waved the sheltering branches of the tree, soon to be sacri- ficed and writhe in a tempest of fire! And ours was the first, the last, the only oration ever made by a Christian under its protec- tion! the grand old tree seeming to wonder at the semi-civiliza- tion that had wrought such havoc in its domain-while it knew not that the ceasing of Glenville's voice would be a signal for lighting the fires !
The speech need not be described. It was, of course, rather ad-captandumish ; well written, however, but still better delivered and handsomely varied. Hence, if it gained no new votes, it secured the old ones. And that is no light praise, where a word, a look, a gesture, or even a smile changes votes; not to lose is then to gain. The new settlers acted with the strictest impar- tiality-they divided their interest. The father had "know'd Jerry's father, and often heern tell of Jerry himself-and so he would never d'sart an old friend; but the son, "darn'd-his eyes (a peculiar kind of stitching) if he wouldn't go for Glenville; as cos he hisself was a young man, and so was tother-and as cos he'd give him a sort of start in his clearing, he's give him a sort of start as a public funkshune'er." And thus the balance of the power was adjusted to a nicety; and thus, also, if the new comers did neither party any good they did them no harm: pay enough for a hard day's work, considering. For, certainly, a wide difference must appear between having nothing in your favour and two somethings against you, and so it was now ; hence John and Jerry felt (or at least said so) as much gratitude as if they had received not a negative quantity, but a positive favour.
Complacent reader, I hope you never sneer at sovereignty? Be well assured it can sneer at you, and always will, if you descend in any way to be a slave. Save yourself for a crisis- acquire reputation for honour and integrity-and the people will then call upon you. The present is the age of small bugs.
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The speech ended, and we were divided into Firing Committees to light the different piles : after which was to be a grand supper previous to going home. Very soon then at each heap, were assembled about half a dozen men, which in all directions were tearing, scampering, screeching, and yelling women, boys, girls, dogs and puppies-some carrying fire on clap-board shingles- some with remnants of burning niggering sticks-others with dry and blazing wood-and the canine helps, some with sticks and chips in their mouths, and some with the dead snakes and pole- cats, so that almost instantly and simultaneously fires were kindled in several parts of each, and every heap and pile throughout the whole clearing. Combustibles had been built in with the piles; and now a gentle wind was fanning all into devouring flames. Yet, after the first sudden and crackling blaze, the fires sub- siding became, at a short distance, barely visible ; save in parts where dry logs had become quickly ignited, and there a taper- pointed intense flame, shooting up, would remain fixed a few seconds, and then trembling from its own gathering fury, it would rise higher and higher, and ever expanding its base as it elevated the apex.
But by the time our feast was ended, and the shadows length- ening from the forest told the coming reign of darkness, a hundred- hundred fierce points of taper flame gleamed in wrath from every crevice, or darted from the dense clouds of black smoke; and in many places, several points had united their bases, and were now in one broad fiery mass, careering in spiral columns of mingled darkness and light. Now fiercer winds were rushing into the vacuum. The equilibrium disturbed through an aerial cir- cumference of many leagues diameter, the storm spirits aroused and excited, came flying on the wings of a sudden earth born tempest!" This augmented the number and intensity of the flames; and these, augmented, invoked in their madness more furious winds, till a broad, deep and awful tide of air poured through the clearing, with the force and revengeful roar of the hurricane! and up leaped all the fires in frightful columns of - pyramids of living flames quivering with wild wrath, and coiling,
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