USA > Indiana > Monroe County > The new purchase : or, seven and a half years in the Far West > Part 33
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Here Dr. Sylvan, our worthy President, interrupted the speaker, the doctor being now only recovered from his surprise; for, veteran as he was in politics, and often as he had known the people essay small overt acts of sovereignty, this affair was so
quarrel in 1831, he resigned his place in Indiana College and became Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy in Hanover College. From 1837 to 1844 he was Editor of the Louisville Democrat, a newspaper of wide influence in the West. He died in Louisville, Jan. 26, 1868.
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novel and so grandly impudent, that it took him the first half of the harangue to collect himself, and the other to concoct the fol- lowing judicious compound of decision, sarcasm and blarney :-
"It is with regret, General Jacobus and my respected fellow citizens, I interrupt the eloquent utterance of sentiments so pa- triotic and so well adapted to excite our disgust and horror at a union of Church and State; but in the present case, I do really believe the danger is not to be apprehended. In the first place, we all know the liberal sentiments of Professor Clarence towards all religious bodies; and in the second place, the gentleman just elected by us before the entrance of your honourable body and organ, is not known to be a member of any communion; and lastly, we Trustees are of six different denominations ourselves, and therefore, as we put in we can also put out, the instant danger is found to threaten the State from our present course. And, fellow-citizens, we shall, I am confident, be quite Argus-eyed over our faculty-but at all events we have gone too far to retrace our steps ; for Mr. Harwood is legally appointed, and for what we deemed good reasons. And surely no American citizen in this glorious land of equal rights and blood-bought liberties, where the meanest felon has a trial by jury, will contend that an hon- ourable unoffending man of another state-the noble old Ken- tucky-should be turned out of office-and no accusation against his competency and moral character? Backwoodsmen don't ask that !- and they don't think of it. Had this honourable representa- tion come fifteen minutes sooner, something might have been done or prevented ;- for we are indeed servants of the people-but Mr. Harwood ought now to have time to show himself, and cannot be degraded without an impeachment. And who is ready to im- peach a Kentuckian because John Calvin or John Anybody else burnt Servetus a hundred years ago ?- and that, when it is not even known whether Mr. Harwood himself might not have been roasted in the days of persecution for some heresy mathematical or religious ! Fellow citizens, our meeting is adjourned."
Our venerable Congress at Washington sometimes gets into a row, and even breaks up in a riot. And why should it not be so, when many conscript fathers have practised bullyism from early life, and have only gone to the great conservative assembly to do,
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on a large scale, dirty things often done before on a small one? Or why, on the other hand, if the reverend young fathers there set us, the people, the example, should any person affect to wonder that we sometimes imitate our law givers? Whether we, the New Purchase people, set or followed the example, need not be determined ; but we certainly adjourned to-day in a grand kick- up; which, if described, must be in the pell-mell style of history.
At the word "adjourned," ending Doctor Sylvan's speech, came a violent and simultaneous rush; some pushing towards the door, to get out-some from without into the door, to get in-and some towards the clerk's seat, to seize and destroy the record; but that wary officer, at the same word just named, had quietly slipped the sacred record into his breeches' pocket, the minutes being only recorded with a lead pencil on a quarter sheet of cap paper. Then commenced a hell-a-below, loud enough at first, but which, like a Latin Inceptive, still went on and tended to perfection; being an explosion commingled of growl, curse, hurrah, hiss, stamp, and clap; and then and there and all through the "mass meeting," were Brigadier Major General Jacobus, and our people and the people's people and other people, all huddled and crowded and mixed, and all and every one and each were and was explaining, demanding, denying, do-telling, and wanting to know, some what thus :
"Hurrah for Harwood !- damn him and Clarinse too-ain't the money our'n, that's what I want to know ?- I say Doctor, re- member next 'lection !-- that's the pint-you lie, by the lord Harry ! -let me out, blast your eyes !- it ain't-it tis-let us in, won't you ?- do tell-General Jacobus ought to have his nose pulled-he didn't burn him-don't tell me-pull it if you dare-he burnt hisself-go to the devil-no patchin' to him-powerful quick on the trigger-Calvin-get up petition to legislature-rats-didn't I say we ought to get down sooner ?- faggots-Harwood ain't- gunpowder-darn'd clever fellow-Servetus-hurrah for hic haec hoc !- let's out-give 'em more money-let's in-is the board to be forced ?- get out o' my way-fair trial -- don't blast-answer that-I know better -- 'tain't-'tis-hold your jaw-whoo !- shoo! -hiss-hinyow-bowwow-rumble-grumble-Sylvan-Clarinse Jacobus-Harwood Servetus"-&c. &c., and away rolled majesty,
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till the noise in the distance was like the grum mutter of retiring thunder ! 1
How awfully grand and solemn a little people in the swell of arrogated supremacy! But we saw King Mob to greater ad- vantage next year; which sight shall be duly set before our read- ers. Meanwhile we shall take a pleasant rural excursion in the the following chapter, by way of recreating after our toils in behalf of learning.
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CHAPTER XLIV.
"We still have slept together, Rose at an instant, learn'd, play'd, eat together."
" __- Are not these woods More free from peril than the envious court?"
READER !
"Well, what now?"
Will you go with us? Come, surely Tippecanoe will arouse you ; and although we have miles of dark, tangled, and, in places, almost untrodden forests to pass ; although we shall ford and swim creeks, swollen from recent rains, and where a blundering horse would plunge the rider into rapid and whirling waters; and although some inconveniences and customs will be found inconsistent with steamboats and rail road journeys, yet who will not risk all to stand on the' battle field of the brave, amid the sadness of its solitary and far-distant prairie !
"Very eloquent !- but, Mr. Carlton, only think of the mud." Yes, dear reader, but the girls are to go along.
"Girls!"
Yes, and very pretty and intelligent ones too-real lady Hoosiers.
"Are you in earnest? Who are they?"
The young ladies of Miss Emily Glenville's Woodville Female Institute.
"Oh !- ay !- I had forgot your school-what then?"
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Why, it is our vacation, and myself with one or two other gentlemen are going to escort the girls home. Seven of the pupils belong to wealthy and respectable families in the north, and one or two live very near to Tippecanoe.
"Heigho ;- out of compliment to the ladies we go; but how long will you be yet?"
Oh, we shall get through after a while. "No lane," you know, &c. Of course then you consent.
Well, our party consisted of eleven persons-the seven girls, the father and brother of one girl, and myself and young Mr. Frank, of Woodville, who, like myself, wished to see the world. To carry us were precisely ten horses and a half, the fractional creature being a dwarf pony, an article or noun, which young B -- k, the brother rode, like a velocipede, and which, by pressing the toes of boots against hard and hilly places in the path, could be aided by pushing. And thus, also, the rider could a sorter stand and go, like wheels in motion, at once; and all that would greatly relieve the tedium of monotonous riding. The special use of the pony was manifested in fording mudholes, quicksands, quagmires, marshes, high waters, and the like. In vain did the rider pull up his limbs ; 1 in vain shrink away up towards the centre of his saddle-up followed the cream-coloured mud in beech swamps, the black mud and water in bayous, the black mud itself in walnut and sugar lands, or the muddy water in turbid creeks and rivers, and the rider became deeply interested in the circu- lating medium.
But what a contrast to a stage coach, to say nothing of a car; ten horses and upwards to carry eleven people; And how I do wish you could have seen us set out! Dear oh, dear! the scamp- ering, and tearing, and winnowing, and kicking up, and cocking of ears, as the quadrupeds were "being" rid up to the rack! and then the clapping on of horse-blankets and saddles, male and female, croopers and circingles and bridles, double and single ! What a drawing of girths! What a fixing and unfixing and re- fixing of saddle-bags! What a hanging of "fixins" themselves, done up in red handkerchiefs on the horns of the gentler sex sad- dles! And then the girls-like the barbarians in Cæsar's Com-
1 Lower limbs here, in contradistinction to upper ones.
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mentaries in one battle, they seemed to be every where at once- up stairs, down stairs, on the stairs, in the closet under the stairs! They were in the house, out of the house, in the yard, at the door, by the horses! And ah, how they did ask questions and get answers. "Where's my shawl?" "Is this it?" "Did nobody see my basket?" "I didn't." "Who's got my album?" "Mr. Frank." "Will some body fasten my fixens?" "He ain't here." "Won't nobody carry this?" and so on through all the bodies.
The animals were now all harnessed, and stood comparatively quiet, except an occasional impatient stamp, or an active and venomous switch of a tail: the bustle, too, had subsided, and all had come to that silent state when no more questions can be asked, but all are waiting for some one to begin the-farewell. And then came that sad word, amid gushing tears-mid sobs and kisses-for with some "the schooling" was finished, and "who could tell whether ever more should meet" those sprightly, happy, sweet companions !
But soon followed the uproar of mounting; and with that seemed to pass all sorrow; and yet so painful had been the last few moments, that an excuse was needed for saying and doing something lively. Of course we all said a great many smart things, or what passed for such, in the way of compliment, rail- lery and repartee; and we guessed and reckoned and allowed and foretold the most contrary matters about the weather, and the roads, and the waters, and even about our fates through the whole of our coming lives. In the meanwhile horse after horse was paraded towards the block, each receiving extra jerks, and some handsome slaps and kicks on the off flank, to make him wheel into position, when next moment away he scampered with a side- way rider, in trot, shuffle, pace, or canter, according to his fancy, till all the lady riders were on the saddles, and then Mr. B-k, sen., and myself riding in advance, he shouted, "Come on, girls- we're off."
And off it was-amidst the giggling of girls, and the laughter of neighbours, nodding good byes with their heads, or shaking them out of handkerchiefs, from doors and windows; and also the boisterous farewells of some two dozen folks that had helped us
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fix. Off it was, some at a hard trot, some at a round gallop, and others at a soft pace or shuffle, the animals snorting, squeeling, and winnowing-sometimes six abreast, sometimes two, sometimes all huddled like a militia cavalry training; and then all in Indian file, one by one, with yards of space between us! Oh! the squeezing of lower limbs against horse rumps !- the kicking and splattering of mud !- the streaming forth of ill-secured kerchiefs and capes! Oh! the screeching! shouting! laughing! shaking! What flapping of saddleskirts! What walloping of saddle-bags ! Away with stages !- steamers !- cars! Give me a horse and the life, activity and health of Hoosiers and Hoosierinas let loose all at once in the whirligig storm and fury of that morning's starting !
We soon degenerated into slow trot, and finally into a fast walk, with episodial riding to scare a flock of wild turkies, or add wings to the flight of a deer; till we all became at last so shaken down and settled in our saddles as to seem each a com- pound of man ( homo) and horse. Yet for hours we kept up talk of all kinds. Yea! we halloed-we quizzed-we laughed ! Ay! we talked seriously too-for no one rides through our grand woods any more than he sails forth on the grand waters, and feels not solemn! And we even talked religiously-more so than most readers would care to hear! Lively, indeed, we were-but God even then was in our thoughts; and some of that happy com- pany were then, and are yet, ornaments of the Christian world- some are in heaven! Yes, then as now, we often passed, as is the case with the joyous, the frank-hearted, the middle class,2 and, in an instant, from laughter to tears.
No halt was made for dinner: it was handed round on horse- back. A piece, or half a piece of ham, boxed neatly between two boards of corn-bread, and held delicately-as possible-between the finger and thumb of an attendant, was thus presented for acceptance. Yet not always was it easy to take the proffered dainties; since often the horse, out of sheer affectation, or be- cause of a sly kick or switch from an unseen quarter, would, at
2 To that we belong, and hope we always shall :- "Give me neither poverty nor riches."
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the instant of captation, jump aside, or leap forward, and verify the proverb-"many a slip between the cup and lip."
Towards evening it was heard that Slippery River was falling, but could not be forded; and hence it was determined to stay all night in a cabin several miles this side, in expectation of our being able to ford in the morning. We were, of course, received by our friends with open hearts, and entertained in the most ap- proved backwoods' style,-the only awkwardness being that beds could be furnished but for four of our party. As some, therefore, must sleep on the floor, it was unanimously voted that all should share alike in the hardship and frolic of a puncheon's night's rest ; and hence, in due season, all hands were piped to convert our sup- per-room into a grand bed-chamber. And first, the floor was swept; secondly, our blankets were spread on it; thirdly, over these horse-cloths was put a good rag carpet; and, lastly, in a line were ranged saddle-bags and valises, interspersed with other bolsters and pillows stuffed with feathers and rags; and then, the fire being secured, we all began to undress-
"Oh ! goodness ! Mr. Carlton !- girls ! and all?"
Girls and all, my dear.
"I vow then, I will never marry and go to a New Purchase? But did the ladies really divest-hem !- before-the-the-"
To be sure.
"What ! take off all the usual-"
Oh! that I cannot say. Western gentlemen never peep. Be- sides the gentlemen took off only coats and boots ; and intelligent ladies everywhere always know how to act according to necessity.
Our order of "reclinature," as Doctor Hexagon would here doubtless say, was as follows: Mr. B-k, sen., reclined first, having on his outside next the door, his son, and on the inside, his daughter; then the other girls, one after another, till all were finished; then his modesty, Mr. C., who, having a wife at home, was called, by courtesy to suit the occasion, an old man ; and then, outside him, and next the other door young Mr. Frank-
"I never!" 3
-and then after a little nearly inaudible whispering, bursting
3 What! never read the story of Boaz and Ruth?
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at short intervals into very audible giggles, the hush of the dark wilderness came upon us-and-an-a-
"What?"
Hey !- oh !- ah !- I beg pardon-I think we must have been asleep !
*
After breakfast our friend Mr. B-k, sen., offered an earnest prayer, in which thanks were returned for past mercies and favours, and supplication made for protection during the prospec- tive perils of the day ; and in an hour after we were within sight, and hearing too, of the sullen and angry flood.
The waters had, indeed, fallen in a good degree, and they were still decreasing, yet no person, a stranger to the West, could have looked on that foaming and eddying river leaping impetuous over the rocky bed, and have heard the echoes of its many thun- ders calling from cliff to cliff, and from one dark cavern to another in the forest arched over the water,-no inexperienced traveller, all sign of hoof and wheel leading to the ford obliterated, could have supposed that our party, and mostly very young girls, were seriously preparing to cross that stream on our horses! But either that must be, or our path be retraced; and sobered, there- fore, although not intimidated, we made ready for the perilous task. The older and more resolute girls were seated on the sure- footed horses, and all their dresses were properly arranged, and all loose cloaks and clothes carefully tied up, that, in case of accident, nothing might entangle the hands or feet. Several little girls were to be seated behind the gentlemen, while a loose horse or two was left to follow. We gentlemen riders were also to ride be- tween two young ladies, to aid in keeping their horses right, to seize a rein on emergencies, and to encourage the ladies, in case they showed any symptoms of alarm.
Things ready, we all rode boldly to the water's edge; where a halt was called, till Mr. B .- k and Mr. C. should go foremost and try the ford. And now, dear reader, it may be easy to ford Slippery River in this book, and maybe Mr. C. has contrived to seem courageous like-but that morning, at first sight of that ugly water, he did secretly wish it had been bridged, and feel-that is -wished all safe over; and possibly had he been favoured with a
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few moments' more reflection, he might have been rather scared -yet just then, souse went Mr. B. up to his saddle-skirts, seem- ing a man on a saddle with a tail streaming out horizontally, and and then came his voice thus :-
"Come on, Carlton !- come on !"
"Ay! ay! sir-I'm in-souse-splash! Oho! the water's in my boots !"
"Hold up your legs !- why don't you ?"
. "Forgot it, Mr. B .- don't care now-can't get any wetter."
N. B. None, save born and bred woodsmen, can keep the limbs properly packed and dry on the horse neck, in deep fords : naturalized woodmen never do it either gracefully or successfully. I have myself vainly tried a hundred times : but at the first desper- ate plunge and lurch of the quadruped, I have always had to unpack the articles and let them drop into the water-otherwise I should have dropped myself.
Mr. B. and myself rode around and into the deepest places, satisfying ourselves and the rest, that with due caution and for- titude the ford was practicable-or nearly so: and then I re- turned for the girls, while Mr. B. rode down and stationed him- self in the middle tiver about twenty-five yards below the ford proper, to intercept, if possible, any article or person falling from or thrown by a blundering horse. Having myself been in the deepest water, although not the most rapid, and knowing that much depended on my firmness and care, my sense of per- sonal danger was lost in anxiety for my precious charge; and I re-entered the perilous flood with the girls with something like a determination, if necessary, to save their lives rather than my own.
Several of these, from the first, utterly refused all assistance; they now sat like queens of the chivalric age-seeming, occasion- ally, tiny boats trimmed with odd sails and tossing mid the foam, as their horses rose and sunk over the roughness of the rocky bottom! The other girls, shutting their eyes to avoid looking at the seeming dangers, and also to prevent swimming of the head, held the horn of the saddle with a tenacious grasp, and sur- rendered the horses to the guidance of the escorts.
On reaching the middle of the river, here some eighty yards wide, the depth had, indeed, decreased to about two feet; but
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then the rocks being more, and larger and rougher, the current was raging among them-a miniature of the Niagara Rapids. Here was I seized with a momentary perplexity. By way of punishing the incipient cowardice, however, I checked my own horse and that of the trembling girl next me, and thus remain- ing, forced my eyes to survey the whole really terrific scene, and to comtemplate a cataract of waters thundering in an unbroken sheet over a ledge of rocks thirty feet high, and a short distance above the ford. And having thus compelled myself in the very midst of the boiling sea, to endure its surges, we proceeded cau- tiously and lesisurely, till with no other harm than a good wetting, especially to my boots and upwards, and a little palpitation of the heart, all came safe to land.
.And then the chattering; and how we magnified ourselves! The charges and denials too !- "Mary what makes you so pale?" -"Pshaw !- I'm not-I was not scared a bit!"-"Nor me neither-" "Ha! ha! ha !- you had your eyes shut all the time!" -"Oh! Mr. Carlton had I?" "Well"-said he-"we must not tell tales out of school: beside I was half afraid I should get scared myself."
"You! Mr. Carlton"-said Mr. B .- "well it may be so; but without flattery, you brought the girls over about as well as I could have done it myself-why, you were as cool as a woodsman."
"Well after that praise, Mr. Blank"-(for that is the name)- "I mean to set up for a real genuine Hoosier."
. Reader! I did not deserve such praise: but as to being "cool," there was no mistake-only think of the cold water in my boots and elsewhere!
Inquiry was now made about the pony : and that was answered by a general "Haw! haw! haw! hoo! hoo! hoo! he! he! he!" and so through the six cases-and mingled with the exclamations "look ! look !" -- "down thare! down thare!"
We of course looked; and about thirty yards below the land- ing, was pony, or rather pony's head, his body and tail being invisible ; but whether hippopotamus-like he walked on the bot- tom, or was. actually swimming, was uncertain. But there he was; and, by the progression of his ears, he was manifestly making headway pretty fast towards our side; although ever and
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anon, by the sudden dousing of his ears, he had either plunged into water deeper than his expectation, or been momentarily up- set by the current. By this time our two young gentlemen had got opposite to pony and were waiting to assist at his toilette on his emerging ;- for his saddle and bridle, &c., had been all brought over on a vacated steed. The three soon rejoining us, we all, in health and with grateful hearts and good spirits, were again dashing on, wild and independent Tartars, through our own loved forests.
But before we could reach our quarters this night, Nut Creek was to be passed, too deep to be forded, and having neither bridge nor scow! it was to be done-by canoe! and travelling by the canoe line has very little amusement, although abundance of danger and trouble and excitement.
The canoe, in the present case, was a log ten feet long and eighteen inches wide and hacked, burned, and scraped, to the depth of a foot: and it was tolerably well rounded to a point at each end, being however, destitute of keel or rudder. It was indeed, wholly unlike a fairy skiff found in poetry or Scott's Novels, or in the engravings of annuals bound in cloth and gold and reposing on centre tables. Nor was it either classical or Indian. It differed from a bark-canoe as a wooden shoe from a black morocco slipper! Either nature, or a native, had begun a hog-trough to hold swill and be snouted: but its capacities prov- ing better than expectation-a little extra labour had chopped the thing into a log-boat!
Well-into this metamorphosed log was now to be packed a most precious load. To one end went first, Mr. Blank, senr. with a paddle; then were handed along, one by one, the tremb- ling girls, who sitting instantly on the bottom of the trough and closing their eyes, held to its sides with hands clenched as for life; and then followed Mr. C. filling up the few inches of re- maining space, and for the first time in his days holding a canoe paddle! and then at the cry "let go!" our two junior gentlemen on the bank relaxed their hands and our laden craft was at the mercy of the flood !
Many a boat had I rowed on the Delaware and the Schuylkill, -often a skiff on the Ohio,-ay! and poled and set over many a scow: but what avail that civilized practice, in propelling for
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the first time in one's life a hollow log, and with a small paddle like a large mush stick ?- and across a raging torrent in a gloomy wilderness? Was it so wonderful my end went round? -and more than once! Could I help it? Was it even a wonder I looked solemn ?- grew dizzy ?- and at last quit paddling al- together? But it was a wonder I did not upset that vile swine thing, and plunge all into the water-perhaps into death ! and yet we all reached, by the skill of Mr. Blank, our port in safety.
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