USA > Indiana > Monroe County > The new purchase : or, seven and a half years in the Far West > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49
Unsuccessful attempts then came to sustain a general talk on the weather, the time of reaching the breakfast, the hour of the night, and the like novel and interesting topics ; the questions being com- monly put, and the replies hazarded by six or eight voices together, and in as many intervals of pitch, from the grumbled bass to the most tremulous and piteous treble. To these succeeded equally abortive efforts to sustain duos and trios, till the whole perform- ance of the talk remained a solo. This performer, when day peeped in upon us, proved to be a middle-aged and corpulent lady, who sang out in a very peculiar and most penetrating tone ; herself both asking and answering, often categorically, but for the most part in the "guess and may be" style of recitativo. Encouraged by the silence of the company, the lady at length in the same lofty strains sang out portions of her own history, introducing the pleasing variations of "may-be-it-would" and "may-be-it-wouldn't" -"I guessed and he guessed"-and "says and says he," &c. The burden, however, of the piece was this :- it was her first trip to the city, although from a little girl she had lived within thirty miles-but her mother could never spare her-and when she 1
7
THE JOURNEY
married Jacob, her and him could never leave home together, and Jacob, he would never let her go alone by herself, being "right down sarten she'd never come back again alive or without some of her bones broken."
Soon, however, we began to go "slowly and sadly" over the Schuylkill bridge, when something not unlike snoring admonished the lady of our seeming inattention and her musical narrative sud- denly ceased, like the sudden holding up of a hard rain; and then all were quickly either practising sleep at random, or with troubled thoughts wandering to the absent or indulging fitful dreams of the future.
Morning revealed by degrees the incumbents, and in very im- posing attitudes. For instance, there was the Frenchman,-his head on the Irishman's shoulder, and keeping pretty tolerable time to the music of the jolting carriage; while the Irishman revived now and then by a desperate lurch extra, as in atonement for his fault, made no attempt to be rid of his burden, but slowly closing his eyes, nodded away with his own head in the direction of our solo. But all noddings in this book will be indulged by the classic reader, who knows well enough:
"Aliquando bonus dormitat Homerus."
"The excellent Homer takes a nap now and then."
Fronting myself was a person with hands holding to a strap pendent from the roof, his head inclined towards his breast, and his hat fallen off, but intercepted by Col. Wilmar, his sleeping neighbour. This stranger, on several elevations of his head, pre- sented a countenance that set me to recalling past scenes and as- sociates, and I was in a fair way of making some discovery, when all were fiercely jerked into wakefulness by a most unnatural and savage plunge of the stage, followed on the instant, like severe lightning, by an explosion; the tiers becoming all vocal with "bless my soul's"-"my goodnesses !"-and vulgar "ouches !" Above all, however, sounded this pathetic remonstrance in our talking lady's inimitable style :- "La ! Mister ! if you aint nodded agin this here right bran new bonnit of mine, till I vow if it aint as good as spiled!" To this no reply was permitted as the horses suddenly halted, and a venerable and decent landlord hav-
1
1
1
8
THE JOURNEY
ing opened the door of the carriage, requested us to alight, adding that "the stage breakfasts here.".
The live stock accordingly was unpacked and extricated from the dead, no important damage being visible, except in "the bran new bonnit;" and sure enough it was curiously sloped contrary to nature, with an irregular concave in the front and suitable enlargements sideways. Sceptics like Hume would doubtless have raised a query, if the width was entirely owing to the noddings of the Irish gentleman, or the very ample rotundity of the cherry- cheeked and good-humoured face expanded within the bonnet; but Mr. Brown himself at once admitted his inconsiderate butting as the cause, and with every appearance of concern he busied himself with assisting the matron to alight and looking after her baskets and boxes. This so won on her, that when at the first opportunity Mr. Brown attempted an apology and condolence, he was interrupted by her saying-"Oh! never mind it, Mister, it aint no odds no how, and I guess we can soon fix it."
During our ablutions I caught the eye of the young stranger already named, fixed with an inquiring look on my face; and then we both, towel in hand, gradually advanced, yet embarrassed and hesitating as if both recollected the incident, "you thought it was me and I thought it was you, and faith its nather of us," till, ar- rived at proper distance, he extended his hand and hazarded the affirmative inquiry :
"If I mistake not this is Robert Carlton !"
My reply showed it was each of us:
"Clarence ! Charles Clarence !- is it possible !- is this you !"
Reader, this Charles Clarence was the identical boy of the adjacent seat, whose enthusiasm for bark cabins and forest life, like my own, had beguiled us of many a hateful lesson, and gained for us many. a smart application of birch and leather in parts left defenceless by scant patterns of primitive roundabouts
-
-
Shortly after this, in the parlour of the Warren tavern, a general introduction took place among the Pittsburgh travellers : viz. Mr. Brown, Mr. Smith, Col. Wilmar and Miss Wilmar, Mr. Clarence and Mr. and Mrs. Carlton; who all, in due season, shall be more particularly introduced to our readers, as the Party. At present we must obey the signal for breakfast; that meal being
9
THE JOURNEY
really prepared for the passengers, although, by metonomy, it was in old times said to be for the stage.
CHAPTER III ..
"Hominem pagina nostra sapit." .. "Our page describes some gentlemen."
WHEN summoned to the stage by the driver's horn, it seemed we had lost some way-passengers, room being thus obtained for the lady of the bonnet; who, however, appeared wearing the old . article, having, with a corrected judgment, consigned the damaged one to the band-box. So, also, greater space was found for the French gentleman's foot, who had, from apprehension of cold or from gout, so encased his pedalic appendages in socks of carpet-stuff as to lead a careless observer, even by day-light, to mistake his feet for two of the many travelling bags on the floor. Opportunity also was afforded now of a more judicious disposal of various rubbing, poking and punching articles, so that, aided by a good breakfast and a morning cold but bright, we were soon engaged in a conversation, general, easy, and animated.
And now we may properly proceed to introduce the gentlemen of the party. Please then, reader, notice first that pleasant-looking personage bowing so profoundly, and evidently anxious to win your favour. That is-hem !- that is Robert Carlton, Esq. He takes the opportunity of soliciting your company not only for the journey but-all the way through his two volumes. He would also say, it is his purpose to imitate Julius Cæsar occasionally, and use the third instead of the first person singular, and to adopt now and then, too, the regal style, in employing nominative we, pos- sessive our or ours, objective us. These imitations, it is supposed, will give a very pleasing variety to the book, enable the author to utter complimentary things about Mr. Carlton and his lady with greater freedom, and not run so hard upon capital I's, or, in technical phrase, not exhaust the printer's sorts.
IO
THE JOURNEY
This next gentleman is my friend Mr. Smith. Like so many of the name, he was in all respects a worthy man, and honoured, at the time, with a high station in the magistracy of Pittsburgh. Our party shared his liberal hospitality there, and since that hour we have been quite partial in our regard of the Smiths, and their relatives the Smythes. Happy partiality this ; for if all classed and sorted under that grand-common-proper-noun take a correspond- ing liking for our author, where will be the limit to the number of copies and editions ?
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Mr. Brown. He was an Irish gentleman, had travelled extensively in Europe, and had the manners of the best society. At present he was at the commence- ment of a tour, to be extended over most of the United States. Among his oddities, not the least was his odd person, entitling him to Noah Webster's word, lengthy,-he appearing alternately all body, when one looked up, and all legs when one looked down :- a peculiarity I am led the more to notice, as I found his elonga- tion very unfavourable to skiff navigation afterwards on the Ohio river ; and indeed it put us in jeopardy, if not of life, yet of immersion. In spite of all his reading-(Mr. Boz, however, had not then published his American notes)-Mr. Brown was re- markably ignorant of our country, expressing unfeigned surprise that our road, only twenty miles from Philadelphia, in place of leading into dark forests filled with wild beasts and naked savages, did really run amid open farms and smiling scenery, abounding with domestic animals and civilized agriculturalists. Pittsburgh was his Ultima Thule, beyond which he expected to find no place, or even something worse. Distinguished, however, for his agree- able manners and frank disposition, cheerfully confessing and laughing at his own mistakes, he became of course a universal favourite.
Col. Wilmar was, however, my beau ideal of a gentleman. To a manly beauty he had added the qualities of good education and the grace of many accomplishments. He was courteous, brave and even chivalrous ; his attention to others resulting from benev- olence and not from prudence. Ladies under his care (and that, from a knowledge of his character, was often the case), were re- garded by him more as sisters having claims on a brother's atten-
II 1
THE JOURNEY
tions, than as strangers committed to his trust. With pleasure we thought such a specimen of our citizens could be contemplated by Mr. Brown; and Mr. Carlton rejoiced that he knew one worthy to live in the land of poetry and dreams: for the colonel was an inhabitant of the West.
In the last war with Great Britain, Col. Wilmar, then a very young man, commenced his military career as a volunteer, and after being actively engaged in many skirmishes and other war- like enterprises, he served finally as an aid to Gen. Winchester in the disastrous battle of the river Raisin.1 Taken prisoner he es- caped the massacre made of his associates by the Indians, and was then marched to Fort Malden; whence, after a detention of some months, he was restored to his home. Here, his military feelings being yet dominant, he was soon honoured with an im- portant command among the militia and volunteers of Kentucky- his native State.
When we became, as a party, the sole occupants of the stage, and, in the ascent of the mountains, had opportunities for pro- longed narratives, among other matters the colonel gave, at our request, a sketch of his military adventures. And one story may properly find a place here by way of episode in the description of my companions.
But hark !- some one hails our driver, and the stage stops .-
"Law! bless my senses, if there aint Jacob in his cart come out for me at the end of our road !"-was the immediate exclamation that burst from our heroine. The unexpected sight of her hus- band and the thoughts of home (where we learned she expected to see "little Peggy"), were too powerful for the prudent resolves or secret awe that had, for the last hour, kept our dame silent ; and out rushed nature's feelings as above described. Nor did the torrent exhaust itself at one gushing-it paused and then continued :
"I vow I thought he'd a met one at the tavern in Dowington-
1 In Michigan just north of Toledo, Ohio. On Jan. 22, 1813, the British General Proctor, commanding 1,000 whites and Indians, defeated the Americans under General Winchester. The 500 American prisoners, left without a sufficient guard, were massacred by the Indians. "Remember the Raisin" became the battle cry of the western frontiersmen. Ft. Malden is in Canada across the Detroit river below Windsor.
1
12
THE JOURNEY
but Jacob's so monstrous afeard of a body's gittin hurt, that he's staid out here-I do wonwer how he left them all at home?"
In the meantime, Mr. Brown, pleased with her self-satisfaction, good nature, and forgiving temper, had got out and stood receiv- ing first the band-box containing the pummelled bonnet, and then aiding its owner to alight; for which he received a cordial "thankee, sir," and pressing invitation to call and see her and Jacob if ever he should be travelling that way again.
All that could be heard of the conjugal dialogue was-"Well I vow, Jacob, who'd a thought of seeing you at our road !"-to which was answered-"And so, Peggy,"-the rest being lost in the renewed thunder of our wheels. Jacob was evidently pleased to receive Peggy safe; and his calm quaker-life dress and counte- nance seemed to look and say, he was by no means the Mercury or chief speaker in the domestic circle.
Return we to our episode, Col. Wilmar's narrative.
"Among our volunteers was a young man, a tailor I believe, but in all respects decidedly our best soldier. He was tall, well pro- portioned, and fit for any feat of strength and dexterity ; besides, he was observant of every duty, and ready at any time for either parade or battle. Without being myself a member of the church, I believe the many excellences of his brave, benevolent, and self- sacrificing spirit were owing mainly to religious principles. He was, I know, a professor of religion.
"In one battle at the Raisin, he was slightly wounded-a knowl- edge of which must have led to the tragedy that followed our capture. Turner, for that was the soldier's name, did, indeed, try to conceal his wound from the Indians ; and I well know it did not retard his progress : but unless our captors were determined to avoid even the possibility of any hinderance, we never could conjecture any other plausible reason for what followed.
"My friend was in the same division of prisoners with myself, the assistant surgeon and several of our townsmen; and at night when we halted, Turner was seated near me at the fire in the woods, while the Indians dealt us out a little bread and beef. On my left, and nearly opposite the poor fellow, I saw, for some time, an Indian who kept his eye on Turner, with an expression that
៛
-
13
1
THE JOURNEY
looked like mischief ; and then I saw the savage, as if by stealth, grasp his tomahawk and move round without any noise, till he came up immediately behind us. Why, I cannot tell, but perhaps Turner, too, had noticed all this ; he sprang, however, suddenly to his feet and with the most amazing activity, arrested the blow of the weapon with his arm, receiving a deep gash in his shoulder, and thus warding off the blow from his head. And then, gentle- men, that wounded man darted upon that Indian, and actually wrested the hatchet from his hand, and in the next instant raised it to aim a deadly blow at his enemy's head-ay, gentlemen, I saw the hatchet tremble in his grasp-I saw, as I think, the weapon almost descending with its fatal stroke-and yet, at that very moment, it was stayed-and the next it was thrown down upon the ground.
"For on the instant our surgeon, who had noticed the Indians drawing their knives and hatchet for our massacre, cried out- "Turner! Turner for God's sake, don't kill him!"-And then, Turner, our noble, godlike comrade, comprehending at a glance our danger, looked up a moment, as if in prayer-flinging, at the same time, the weapon on the earth. And there he stood !- his arms calmly folded across his breast, and with such a look of self-devotion and Christian resignation, until the demon-like sav- age having picked up the hatchet, approached his victim, and buried it, with one terrific blow, deep in his head !"
A tear trembled in the colonel's eye as he concluded; and al- though many years have passed since I heard him tell this story, I am moved when I think of that godlike warrior so dying !- but then the story was better told.
Charles Clarence my new found friend was an orphan. His parents both had died, he being scarcely three years old, leaving him however, heir nominally to large and valuable tracts of land. But he succeeded to nothing, at last, more valuable than a very large mass of useless papers ; unless we except some trinkets in- dicative of an ancient and wealthy family : and even these the sole mementos of departed parents were sacrificed to supply the urgent necessities of Clarence, when he found himself a deserted boy. Some relatives did not then know of his existence-and some only found it out when he did not need either recognition or as-
14
THE JOURNEY
sistance. A maternal uncle, however, in the far South, prevented by sudden death from adopting my friend as a son, had left him a legacy : and from this he had been liberally educated, with many interruptions, however, and many distressing inconveniences, owing to the interception of his small dividends on some occa- sions by dishonest agents.
Still the apparent neglect of some relatives, the want of a guardian and other seeming evils had been of service to Clarence in giving stamina to his character, wanting, naturally, in bone and sinew. Even the interruption of his studies had led to several voyages and journeys with peril indeed, to life and health, but with advantage to his mind and manners. His fondness, too, for adventure was indulged, and he was rendered thus a more in- teresting and instructive companion friend. Sobered, it is true, by disappointment and grief, my friend was; yet I found him now sufficiently sanguine and confident to venture on enterprises con- sidered praiseworthy, if one succeed, but not so, if unsuccessful. Indeed but lately had he returned from a visit to the Falls of Niagara, in which from want of money, he had been induced to use the vulgar mare that required only rest and no oats-in other words, with a knapsack on his back he had, in company with two associates, made a tour of three hundred miles on foot. He had also travelled many thousand miles in various directions and in various capacities, so that he abounded in anecdotes and incidents, which he could so relate as to make himself a companion for a journey by no means undesirable.
At this very time Clarence was going to Kentucky on a very grand adventure :- he was on his way to be married. When only sixteen years of age he became affianced to a maiden, whose family shortly after emigrating to the West, thus, for a long time, had separated the lovers. But now at the end of seven years, during which the parties had never met, Clarence was going as he pretended to see the family ; but in reality, reader, to marry his sweetheart. Ladies! will you please note this as an offset to instances of faithlessness in our sex? And were not these specimens of long cherished love and unbroken faith worthy the poetical land ?
-But what lights in the distance? Oh! that is Lancaster,
.
15
1
THE JOURNEY
and there we eat supper and change stages: excuse me, then, reader, we have no time to introduce our ladies.
* *
Supper ended, we found a new stage, if by new is understood another, for old enough it was and a size (?) less than our old stage ;- which after all was nearly a new one. True, excepting monsieur, we had before stopping let out all our way passengers; but fortunately on attempting to get in ourselves now, we dis- covered enough new way passengers not only to take the seats of the former ones, but our seats also-so remarkably accommodat- ing were the old-fashioned accommodation stages and stage own- ers! Alas! for us that night! that it was before the era of caoutchouc or gum elastic !- stages' bodies of that could have so easily become, almost at will, a size larger and a size less, expand- ing and contracting as passengers got in or out! Oh! the cram- ming-the jamming-the bumping about of that night! How we practiced the indirect style of discontent and cowardice, in giving it to the intruders over the shoulders of stage owners, and agents, and drivers, and horses ! And how that crazy, rattling, rickety, old machine rolled and pitched and flapped its curtains and walloped us for the abuse, till we all were quashed, bruised, and mellowed into a quaking lump of passive, untalking, sullen victims !
CHAPTER IV.
"Pshaw !"
DASHED away from the hotel the stage with such vengeance and mischief in the speed that the shops ran backward in alarm and lights streamed mere ribbons of fire, as when urchins whirl an ig- nited stick! Discontent, therefore, found a present alleviation in the belief that such driving, by landing us in Harrisburg speed- ily, would soon terminate our discomforts. But the winged horses, once beyond Lancaster, turned again into hoofy quadrupeds mov- ing nearly three miles per hour! And then the watering places ! -the warming places-the letting out places !- the letting in
1
16
THE JOURNEY
places !- the grog stations !- and above all! the post-offices !- and oh! the marvellous multiplication of extra drivers !- and extra driver's friends-and extra hostlers !- it was like the sud- den increase of bugs that wait for the darkness before they take wing! And then the flavour of the stable considerately tempered with the smell of ginseng and apple whiskey !- both odours oc- casionally overpowered by the fragrance of cigars bought six for a penny.
At first, so decided a growl arose from the imprisoned travellers whenever a cigar was lighted, that the smoking tobacco was at once cast away ; but the rising of the numberless other gases, soon taught us "of two evils to bear the least," and the cigars were finally tolerated to the last puff.
And then the talk on the driver's seat !- how interesting and refreshing !- For instance, the colloquies about Jake! and Ike! and Nance! and Poll! The talk, too, first about the horses, and then the talk with the horses; on which latter occasions the four legged people were kindly addressed by their Christian names and complimented with an encomiastic flourish and cut of the lash. To these favours the answer was commonly an audible and impatient swing of the horse tails; sometimes, however, it came in form of a sudden and malicious, dislocating jerk of the stage; and sometimes, I am sorry to add, the answer was alto- gether disrespectful, indicating an indulged and pampered favourite.
Within the den, the ominous pop, at irregular intervals (but not like angel's visits in the number and length), and the smell of fresh brandy, intimated dealings with evil spirits, and that some carried bacchanalian pocket pistols-more fatal even and much nastier than the powder and bullet machines used in other murders and suicides. Olfactories were regaled also with essence of peppermint, spicy gingerbread, and unctuous cold sausage; such and other delicacies being used by different inmates to beguile hunger and tedium.
At length a jew pedlar with a design of selling the article as well as gratifying a musical penchant, exhibited-not to our eyes, it was an Egyptian night within-but to our ears, a musical snuff box, if not enchanting yet certainly enchanted, as it possessed the
17
THE JOURNEY
art of self-winding, to judge from the endless and merciless repetitions and alternations of the Copenhagen Waltz and Yankee Doodle. Its tinkling, however, was ultimately drowned by a more powerful musician on the driver's seat. His was an extra driver, so wrought up by the pedlar's box, that his feelings could be no longer controlled, but suddenly exploded with the most startling effect in the following exquisite lyric or ballad. Perhaps the words were not extempore, yet from the variations of the won- drous hum-drum fitted to them, and the prolongation and shorten- ing of notes, and a peculiar slurry way to bring in several syllables to one note, it may be supposed our songster chose not to halt or stump from any defect of memory.
THE EXTRA-DRIVER'S SONG.
"Come all ye young people, I'm going for to sing, Concarnin Moolly Edwards and her lovyer Peter King, How this young woman did break her lovyer's heart, And when he went and hung hisself how hern did in her smart.
"This Molly Edwards she did keep the turnpike gate, And travilyers allowed her the most puttiest in our state, But Peter for a livin he did foller the drovyer's life, 'And Molly she did promise him she'd go and be his wife.
"So Peter he to Molly goes as he cums through the gate, And says, says he, oh! Molly, why do you make me wait, I'm done a drovin hossis and come a courtin you, Why do you sarve me so, as I'm your lovyer true?
"Then Molly she toss'd up her nose and tuk the drovyer's toll, But Pete he goes and hangs hisself that night unto a pole, And Molly said, says she, I wish I'd been his wife, And Pete he come and hanted her the rest of all her life."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.