USA > Indiana > Monroe County > The new purchase : or, seven and a half years in the Far West > Part 5
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The performance, rapturously encored ex animo by the drivers and some cognate spirits within, but mischievously, it is to be feared, by Mr. Carlton, Col. Wilmar and the gentlemen of the party, was handsomely repeated and then succeeded by other poems and tunes equally affecting, but which we shall not record.
So passed the memorable night, till at long, very long last we reached the suburbs of Harrisburgh. Here, whether the horses smelled oats, or the road was better, or the driver would eradicate
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doubts about his team, expressed by us every half mile lately, here we commenced going not like thunder but certainly in thunder and earthquake, till in a few moments the carriage stopped at the hotel. And this was where the stage was to sleep-but, alas ! it lacked now only one hour of the time when we must proceed on our journey anew! The vehicle, however, disgorged its cramming over the pavement; and then, how all the people, with countless bags, boxes, cloaks, sticks, umbrellas, baskets, bandboxes, hatboxes, valises, &c., &c., had been or could be again stowed in that humming-bird's nest of a stage, seemed to require a nice geometrical calculation. Pack the inhabitants of our globe stage-fashion by means of dishonest agents and greedy owners, and be assured, a less number of acres would serve for our ac- commodation than is generally supposed.
It was arranged now that our two ladies should share one bed at 25 cents, and take each 121/2 cents worth of sleep in an hour, ยท the gentlemen to snooze gratuitously on the settees in the bar room; and it is wonderful how much sleep can be accomplished in a short time if it be done by the job! Oh! it seemed cruelty to summon us from that deep repose to renew the journey ; yet, as all our innumerable way passengers but one had swarmed off, we had more room, and so were able to nurse the ladies during the day into some uneasy slumbers and to sleep off hand ourselves, or in other words, without a rest. Pshaw!
CHAPTER V.
""Tis distance lends enchantment to the view."
WE left Chambersburgh in good spirits after a comfortable night's rest, the sole occupants of the stage too; and by a rare chance we remained sole occupants during the remainder of our journey. And "though we say it that shouldn't" never was a more agreeable party in all respects than ours-the present com- pany, viz., the reader and author excepted. Among other excellences, none of the party chewed tobacco, smoked tobacco, spit tobacco, drank alcoholic liquors, or used profane language-
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evils that may be separated, but which still are often united. Of course no one took snuff, all being then greatly too young for powdered tobacco: that very appropriately belongs to "the sere and yellow leaf" time.
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Not long after sun-rise we were at the ascent of the grand , mountain-a frowning rampart shutting by its rocky wall from the east that world beyond! From the base to the apex the road here ascends about four miles; which ascent the gentlemen resolved to walk up :- a feat usually achieved at the first moun- tain, especially if the first one has ever seen. To be sure people afterwards will walk when politely requested by a good natured driver, out of pity to the poor brute horses: but-(shame on his poetry and romance), Mr. Carlton having in subsequent years passed and repassed the mountains twenty-four times, used to remain in the stage and sleep up the ascents ! Yet not infrequently would he be musing on the past, and recalling with smiles and tears, that delightful party and that delightful walk on that sweet morning, and all the glorious visions and castle buildings of that entrancing day !- gone, gone, "like the baseless fabric of a dream !"
We soon left the stage behind us, and sometimes out of sight and hearing. Then, under pretext of concern for the ladies, but really I fear to have a pretext for resting, we called a halt, where we could sit on a rock and blow, till the noise of wheels and the sight of a bonnet peeping from the stage gave us liberty to proceed ; or rather took away the excuse for sitting still. At the same time the bonnet would disappear, lest it should be construed as a token of fear-robbery in those times not only of solitary travellers but of whole stage companies often happening. How- ever we had a host in Col. Wilmar, and even thought with a peculiar thrill of the poetry of an attack from bandits ;- although when in after years we encountered the danger it was not so poetical as romance writers make it, but simply a very disagree- able affair better to read about than transact.
The time of the present journey was late in April, the nights being often very cold, but the days only moderately cool and sometimes even warm. Snow was yet in spots near the summit of the mountains, although in places lying towards the south and
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east vegetation was in rapid progress: so that nothing could be more in unison with our feelings than the renovated world amid the Alleghanies. Hope was springing so fresh and green from the decayed hope of boyhood! and nature so budding forth from the deadness of winter ! but alas ! if buds and flowers burst forth, they die again and soon! And renovated hope is renewed only for blighting.
We stood now on the pinnacle of the great Cove mountain and were gazing on the mingled grandeur and beauty of the scene. Few are unmoved by the view from that top; as for my- self I was ravished. Was I not on the dividing ridge between two worlds-the worn and faded East, the new and magic West? And yet I now. felt and painfully felt, that we were bidding adieu to home and entering on the untried: still, hope was superior to fear, and I was eager to pass those other peaks, some near as if they might be touched and glorious with the new sun- beams, and some sinking down away off till the dim outline of the farthest visible tops melted into blue and hazy distance! Years after I stood on that pinnacle alone and the two worlds were seen again-but no hopes swelled then into visions of glory, at sight of the dim peaks ; no consolations awaited me in my native valleys of the East! Death had made East and West alike to me a wilder- ness! Poor Clarence! did he ever stand again, where I noticed him standing that morning? How buoyant his heart! and so \ melted with tender thoughts, so raptured with imaginings! Could it be ?- after years of separation-is he now hastening to one dearer to him than the whole world beside! Will they know one another? Both have changed from childhood to maturity-but why so speak? Our lovers ever thought each the other unchanged in size, in look, in voice; and when they did meet at last, they shed tears, for while both were in all respects improved, both were altered, and they were no more to love as boy and girl, but as man and woman! Clarence saw no dark spectres in the bright visions of that morning !
Upon Smith, long ago the scenes of that other life opened'; and doubtless they were of an undying glory, for-
But here comes the stage to hurry us onward; and so the
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bustle of life interrupts serious meditations with the whirl of cares and enterprises.
We were all once more seated in the vehicle, which instantly darted upon the descent with a velocity alarming, and yet ex- hilarating to persons unusued to the style of a mountain driver. The danger is with due care less, indeed, than the appearance; yet the sight of places where wagons and stages are said to have tumbled gigantic somersets over miniature precipices, will force one involuntarily to say in a supplicatory tone to Jehu,-"Take care driver, here's where that stage went over, and poor Mr. Bounce was killed!" To this caution Jehu replied-"Oh! no danger-besides he wa n't killed-he only smashed his ribs 'gin that rock there, and got his arm broke:" and then to quiet our fears, he sends forth his endless lash to play a curve or two around the ears of the prancing leaders, and with a pistol-like crack that kindles the fire of the team to fury; and away they all bound making the log crowning the rampart of wall tremble and start from its place as the wheels spin round within eight inches of the dreaded brink.
Thundering down thus, our stage dashed up the small stones as if they leaped from a volcano, and awaked the echoes of the grim rocks and the woody caverns: while ill-stifled "Oh! my's" and a tendency of the ladies to counteract, by opposite motions, the natural bias of the stage body for the sideway declivity, were consoled with the usual asseverations-"O don't be afraid-no danger-no danger!" But when the horses, on approaching a sudden turn of the road, seemed, in order to secure a good offing, to shy off towards the deep valley, and nothing could be seen over the tips of their erect and quivering ears, save blue sky and points of tall trees, then the ladies, spite of rebukes and con- solations-(and one at least of the gentlemen)-would stand tip-toeish, labouring, indeed, to keep a kind of smile on the lips, but with an irepressible "good gracious-me!" look out of the eyes. And-
-But oh! what a beautiful village belows us! How neat and regular the houses! See! there's one spun and woven-like a Dutch woman's petticoat !- yes, petticoat is the word-only the stripes of the petticoat do not run horizontally, and those of the
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house do. I declare if there are not brick houses! and stone ones !- and how the smoke curls up to us-we can smell break- fast ! What noiseless streets! What green meadows! Do you ever see any thing so picture like-so like patchwork! It would be so pleasant to live in that nice, quiet snug, picturesque village ! Mr. Smith, what place is it? Mr. Smith smiling replied- McConnelstown." McConnelstown! oh! what a beauty-there it is hid-no-there-look through there-where ?- there-no 'tis gone !
We soon had reached the valley three miles below the point of descent; and as Jehu said it was done at the rate of twelve miles to the hour, the reader being skilled in the modern knowl- edges, can calculate our time for himself. "There is the town," said Mr. Smith. Yes! there it was sure enough, as it had never budged from its site since we had first spied it; but-
"Quantum mutatus ab illo !"
"What a fall! was there! my countrymen !"
Is that jumble of curious frame, brick, log, and stone habitations our picture-town! Ay! truly, there is the petticoat-house, with a petticoat as a curtain before the door, and an old hat or so in the glassless sash, and fire light gleaming between the logs. There! the door opens to see us pass-just see the children-one, two, three-'nine at least, and one in very deed at the breast !- but how dirty and uncombed ! Did you ever see such a set as the scamps lounging about that tavern ?- and one reeling off drunk, the morn- ing so fresh yet! See! that duck puddle and swine wallow full of vile looking mud and water-certainly it must be sickly here, "Driver, what noise is that?" "Dogs fighting." "Dreadful !- Mr. Smith what are you laughing at?" "Oh, nothing-only I should not like to live here as well as some ladies and gentlemen." And yet, reader, while a near view had dispelled the illusion of a distant prospect, good and excellent, and even learned and talented people lived there, and yet live in McConnelstown.
At all events we shall have a good breakfast at this fine looking stage-house. But whether we had arrived too soon, or the folks usually began preparation after counting the number of mouths, or the wood was green or we most vulgarly hungry and sharp set, very long was it, very long indeed, before we were sum-
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moned. And then the breakfast! Perhaps it was all accidental, but the coffee (?) was a libel on a diluted soot, made by nurses to cure a baby's colic : the tea (?)-for we had representatives of both beverages-the tea, was a perfect imitation of a decoction of clover hay, with which in boyhood we nursed the tender little calves, prematurely abstracted from the dams, the silly innocents believing all the while that the finger in the mouth was a teat! Eggs, too !- it may have been unlike Chesterfield-but it certainly was not without hazard to put them in the mouth before putting them to the nose :- the oval delicacies mostly remained this morning to feast such as prefer eggs ripe. Ay! but here comes a monster of a sausage coiled up like a great greasy eel! Such often in spite of being over-grown or over-stuffed are yet palatable: this rascal, however, had rebelled against the cook, and salaman- der-like, had passed the fiery ordeal unscorched. Hot rolls came, a novelty then, but much like biscuits in parts of the Far West, viz., a composition of oak bark on the outside, and hot putty with- in-the true article for invalids and dyspeptics. We had also bread and butter, and cold cabbage and potatoes, like oysters, . some fried and some in the shell; and green pickles so bounti- fully supplied with salt as to have refused vinegar-and beets- and saltsellars in the shape of glass hats-and a mustard pot like a salve-box, with a bone spoon glued in by a potent cement of a red-brown-yellow colour-and a light-green bottle of vinegar dammed up by a strong twisted wadding of brown paper.
Reader, what more could we wish?
"Nothing."
Let us go then to a new chapter.
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CHAPTER VI.
-"hair-breadth escapes in the imminent deadly breach-"
"Is that a dagger that I see before me?"
"Fee! faw! fum! I smell the blood of an Englishman !"
IN imitation of the ingenious Greek, with his specimen brick, we have given bits of our roads, drivers and so forth, to stand for the whole of such matters: but as the reader, unless he skips, must have something to cheat him of the tedium during the re- maining journey, we shall here give parts of conversations, after we had abandoned walks up mountains and dreams on their summits.
"I shall never forget that spot," said Col. Wilmar, one day. "Why, Colonel?"
"I was so near shooting a fellow we mistook for a highway- man."
"Indeed ! why how was that?"
"My wife," proceeded the Colonel, in answer, "is a native of the South. Directly after our marriage, we sailed from Phila- delphia, there spending some weeks prior to our going home to Lexington. When the visit was over, having purchased a carriage, we prevailed on our cousin, the sister of Miss Wilmar here, to go with us to the West: and then set out, the two ladies and myself, with a hired coachman. I need hardly say I then travelled with weapons, and as we entered the mountainous country, a brace of pistols was kept loaded usually in a pocket of the carriage. Perhaps I may with propriety add, that we were worth robbing and that our travelling 'fixins' excited some interest along the road-the fact is, I was just married, and you all know what young fellows do in the way of extra then. Hence I do confess I felt more anxiety than I chose to exhibit, and looked upon it as more than possible that we might light on disagreeable company.
"The road was most execrable, except on occasional section of the turnpike then making and partially completed. We na- turally, therefore, entered on any chance section of this new road not only in good spirits from the exchange, but with a kind
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of confidence as to our safety :- for I believe one looks out for bad fellows in bad roads and places more than in the good ones. Well, just off there-you see where that old road ran-that deep narrow gulley-there we emerged into a piece of superb turnpike ; or, in fact, we were compelled to take it, an impediment being manifestly placed in the old road to turn travellers into the new : -and as I knew the turnpike would give out in a mile or two, I ordered the coachman to go ahead as fast as possible. This he did for about half a mile, when suddenly a loud and gruff voice called out-'Stop!'-which order was obeyed by our coach- man in an instant.
"With a hand instinctively on a pistol, I looked out of the carriage-window,-and there, fronting the horses stood a stout fellow with a formidable sledge hammer, raised, as in the very act of knocking down a horse ;- while several other rough chaps advanced towards us with bludgeons and axes from the side of the road !
"Drawing the pistol from the pocket, as I spoke, I demanded- 'What do you mean ?'
"'A dollar for trav'lin the new road-and buggur your eyes if you'll git on till you pay-and blast my soul if your man tries it, if I don't let drive at a horse's head.'
"To lean out-cock the pistol, and level straight at the fellow's head, was the work of a moment-and I then said-'Out of the road, you rascal !- only shake that sledge again, and I'll shoot you dead on the spot.'
"The instant I spoke my wife threw an arm around my neck, and my cousin hung on my other arm, and both screamed out- "Oh. colonel, don't kill him-oh! don't "-and then to the fellow -"Oh! do! do! do! go away !- he'll kill you !- oh! go!" "How far the gang had designed to proceed, I was then doubtful-nor do I know, if the ladies would not have destroyed the accuracy of my aim-yet, when that fellow caught sight of the muzzle directed at his head, and heard the frantic cries of the ladies, he dropped the sledge hammer as if his arms were paralyzed; and the whole company suddenly, but quickly, retreating, our driver went ahead. The ladies had interfered involuntarily from instinc-
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tive horror at seeing a sudden and violent death, and partly for fear the leader's fall would be the signal for our massacre-but then I had you know, the other pistol; and beside I depended on a stout dirk, worn under my vest, and some little on the alarm of the gang and the assistance of the driver. That, however, is the adventure."
. "Had you made no resistance," observed Mr. Smith, "you would at least have paid a dollar and perhaps have been insulted with foul language: but the fellows were not robbers in the ') worst sense. A number of workmen, it was said, had been de- frauded of their wages, and to make up the losses, they decoyed passengers into the turnpike and then exacted toll. Your affair, by the way, colonel, reminds me of a narrow escape I once made in returning from New Orleans-"
"Ay !- what was it?"
"I had gone," resumed Mr. Smith, "down the river with a load of produce, and having turned both cargo and boat into bills and cash, I was obliged to venture back alone. Accordingly, I bought a fine horse, provided weapons, and stowed my money and a few articles of apparel into my saddle-bags, which at night were put under my head and made fast round my person with a strap. One day, when I had nearly reached the state of Tennessee, I found myself at sunset, by some miscalculation or wrong direction, about fifteen miles from the intended halting-place, but was pre- vented from camping out by coming unexpectedly on a two story log-house lately built, and of course, for a tavern. The landlord took my saddle-bags and led the way into the house, where a couple of suspicious-looking men were standing near the fire. I called for something to eat, and pretty quick after supper I took up my plunder, under pretence of being very sleepy, and went up to a small room furnished with only one bed; but I did not really intend to go to bed, for the conviction kept haunting me, that some attempt would be made on my property-may be on my life. Of course, I barricaded the door as well as possible, and, without noise, examined my pistols-and got out my dirk-and after a while blew out the light and made a noise as if getting into bed- but I only sat on the edge and waited the result.
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"Between one and two hours after, I heard other persons enter the house below; and then, amidst a sort of premeditated bustle, I could plain enough distinguish a lower tone, a gentler stepping up and down, and once or twice a very cautious attempt or two to open my door, till at last the landlord came up and hailed me-
"'Hullow ! stranger in thare ?'
" 'Well ! hullow !- what's wanting?
"'Won't you take in another traveller ?- all's full but you.'.
"'No-there's only one bed in here, and that's a plaguy narrow one.'
"The landlord, after some unavailing entreaty, went away, but soon returned with the pretended traveller; and although they meant I should believe only two persons were outside, I knew from the whispering there were more, and that confirmed me in my suspicions of mischief.
"The traveller, however, now opened the conference :
" 'Hullow ! I say, mister, in thare, won't you 'commodate ?'
" 'Gentlemen,' said I, in a decided tone, 'nobody can come into this room to-night with my consent.'
"'Well, d-n me, then, if I won't come in whether you like it or no :- I've as much right to half a bed as you or any other man.'
"'If you attempt it, stranger, you may take what comes.'
"The only answer was a long strain at the door-till at last the door was forced a little open, and the rascal got his whole hand in and would soon have worked in all his arm; when, with a single thrust, I dashed my dirk right through his hand and pinned him that way to the door-cheek.
"He screamed out, you may be sure, in agony; but it was in vain, I held him fixed as fate: and when the others found it im- possible either to relieve him or get at me, they willingly agreed and with the most solemn and energetic promises to let me alone if I would release their comrade. I took them at their word and drew out the dirk, and strange as it may seem, the fellows kept their promise-and although, for a day or two I travelled in fear of an ambuscade, I was never molested, and by the Divine favour, reached home not long after in safety."
"Mr. Clarence," said Miss Wilmar, "I have heard that you had
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some alarming adventures in the South, and as we are quite in the robber vein to-day, may we not hear a story from you?"
"It would be difficult, Miss. Wilmar," replied Clarence, "to refuse after such an invitation : but only one part of the story to which you probably allude is certainly true-that I was pretty well scared; when possibly there was no good reason for alarm. However, here is the adventure, and you can judge of probabilities for yourselves.
"On my last visit to South Carolina, being sick of seasickness, I determined, winter as it was and contrary to advice, to return to . Philadelphia by land :- in which mode of travelling, however, if the endless and deep lagoons, and bayous, and swamps of the lower or coast-road, are considered, there was nearly as much of navigation and hazard of wrecking and drowning as in the other way, by sea. Indeed, more than once our narrow triangular stage, with its two horses, harnessed tandem, did really float a moment: -and by night as by day, did we ford the middle of submerged roads between drains and ditches, where the water must have been four or five feet deep.
"From Charleston we had not only a new but a new order of stage, which though crowded at starting, lost, by the time we reached Georgetown, all the passengers but myself and two others. These unfortunately were slave-dealers, and of that very sort that John Randolph, or my friend here the colonel, would not have greatly scrupled to shoot down like any other blood-thirsty brutes. Their diversion often was, to entice dogs near the stage and then to fire pistol-balls at them-usually, however, without effect, owing to the motion of the stage and the sagacity of the dogs. Of all wretches, these were superlatively pre-eminent in pro- fanity : and this I once had the temerity to tell them, but with no good result. Had the ancient persecutors chained Christians to such reprobates, the torture to a good and pious man would have been the most exquisitely fiendish-if the tormentors could have cursed all the time like these demons.
"Just before leaving Georgetown, I was not a little alarmed, on their learning that I was going North, by an abrupt query if I had not Philadelphia or New-York money: and then, as this could not be denied nor even evaded, by their immediate offer to
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give me Virginia paper for it all and at an enormous premium in my favour. From their whole manner I conjectured their Virginia notes were counterfeit; which, added to their open and reckless wickedness, rendered me uneasy and disposed to interpret their subsequent conduct in accordance with my fears.
"Late at night in a violent storm of snow and sleet we left Georgetown. The driver, pretending it was solely for our com- fort, had, in order to carry food for his horses, crowded the stage body even above the seats with cornblades, like a farm-wagon - with a load of fodder. I, slender and powerless, of course kept still, but the two did not hush down to their muttering state of quiescence till after the usual tempest of raving curses; and then we all three crawled in and mixed ourselves with the fodder as we best could. Within an hour the driver lay back, and with the reins somehow secured in his hands went to sleep-at all events, his hat was over his eyes and he snored. And then the men-steal- ers, supposing me to be asleep also, began a whispering and rather inarticulate colloquy, in which I at length clearly distinguished the ominous words-'Cut his throat !'
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