RURAL ARTS IN THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 



Ill 



A taste or relish for rural life, I believe 

 to be natural and general. But the forms 

 with which that taste will surround itself, 

 will depend on the circumstances of its 

 possessor, or on the associations or the culti- 

 vation of his mind. When I see the humblest 

 dwelling, adorned by a yard of shrubbery 

 and flowers, however small, laid out and 

 preserved in order and neatness, I consider 

 it a good mark, better than a bright motto 

 at the head of a composition, an evidence 

 of better things unseen, the harbinger of a 

 gentle heart and of a home of peace, where 

 the affections are cultivated, serenity dwells? 

 and such benevolence is distilled as seeks 

 its object quietly like the dews of heaven. 

 I enter it with pleasant anticipations. But 

 when I see another dwelling, however large, 

 a mere ostentatious mass of bricks and mor- 

 tar, surrounded by grounds, however spa- 

 cious, slovenly kept, and barren of the fruits 

 of gentle cultivation, I feel a repugnance to 

 it, as to the abode of a man " fit for treason, 

 stratagems and spoils," inhospitable and 

 cold. I approach the entrance Avith distrust. 

 The pioneer, however, who, like honest 

 Daniel Boone, will always live so near the 

 wilderness that he may fell the trees to 

 reach his cabin door, belongs to a class en- 

 titled to decided exception in respect to this 

 subject. They are a hardy and an honest 

 race, who regard many of the arts of civi- 

 lized life as efieminate, and escape from 

 them as they approach. Those arts can 

 seldom win them from their devotion to un- 

 cultivated nature. Many of them have felt 

 injustice in civil government, and they hate 

 it ; but they love not the less their fellow- 

 men, and their cabin is the abode of cheer- 

 fulness and hospitality. 



Architecture and horticulture are not im- 

 proved into the dignity of fine arts, by our 

 western people generally, for obvious rea- 

 sons and causes. Most of them are com- 



pelled by necessity to be content with what 

 is merely essential. Practically, therefore, 

 they seem to evince their concurrence in the 

 opinion of Lord Verulam, that " houses are 

 built to live in, and not to look on." The 

 log cabin, at first intended as a castle of se- 

 curity against savages and wild beasts, as 

 well as a protection from the weather, is 

 continued from convenience, and even 

 necessity. Every new farm that is to be 

 " settled," opened and " improved," is to 

 be so for the first time since the creation, 

 perhaps. The first thing to be done, and 

 that speedily too, is to erect a dwelling — 

 then to make a " clearing," and build a log 

 or rail fence. The timber is at hand. But 

 whether the site selected be in a prairie, on 

 the border of forest and prairie, or in the 

 heart of the woods, it is nearly always re- 

 mote from saw-mills, and perhaps even from 

 neighbors. But few hands are required, 

 and no other implement than the axe. 

 Generally, the new settler has very little 

 capital, if any, beyond the amount neces- 

 sary to pay for his land at $1.25 per acre. 

 His own right arm, then, is his main reli- 

 ance. But markets are remote, and prices 

 of produce low, though his lands are prolific. 

 He advances slowly. In a few years, how- 

 ever, you will perhaps observe that he takes 

 a step indicative of prosperity. His first ca- 

 bin, which was built of round logs, merely 

 notched at the ends, overlapping and bind- 

 ing each other at the corners, or of a series 

 of rough posts set perpendicularly in the 

 ground, the gaping interstices in either case 

 being filled with mud and stones, is now 

 exchanged for a new, a better, and a more 

 commodious log house. His timbers are 

 now hewed square, dovetailed at the cor- 

 ners, and closely jointed. The building, 

 square before, with only one room and one 

 story, now takes the form of a parallelogram, 

 rises to the dignity of a story and a half; 



