440 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



turkey and venison, say you — a right new country sup- 

 per? I can almost hear your lips smack now But let 

 me tell you, the supper consisted of seven small pieces 

 of pork ribs for four persons, and a "power" of very 

 coarse corn bread, and some muddy looking warm water 

 called coffee, free from any adulteration of cream and 

 sugar, and no other eatable thing on the table. And of 

 this I eat, not having then seen the kitchen, which I 

 afterwards did; and the negro cook. / did'nt stop for 

 breakfast, though I did for lodging, and slept quite com- 

 fortably under my two buffalo skins : but in the morning, 

 although I stopped at the "stage-house" for breakfast, 

 the only improvement was, that had I been compelled, 

 for want of food to "kiss the cook," it would have been 

 altogether more agreeable than the evening before. If 

 possible, the house was worse. It is an old saying that 

 "one half the world don't know how the other half live." 

 I wish they did. I think they would be more contented 

 and grumble less. And I wish the other half knew how 

 they lived themselves; I think they would live better. 

 In truth, I think it would be beneficial to us all to know 

 a little more how the other half of the world live, and 

 by comparing the situation of others by our own, try to 

 improve. 



But I must leave moralising over poor suppers and 

 worse breakfasts, and jump over these poor hills and 

 down along the banks of a stream whose waters look as 

 though somebody had spilt their milk in them, and when 

 within a mile of Jackson, the county seat of Cape Girar- 

 deau, we seem to strike an entirely different region of 

 land; and the first good looking place after leaving the 

 hills, I find belongs to a Mr. Criddle, 1 an old Virginia to- 

 bacco planter, who is very successful here, and has of 

 his last year crop now on hand, about 40,000 lbs. He, 



1 Jesse Criddle, born Cumberland County, Virginia, December 17, 

 1782; died near Jackson, Missouri, June 16, 1861. Moved to Mis- 

 souri in 1840 to join an elder brother, Edward, and a son, John B. 

 Criddle. Letter from Public Library, Jackson, Missouri. 



