500 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



enable us, while nearing the last end of our journey, to 

 pass over a route less rough, rocky, mountainous and 

 miserable than I found in the north-western part of Ala- 

 bama and part of Tennessee, and finally terminate, as 

 did my present one, upon the beautiful green and flowery 

 prairie, and by the side of groves sending forth the frag- 

 rance of early spring flowers. However tempestuous 

 may have been the weather, or however rough and ragged 

 may have been the mountain paths of our youthful jour- 

 ney, the ripened wisdom of mature life is given us to 

 point out a smooth and even path that will lead us to a 

 peaceful and happy home at last. And as men set up 

 along the highways of the world guide boards to point 

 out the right road to the traveller, so let me say to the 

 multitude upon the great thoroughfare through life, that 

 there is a universal guide board which they can easily 

 obtain, when first setting out upon their long journey, 

 that will be far more useful than all that they will find 

 by the road side, to keep them upon the straight forward 

 and true path, and bring them home at last; and these 

 are the golden letters thereon: 



"Do unto others as ye would that others should do 

 unto you." 



But I am wandering from the road upon which I 

 started, and must quit moralising, and return to speak 

 of things more interesting to that numerous class of 

 travellers who "take no thought of the morrow." 



As I hinted above, I will here say, that I found the 

 road from Columbus, Miss., which is a very pleasant 

 town on the Tombigbee river, to Florence, Ala., one of 

 the most rough, rocky, mountainous and poorly worked 

 roads that I know of in the West. The distance is about 

 120 miles, and with the exception of one once rich, and 

 now poor valley of a few miles, the whole distance is as 

 poor a region of land as poverty could wish, until within 

 some 8 or 10 miles of Florence where we come down a 

 mile long mountain-side into the broad valley of the Ten- 

 nessee, which 25 or 30 years ago could boast as rich and 



