92 INDIANA HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS 



bacco" means going daily through the fields and gather- 

 ing these offensive and disgusting monsters in the hand 

 and crushing them. By the bye, of the two classes of 

 tobacco chewers, I don't know which is the most disgust- 

 ing, the human or the inhuman. The worms however 

 seem to be benefited by such food, and that is more than 

 any human chewer of food fit for worms can say. 



"There are no toads here." That means Chicago exclu- 

 sively, I suppose ; because I have some of the "biggest and 

 best" I ever saw. One famous old fellow has been a pet 

 of ours these ten years: Every child about the place 

 knows "father's old toad," and under no circumstances 

 must the innocent and useful creatures be injured, 



"The Cactus." "The lover of flowers who has not seen 

 the bloom of the cactus is to be pitied." The term cactus 

 as here used is too indefinite. Children, Messrs. Editors, 

 read your paper, and should be told to which of the great 

 family of plants bearing this general name you allude: 

 since the term reaches from the great American Aloe, or 

 Century Plant, Agave Americanum, down to the little 

 humble "prickly pear." 



"The dandelion can be easily grown from seed." What 

 for? [Greens. Ed.'\ 



"Those Alpaccas" are coming — in a national vessel, too. 

 Think of that, ye "strict constructionists," who stickle 

 that the general government has no right or authority in 

 the constitution to build harbors any where upon fresh 

 water for the purpose of saving human life. Will it be 

 any less unconstitutional to devote a few dollars to bring 

 home some of these valuable animals than it would to dig 

 out a little of the mud in the mouth of Chicago River,^ or 



* In August, 1846, President Polk vetoed the Rivers and Harbors 

 Bill, which carried an appropriation for improving the Chicago 

 River channel, upon which over $247,000 had been expended between 

 1833 and 1846. On July 5, 1847, a great River and Harbor Con- 

 vention opened in Chicago. The address to Congress, prepared by 

 the convention, reviewed the entire history of waterways in this 

 country, argued constitutional questions involved, discussed the 

 subject from a political angle, and included other matters pertain- 

 ing to the welfare of the West. Nothing was done for the Chicago 



