70 WILD SPOUTS IN THE FAR WEST. 



of my gun, I ran after him, caught him by the collar, 

 pulled him down, and be.lalx>red him with the pliant 

 ramrod, till only a lew inches of it were left, he roaring 

 " Mur der ! " " Mur der ! " all the while with might 

 and main. I must acknowledge that I felt some satis- 

 faction as I left him lying smarting in the mud. 



Towards evening I passed through Versailles, where 

 I procured a new ramrod. What a piece of irony to 

 call such a place Versailles ! but it is a custom of the 

 Americans to give high-sounding names to their little 

 settlements. Already in the State of New York, I 

 had passed through Syracuse, Babylon, Koine, Venice, 

 Alexandria, London, and Paris villages of seven or 

 eight houses. 



I arrived about the llth December at Friedmann's 

 farm. The proprietor was a German in good circum- 

 stances in Indiana : his property, though not large, was 

 very productive, and his cattle were very fine, lie 

 was the only German settler whom 1 fell in with in my 

 inarch through Indiana, although there are several in 

 that state. The sound of my mother tongue fell 

 doubly sweet on my ear after so long a privation. I 

 remained to dinner, and then set off in good spirits, on 

 a road which improved as 1 advanced, towards Vin- 

 cennes on the AVabash. 



Towards evening on the 12th, I came to a large, 

 clean-looking house, and when I went in to ask if 1 

 could have a bed, I found I\v<> German .Jews sitting 

 comfortably by the fire, who looked at me with a>ton- 

 ishment, and, as it seemed to me, with displeasure. 

 The host was an elderlv man. who>e grandfather and 

 grandmother had emigrated from Germany ; he spoke 



