CUSTOMS OF THE COUNTRY COLUMBUS. 289 



most orders passing- through the bar-keeper. Were another 

 system adopted, a greater number of servants would be neces 

 sary, and there would be more difficulty in obtaining them. 

 The plain and meagre furnishing of the hotels may also be 

 traced to expensiveness of servants, and so also may the 

 number of people which frequent them. The furniture of 

 the bedrooms, consisting of a bedstead, without posts or cur 

 tains, and counterpane of small size, washing-stand, and soli 

 tary chair, seemed to me admirably fitted for promoting a 

 circulation of air, which was the greatest luxury during the 

 season I was in the country, and I doubt much if bedroom 

 furnishings will be more ample in summer, when the wealth 

 of the population becomes greater than it now is. 



The circulation of air, in connexion with shade from the 

 sun-rays, will account for the use of the calash as a head-dress 

 for females, so generally met with in the States of New Eng 

 land, and which I imagine to be the most agreeable summer 

 wear that can be devised. On the same grounds may be 

 justified the New England gigs with hoods, having an aper 

 ture behind ; thus the customs of a country will generally be 

 found to have originated from circumstances connected with it, 

 and to be well suited to the inhabitants. 



Columbus is the capital of the state of Ohio, and beautifully 

 situated on the east bank of the river Scioto. The public 

 buildings are extensive and good. The village having been 

 founded in 1812, the buildings, which are chiefly of brick, are 

 well arranged. The state prison is a new and substantial stone- 

 building. The population is about 3000. A lateral branch 

 of the Ohio and Erie canal communicates with Columbus. 



Next morning, after breakfast, I left Columbus for Sandusky 

 city, formerly called Portland, on Lake Erie, passing through 

 Delaware, Marion, and Bucyrus. The first part of the road 

 lay on the banks of the Whetstone, a small river with very- 

 little bottom land. The country was thinly settled ; and the 

 soil second rate. The night was passed in a very bad hotel 

 at Marion, and by three o clock in the morning I was again 

 in the stage. When clay dawned, the stage was passing 

 through a country between oak-opening and prairie, seem- 



