428 PIONEERS MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



expecting the arrival of their parents from New England, and 

 had travelled with old people journeying from that country to 

 join their sons in Illinois, I attributed the moving of youth to 

 the western districts to the best of motives, and assigned to 

 both parties the feelings of domestic affection . The youth of 

 Britain do not engage in the bustle of the world so early as 

 the Americans, and family intercourse is consequently more 

 enduring. But it is the difficulty of earning a subsistence 

 and not affection, which binds the young men of Britain to 

 the roof of their parents, and in all probability the emotions 

 of the heart are the same in both countries. 



A class of men are said to precede civilisation in America, 

 called pioneers or squatters, and have been described by travel 

 lers as demi-savages, blackened with iniquity, and shunning 

 their fellow mortals by moving to a more remote station, as 

 settlers advance. It is probable such beings did at one time 

 exist, and may still occasionally be met with in the lower part 

 of the Mississippi valley. They may be supposed to have 

 originated in such a state of things as occurred at the first 

 settlement of Kentucky, and perhaps were altogether confined 

 to the latitude of this State. In the present day, when the 

 east is densely peopled, and civilisation in the region of Illi 

 nois has reached an open country, desperate characters are 

 more likely to find subsistence and concealment in the crowd 

 ed city than in the prairie. Be this as it may, there are no 

 such characters in the northern parts of Illinois as the pioneers 

 of old, and I regard the present frontier men of the prairie as 

 one of the best and most enterprising portions of the western 

 population. 



The manners and customs of Illinois have been described 

 by Mr Stuart in his &quot; Three Years in North America,&quot; in 

 terms and spirit so different from almost any thing that is 

 noticed in the work, that I shall quote part of his remarks. 



&quot; I made enquiry on the road from some passengers, as to 

 the hotels at Jacksonville, and was told there were two, 

 neither of them good, but that Bentley s was the best. I found, 

 on going into the house, that the tea and supper were nearly 

 finished ; and it was not without some difficulty, and rather 

 uninviting looks from a young lady who was acting as waiter, 



