I06 AI^EXANDER WII^ON: POET-NATURAUST 



iires are quite fashionable in Kentucky. This is a 

 charming country for ladies. From the time they 

 are first able to handle a cow skin, there is no amuse- 

 ment they are so fond of as flogging their negroes 

 and negro wenches. This they do with so much 

 coolness and seeming satisfaction, that it really 

 gives them an air of great dignity and manliness. 

 The landlady of the tavern where I lodge is a great 

 connoisseur at this sort of play ; and while others 

 apply their cow skins only to the back, she has dis- 

 covered that the shins, elbows and knuckles are far 

 more sensitive, and produce more agonizing 

 screams and greater convulsions in the 'black 

 devils,' as she calls them, than any other place. My 

 heart sickens at such barbarous scenes, and, to 

 amuse you, I will change to some more agreeable 

 subject. 



"In passing from Lexington to Nashville — a dis- 

 tance of 200 miles — I overtook on the road a man 

 mending his stirrup-leathers, who walked around 

 my horse several times and observed that I seemed 

 to be armed. I told him I was well armed with 

 gun and pistols, but I hoped he was not afraid to 

 travel with me on that account, as I should be better 

 able to assist in defending him as well as myself, if 

 attacked. After understanding the nature of my 

 business, he consented to go on with me, and this 

 man furnished me with as much amusement as 

 Strap did Roderick Random. He was a most zeal- 

 ous Methodist, and sung hymns the first day almost 

 perpetually. Finding that I should be obliged to 

 bear with this, I got him to try some of them to 

 good old song tunes, and I then joined with him, as 



