298 HUNTING SPOETS OF THE WEST. 



ADVENTURES OF AN ENGLISH SPORTSMAN ON THE PRAIRIES. 



WE found tolerable accommodations in the Charleston 

 Tavern, and the landlord was civil after a manner which 

 means no manners at all. Our advent created some little 

 sensation, no little questioning, and a monstrous deal of 

 incredulity as to our motives of travel. Strange, that in 

 this new world, they won't allow a poor idle Briton to go 

 gaping about, doing gobe mouche, as he does in the old ! 

 AVe found the little western hamlet not entirely destitute 

 of amusement on the evening of our arrival ; for in the 

 next house to our inn, on one side, a most absurd legal 

 cause was in process of trial before a justice, a case of 

 " Fiddlers " versus " Dancers," wherein the former 

 claimed compensation from the latter for professional la- 

 bor? at a certain house-warming; and wherein, after 

 much noisy and nasal balderdash from a couple of rival 

 attorneys, the steward of the ball was compelled to pay 

 the piper. And, on the other hand, the neighboring 

 house was brilliantly lighted up for a phrenological lec- 

 ture, which was numerously attended. It is somewhat 

 singular that a practical people like the Americans should 

 affect so intangible a science, yet they certainly do so in 

 an extraordinary degree. Most things are good in their 

 way, and in their place ; and I will confess that the in- 

 genious theories of Gall and Spurzheim have had their 

 charms for me ; but to be followed up, and pelted with 

 skulls and crossbones, is the height of boredom ; and 

 8uch was the craniological uproar from morn till night in 

 the Charleston Tavern, as to be perfectly " assommant." 



