70 WILD SrOKTS IX THE FAR AYEST. 



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

 pulled liim down, and belabored him with the pliant 

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

 " Mur — der ! " " Mur — der 1 " all the Avhile 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. Akeady in the State of New York, I 

 had passed through Syracuse, Babylon, Rome, Venice, 

 Alexandi'ia, London, and Paris — villages of seven or 

 eight houses. 



I arrived about the 11th December at Friedmann's 

 farm. The proprietor was a German m good circum- 

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

 very productive, and his cattle Avere very fine. He 

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

 march 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 I advanced, towards Vin- 

 cennes on the Wabash. 



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

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

 could have a bed, I found two German Jews sitting 

 comfortably by the fire, who looked at me with aston- 

 islmaent, and, as it seemed to me, w^ith displeasure. 

 The host was an elderly man, whose grandfather and 

 gi-andmother had emigrated from Germany; he spoke 



