UNEMPLOYED HANDS IN CINCINNATI. 201 



cutting a cord of wood, eight feet long, four feet high, 

 and four feet deep, at a merchant's, who had a tract of 

 land and a saw-mill about two miles from the town. 

 Although hard work at first, yet when I got used to 

 it, I found that on an average I could cut and 2>ile a 

 cord a day. 



After fourteen days' hard work, I resolved to go to 

 Cincinnati for my letters, and, above all, to recover my 

 health in its superior climate, then to return and visit 

 the hills. I had cut eighteen cords, and as the man 

 saw that I was poor, sickly, and in a hurry to go 

 away, he cheated me out of two dollars by giving me 

 bad coin, a fact which I discovered on board the " Per- 

 sian" steamer, on my passage to Cincinnati. I was 

 kindly received by all my old friends, and established 

 myself in a new suit of clothes, for which, however, I 

 had to run in debt. 



I looked about for work ; every tavern in the place 

 was crammed full of Germans, ready to do any thing 

 for bare food : whole families were in a helpless state. 

 Fine stories had been told them that they could gain a 

 dollar a day for every sort of work, and when they 

 arrived, farmers were paying only five or six dollars a 

 month, and could not employ four fifths of the appli- 

 cants. I pitied the poor creatures, though no better 

 off myself. I took many a long walk in vain, looking 

 for employment, when Vogel offered me an occupation 

 I should never have thought of myself, viz., making 

 pill-boxes. Vogel thought he would try " Emperor's 

 Pills," of which he had the prescription. He was very 

 clever in such matters, but he required little round 

 boxes, resembhng the original as imported. We set to 



