380 



NEW ENGLAND FARIMER. 



Aug. 



erably lonesome and dirty it was there. I 

 would not remain for the whole farm, neL!;roes, 

 and all. Not a book or paper to be found on the 

 place, and the slaves do very much as they please. 

 Mr. 1). showed me some potatoes so large, that 

 while one end was roasting in the fire, I could sit 

 on the other end, and not be incommoded by the 

 fire. Have you any such potatoes in the East ? 



The next day was the Sabbath, and rainy. We 

 we-e obliged to kill time during the day, by im- 

 patiently watching the clouds. Towards evening, 

 we could go to the adjoining farm of Mr. W. 

 We waded through the mud and rain, and soon 

 were beside their cordial fireside. What a difi"er- 

 enco in the two firesides. The old bachelor's cold, 

 dirty and cheerless ; Mr. W.'s bright and cosy, 

 and I rested better in my bed, for I knew that a 

 negro's dirty form had not pressed it. 



What a cheerful influence a good woman exerts 

 over a household. Iler hand and will places every 

 thing in its proper position, and her happy influ- 

 ence draws the thoughts and love of man towards 

 the central point of his existence — his home, and 

 the humanizing ties found there. She it is who 

 makes the fireside so Ijright and cheerful ; she it 

 is who makes home so beautiful and dear ; she it 

 is who exerts an influence upon the prosperity of 

 the State, by the good, or bad men that go from 

 beneath her influence, out into the world to form 

 the future nation. Take her away, and how de- 

 serted and cheerless is home — is life. And yet 

 men are very seldom willing to give to woman 

 her just praise, seldom willing to own her influ- 

 e.icc, seldom willing to own that to her work they 

 are indebted for their life's happiness. O, man, 

 love and respect thy mother and wife, for without 

 them, thy life is distasteful and weary ; without 

 them, life would scar-jc be worth the taking. 



Mr. W. cultivates about 200 acres. He owns a 

 very large orchard of thirty diff"ercnt varieties of 

 apples. Last f.dl, he picked 3,000 bushels, for 

 which he found a ready market at $1 per bushel. 

 They own seven negroes, who know their duty, 

 and perform it faithfully. Mrs. W. was always 

 amongst slaves, and knows how to treat them. 

 Her household is well managed, and she superin- 

 tends and parcels out the negroes' work. They set 

 an excellent table, and everything is neat, not at 

 all like the majority of the Missouri farmers, who 

 live in dirt, and are always contented with corn- 

 bread and bacon. She makes all the negroes' 

 clothes, and they all look neat, and outwardly 

 hapi:)y and contented. 



The next morning we started for home, and at 

 night stopped at the farm of Mr. Hoosier, a hoo- 

 sier in character, as well as by name. Before we 

 reached the house, we met an unfortunate horse, 

 who had uiion his back two women, each with an 

 infant and four children scattered indiscriminate- 

 ly upon the horse. A parcel of dogs assailed us 

 as Me drove up to the cabin, but soon dispersed 

 at the old woman's cry of "Clar out;" and an- 

 swered to our request to stay all night, "Wa-all, 

 I reckon." The woman brought out a basin of wa- 

 ter, and we Avere obliged to use the earth as a 

 wash-stand. After washing, we sat down to a sup- 

 per of the universal corn-bread and bacon, cold 

 cabbage and coffee. The table was spread upon a 

 wide porch, and as the wind blew too violently for 

 a light, it was placed in a window back of us, and 

 we swallowed bur food in rather a dubious state. 



both mentally and optically. The mistress of the 

 house was a great fat, bare-legged, bare-footed 

 woman, weighing only 276 pounds, who slept like 

 an elephant, and breathed like one. She said she 

 was "too fat, and it was mighty unpleasant this 

 powerful hot weather." She was troubled "right 

 smart" with fever and ague, but it did not make 

 her any poorer. They have lived on this place 

 eighteen years, and yet it is about as wild as a 

 Kansas claim. So are most all the river bottom 

 farms. The occu])ants do not know how to do 

 any thing, but cultivate hemp, wheat, corn and 

 stock, drink whiskey and smoke, and arc content- 

 ed to live drudgingly and ignorantly. Mr. H. has 

 some oOO hogs, cows, horses, and any quantity of 

 hens and chickens. They are very ignorant, and 

 nowhere could I find at least a paper. They sup- 

 posed that Pike's Peak was on the river borders 

 of Kansas, and would not go such "a heap of way 

 for the gold." And yet they were only 25 miles 

 from the vein. I noticed a clumsy wooden article 

 upon the porch, and asked its use ; they replied, 

 surprised, "It's a loom, didn't you ever see nary 

 one before ? Why, whei"e was you raised ?" "In 

 Boston, Mass." "Wa-all, I knowed ye wa'n't 

 raised in this country, else I reckon you'd know'd 

 what that air is. I suppose Boston is a heap of 

 way from here, as far as Kentucky?" "O, yes, 

 twice as f.ir." "That's a heap of ways ; did you 

 come all the way in a wagon ? La me, it seems 

 as if Boston must be on the other side of the 

 world, it is so far off." The old man insisted that 

 I was wrong about the location of Boston. "It is 

 on the other side of the ocean, ain't it ?" And so 

 throughout the whole evening, they astonished me 

 ]:)y their ignorance. At night we slept, twelve, 

 men women and children, in one room, and I soon 

 became conscious of other than human occupants 

 in my bed. Before breakfast, the old man brought 

 out the whiskey bottle, and filling a glass half 

 full of the raw article, offered it to me, saying, it 

 would "give me an appetite." I declined, but the 

 rest, including the women, took a liberal share. 



That day we travelled over a miserable road, 

 and only made twenty miles ; got lost in the 

 woods towards night, and were compelled to re- 

 main the whole night in the wagon, exposed to a 

 fine shower. The next morning we travelled three 

 miles before Ave found a cabin, to get breakfast, 

 and as we reached our own plain, but neat and 

 cosy house that evening, we most heartily echoed 

 the song, 



"Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home." 



Yes, how pleasant it is to have a home, bo it ever 

 so humble, if it is only surrounded by attractive in- 

 fluences to make it dear. 



In Missouri, especially in Buchanan county, the 

 people live in log-houses year after year, and ac- 

 cumulate land and stock. They think it useless 

 to embellish their homes, and a "pi-anna" or well- 

 stocked book-case is scarcely noticed, and certain- 

 ly scornfully appreciated. Those who have not 

 slaves, the "poor white folks," .as the negroes 

 scornfully call them, get up by daylight, go early 

 to the field, work hard all day, and after a hearty 

 supper of bacon and corn-bread, go to bed. When 

 they are i.ot working, they lounge in the whiskey 

 shops, or perhaps get intoxicated. If we wish 

 to reckon the worth or activity of a person, 

 when we say "he is only a Missourian," we had 



