CHAPTER XXIV. 



Claiborne, Alabama. Movers to Texas. State Debts and Liabilities. 

 Lending money to half-settled States. Rumors of war with England. 

 Macon, Alabama. Sale of Slaves. Drunkenness in Alabama. Laws 

 against Dueling. Jealousy of Wealth. Emigration to the West. 

 Democratic Equality of Whites. Skeleton of Fossil Whale or Zeuglo- 

 don. Voyage to Mobile. 



THE morning 1 after our arrival at Claiborne, we found at the 

 inn, a family of &quot; movers&quot; on their way to Texas, sitting- in the 

 verandah enjoying the warm sunshine after a shower of rain. 

 At this season, January 29th, the thermometer stood at 80 

 Fahrenheit in the shade, and the air was as balmy as on an 

 English summer day. The green sward was covered with an 

 elegant flower, the Houstonia serpyllifolia, different from the 

 H. cerulia, so common in the New England meadows. Before 

 the house stood a row of Pride-of-India trees (Melia azedarach), 

 laden with bunches of yellow berries. I had been often told by 

 the negroes that the American robin (Turdus migratorius) &quot;got 

 drunk&quot; on this fruit, and we had now an opportunity of witness 

 ing its narcotic properties ; for we saw some children playing 

 with one of these birds before the house, having caught it after 

 it had been eating freely of the berries. My wife seeing that 

 the robin was in no small danger of perishing, bought it of the 

 children for some sugar-plums, and it soon revived in our room, 

 and flew out of the window. In the evening we enjoyed a sight 

 of one of those glorious sunsets, the beauty of which in these lat 

 itudes is so striking, when the clouds and sky are lighted up with 

 streaks of brilliant red, yellow, and green, which, if a painter 

 should represent faithfully, might seem as exaggerated and gaudy 

 as would the colors of an American forest in autumn when com 

 pared with European woods. 



The movers, who were going to Texas, had come down 200 miles 

 from the upper country of Alabama, and were waiting for some 



