VVESTEiiN STATES. 



337 



The pecuhar character of the West partakes of that of Kentucky, though there is hardly 

 any exact standard. All European nations have sent emigrants, and there are separate commu- 

 nities of foreigners. In general, all .'he heterogeneous inhabitants mingle together with amity, 

 and are becoming gradually incorporated into one mass. Society is nearer to hs elements than 

 in older communities, and the distinction of classes is slight. All are mutually dependent. 

 There is a deep foundation for independent feeUng ; men grow up in the pursuits of agricul- 

 ture, and form their own characters, receiving less of the impress of society than in New Eng- 

 land. Brought up to depend upon themselves, they are prompt to decide and to act. They 

 feel in their state of society, the equality which everything renders practical, and the laborer 

 IS as bold in his bearing, and as independent in his feelings, as the merchant or the land-holder. 

 Few but the traveling emigrants are misei-ably poor, and many of these are entirely destitute.* 

 The traveler in the Western States will form his opinion of the people somewhat from those 

 with whom he associates in the steamboats. He will perhaps find them too much given to 

 " rude mirth," but he will estimate highly a spirit of civility, and mutual accommodation. 



The boatmen, who, to the number of many thousands, were found on the rivers, have nearly 

 disappeared since the general use of steamboats. They were a riotous, depraved, and deprav- 

 ing class ; and though the practice of gouging was never in use among them, or in the West, yet 

 they were so bad in all things, that they could gain no defence from any charge, by appealing to 

 their general character-! Many of the pioneers of civilization are rude and unprincipled ; but 

 a desperate course of life, and the dangers of the frontiers, have left few of those reckless 

 people in the Western States. Many there are, who live in the distant territories, by hunt- 



* Mr. Flint gives the following descriptions ; and simi- 

 lar sufferings are but too common. 



" I found in Cincinnati great numbers of emigrants, 

 most of tliem from the North. They were but too often 

 wretchedly furnished with money, and the comforts al- 

 most indispensable to a long journey. It seemed to have 

 been their impression, that if once they could arrive at the 

 land of milk and honey, supplies would come of course. 

 The autumn had been unusually sickly. The emigrants 

 had endured great exposure in arriving here. Families 

 were crowded into a single, and often in a small and un- 

 comfortable apartment. Many suffered, died, and were 

 buried by charity. Numerous instances of unrecorded 

 suffering, of the most exquisite degree, and with every 

 agonizing circumstance, occurred. The parties were of- 

 ten friendless, moneyless, orphans, infants, widows in a 

 strange land, in a larire town as humane as might be ex- 

 pected, but to which, unfortunately, such scenes of suffer- 

 ing had become so frequent and familiar, as to have lost 

 their natural tendency to produce sympathy and commise- 

 ration. The first house wliich I entered in this town was 

 a house, into one . room of whicli was crowded a numer- 

 ous family from Maine. The husband and father was dy- 

 ing, and expired while 1 was tiiere. The wife was sick in 

 the same bed, and, either from terror or exhaustion, ut- 

 tered not a word duiing the whole scene. Three children 

 were sick of fevers. If you add, that they were in the 

 house of a poor man, and had spent their last dollar, you 

 can fill out the picture of their misery. It is gloomy to 

 reflect, that the cheering results of the settlement of our 

 new States and Territories, are not obtained without num- 

 berless accompaniments of wretchedness like this." 



" f will record in this place another narrative, that im- 

 pressed me deeply. It was a fair sample of the cases of 

 extreme misery and desolation, that is often witnessed 

 on this river. In the Sunday School at New Madrid we 

 received three children, who were introduced under the 

 following circumstances. A man was descending the 

 river with these three children in his pirogue. He and his 

 children had landed on a desert island, on a bitter, snowy 

 evening in December. There were but two houses, which 

 were at a little prairie opposite the island, within a great 

 distance. He wanted more whisky, although he liad al- 

 ready been drinking it too freely. Against the persuasions 

 of his children he left them, to cross over in his pirogue to 

 these houses, and renev/ his supply. The wind blew high, 

 and tlie river was rough. Nothing would dissuade him 

 from this dangerous attempt. He told them he should re- 

 turn to them that night, left them in tears, and exposed 

 to the pitiless peltintf of the rtorm, and started for his ea- 



43 



rouse. The children saw the boat sink, before he had half 

 crossed the passage. The man was drowned. These for- 

 lorn beings were left without any other covering than 

 their scanty and ragged dress, for he had taken liis last 

 blanket with him. They had neither fiie nor shelter, and 

 no other food than uncooked pork and corn. It snowed 

 fast and the night closed over them in this situation. The 

 elder was a girl of six years, but remarkably shrewd and 

 acute for her age. The next was a girl of four, and the 

 youngest a boy of two. It was affecting to hear her de- 

 scribe her desolation of heart, as she set herself to exa- 

 mine her resources. She made them creep together and 

 draw their bare feet under her clothes. She covered them 

 with leaves and branches, and thus they passed the first 

 night. In the morning the younger child wept bitterly 

 with cold and hunger. The pork she cut into small pieces 

 and made them chew corn with these pieces. She then 

 persuaded them to run about by setting them the example. 

 Then she made them return to chewing corn and pork. It 

 should seem as if Providence had a special eye to these 

 poor children, for in the course of the day some Indians 

 landed on the island, found them, and, as they were com 

 ing up to New Madrid, took them with them." 



t " The terms of the navigation are as novel as are the 

 forms of the boats. You hear of tlie danger of ' riffles,' 

 meaning, probably , ripples, and planters, and sawyers, and 

 points, and bends and shoots, a corruption, I suppose, of 

 the French ' chute.' You hear the boatmen extolling their 

 prowess in pushing a pole, and you learn the received 

 opinion, that a ' Kentuck ' is the best man at a pole, and 

 a Frenchman at an oar. A firm push of the iron-pointed 

 pole on a fixed log, is termed a ' reverend set.' You are 

 told when you embark, to bring your ' plunder ' aboard, 

 you hear about moving ' fernenst ' the stream ; and you 

 gradually become acquainted with a vocabulary of this 

 sort. The manners of the boatmen are as strange as their 

 language. Their peculiar way of life has given origin not 

 only to an appropriate dialect, but to new modes of enjoy- 

 ment, riot and fighting. Almost every boat, while it lie? 

 in the harbor, has one or more fiddles on board, to which 

 you often see the boatmen dancing. There is no wonder 

 that the way of life which the boatmen lead, in turn ex- 

 tremely indolent and extremely laborious ; for days togeth- 

 er requiring little or no effort, and attended with no dan- 

 ger, and then, on a sudden, laborious and hazardous, be- 

 yond Atlantic navigation ; generally plentiful as respects 

 food, and always so as regards whisky, should always have 

 seductions, that prove irresistible to the young people that 

 live near the banks of the river " 



