GENERAL DISCOMFORT — MURDER OF DOW. 103 
there are large cracks in the wall, through which the wind and 
dust blow; that there are larger cracks in the floor overhead, 
and through them the straw falls upon the table below; that but¬ 
ter is scarce; and many other like troubles, which make them say, 
in vexation of spirit, “ I am weary, I am weary, I am sick of this 
poor life! ” Does any one need further evidence that they are 
men of sense ? These temporary arrangements were the growth 
of the hour. They were not intended a i permanent institutions, 
and more comfortable dwellings have taken their place. The 
Yankee enterprise and thrift which remained after the thorough 
sifting of the early spring, in spite of fear of cholera and lack of 
general comforts, have added things most needed. The absence 
of those delicate youths who needed sofas to lounge upon, and 
silver forks for their especial use, is the greatest blessing of all. 
A new country, especially, wants no drones in the hive; and in a 
country like this, and in this age, when the battle is for freedom, 
and the hue and cry of our enemies, “ Death to the Yankees ! ” is 
ever ringing in our ears, we want men, and not creatures claim¬ 
ing to be possessed of manliness, who have not enough of that 
spirit to be willing, for freedom’s sake, to forego some trivial com¬ 
forts, and, like the fathers of ’ 76 , who bore the severest privations, 
bide the hour, and with willing hands and strong hearts aid to 
make this country, in its institutions as in soil and climate, the 
garden of the world. Where would have been the liberties, which, 
as a precious heir-loom, have come to us, had our fathers been of 
such sickly, such squeamish sensibility? We do not deny there 
have been discomforts; but what new country was ever settled with¬ 
out them ? The people of Illinois, in times of low water on the Ohio, 
in the early settlement of that country, have had nothing to eat 
but bread made of shorts with stewed pumpkin. In Pennsylvania, 
with no over supply of mills, fifty miles often being the shortest 
distance to one in running order in low water, for weeks the 
early settlers lived on potatoes. Did not our great grandmothers 
live on bean-porridge, weave all the clothing for the family, and, 
at the same time, giid their husbands and sons for the battle, out 
of their love for justice and right? We have fallen oc degen¬ 
erate times. The “ lines have fallen to us in pleasant places; ” 
