The Arkansas advocate., 1835-09-11

wagons, horses, and cattle. The men mi,
together, the women interchange civilities
and the whole scene Is one of lively and pic,
turesque interest. While the weather Is
open, there are few hardships to encounter
in such journeys, but occasionally it rains.
The sun sets behind cloud, the wind chan.
ges, and the cold driving showers pelt the
defenceless travellers. They cannot travel
in such Storm. Some crawl into Their
carriages and waeons--some make shelters
by suspending sheets and coverlids upon
poles--and some fare no better than the
domestic animals who turn their backs to
The wind; droop their heads, and stand in
patient submission while the rain is drop
ping from their shiyering sides.
In the mean time all the taverns and hou-
Sos of entertainment are crowded with
strangers of another class-gentleman ira
Yelling on horseback; families who are no,
accustomed to 'scamping odt;" merchants,
lawyers, and wealthy farmers--all floating
along on the great tide of emigration.
They are mostly from the south and west.
But where is Jonathan all this while? He
IS on the way--no mistake about him;
wherever there is money to be made by
hard labor, Jonathan will find out the place.
But he has no notion of "camping OUT" and
travelling by land is expensive to those who
stop at taverns. He counted the cost be-
fore he came forth to this warfare. He
traced the various routes upon the map;
read all the books touching the subject that
he could borrow, and wrote to divers post
masters III the west, with whom he could
correspond without expense of postage.
He even strained point. and paid the
postage on few letters Of inquiry. We
could show some that afford specimens of
Jonathan's inquisitve nature and prudent
foresight--one id particular, which contain
ed, if we remember right, seventy-six dis
tinet questions, the answers to which would
fill q volume as large ss g Dictionary. ,Ja-
nathan, therefore, not only knows where he
is going, but he has ascertained the cheap
est route and most eligible conveyance.
He is floating quietly along the lake, Or pa
tiently meanderng the Ohio. To look at
him you will not suppose him TO be worth a
cent--nor does he care what you think
about hinl--he has Nicholas Biddle's pass
port in his pocket, aud knows that no man
can stop him. He has sold out all that he
had, and put the whole concern into hts
purse. He might ride in a coach and four
if he chose-but he has taken deck pas
sage in a steam boat. He is small, ac-
tive, grave man, and most probably has
been deacon. That decent neat old lady
in spectaces is his wife, and a worthy lady
she is. But she is terribly scared. With
what earnestness she begs the captain not
10 go TOO fast lest the boilers explode--and
with what interest she inquiries about snags,
alligators, feyers, Wolves and Indians! Poor
lady, she will never become morally acci-
ter than she does now. She is too old to
degenerate, and too good TO get better.
There is more hope of those rosy girls,
with plain close bonnets, and large travel
ing baskets in their laps. They have come
to the west to do good, and they will sue
coed; they will teach school for six months,
which is q very good thing, and then they
will get married, which is better-for
them. Those slim young men, so "melan-
choly and gentlemah-like," are going TO be
lawyers and doctors. They are graduates,
and their conversation is on the moral de-
praviiy, ignorance. and intellectual destitu-
ton of the west. They are going to sup
ply some of the waste places. The differ
ence between them and the worthy deacon
aforesaid, is, that he is diligently trying to
learn, while they are zealously trying to
teach. The contrast is striking, between
youth and age, between the young scholar
and the old farmer.
Thus they are filing UP the west from
abroad, and thus they are moving and circu-
ating and changing places in the west.
But our broad valley is not wide enough
for the operations of this enterprising spirit,
and there are Alexanders among US, who,
having overrnn every known field of ambi-
ton, are signing for new worlds 70 conquer.
The thousands of square miles that are yet
unbroke by the plough, and the league after
league Of the forest which remain unyiola-
ted by the axe of the backwoodsman, are
Insufficient. Our steamboats, have ascend
ed the Mississippi TO the falls of St. Antho-
ny; they have traced the meanders of the
Missouri to a still more distant region; our
traders pass annually over vast deserts to
Santa Fe, and the adventurous trapper has
sought the haunts of the beaver beyond the
Rocky Mountains; and yet the lust for
newer lands, and for novel scenes of COM
mercial enterprise is undiminished. The
limits Of the United States have been found
too narrow to afford scope for the genius Of
her sons, and hardy few have penetrated
into the territory Of our southern nelghbors.
anecdotes of NAPOLEON. We translate