Daily American telegraph., 1852-07-13
From the Friend Of Youth,
Mount AIRY, June 25,

My DEAR NEPHEws AND NIECEs: | have
not forgotten you, if | have been long silent;
but have been travelling, and seeing so much
and hearing so much that was new and strange
and interesting, | laid down my pen, and be-
came scholar once more, and tried to learn
everything could.
Do any Of you ever expect to get too old to
learn! If you do, hope you will be disap-
pointed for when people get too old to learn,
they are not good for much in this world
heard an old gentleman, who was eighty-fve
years old, saying, the other day, that every day
that he lived he seemed to be learning some
thing new and that as long as he could gain
new ideas, and give out new ideas to others,
he should be content to live, and think that
God had still something for him to do.
But now suppose you get your maps, and
trace the route with me that travelled to get
to Philadelphia.
First, started from McConnelsville, on u
very pretty little steamboat called the Julia
Dean. Julia Dean is the name Of an actress,
of some celebrity and great beauty) If you
have none of you ever passed through lock
in a steamer or large boat, it would be O great
enjoyment to you to see the waters of the
| Muskingum, which is 600 feet wide pouring
over dam / o feet high and dashing and tum-
UIlIp On IuS IlulDeTS DeION lHSu W lIllu yUuT-
self in boat closed round by stone walls 25
feet high, and then to look at the waters rush
ing in on the boat boiling and seething, gush-
ing up in snow-wbite foam, as if it was going
to overwhelm you, and yet to know that you
will float in your nice little palace above those
angry pillows free from all harm; and while
you stand watching the waters, almost before
you think of it, you look round, and the great
stone walls are down below you and your boat
is swimming like bird high above the river
below and the big gates swing open, and out
you glide, l0 feet higher up than you was fifteen
minutes before All this seems very fine indeed
and though have gone through the locks a
great many times, love to watch the opera
ton now just as well as ever.
The Muskingum river winds through high
hills all the way from McConnelsville to Jones
vile, and the land on the banks does not look
very good for farming but the people raise
corn, wheat potatoes, apples, and | expect a
great many othcr things among the hills.
Jonesvile is an airy stirring, and busy place,
the great national road passes through it, and
within the last year they have completed a rail
road, which connects with the Cleveland and
Cincinnati road. 1t is rather smoky. dirty
looking CITY, because all the people burn stone
coal in their foundries and factories, of which
there are good many, They have very fine
water and gas works in Jonesville, which are
a great aid to the place In Putnam, which
is opposite to Jonesville, there is a Female Sem
mary, which has a great reputation. But
must hurry along, or you will tire Of your geog-
raphy lesson From JoneSville went to New.
ark by the railroad, which runs along the
banks of the Licking river good part Of the
way The Licking, you will see, is branch
pf tho Mnekipu Thnrp IL hoap
tiful scenery on its banks; some years ago
there was a great ledge Of perpendicular rocks
visible to the road, which bore on the front
what seemed to be the print of hand, i'm
pressed upon the gray stone The impression
was of dark color and went by the name of
the black hand. 1t was very curious, indeed,
and people used to 60 to visitit. But when the
railroad was built, the workmen blasted down
the rock for their use, and the black hand dis
appeared. Newark is a very pretty, clean, lit
tie town, and should have thought it very
nice place to live in, if had not seen a great
distillery just outside the town. But do not
like to see the grain, which ought to be made
into bread for the poor and needy, converted
into poison, to make men crazy so that they
will reduce their families to poverty and want,
and themselves to crime and shame,
From Newark we went to Mount Vernon
very beautiful town, on hill they have no
distillery there think and they say the peo-
pie are moral and good From Vernon, to
Marsfeld, which is another pleasant town, then
to Shelby and from Shelby to Cleveland
This will not seem to you like gong very |
direct route, but it is the railroad route, and
can be gone over quicker than any other way.
Cleveland is one of the most beautiful towns in
all the West The people there seemed to
think early what would make a city beautiful,
and set out fine forest trees along the streets
many years ago. and now they have grown so
large, that in many places the tops touch to-
gether, making thick canopy Of green, sha-
ding the passer by from the sun as completely
as if he were walking in thick forest There