Plymouth banner. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1852-1855, 1854-03-30

'''' "o'o W an extent aWed Dy his hag-
gard cheek, sunken lustreless eye, unwont-
ed silence, heedlessness. They imagined
something awful had happened him, that
hs had met the Hag Of The woods and tina,
she had put q spell upon him, or wrough,
on him some mysterious punishment.
Ashley neared the station. be revived
slightly, and asked that nothing might be
said OF The queer experience of the excur.
sion that fell to him particularly.
The station Stood on the bank Of O small
river and was surrounded by, or partially
consisted OF, pickets set in atrlapgle, with
bl~ock-hodses at the corners, a gate OF one
side, and a cluster of cabins In the centre.
One corner of the triangle rested directly
on the river. which was wide and shallow,
and The others obiruded into the fields
Nexlthe pickets the s,umps were cut low
and the ground was only otherwise en-
cambered by vines and garden vegetables.
This open space was about a hundred
yards in width. and outside it was the
coin field, embracing all the ground that
had been freed oftrecs. The pickets were
about twelve feet in hight. set firmly in
the ground and fitted together SO that a RI
fls ball could scarcely find lis way between
and in the biock-houses were kept senti-
nels to guard against clandestine effor,s
of the savages. The gate was a massive
co%nirivance. swung on huge wooden him
ges kept free by the liberal application of
bears fat. which was presumed to have
many singular virtues. and was boiled by
ponderous wooden bars. In fact, such
were the arrangements taken to secure 1t,
that it was much the stroDges, part Of the
fortificu:ion.
The b.ock-houses were two stories in
hight, aud half of tho upper stories were
larger than the portions below. That is,
al abou: bseast-hight ofthe upper story, the
logs were longer, and a space left through
which a gun could be aimed on a level. or
any downward angle, but not upward, and
the balls Of an enemy fired from any con-
siderable distance, would be caught by the
juitIng log, or strike below the aperture,
while a; a short distance the upward range
OF Il sh,, from the outside must DO such
that it would be harmless to Tho persons
in the house. except they h,ppened to be
directly in the way.
The homes of the pioneers Of America,
and especially the west, were appropriate
ly called log cabins. An understanding
of them is esseaiial 10 a knowledge Of
American history. A vast majority Of the
men Of our country called great aid
whose intellec,s, bringing the world with
in the horizon. and calling up the past,
shine with no second rate splendor, were
born in log c~abins-Washing,on. Web
sier, jackson, Clay; need others be NAM
Gu?
We work fast in this country. Many
n one born in a cabin has died in q palace,
and those who in infancy were rocked in
sugar ,roughs, have boen borne to their
graves in imperial pomp. From the cab
in TO The palace-frem the sugar trough
to a marble s~arcophagus. such is the begin.
ming and end Of Americas recognized
great ones.
These cabins were built (the generetion
Of to-day are hereobout unfamiliar with
them) ofsound logs, rough as they were
cut down, made Of the requisite length,
and notched deeply at the ends thft they
might lie close together when piled in
pens. These were put up when the coun-
try bscame somewhat improved in a 'frol-
ic.' The gable ends were Of logs grad
ually shortening, coming to a point, and
held in their place by cross poles which
answered as ~rafiers. Tho roof was com
posed Of clap boards rived out of timber
tina, split easily, and was secured by poles
resting along the courses. The floors
we're Of puncheons--trees split in half,
the splintered sides smoo:hed, and placed
on the sleebers with the bark down, and
edged 10 fit. The chimneys were built
outside Of the houses and sometimes occu-
plying nearly one end Of them, and were
but smaller cabins effectuaily Plastered
inside. The walls were made tight by
filling the interstices with chips and small
sticks, and daubing carefully with clay
mul. The first cabin was probably new
er built, rs like some other great inven-
tons, they consis. at long course of i'm
proyemen,s. so that j, is hard to tell where
TO locate the germNal fact or 10 whom to
aScribc The honor.
When our band o~frangers entered tnc
station they found that their absence,
which had been Of about q week, W o new
cabins had been erected. one to each end
Of the old row, and that two families just
from the Fast one from Pennsylvania,
and the other Virginia were added TO the
slender population, and thu, belonging 10
these families were iour rifles. and the
men to manage them. This was good
news-lhere could not we'll have been bet
ter.
While Wildca; Ben Johnson was that
evening seated by his broad iresidc. the
'oli woman as he ~a1octionaiely called
his wife, who was a good-looking. good
na,ured, busy body, .old him as she cook
ed the corn cnkes ami venison for supper,
OF tho exceeding beauty Of Patsy Milton,
one ,of the newcomers.
'Oh, Ben,' said she. as she stopped over
the FIRE and made a cake fairly bounce as
she turned it that it might be brown on
both sides, Patsy is the pretiiest girl in
Kentucky. and | most wish that our John
(g,ancing slyly at a Swapping youth in
- ..~s L>.r-tno