New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1854-06-28


Travelling from Detroit to Marshall, Michigan
a few years since, in the cars, the seats for tn,
time being occupied, we were invited by tb,
conductor to step into the ladies' saloon, wher,
we found four gentlemen already assembled. ant
Judging by their peculiar expression prophesfeG
lively time in our snug quarters-and WI
were not disappointed.
The first was jolly. round, fat faced farmer
who entertained us with anecdotes of his farm
ing life, and laughed heartily at his own Joke.
from the commencement to their close, alway.
winding up with
"Capital! wasn't it, boys:"
The second proved to be a young man aetire
as agent and collector for two or three mercan
tile houses IN New York city. He was full o
anecdotes of city life, and could initiate 4
Nose equal to Chanfrau himself.
The third was the captain of a Mississipp
steamer, going to the copper mines to visit {
orother-in-law. He amused us with tricks O
slight hand, telling fortunes with cards, ant
with an account Of two or three desperate fight,
0nat ne haa participated in few years previous
while keeping hotel in Arkansas.
The fourth and last, with the excention =
ourself, was a long, lank, dark-complexioned
cadaVerous- looking man from Connecticut. VIII,
was gong TO jackson, Michigan, as he said, te
sell tract OF land that he owned about three
miles from that village
" The Yankee, as we all termed him. thounb
he had none Of the dialect that many Western
people suppose to be peculiar to all coming from
New England, never smiled once durintr the On.
tire route. He listened apparently with much
interest to the stories related and particularly
10 the captains account of his desperate fiqbts
IN the South; but not story, a sentiment or
a smile could we get in return
findlng that he particularly admired stories
OF bloody and desperate character, where one
or more OF the persons introduced was killed out
right, or slowly tortured to death after the most
approved rules of barbarity, we related to him a
description OF mutiny that we once witnessed
IN the faclhc, where fourteen persons were beat
en- to death with marlin spikes crowbars, and
parts OF old cutlasses, and the captain was
strung up at the yard arm and choked to deatb
with his own handkerchief
cold chill ran over the frames of three of
our listeners as we finished our tale, but the
Yankee, for the first time during the interview,
expressed pleasure, by exclaiming:
Good! very good There was a chance for
q man to show his clear grit! All Icould have
cut down those mutineers with as much pleasure
as so many scrub-oaks. By the way, gentlemen.
speaking otscrub. oaks reminds me that there is
n good deal OF that timber on my farm near
Jackson, ana though 1t may be very common to
you, the trst time that ! ever saw any thing of
the kind was in 1896, when came out into this
State to buy tract ofland of Government.
There were neither railroads nor turnpikes,
then, gentlemen, in this part of Uncle Sans
dominion, and travellers had to journey on horse
back Murder and rohheres were as plenty MS
blackberries, and a traveller in Michigan with
out a brace of pistols and sixteen inch bowie
knife was as bad off as Frenchman in italy
without passport"
Did you travel through this State that
inn, al
of him
Yes" he laconically replied.
:: We're you always armed'" we asked.
=" Most always" said he
Why not ainays, if it was so dangerous ,"
~ never entered the woods unarmed =, he
exclaimed, his face assuming a fercer express
sion, ." but if it will not be too tedious to YOU,
III relate how once lost my arms in the woods,
and the unfortunate incidents which proved the
result OF that accident
Relate it, by all means - each man ey
claimed in breath.
:. Well, then, in 1885 left the small village
Of Detroit, armed to the teeth, with u view OF
5oylng on speculation few tracts OF land OF
Government, in the section of country where
Jackson now stands. | had been told that the
land IN that section was remarkably fertile, and
the location favorable for future cities
/" was informed in Detroit that two specula.
TORS preceded me about four weeks. and that
neither of them had since been heard from
though the wife Of one of them was then in the
village, almost frantic at the long absence and
silence of her husband, believing him, as did
my lntormers, to have been brutally murderei
Ut some of the wild huts where travellers were
compelled to seek for shelter and Refreshments
while passing through that desolate and unfre,
lueuted region
. Nothing daunted, however, | carefully
'rimcd my rifle and brace of pistols felt of the
Keen edge OF my bowie-knife, seated myself in
ny saddle, aud started for the Western wilder |
hess.
There came on violent storm soon after
ny leaving Detroit, which continued without
abatement all day, and at sunset, on attempt
ng to ford small stream, my horse became |
in the brushwood of the sudden |
reshet, and in saving my horses life, | lost my
pistols, knife, hat and rifle My horse, being
reed from the brushwood and his rider, swan
o the shore for which we had started, and
patiently waited for my approach
| clung to the branches of drifting tree,
loated down the stream nearly quarter of a
nile, and at length, by good luck, was enabled
o reach the shore l sought. Coming up to my
aithtul horse, | mounted him with heavy
leart, and continued my journey through the
gloomy and weeping forest
81 was now in an entire new country, with
nothing but wild and narrow horse-path to
m m