The Kansas herald of freedom., 1855-02-24
1ptefestiqg Letter.
Eastern Correspondence.

Eastern Correspondence.
The following letter appears in re-
cent number of the Boston Telegraph
1t must have been written over two and
half months ago, and was good de-
scription Of life here at that time. Since
then circumstances have materially chang
ed the aspect of things, and "that saw
mill" has furnished many board roof
where cotton cloth or thatch was used
before AS history of the past, the let
ter is worthy of being placed on file:
LAWRENCE, KANSAS Ter.
Messrs. EDITORS Il intended to write
you ere this, but sundry hindrances ar
rived in the Territory before your cor
respondent, or rather, l should say, the
Good Father had not-as some who come
here seem to expect-grown houses and
finished them up as he does mushrooms.
We had home to make before health
could be insured, and winter provided
for. OF course, my hands have been
full of work and my head of Yankee con-
triYances, such as the dwellers among
mechanics shops and in the marts ol
gray-haired commerce would fail to ap-
preciate, and to paint with my pen. |
could not begin to prite the story of 'life
as il is 20 in Kansas, amusing as it must
be to all and instructive to the many who
are preparing to emigrate here. The en-
igrant from country old in all the re-
sources for luxuriant homes, makes great
biundcrs in what he brings and what he
leaves behind. ! have had an opportu-
nifty for observation in the regrets and
congratulations of the hundreds who have
arrived in Kansas during my stay here,
which will be worth money and insure
me against needless expense and priva-
ton in the removal of my own household
goods and gods the coming spring. For
lack of such knowledge, many young
men, and men without their families, have
turned back East again, who either would
not have come this fall, or coming, would
have been prepared to dispose Of them
selves to their satisfaction. That they
were wise in returning, even under the
circumstances, good deal more than
doubt, provided they are under the ne
cessity or desire to win their bread by
useful industry. The man or woman
who has not energy and courage enough
TO make home where nature has done
everything but to build shelters, and
where civilization has already opened
facilities securing all the staples for the
table-is hardly deserving of one. If
people leave good homes, and tempt the
untrodden fields of a new country, they
are unwise not to have counted the cost,
before pulling up their home associations
with the grub-hoe of emigration.
For myself, l knew something of pio.
neer life, having sat upon the knees of
grandparents who found out the green
hills of Vermont when only marked trees
guided the traveller from central Massa-
chusetts and when their produce, and
the necessaries for which they exchanged
them, had to be transported many miles
on horseback when mills, schools, and
neighbors were much fewer and further
apart than were angels visits, even in
those days of non-spiritual intercourse.
But that was all head knowledge for it
was received second hand, and did not
reach the heart like pioneer experience
in these blessed days of :. Emigrant Aid"
Companies, when the misery is sweeten-
ed by plenty of company.
But you and your readers have un-
doubtedly heard from some who, having
come and taken one forlorn look of sui.
tering, and starvation in prospect, too ter
rible to be encountered, have turned hack
again. The best commentary on such
tales that / could possibly give YOU,
would be to daguerreotype Lawrence,
and its inhabitants as they pursue their
daily ayoeations.
When arrived here, like all the new
corners, I was taken to lodging house
and supplied with plenty of prairie hav
for bed; and having come without bed
ding-in my ignorance of the customs of
the eountry-it was kindly loaned me by
member of the city association. This
lodging-house is made of poles or small
timbers. and in form and size reminds
one ofthe stray roof of a huge warehouse.
This pole-roof is thatehed upon the out
side with prairie hay, and is all hay and
poles to the view inside. Cotton cloth
covers the gable ends, which have doors
OF the same material, nailed to pole
frames. Since the weather has grown
cooler. and the wind whistled uncomfort-
ably through the hay roof, a laying of the
dry, tough prairie sod has been put over
the whole building, and windows intro
duced into one end as substitute for the
darkened cloth gables. There is large
"city dining hall ," constructed in the
same manner, where one hundred and
more take their meals, at 80 so Per
week. The first three days ate at the
public table with my sons; then COM
meneed housekeeping ike my sister en-
igrants. And now comes the rich humor
of my experience in Kansas life-a spe-
cimen of pioneer life Che country over.
The theater of our operations, or rather
our cooking area, was the city "ispee, -
on which these temporary shelters, or
lodging "houses," are built. And now
fancy breakfast getting for some twenty
familiesand companies, which have kind
led as many fires, some with two or three
stones to hold up kettles and pans. and a
very few with ''stick cranes.'' The cooks
are prominent in the scene, and about as
many of them men as women. Yonder
is d grave, middle-aged man, without a
crane or stones. toiling Hea,s-fully to boil
his tea kettle or fry his Missouri-cured
Hside pork, without upsesting the one
or burning the other, both of which he
accomplishes in spite of his efforts to the
contrary, and swallows his breaktast and
his chagrin, muttering something to the
> e.