Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1855-02-03
KANSAS EMIGRANTS.
LAWRENCE, Kansas territory.

THIS but sundry hindrances arrived in the territory
before your correspondent or rather | should say
the Good Father has not-as some who come here
seem to expect-grown houses and finished them
up as lie does mushrooms. We had n home to
make before health could be sensured, and winter
provided for. OF course my hands have been full
of work and my head of Yankee contrivances,
such as the dwcllers amcng mechanics shops and
in the midst of gray-haired commerce would fail
to appreciate. and | to paint with my pen.
could not begin to Erte the story of "lile as it is
in Kansas, amusing as it must be to all and in
structve to the many who are preparing to cmi-
CRATE here.
When arrived here like all the new comers, |
was taken to lodging-house and supplied with
plenty of prairie hdy for a bed, and having come
without bedding in my ignorance Of the customs
Of the country-it was kindly loaned me by mem
Der of the city association. This lodging house
is made of polls or small timbers and in form and
size reminds cne of the strap roof of a hu &c ware
house. This poe-roof is thatched upon the outside
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 whisted uncomfortable through the
bay roOl, laying of the Cry, tough, prairie sod
has been put over the whole building,and windows
introduced into one end as a substitute for the
darkencd cloth gables. There is large "city
dining hall'' constructed in the same manner
where one hundred and more take their meals at
$3.50 per week. The first three days ate at the
public table with my sons; then | commenced
house keeping with my sister emigrants. And
now comes the rich humor of my experience in
Kansas lift-a specimen of pioneer life the country
over.
The theatre of our operations, rather our
cooking area, WIS the city 'ieUce," on which these
temporary shelters, or lodging "houses" are built,
And now fancy breakfast getting for some twenty
families and companies, which have kindled as
p,op ErpS two thrnn IN hnli
up kettles and pans, and very few with stick
cranes" The cooks are prominent in the scene,
and about as many of them men women
Yonder is grave, middle aged man. without
crane or stones toiing man-fully to boil his tea
kettle or fry his Missouri-curcd ''side pork" with
out upsctting the one or burning the other both of
which he accomplishes in spite of his efforts to the
contrary, and swallows his breakfast and his cha
grin, muttering something to the purpose of wo-
mans genius for cooking. There is woman, her
skirts burned full of holes by the model fire place
and what remains of them converted into n sort
fringe by the prare stubble her breakfast is
simple one, coffee or tea and mush, which is eat
en- with molasscs but she has tear in either
eye, for the smoke loitcrs the earth. lon-
der breakfast left to itself q moment-for crying
baby has drawn the mother into the tent, as it is
tipped over and the beef soup is flow
ing from the ''camp kettle" into the scattering
flame. But you have not time to linger here, gen
tlemen, so please follow me into the tents and see
the eaters. Many of them, it is true, eat sitting
on the ground outside; but these are men and boys
who bave no 'trOntdn cook" But as VIC are pass
ing the various groups, we may as well stop at the
cart near at hand. The emigrants are buying beef
of men who bring it in almost daily from the prai-
ries in the vicinity. 1t is the best beefI found
outside city stall, and has the advantage of be-
ing fed in the open air with wide range and plen-
ty of water. Five dollars the hundred pounds, the
whole creature, or five cents the fore and cents
the hind quarters is the common price.
But we were going to look in upon the eaters in
this large tent where between fifty and hundred
are accommodated" Yohder is man, and his
wife, three children, and his father and mother-a
venerable and excellent couple-eating from the
top of box. Two or three cups and saucers serve
for the whole tea drinking, ditto plates, &c. The
salt and the pepper are in papers, tin cup is the
tea pot and the little boxes and the ground their
seats. There is group of men standing round
frying pan each with piece of bread in his hand,
dipping in the gravy and eating with slices OF ba-
con. There is company of men round plate of
pancakes which they raised with cream tartar and
soda, and spread with molasses as they laid them
on the plate. There is no butter TO be had here,
or only OCCASIONALLY as few pounds are brought
from Kansas, Mo. have not tasted any in three
weeks.
| cannot linger longer in the domestic scenes of
the settlement, but as ''wOmans sphere" here is
out Of doors, / may be allowed to suggest that
those who emigrate here ought to know before
coming precisely what they will find here as ma
terals for comfortable home and their cost
Many have been sadly disappointed not with the
country, but in the means necessary to avail them
selves of its advantages. Great Improvement has
been made in the appearance and the comforts OF
the place in the last two weeks. Some twenty
tsmements have been finished, nearly so, in that
time. Two thirds of these are Of logs and frames
the claphoards and shingles being split, or riven
others of sod, with thatched roofs and
lined to some extent with cotton cloth. The latter
are the warmcSt and most comfortable to be had,
till the saw mill shall give boards that can be |
fitted and keep out the wind as crooked split ones
cannot. BY the way this saw mill, whose long, /
though necessarily delayed operation has been
the cause of more discomfort and vexation than
anything else has been fixed up and commenced
regular work.
We have had no cold weather with the exception
Of three days the thermometer then was II de.
grees above zero. AS for suffering, in the sense
used by folks at home" starvation, it is out of
the question where one has money to procure the
at hand Stoves have to be brought
in from Kansas Missouri, and many have been
by families after arriving here, which
had they understood matters as they easily might !