Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1858-01-28
Mrs.EPartington On Her travels.

1nc 'Llttlc Junior OF tho Boston Saturday
Evening Gazette, otherwise known as ''Widcs-
warth, but more Familiarity known as "Mrs.
Darlington, has recently been out west and
furnished some interesting debris of travel" to
that journal. In the following extract, which
we make from his last letter, fact, philosophy,
and humor are very happily blended:
81 was puzzled to know why at the various
hotels and eating houses there was such an en-
tire absence of wild game at table. The coun-
try abounds with fish, flesh and fowl-deer,
prairie hens, and pigeons-yet in no instance
in the west did taste either, except at the Tre-
mont in Chicago AS We passed down the
Cumberland river we saw deer swimming across
and acres ofpigeons darkening the air for hours
overhead, but none could VIC get. We were
like the Ancient Mariner, with "water every
where" and meier drop to drink. Farther up
on the prairies we heard of prairie hens, and
saw them as VIC went along, fat and heavy, fy-
ing lazily away within half gunshot, and heard
too oflake fish ofgreat excellence, but / never
tasted one of either. The everlasting beef steak
But metits match and couldn't split it:''
or ham or sausages supplied their place-the
fat of the land, it is true, but the game would
have been n luxury. 1t is so, however, all
where's. Go down to Cape Cod, or Cape Ann,
where the fisllis splendid, and which you long
for u taste of, and ten to one they will send TO
Boston for roast Object to treat you on. Ply
mouth is famous for clans and cells, but Stran-
ger never gets one there. By the same rule, II
a man goes up into Vermont and stops at we'll
kept hotel he will be likely to find fried Goldfish
the first thing on his bill of fare In the wood
cd regions on the banks of the Cumberland and
Ohio rivers deer are very numerous. They
swim the streams to visit cornfields, and arc
hunted by sportsmen. A spot was pointed out
to me as the path by which they always reach
ed the water. When pursued, they invariably
made for this ford, but just before we passed
that way one noble fellow had made u fatal mis-
take and got few steps farther up the stream,
where high bluff rose above the river. He
was pursued by dogs, and in his confusion ran
to the bluff, over which he leaped and was killed
on the rocks below. One of the most curious
sights that witnessed was the fight of pigeons
that have before alluded to. 1t was a clear
fair morning, and we were sailing along tho
Kentucky shore, when from the beech woods
an immense multitude of pigeons began to cross
the river. They might be computed by mil
lions, flying in column a quarter of a mile
wide. For hours the flight continued, and they
went very near us, almost as low as the chin
neys of the steamboat. In the midst of tho
thickest of the feathery cloud, the engineer Ic
on the steam whistle, when whirling to tn
right and left the crowd divided, each par
gracefully curling like a scroll, leaving a clea
pace over our heads; in moment, however,
to be filled again, as the pressure from withou
forced the flight onward. Wideswarth murl
mured-
"Ihave found out gin for my fair,
Ihave found where the WoOd-pigeOns brood; -
and plain matterof fact passenger said he didn't
think it was much of a discovery, as he hadl
known the place for a good many years.
There seems to be benevolent spirit among
the western farmers towards the prairie hens.
and deer. "A very large portion ofthe corn crop
remain unharvested, and will remain thus unit
spring. have ridden by hundreds of miles |
corn yet unhusked. There are no barns in tn !
west or south, and this perhaps is the reason
manwill own farm ofimmense extent, and b !
worth much wealth, but will live in wretche, I
log hut, scarcely fit for COW to OCCUPY, witt I
not so much as pig-pen or hen-coop to max (
1t look like a farmers residence and relieve tn I
prevailing drearineSs. No signs are to be the .
with ofimplements ofcultiVation, none of work /
ing cattle, none of dairy arrangements. W /
miss the farm yards, and bright tin pans, ant
bright faces, and big barns. The only attempt
at gamers is the making pens of rails, capablti
of holding hundreds of bushels of corn on the
cob, which pens are entirely open to rain AMI
snow, and the corn is exposed to the liability
of mould, though the farmers say that the corn
is none the worse for exposure to the weather.
The wheat IS thrashed on the spot and sent di 1
rectly to market, much of which is sold upon
the field. The cheapneSs of wheat is creating 81
sort of panic among the farmers, many of whor
say that they will not cultivate it if they cam,
get more than fifty cents bushel for it. 81
the absence of burns strikes a New Englandl
painfully, and the wonder is how the farmer
can get along without them.
"Who are thoseS" asked Mrs Darlington,
she saw party of men, with guns on tile
shoulders getting out of the cars on the pra
ries. .'They are missionaries" said old Roge
go ing out among the heath-hens" She IooI !
ed at him moment, steadiastly, and then
zcd after the retiring figures. 81 should rath,
think" continued she, ''that they were prizes
Of Bull" That eminent heather, the Brahmi
Poo.Poo, would have spoken, but his attentio
was diverted by Isaac, who had tied his lor
cloak to the arm of a seat.
"Can you tell me" said Wideswarth to cor
ductor Garfield, 1.-THE precise spot where IT,
little cottage stood that Rosalic, the prair
flower, lived in2' Garfield stood a nome,
pondering thequestion. He had probably ney,
heard it before, and telling the professor
thought it must be somewhere out nest, /
went out. And speaking of tout west" remin,
me of a story that illustrates the Hoosier id,
Of the west When Dubuque was the iumpins
off place, and consisted of but a few log hut
and the hotel but housed the same kind, wit
one room, two strangers stopped there, and
the morning one of them called for little viii