in a small milk-pot jug of gin-punch, at night. And 'when I made a temporary table, to hold the little candle'stick, of one of my dressing-case trays; cunningly inserted 'under the mattress of my berth with a weight a-top of it Ito keep it in its place, so that it made a perfectly exqui'site bracket; we agreed, that, please God, this should be 'a joke at the Star-and-garter on the second of April 'eighteen hundred and forty-three. If your blank can 'be surpassed... believe me ours transcends it. My 'heart gets, sometimes, SORE for home. STEAM Волт то NATI: C. D. to J. F. prison. to solitude. 'At Pittsburgh I saw another solitary confinement Another solitary 'prison: Pittsburgh being also in Pennsylvania. A 'horrible thought occurred to me when I was recalling 'all I had seen, that night. What if ghosts be one of the 'terrors of these jails? I have pondered on it often, since 'then. The utter solitude by day and night; the many 'hours of darkness; the silence of death; the mind for 'ever brooding on melancholy themes, and having no 'relief; sometimes an evil conscience very busy; imagine New terror 'a prisoner covering up his head in the bedclothes and 'looking out from time to time, with a ghastly dread of 'some inexplicable silent figure that always sits upon his 'bed, or stands (if a thing can be said to stand, that never walks as men do) in the same corner of his cell. The 'more I think of it, the more certain I feel that not 'a few of these men (during a portion of their im'prisonment at least) are nightly visited by spectres. I 'did ask one man in this last jail, if he dreamed much. 'He gave me a most extraordinary look, and said'under his breath-in a whisper-“No.” . . . CINCIN NATI: 1842. C. D. to J. F. 'CINCINNATI. Fourth April, 1842. We arrived here this morning: about three o'clock, 'I believe, but I was fast asleep in my berth. I turned 'out soon after six, dressed, and breakfasted on board. 'About half after eight, we came ashore and drove to 'the hotel, to which we had written on from Pittsburgh 'ordering rooms; and which is within a stone's throw of 'the boat wharf. Before I had issued an official notifiTwo judges 'cation that we were "not at home," two Judges called, in attend ance. Change of route. 'on the part of the inhabitants, to know when we would 'receive the townspeople. We appointed to-morrow 'morning, from half-past eleven to one; arranged to go 'out, with these two gentlemen, to see the town, at one; 'and were fixed for an evening party to-morrow night at 'the house of one of them. On Wednesday morning we 'go on by the mail-boat to Louisville, a trip of fourteen 'hours; and from that place proceed in the next good 'boat to St. Louis, which is a voyage of four days. Finding 'from my judicial friends (well-informed and most agree'able gentlemen) this morning, that the prairie travel to Chicago is a very fatiguing one, and that the lakes are 'stormy, sea-sicky, and not over-safe at this season, I 'wrote by our captain to St. Louis (for the boat that 'brought us here goes on there) to the effect that I 'should not take the lake route, but should come back 'here; and should visit the prairies, which are within 'thirty miles of St. Louis, immediately on my arrival 'there. 'I have walked to the window, since I turned this page, 'to see what aspect the town wears. We are in a wide CINCIN NATI: 1842. C. D. to J. F. of the city. 'street paved in the carriage way with small white 'stones, and in the footway with small red tiles. The 'houses are for the most part one story high; some are 'of wood; others of a clean white brick. Nearly all 'have green blinds outside every window. The principal Description 'shops over the way, are, according to the inscriptions 'over them, a Large Bread Bakery; a Book Bindery; 'a Dry Goods Store; and a Carriage Repository; the last 'named establishment looking very like an exceedingly 'small retail coal-shed. On the pavement under our 'window, a black man is chopping wood; and another 'black man is talking (confidentially) to a pig. The 'public table, at this hotel and at the hotel opposite, 'has just now finished dinner. The diners are collected 'on the pavement, on both sides of the way, picking their 'teeth, and talking. The day being warm, some of them 'have brought chairs into the street. Some are on three On the 'chairs; some on two; and some, in defiance of all known 'laws of gravity, are sitting quite comfortably on one with 'three of the chair's legs, and their own two, high up in 'the air. The loungers, underneath our window, are 'talking of a great Temperance convention which comes 'off here to-morrow. Others, about me. Others, about England. Sir Robert Peel is popular here, with every'body....' pavement. Descriptions in letters and in Notes. CHAPTER XXIII. THE FAR WEST: TO NIAGARA FALLS. 1842. THE next letter described his experiences in the Far West, his stay in St. Louis, his visit to a Prairie, the return to Cincinnati, and, after a stage-coach ride from that city to Columbus, the travel thence to Sandusky, and so, by Lake Erie, to the Falls of Niagara. All these subjects appear in the Notes, but nothing printed there is repeated in the extracts now to be given. Of the closing passages of his journey, when he turned from Columbus in the direction of home, the story, here for the first time told, is in his most characteristic vein; the account that will be found of the Prairie will probably be preferred to what is given in the Notes; the Cincinnati sketches are very pleasant; and even such a description as that of the Niagara Falls, of which so much is made in the book, has here an independent novelty and freshness. The first vividness is in his letter. The naturalness of associating no image or sense but of repose, with a grandeur so mighty and resistless, is best presented suddenly; and, in a few words, we have the material as well as moral beauty of a scene unrivalled in its kind upon the earth. The instant impression we find to be worth more than the eloquent recollection. BACK TO NATI: 1842. C. D. to J. F. Outline of westward The captain of the boat that had dropped them at Cincinnati and gone to St. Louis, had stayed in the latter place until they were able to join and return with him; this letter bears date accordingly, 'On board the Messenger again. Going from St. Louis back to Cincinnati. Friday, 'fifteenth April, 1842;' and its first paragraph is an outline of the movements which it afterwards describes in detail. We remained in Cincinnati one whole day travel. ' after the date of my last, and left on Wednesday morning 'the 6th. We reached Louisville soon after midnight on 'the same night; and slept there. Next day at one 'o'clock we put ourselves on board another steamer, ' and travelled on until last Sunday evening the tenth; 'when we reached St. Louis at about nine o'clock. The 'next day we devoted to seeing the city. Next day, Tuesday the twelfth, I started off with a party of men '(we were fourteen in all) to see a prairie; returned to 'St. Louis about noon on the thirteenth; attended a 'soirée and ball-not a dinner-given in my honor that 'night; and yesterday afternoon at four o'clock we turned 'our faces homewards. Thank Heaven! An Arabian-night city. 'Cincinnati is only fifty years old, but is a very beauti'ful city: I think the prettiest place I have seen here, 'except Boston. It has risen out of the forest like an 'Arabian-night city; is well laid out; ornamented in the 'suburbs with pretty villas; and above all, for this is 'a very rare feature in America, has smooth turf-plots and well kept gardens. There happened to be a great Tempertemperance festival; and the procession mustered under, festival. and passed, our windows early in the morning. I ance |