Indiana Palladium, Volume 5, Number 36, Lawrenceburg, Dearborn County, 12 September 1829 — Page 1

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EQUALITY OF RIGHTS IS NATURE'S PLAN AND FOLLOWING NATURE IS THE MARCH OF MAN. Barlow. Volume V. LAWRENCEBURGH, INDIANA; SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1329. Number 36.

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From Flint's Monthly Review. A SEjYTIMEjXTAL TALE. One person, says the proverb, is born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and another with a wooden ladle. One person is born to empire and another to saw wood, and make ditches. These truths are clearly set forth in the story of Jemima O'Keefv, which I proceed to relate, premising, that the fac's are furnished me by a very respectable citizen of this vicinity, who has lived in

this country from its first settlement, and knows as many of the early incidents of its history, as any other man. Jemima O'Kcefy was the daughter of Irish parents, and at fourteen she wa not very beautiful,-but she had an Irish complexion, as white as a lily, and a profusion of sandy hair. From her child hood, she had a certain good-natured pertness of defiance, udted with a perseverance and inflexibility of purpose, which, in one way or another, with fath er and mother, with brothers and sisters, at home or at school, enabled her to carry her purpose, and to become mis tress of all whom she chose to command. It is true, in her early years, her father and mother occasionally applied the rod in her case, as in that of other children. But if they struck, in some way or other, like the great Grecian commander, she made them hearken; and in the end they stood corrected, and she carried her point. Her parents marvelled, and attempted to solve the mystery of this strange influence. Sometimes, they thought it flowed from the power of her stare; sometimes from that of a sharp curved nose, that turned up like a fish hook, which gave her the name in the Dutch place of her birth,of Naze linker), or hook-nose. I, for my part, believe that it was a kind of amiable defiance and boldness in her manner, a keen eye to discern her mark, and a perstvermg purpose to stick to it to the end. That is to say, in Chesterfield's phrase, ehe was suaviter in modo,fortiter in re. At the age of fifteen, some say at a village hop. but the authority which I prefer to follow, gives it at a corn shook ing, or what is called in New Engla: d 'a husking, she came in contact with Ja cob, Barn-dollar, a German, or as he was called in the village, a little new place near Red Stone, now Brownsville, on the Monong diela,in West Pennsylvania, a Dutchman. Jacob was six feet two inches high, with a tough skin, brawney arms, and a very thick a. d impenetrable pericardumor heart case, and he rode a monstrous Dutch horse, seventeen hands high called by way of emphasis, the 'big horse. He was allowed to be the best man' in the village that ishe could flog, in a fair list fight, any Dutclr man, Irisher or Yankee in the place. He had a farm, a log house, 5 stone barn, a whiskey distillery, an apple orchard, and had been left by his worthy old father, two hundred and seventy sit ver dollars, tied up in a blue stocking, that had been cut down to the leg, and was fastened strongly at either end with a leather string. Jacob hitherto had cared for nobody, and when he sung a psalm at meeting, could be heard distinctly a full mile. The mothers all considered him the best match in the settlement, and full many a girl's heart had softened in view of him, like buiter in a warm summer's day. But Jacob whistled and sung, and his heart had hitherto been as insensible, as the hoof of his big horse. Jacob was no longer able to say that, after the shooking afore said. Jemima and him fell upon a red carat the same time, and the united shouts of the whole party proclaimed the ttx of a kiss which was the fair due of the young Dutchman. This would have been a delightful acquisition to many of the young sparks present. But however inviting might be her lily face and hook-nose, most of them would as soon have meditated advancing their faces upon the back of a porcupine. Jacob, too, partook of the common dread of the vixen, who charged him to keep his dis tance. But the pride and manhood of the kbest man in the village, goaded on by the general acclamation, was con cerned to have the kiss forthcoming There was a sad scramble among the husk-?, but for this time physical force carried it over the empire of intellect and charms, and Jacob bore off the kis coup de main. But this ravishment was committed in an evil hour for poor Jacol Barndo'lar's peace. Whether she shar eJ the common views of the other girl: in the village, or whether she wished to panndi him for his presumption, 01 from what mixture of motives she acted, 1 am not advised. The fact is all that

is material to my story. Jacob, hither -

to invincible, was brought within the in fluence of her spell. Sometimes she managed with him, as cats do, when they are wooing; and at other times she soothed him. Se was often seen to stroke the mane of his big horse as if un-coniou-tli t he saw her. She coaxed, fretted, and played vixen with him, until the tall Dutchman's heart hung up n her liook nose, as much at command as a lit tie trout fairly brought to drv ground by the hook. To be short, Jacob Barndellar, in bodily fear of his life, had screwed up his courage to the tremendous point orasiang tne lair irisher, if she would 1 1 ft f T a -a marry him? After playing with his ter rors a sufficient time, she told him yes, and that she would make a man of a Dutchman out out of him. So they were married by a German Lutheran minister, and the psalm on the occasion was sung with prodigious power; and the whole concern of young and old, Irish and Germans, were as merry as Turkies &l braunhcein could make them, though even on that evening of bliss, Jacob had sufficient intimations what kind of apprenticeship he had to serve. For the first moon, it would he absurd to suppose that the happy husband could deny his spouse any thing. He fumed inwardly to a degree, when she introduced tea instead of sour milk, whis key and fat cakes for supper and breakfast but as regarded words, he kept his thoughts to himself. It was worse, when she insisted upon riding the big horeto meeting. On the back of that horse was Jacob's throne and it went to his heart to see his wife galloping along in mid air, and himself ambling oy her ide upon a "chunk"7 of a pony,Uiat jen a considerable-length c: his legs to draggle along the bushes and haccks, or to be painfully ciooked up at a rndi ngie to his knees. But even this he look as he might, in mute resignation. compounded, with a touch of internal rebellion. Her mode? of showing her power, were so diversified and vexatious, that Jacon, whose innate lust office dom was by no means subdued, though so grieviously hampered, added to his list of oaths, among which the most common was donner and brauntn-cin. donner and schnaps, donner and naze hazen, or thunder and hook nose! and it was easy to observe that this last was the most terrible sublime of cursing to which he ever ascended. As we remarked, the spark of free dom, though like a single cole smothered und'.T a bushel of ashes, was not, how ever extinct. Three months and a day after his nuptials, iho parks kindled to a dame. Thcv were going to preaching amidst a crowd of his young companions, of a gay spring mor rung, in which lambs and birds, and villa ger felt the utmost elasticity oflife. Ja cob looked with the eve of eager desire upon the big hor.-:e, while the fair Irish pouse vaulted into the saddle like a kid img. The pony hung by his bridle to a pot ready for him to mount. But instead of doing it, his wife remarked him scratching his head ai.d advancing to ward her. What would vou. Jacob? asked she. Mein harte. said he, I nrav you take the little horse, and let me have the big one. It looks mor so good for us to ride that way. The spousesaw treason and reb llion in the camp, and that the fate of empire depended upon right management of the case. So she said, mingling in her expression, threat, uenanceana graciousness, "sure , Jacob. you an t such a fool as to think of that just now." 'Indeedam I, just that fool, ..on. ifuti, oas jaiou. i ou are a short body, aid the way you ride never brings your leet near the ground. Don ner und Schnaps J when I ride the little Irish heifer, 1 walk and ride all in one. A pretty litile domestic dialogue ensued. in which she became too warm to let off the steam in English, and had recourse to the great fluency of her native Irish. Jacob went through his part of the argu mentas well as he could in Dutch, and run over with all his simple curses of donner and teyvil, advancing to the more terrible and compound ones of donne: und brawiticcin, and even donner und naze haken. Sometimes one scale preponder ated, and sometimes the other, and the victory long hung douhtiul. But tincurve nose hnallv carried offa complete triumph. It was decisive in relation to the future; for Jacob never dared again 10 say his soul was his own, during all their nuptial days together; w hich were ?ix or seven years; or until Jemima was twenty-lour years old, and the mother of three tine stout bos,a happy crossing of me Irish and the Dutch breed. Beside these additions to their means, he bred

'colts, and made wheat and whiskey, ami

she made cheeses; they regularly tied up one hundred silver dollars moie in the stocking, on the last day of every year. Since he was so civil as not to question her authorit she generally smiled graciously on him, and seldom crooked her nose at him rather in anger, than command. Jacob really loved her next to his horses, and a long way before his boys. It was an evil hour for this family when in 1793, a straggling partv cf Shawnees came upon the house iu the absence o. Jacob. They cared not to take the children but they made free to carry off Jenima captive, and could not interpret the curve of her nose and her look of defiance and command at first. She comprehended in a moment, that it would take time to make good scholars and subjects of the Shawnees, and wisely submitted to her fate without wailing, or resistance, or fainting, though she talked fast in English, of which they did not understand a word. But though taken off by main force, her heart remained behind, for she really loved Jacob as a good subject, provider, and father of her children. The second or third day of her captivity , on this long and painful march, he began to practise her arts of empire upon her savage masters. The were pupils, indeed, to inspire any other instructor with despair. But even when they compelled her obedience hy force, like the termagant wife, whom the cobbler ducked, for charging him with haling vermin about him, who raised her hands over her head, from under the water, and brought her thumb nail-, together, to let him be informed what her thoughts were, even when in dan ger of drowning, Jemima showed in these cases such a free and unsubdued spirit, that the chief, to whose brother she had been assigned, marking the crook of her nose, and her air of defiance one day as they halted, and she 11a 1 II was oruereu lo some disagreeable ser vice, drew his pipe from his mouth, ul tered his most emphatic whoo! and thereupon named her Ta-ne-wisl or Pi gcon hawk, a name, which she still bears in the tribe. Five years she lived arnong them, and more than one warrior would willingly have made her his squaw but her vixen spirit soon acquired the same ascendency among the savages, that it had in her native village. She curved her nose fiercely at any mother's son of them that offended her, and lived in great honor among them, invio late in their respect, much to herself, and not laboring as hard as was her wont with Jacob. But for her rememorance or mm ana jacou me younger, there is no doubt, that she would have became the squaw of To-nc-wa, or the quick thunderclap. But her heart was at her home; and she watched her op portunity, aud escaped from the upper waters of the Big Miami, and through incredible difliculties of forests, and rivers, and hunger, and fatigue, she safelj made her way, on foot and alone, from that region all the distance to Red Stone, a length oi at least l'JU leagues. Hut her high spirit was not subdued, nor the curve in her nose straightened, On the contrary, at the cabins, scattered along at intervals oi titty miles, where she stopped, she asked for bread, beer and meat, with the same tone of cheerful defiance and authority, which had done her so good service with her spouse, and among the Indians. The gentleman who gave me this story, assures me, that, vixen as she seemed, she was really at bottorn an attectionate and kind hearted woman. When at the term of her long wandering through the wilderness, she came at last in view of the well remembered, peaceful log mansion sleeping in the midst of its orchard, and its ancient chesnut trees, all the wife and mother rose in her heart, and she wept for joy. As it happened, she came up with Jacob at some distance from the house. The meeting was so unexpected on his side, and so hke a thunder stroke, that he shed the first tear, he had ever shed in his life, except those of the bottle. His sullen heart was fairly thawed out tike a mass of lead ore in the furnace. Jemima wept too, and they embraced again and again, before either of them -pake a word. Donner und bliten, at last he exclaimed, mein harte, mcin fran. niein hontg strug, mcin scherish brauntitem, and he ran over all the fondling epithets he knew, and then rushed again to the embrace of his wife. So long was this continued, and so Idle disposed did he seem to remove, that 3Iy heart, my wife, Qjy honey pot, ray cherry bounce!

Jemima, impatient to see the children.

at length recovered recollection, to in quire for them, and to beg that the) might proceed to the house. Mien haitt said Jacob, let us stay here, and hav the gooo of this meeting as long as svt can. But Jemima was already making tor the house with long stride;-. Jacob came alter her like a dog dragged hv a string, hanging his head, and movieg like a felon to the gallows. This reluttanet to go home was so palpable, that Jemi ma remarked it, and said, ss she went back and took him by the hand, 'why Jacob, you don't seem glad to see me af ter all.' 1 Donner und braunlzvcin that am I, said he. But he still hung back. 'I he mysterv of this manner was explain ed the moment Jemima had raised the wooden latch, and stepped over the threshold of the door lo, and behold! the first person, that met her eye within, was a woman, whom she had formerly known, as one of Jacob's sweet hearts, by the name of Joan VVindputTer. She, too, was over six feet in height, had a babe in her arms, and looked as cold, and as si iff, as an iceberg. Gott mich eslound! exclaimed Jemima, in Dutch, almost the hrst time, she had ever been known to speak a word in that language. Who have we here? Poor Jacob saw a storm brewing, and wrung his hands in agony. Mein Go, says he here has I got two f raus and I wants but one. Gott mich stneken! begs you not to tight wid each oders. Nor was the caution unnecessary. The parties intuitively com prehended the relation tliev sustained lo Jacob, in a twinkling. A tight would have endued from this position, as sure as frost engenders hail. But, us if poor Jemima was to suffer all conceivable tiials of the heart and temper at once, while they were glowering at each oth"r, in came her young Jacob, leading b) the fist a little four jear old Dutcher, with buckkin breeches, and a mass of flaxen hair about a round face, which instantly told, to whom he belonged. Jemima saw, that the work of rearing boys for the farm had prospered under her successor. A more heart-rending storm of conllicting emotions can hardl) be imagined, than that, which now wrung the heart of Jemima. Her resolution seemed taken in a moment. She had i.lways been rem.:; ked for the quickness and strength of her purpose. Her own dear children with those of Joan Windpuffer stood staring at her, alike ignorant, who she was. She seized her own children, one by one, who shrunk away from her, and strained them convulsively to her embrace by main strength. Jacob had never seen his wife before in any other position, than that of a master, at once laughing, cool, and stern.; and it pierced through the seven bull's hides, by which his heart had been shielded against feeling, to see her in such agony, This burst of maternal affection soon spent itself, and pride and firmness of purpose resumed their empire. She turned round from the embrace of her children, comparatively calm, to the-astounded present wifeh) right of possession. Now, said she, if you ever kiss one of mine, or hurt them, may God smite you, you vile Dutch land sheadded a name which I choose to emit. Saying this, she turned her back, without adding another word, and began to walk off. Jacob knew full well the strength of her resolutions, and comprehended, that his old bird, whom he loved, both as a wife, and a master, as well again, as the tall w oman of the children of his own people, who stood before him, and whom he ruled, hke a slave, would soon be flown. He seemed in a quandary, and ignorant what to say, or do. But he stepped before her, as she was going over the threshold. 'Now stop, sal J he; I bray you, one little minute. If you will stay mitme, and Joan will go home to her Dutch vader, I'll give her my best big horse, and four hundred silver dollars.' It is possible, a treaty of this soil might have been brought lo bear. Bui while Jemima half relented, and, like Lot's wife, looked back; and while Joan w as thinking of the independent possession of the big horse, and four hundred dollars, and, sitting down . calmly, undid her bosom, to nurse her boy, and consider, the sight seemed to restore all her firmness of purpose to Jemima, and to clinch the nail. She put Jacob aside, and walked sternly down the yard. Jacob came after her, but seeing her blood was up, and having experimented contests in like circumstances, he did not care to come near her. But let nont suppose, that her trials were over, because she seemed firm and cool ; and that pride and jealously fully sustained hei through this trial. The moment she

I was out of sight of Jacob and Joan, she

turned round, to take a last look of her peaceful home, where she had been so constantly and happily occupied. I do not say, that she made a tragedy speech but she wept, and felt abundantly more, than any heroine of the whole of them. There slept her home in the orchard. There were her children and her affections, her cows and cheese. There was her small empire, with but one subject, whom she had in fact loved as heartily, as she had ruled sternly In the bitterness of her dethronement, she sobbed, and heartily cursed the tail and insensible present occupant. But Jemima was not a personage to become enervated by grief. On the contrary she had a spirit, winch, had it not been imprisoned in the precints of a petticoat, might have made her a con queror. She waded the MonoLgahela. She crossed one stream upon a fallen tree; and another she paddled over in the first canoe, she could find, without inquiring very scrupulously, concerning the owner. Her appetite was not keen the fust two or three days of her jour ne). But she roasted clams on the Ohio, and ate pawpaws, wherever she found them. She asked for milk, and bread, and cheese on her way back, in the same tone, and with the same air, which sha had commanded on coming out. Most of the nights she slept under a tree. But when she staid at a house, nobody heard her complain, or tell the story of her wrongs, or affect in any way the forlorn damsel. Whatever curiosity might have been excited, on her part, her look and manner repressed the expression of if? and one would have thought, that she had changed place with them, and that she was obligor, and they obligee Jc mima had discovered that if any one has the tooth ache, or the heart ache, it is the much the wisest plan, to keep it to himself. In short, she treaded back the hundred and twenty leagues with a fnm and unbroken spirit. In something more than forty days from her departure, she crossed the. Big Miami, and presented hers.-lf at the cabin door, from which she had escaped. The savage owner uttered one of his loudest interjections when he saw her again. To-nc-wa, or the quick thunderclap, was brother of the chief, and had been, as we have seen, her admirer, and had suffered as much from her abscence, as such a heart as his could be supposed to feel. Whoo! IVhoo! says he. Who have we here? You run off. Vou come back. Pale face no good. You like red skins best. Truth was, the gallant bearing, and the reverential forbearance of To-ne-wa, whose slave she had been, and with whose mother she had lived, had un doubtediy made a certain progress in her affections; and there is no doubt, she would have yielded to his respect ful suit, had not her heart been effectually shielded by impressions of duty, and recollections of Jacob, the cider, and Jacob, the younger, at Bed Stone. That tie Jacob and Joan had broken forever and nothing now stood between her heart and the tine manly person of To-ne-wa, who had uniformly treated her curve nose with almost the Eome respect, as Jacob had shown, although, by the fortune of war, she was his slave. The warrior, moreover, wore a blue foldier coat, faced with red, over a long chintz: gown; and a small high crowned, wool hat with three pewter buckles in the band. His face was painted to a charm. He wore a large silver nose jewel? When he stepped, two hundred brass Itiinklets shook at once, from his knees down to hi red and yellow moccasins. He was, besides, a man of authority in his tribe, and a tierce warrior, and a successful hunter. Nor w as there a red skin beauty in the tribe, that would not have accepted the place, offered to Jemima, with pride and joy. Could Jemima be insensible to the charm of subduing her master, and ruling him, who, next the chief, ruled all about him? It was, indeed, a proud triumph fur Naze Haken. Here would be the place, to recite the particulars of the courtship. But brevity, as I think, is the life of these narratives, and 1 hasten to the denouement. They were married, after the Indian fashion; and a most glorious powr wow had To-ne-wa, when he called the curve nose his own squaw. He never before sung lic-am-avj-hum with such energy, and, in dancing, he beat up the ground, like the pestles of a powder mill. Poor To-ne-wa soon had lo pay the fiddler for that dancing, and became gradually enlightened to the fact, that thciftof command is universal in iU