Crawfordsville Record, Volume 4, Number 51, Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, 28 May 1836 — Page 1

CKAWFORDSY

3 RECORD jA

"liberty and union now and forever, one and inseparable." Volume IV. Number 51. CKA WFORDS VILLE, I N D I AN A , M A Y "28, 1 8 3 G. Whole Number 20 7.

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OxE PEEP WAS ENOUGH; OR, THE POST OFFICE. All places have their peculiarities: now that of Dalton was discourse thai species of discourse which Johnson's Dictionary entitles "conversation on whatever does not concern ourselves' Every body knew what every body did, and a 1 itt.e more. Eatings, drinkins, walkings, sleep.11 - i 1 . .

lnjrs. taiKinns, savings, aoinas an were O ' J ' J ' for the good of the public; there was not such a thing as a secret in town. There was a story of Airs. Mary Smith, an ancient dame, who lived on an annuity, and boasted the gentility of a back and front parlor, that she once asked a few friends to dinner. The usual heavy antecedent half hour really passed quite pleasantly; for Mrs. Mary's windows overlooked the market place, and not a scrag of mutton could leave it unobserved; so that the extravagance or the meanness of the various buyers furnished a capital theme for dialogue. Still, in spite of Mr. A's pair of fowls, and Mr B's round of beef, the time seemed long, and the guests found hunger growing more potent than curiosity. They waited and waited and waited; at length the fatal discovery took place, that in the hurry of observing her neighbors' dinners, Mrs. Smith had forgotten to order her own. It was in the month of March that an event happened which put the whole town in commotion the arrival of a stranger who took up his abode at the White Hart; not that there was any thing remarkable about the stranger; he was a plain, middle aged, respectable looking man, and the nicest scrutiny (and heaven knows how narrowly he was watched) failed to discover any thing odd about him. It was ascertained that he rose at eight, break fasted at ii'"nc, ate two eggs and a piece of broiled bacoa, sat in his room at the window, read a lif.le, and looked out upon the road a good deal; he then strolled out, returned home, dined at five, smoked two cigars, read the Morning Herald, (for the post came in of an evening,) and went to bed at ten. Nothing couM be more regu1 , - . K T U 1 " 1 ' . iu.i or uuu.vw Hiuuaum man nis nauus still it was most extraordinary w , t . ' i hat could I have brought him to Dalton. There were no chalybeate springs, warranted to cure every disease under the sun, no ruins in the neighborhood, left expressly for antiquarians ana pic-nic parties; no nne pros pects, which, like music, people make it a matter of conscience to admire; no celebrated person had ever been born or buried in its environs; there were no races n rv g ; i ze s in short, there was "no nothing." It was not even summer, so country air and fine weather were not the inducements. The stranger's name was Mr. Williams, but that was the extent of their knowledge; and shy and silent, there seemed no probability of learning any thing more from himself. Conjecture, like Shakespeare, "exhausted words, and ihvn imncrined new." Some supposed he was hiding from his creditors; others that he had committed forgery; one suggested that he had escaped from a mad house; a fecond that h had killed some one in a duel; but all agreed that he came there for no good. It was on the twenty third of March, when a triad of gossips were assembled at their temple, the post office. The affairs of Dalton and the nation were settled together; newspapers were slipped fiom their covers, and not an epistle but yielded nortion of its contents. But on this night all attention was concentrated upon one, directed to "John Williams, Esq., at the White Hart, Dalton. Eagerly was it compressed within the long fingers of Mrs Mary Smith of dinnerless memory; the fat landlady of the White Hart was on tiptoe to peep, while the post mistress, whose curiosity took a semblance of official dignity, raised a warning hand against any overt act of violence. The paper was closely folded, and closely written in a cramped and illegible hand; suddenly Mrs Mary Smith's look grew more intent she had succeeded in deciphering a sentence; the letter dropped from her hand. "Oh, the monster!" shrieked the horified peeper Landlady and post-mistress both snatched at the terrible scroll, and they equally succeeded in reading the following words: "We will settle the matter to-morrow at dinner; but I am sorry you persist in poisoning your wife, the horror is too 'great." Not a syllable more could they make out; but what they had read was enough. "He told me," gasped the landlady, "that he expected a lady and gentleman to dinner oh, the villain! to think of poisoning any lady at the White Hart; and his wife too I should like to see my husband poisoning me!" Our hostess became quite personal in her indignation. "I always thought there was something suspicious about him; people don't come and live where nobody knows them, for nothing," observed Mrs. Mary Smith. "I dare say," returned the post-mistress, Williams is not his real name." "I don't know that," interrupted the landlady; "Williams is a good hanging name: there was Williams who murdered the Marr's family, and Williams who burked all these poor dear children. 1 dare ,r iio ic enmo rotation of theirs: but to sav ne is some; iuuiuu m-uo, v think ofhis coming to the White Hart

ts no place for his doings, I can tell him : he shan't poison his wife in my house; out he goes this very night I'll take the letter to him myself." "Lord! Lord"! I shall be ruined if it comes to be known that wo take a look into the letters:" and the post-mistress thought in her heart that she had better let Mr. Williams poison his wife at his leisure. Mrs. Mary Smith, too, reprobated any violent measures; the truth is, she did not wish to be mixed up in the matter;

a gentlewoman with an annuity and a front ,'and back parlor, was rather ashamed of being detected in such close intimacy with the post-mistress and the landlady. It seemed likely that poor Mrs. Williams would be left to her miserable fate. "Murder will out," said the landlord, the following morning, as he mounted the piebald pony, which, like Tom Tough, had seen a deal of service, and hurried off in search of Mr. Crampton, the nearest magistrate. Their perceptions assisted by brandy and water, he and his wife had sat up long past the "witching hour of night," deliberating on what line of conduct would be most efficacious in preserving the life of the unfortunate Mrs. WTiIliams; and the result of their deliberation was to fetch the justice, and have the delinquent taken into custody at the very dinner-table which was intended to be the scene of his crime. "He has ordered soup to-day for the first time; he thinks he could so easily slip poison into the liquid. There he goes; he looks like a man who has got something on his conscience," pointing to Mr. Williams, who was walking up and down at his usual slow pace. Two o'clock arrived, and with it a hack chaise: out of it stepped sure enough, a lady and gentleman. The landlady's pity redoubled such a beautiful young creature, not above nineteen! "1 see how it is," thought she, "the old wretch is jealous." All efforts to catch i . i his eye were in vain, the dinner was rea dy, and down they sat. The hostess of the White Hart looked alternately out of the window, like sister Ann, to see if any one was coming, and at the table to see that nothing was doing. To her dismay she observed the vouner ladv lifting a spoonful of broth to her mouth! She could ' , ,r i . . ,. leMi'tiu uuisdii nu longer; out caicning her hand, exclaimed, "Poor dear innocent, the soup is poisoned!" All started from the table in confusion, which was yet to be increased: a bustle was heard in the passage, in rushed a whole party, two of whom, each catching an arm of Mr. WTil Hams, pinioned him down to his seat. "I am happy, madam," said the bustling magistrate, "to have been under heaven the humble instrument of preserving your life from the nefarious designs of that disgrace to humanity." Mr. Crampton paused in consequence of three wants want of words, breath, and ideas. "My life!" ejaculated the astonished lady. "res, madam, the ways of Providence are inscrutable the vain curiosity of three id ie women has been turned to good account." And the eloquent magistrate proceeded to detail the process of inspects to which the fatal letter had been subjected; but when he came to the terrible words "We will settle the matter tomorrow at dinner; bui I am sorry you persist in poisoning your wife" he was interrupted by bursts of laughter from the gentleman, from the injured wife, and even from the prisoner himself. One fit of merriment was followed by another, till it became contagious, and the very consta bles began to laugh. "I can explain all," at last interrupted the visiter. Mr. Williams came here for that outet so necessary for the labors of genius: he is writing a melo-drama called "My Wife" he submitted the last act to me, and I rather objected to the poisoning of the heroine. This young lady is my daughter, and we are on our way to the sea-coast. Mr. Williams is only wedded to the Muses." The disconcerted magistrate shook his head, and mentioned something about theatres being very immoral. "Quite mistaken, sir, said Mr. Williams. "Our soup is very cold; but our worthy landlady roasts fowls to a turn we will have them and the veal cutlets up you will stay and dine with us and afterward, I shall be proud to read "My Wife" aloud, in the hope of your approval, at least of your indulgence" and with the same hope I bid farewell to my readers. JEWISH FUNERALS. I cannot say that my friends the Israelites are so free frcrn verbosity as the Moors in their sepulchral inscriptions; yet still I am glad that the conquerors have spared them. Farther west from Babel-Oued than the demolished Moorish tombs, and happily out of the line of the great road, lies the Jewish cemetry. It has neither flowers nor trees; but it is to my taste, a picturesque and interesting place. It contains, I should think, though I cannot say I have reckoned them, hundreds of graves, covered with slabs of pure white marble, with the Hebrew characters beautifully engraven and colored black, and here and there surrounded by sciilntured hands, denoting th tombs of Rahhis. I need not anoWisft tn von for mv interest in the Hehrmvs? thfl vprv ( ...j - , j ! characters of their language beget rever-

1 ence in my heart. Most ancient and illused people! It is some comfort to see their ashes undisturbed in a country where they have suffered so much. I often visit this cemetry by clear moonlight, when the many tombs contrast their foreground splendidly with the blue amphitheatre of hills above, and here, as if the ground inspired my memory, I can vividly recollect the brightest psssages of that prophet poet Isaiah, who painted futurity like the present scene, Letters from the Soittfi by Campbell.

Since returning to England, I applied i to Mr llarwitz, professor of the Hebrew in London University, to translate the epitaphs which I brought home, and he very kindly took the trouble to do so. He tells me that the style is modern or corrupted Hebrew, which has its difficulties to the Hebrew scholar. I. Epitaph on a female.. Call forth the lamenting women to prepare a mourning, and to weed over the graceful and lovely lady who was smitten with the plague in the day of anger, and descended into the lonely grave through the wrath (of God.) She buried her husband after the death of her husband. She fair of form and stature agreeable in her deeds to those who knew her. Hannah her name was called, the consort of the rabbi Joseph, of the family Buleis. In the month of Sivan, in the year of the creaation 5517, her blameless soul ascended to the highest heavens. II. On a young man. (This is) the tombstone of a lovely, upright and worthy young man Joseph, the Levite, of blessed memory, who was slain for no crime, but in consequence of false imputations raised against him and his seven companions, who were killed with him on the same day, on account of an un just sentence that was pronounced against them by their enemies concerning. May God, in his mercy, avenge them and the innocent blood which was shed in the land. Be amazed, ye heavens, at this! How have the righteous thus ceased, and come to an untimely end! Wo to the eyes that have seen this, and wo to the ears that hear this! On the fourth day of Tammuz, in the year of the world 5500, their souls went into the Upper Paradise, where they will find rest. V. Y. Star. A LETTER WRITTKN IN 1776. From the Boston Transcript. The subjoined letter was rescued the the other day from the maw of a paper mill. We thought it worth preservation, as indicating the feelings of the -'King's own'' towards the ''rebels," and for t tie very handsome compliment the writer pays, with more sincerity than he was aware, to the "d d Connecticut and New England people." The letter was written from New York, and the writer, we presume, was an officer of the British navy. It is directed "To Mr. Arch'd Mc Neal, at Halifax: per favor Capt. Barn well Stephenson." October 6, 1776. Dear Sir: 1 promised your good lady, when I left Halifax, to write you from this part of the world. The first opportunity I omitted, it being a man-of-war, and his lordship, our admiral, is very private in the destination of his ships. Now to tell you how we got to New York. The first battle we fought was on Long Island. Much to the credit of our army, there were killed and taken prisoners on that day, 3.000 men; the rest, in a dark night, decamped to New York, where soon after, they were drove away in like manner, like cowards for they have never made a stand before our troops yet. They are now at King's bridge, where we expect the general will attack them, every day, every thing being prepared, and a number of transports, with troops, and three men-of-war, which most people expect are going to Albany which I believe is pretty true, for they lay halfway up North river already. We have numbers of the rebels come in every day, who say one and all are quite sick of the lay, except the d d Connecticut and New England people, which keep the rest quite under command. God send them a little courage, that they may stand once, to get a few thousand of them slain, that they may have a new race of men. "Our admiral and general agreo very well, which makes every manouvre go on with spirit and pleasure, and the navy do their part. All, except the army and navy, have taken up their winter quarters in N. York, where a few nights ago, they had near been burnt in their beds, by some premeditated villains who were left in N. York for that purpose. They set fire to it in different places, and burnt a quarter of the town before wo could stop it. I believe most of these villains were taken many of them in the very act, whom the mad soldiers threw into the flames. Two, your friend, captain Wallace, hung in the street, on a sign post; the rest were carried to prison, where they will be hung or burnt, I believe, in a day or two. Now, I think it's most time to inquire about your family. I hope they are wall. Have you plenty of fresh grub, as the sailors I assure vou till within these few Havs we have been very short one fresh dinner in a week, and I thought myself . , very well off. But now we nan .

prospect of being well supplied all winter, if the d d Hessians don't get into town for they rob and plunder without distinction, wherever they go. To-night is Sun day night; I wUh 1 could spend it with you 1 think 1 could make myself very happy; but as the distance is so great, must content myself with drinking your healths in some porter. I have some very good, I assure you. I wish you were here to partake of it. Poor Jack, we have not been able to hear of yet, but soon expect an exchange of sailors, when we hope to have him in the list. I believe I shall tire you with my details, so will wind up till th next opportunity. My best compliments to your good lady and all the family hope they are well. Arch and I meet every day. I remain your sincere and humble servant, JOS. ROYAL LORING. P. S. The bearer of this is a clever fellow the captain of my old ship who will tell you all about it. If he returns I shall expect a few lines by him."

WASHINGTON. The annexed extract is from the late discourse by the Hon. Lewis-Cass, in the hall of the bouse of representatives, before the American Historical Society: "Wonderful man! Time is the great leveler of human pretensions. The judgment which he pronounces upon men and their actions, is as just as it is irreveif ible. How few of the countless throng, who, in the brief day of their pride, looked down upon their fellow men, or were looked up toby them, now live in the memory of mankind! And a-j we recede from the period?, in which I hey lived and flourished, their fame becomes dimmer and dimmer till it is extinguished in daikness. The woild has grown wiser in its estimate of human worth, and the fame of common heroes has become cheaper and cheaper. But we have one name that can never die. One star, winch no night of moral darkness can extinguish. It will shine on, brighter and brighter, till it is lost in the efiu'gence of that day, foretold in propln cy, and invoked in poetiy "When heaven its sparkling portals shall disAnd break upon us in the flood of day; No more the rising sun shall gild the morn, Nor evening Cynthia rill her silver hoin; But lost, dissolved in thy superior rays, One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze, Oerflovv thy courts: tha light himself shall shine Revealed, and God's eternal day be thine." Happen what may to our country, this ireasuie can never be reft from her. Her cities may become like Tadm or, her fields like the Campagna, her ports like Tyre, and her hills like Gilboa but in all the wreck of her hopes, she may still proudly boast that; she has given one man to the world, who devoted his best days to the service ofhis countrjmen, without any other reward than their love and his own self approbation; who gladly laid down his arms when peace was obtained; who gladly relinquished supreme authority when the influence of his character was no longer wanted to consolidate the infant institutions of the republic; and who died, ripe in years and in glory, mourned as few have been mourned before him, and revered as few will be revered after him. Here, in this hall, whose foundations were laid by his own hand; here, under this dome, which looks out upon the place of his .epului re; here in, this city, named from his name, and selected for iis high object by his choice, let us hope that his precepts will be heard, and his example heeded through all succeeding ages. And when these walls shall be nine worn and time honored, and the American youth shall come up, as they will come up, to this temple of liberty, to meditate upon the past, and to contemplate the future, may they here find lessons and examples of wkdumand patriotism to study and to emulate. And when the votary of freedom shall make his pilgrimage to the tomb of Mount Vernon, and lay his hand upon the lowly cenit t y, let him recall the virtues Dnd bless the memory of WASHINGTON." DAIRY HOUSE. The dairy house or room should be kept neat and cool. It should be as little exposed to the sun as possible. An apartment in a sweet and well ventilated cellar, has been recommended for keeping milk or cream. Cheese should never be put to dry in the same room in which you set milk fur obtaining butter, because thoy communicate an acid taint to the air, which has a tendency to make the milk sour . The milk room and cheese room should therefore be separate apartments. It will be well to have a milk room placed over a spring or brook, near your dwelling house, and so to contrive the inside arrangement that cool, fresh, running water may enter tight platforms or troughs, and the milk pans be set in the water. It is said that the dairy houses in Pennsylvania, are built over springs and their milk pans are set in cold running water, by which, and other modes of good management, the butter brought to market in Philadelphia, is said to be the finest in the world. This mode of making good butter is not unknown, though not common in New England. A writer in the Vermont Journal in an article published some years since, gives the following description of a milk room. "The shelves are so constructed as to ad. mit the immersion of a milk pan in cold wa.

ter nearly to the top, resembling a shallow trough. By the advantage of location, the water is constantly running from a spring oa at one end of the shelf and off at the other, and may be easily conducted from shelf to shelf thro' a whole room. The consequent is that the milk keeps perfectly sweet, in the warmest season, until the cream is all risen, which is in a short time of course the butter will be sweet. Now are there not hundreds of places that would admit of the like improvemeut with trifling expense, which would be refunded four fold in one season f"

THE "FAR WEST." Fifteen years sgo, when a person spokeof the "far west," the mind fixed upon Buffalo a3 the point; 8nd the emigrant wending his way thither, was looked upon a3 a wanderer to the very verge of civilization. A few years afterwards and Detroit was considered the "far west;" then Green Bay and Chicago. Short iy afterwards, Galena and the banks of the Uppper Mississippi; and eow, when the traveler reaches that point in the new territory of Wisconsin, and exclaims "at length I have reached the 'far west,"1 the settler will tell him "No; here we are far removed from the point you seek. Our steam boats are arriving and departing daily, laden with cargoes of immense value, and we are in the full enjoyment of all the luxuries of life. If you would find rhe "far west,1 cross the Mississippi, and proceed nearly a thu3md miles in the direction of the Rocky Mountains; and when you arrive there, you will find hardy, enterprising pioneers, who will tell you that to find the "far west" you must travel far beyond their location." We are led to these remarks, by witnessing the almost inconceivable changes which are daily taking place in the western country, and the innumerable cities, towns, and villages, which are growing up as if by magic. But a few days since, we took occasion to speak of the thriving town of Kankakee, situated at the junction oftheDefl PI aines and Kankakee rivers; and now a friend has called upon us to direct our attention to a map of the town of Astor, at the junction of the Fox river with Green Bay. When we knew this region it was a wilderness, and none but the Indians, the officers, and the solJiers of the garrison, ever disturbed the deep repose in which were buried us primeval f treats and prairies. But richer country, or more beautiful to the eye, can not be f und in the great west; and we are not as;o. i,hed to le; m that it is now filled with an enterprising, hardy, and industrious population. The Fox river is navigable from Green Bay about seven miles, to what is called the "L tile Cockalaw," where there is a fall over a smooth rock of about five feet. Ten miles further, at whit is called the "Grand Cockalaw," a (all of about fifty feet, repembling in appearance the Little Falls of the Mohawk, with a water power greater than that at Patterson. Green Bay is the head of lake navigation, and the point where must concentrate all the products of the immensely rich country north of Chicago, for the purpose of being shipped to Detroit and Buffalo; and there can be but little doubt that a very large town must rapidly grow up at this point. Already, it is said that many large stores, warehouses, and other buildings are being erected, and wharves, &.c. being built, to accommodate the commerce of the place; and perhaps no better idea of its growing importance can be given, than the fact that shares in the tow n of Astor Bre readily sold at the rate of six hundred and forty thousand dollars for the whole interest. The site of tins town was acquired by Mr. John Jacob Astor, in the prosecution of the fur trade in that country, who was the first American that succeeded in establishing the trade in the north west, along the northern frontier of the United States, in opposition to the British traders. Unaided by government, and with the assistance only of two or three agents of great ability and indefatigable zeal in the prosecution of their business, he obiained a most valuable trade for our citizens, successfully resisted the influence of the British government over the Indians within our limits, and secured fcr our own a greater influence than could have been reasonably expected from any system heretofore adopted by it, in relation to the Indians and Indian traders. When we look back for a few short years and recall to mind the state of the country at and west of Green Bay and Chicago in 1826, and then reflect upon what that country now is, it is impossible for the mind to realize the almost supernatural changes which have taken place. At that period there waa no white settlement west of Fort Wayne on the Wabash, two hundred miles east of Chicago and five hundred this side ofGrean Bay. The whole of this country we have repeatedly passed with a brother officer, a soldier or friendly Pottawattamie Indian for a companion; and little imagined when the deer and the prairie dogs constantly crossed our path during the day, and tha wolf, the bear, and the wild cat, prowled arouud our bivouac at night, there would in a few short years be heard the busy hum of civilization, and towns and villages be in existence, where then all . was stillness and an interminable wilderness. Distance, in the great west, was, at that time, only recof nized as a word the signification of witch was unknown among us; and a deer r fox hunt at either pos, although tbre hundred miles apart, was frequently titled by thd officers of both commands. Fishing and

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