Carroll Free Press, 1836-02-19

My object being, as I said before, to get a school, i opened the subject to my host, and inquired what might bo the pros pectf Why said he if you would set in right straight, 1 reckon ihar' might be a right smart chance of scholars gut, as we nave naa no leactier here lor the best end . of two years.Thar'a about fifteen farm lies on the creek, and the whole tote of 'em well fixed for children. They want a school master pretty much, too. We got a teacher about six months ago; a Scotchman, or an Irishman, 1 think. He took up for six months, and carried his proposals round, and he got twenty schol ars directly. It weren't long, though be fore he cut up some ferlicues, and got into a pnmiuary; and so one mooricg be was found among the mining. Wtat was Ihe trouble. Oh! he took too much of the escence of corn, and get into a chunk of a fight fight-no - no fight-no great matter, to be sure but he got whipped, and had lo leave the diggings. Aud how am I to manage to get a school! 1 tell you. You must make out your proposals to take up school ; tell them how much you can teach; write it as fine as you can, (I reckon you're a pretty good scribe,) aud in the morning '.here's to be a shooting match fiereWr beef; nearly all the settlement (laying tbe accent on the last syllable,) will be here, aud you'll get signers enough. I followed his advice. The neighbors gathered in the next morning; 1 was doly introduced to them, and soon had twenty scholars subscribed. Reader, didst ev er sue a shooting match in ihe west? 1 dare swear you never have, and therefore (here may be no tcdiousness in a descrip lion of one. 1 lute your set descriptions laid out formally, in squares and paral parallelograms, - lelograms, parallelograms, like an old fashioned garden, wherein art haih not so far advanced as to seem like nature. You can just ima imagine - gine imagine the scene lo yourself. Conceive yourself in a forest, where the huge trees have been for ages untouched by the axe Imagine somotwenty men; tall, stalwart, browuhunters; equipped in leather, wilh their broad knives by their sides, rifles in hand; and every man wuh his smoke blacked board in his band. The rivals in the first contest were eight sturdy fel fellows - lows fellows middle aged 4ud young men. The ox for which they were to shoot was on t e ground, and it was to be the best six shots out of eleven. Tho four quarters, and the hide and tallow, were the five prizes; they were to shoot off hand at forty yards, or with a rest at sixty, which is considered the same thing. Two judges were chosen, aud then a blackened board, with a bit of paper i it about au inch and a half square, Was put up against a tree. Clare ihe track! cried ihe first marksman who lay on the ground at his sixty yards with his gun resling over a log. Tho ri llecracltcd, and the bullet cut info the pa per. Put up my boaru! cried another John, shade my eight lor me! and John held his hat over tho sight ol the gUn. It cracked, and tha bullet went within hull an inch of the centre. My board! cried another I'll give that shot goos! and he did lairly boring the centre with the ball. The sport soon became exciting. It requires great steadiness of nerve to shoot well, lor any irregularity in breath breathing - ing breathing will throw the bullet wide of the mark. The contest was longer than i had anticipated; but it was decided without quarrel or dispute. The judges decided, and their decision was implicitly obeyed. The whole eleven shots of one man who won two quarters could be covered with a half dollar. You have made a show of Davy Crockett; but there are thousands of men in tho West who are better marks men, belter bear hunters, and every whil as smart as Davy himself. Speaking of him, howevor, reninds me of an anecdote of him, which may per haps bo cot.tained in his autobiography; if not, it is too gdbd to bo lost, for it does him more honor than the fact that he has been in Congress, Before he was a candi date, or had any idea of being one, there was a season of scarcity in ihe Western District, where he lived, lie went up tho Mississippi, and bought a flat-boat load of corn, nnd took it lo what he calls his old stamping ground. When a man came to him to buy corn, the first ques tion he asked was: Have you got the mon ey to pay for it? If Ihe answer was in the affirmative, Davy's reply was, then you can't have a kernel. 1 brought it hero to sell to the neonle who have no money. Il was the foundation of his popularity. We naturally slip from the sublima to the ridiculous. Lei us leave Crockett and como to school keeping. My school house was a small log house, with a fire place tho width of one end no floor no boarding or wether boarding a note lor a window, and one for a door. In lhat place I tuught a collection of urchins two months, and then was token possession of by Ihe fever and aguo, which lasted me another month and ended my school keep ing in this mortal lite. 1 was to get my pay, half in money and half in pigs; and 1 managed to gel three dollars of the for tner and omitted to say any thing of iho quadrupeds. That made four and a half months, during which I had labored at mine office and vocation. For tho first six weeks I got just enough to pay my board; and for the last school, as I said be fore, three dollars. How many pigs I may have at this day in Pope county, it is im possible tor me to tell, However, while I

THE tlEllllSsS WITH THE 1'KETTi" FOOT. By the bye, Fred, nreyou a marrying man?' said Charles Russell lo hi bach bach-elor - elor bach-elor friend Frederick Suiuerville, us Ihey discussed a cool buttle together at the fltar and Garter, at Richmond, "By ihe 4ye, Fred, are you a marrying manf' 'My dear Charles, with a patrimony sf one hundred a year, and an allowance &om my aunt of a second; forgloves and hoe strings, how can I entertain such an idea' Bui why Jo you ask?" 'Because I have just heard a strange whim which my cousin Ellen has taken into her head: and 'pon my soul, if she perseveres in it, 1 should like some good fellow like yourself, who will take care of her and her couple of thousands a year to be her eccentric partner,"' Fred's curiosity was now raised. He entreated to be undo acquainted with this strange whim; and, a fresh bottle having been placed before the friends, it was not long before the generous opera tion of the wine, and our friend Fred's en quiries, prevented Russell from burden burdening - ing burdening himself any kingor with the import important - ant important secret. And the secret wa$ this: Ellen Cam Cam-eron, - eron, Cam-eron, a high spirited and self-willed girl of two and-twenty years of age, and an unincumbered income of ai many hun dreds, having been disgusted at the trea trea-ment - ment trea-ment which a fair relative had received from one whom, alter an attachment of some years, she had made her husband, vowed that, if ever she married, it should .be to a man to whom she should hointro duced, for the first time, at the altar where she was lo become his bride. it was a strange idea, doubtless, but young girls, who are mistresses both of themselves and their fortunes, are apt lo have strange notions. Ellen was one of these. Wilh a good heart, and excellent understanding, & a eulnvuted taste, she had just so much of oddity in her dispo silion as prompted her to make, and en enabled - abled enabled lier te persevere in this extraordi nary determination. The strangeness of the notion seemed to possess charms fir the somewhat ro manlic mind of Somerville, who, having , enquired as narrowly into the state of the case as Russell's relationship to the lady would admit , expressed himself willing, could she bo prevailed on to accept him. to undergo the ceremonies of introduc introduction - tion introduction and marriage at the very same mo moment. - ment. moment. But tell me, myUear Russell, di you know any thing oliectionable in her tern per or disposition?1' m 'Nothing upon mv word, Fred. No wo roar, is purled, and fallen hasher failings: but di spite certain eccentricities anJ pe peculiarities, - culiarities, peculiarities, 1 do believe you .would live very happily together." "But, my dear Russell, I always vow vowed - ed vowed I never would marry orefl an ango' , if she exhibited a snperabundttuce of f Dot and ancle Tell uia, Ins my fair incog- niti.t a pretty fool "On mv wnrl she has there is not the felloe t it, I can assure y u. But I tell you what, although it is almoit un unfair - fair unfair to Ellen, yet 1 will let you into - se cret; she will beat tha opera tomorrow night - -you may get a peep ut her there." Full particulars of what box she was te occupy, together with other means of identifying her, were asked uud fairly given The fo'lrtwiig n'ght siW Fred, at the opera, before Soagnolstli's msjtfc lap had 'given the signal lor the commencement if the overture. His eyes wore Instant Instantly - ly Instantly turned upon the box lhat was destined to contain tbe object ol his search; but that of course, w,is empty. During lh whole o the first act ol iho opera, his at attention - tention attention was riveited lo lhat spot, brt ftot "a soul broke in upon its solitude. During iho d.veitissmcnl, which fol lowed, and exhibited attractions so power '(ill as to seduce Iho eyes ol our hero from the object on which thov had so long been fixed, ihe box was tilled: and when Fred, turned hu eyes again in fhatdiiec lion, ho fell convinced that ihe most prom iuent personage whi' h it contained was the eccentric Ellen! His gJass was now directed for snmq womonUms minutes to the box; anil when he f amoved lo roiurrt llu hdlulaiion of Vtta Iti'iid Russell, who now approached iim, he wS nvitioriug to hi nsjll "By h''n '.ells! s) js certainly a line girl!1' Nor did III exhibit nnv selfishness with re gard to ibis feeling; lie never attempted 10 keep it in hirocf, bat instantly con fussed as much to Russell. 'She is certainly n very fine girl. Can't you introduce me to your cousin, my dear friend?' said he, Then tli i iwn thousand a year have no- charms for you, Fred,' was iho re- nlv. Faith! but Uvey have though, and so has your cousin; therefore, ihe sooner you say a good word lot ino the belter it will be.1 Whether or not Charts, who ndjiuin ndjiuin-ed - ed ndjiuin-ed lo his cousin's, introduced tho subject ' of his friend's admiral ion of her that even ing, we cannot take upon ourselves to as ert; but certain it is, that E leu's opera glaas was, for iho remainder of the night, much more frequently directed to the part of the pit which was occupied by lier aspirant, than lo any other.. ' The subject was introduced, however, ultom period, aud, alter sundry uiusu

wasemployed in this thankless office; I wrote 'ha pes' (as ray predecessor id tbe school would have said) of poetry, part of which I have since published In a book, If it did not make me famous, it ought to have done it; for it was all 1 got lor toy three or lour months hard work. A correspondent (il indeed there be not more than one) of the Boston Courier, is furnishing that paper with letters from aboard, as if from various members of a family, The subjoined is one which would stamp the writer as the American Mrs. Ramsbottom THE OAKWOOD LETTERS. AUNT SALLY TO MBS, BCTTEBjrUT. At Sea, Jan. Idth, Well, I never !-roorcy on us! My stars! Oh, Mrs Butternut! Mrs Butternut! To think we should ever live to come to this! And to think that a body like me should ever come here to see where there's nothing to be seen! Wuld you ever believe ifa.it any body could live so far off? I never would. Hero we are 1 won't say liow far, because I don't know I kept no account, and there's never a milestone on the rood, all the way we've come. The sailors find the way by roun ling ihe logs just as the Indians do, goin. through the woods; but I don't under stand it, lor never a mite of a log or a stump have 1 seen growing on the sva at all. Oh! Mrs Butternut! I'm in sich a Australian of the intellects that I don't know how to begin; and there's an end of it, only here we are ail out at ana and still in the land ofthe living.. Mrs But ternul, was you ever sea sick ? I thought I should have died all (he time, every live long day for a fortnight! There's no thing but what I've undergone; bul thank my si irs, I got over it. Howsomever, we are all grass and hay, as the Psalmist says. I've taken my pen in hand, Mrs. Butternut, and mean lo tell you the whole story, just as it happened, and errors excepted, as the saying is. 1 shall never forget it, if I liye to the age of Melhusalim, and ten times lon longer. - ger. longer. Such a lime is we hid! I'm all over in the hydrostatics when I think ofthe sci, yet here I m with the very depths of ihe ocean tumbling over my head, a body may say. Bui to begin the story with selling out. Weill got safe to Boston, ind sung t t-board - board t-board in (he cabin, ind set sail is plea saiit a day is ever the sun shone upon and ihe almanac said, 'much fine wei ther about (his time.' Bui would you believe it, Mrs. Butternut! to think of the deceiifulncss of moral man! The very next day a tornady, and the nexi day a squall of wind, and the next day a cat's paw, as the sailors call it, and soon, day afier day day ifter day harry kins end (omadics, aud ca's paws and the Lord knows whit, to the end of the chapter. There we were, lum bling and tossing, all diy and all night and no more rest than a ground tier butt, is the sailors say; and ready to bounce out ol bed, beciuse tho ship wouldn't stand up straight, bul kept tipping over board every instant min minute. - ute. minute. Sich a tantirn! I was resdy to fly out of my skin. As long is I live I shall remember the diy we first tried to eat dinner; it was a Friday afternoon just about tun down, or it may be a little before; it blew a harry kin ind i tornady logelh er. I was lying down in the birth and wishing for a comfortable drop of tea , for I could'nt eat any thing. Whiz! Hum! Rumble! roared the wind. Thump! Splash! went the waves. Bang! Whack! Rattle! Clatter! Clat Clatter! - ter! Clatter! Clatter! Crash! Crash! went the plates ind ihe dishes ind the knives and the forks and the pots and the pans and the mugs and tfte jugs and the bottles and the glasses! all smash smashing - ing smashing higgledy up together! Such a spot o' work! Oh! Mrs. Butternut! there was I all Ihe time, sick sick sick sick! 'Csptsin,' says I whit is good for the sea sickness? 'Patience and water gruel,' stys he- 'Pork and molasses siys our Zich! Oh! the sir pent ! to make me laugh when I was so sick! Mrs Bulternul! tho more I think of it, the more I don't know how to be begin; - gin; begin; so '.hat my letter will be, for all the world, like Dickinson Uodd's courtship with Hannah Bunker, that ended before it was begun: I did no thing but ley groaning all day long, and wondering how I could be sich a mortal dunce as to leave my own na native - tive native home, where I was born ind bred with the pleasant green cornfields snd the meadows and ipple trees and tin huckleberry bushrs and all to come here snd be tousled about by harry harry-kins - kins harry-kins and tornidiei. Ob! the days thai I have seen! I'd gi"e til my old shoes that t could once more hear the mti- of our barn yard, where we used to have the turkeys gobbling and the geese s squawking and the ducks a quacking and the cocks crowing and the hens clucking! But not a living mortal of a fowl have wo seen the whole voyage, except a poor, misera-

when he was prevented by the arrival of tbe bride. He would have flown to assist her from hei carriage,- but Russell seized htm, and motioning him to withdraw, succeeded in leading him into the body of tho church: not, however, before he had discovered that his intended had Avery pretty foot, which was certainly without us follow f or he saw she had bu', one! He was at first bitterly enraged at trie deception whkh had been practised upon him; but Rifljbll soon calmed his irrita. tion by a very satisfactory explaliltion of his conduct. Well assured of FreJ's worth, and his cousin's amiability, he had felt convinc convinced - ed convinced in his own mir.d tbat their union would prove a happy one; but the circumstance of Ellen having unfortunately been depri ved of one of her legs, he feared would prejudice Fred, against her. His anxiety for the happiness of both parlies had tempted him, therefore, to conceal this fact for knowing as ho did, Fred's dovo tion lo a pretty foot, he feared lest ihis enthusiastic admiration ofthe extreme of feminine beauty should lose him au amia amiable - ble amiable and wealthy woman, bud he been told at once, that, although she had a sin singularly - gularly singularly pretty fool, ste had but one! That this explanation was satisfactory wo have asserted already; and it was made evident by the fact of the worthy clergyman being called upon immediate ly to perform tho matrimonial service ; to say nothing ofthe worthy clerk reoeiv ing tnpple lees upoti tho occasion. The marriagecreated a good Ionl -of a t tcntion at the time, and ill natured jokes were cut upon the parties; bat they heed ed them not, and have been rewarded for it by a succession of many happy years One ol these malicious wiliicisms only will wo record, 13d, Fred Somerville has married a woman of property, I hear old, of course" said a young guardsman at Brook's . "Not exactly old, but with one fot in the . e." T. From the American Monthly for January, LIFE IN ARKANSAS. BY ALBERT PIKE. I left Crawford county in July, 1S3'J, nud tra.elled down th river some forty miles, to the couety ol Pjpe, whore 1 intended lo lake Up (as they say here) a school. Alter travelling over a fine rolling upland country, I descended into Hie bottom of a creek, called Little Puiey, nine mils Iron: iho river and cams at once upon a small log house. 1 stopped lo take a survey before entering? for 1 had been directed to the selller who lived there. It was like most other settlements in this country. A field of about tort y acres was under cultivation, rilled with huge blackening trunks, gigantic skele skeletons - tons skeletons of trees, throwing their bare wither withered, - ed, withered, sapless branches forth, though a whirl wind had bean among them with its crash inn destruction. About the house were a lot of peach trees, scattered about with very little regard to regularity. The house itself, was roughly built of log?, and in front was u shelter made of poles, cov covered - ered covered with green branches. The owner of the clearing was sitting in front, dressed throughout in leather, and playing lusti lustily - ly lustily on the fiddle. Hearing that sound, I judged Ihero would bo no churlishness in his disposition, and I limrchod boldly up. Ho greeted me heartily, and without a a-ny - ny a-ny attempt at politencrs, and in t jvo min minutes - utes minutes we were on the best terms in the world. He too had been at Santa Fo, and as old travellers over (ho prairie, we had a c asm upon ono another a kindness. The heart naturally warms to one who lias been through tho sam scenes of dan danger, - ger, danger, di.1iculty , and privation as yourself. With deference to thoso respectahlo gen lleman of former ages, called troubadours romancers, el cetera, I incline lo believe lhat the beat and most gallant knights of olden times were much such men us Ihe bold and stalwart back woodsmen. The same bold, bravo, and careless demeanor - the same contempt of danger and rcck- Itssnoes ofthe finer courtesies and sympa lliies-of life -the same fighting, revelling carousing, and heedless disposition; iho same blunt and unpolished manners ex ist in the latter, which are recorded lo havu belonseu to Hie lormer. my pres ent host was one of ihe purest specimens ol the bone and sinew of tho West. Tal 1 and ulhlectic, he would hardly have fear ed a death grapple wilh a bear. Mis frame was close knit, muscular, and well proportioned. He combined tho activity of Iho panther, the strength of the lion wilh much of ihe silent, quick, and steal thy movements, ofthe Indian .Ik had been a journeyer over the deserts and mountains, and a soldier at tbe battle of New Orleans. 01 course he was an ex cellent Jackson nmu,

ofl, for I can't say any more, only lhat if I was once more safe at borne, 1 should be as happy as a calm at higb water, as the sailors say. I like to have forgot to mention tho terrible loss 1 have had my black satin bon bonnet - net bonnet got cast away the othsrday, when it wis blowing a cat's paw, and was all crumpled up to smash, so that I never taw any more of il; but one of the sai lors told me be spied a pig running off with it out the lee scuppers. 1 don t know where that is, so I give it up for lost. My dandy crey russet got aw fully spsttered by the tar and salt w ter, sod I m afraid it was never wash out. Oh! Mrs Butternut? it was a ter rible spot of work, you may depend. Bui folks lhat travel it sea must expect to see trouble. Write to me the first pott. I want very much to know what sort of prea preaching - ching preaching ihey have nt t!e west parish, ind how Deacon L) gtif likes the new minister. Between you and mo I an't without my fears foik an't what they used to be. Oh! Mrs But tertiut! mankind ire a'.l miserable hea then, as ihe Psalmist says. Do tell me how ihe Doctor's wife carries he, heid, aed whether Squire Bunch Is really to be married or not. Y-uin, bARAII OAKWOOD. HAIR CUTTING. A Wrier in the Medical lntelii ven veneer - eer veneer of this week, lilks very sensibly against the present fashion of crop cropping - ping cropping short ihe hair oo the back of the head ind neck. He says: In ol 1pn times, when wigs were worn, our grandfathers were used to live all the days of their lives; now we are foriunaia if we live ihcm half out; ind these ire filled up with suf suffering - fering suffering ind diieasp. Every smtomist knows that, forth from b hind the head, issues (hit large but most deli cate and susceptible orgm, the spe cial cord. It traverses the whole lentil of ihe bick. ind, from every point of it nerves grow out and pene penetrate - trate penetrate and encircle the body. On the integrity of th'u organ depends the health and vigor of ihe greater por lion ofthe runk and extremities, ind iho certainty with which i vsst nurrr nurrr-bsr - bsr nurrr-bsr of painful but little understood dis eases can be traced lo disorder in ihis silver cord, his been beautifully and fineihlv. ilustrated in the recent woik of Mr Teal- work full of praciical wisdom, and valuable to every medi cal practitioner I practitioner. N:w if any part cf ihe living fabric requires to be guarded igainst expo exposure, - sure, exposure, it is s spinal cord, especially at the point of its out coming from Ihe skull. Yet what do you see in the streets of every city ind town ind vil lage? Amid the chill blasts of win winter, - ter, winter, we see the head warmly protec ted by s close hit or fur cap, and the back well covered by warm, and com compilable - pilable compilable gtrments but this very spot, ihe back of thi head snd neck! be between - tween between ihe collar and the cip, left ex posed to the cold, to the wind and the storm; As it were studious to open widely as possible this , wide ivenue of disease, (be warm covering that a kind and careful Providence-had pro vided for this part, is almost impious impiously - ly impiously cut short by the universal fashion ofthe day. and hence come a hoit of obscure painful and fa'sl diseases, lhat were rarely witnessed until this mode of hair (titling was adoptee. I ak not for the restoration of the veneribta wig, though 1 believe io my heart ltjval a great prompter of health and long life, to ahandou ihis abomi abominable - nable abominable practice, and follow the dictates ofscienpe,nd the teachings ofmture, who his furnished for thiscrilieil por tion of the body, a warm and abun abundant - dant abundant covering. Boston pip. Means of Getting, a Living. -Il is said thit in London there is a class of people whose Profession is to rue before day and commence their pere e-rtnations' about the town, searching for objects lost the pievious night ind evening by thelhillion ind a half who swirm the streets. These persons often make forluncs. I heir gains cannot bul be enormous, especially as stealing, and b'-gging, and pocket pick ing, are probably collateral sources of emolument. Anoiner one oune uuu lnn profession is dust sifting, in which very valuable jewels, money, etc. etc., often reward the pfrsever ance of the industrious. There is a man now living in Lon London - don London who ha for yedrs "devoted him self to one single branch of usual pro fit, from which, I am fold he has ac accumulated - cumulated accumulated an independent property. He lives in the courts and about the

ings and hesitations, Russull's wooing, in his friends name, sped favorably; djf d weeks after the eventful dinner at Rich Richmond, - mond, Richmond, saw a travelling charriot, with four oi Newman's quickest, draw up at 31 George's, Hanover square, and depos it at the snug and sly vestry-door, the bridegroom expectant of Ellen Cameron and her twenty two hundreds per mi milium - lium milium Here he was met by his friend Russell whose obvious confusion and anxiety could not escape the notice of Fred.Som ervi'le. He was about to enquire into the cau? which produced the effect,