Great is the facility of acquiring money here if a man has judgment; he first looks out for some spot where a tavern is wanted, he immediately cuts down the trees around and puts together a rude log hut, which he covers with shingles (wood tiles;) a board is then inscribed "tavern," or "house of entertainment." Inside you find it very sparingly furnished, but he has got some fowls and spirits, and if he minds, his fortune is made. Travellers are plentiful, and his charges {140} as high as if he could treat them with every comfort, instead of putting two people _commonly_, and sometimes three, into a bed; in a room, too, containing four, five and six beds! The horses are put into another inclosure of logs, the interstices of which near a foot wide, (in summer an advantage,) are not at all closed even during the severity of winter. At Paoli town, Indiana, we arrived on the day of militia muster, and found there a considerable concourse of people, for it appeared to be a holiday. It would have been idle to look for the regular uniform, correctness of evolutions and discipline, where probably neither the power nor the wish to attain these existed; a few only wore a uniform of neat grey colour with sash and long feather; the rest in the usual dress, and each man armed with his rifle. The amusement or chief exercise of the day, beyond the roll call, seemed to be firing at marks, at which they have justly established a character for great dexterity. Yet the American has but little skill with his arms in hitting a moving object, whether running or flying; indeed he scarcely ever attempts it, and he must too have his accustomed weapon or it is a chance if he succeeds;--a man dexterous with his rifle was admiring the pistols I carried, and wished to {141} try them; he shot twice at fifteen paces without even hitting the tree on which the mark was placed: that the pistols may not be supposed faulty, I mention, though _no practiser_ with the weapon, that I hit close to the mark each shot, and with both, for he would change thinking mine might be the best. The same person with his own rifle without a rest, (which aid by the way is frequently taken advantage of,) at sixty yards shot from a tree a piece of paper no larger than we could see. Towards evening the multitude dispersed, and again the silence of the desert prevailed.