Flint's Letters from America, 1818-1820 — John Shaqi
Flint's Letters from America, 1818-1820Flint, James, active 19th century
History
Flint's Letters from America, 1818-1820
Flint, James, active 19th century
Ohio River Valley -- Description and travel; United States -- Description and travel
_September 28._ Yesterday my companions set out for Pittsburg.
These young gentlemen have conducted themselves in the style which
distinguishes the well-bred from the uncultivated and obtrusive man.
They put no such questions as, “Where are you going?--What are you to
do there?” &c. so common in this land of liberty. Of my companions I
only knew their names, the States they came from, and that they are
going to the western country.
Yesterday morning the hoar-frost was faintly visible on the newly mown
grass, the first that has been observed this season. No danger is now
to be apprehended from the cold, as Indian corn, (the latest of the
crops,) is ripe. The woods and orchards have their young shoots well
matured, and will soon be coloured with their autumnal tinge.
A majority of the people in the neighbourhood of Adamsburg are
Germans, or their descendants. Although most of them can speak in
English, their conversation with one another is in German, and a
clergyman in the neighbourhood preaches in that language.
Resumed my journey; called at L--r’s tavern, eleven miles from
Greensburg. The hostess, after promising to give me breakfast, shewed
me into a front room. After waiting about twenty-five minutes, two
ladies on horseback, apparently turned of forty, alighted before the
window; the hostess ran forward, embraced and kissed them. Her salute
was the loudest articulation of the kind that I have heard. She came
into the room, and told {57} me, she had got so much engaged, that she
could not be troubled with my breakfast, and that there is a tavern
only half a mile forward where I would be attended to. The good lady
will be freed from every imputation of unkindness, since I have related
how cordially she welcomed her female friends who engrossed all her
attention.
Met with a man who asked me if I knew of “any traveller who would
rest himself and thrash for a few days?” To-day I begin to find the
estimate formed of foot travellers in this country of equality. It is
an undoubted truth that the rider is two steps higher than the footman.
Saw a drove of large cattle on their way from the State of Ohio for
Philadelphia. Their condition is good, the length of the journey taken
into consideration. In size and even fat, they are much superior to the
Pennsylvanian stock by the sides of the road. Indeed, it is somewhat
surprising to see such bad cattle on the rich lands of this State. The
causes merit the strictest inquiry.
Every where the wheat stubble is so much overgrown with annual weeds,
that the verdure at a distance is apt to be mistaken for pasture.
This growth is occasioned by the long course of hot weather, which
succeeds an early harvest. It would be advantageous if clover, or some
other useful herbage, were sown amongst the crops, that the farmer
might not only avail himself of the propensity to vegetation, but check
the dissemination of weeds so hurtful to adjoining fields, and to the
succeeding pasture.
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