in another room, in which there was no fire, and the outside door was left open for the convenience of the servants in passing to and from the kitchen, which, as usual here at large houses, was in a detached building. Supper was, however, eaten with such rapidity that nothing had time to freeze on the table. "TEXAN CONVERSATION. "There were six Texans, planters and herdsmen, who had made harbor at the inn for the norther, two German shop-keepers and a young lawyer, who were boarders, besides our party of three, who had to be seated before the fire during the evening.' We kept coats and hats on, and gained as much warmth, from the friendly manner in which we drew together, as possible. After ascertaining, by a not at all impertinent or inconsiderate method of inquiry, where we were from, which way we were going, what we thought of the country, what we thought of the weather, and what were the capacities and the cost of our fire-arms, we were considered as initiated members of the crowd, and 'the conversation became general.' "One of the gentlemen asked me if I had seen this new instrument.' "What instrument?' "This grand boojer!' "I never heard of it before; what is it?' "I don't know, only that.' He pointed to a large poster on the wall, advertising L. Gilbert's celebrated patent GRAND, BOUDOIR, and square piano-fortes.' I mention the cir cumstance as a caution to printers in the choice of words for the use of their emphatic type. "Sam. Houston and his eccentricities formed a very interesting topic of conversation. Nearly every person present had seen the worthy senator in some ridiculous and not very honorable position, and there was much laughter at his expense. As he seemed to be held in very little respect, we inquired if he were not popular in Texas. He had many warm old friends, they said, and always made himself popular with new acquaintances, but the greater part of the old fighting Texans hated and despised him. "ABOUT NIGGERS. "But the most interesting subject to North erners which was talked of, was brought up by two gentlemen speaking of the house where they spent the previous night. The man made a white boy, fourteen or fifteen years old, get up and go out in the norther for wood, when there was a great, strong nigger fellow lying on the floor, doing nothing. God! I had an appetite to give him a hundred, right there.' "Why, you wouldn't go out into the norther, yourself, would you, if you were not forced to?' inquired one, laughingly. "I wouldn't have a nigger in my house that I was afraid to set to work at anything I wanted him to do at any time. They'd hired him out to go to a new place next Thursday, and they were afraid if they didn't treat him well, he'd run away. If I couldn't break a nigger of running away, I wouldn't have him any how.' "I can tell you how you can break a nigger of running away, certain,' said another. There was an old fellow I used to know in Georgia, that always cured his so. If a nigger ran away, when he caught him he would bind his knee over a log, and fasten him so he couldn't stir; then he'd take a pair of pinchers and pull one of his toe-nails out by the roots; and tell him that if he ever run away again, he would pull out two of them, and if he run away again after that, he told them he'd pull out four of them, and so on, doubling each time. He never had to do it more than twice-it always cured them.' One of the company then said that he was, at the present time, in pursuit of a negro. He had bought him of a connection of his in Mississippi; he told him when he bought him that he was a great runaway. He had run away from him three times, and always when they caught him he was trying to get back to Illi nois; that was the reason he sold him. 'He offered him to me cheap,' he continued, and I bought him because he was a first-rate nigger, and I thought perhaps I could break him of running away by bringing him down to this new country. I expect he's making for Mexico, now. I am a-most sure I saw his tracks on the road about twelve miles back, where he was a-coming on this way, Night before last I engaged with a man, who's got some firstrate nigger dogs, to meet me here to-night; but I suppose the cold keeps him back.' He then asked us to look out for him as we went on west, and gave us a minute description of him that we might recognize him. He was a real black nigger,' and carried off a doublebarreled gun with him. Another man, who was going on by another road westward, offered to look for him that way, and to advertise him. Would he be likely to defend himself with the gun, if he should try to secure him, he asked. The owner said he had no doubt he would. He was as humble a nigger when he was at work as ever he had seen; but he was a mighty resolute nigger-there was no man had more resolution. Couldn't I induce him to let me take the gun, by pretending I wanted to look at it, or something? I'd talk to him simple; make as if I was a stranger, and ask him about the road, and so on, and finally ask him what he had got for a gun, and to let me look at it.' The owner didn't believe he'd let go of the gun; he was a nigger of sense--as much sense as a white man; he was not one of catching him were discussed. Some thought your kinkey-headed niggers.' The chances of they were good, and some that the owner might almost as well give it up, he'd got such a start. It was three hundred miles to the Mexican frontier, and he'd have to make fires to cook the game he would kill, and could travel only at night; but then every nigger or Mexican he could find would help him, and if he had so much sense, he'd manage to find out his way pretty straight, and yet not have white folks see him. "SHEEP AND PRICES. "We had observed sheep not far from Caldwell, for the first time. They were in a large flock of some four or five hundred, overlooked by a black boy on horseback, attended by two hounds. We were told that the wool from this flock had been sold in the neighborhood at twenty seven cents per pound, and that the flock had averaged four pounds to the fleece. "There had been a 'hiring' of negroes at the County House the week before. Eight or ten were hired out at from $175 to $250 per 1857.] Olmsted's Texas Journey. annum-the hirer contracting to feed them well and to provide two substantial suits of clothing and shoes. "The price of beef at Caldwell was two cents per pound; pork, five cents; corn-fed ditto, six cents. "MANNERS AND THE WEATHER. "We slept in a large upper room, in a company of five, with a broken window at the head of our bed, and another at our side, offering a short cut to the norther across our heads. "We were greatly amused to see one of our bed-room companions gravely spit in the candle before jumping into bed, exclaiming to some one who made a remark, that he always did so, it gave him time to see what he was about before it went out. "The next morning the ground was cov. ered with sleet, and the gale still continued (a pretty steady close-reefing breeze) during the day. "We wished to have a horse shod. The blacksmith, who was a white man, we found in his shop, cleaning a fowling-piece. It was too d-d cold to work, he said, and he was going to shoot some geese; he, at length, at our urgent request, consented to earn a dollar; but, after getting on his apron, he found that we had lost a shoe, and took it off again, refusing to make a shoe while this d norther lasted, for any man. As he had no shoes ready made, he absolutely turned us out of the shop, and obliged us to go seventyfive miles further, a great part of the way over a pebbly road, by which the beast lost three shoes before he could be shod. -d "This respect for the norther is by no means singular here. The publication of the week's newspaper in Bastrop was interrupted by the norther, the editor mentioning, as a sufficient reason for the irregularity, the fact that his printing-office was in the north part of the house. "We continued our journey during the day, in spite of the increased chilliness of the air, occasioned by the icy surface with which the sleet of the night had clothed the prairies, without any discomfort, until we were obliged again to enter one of these prairie houses. During the next night it fell calm, and the cold, as measured by the contraction of the mercury, was greater than at any time before. But the sun rose clear the next day, and, by noon, the weather was mild and agreeable as in the fairest October day in New York. "During the continuance of the norther, the sky was constantly covered with dense gray clouds, the wind varied from N.N.E. to N.W., and was also of variable force. Our thermometrical observations were as follow: Jan. 5th, 10.30 A.M. 10.42 66 67 deg 55 "It continued at about this point during the following two days, when it fell (Jan. 8th, 7.30 A.M.) to 21°. "We visited, several times, the Texas Leg. islature in session, and have seldom been more impressed with respect for the working of Democratic institutions. "I have seen several similar bodies at the North-the Federal Congress, and the Parliament of Great Britain, in both its branches, on occasions of great moment-but none of them commanded my involuntary respect, for their simple manly dignity and trustworthi ness for the duties that engaged them, more than the General Assembly of Texas. There was honest eloquence displayed at every op portunity for its use, and business was carried on with great rapidity, but with complete parliamentary regularity, and all desirable gentlemanly decorum. One gentleman, in a state of intoxication, attempted to address the house (but that happens elsewhere), and he was quietly persuaded to retire." "This gentleman had thirty or forty negroes, and two legitimate sons. One was an idle young man. The other was already, at eight years old, a swearing, tobacco-chewing We heard him young bully and ruffian. whipping his puppy behind the house, and swearing between the blows, his father and His tone was an evimother being at hand. dent imitation of his father's mode of dealing with his slaves. "I've got an account to settle with you; I've let you go about long enough; I'll teach you who's your master; there, go now, God damn you, but I haven't got through with you yet.' "You stop that cursing,' said his father, at length, it isn't right for little boys to curse.' What do you do when you get mad?' replied the boy; 'reckon you cuss some; so now you'd better shut up.' We repeatedly heard men curse white women and children in this style, without the least provocation." "In the whole journey through Eastern Texas, we did not see one of the inhabitants look into a newspaper or a book, although we spent days in houses where men were lounging about the fire without occupation. evening I took up a paper which had been lying unopened upon the table of the inn where we were staying, and smiled to see how One painfully news items dribbled into the Texas country papers, the loss of the tug-boat 'Ajax, which occurred before we left New York, being here just given as the loss of the 'splendid steamer Ocax.' "A man who sat near said"Reckon you've read a good deal, hain't you?' "Oh, yes; why?' 666 Reckoned you had.' "You look as though you liked to read. Well, it's a good thing. S'pose you take a pleasure in reading, don't you?' "That depends, of course, on what I have to read. I suppose everybody likes to read when they find anything interesting to them, don't they?' "No; it's damn tiresome to some folks, I reckon, any how, 'less you've got the habit of it. Well, it's a good thing; you can pass away your time so.' These extracts, selected almost from successive pages, have the value of Teniers's pictures. They are elaborate interiors, full of characteristic life, and pregnant with proof of the general state of the people. Texas, in fact, is not civilized. Decency is forgotten; cook ing is unknown; the inhabitant regards washing with the amused surprise of the Frenchman over a wash-stand at the Great Exhibition; "what is that machine?" Life is supported upon heavy corn-cake and fried fat. Doors are luxuries; windows are superfluities; comfort, cleanliness, and attention to one's own business were never heard of. The whole of Eastern Texas, as our traveler saw it, is a beautiful region possessed by a few shiftless and ignorant squatters. Of course he makes no such general assertion as this. Nothing is more agreeable in Mr. Olmsted's book than his total freedom from sweeping assertions of all kinds. He makes nothing a rule. The facts tell themselves and draw their own moral; and, in concluding the first division of his work, upon Eastern Texas, he says only: "The reader who has not been there may think our social experience of this part of the state peculiar and exceptional. I can only say that we traveled on an average not more than fourteen miles a day, and so must have stopped at almost every tenth or fifteenth house on the chief emigrant and mail-road of the state. I have given our impressions as we received them, and the only advantage they now have over his own, is in the strength which the reiteration of day after day gives over that of page after page. Had we entered Texas by the sea, stopped at the chief towns and the frequented hotels, traveled by public conveyances, and delivered letters to prominent and hospitable individuals, upon rich old coast plantations, our notes of the East might have had, perhaps, a more rosy tone." But it is the people of a country, and not "prominent and hospitable individuals upon rich old coast plantations" who determine its character and prospects. In Western Texas, the most interesting matters of observation are the German settlements. Before this of Mr. Olmsted's, we had no adequate account of their condition, history, and prospects. Here is his first impression: "The first German settlers we saw, we knew at once. They lived in little log cabins, and had inclosures of ten acres of land about them. The cabins were very simple and cheap habitations; but there were many little conveniences about them, and a care to secure comfort in small ways evident, that was very agreeable to notice. So, also the greater variety of the crops which had been grown upon their allotments, and the more clean and complete tillage they had received, contrasted favorably with the patches of corn-stubble, overgrown with crab grass, which are usually the only gardens to be seen adjoining the cabins of the poor whites and slaves. The people themselves were also to be seen, men, women, and children, busy at some work, and yet not so busy but that they could give a pleasant and respectful greeting to the passing traveler. "A few miles further on, we passed several much more comfortable houses, boarded over, and a good deal like the smaller class of farmhouses in New England, but some of them having exterior plaster-work, or brick, laid up between the timbers, instead of boards nailed over them. About these were larger inclosures, from which extensive crops of corn had been taken; and it caused us a sensation to see a number of parallelograms of COTTON-FREELABOR COTTON. These were not often of more than an acre in extent. Most of them looked as if they had been judiciously cultivated, and had yielded a fine crop, differing, however, from that we had noticed on the plantations the day before, in this circumstance-the picking had been entirely completed, and that with care and exactness, so that none of the cotton which the labor of cultivation had produced had been left to waste. The cottonstalks stood rather more closely, and were of less extraordinary size, but much more even or regular in their growth than on the plantations." This is the key-note of all his subsequent observation. In the very first house he enters, he finds neatness, comfort, thrift. The fried fat and heavy, sour corn-cake are omitted for a season. "I never in my life, except, perhaps, in awakening from a dream, met with such a sudden and complete transfer of associations. Instead of loose boarded or hewn log walls, with crevices stuffed with rags or daubed with mortar, which we have been accustomed to see during the last month, on staving in a door, where we have found any to open; instead, even, of four bare, cheerless sides of whitewashed plaster, which we have found twice or thrice only in a more aristocratic American residence, we were-in short, we were in Germany." The secret of this he considers to lio in "careful and thorough working." We have a vivid and picturesque description of the quaint old town of San Antonio, with copious details of the Mexicans in Texas, the number of whom, by the best reports, Mr. Olmsted estimates at 25,000, and the neighborhood of whom to the slaves, with whom they affiliate, is distressing to all lovers of the slave system. There are delightful accounts of the German emigration and settlement, with curious, elaborate, and interesting statistics, all of which we cannot illustrate by further quotation. It is clear that a great part of the intelligence and skill, if not the capital, of the country is among the Germans; and the conclusions of our author are fully supported by the facts he cites. But all the time they were camping and 1857.] Olmsted's Texas Journey. "How so "Well, you see, I've lost my horses since a week ago, and bein' as how a new settler, I couldn't very well afford to do without 'em. Late last night, I heerd bells around, so I went and roused out two of my niggers, and told 'em to see if that wan't our horses ranging back again. Well, they went out, and by-andby came back almighty skeered, a sayin' they'd follered 'em by the bells over the hills this way, and had come into a Mexican camp before they knew it. Well, I knew as no honest Mexicans could have any good business over here, and I just put on my boots, and told 'em to call the rest, and get the dogs, and I got the guns, So when and we set out to see who ye was. we got here, I kinder scooted roun' to see what I could, and I tell you I didn't like the looks o' ye. I told part of 'em to go down the road round the hill, and I went up with the rest that way, and when we got covered up with the hill we made a fire and lay round till daylight, keepin' watch of ye. Tell ye what, if ye'd budged much, you'd have got some buckshot in your stomachs, you may bet on that. Them's likely animals you've got there.' "Yes, sir.' 666 "Well, I'll go 'long. Han't seen a pair of gray horses, have ye, with a bay mare with 'em ?' "Moral (for prairie travelers): Never mind what's stirring, lie quiet in your blankets." Six months of such wandering, and then the "flavor of bacon and corn was washed out in the cheer of the St. Charles," at New Orleans. Of the "We saw Mr. Olmsted devotes two final chapters to a general survey of the position and prospects of the state. original acquisition, he says: the land lying idle; we took it. This, to other nations, is all we can say. Which one of them can cast the first stone?" To this, of course, we can reply, that it does not follow we ought not to be stoned. He thinks, also, there was no "deliberate and treacherous plot for the conquest of Texas," but that the acquisition was rather the result of a free fight than a plot. But, however acquired, the state of Texas will undoubtedly become a debatable ground, upon which our great national question of labor will be practically discussed. The general result of Mr. Olmsted's observation, upon this subject, as we are sure it will be of his descriptions in all candid minds, is thus stated by him: "I know of no other spot in a Southern state where white agricultural laborers can be hired, than the German neighborhoods of Texas; in fact, no other spot where the relative advan tages of white or slave-labor can be even discussed in peace. From a thorough examination of Southern agriculture, we had become convinced that slave-labor is everywhere uneconomical and cruel, and, to a man of Northern habits, to the last degree, an irritating annoyance, which, when choosing for a lifetime, he should not voluntarily inflict upon himself." The Germans, who are in general the present representatives of the free-labor system, number 35,000. They have little association with the Americans except for trade; but, of course, there are two rival influences at work among them -that of freedom and that of slavery; and Mr. Olmsted tells a capital story of the heroism of Dr. Douai, a German anti-slavery editor: "While at work at his press one morning, he was interrupted by a knock, which introduced a six-foot citizen of the region, holding in his hand a heavy stick, and accompanied by a friend. "Are you the editor of this German newspaper?' he asked. . Yes, sir.' "You're an abolitionist, are you?' "Then came a pause, after which the inquiry "What do you mean by an abolitionist?' "The editor very briefly explained. "Another pause followed, after which the citizen announced that he would consult with his friend a moment outside. He shortly reentered, saying: "Well, sir, we've concluded that you are a God damu'd abolitionist, and that such a scoundrel as you are ought to be thrashed out of the town.' "Very well, sir. Try it.' "A third pause ensued, to terminate which, the editor opened the door, whereupon the in dividuals walked out. "The abolitionism' of the editor was, it is fair to say, of a very mild type, confined to the belief-until lately universal at the Souththat slavery was an evil; he being by no means ready to propose any practical measures for its removal. Nor did any German with whom we conversed during our journey, so far as I recollect, go beyond this not very treasonable idea in actual politics." The experience of the German freelabor applied to the cotton culture, satisfies Mr. Olmsted that it is just as valuable and effective as slave-labor. This is, perhaps, the chief result of his Texan observation; and this becomes a very important practical consideration when it is remembered that the population of Western Texas is now estimated at 93,000, divided roughly thus: Americans, 30,000; Germans, 25,000; negroes, 23,000; Mexicans, 16,000; the number of actual slaveholders, about 700. Here, then, is a glorious country, scarcely settled, and, so far as settled, yielding its most valuable crop most profitably to free labor, with a mixed population already in possession, of whom somewhat less than a third are naturally opposed to slavery, and about a fifth (the Mexicans), whose native country is the neighboring state, fraternize with the slave. We have risen from the book which so admirably treats every aspect of the subject, with renewed hope for the future of Texas, and of the Union of which it is a part. It is a country well worth fighting for, with pen, and tongue, and sword. We have no hesitation in calling Mr. Olmsted's work a national benefit. In spirit, and scope, and treatment, it is broad, and calm, and wise, beyond the usual wisdom of the years that can support such a journey with unquailing energy and untiring enthusiasm. We look forward with the greatest interest to his subsequent volumes, as invaluable con tributions to our public resources of intelligence upon the subjects most important to every American; and respond heartily to the spirit in which he takes leave of Texas: "For a traveler who has lately ridden over the field, it is not easy to express regret for the simple fact that the fates have ordered such an addition to our national estate, though he may believe it dearly purchased, if it serve to delay for a single year our ultimate riddance of the curse of slavery. Since an English plow first broke the virgin sward of the sea-slope of Virginia, Saxons have not entered on so magnificent a domain. Many times, while making these notes, I have stopped to seek a superla tive equal to some individual feature of the scenery to be described, and one is more than ever wanting to apply to the country as a whole. With a front on the highway of the world, the high central deserts of the continent behind, a gentle slope stretching between, of soil unmatched in any known equal area, and a climate tempered for either work or baliny enjoyment, Texas has an Arcadian preeminence of position among our states, and an opulent future before her, that only wanton mismanagement can forfeit." BROADWAY BEDEVILED. AFTER five years of restless wander ing up and down the earth, gathering no moss, trying every soil and taking root in none, a scandalously unproductive man, of no use to myself or my fellows, bound to them by no ties of common sympathy or service, I found myself home again, where there was no home. My father's house had no place for me; my father repudiated and ignor ed me; my mother's children turned their faces from me. My old friends passed by on the other side, and looked at me askance, astonished at the seeming bravado which could permit me to thrust myself in their way, or stand where they might meet me. Intemperate, possessed of a devil of drinkthirst, eternal thirst, from my rising up to my lying down-mad, irresponsible to God or man-never premeditating, never foreseeing the result of any word I might utter, any deed I might commit-liable at any time to say or do that which would involve me and others in a common ruin-I rushed madly along through life, like a mad ox in a crowded street, only by some strange providence seeming mercifully to avoid My re the crash which all expected. sources of an almost desperate character-precarious, wholly accidental, derived, at the moment, from the place where I might happen to be-my powers, by a sort of convulsive struggle, exercised to procure the absolute requirements of the moment, the necessities of food, and drink, and sleep, no moremaking no provision for the future, hoping nothing from the next day, and caring as little what evil thing the next day might bring forth-I found myself alone in New York-truly, in its most actual and painful sense, alone. My family had agreed not to pronounce my name among them. A large and influential circle of friends, who had once hoped for at least good things of me, shrugged their shoulders and shook their heads, kindly content to give me up, only thinking I should be grateful that they did no more. Educated in a profession which requires the exercise of the coolest sagacity in emergencies, and at all times well-braced nerves and a steady head and hand, I had been compelled to throw away that resource -too glad that it was in my power to |