Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 11).djvu/224

 *try and people; and, at other times, he is well pleased. He is an odd man, surrounded with eight fierce dogs, and has a fine, never-failing mill spring, running a mile through his farm, which, one year ago, cost 20 dollars, but is now worth only ten dollars an acre, with all improvements. This is turning a penny quickly! Despatch is the life and soul of business."

4th.—The Supreme Judge, Hart, is a gay young man of twenty-five, full of wit and humorous eloquence, mixing with all companies at this tavern, where he seems neither above nor below any, dressed in an old white beaver hat, coarse threadbare coat and trowsers of the same cloth (domestic,) and yellow striped waistcoat, with his coat out at the elbows; yet very cleanly in his person, and refined in his language. What can be the inducement for a young man, like him, equal to all things, to live thus, and here?

Judge Hart deems merchandizing to be the most {227} profitable pursuit in the west, and the liberal professions the last and worst.

Mr. Nicholls, a cunning Caledonian, says, that farming, except near the rivers, cannot answer; but raising and feeding cattle and pigs may. Store-keeping is here evidently the best of all employments, if cents and dollars enter into the estimate. Money spent in improving land is seldom more than returned with interest, and often lost by reselling or selling out, especially if the labour is not all done by the farmer; and if it is done by his own instead of hired hands, he is not more than fairly paid for his time and labour, which are both money. It is therefore best for the mere capitalist to buy rather than make all the improvements, as he certainly buys them much cheaper