Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 9).djvu/168

 are simple bedsteads without hangings. There are no bells in the bed-rooms, and other apartments; nor are menials accustomed to move at the signal of the stranger. Water is rarely to be met with in bed-rooms; washing is, of course, performed under a shed behind the house, or at the pump. A full house is always the apology for causing two strangers to sleep in the same bed; the propriety of the custom will always be admitted by the person who arrives latest. It has been my lot to sleep with a diversity of personages; I do believe, from the driver of the stage coach, to men of considerable name. The noted cutaneous disease is certainly not prevalent; if it was, the beds of taverns, which, like burying grounds, lay all on a level, would soon make the disease as prevalent in this country, as in some others in the old world.

{137} If Europeans and others, who indulge in censorious remarks on western taverns and tavern-keepers, would make reasonable allowances for the thinly-settled state of the country, the high price of labour, and the great numbers of travellers, their criticisms might be somewhat softened. The man who cannot enjoy a placid temper under privation of a part of the comforts of a more advanced state of society, is surely to be pitied for having business in the back woods of America.

A very inferior breed of cows and horses are to be seen almost every where by the river. This may be partly imputed to the want of proper fodder, and of shelter in the winter. Cattle are not housed in the season, when every plant is withered to whiteness. Grass is not sown to succeed the crops. A growth of tall weeds takes immediate possession of the soil. Hay, therefore, is a scarce article. Indian corn is resorted to as a substitute, but it