Page:Margaret Fuller Ossoli (Higginson).djvu/214

196 among the foreign immigrants. The following extract from a letter to Mr. Emerson shows her careful observation of these types, then so new: —

“Here I am interested in those who have a mixture of Indian blood. With one lady I may become well acquainted, as she is to travel with us. Her melancholy eyes, and slow, graceful utterance, and delicate feeling of what she has seen, attract me. She is married here and wears our dress, but her family retain the dress and habits of their race. Through her I hope to make other acquaintance that may please me.

“Next week we are going into the country to explore the neighborhood of Fox and Rock rivers. We are going, in regular western style, to travel in a wagon, and stay with the farmers. Then I shall see the West to better advantage than I have as yet.

“We are going to stay with one family, the mother of which had what they call a ‘claim fight.’ Some desperadoes laid claim to her property, which is large; they were supposed to belong to the band who lately have been broken up by an exertion of lynch law. She built shanties in the different parts; she and her three daughters each took one to defend it. They showed such bravery that the foe retreated.

“Then there is an Irish gentleman who owns a large property there. He was married to the daughter of an Irish earl. His son, a boy who inherits the (her) fortune he has left in Europe, and since the death of his wife lives alone on the Rock River; he has invited us to stay at his house, and the scenery there is said to be most beautiful.

“I hear, too, of a Hungarian count who has a large tract of land in Wisconsin. He has removed thither