Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/221

Rh prison he was visited by young ladies, who went to teach him French and to play on the guitar! One of these travelled with me on the railroad. She spoke of the young prisoner's “agreeable demeanour!” There is a leniency towards crime and the criminal which is disgusting, and which proves a laxity of moral feeling.

The weather was glorious the whole day. The sun preceded us westward. We steered our course directly towards the sun; and the nearer it sank towards the earth, more brightly glowed the evening sky as with the most transcendent gold. The country, through the whole extent, was lowland, and monotonous. Here and there wound along a lovely little wooded stream. Here and there in the woods were small frame-houses, and beside one and another of them wooden sheds, upon which a board was fastened, whereon might be read in white letters, half a yard high, the word “Grocery.” The cultivated districts were in all cases divided regularly, scattered over with farm-houses resembling those of our better class of peasant-farmers. The settlers in the West purchase allotments of from eighty to one hundred and sixty or two hundred acres, seldom less and seldom more. The land costs in the first instance what is called “government price,” one dollar and a quarter per acre; and will, if well cultivated, produce abundant harvests within a few years. The farmers here work hard, live frugally, but well, and bring up strong able families. The children, however, seldom follow the occupation of their fathers. They are sent to schools, and after that endeavour to raise themselves by political or public life. These small farms are the nurseries from which the north-west States obtain their best officials, and teachers, both male and female. A vigorous, pious, laborious race grows up here. I received much enlightenment on this subject from my good old pioneer, who, with his piety, his restless activity, his humanity, his