A PIONEER SKETCH. DRAWN FROM NATURE. YOUR Contributors, Mr. EDITOR, describe with entertaining particularity the characteristics of persons and places east of the Alleghany mountains, but less frequently adventure this side of them. If I am not mistaken in my observations, the west abounds with persons and incidents capable of affording unto ears and eyes polite excellent food for amusement and reflection. Our western sky, although much bedimmed with the pervading smoke of fallow-fires, is nevertheless at times singularly transparent, serene, and beautiful. Whether illumined by the rays of effulgent morning, or resplendent with the far-beaming glories of the setting sun, or rejoicing in the soft, silver light of a highriding moon and stars, it draws the soul toward it lovingly, as the yearning heart of a child is drawn to its mother. Our rivers, sluggish as they often are, and wanting the vivacity of mountain streams that leap and dance continually from the hill-tops to the ocean, sweep onward with a more majestic power, and are crowned with many a hoar and grand old forest. You that love to trace the lineaments of Antiquity, which of her features discovered in the ruins of Babylon or Palmyra beam with the life of so many ages as those primeval works of GOD! Petræ, and Jerusalem, and Balbec, have beheld her presence, and still bear witness of her handiwork; but these old forests were the haunts of her infancy, the sylvan bowers, the trysting-places of her palmy days. Many of our houses and fields wear a rougher and less finished aspect than those in an older country; yet shall you see, and that not unfrequently, spots more blessed than the rest, where neatness and comfort greet you with their smiling symbols. Our population, like the face of the country it inhabits, is robust and blooming; full of hardihood and adventure; the pioneer traits gradually receding and fading, but still forming the ground-work of the picture, on which are beheld choice flowers of gentleness and virtue and true manhood. It is nowhere so rough and forbidding but that when approached with the tale of weakness and sorrow, like the rock smitten of the prophet's rod it will send forth gushing and generous streams of sympathy and protection. Not yet arrived at the stage of progress and leisure most favorable for the cultivation of letters, Genius exhibits herself flaming every way, like the sword of the cherubim round about the gates of Eden, and with her streaming oriflammes, lights and cheers on the masses in their wonderful march of improvement. Western towns do not in general present the same bright and rural appearances observed in New-England and some other of the Atlantic States. They are less extended and more compactly built, and frequently dingy with coal smoke. The cultivation of plants and flowers, which is by no means neglected, is often carried on in choice retreats and secluded plats of ground; so that while the show of yards and gardens is less conspicuous, it does not argue an absence of innocent and delicate tastes. Within those rows of dingy buildings dwell the matrons and daughters of the glowing West, instinct with earnest and tender affections. As one star differeth from another star in glory, and as one flower differeth from another in delicacy and beauty, these daughters and matrons differ from each other in degrees of womanly perfection. Were I compelled to mention one thing, in some measure characteristic of them all, it would be the possession of the shadow of a shade of the dashing impulses of their husbands and brothers. There is a laughing' divinity that shapes their ends, rough hew them how you will.' Here and there may be seen competence and venerable age in retirement. But whether it is that Time, like a native of the forest, has learned to cover up the marks of his journey, or that growing old is not encouraged by public sentiment; or that the young only seek their destinies here, and age and sorrow find a more congenial soil; it is remarkable to observation that youth and vigor are the predominating style of the western people. I take this occasion to correct what I fear is an erroneous impression in regard to our climate. If it be supposed by any that we are seldom visited by rains, or seldom enjoy that highest perfection of all weather called 'sloppy;' or that our highways are monotonous and dry, I can assure them, from the depths of an experience long enough to justify the statement, that neither is the fact. The mistake must have arisen from observations made only in summer and autumn. During the winter and spring months, all kinds of weather, not furnished at other seasons, are supplied in plentiful abundance. Hail-stones in this fertile country grow to a very creditable size; and although civilization here has had but the growth of half a century, chain-lightning, both plain and ornamental, is done with a neatness and despatch seldom surpassed, even in Europe. At convenient intervals of time, not very remote from each other, our city is visited by a group of figures, now become familiar to us all, but whose history is among the forgotten legends of the early settlements. The foremost of the group is an animal of the horse species, bearing a configuration that usually ranks one degree lower than that noble animal. He is a quadruped whose kind figured more conspicuously in ancient history, both sacred and profane, than it does at present, and whose name and nature seem of late in great danger of depreciation and loss, by being confounded with some descriptions of the human family. It is with some a matter of concern and doubt whether they will not soon be forgotten ever to have belonged to four-legged creatures. The size and altitude of his ears belong to the fancy-superlative order, and preclude all discussion as to the nomenclature of his class. The purpose for which his peculiarities were devised were doubtless wise, but must remain inscrutable. Were they of human contrivance, it would in modern times, and with modern associations, be hard to resist the impression that they originated in some sly humor or lurking sense of drollery. If allowed the license of ancient mythology, and at liberty to imagine, without irreverence, that the Great First Cause, embracing within itself all faculties and causes in harmonious and sublime per fection, could have existed even but for a moment in a state corresponding to what we mean by sleep; when all the faculties save one are at rest, and that one is left to act in full vigor, unbalanced and uncorrected by the rest; we might arrive at an explanation of the phenomenon, by supposing that the peculiar faculty, which afterward entered Hogarth, and through his instrumentality amused the world, did seize its opportunity to work out the prodigy in question. Second only to his ears, the pride and ornament of his forward extremity, are two shining watchful eyes. Their glance is slow, cautious, and reflective, with an expression of self-reliance, somewhat subdued by a consciousness that he is not appreciated, but signifying nevertheless entire pertinacity of purpose. His body is covered with a rough coat of hair, having the dull hue of age, like grass which has been exposed to wintry storms. Pendent from the latter part of the vertebral column hangs the most active and significant member of the entire beast. It is covered with hair resembling that which adorns the other parts of the animal, with the trifling difference of being a little longer. The office of this member appears to be manifold. In hot weather it is used as a sort of home squadron,' to cruise along the coasts and protect the main body or continent from piratical insects and other hostile interlopers. During periods of recreation and rest it performs numerous fantastic evolutions, expressive of hilarity, and other sentiments suitable to the occasion. But on great emergencies it retreats into port, and lies significantly along the haunches, partly as a harbor-defence, and partly, it is presumed, by way of concentration of forces. The usual appearance of the beast is taciturn and thoughtful, with a slight touch of conscious martyrdom and melancholy. Yet when moved to 'wreak his thoughts upon expression,' his voice resounds -'with like timorous accents and dire yell, Gifted with singular power in making himself heard, there is yet a want of exactness in articulation, of euphony in the general modulation of his voice, and of taste in the emphasis. An asthma carried on by powerful machinery would give some faint idea of his oratory. Without committing myself too strongly on the subject, I am under the impression that his general delivery' would be improved by taking lessons with some skilful professor of elocution. At least, such I have known to be the result with several individuals who possessed natural endowments fully equal to his. Taken as a whole, the expression of character, in a moral point of view, is somewhat doubtful. If it be true, as maintained by some learned and ingenious divines, whose opinions in spiritual matters deserve entire reverence, that every natural object is so formed as to illustrate and impress some great moral idea, it would seem to be worthy of profound conjecture, in what particular chapter of natural theology the subject of this sketch should be placed. The writer is, alas! but too little acquainted with metaphysical science to do more than bring his doubt in humiliation of spirit, and lay it down at the door of the great temple of truth, and there leave it for some favored janitor, to be borne inward toward the consecrated shrine, before whose presence, as by the celestial touch of Ithuriel's spear, all darkness and error are transformed into light. The second figure of the group has no peculiarities worthy of particular notice. It is a small cart, showing marks of age and exposure, wrought with unpolished hands from the entrails of the forest, made fast by a harness and thills to the animal. The last figure to be described, and the guiding spirit of the group, is a human female, with a complexion of no positive hue. White it certainly is not; nor yet black, nor copper-colored, but still such as could not have been formed if either of these had been absent. It may be called a sort of amalgam of them all; a compromise between midnight and high noon, with a neutralizing quantity of eclipse. Her person is of medium height, and round compact proportions, such as might have been accompanied with activity, and now indicate considerable hardihood and power of endurance. Her hair has been black, but time and exposure have changed it, and her whole appearance, although as far as need be from youthful, bespeaks perpetuity rather than age. Guiding with ropes the beast above described, she rides on a seat fixed firmly in the centre of the cart, so that it can neither move nor yield; most commonly carrying a pipe in her mouth, well supplied with the weed, and a whip or goad in one hand. The whole group is a unit; no one of them is ever seen without all the rest. They make their appearance unheralded, from some unknown abode, and having accomplished their mission, depart unmolested. The oldest inhabitants speak of them as associated with their earliest recollections of the place, but none know whence they came or whither they go. No one has heard or known aught of evil to treasure up against them; and in proportion as they have become objects of curious notoriety, the good-will and amiable regard of the public attend them. Notwithstanding their apparently defenceless condition, no rude salutation or boisterous mirth ever greets them. Subjects less calculated to provoke merriment and intrusion would scarcely pass unimproved by wicked boys and street vagrants. But upon these, old father Time has laid his benediction, and without becoming venerable, they have won the immunity and wear the honors of age. The more superstitious of our citizens regard them with misdoubting eyes, and trace resemblances between them and the descriptions contained in certain symbolic passages of Holy Scripture. Others have observed a connection between the times and manner of their coming and important epochs, such as marriages, birth and loss of children, memorable storms, and the like, and have deduced therefrom signs and proverbs. The most notable nurse of the city has discovered it to be an infallible sign, that if this group of figures makes its appearance during the first half of the month of February, a large majority of children born the ensuing year will be boys; but if they come in the latter half of the same month, the children will be girls; and that so often as they appear on Christmas day, duplicates are always forthcoming in unusual abundance. A victualler believes that their appearance on certain days is followed by a scarcity of hams, and a difficult season for the curing of meats. A spinster is reported to have reposed her hopes upon the expectation that they will not many years hence arrive on the twenty-ninth day of February, a coincidence that is supposed never yet to have occurred, and that her marriage to a florid gentleman with whiskers will speedily follow. A forlorn but sweet little girl, the only child of a young married couple in humble circumstances, both of whom died and left her, carries on with the old dame, whenever she arrives among us, a commerce of flowers and nuts. The little beauty, watchful of her opportunity and sure of her reception, throws into the cart one or more flowers, perhaps the commonest of the season, but nevertheless plucked with care and sanctified with the love of a pure and innocent and childish heart. The dame generally responds to this offering by thrusting her brawny hand deep into the recesses of her dress, and drawing forth a well-filled palm of beech-nuts or other wild fruit, and throwing them on the pavement for the child to gather. Meanwhile she does not stop, but drives on ín silent and good-natured taciturnity, showing no other signs of pleasure, save a friendly and peculiar motion given to the pipe in her mouth. The child follows with her eyes until she has passed far on, gathers up her nuts and hies with them to her pillow, under which she deposits them as an offering, in turn, to the great, and to her benign genius of the realm of dreams. The poor child counts upon these occasions with great fondness. No little Knickerbocker feels more delight at the visits of St. Nicholas of a Christmas eve. HE who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb has in His tender mercy given the little mourner a superstition which, somehow or other, connects this commerce with the unknown woman in the cart, with the assurance that her father and mother, who she believes still love and watch over her from their home in the skies, will on the night following visit her in her dreams. She says it has never failed her. How the appearance of one so far removed in her outward lineaments and circumstances from exhibitions of sentiment and the common ties of affection should awaken in this little creature the seminal thought of such a train, leading in her dreams to a temporary reunion of the silver chords that have been loosed, is beyond the speculations of philosophy. The hearts of little children are the chosen repositories for GOD's divinest gifts; especially when swelling with earnest emotions, do they overflow with instincts and impulses so divinely beautiful as to seem inspired. If it be true that 'their angels do dwell forever in the presence of the FATHER,' may not their childish freaks of devotion to those who seldom attract maturer years be gentle mementoes of His everlasting regard, who is no respecter of persons, and whose " banner over all is love?" Idle curiosity has on several occasions followed the old woman, although ever at respectful distance, to trace out her dwelling place; but whether aware of their design and reluctant to gratify it, or whether she makes her home in a spot far remote, her course on such occasions has always been straight onward, until her pursuers wearied of their purpose, and left her to her solitary and mysterious ways. Twice only, according to tradition, has this singular group suffered perturbation from the passions. Alas! what mortal is secure from the piercing shafts of love! What celestial panoply, what earthly device, |