1859.]

MODE OF REDUCING LEAD ORE.

213

utterly worthless, and others which were believed exhausted afterward yielded richly. The dark unwholesome mines were half

full of water and often dangerous from foul air. Yet laborers were glad to work in them at one dollar and twenty-five cents per day, boarding themselves.

My conductor, a miner from childhood, had witnessed many fatal accidents, and declared it 'a slave's life;' but was unable to content himself in any other pursuit.

The ore is reduced in 'Scotch ovens' by a heat much less than that required in smelting iron. It is broken into fragments no larger than walnuts, then mingled with lime, and melted upon a fire of charcoal and dry wood. In a stream bright and shining as silver, it falls into the basins. Thence it is ladled into molds where it cools into marketable 'pigs' of eighty pounds. This process extracts sixty-six per cent. of the lead. The refuse matter is then subjected to much greater heat by which ten per cent. more is obtained. The smelting is very trying to health. Smelters

214

VILLAGES IN SOUTHWESTERN MISSOURI. [1859,

received ten dollars per week, laboring five hours a day. The annual product of the region is now (1867) two and a half mil lions of pounds, and the deposits in that section are believed to underlie an immense tract. Lead mines are less liable to 'run out' than silver or gold; some in the Hartz mountains of Germany have yielded steadily and richly for five hundred years.

Returning to Cassville I journeyed on by the mail coaches, which over mountainous roads accomplished more than a hundred miles every twenty-four hours. Great pride was felt in this 'Overland' line, and an old local mail stage still lumbering over the same track was derisively known as 'the Underland.'

Our first point was Keetsville-a dozen shanties which looked like a funeral procession in honor of Keets, whoever he may have been. The neighbors called the place 'Chicken-Thief.' Another hamlet a few miles to the southward was known as 'Scarce-o'Grease!' Near most of the farm dwellings were spring-houses where the matrons kept their milk and butter. Cellars were little known through Missouri and Arkansas because reputed damp and unhealthy-justly in a few sections, but unjustly in most.

After crossing the State line we were jolted over the rough Boston Mountains, and obtained a moonlight view of Fayetteville, a pleasant county town with several churches, the United States land-office for northeastern Arkansas, and pleasant dwellings. A rough village beyond is named 'Hog-Eye.' If not euphonious the nomenclature hereabout is at least original. The generous loghouse where the passengers breakfasted was kept by a widow, whose wordly condition a local clergyman on board thus described: 'She's got lots of niggers and a heap of truck,' (property.)

All day we were among mountains with farm-houses few and far between; and at evening we looked down upon a pleasant picture. At our feet the village of Van Buren nestled among shade trees; immediately beyond, the shining waters of the Arkansas river wound through a rich green valley; still further, the deep manyhued foliage of the Indian Territory dotted with blue mountain peaks melted into the deeper blue of the sky.

Crossing the stream by a ferry of two-pole power, and riding five miles along its deeply-shaded valley, we reached Fort Smith, in western Arkansas, on the border of the Indian Territory.

1859.]

LIFE AT FORT SMITH, ARKANSAS.

215

CHAPTER XVIII.

FORT SMITH is an abandoned military post, nominally head of navigation on the Arkansas, (Indian: smoky, bow-shaped river,) though steamers ascend to it only half the year. At high water. they run one hundred and sixty miles above to Fort Gibson.

The pleasant town now contained three thousand people. Its chief trade was with the neighboring Cherokees and Choctaws. By law, debts contracted by the Indians out of their own Territory could not be collected; but the Fort Smith merchants trusted them freely and were faithfully paid.

Every day scores of Aborigines added picturesqueness to the streets. The men wore gay, fringed frocks instead of coats, and red kerchiefs or turbans for hats; but otherwise dressed like whites. The petticoats and frocks of the women displayed as many colors of the rainbow as their purses would permit.

Though more civilized than any other tribes the males scorned labor. Often one trudged empty-handed up from the ferry, while behind toiled his squaw with heavy keg or other burden upon her shoulders, and one of their negro slaves also unincumbered brought up the rear. He came as interpreter; the negroes all spoke English while many of their Indian masters did not.

According to my voluble landlord there were many slaves about Fort Smith. In winter especially, field hands had a far easier time than their masters. They were well supplied with spending money and went to a frolic almost every night:

'I overseed for three years on a Louisiana cotton plantation. There the niggers have to work right on through the winter, for that's the picking season. They begin at daylight and keep at it till dark; an overseer follows them with a big whip, and you'd

216

COTTON PICKING IN LOUISIANA.

[1859. think at first that they had a powerful hard time. But no matter how tight they are worked, just let them get together at night with a fiddle, and Lord, how they will frolic! Keep it up till morning too, dancing and singing. That's the place for niggers; put them in the South and they are just happy.

"The man I overseed for was a mighty fine master-kind, but right strict. He kept them well clothed, for half of them are too careless to look out for the future. Growing cotton is the most profitable business in the world; the planters don't raise any thing else except a few sweet potatoes, but buy all their provisions. Picking cotton is the great thing. A woman will pick faster than a man, but a child twelve years old will frequently beat them both. It can't be learned-it's a kind of sleight. Those planters think nothing of paying twenty-five hundred dollars for a good picker.'

'Are there many slaves among the Indians, across the river?' 'Yes sir. John Ross gov

ernor of the Cherokees has over a hundred; and there's a right smart sprinkling through the whole nation.'

'How are they treated?' 'Badly. The Cherokees and Choctaws don't govern them; in fact, the niggers are masters and do about as they please.'

The negroes of Fort Smith had Methodist and Baptist churches. Like the temples of the whites, these places of worship had no bells; and the Sunday morning congregations were called together by the tooting of a dozen horns-a ludicrous form of the church-going bell.

Many negroes had bought their freedom, and some had acquired considerable property. Several laundresses and nurses first redeemed themselves, and then their husbands and children. But

1859.]

THE TALE OF AN INKSTAND.

217

the Arkansas legislature had passed a stringent law requiring every free negro remaining in the State after January 1860, to be sold as a slave, and have his property confiscated to the county. He was graciously permitted to choose a master, who after paying his appraised value would own him absolutely. In western Arkansas schools are very rare, and many children grow up incredibly ignorant. At the time of my visit several of the State legislators were unable to write their own names.

Outside of the few large towns, the epicurean tourist endures many tribulations. In rich stock-growing regions he finds sweet milk for his tea and coffee a rarity, and for drinking a myth. Butter seldom visits his table, but sometimes confronts him laden with odors never wafted from Araby the Blest. Of strong coffee, sour milk as a beverage, molasses, hot heavy biscuit with saleratus visible to the naked eye, and fat pork floating in gravy, he will find abundance. Pastry may haunt his dreams, but seldom his repasts. Even the inevitable corn-bread though of richest meal, comes in such a questionable shape as to have no temptation for his palate. One waggish old settler told me this story:

'I have been living down here for twenty years. The desk in my office is at the head of a long flight of stairs; and in the haste of business my inkstand is often knocked off and rolled down. For a long time I could get no material that would stand this usage. Glass was out of the question. Stone broke like crockery. The hardest wood soon gave way. Finally a lucky thought struck me. I sent up to one of my neighbours-the widow B.— for a piece of her corn-bread. After ruining several fine tools I succeeded in hollowing it out into an inkstand. That was ten years ago; and, stranger, I've used that inkstand ever since and I reckon it's good for two generations longer!'

Banks were unknown, and gold and silver the only currency. The State contained just forty miles of railroad-from Memphis toward Little Rock. The speed of regular passenger trains by the time-table was seven miles an hour.

A pioneer who settled in Fort Smith when there were only five houses, and before the military post was established, told me stirring tales of the early days. The town was a rendezvous for adventurers and desperadoes. By crossing the Arkansas on the