neatly dressed as I could manage to make
them."

I passed the whole day and walked more than
twenty miles in Mr. Crump's company; and
before we parted, when I wished him a very
cordial farewell, gave him my name and address,
and extracted a promise that after he had got
to Wisconsin and settled down in his new home,
he would write to me and let me know whether
he liked the country and had prospered in it.
He kept his promise, and less than six months
ago, I heard from him that he was both a
gardener and a tailor; and had far more to do than
his hands could accomplish. His earnings were
more in one day than they had been in London
in a week. His boys not only went to school,
but one of them worked in the garden and the
other in the shop. He had butcher's meat every
day, not alone for dinner, but for breakfast.
His wife had a silk gown, a watch, and a gold
chain, and had nothing to do but to attend to
her family, which had increased since they settled
in Wisconsin. He told me that his last new
comer, a boy, born on American soil, would be
eligible to the Presidency if he lived long
enough, and had a chance of nomination, and that
out of respect to the actual President and his
former business, the child was named Andrew
Johnson Crump. Mr. Crump it will be seen was
altogether an exceptional slop tailor. He was so
satisfied with America that he and his wife
were saving up a few pounds to send over to
England to help her brother and his family
over, as he and she had been helped; and if
Mr. Crump lives long enough, there is no
doubt in my mind, from what I know of his
character, that he will be as good as his word.

FAR WESTERN MAN.

THE far Western American settlements of
Great Britain and the United States yield us, in
odd freedom from conventionalities of life and
off-hand settlement of difficulties, much matter
for laughter, but none for ridicule. There is a
grandeur of its own in human energy that not
only conquers land and wealth to the use of
mankind, but proves the inner soundness of
the stuff men are made of, by conquering also
the bad passions of life. In regions to which
lawless men are tempted, by the absence of all
civilised machinery of law, the rascals are at
last compelled to stand in awe of honest men.
Throughout the Far West tracks of travel have
been cleared of the white robber and assassin,
and are safe except here and there from the
hostility of native tribes. Property lying
exposed to theft is, in many a new Western
settlement, safer than in one of the towns of the
old country. Public opinion has condemned
the gambler, and condemns the idler. The
foundations of a new society laid thus in the Far
West, however rough they may appear, are
strong and sound, and it is wonderful to see
how fast the well proportioned building rises
from them. Races of North and South join in
the West, and do their pioneer work in a
practical hard-headed way; parted, no doubt,
from some of the advantages, but also from all
the overgrown hypocrisies of civilisation. I
look with respect even upon "whittling," as
a symptom of the restless desire to be doing as
well as talking. In the North Pacific, where
there are such extensive forests and odd pieces
of wood are lying handy, whittling seems to
be the regular occupation of men's idle hours.

The municipality of San Francisco put up
wooden posts to protect the side walks from
fiery charioteers. Over these hung knots of
eager disputants, and as mining stocks and
swamp lands were being discussed, they whittled
at the posts, until they became so thin that the
wind blew them over. I have seen a man
in a backwood church begin whittling the
wood of the pew. At a trial in Grass Valley,
each juryman began whittling at a piece of
wood he had brought in his pocket for the
purpose, regulating the energy of the action by
the clearness of the evidence. The trial lasted
through a second day, but as they had not
expected a long sitting nobody had brought
enough wood with him, and accordingly the
benches suffered. First the gentlemen of the
jury attacked that portion of the seat which
showed between their legs, until it had assumed
a vandyke collar-like form, and the assault on the
other portion had proceeded so far when the
judge finished his charge, that he made a
calculation, that if the ends of justice had required
the jury to sit for a third day there would
have been nothing left for them to sit on.

Old skippers hang about the wharf also
whittling. At Coose Bay there are only two
marriageable girls, and these being run after by
all the young men of the district, value them-
selves accordingly. Half a dozen Oregonian
youths sit on the verandah in front of their
respective houses during the whole of Sunday,
while each lady looks out at her followers
through the half-opened window. The lovers
all the while are whittling bits of white pine,
which is an easy wood to work, and valued for
that purpose. At dark they move home, but
the damsels find these visits profitable, for there
is generally left behind a pile of shavings big
enough to light fires for the rest of the week.

The Western man is a being of versatile
genius. If he cannot succeed in one profession
he will turn to another. There are plenty of
lawyers who are miners, and merchants who
are doctors all over the North- West. The
head of the largest mercantile firm on the
Pacific Coast, is one who was educated for,
and practised many years in, the medical
profession; and some of the most adroit politicians
and " wire pullers," are styled " Doctor" from
having at one time been in the same way in
life. If one trade does not pay he commences
in another, and if there is not an opening in
Bullet City, he " vamooses the ranch," " makes
tracks," or "gets up and gits" for Ground-
Hogs-Glory, where there is said to be an
excellent opening for either a butcher, or a lawyer,