from Mr. Marshall, and partly from Doddridge and others, some account of the habits of life among our progenitors here. To many, especially to those who have long been intimate with Western Frontier Life, a few of the succeeding pages may present nothing that is either novel or interesting; but to those to whom the country and its social institutions are alike new, we are sure that nothing more could be offered likely to excite their interest or to promote their amusement than this vivid and life-like description of the manners and customs of the inhabitants of Louisville seventy years ago. We copy the account in full:—

“Then the women did the offices of the household; milked the cows, cooked the mess, prepared the flax, spun, wove, and made the garment of linen or linsey; the men hunted, and brought in the meat; they planted, ploughed, and gathered the corn; grinding it into meal at a handmill, or pounding it into hominy in the mortar, was occasionally the work of either, or the joint labor of both. The men exposed themselves alone to danger; they fought the Indians, they cleared the land, they reared the hut or built the fort, in which the women were placed for safety. There might incidentally be a few articles brought to the country for sale, in a private way; but there was no store for supply. Wooden vessels, either turned or coopered were in common use as table furniture. A tin cup was an article of delicate luxury almost as rare as an iron fork. Every hunter carried his knife; it was no less the implement of a warrior; not unfrequently the rest of the family was left with but one or two for the use of all. A like workmanship composed the table or the stool; a slab hewed with the axe, and sticks of a similar manufacture, set in for legs, supported both. When the bed was, by chance or refinement, elevated above the floor, and given a fixed place, it was often laid on slabs placed across poles, supported on forks set in the earthen floor; or where the floor was puncheons, the bedstead was hewed pieces, pinned on upright posts, or let into them by auger holes. Other utensils and furniture were of a corresponding description, applicable to the time.

“The food was of the most wholesome and nutritive kind. The richest milk, the finest butter, and best meat that ever delighted man’s palate, were here eaten with a relish which health and labor only know. These were shared by friend and stranger in every cabin with profuse hospitality.

“Hats were made of the native fur; and the buffalo wool employed in the composition of cloth, as was also the bark of the wild nettle.

“There was some paper money in the country, which had not depreciated one half nor even a fourth as much as it had at the seat of government. If there was any gold or silver its circulation was suppressed. The price of a beaver was five hundred dollars.

“The hunting shirt was universally worn. This was a kind of loose frock, reaching half way down the thighs, with large sleeves, open before, and so wide as to lap over a foot or more when belted. The cape was large and sometimes handsomely fringed with a ravelled piece of cloth of a different color from that of the hunting shirt itself. The bosom of his dress served as a wallet to hold a chunk of bread, cakes, jerk, tow for wiping the barrel of his rifle, or any other necessary for the hunter or warrior. The belt which was always tied behind, answered several purposes besides that of holding the dress together. In cold weather the mittens, and sometimes the bullet-bag occupied the front part of it. To the right side was suspended the tomahawk, and to the left was the scalping knife in its leathern sheath. The hunting shirt was generally made of linsey, sometimes of coarse linen, and a few of dressed deer skins. These last were very cold and uncomfortable in wet weather. The shirt and jacket were of the common fashion. A pair of drawers or breeches and leggins, were the dress of the thighs and legs; a pair of moccasins answered for the feet much better than shoes.—These were made of dressed deer skin. They were mostly made of a single piece, with a gathering seam along the top of the foot, and another from the bottom of the heel, without gathers, as high as the ankle joint or a little higher. Flaps were left on each side to reach some distance up the legs. These were nicely adapted to the ankles and lower part of the leg by thongs of deerskin, so that no dust, gravel, or snow, could get within the moccasin.

“The moccasins in ordinary use cost but a few hours labor to make them. This was done by an instrument denominated a moccasin awl, which was made of the back spring of an old clasp knife. This awl with its buck-horn handle, was an appendage of every shot pouch strap, together with a roll of buckskin for mending the moccasins. This was the labor of almost every evening. They were sewed together and patched with deerskin thongs, or whangs as they were commonly called.

“In cold weather the moccasins were well stuffed with deer’s hair, or dry leaves so as to keep the feet comfortably warm; but in wet weather it was usually said that wearing them was ‘a decent way of going barefooted;’ and such was the fact, owing to the spongy texture of the leather of which they were made.

“Owing to this defective covering of the feet, more than to any other circumstance, the greater number of our warriors and hunters were afflicted with the rheumatism in their limbs. Of this disease they were all apprehensive in cold or wet weather, and therefore always slept with their feet to the fire to prevent or cure it as well as they could. This practice unquestionably had a very salutary effect, and prevented many of them from becoming confirmed cripples in early life.

“The fort consisted of cabins, blockhouses, and stockades. A range of cabins commonly formed one side at least of a fort. Divisions, or partitions of logs, separated the cabins from each other. The walls on the outside were ten or twelve feet high, the slope of the roof being turned wholly inward. A very few of these cabins had puncheon floors, the greater part were earthen.

“The blockhouses were built at the angles of the fort. They projected about two feet beyond the outer walls of the cabins and stockades. The upper stories were about eighteen inches every way larger in dimension than the under one, leaving an opening at the commencement of the second story to prevent the enemy from making a lodgment under their walls. In some forts instead of blockhouses, the angles of the fort were furnished with bastions. A large folding gate, made of thick slabs nearest the spring closed the fort. The stockades, bastions, cabins and blockhouse walls were furnished with port holes at proper heights and distances. The whole of the outside was made completely bullet proof.

“It may be truly said that necessity is the mother of invention; for the whole of this work was made without the aid of a single nail or spike of iron; and for this reason, such things were not to be had.

“In some places, less exposed, a single blockhouse, with a cabin or two, constituted the whole fort.

“For a long time after the first settlement of this country, the inhabitants in general married young. There was no distinction of rank, and very little of fortune. On these accounts the first impression of love resulted in marriage; and a family establishment cost but a little labor and nothing else.

“In the first years of the settlement of this country, a wedding engaged the attention of a whole neighborhood, and the frolic was anticipated by old and young with eager expectation. This is not to be wondered at when it is told that a wedding was almost the only gathering which was not