a whole night's continuance, made up
of the relations of the bride and groom and their neighbors. On the day
following the young couple took possession of their new mansion."

[Footnote 50: Perkins. Peck.]

CHAPTER XIX.

Condition of the early settlers as it respects the
mechanic arts--Want of skilled mechanics--Hominy block and
hand-mill--Sweeps--Gunpowder--Water mills Clothing--Leather--Farm
tools--Wooden ware--Sports--Imitating birds--Throwing the
tomahawk--Athletic sports--Dancing--Shooting at marks--Emigration of
the present time compared with that of the early settlers--Scarcity
of iron--Costume--Dwellings--Furniture--Employments--The women--Their
character--Diet--Indian corn--The great improvements in facilitating
the early settlement of the West--Amusements.

Before having the subject of the actual condition of the early
settlers in the West, we take another extract from "Doddridge's Notes,"
comprising his observations on the state of the mechanic arts among
them, and an account of some of their favorite sports.

"MECHANIC ARTS.--In giving the history of the state of the mechanic
arts as they were exercised at an early period of the settlement of this
country, I shall present a people, driven by necessity to perform works
of mechanical skill, far beyond what a person enjoying all the advantages
of civilization would expect from a population placed in such destitute
circumstances.

"My reader will naturally ask, where were their mills for grinding
grain? Where their tanners for making leather? Where their smiths'
shops for making and repairing their farming utensils? Who were their
carpenters, tailors, cabinet-workmen, shoemakers, and weavers? The
answer is, those manufacturers did not exist; nor had they any
tradesmen, who were professedly such. Every family were under the
necessity of doing every thing for themselves as well as they could.
The hominy block and hand-mills were in use in most of our houses.
The first was made of a large block of wood about three feet long, with
an excavation burned in one end, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom,
so that the action of the pestle on the bottom threw the corn up to the
sides toward the top of it, from whence it continually fell down into
the centre.

"In consequence of this movement, the whole mass of the grain was pretty
equally subjected to the strokes of the pestle. In the fall of the year,
while