st, would howl in
response to the hunter's cry. The boys also rivalled the Indians in the
skill with which they would throw the tomahawk. With a handle of a given
length, and measuring the distance with the eye, they would throw the
weapon with such accuracy that its keen edge would be sure to strike the
object at which it was aimed. Running, jumping, wrestling were pastimes
in which both boys and men engaged. Shooting at a mark was one of the
most favorite diversions. When a boy had attained the age of about
twelve years, a rifle was usually placed in his hands. In the house or
fort where he resided, a port-hole was assigned him, where he was to do
valiant service as a soldier, in case of an attack by the Indians. Every
day he was in the woods hunting squirrels, turkeys and raccoons. Thus he
soon acquired extraordinary expertness with his gun.

The following interesting narrative is taken from Ramsay's Annals of
Tennessee, which State was settled about the same time with Kentucky and
with emigrants from about the same region:

"The settlement of Tennessee was unlike that of the present new country
of the United States. Emigrants from the Atlantic cities, and from most
points in the Western interior, now embark upon steamboats or other
craft, and carrying with them all the conveniences and comforts of
civilized life--indeed many of its luxuries--are, in a few days, without
toil, danger or exposure, transported to their new abodes, and in a few
months are surrounded with the appendages of home, of civilization and
the blessings of law and of society.

"The wilds of Minnesota and Nebraska, by the agency of steam or the
stalwart arms of Western boatmen, are at once transformed into the
settlements of a commercial and civilized people. Independence and Saint
Paul, six months after they are laid off, have their stores and their
workshops, their artisans and their mechanics. The mantua-maker and the
tailor arrive in the same boat with the carpenter and mason. The
professional man and the printer quickly follow. In the succeeding year
the piano, the drawing-room, the restaurant, the billiard table, the
church bell, the village and the city in miniature are all found, while
the neighboring interior is yet a wilderness and a desert.

"The town and comfort, taste and urbanity are first; the clearing, the
farm house, the wagon road and the improved country, second. It was far
different on the frontier of Tennessee. At first a s