d forty degrees below zero in many localities, but the
air is dry, and does not try one as much, perhaps, as thee would imagine:
the bitter winds, however, sweep across these prairies and through and
about the valleys until it verily seems, Friend Amos, that the
unaccustomed limbs must freeze. The people, however, are not easily
terrified, but heap on their fires such quantities of wood as seemed to me
extravagant (for wood is abundant here, but coal dear), and pass the
winters cheerfully. I have noticed that affections of the lungs are rarer
here than in our climate, and that the most of those so afflicted brought
their diseases with them from the East.

I was surprised to find that the body of the people are by no means either
ignorant or uncultivated, and have even been shown official statistics to
prove that in the fundamentals at least--reading and writing--the
percentage of ignorance is nearly one-third smaller than that of
Pennsylvania. There is less of higher culture, it is true, and the most
respected and respectable citizens are often heard lapsing into strange
inaccuracies of language and pronunciation. One of the most common is the
use of "dooz" where "does" is meant. "I be" and "you be" are common
instead of "I am" and "you are." In some localities along the Mississippi
River "slough" is pronounced as if it were "slew." These are, of course,
only laxities, and not the result of ignorance. Though learning commands
much respect, persons of high education are comparatively rare, but
shrewdness and general capacity, together with the will to work and the
ambition to succeed, are more universal than with us. I have been pleased
to observe that "gentlemen of leisure" and moneyed young men without
employment are almost totally lacking. The greater number of the
business-men, particularly of the most enterprising and energetic, are
quite young. The most remarkable circumstance concerning them is the fact
that many of them come to the West with wholly insufficient, and sometimes
even no, capital, and open business, relying largely on their adroitness
in "kiting," as it is called, which is practically buying on long time and
selling on short credit or for cash, trusting to quick returns to meet
liabilities. In a few cases this practice is in the end successful,
because circumstances favor, but with the large majority of such failure
of course is only a question of time. It is to me astonishing to what an
extent this e