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Show 35° Early Western Travels [ Vol. * 6 rambling, have from time to time transpired; and which, while they illustrate forcibly to my mind the position I have assumed, [ 103] have also demonstrated conclusively the minor consideration, that the passion, in all its phenomena, is by no means, as some would have us believe, restricted to any one portion of our land; that it is, in verity, a characteristic of the entire Anglo- American race! Thus much for sage forensic upon " that low vice, curiosity." My last number left me luxuriating, with all the gusto of an amateur prairie- wolf fresh from his starving lair, upon the fat and honey of Illinois. During these blessed moments of trencher devotion, several inmates of the little cabin whose hospitality I was enjoying, who had been labouring in the field, successively made their appearance; and to each individual in turn was the traveller handed over, like a bale of suspected contraband merchandise, for supervision. The interrogatories of each were quite the same, embracing name and nativity, occupation, location, and destination, administered with all the formal exactitude of a county- court lawyer. With the inquiries of none, however, was I more amused than with those of a little corpulent old fellow ydeped " Uncle Bill, 91 with a proboscis of exceeding rubicundity, and eyes red as a weasel's, to say nothing of a voice melodious in note as an asthmatic clarionet. The curiosity of the Northern Yankee is, in all conscience, unconscionable enough when aroused; but, for the genuine quintessence of inquisitiveness, commend your enemy, if you have one, to an army of starving galli-nippers, or to a backwoods' family of the Far West, who see a traveller twice a year, and don't take the newspaper! Now [ 104] mark me, reader! I mention this not as a fault of the worthy " Suckers:" 1** it is rather a misfor- * » THinoimans- FLAGO. |