were to guard in their turn, I doubt much whether any of them would have felt willing to volunteer his services for such duty, even though the mules take a stampedel and travel off a hundred miles. Some mules there were too, which entertained as great an abhorrence for being rode, as the class of which I just spoke, did for riding them, and it was a solein fact that these same mules did try all kinds of modes and manners whereby to ease themselves of their oppression and their rider at the same time. One would put on a most ferocious air when approached with a bridle and snort most terrifically, as if he had never seen a bridle. Another would not submit to be led, but must needs turn his head in a contrary direction and make off, frequently with bridle-holder and greenhorn. Another would swell himself when girt, and afterwards slip from under the saddle, thereby pitching his sage rider heels over head on the grass. Others again would clinch the bridle bit like a vice between their teeth and then make off in spite of everything greenhorn could do or say. Some would not go at all; others onld go too fast, and some would be very quiet and peaceable until mounted, and then there would ensue a series of snorts, large whirlings, kickings and whizzings, which might vie with any of the performances of the classic Bucephalus. These same mules by the way are tremendously stout in the neck; a common little Spanish mule can make off with a strong rope tied about his neck and a greenhorn holding on to the end, at the rate of about 8 miles per hour, and I have frequently noticed mules flying across the hills and hollows with five or six stout greenhorns holding on to his cabresse.2 The success of mules in these instances was not to be wondered at, for there is great slight in keeping their heads toward you, and there is great danger from their heels which cause wounds equal to strokes from a bowie knife. There were some mules too which were difficult of approach, for on which ever side a greenhorn would approach, on that side would he come in contact with the mule's heels instead of his head. There were others again which could not suffer to be tickled in the ribs by spurs, and these would likewise try all diabolical and cunning tricks to throw their riders. instance of this latter kind I well remember and will narrate it even now, as illustrating most forcibly both to us and to the greenhorn in question, the fact that some mules are ticklish. One Sam, Ike and Zeke being guards for the day, mounted a like number of diminutive but stout mules and set forth to guard the herd. Sam and Ike by chance were mounted on patient and good hearted quadru peds, but it happened to Zeke's mortification that his mule was almost a little too low and short in the legs. Zeke's legs were remarkably lengthy and hung down below the mule's belly like a brace of tow-lines. We had been out for some three or four hours, when Zeke's mule becoming tired no doubt with the weight he bore, began to move about less briskly than at first. Hereupon Zeke esteeming it his duty to spur up his ambition, quietly drew up one leg and applied his armed heel to the sides of said mule. This was done as quietly as could have been done; but before Zeke's legs returned fairly to its stirrup, Zeke himself was cast heels over head like lightning and the mule sped away to join his comrades. This fall not being from any considerable height, was, however accompanied with some little feelings of surprise in Zeke's mind, and it was some time before he recovered his minu so far as to go and catch his animal again. There existed in Zeke's mind, however, a sort of doubt as to the cause which occasioned his headlong descent, and he resolved to plant himself with mush firmness in the saddle and try the manoeuvre again. Without more ado therefore, he grasped the pommel of the saddle with one hand, and applied his heel for the second time to the mule's ribs. This action, however, was attended with a more rapid effect than the first, and Zeke felt himself going through the air without great violence, His head struck the soil first, and his long body rearing itself erect for a moment, bottom upwards, at last fell to the ground. Zeke picked himself up. 1Stampede or stampado, a Mexican word applied by them to that picturesque, yet terrific manoeuvre exhibited by a band of wild horses when terrified by any approaching object. With expanded nostril, erect ear and flowing mane and tail, head high in the air, the terrified animals start off like the wind and soon disappear over the prairie. 2Cabresse, a sort of rope made by the Indians from the hide of a buffalo. They cut it into long slits or strings and plat them. They are about the thickness of a man's finger and very stout. They are of various lengths from ten to forty feet. However, he was well convinced this time that the fault was his, and not unwilling to behold some farther trial, but not at his own expense, he quietly offered the spur to Baptiste who, at this time came out to relieve him. "He is rather lazy, Baptiste, and you better take this spur." Baptiste took the spur and buckled it to his heel. He mounted muly and dug his heels into his side as a preparatory step. This had better not have been done, however, for Baptiste fared the same as Zeke: his head sunk into the yielding turf. Baptiste wanted no greater inducements, and he took off the spur. To say all in a few words-of all devil's tricks and diabolical modes of whirling, wheeling, whizzing, sneering, snorting and kicking, these same mules tried the most approved models. They were mostly old Mexican and Californian animals, who had served in former campaigns, were well acquainted with all the mysteries of pack saddles and sacks, and had, long before this, no doubt, come to the conclusion that such things were nuisances and ought to be dispensed with. They had numerous scars on their backs and sides, and wished not to be scarified more. There were also many American horses and young untried and intractible mules which it was necessary to break for the saddle previous to starting. There were two or three Mexican Spaniards in our camp, filthy beings without doubt, but complete masters of the noble science of horsemanship, and on these devolved the task of mounting such unruly animals as disdain the saddle. Many a fall had the poor greenhorns who attempted to vie with them, and even one of the Mexicanos themselves, poor fellow, experienced a heavy fall from a horse, which kept him from mounting another for several days. Whilst encamped on this creek of Boone's Fork, which we were during two weeks, there ensued a series of rains and tempests which from their duration and disagreeableness, we were induced to consider as inauspicious of the expedition which was underweigh. The little creek above mentioned would rise to the depth of six or eight feet in a short while and frequently whilst the animals would be feeding out, some distance from camp, their return would be delayed and almost prevented by the rain swelling the rivulets which intervened between them and the camp. The caral happened to be close to the banks of the creek, and it was no great matter of surprise therefore that the camp was compelled to turn out one midnight, in order to free the animals from the overflowed caral. Finally after waiting at this inhospitable camping place, until all whom he had engaged to accompany him across the mountains had collected and everything was prepared for a start, Captain Fremont ordered the mules and horses to be lassoed and every man to be apportioned an animal for the saddle and one or more in addition to carry the packs of which he had care. On the evening of the twenty-second June, therefore, the animals were driven into a caral prepared for the purpose, at an early hour and with ropes in their hands, every man took possession of a brace of animals. There was much running and racing, kicking, &c., of course, but by this time the men were used to such things, and the mules and horses were, one and all, haltered and led out to the hills and there picketed. DUST AND JEWEL. The jewel 's always precious, NOTES ON FINE ARTS.-A BALL FOR THE POOR was given by the Citizens of St. Louis, on the 25th Nov., which yielded more than $2 500 nett profit to the Relief Fund. The POLYHYMNIA SOCIETY gave their first grand Concert of the season on the 29th, and the "Mercantile Library Association" their first eloquent Lecture on the 30th inst. DR. CHARLES A. POPE presented a brilliant chain of thoughts from "The Advantages and Pleasures of Science." We have not space to notice these institutions at length, now, but the LIBRARY shall receive particular attention next month. When will the Art of Painting take a commanding position in St. Louis? There is no section of the American Union that we regard with more interest than the southern States bordering on the Atlantic. For, born near the center of that region, and having long enjoyed the society of its inhabitants, we still cherish in its behalf that indefinable sentiment which one can only feel for the land of his nativity. Hence, though long absent, we have been attentive to the prominent events occurring in those States, and given much consideration to the causes which have retarded their progress. Our reminiscences carry us back to the period when Charleston, Norfolk and Baltimore were the commercial emporiums of the South, carrying on a direct trade with foreign countries, and supplying the inhabitants of the interior with foreign commodities-a system of economy under which the profits of the merchant and carrier were retained at home, and being diffused throughout the community, constituted an important element of the wealth and general prosperity of the country. Under the operations of that system, the inhabitants of the South accumulated wealth in abundance. But addicted to agricultural pursuits, and indulging their taste for rural enjoyments, they neglected manufactures and commerce, and allowed their more enterprising neighbors of the North to become their manufacturers, merchants and carriers. This, in effect, was an abandonment, on the part of the Southern States, of two vital elements of wealth, by which they lost many of the pecuniary advan tages derivable from their geographical position, climate and soil. The effects of this surrender in behalf of northern enterprise were soon perceptible in the decline of southern prosperity, while a corresponding advancement in the general prosperity of the northern States, and especially in the growth of their cities, afforded strong evidence that the North, by reason of its greater enterprise, was growing rich, chiefly by the profits derived from southern labor. This was perceived and keenly felt by the people of the South; but overlooking, as we conceive, the true nature of commerce, they attributed this change in their condition chiefly to measures of the General Government, and sought to regain by legislation that which had been lost, at least in part, by their own supineness. And though it may be admitted that certain acts of Congress operated against the interests of the southern States, yet it is obvious that something more than legislation was needed to restore their lost commerce, to improve their exhausted soil, develop their mineral wealth and establish manufactures. By degrees, however, the Southeastern States have awakened to a just sense of their true interests; and we rejoice that they have entered into new pursuits and enterprises which, if prosecuted with energy and wisely directed, will secure to them a degree of prosperity equal at least to that enjoyed by the North, and render them in many respects the most desirable section of the Union. They are reclaiming the exhausted soil, opening mines and establishing manufactories, and, withal, resolved to become their own merchants and carriers. These are no visionary schemes, but substantial objects obtainable by the application of means completely within their power. And, besides, each of those States has projected a system of railroads calculated to open commercial and social intercourse with the valley of the Mississippi. Georgia and South Carolina, by uniting in one system, have already passed the mountain barriers, by which their commerce has been shut out from the fertile valleys of the West, and crossing the Tennessee, a communication by railroad has been opened from Savannah and Charleston to Nashville, on the banks of the Cumberland; and the time is not distant, when those ancient cities will be brought into connection with the navigation and great railroad system of the upper Mississippi. By another branch of her system, South Carolina is pressing her work in the direction of Knoxville, Tenn., where she will connect with the North Carolina and Virginia systems of improvement. Hitherto, North Carolina has looked chiefly to the construction of roads calculated to form connections with the States east of the mountains; but her Executive, in his message to the Legislature now in session, recommends the survey of a western route to the Tennessee line. That modest old State has spoken, and her deeds will most surely verify her word. Virginia is steadily progressing with her works from tide-water westwardly. By one line, she will establish a connection with the valleys of the Tennessee and Cumberland; and by another with the Ohio; while Maryland is upon the eve of consummating the great enterprise, in which she has been engaged for more than twenty years. Thus, the inhabitants of these glorious old States, descendants of men who side by side resisted the invasion of British armies, nor declined the mighty struggle while an unconquered foe remained upon their soil, are now seen marching westward, armed, not with instruments of war against their race, but with implements forged and fashioned for subduing and removing mountains, that the rugged places may be made smooth, and the crooked ways straight. There is a moral grandeur in this movement, scarcely less to be admired than the self-sacrificing spirit and indomitable prowess which signalyzed our common ancestors in the days of the revolution. Let them press onward; the inhabitants of the West will rejoice in the facilities thus afforded for establishing social and commercial intercourse with their kindred and friends of the Atlantic slope. Let them construct their roads across the mountains, and the people of the western valleys will meet them at every point, not to repel or resist their progress, but to conduct them into the heart of this broad region, and unite them with their own great systems. Anticipating the completion of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, a line of steamboats is being made ready to connect its operations with the navigation of the Ohio as soon as that work shall have been finished; and we are informed that a line of steamers is about to be established between Nashville and St. Louis, to operate in connection with the railroad from that city to Savannah and Charleston. But the time is near, when more certain and speedy means of communication will be opened between St. Louis and the Southeastern States. The completion of the Ohio and Mississippi railroad will open a direct line of travel to Baltimore. By a branch from this line to Louisville, St. Louis will be brought into connection with the northwestern branch of the Virginia sys |