Lancaster, O., Sept. 7, 1860.
Dear Boyd: I am still here, but already a little tired at "nothing to do" and therefore for want of better employment I begin to imagine all sorts of troubles to be encountered and overcome the coming year. I will endeavor to meet the books and clothing in New Orleans, and if the river be navigable, all right; if not, I will bring them up to Snaggy Point, or even the mouth, and then arrange to haul. The bedding will be bulky, books heavy, and clothing so so, and if all reach New Orleans when I calculate we can make good load.
The regulations are in the hands of the publishers in Cincinnati and instead of pitching in, they, of course, write back for some minor instructions about eight dollars and twelve dollars. The result will be I must go down and stay there during the printing.
I have heard a good deal of political speaking, and the conclusion at which I have arrived is that whoever is elected will be installed and forthwith will be renewed the war of secession. The nigger is a blind, and though all the politicians pretend to believe in a crisis, they know it is all humbug.
I was over yesterday to see Blondin walk his rope in a neighboring village. There was an immense crowd and Blondin walked his rope, eight hundred feet from steeple to steeple, right over the housetops and streets.
At Cincinnati or Orleans I will try and get a successor to Frank but I suppose we had best train some darkey, because boys are restless and overestimate their importance. I could get a host of them here, but if accident befall them as was the case with some I took to New Orleans in 1853, the parents [would] have a feeling against me.
