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"Since the treaty with Mexico has been concluded a great number of soldiers going home passed through this place. The most of them looked the worse for the war, there were several distiguished officers of high rank among them, that that I saw were, General Pillow, Quitman, Cadwalder and last but not least Major General William Butler of Kentucky, the Democratic Candidate for Vice President." "General Patterson and Shields also went through here but I did not see them... The Whigs and Democrats both have polls up. The Whig pole is 210 feet high... There was a discussion at the Whig Pole on Friday night between AJ Ogle and J.S. Dawson, the former the Whig Candidate for Congress and the latter the Democratic one for the same office."

"There is an old colonel by the name of Semaroski lecturing on Napoleon Bonaparte he served under Napoleon in the French war, 23 years. He has been in 202 batlles he has a very large scar from his mouth to his ear and a very large lump on his side where he was wounded with a cannoncall. He is also a minister of the Gospel a Lutheran by profession. He was born in Poland and educated in france and moved to Indiana after the French Revolution."

"I am going to school at Madison College, do not let the word College deceive you any person would naturally suppose that it was a large flourishing institution but they would be wonderfully mistaken. For it is nothing compared with the Luray Academy when it was under the admirable superintendence of G.W. Grayson of Bandylegs as we used to call him."

"I wish he had been here last Sunday Morning to witness the departure of the Fayette County Volunteers for Mexico, it was an imposing sight."

"The woman arrested sometimes ago for killing the Watchman, has been tried and acquitted on the ground that she committed the murder in Self-Defense. Charles Austin, Marye's Brother, was to be tried for seduction and breach of promise of marriage but the case was compromised before it came into court by his Father paying the girl's father five hundred and fifty dollars. Another girl sued Skiles Austin for a case of the same nature. The male portion of the family have turned out badly."

"I was a little surprised last Thursday morning when I got up to discover an attempt to breakin the store during the night. They bored holes with an auger through the door next to the street with the intention to get out the key, I suppose, but they did not succeed. They were scared off by the watchmen. If they had gotten in, i think they would have met with rather a warm reception. I did not hear them as I slept upstains, but if they had come up there, I had the thing that would have made them get out a little quicker than they got in." "There seems to be a gang of villians about here for awhile. They have attempted to fire buildings and do other mischief. One rogue has been safely lodged in jail for breaking in a store in Parkersburg, Virginia and robbed it of $200."

"The University of Virginia receives an annuity of $15,000 from the state and one of the conditions on which it receives it is that there shall be one student from every congressional district from the state educated free of charge for tuition and boarding. I could perhaps get in there from the Paige District, but it would make me feel a little too degraded to be educated at the expense of the state. Besides, the Virginia University is one of the best, if not the very best, college in the United States."

"We stayed in Washington city until 5:00 Saturday evening. We went to the president's house, the public grounds, the Washington Monument, the Equestrian Statue of Jackson, the Capitol, the Patent Office. I enclose a five dollar note which I got from Mr. Grove. It turns out to be counterfeit."

"A great number of volunteer soldiers passed through here within the past week for Mexico. I also saw two Indians pass through yesterday on the stages going home from Washington City. They belong to the Caw tribes in a remote part of Missouri. They were bare headed and nothing to cover their body but a blanket thrown carelessly over their shoulders and a pair of shoes. it would be impossible for me to describe the beads and jewelry of various kinds about their persons. They could speak English Tolerably well."

"I left your overshoes at the Post Office at New Market to be returned to you, I will send those Saddlesbags and Overcoat in Robert's Trunk."