to it; while finally, in the third, it is in the middle, between sand-box and steam-chest. The driving-gear is not as well shown in the figure as he is wont to make it sometimes, and one has but to watch him draw these parts to become satisfied that the man is ignorant of the principle involved. He invariably places two men within the cab, and takes evident pains to always draw the top of this part perfectly flat. For the tender he usually adopts one model, from which he rarely departs, though sometimes he fills it heaping full of coal, while at others, as in the illustration, he neglects to put any in at all. He has examined the method of coupling, for it is carefully shown in one of the figures. It is an extraordinary thing to watch him put the letters on the tender and baggage cars. He must make these entirely from memory, yet he never strikes it as they should be, for it is quite evident that his combinations do not agree with the actual abbreviations used by the railway companies; yet Choh writes these on precisely as if he were positive as to their correctness, and we must own that the form of the majority of his capitals is not bad. He invariably, however, makes his great J's after this fashion, U, and nearly always turns his capital W's upside down. Often he places the oblique bar across the door of the baggage car, with a window above it; and I see in one of the drawings he has adopted the elevated plan of brakes seen in this class of cars. Here, again, however, it is quite clear that he has not mastered the use of this contrivance, perhaps one of the simplest in use of all the gearing employed upon a train of cars. The perspective for the wheels, and the proper way of drawing them upon the opposite rails, is another weak point, which he fills in with the shadow. These are the leading points which occur to me for criticism in this drawing, that, taken as a whole, is truly a wonderful piece of work for one of these people. When we come to consider really how low they are in the scale of civilization, it is an astounding production. About Wingate, here, the majority of these savages live more like bears than men, sheltered, as they are, summer and winter, in the low, rude "shacks," which they build of limbs and twigs of trees on the hill-sides. Moreover, it is not as if this man had the opportunity of studying a locomotive every day of his life, for the railway station is fully three miles from his Indian home, and there is nothing else to induce him to go there. RW. Thufiedt ACROSTIC BY JOHN QUINCY ADAMS During the administration of President Polk Hon. Cavalry Morris of Marietta, Ohio, was in congress, and a warm friendship existed between ex-President John Quincy Adams and himself. Mr. Morris had a pretty daughter of sweet fifteen, who was a special favorite of Mr. Adams. Approaching him one day she requested his autograph and handed him her album. Looking into her fair childish face, which a celebrated artist once remarked furnished the finest blending of moral and intellectual beauty he had ever seen, Mr. Adams replied: "I will give you some advice for the future, my dear Mary." The little girl sat by his side while he wrote an impromptu acrostic, which, through the courtesy of its possessor, is here presented in fac-simile. John Quincy Adams M ark the revolving Seasons as they roll Washington 27. Jat71843 Some years later the beautiful and accomplished young lady became the wife of Dr. Benjamin D. Blackstone, who is now a retired physician of Martinsville, Indiana. Among the mementos of the young wife who gladdened his early home but one short year, none are prized more highly than the old album leaf upon which these words are written. Ella In M. Have THE SCIOTO PURCHASE IN 1787* It is hoped that this paper will serve to correct some of the many erroneous statements concerning the Scioto purchase in chapter eight of Ohio, in the Commonwealth series, as well as in other histories of the state of Ohio. On the 23d of July, 1787, the congress of the United States, in consequence of a petition presented by Manasseh Cutler and Winthrop Sargent, authorized the board of treasury to contract on certain terms with any person or persons for the purchase of the land in the territory northwest of the river Ohio bounded by the same " from the mouth of the Scioto to the intersection of the western boundary of the seventh range of townships; thence by said boundary to the northern boundary of the tenth township from the Ohio; thence by a due west line to the Scioto; thence by the Scioto to the beginning." In pursuance of this authority the board of treasury, on the 27th of October following, made a contract for the sale of fifteen hundred thousand acres of land, lying between the seventh and seventeenth ranges and the Ohio river, to Manasseh Cutler and Winthrop Sargent "as agents for the directors of the Ohio company of associates so called." The consideration was one million of dollars in public securities, one-half of which was paid on signing the contract; the remainder was payable one month after the exterior line of the tract had been surveyed by the geographer or other proper officer of the United States. No title was to pass to the Ohio company until all payments were made, but the right was given to occupy and cultivate one-half of the tract fronting on the Ohio river between the seventh and fifteenth ranges of townships. On the same day the board of treasury made a contract with "Manasseh Cutler and Winthrop Sargent for themselves and associates" for the sale to them of the remainder of the tract described in the ordinance of congress. Payments, at the rate of two-thirds of a dollar per * Free use is made in this paper of chapter twelve of the Life of Manasseh Cutler, but many facts are given not accessible when that chapter was written. The contracts made by Mr. Barlow in France and much of his correspondence with Colonel Duer are owned by the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio. They were obtained in various places, after years of persistent search, by Mr. John M. Newton, the accomplished librarian of the Young Men's Mercantile Library of Cincinnati. Other manuscripts referred to are in my possession. -E C. D. acre in public securities, were to be made in four semi-annual installments, the first falling due six months after the exterior line of the tract had been surveyed by the government. This was the Scioto purchase. It comprised over four million acres of land, three-fourths of it west and onefourth north of the Ohio company tract. When these contracts were executed no lands had been surveyed west of the seventh range of townships, the western boundary of which intersects the Ohio river about five miles east of the mouth of the Muskingum. The lines of the fifteenth range and the seventeenth range of townships are recognized in both contracts as "to be laid out according to the land ordinance of May 20, 1785." From calculations made by Captain Thomas Hutchins, then geographer, or surveyor general, of the United States, it was believed that the west line of the seventeenth range would strike the Ohio river opposite the mouth of the Big Kanawha. Simultaneously with the execution of the second or Scioto contract, Cutler and Sargent conveyed to Colonel William Duer of New York city a one-half interest in it, and gave him full power to negotiate a sale of the lands in Europe or elsewhere and to substitute an agent. Colonel Duer agreed to loan to the Ohio company one hundred thousand dollars public securities to enable it to make its first payment to congress* and procured a large subscription to its shares. Soon after, Cutler and Sargent conveyed a little over three-fourths of their retained interest in about equal proportions to Generals Rufus Putnam, Benjamin Tupper, Samuel H. Parsons, Colonel Richard Platt, Royal Flint, and Joel Barlow. Many others became interested with these in greater or less proportions. In May, 1788, Joel Barlow, who also held an interest by assignment from Colonel Duer, was sent to Europe to negotiate a sale of the lands or a loan upon them. He held a power of attorney from Colonel Duer, to which was attached a certified copy of the contract of Cutler and Sargent with the board of treasury, and their assignment and power to Colonel Duer. In all these papers the lands are recognized as held by a right of pre-emption only. Mr. Barlow met with no success until the summer of 1789, when he made the acquaintance of William Playfair, an Englishman then residing in Paris. Principally through his efforts a company was quickly organized in Paris, called the society of the Scioto, to which in November, 1789, Mr. Barlow sold the right of his principals to three million acres of land lying west of the seventeenth range of townships. The price was six livres per acre; the payments were to be made in installments, commencing 31 December, 1789, and ending 30 April, 1794. The contract *He actually advanced $143,000. recites that Barlow's powers were exhibited and proved, and provided that as soon as and not before the said payments are remitted arising from the price of the present sale, Mr. Barlow binds his principals toward the society purchasing to put them in possession and enjoyment of an amount of the three million acres proportionate to the amount of the said payment at the aforesaid rate of six livres per acre." The lands were to be located in equal tracts from the seventeenth range westward. It also provided that the society might "re-sell all or a part of the three million acres before the times fixed for the payment of their price, provided that the said society gives up to the Sieur Barlow under the title of pledge the agreements of the under purchasers." Playfair and Barlow were both interested in the society of the Scioto and, with M. Jean Antoine Chais de Soisson, became its sub-agents for the sale of the lands. Mr. Barlow did not send a copy of this contract to Colonel Duer, but wrote him an abstract of it November 29. He added that he was preparing an arrangement with the royal treasury of France to exchange the obligations of the French society of the Scioto for the American bonds held by it, and that either by that method or by an immediate settlement on the lands, the payments would be anticipated and the whole business closed within a year. He had reason to hope that Major-General Duportail, subsequently minister of war of France, and Colonel Rochefontaine, both of whom had served in America during the Revolution, would go at the head of the first establishment. He urged that the lines of the seventeenth and eighteenth ranges of townships be ascertained without delay. He admitted that he had proceeded as if Colonel Duer had already secured a modification of the contract with the board of treasury, so that titles might be obtained for the lands in smaller tracts as paid for, “by giving the company here power to re-sell portions before they made the first payment on the contract, requiring as my security the deposit of the payments for these portions." He insisted that at all events five or ten thousand acres of land opposite the mouth of the Great Kanawha" on the eighteenth range" must be secured on which to locate the first settlers; that huts be built there to accommodate at least one hundred persons, and that a person of activity be sent from the settlement to Alexandria, Virginia, to prepare for the reception of the settlers, and make the necessary arrangements for their journey to the lands. The expense of the houses and the journey would be "paid by the agent of the people the moment they arrive." On the 29th of December he wrote that he expected to put Colonel Duer in funds to make the first payment of five hundred thousand dollars to congress before it was due, and that if the first settlers were |