Letter from 'Seal' to his sister, 1859-09-25

Handwritteen letter about life in Fort Smith in the 1850s

Fort Smith Arkansas Sept 25th 59 Dear Sister, Your letter arrived in due season and this makes the third time I have commenced to reply but the two previous times were in the shop when I had leisure but I was called to do some thing each time but this time I am in my room and I think I shall succeede in finishing. Speaking of my room I think a short description of it will not be amiss but in the first place when I arrived in this town I engaged boarding at a Dutch house and I remained their until the beginning of the present month when having a short dispute with the boarding mistrefs I left and went to another house kept by an Irishman at the later place the living is far superior to the former and the present boarding master and family being Catholic I get as much of my favorite dish (mackerl) on Fridays as I want but they have other meat on the table for the majority of the boarders are protestants but the boarding at the former house was very good for the Western Country but the sleeping department was very from the beds were good enough and you could not complain for want of company for this is a great Country for Bed Bugs as well as mosquitoes the reason the former are so plenty is that all the houses are lined with boards instead of plaster. I hardly think there is one house in town which has every room plastered. When our room was small and contained eight beds their was just room to set a chair between each and I not being used to being crowded so made it very uncomfortable but all the boarding houses are the same none of them being large enough. So when I left my old place I took a room in an old building and furnished it in a rough style I have a Shope mate for a room companion he was working in the Shop when I come here but has been out with a US train to N.W. Texas and lately come back and went to work in the shop again he is a Black Smith and went as such with the train to entertain me with an account of his adventures every evening and they are quite amusing the way he tells them in broken English - but I will give you a bird's eye view of our room in one comer there is a Bed stead with two single corn husk mattresses on top of which there is a Buffalo Robe Blanket and a quilt thats were we do our snoring and dreaming in the opposite comer stands a double barreld gun each barrell containing seven buck shot with the usual amount of powder in another corner is a small stand container on which sundry bottles containg Camphor Laudme and so also a box of smoking tobacco and two or three pipes around the wall is hung sundry old clothes and a Colt Revolver in the center of the room is a table at which I am a writing having on it several books papers envelopes and a belt belonging to my individual self containing a Colts Revolver & an Extra sized Arkansaw tooth pick. You may think we are in danger of our lives the way we are supplied with compliments of war, but every body goes armed in this country and that is the cause of so much blood shed and a person does not know what minute he may be attacked no later than yesterday morning a man who lives a few miles out in the country rode into town and snapped twice at a man setting in a chair in front of the Hotel but luckily the gun did not go off and if it did be would have killed the mans brother he was after as soon as he found out his mistake he apologized and said he would have been sorry if he had shot him for he mistook him for his brother. Thats the way they do in this country attempt to kill a man and then apologize their has been two killed (both Indians) in town since I wrote to you before but I was glad to see the people take one of the cases in hand and if they had caught the murder they would have lynched him the other was done in self defense, but so far I have had no difficulty nor do I expect to for when I see there is going to be a row I leave. As my sheet is about full I will close by giving my love to all and expecting to hear from you and oblige Your Brother Seal