About the climate in Pennsylvania. - What is the reason for the prevailing illnesses there and the early death of many persons? Interchange of heat and cold. - Description of the weather. - Locusts and other insects. - Dearth of songbirds. - American birds. - Turtles. - Medicinal herbs. - Slim growth and beautiful build of the native Americans.

The climate is no reason at all to keep the European from emigrating to North America; I found it just as healthful as ours. Yellow fever appeared previously only in the port cities and only in the most unhealthy parts of the same, prevailed there alone without once invading the healthy parts of these cities; and each time the country was totally spared from it. It is thought that it was introduced through foreign ships, about which, however, the opinions still disagree.

If the people there in general do not become so old, then the climate is not the fault of it, but rather their life style itself, whence it also comes that ague and dysentery rage so terribly at springtime and fall and that so many thousands die of consumption. Almost all of those that were buried during my stay in Richmond died of one or the other of the three named illnesses. Often in all of the Moselem community there was almost not a house in which not at least one was sick of fever. At times even the case arose that in one house the whole household had the fever and the neighbors had to take care of their most urgent business.

But to teach these people that they acquire these illnesses through intemperance and lack of caution the wisdom of Solomon would not reach by far. Even many of the preachers would not allow themselves to be persuaded that the only reason for the frequent illnesses is to be sought alone in the immoderate life of the people. Often I contended with such about this; but they as well as the common people held that God sends the people these illnesses and that no caution by the people can protect them from the same. Instead of having these teach the people how they can preserve their health and protect themselves from illnesses and take care of themselves, they strengthened the same even more in their superstition through their pulpit presentations. Once I heard a funeral sermon on the subject: "God is the sole cause of sickness and of death." This presentation he wanted to support with the words of scripture: "and the Lord smote him, that he died," which he expressed with his mouth more than twenty times. It is pitiful when teachers of the folk do not have the slightest knowledge of nature. In my conviction they should study this big book just as attentively as the Bible in order properly to connect both to each other because indeed the Bible itself refers so often to the book of nature.

Neither I nor my wife felt in the least during our stay there that the climate had a disadvantageous influence on our health, much more we were constantly overjoyed with a blossoming health. But we were also very cautious and carefully avoided everything that we considered disadvantageous for our health. This caution, of course, is more necessary there than here and whoever observes it constantly is also there, when not healthier, yet just as healthy as here. The air, as I believe, is still purer, for I never experienced there such continually bad weather that often no sun shines within eight days as we often experience here; at the most it once lasted twenty-four hours and this happened only seldom. The interchange of heat and cold, however, especially in spring and fall is far more frequent there than here and this occurred often very quickly so that the humidity after half an hour had already changed to noticeable cold. The summer heat is often very oppressive as I have already recollected; but because the strongest heat persists only for very few days and is then again cooled off through ocean currents, it is therefore also bearable. Thus it is also with the severity of winter in the more northern regions of Pennsylvania. The strongest cold seldom lasts longer than three days, then a thaw comes in again. Before Christmas usually no snow falls at all. In the last days of November there are often still humid days; December too is usually without great cold on the average and produces nice warm days, but also night frosts. The full severity of winter first shows itself in January. Then indeed often a great amount of snow falls, but it does not stay lying long; for when the sun shines at noon it melts the same so fast that the water runs from the roofs as in a thunderstorm. At this time the Americans undertake sleigh riding. One often sees there twenty to thirty sleighs going close behind each other on the streets and they pass just as many, but no inn at the street is passed by without first going into it. They often make pleasure excursions to far distant cities and this keeps on as long as the snow is lying; today they travel this, tomorrow another street.

The east wind brings a thaw or snow and in the summer usually rain; the northwest wind, however, brings the most severe cold. Hail weather the native American does not know, nor have I ever seen hail during my stay there. Thunderstorms are not as powerful as they are here and do not bring such floods as here. But slippery ice is more frequent and stronger in the winter than here so that the people cannot come to each other without taking care that the soles of their shoes are equipped with small steel points of which they can stand and walk securely.

In the latter half of March and in April there are often warm and already humid days and thence it might also come that the locust lays much waste in the wheat fields; but it harms only the wheat, never other grain, and only in Pennsylvania, not yet in the neighboring states up until now. This insect is everywhere called the "Hessian fly" because there is a belief that the Hessians who once served in the English army in the Revolutionary War and of whom the greatest portion stayed in America brought this insect with them. The Hessians are everywhere not well liked and when the American curses a German, he usually says the words: "you old Hessian!"

Another insect about the size of a ladybug and black one calls a "Swabian"⁴⁴ because one believes that the Swabians brought it along and transplanted it there. It stays in great numbers in old buildings and likes to eat almost all foods that it can get at, especially bread and flour. I killed these insects by the thousands in my house through hellebore which I put down for them and which they ate altogether eagerly, but which is a poison to them.⁴⁵

Seldom indeed, but as the American asserts, always after eighteen years, it happens that locusts arrive in such hordes that it appears as though a right black storm cloud were approaching and if they come altogether close, then almost night darkness takes place. Where they come to rest, there they supposedly harm the clover fields the most, which they often eat off completely to the roots. The wild doves are also supposed to have arrived previously like a storm cloud and to have settled in the fields in the fall in such an abundance that one could bag twenty of them with one shot. They still come now, but they settle more in the forests where they pick up the acorns. At Lakes Erie and Ontario they nest by the millions, where one takes the young from them by the thousands. Their meat tastes very pleasant. - There are no hamsters, mice and snails in the fields.

The wild game in Pennsylvania, as in the rest of the Eastern states of the continent, is becoming less and less, because each individual has the freedom to shoot and catch the same at any time. Eight to nine year old boys are already seasoned hunters. In the Allegheny mountains there are still bear, wolves, deer, roe, foxes, panthers and sufficient other game, but they are also almost incessantly chased by the hunters. There are two types of bear, namely dog bear and pig bear; the latter are eaten. There are no hares; the animals which one calls hares, which are also known here, are wild rabbits and of these there is a large amount; I shot and caught them, their meat tastes very pleasant. Also there are pheasants in great abundance in eastern Pennsylvania, although they are being hunted. I could mention other wild animals which I saw in addition to these and which the American shoots (except the wildcat, which I also saw, although not alive), only I forgot their names. An unusual wild scavenger, however, I must yet mention, which one calls a Pisskatze (skunk) there. It has the size and shape of our cats, only stronger teeth and a long, thick tail on which the hair is similar to the hair on horses' tails; it also does not have the claws of a cat and for this reason also cannot climb as it. This animal nourishes itself and its young, of which it has three to four each time, only from scavenging. On this account it approaches the buildings especially at nighttime, like a fox, catches chickens and likes to drink up their eggs. Usually when one goes through the woods in the evening in the twilight one encounters such an animal and it does not move aside, but rather one must move out of its way. One can pass by close to it, but may not take after it, otherwise it sprays the people with its urine which has a totally abhorrent smell which even by washing one can not get out of the articles of clothing again, but rather has to throw them away; this is its defense. No dog may approach it, it sprays him in the eyes when he is yet twenty paces distant from it and in a moment the dog starts whimpering, rolls for hours in the grass, also goes into the water by himself and is not at peace until he is free of the odor again. Once there were a pair of old ones and four young ones of these animals in the hollow space under the boarded floor of my living room. Before I knew it was they, I heard them rummaging at times, but believed it was rats. Finally there was a terrible smell and I was told that it was the skunk smell. Then the thought first came to me that the rummaging under my room had to be these skunks, then I looked and found a place where they could have come through the wall, set a snare and - Io and behold, one of the old ones got caught, its tail hung one evening outside of the hole. I took hold of the same and with great speed tore the animal from the crawl hole and threw it high into an apple tree. It tumbled down and slowly went into its hole again. The snare with which it got caught was torn off. The next day the same animal lay dead in my meadow. The snare was still caught firmly around its neck. Soon thereafter I saw the other old one with its young in front of my door; pretty, black, small animals with white throats and a white pot on their heads. The young ones disappeared right away again and since the old one still hesitated, I quickly fetched my loaded rifle in order to shoot it. While aiming, however, I saw the fine stream which it aimed at me coming at me from forty paces, jumped aside in that moment and it did not hit me. But since it would not budge I shot and behold, after the shot the beast took after me once more, but luckily did not reach me. Eight days later the smell had still not completely disappeared. These animals had eaten up several chickens and a hen with twelve little ones for me. Then, however, they left my house.

Soon thereafter I heard a chicken that had laid her eggs in a bush and was setting on them crying in the night. I immediately sprang out of bed, took my rifle in hand, let loose the dog and in a moment he found the chicken nest and the scavenger, but came whimpering from the bush and rolled in the dewed grass. Then I listened and heard clearly that the beast opened one egg after the other and emptied it, aimed at the place, shot, listened again, and since there was silence after that, I fetched a light and found the skunk lying dead with his meal started; I had hit well.

The clapper or rattlesnakes in Pennsylvania are now totally or at least almost exterminated. I never saw such a one; but there are still other kind of snakes almost everywhere, of which I myself often killed one. The black ones and the copperheads are actually the most dangerous, nevertheless one does not often hear that a person is bitten by them. One holds the limb bitten by a snake immediately in warm milk just as it comes from the cow and repeats this several times. If this is done at once, it protects from all danger.

The friend of beautiful nature has to do without much there that regards the ear. One hears no lark, no nightingale, also not the rest of the beautiful songbirds that provide so much joy for us here. One hears only the mocking bird and the so-called whipoorwill which one so calls from his beat and in addition the wild screeching of the crows and several other scavenger birds. In this regard the gardens, fields, meadows and forests are very barren in comparison with ours. There are indeed many birds of wondrously pretty plumage, one is happy to see them, but they do not let themselves be heard. Of our birds one sees only the swallow, the crow, the starling, the wren; and even these do not have the voices of ours. Even the voice of the frogs is different when they let themselves be heard and the droning of the turtle is really repulsive to listen to. Of the latter there are two kinds, the one is small and about twice as big as the biggest of our frogs, the other, however, is as big as a middle-sized dog with a long tail. This latter kind is butchered and eaten. Its meat is supposed to taste very good.

There are also many healing and medicinal herbs, among others the snake or strength root; one finds it in the forests. All kinds of flowers and herbs here that I ran into there have not even half the strong and vigorous aroma as here.

The people there in general grow up faster and are ripe for marriage earlier than here. The male as well as the female sex has a lean growth and well-built bodily shape generally. The female sex, as regards the body, rightly deserves to be called the pretty sex, for with the beautiful growth in most of them, especially in the country, is also tied a facial character which one has to call pretty. Would that they only strive more so that the beauty of the soul would keep the same pace with that of the body! for the grace of the face and the well-built body generally do not by far make up the true beauty of the person; but rather reason and religious morality are the most proper and greatest merits of the human being, in this consists the true beauty of the soul which is more enduring than that of the body.

Source: Edited by Bryan Wright