. History of Missouri in words of one syllable . t men knew how tomake change in a way all their own. They would cut a large coin in four or eightparts, each worth just so much, and call each part a* bit. This is the way we came by the two bits,four bits, and so on, that cause folks in the Eastto smile at what they term our back-woods two bits is worth just as much as their twoshil-ling, which sounds quite as queer to those whofirst hear that word in use. Those in the East cling to the Eng-lish do not seem to bear in mind that in Mis-sou-riin the old days men in trade had t
. History of Missouri in words of one syllable . t men knew how tomake change in a way all their own. They would cut a large coin in four or eightparts, each worth just so much, and call each part a* bit. This is the way we came by the two bits,four bits, and so on, that cause folks in the Eastto smile at what they term our back-woods two bits is worth just as much as their twoshil-ling, which sounds quite as queer to those whofirst hear that word in use. Those in the East cling to the Eng-lish do not seem to bear in mind that in Mis-sou-riin the old days men in trade had to pick out shortwords to fit the use of the time, and make sense of itfor those who had to trade with men who spoke astrange tongue. 48 History of Missotiri. Da-vis and Dur-rie, in their His-to-ry of our State,say that up to the year 1804 there were but twoA-mer-i-can fam-i-hes in the place, so we can seeEng-hsh was but in use when men came from theA-mer-i-can shore in Il-h-nois to deal with theFrench in St. Lou-is. All the needs of life in the. ST. AL-PHON-SUS CHURCH, ST. LOU-IS. way of food and stores were brought from New Or-le-ans by boat. It took five months to make the trip. When aboat set sail, the folks came from far and near to seeit sail. Those who had friends on board would The First Steam-boat at St. Louis. 49 stand with tears In their eyes, and sad, sad hearts,for fear they would see their dear ones no more. The small girlsand boys did not eatas much sweet stuffas the young folksdo now, for sug-arwas two dol-lars apound. ^High teaswere not in stylewith the dames ofthe St. Lou-is ofthose days. Teacould not be had atall till our Gov-ern-ment bought theland, then there wasa change to makethe heart camefrom Ken-tuck-yand Vir-gin-ia, andbrought news, life,and fresh pluck tohelp build up the new Ter-ri-to-ry. The small floats in use to brino- folks from the
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