Litchfield enquirer., 1831-04-28
' C;y;lizat;on and 5Bor5ar;sm. What

Civilizat;on and Borbarism. What is Civilization ? Noah Webster says it is ss ,be state of being civilized-the state of being re fined in manners" What then is Re ReGnement? "A nice observance of the ciuilities of social life," says he, and thus the seeker of the definition vibrates like the pendulum of clock between the two words, learning only that civilization is re- finement, ,and that refinement is civilization.
 Let us be permitted to define little.- CiUilized people are those whose manners and customs are like our own, in whatever country we may be likely to be born-and b0rb0riGns are those whose manners and customs are different from ours. Here for instance, a civilized man is one who wears brooches, boots, shirt, coat and hat who eats with knife and fork, and drinks cof- fee or tea with his breakfast. Pass to the banks of the Arkansas, and the wigwams of the west and there the man is civilized who wears blanket-drinks water, (rum is the offspring of civilization) and sleeps on the ground.-Ihere the civilized lady bores holes in her nose, and suspends her ornaments to that very respectable organ here the refined lady bores holes in her ears for similar purpose. What is there abstractly more civilized in the ears than nose? Yet we laugh at the squaw in her blanket and with her ornaments, and call her savage. .a a atal e.s.-s .
 Again-Mr. Brown comes down from } Buffalo and meets his old friend Mr. Smith, in Broadway. Their right hands instantly meet, and violent shaking ensues. What are those men fighting about says the dark son of tropical Africa, to his white friend. " Fighting pooh! They are old friends that have not met for long time, and they are expressing their good will towards each other by shaking hands," "What barbarians why in my country, when two friends meet, they rub their mo- ses together" "What savages !'' says the white man.
 The ceremonious Mr. Fitzgerald meets the courtly MT. Clarence, and each raises his beaver. ".What does that mean ?'' says Hassan Oglou. We were saluting each other,' was the reply. "What q ri- diculous custom" says Hassan, in neg country we salute by clapping both hands on the forehead, and making low salaam." What barbarians, exclaims the Congoese, (" in isy land, whenever two gentlemen meet, they snap the thumb and fore-fnger at each other." How ludicrous !'' says the white man. Spirit of common sense wilt thou deign to tell us whether the man- ners and customs of any one of the three are more ridiculous than those ofthe others?
 The Persian pulls his meat to pieces with his fingers, and eats horse flesh. ( L- sets down to game dinner, to a dish of bears meat. The Indian cooks his rattle snake much to the horror of brother Jona- than, who breakfasts on stewed ee!s. The Abyssinian cuts steak from his COW, sews the skin over the wound and lets tho an- inal go about her business, till another fit of hunger leads him to cut another slice.- The unfeeling wretch! 7 cries the Euro pean butcher.a as he sticks pig in the throat and looks complacently on the expiring grunter. The Moorish lady stains her hair and the ends of her fingers with sdf- iron. <" Dear me how strange ]" says lady Barbara Belle. and away she goes to her toi- lette. to rouge for an evening ball. The Chinese woman congresses her feet to the length of a paper of tobacco. The fair peripatetick of Broadway laughs at the absurd custom and screws her waist to the dimensions ofa Spanish cigar. The Turk goes to market and bugs half dozen wives. "The brute ]" exclaims the half civilized beauty of fashionable life, and marries the sickest suitor that she can tind.
 Now then, have we not satisfactorily proved that ciUilization consists in our way of doing things-and that barbarism con- sists in other peoples way of doing things ? Let common sense answer.--N. Y. Stand. Dc mind is but barren soil; soil swhich-is sopn exhausted, and will produce no crop. or only one, unless it be continu- ally feftilizsd and enriched with foreigr