Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-08-15

some Things southern
To attempt TO merely outline the peculiari
ties of southern life, as contrasted with tn,
manners and customs of the people of oui
section, would require the compass OF II vol
ume but a glance at some salient points
which arrest the attention of even superb
cal observer from New England, may be oi
interest Tho South, which still remains al
agricultural section, has few considerabl,
cities Il has no great centres of social life
like Boston and Philadelphia whose suburbs
form link between the cities and the remot
or country Southern cities are semi-rural
A Bostonan would have TO go to Brooklne OF
Cambridge to find garden city such az exist
within the very heart of New Orleans.
The vast tracts uf land embraced in tn,
plantations Of the South nocessitate for mas
ter and oversecrs the use of saddle-lrurses tc
an extent unknown in our country Of small
farms. III the South, AS beyond the Missis
sippi, good horsemanship is universal. The
sons of the planters are almost invariably su
perior riders, aud their good taste is shown by
their fine "munnts." The southern cavalry oi
the civil war owed it's excellence to the famil
iarity Of the men with horscmanship. The
gift Of riding gracefully seems the birthright
of every southern boy. Even Sambo even
the unconscious living parody Of the white
man, has his mule. What Bucephalus was tC
Alexander, what Rosinanto was to Don Qui
xote, is the mule to his dusky master On
Sundays, the mule, freed from plough OF
wagon conveys the colored brother on his
round Of visits
The athletic, outdoor life of southern
youth lhappily New England boys are no long
or to be reproached with distaste for manly
sports, and their freedom in childhood from
over-much study, are shown by their erect
carriage and exemption from those optical
disabilities which place the eye-glnss astridc
the nose of so many young New Englanders.
The southerner, though no book-worn, has
taste for reading. You will find in most
plantation houses ample selections from the
long list of English classics. Despite a weak
ness for the hord pedantic novels of the au-
thor of st. Elmo the southern planter has a
healthy taste for the wholesome and pictu-
rescue works Of Walter Scott. The southern
mind, eminentF conservative, does not take
kindly to those delineations of morbid mental
phenomena, or those too often successful at
tempts at naturalistic nastiness which crowd
the booksellers counters and feed the iusntia-
BILE patrons Of our circulating libraries.
feature Of southern character is the rev
erence in which the clergy are held The re-
spect shown TO ministers Of every donomina-
tion reminds one of the traditions Of early,
ecclesiastical New England, when the minister
was far more of power in the community
than he is to. day. The proportion of Young
men in the southern churches is greater than
is the case in the North. TO have the rtputa-
ton of an infidel or an atheist in the South
carries with it the penalty of social isolation.
New England liberalism IL looked upon with
suspicion, and the Concord school of phil
osophy" would command no attendance in any
southern State. The free-lovers, who hold
their debates and lectures so pubEcly in New
England, would find their nccks in immediate
danger in any town from Virginia TO Texas.
The southern mind is easily exasperatod Ly
the manifestation Of such forms Of liberal
opinion" In every southern community fo.
male honor is guarded by public sentiment
as inexorable to offenders as the laws of Draco.
All through the South. ladies ride over the
loneliest roads without fear Of insult. The
tramp" that hideous production of our civ
ilization. is almost unknown in the South. In
southern cities ladies can walk the streets un-
molested by well dressed scouudrcls. Every
white man in the community considers him
self the protector of every Indy. The tone
Of public sentiment in this regard is 80 healthy
that woman in the south has freedom recall
ing the chivalric days of old. A certain sort
of men who haunt the streets of northern
cities would have short shrft in Savannah.
Nicksburg or New Orleans.
The southern man or woman, not being
given over to newspapers, magazines or books,
has retained what is in many of our commu-
mites lost art-that of conversation. One
of the marks Of good breeding in the South
is the ability to converse well. Conversation
u
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