The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1881-10-12
PLEASE READ TT.
NORTHERN CUSTOMS LESSON FROM
NANTUCKET, MASSACHUSETTS,.

NORTHERN CUsTOMS-A LESSON FROM
NANTUCKET, MASSACHUSETTS.
Editorial Correspondence Central Presbyterian
| wish our Southern people could
have the lesson which | have learned
since / have been here it would wake a
! good many of them up. Nobody is idle
here. l notice the strictest economy,
and everybody at work. The first thing
I was told at my boarding house, was
that l ought to buy box of backing
/ and a brush-this in reply to a question
as to who was to black my shoes. l
have BACKED them myself. They keep
no servants, except an old decrepit
woman whom they call the drudge"
The Nantucket ladies tmany of them
most deliberately educated) do their own
cooking, wash their own clothes, clean
up their own chambers, scrub their own
floors 1t is in this way these people
have grown rich; there are no drones
and no extra mouths to feed You will
see a cOlored woman with two or three
children sometimes) in Virginia kitch-
en- and a man to wash the front steps;
and couple of nurses and washer
woman; and a chambeT-maid. The
Nantucket family would perform all
these duties themselves, and spend the
winter even ngs reading. was walk
ing out one afternoon, and saw a nice,
pOrtly gentleman, with stiff white
hat on with a long broom in his hand,
and bucket of water on the pavement.
He was washing the pavement lin
black fcock coat. Many of the fami-
lies here take boarders in the summer;
they employ little or ma "help." in
many instances, even at this season;
in the win eT, as they tell me, they con
slider it mere play to do the house work
l happened to hear of lady near me
who had fifty table-boarders this sum-
mer. She is an educated lady, but she
cooked for the fifty boarders, with the
aid Of drudge" TO wash UP the dishes.
''Who waited on the table {" asked the
person who mentioned the fact to me.
'My step daughter" was the reply.
The lady across the street is represent
ed to me to be one of the most literary
ladies in the town. contributor TO
leading magazine; visitor here told
me that she saw her few mornings ago
in a soiIed calico, with her head tied up
In handkerchief, and her sleeves rolled |
up, washing her front porch.
Nobody leans on anybody else.
Every man and every woman is ex.
pected TO stand on bis own, and her
own feet. The daughter is reared with |
the understanding that she is to look |
out for herself when she leaves school |
The social distinctions seem to he
based on education; so far as | can I
Judge, they are not materially influence
ed by a persons occupation. The NEST
elegant persons are engaged in the me.
chanical trades. ] merely speak of
Nantucket, do not know whether it
represents the average New England
life in the country and smaller towns.
This sort of life breeds OF course
taught at the South; il breeds also in
habits; and Il leads to prosper
ity. Independence, and wealth.
1t makes tile people very hard at the
same time; the gentleness which one
sees in our Sou hern life is absolutely
unknown. People here are plain-spok-
en- to degree that had no conception
Of; courtesy does not occupy a place
among the virtues They say things to
esch other every hour that would hard
" be uttered in lifetime among us,
and when uttered would be taken as a
leadly injury. At the same time, do
ut mean 10 convey the imiTessiop that
me people mere are not polite. 10 stran-
gers; have found them uniformly civil
md obliging.