The Douglas independent. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885, 1883-08-11
SOCIAL CONDITION OF1HE COLONIES.

Forever with Kiss
SOCIAL CONDITION OFTHE COLONIES.
The style of architecture prevailing
throughout the colonies in the early part
of the eighteenth century gives proof
enough that the mode of living among
the higher classes at that period must
everywhere have been much the same.
The same great square ediices, the same
stocks of chimneys, the same tiles, the
same mahongany stairways, and the same
carving are still to be seen in the old
dwellings, of Portsmouth, Newburyport,
Salem, Boston, Newport, Philadelphia,
Annapolis and Norfolk. When Wash
ington came from Mount Vernon to Cam
bridge as commander of the American
army, he occupied as headquarters
house resembling in many respects his
own; and this was one of the line OF SIM
liar houses, afterwards known as "Tory
Row." and extending from Harvard Col
lege to Mount Auburn. These were but
the types of the whole series of colonial
or rather provincial houses, North and
South. Sometimes they were built of
wood, the oaken frames being brought
chief difference between the Northern
and Southern houses was that the cham
bers, being less important in warm
country, we're less ample and comfort
able in the Southern houses, and the
windows were smaller, while for the
reason there was much more lavishness
in the way of piazzas. Every one accus-
toned to the Northern houses is sur
prised at the inadequate chambers
of Mount Vernon, and it ap-
pears from the diary of Mr.. Frost,
New England traveller in 1897, that he
was then so struck with the smallness
of the windows as to have made q note of
it. The stairway at Arlington is singu-
larly disproportioned to the external
dignity of the house, and there is tradi-
tion that at the funeral of Jefferson the
stairway of his house at Monticello
proved too narrow for the coffin, SO that
it had to be lowered from the window.
All this was the result Of the outdoor
climate, and apart from these trivial
variations the life north and south was
much the same-stately and ceremonious
in the higher classes, with social dis
tinotions much more thoroughly marked
than We are now accustomed to remem-
ber.
We know by the private memoirs of
the provincial period-for instance, from
the charming recollections of Mrs.
Quincy-that the costumes and manners
Of the upper classes were everywhere
modelled on the English style of the
period. Even after the war of independ-
ence, whea the wealthier inhabitants of
Boston had largely gone into exile at
Halifax, the churches were still filed on
important occasions with gentlemen
wearing wigs, cooked hats, and scarlet
cloaks; and before the revolution the
display must have been far greater. In
Maryland. at a somewhat earlier period,
we find an advertisement in the Maryland
Gazette of servant who offers himself
''to wait on table, curry horses, clean
knives, boots and shoes, lay a table,
shave, and dress wigs, carry lantern,
and talk French; is as honest as the
times will admit, and as sober as can
be-" From this standard of q servants
accomplishments we can easily infer the
mode of life among the masters.
A striking illustration of these social
demarkations is to be found in the gen.
eral catalogues, now called ''triennial"
or "quinquennial," of our older col
leges. Down to the year 176S at Yale,
and 1773 at Harvard, the students of
each class will be found arranged in an
order which is not alphabetical, as at
the present day, but see ms arbitrary.
Not at all; they were arranged according
to the social positions of their parents;
and we know from the recollections of
the venerable Paine Wingate that the
first thing done by the college authori-
ties on the admission of new class was
to obtain by careful inquiry the relative
social position Of the parents. Accord
ing to this position the young students
were 'placed" in the dining-hall and the
recitation room, and upon this was also
based the choice of college rooms. Had
they always retained this relative posi-
tion it would have been less CALLING, but
while the most distinguished student
could not rise in the list, the reprobates
could fall; and the best scholar in the
GLASS might find himself not msrely in
low position through his parentage,
but hanked on each side by scions of
more famed families who had been de-
graded by their own folly or vice.
There could not be q more conclusive
proof that American provincial society,
ed, down to almost the time Oh the final
&c cpoInLAuA AGOA A1ASA SAonu1 OA An OS0OA-
TALLY aristocratic basis.
In the same connection it must be re-
membered that in the eighteenth century
slavery gave the tone of manners
through all the colonies. No matter how
small the proportion of slaves, expe,
rience shows that it affected the whole
tone of society. In Massachusetts,, in
1775. there was probably q population of
some 350, 900, of whom but 5000 were
slaves. 1t vas enough; the effect fol-
lowed. It was in Cambridge, Massa.
chusetts, not in Virginia. that Long
fellow found his tradition of the lady
who was buried by her own order with
slave attendants:
Eat her feet and at her head
Lies asleve TO attend the dead;
But their dust is a. white as hers"
It is curious to compare this command
of this dying lady Of Vassali race
whether it was an act of arrogance or of
humility-with the self-humiliation of q
Virginia dame of the same period, who
directed the burial of her body beneath
that portion of the church occupied by
the poor, as he had despised them in life
,.~l L. hor