The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-04-19

udA0-uStCA piOuCCtse kuni N8xtC0 JUL uUSS lands from the pnmeval forests which they themselves now enjoy. No doubt many cadets Of good families found their way 10 Virginia-as where haven't they found their way to, particularly in more recent times but there is nothing in the earlier records of the colony, m the names l of the first settlers, to lead one 10 suppose i that the colonial aristoCracy which arose with the development of the country and the adoption ot negro slavery, was of any other than colonial manufacture. There is no trace of any persons of title in lists of vestrymen and burgesses that marked the most influential coionists of those days. Nearly all these names have an ordinary middle-class ring about them, such as are to be seen upon similar but much better kept records of Massachu- sets or Connecticut. But English mo- menclature for the average VIrginian would have no significance, even if he took the trouble to inform himself accu- rately as to the early history of the col- ony, of which he generally knows very little. 50 the cavalier and British noble man flourish in hazy and picturesque fashion at the root ot every Nirginian' s family tree. No matter if he is only the third of his race th 4t anybody ia the state, himself included, can at all identify, there Is always ,he national Adam to be de- pended upon in the farsway background
 the cavaliers of southern fancy "a gen t!eman upon pranoing Steed, with flow ing locks and nodding feather, ruifling in lace and boiling over with chivalry. He at any rate, IS always there. ready for unkno*i foreigners ard sentimental Amer,c ,.n romancists.
 There IS no particle of evidence to show that the aristocracy which emerged from he farests ot Virginia as these ,vc place to broad fields and plantations. were based on anything bu, the survival sf the tittest. There is no question bu, that Smiths and Browns and Joneses were much more numerous among them than DeCourcics and Montmofcncies. I could give list of Nusinian families whose prlde, and whose very proper pride, II IS to go back to these days. whose names have 4 distinctly aris,o- ciauc ring Tn that country. many of which have a local historical record that could gain nothing even by establishing some secondary an.l-caloniai social tie. and would certainly lose nothing, even from an English point Of saew, by run l ntag back for two centuries to some sturdy British yeoman. Most of the names. hswcver. which Nireinians reve- rance point strongly to this latter origin. i An early governor. writing with upssm- l ptthetic Blltlsh pro udicc to the authori- 'ies al home. eroans over the dawn of i thiS aristocraoy. ard of :" men who ,sol!d bc nj llttle account elsewhere wanting to initiate the ways oi h.ing of English ceuntry squres
 ! indented servants, negro slases m unlimited amount ot poor land. asi d long eontinuei fidelity to eve.ylk..s English. Were the leading causes of this 5 Ncial development. Agriculture. pure and simple. with an absence oftowns and manufactures. and the increase of negro slavery, helped 10 perpetuate social condition that, based on rural posses sions, and encouraged for over century hy the law of entail. favored class disunc- tons. To suppose, however, that this cary ariS,oeracy survived intact. or any thing like 1t, up till the late war, would be the greatest ot errors some few iami- lies names wel,-known have. but for the most part it has been replaced by fresh recruits from below. coming up with each generation. putting on the mantle of = first famiiyism. and invoking the spec tral shade of the plumed cavalier wi h delightful ease. Southerners are sen,i- mental. and possess the American ten dency to exaggeration to the fullest ex- ieEs. With them. however, it does not run to international highfalutin. and spread-eagleism, so much as 10 sectional gloritica,ion ot a harmless and less prac- teal kind. 10 dreamy genealogical delu- SIons. to fantastic hankerings after some wadt tawdry ideas of meduval chivalry. that sometimes assumes shape so gro- tesquc as 10 be quite unlike any other form of Angla-Saxon vulgati.v one sees. quite incompatible, as an unfriepdly cynic might say, with the raising of ne groes and the growing and chewing oi tobacco and very much to be regretted by any one who. like the writer, has d warm admiration for the many admira- Die qualities of the southern people. and very strong pa.tialIty for both them selves and their country. 4 southern community n this particular failing would strike an Englishman accustomed to different standard. and to generally honest criticism, as species of mutual admiration society. There would seem to be an absolute want of perspective in all description. X wooden farmhouse, with haii dozen rooms. is prone 70 be- come m a southern printing room, country seat. X ter room brick house, where the third generation are living. be- comes stately ard ancestral mansion \ lo~al statesman, whom history and his biographers declare 10 be the great grandson of Bristol trader. is me,amor- phosed by the genial influence of a Nir- gin'an sun into the scion of a noble race"
 The departed judge is eu!osized as gentleman of ancient lineage, though ever, body knows tha, his grandfather. the revolutionary officer, was the first of the name that anybody ever heard of and d man ot rare culture. though a line os Cicero or Hsrodotus would have put such culture to a most trying test As