, 1886-02-12
IN THE ANTe-sELLum DAYS.
old-Time Hospitality of Southern Plant
srs-social Life In virginia.

old-Time Hospitality of Southern Plant
srs-sociaI Life In virginia.
Persons are still alive who saw the
prodigal style OF living and the reckless
hospitality Of the planters in those days,
when in the Charleston and Sea Island
mansions the guests. constantly enter
tained were only outnumbered by the
swarms Of servants; when it was not in
congruous and scarcely ~ostentatious that
the courtly company, which had the fine
and free manner Of another age, should
dine of gold and silver plate, and when
all that wealth and luxury could suggest
was lavished in a ~princely magnitcenct
that was almost barbaric in its profusion.
The young men were educated in En-,
gland; the young women were reared
like helpless -princesses. with a servant
for every want and within; it was a day
Of elegant accomplishments and
deferential manners, but the men gained
like Fox and drank like Sheridan. and
the duel was the ordinary arbiter Of any
difference Of opinion or Of any point Of
honor.
The agricultural life OF Virginia appeals
with scarcely less attraction to the imagi.
nation OF the novelist. Mr.. Thackeray
caught the flavor of it in his ~Virginians,
from an actual study OF 1t in the old
houses, when IL was becoming a faded
memory. The vast estates-principal
tiles in size-with troops Of slaves
attached TO each plantation; the hospital
ity. less costly but as free as that OF
South Carolina; the land in the hands OF
n few people, politics and society con
trolled 10y a small number Of historic
families, intermarried until all Virginiani
Of n certain grade We're related-all this
forms a picture as feudal like and foreign
TO this age as can be imagined.
The writer recently READ the will Of q
country gentleman Of the last century in
Virginia, which raises a distinct image
Of the landed aristocracy OF the time.
II devised his plantation Of 5000 acres
with its slaves attached. his plantation OF
1900 acres and slaves. his plantation OF
1.200 acres and slaves, with other farms
and outlying property; it mentioned all
the cattle, sheep and hogs, the racing
steeds. the several coaches with sis
horses that drew them ian acknowledge
menl Oh the WfttCned STATE OF tne Todua),
and 30 on in all the details of a vast do
main. All the slaves are called by name,
all the farming implements were enum
Grated and all the homely articles OF
furniture. down 10 the beds and kitchen
utensils. This whole structure Of a
unique civilization is practically swept
away now, and with 1t the peculiar so
cial life il produced.
The family was the fetch. In this
highly social caste the estates were en-.
tailed TO the limit OF the law. for one
generation, and this entail was com.
monty religiously renewed by the heir,
1t was not expected that n widow
would remarry; M "A rule she did not,
and it was almost n matter Of course that
the win of the husband should make the
enjoyment OF even the entailed estate de
pendent upon the non-marriage OF the
widow. These prohibitions upon her
freedom Of choice was not considered
singular or cruel in n society whose chief
gospel was the preservation Of the family
name.-Charles Dudley Warner ir
Princeton Review.