The Press., 1890-01-02
lClarence Deming in Christian Union.l YANKEE WAYS.

There has been before the writer as he pens these words the beautifully illustrated edition of the works of the poet Longfei- low, published 8 few years ago from the Riverside Press On it's rich pages none of the engravings are more artistically real or historically more suggestive than those which portray some of the scenes in the "Courtship of Miles Standish, ," the tragic story of witoheraft, and the ipdicial ordeal of Giles Corey of Salem Harms. There we. see the old Puritan settlerof Plymouth Rock and. the Mayhower sketched by the pencils of some of the best American art ists, who have drawn on ancient portraits or authenticated descriptions so az to in-I sure, so far as might be, historical fidelity of face, form and garb. Out from those pages there look forth npon us the stern, Rhadamanthine face of Endicott, the Mil tonian features of John Alden, the steel-set eyes of Warrior Standish, their strong fig ures set of by the peaked hat, the broad collar, the sacked and belted coat, and the familiar short clothes of the ancestral era. All these old Puritan shapes, both of the civic and martial stamp, are, of course, fla miliar enough in our memories. They cone back to our historical vision in the stirring annals of the Long Parliament, of Naseby and Worcester, and of that doughty army of Noll ,Cromweil's psalm singers, whose backs the enemy never saw. But every fresh view of them must make us wonder the more at the strange and subtle. forces which have wrought this old Puri-; tan type of New England into the later, and quite distinct Yankee type, shifting John Bull, the Puritan, into our own Brother Jonathan-long-ar armed, thin chest, ed, wedge-faced, higher keyed in voice. with a dialectical character peculiarly his. own, and differing altogether from his an- cestor in his whole moral and physical structure.
 It was one of the writer's aims during a number of years travel as newspaper correspondent in English speaking coun- the rural type of Yankee. The search was always in vain. Rarely was even single individual found that answered to the type Newfoundland is the oldest of the British colonies of the new world. It has an in- tensified cline of northern New England, snrlsmore niggard soils; yet it's native fish ermen, while rough and unique, are race quite apart from ths Yankee coaster and hardy Inafiners who go "lown" the Grand Banks from Gloucester or Marblehead- We crosS-the line between Northern New England and Canada or New Brunswick, and the acnte Yankee type instantly fades away. under almost identical conditions of soul and cline, into an Anglo French stamp of "backwoods' character, less angular. and dialectically far removed. So, too, in | Nova Scotia, which essentially resembles New Brunswick in it's native personnel. Our own country supplies nothing human, outside of New England that matches the I Yankee Even Northern and Eastern New York state modify him. At the west he appears only as recent immigrant. Among the poor whites of the south have found often his "backwoods" counter part in face, figure and some traits, but never his crisp humor, his hard listed thrift; his pt culiar phrasing of speech Nor does any mixture of New England races explain this strange human product in region where races seldom cross blood and where the most intensified country Yankee is he who is derived from the un diluted stock.
 The. traits of the bucolic Yankee have often been sketched, and my present pur. pose is but to add to the stock of con sciously or orunconsciously humorous phrases in which his language and nature find ex pression. The material is taken from g notebook in which, for a quarter of g Ecentury, the writer has recorded Yankee sayings and doings during summer SO journs in country regions of New Eng. land. Its pages carry memory most vivid ly back to one of the farm towns of Con necticut, where, to this day., the old theo cratic spirit is powerful, and the church still holds much of its ancient dominance in things secular as well as spiritual Ir that community, at the weekly prayer meeting, man was always expected te lead the devotions. A very d;ffident citi zen of the town found himself one nigh
 the only one of his sex present. Long hs lglanced yearningly at the door, hoping that some braver male spirit would enter The irksome delay, with himself as the fo GUS of so many feminine eyes, at last be came unbearable. Seizing his hat, h, dashed out, only pausing to say, "Meetin' out, so far as l am consarned." In tht same village 8 certain rustic, whom WI will disguise by the name of Smith, sil months after losing his second wife wen to the pastor to secure his offices for thirt lnuptials. Meeting the pastors wife ana stating his errand, he remarked: CIV, jest visited my second wife's grave, ana the posies there dew look .bewtiful. t"Why, MT. Smith," answered the worth, lady, "I should hardly think they't had time to sprout." When the daugh ters of the pastor were laughing over similar application of bereaved husband the witty son of the house, in hushed ana warning accents, said: Girls. you mustn' talk athat way; he'a one of fathers bes custmers.'i The old Ssnotebook shows among other phrases cnlled from, the pray CT meetings in another Connecticut village
 the following 70 Lord, speed the plough
 the staff of life; 70 Lord. give us on sI mind and oneeye;' 70 Lord, when th
 clods of the valley shall fall on this dilapi dated form ;" "There's work to be did and we's the ones what's got to did it ;;
 and 70. Lord, raise us to heaven on tn B point, of 8 privilege"-i. e. give us th
 privilege of entering heaven. When, man,
 years ago, I asked rustic citizen of tn
 town, after his first visit to New York, hi opinion of the great city, his reply was I''Waal, neyerl Why, there on Broad 1 .way::, it alters seemeds though meetin' ,,sl jest ontsn It is well-femembered fac
 that once, when lady in the local churcl
 tainted during service, and there. was
 Whispered request for asalts, ones of tK
 old deseans rushed out and returned bear
 ing q shsaBed .aps plate of common tabl
 salt. A lady in informant, who was present
 tells the story of another pious deaeol who, at prayer meeting in little town o