The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1893-10-05
OLD CUSTOMS IN VIRGINIA.
THE MANNERS OF A HUNDrED YEARS AG

THE MANNERS OF HUNDrED YEARS AGO
STILL FOUND IN SOME PLACES.
The genuine, untouched Virginian
of to-day has often been declared to
be the most complete survival of
eighteenth century England now in
existence. There are certain eigh
teenth century customs and phrases
and manners in common use here that
have not been heard of in a hundred
years In England. One of the quaint
est is custom of the road which died
out in England when the postroad
and the travelling chariot went out of
vogue. In those days it was con-
sidered almost an affront for one travel
ing in a carriage to drive past another
going the same way. The travelling
class was made up generally of the
rich and leisurely, and as they bowled
along In their coaches. to have another
coach dash by and give back its dust,
and perhaps incite the coachman to a
race, was considered highly indecor
Gus. To ''take ones dust" was com
mon expression of contempt. The
custom was not without its uses in its
day. But will it be believed, says the
Boston Transcript, that at the close
of the nineteenth century this etiquette
of the road is rigidly maintained, and
that among well-bred people each
equipage has to take the gait of the
slowests True it is, some iconoclasts
and outsiders drive pass their fellow
travellers without conjunction, but
they. therefore, prove their claim to
be called iconoclasts and outsiders.
When it is very pressing case, an
apology is called out such as pray,
excuse me, but my horse is restless,
or Il am in haste to catch the boat"
or something of the kind. But to
drive ruthlessly ahead without word
of apology is considered the acme of
i'll breeding.
The roads in this part of the world
are not interesting, except for their
natural beauty, as the people of wealth,
following their English ancestors in
practice, sought a proud seclusion for
their houses. Only the poorest people
built their homes on the main road,
and one may travel from one end of
this fair country to the other and not
find a single handsome residence on
the public highway. There was. an
other and very practical reason for
abjuring this public highway. Every
mans house was at the service of
every man, woman and child in the
county An Arab hospitality obtain
ed and was enjoyed to the full. The
people who had undesirable homes
were always willing to bestow their
company upon their more fortunate
neighbors, SO that it wouldn't do to be
too convenient to the main arteries OF
travel Especially was this so when
a visit from a family meant the enter
tanning of two coach horses, a coach
man and maid; for the negroes went
visiting with the white people and en-
joyed it quite as much. Hospitality
was one of their great virtues, and is
still; for these people excel in social
virtues, and this particular virtue
costs little. 1t only meant the killing
of half dozen more chickens for din
ner, when there were hundreds, per
haps, scratching about in the poultry
yard; and the gardens were over,
grown with vegetables, for which there
was neither sale nor consumption
There were icehouses full of ice and
meadows full of COWS, and ice-cream
was manufactured in a big tin bucket
turned about in keg of ice and salt
1t took two women and man and a
boy to make ice cream, but it took
that many to do everything. The ice
houses are among the most pictur-
esque features in the landscape here.
A great mound of earth, thirty OF for
ty feet high,was thrown up around a
place that was bricked up and looked
like a gigantic well. This was finish
ed at the top by circular roof The
sides of the mound were graded and
turfed. and made nice places for boys
and girls to roll down when the short,
slippery grass was wet.
III l.