The morning call., 1893-09-18
OLD-TIME VIRGINIA.
Regions Yet Untouched by Nine
teenth Century Innovations.
Boston Evening TRANSCRIPT.

Boston Evening Transcript.
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 Ger.
tain eighteenth century customs and
manners in common use here that have
not been heard of in hundred years in
England.
One of the quain test is a custom of the
road which died out in England when the
post road ana the travelling chariot went
out of vogue In those ldays it was con-
sidered almost an affront for one traveller
in carriage to drive past another going
tha same way. The travelling class
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
race, was con nsidered highly indecorous
To take oue's dust was common ex
without its uses IN its day. But will it be
believed that at the close of the nineteenth
century this etiquette of the road is rigidIv
maintained, and that among well-bred
people each equipage has to take the gait
of the slowest? True it is, some icOno-
clasts and outsiders drive past their fellow
travellers without compunctOn, but tbey.
therefore, prove their claim to be called
iconoclasts and outsiders. When it is a
very pressing case an apology is called
out such as "Pray excuse me, but NV
horse is restless" or ~ am in haste tn
catch the boat" or something of the aI'n kind "
But TO drive ruthlessy ahead without
word of apology is considered the acme of
ill breeding.
The roads in this part of the world are
not interesting. except for their natural
beauty, as the people of wealth, following
job in
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 another and
not find a single handsome residence on
the public highway. There was another
this public highway. Every mans house
was at The service of every man, woman
and child in the county; an Arab
hospitality obtained and was enjoyed
to the full. The people who had
undesirable homes were always will
ing TO bestOw their company upon
their more fortunate neighbors, so that it
wouldn't 90 to be too convenient in the
main arteries of travel Especially was
this so when a visit from a family meant
the entertaining OF two coach horses,
coachmRn and a maid, for the negroes
went visiting with the white people, and
enjoyed 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 dinner. when
there were hundreds. perhaps, scratch
ing about the poultTy-yard; and the
gardens were oVergroWn with Vege-
tables, for which there was neither sale
nor consumption. There were icehouses
full of Ice and meadows full Of COWS, and
icecream was manufactured in big tin
bucket. turned abOut in Keg of ice and
salt. Il took two women and man and
a boy to make icecream, but it took that
many to do everything.
The iceh0uses aro among the most
picturesque features in the landscape here.
A great mound OF earth. thirty or forty
feet high, was thrown up around place
that was 6ricked up and looked like
gigantic we'll This was finished at the
top by circular roof. The sides Of the
mound were graded and turfed. and made
nice places for girls and boys to roll down
when the short. slippery grass was wei.