Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-10-12
OLD CUSTOMS IN VIRGINIA.
The Manners of 100 Years Ago Still
Found in Some Places.

Found in Some Places.
The genuine. untouched Nirginian of
today has often been declared to be the
most complete survival of eighteenth
century England now in existence.
There are certain eighteenth century
common use here that have not been
heard of in hundred years in Eng
land. One of the QuainteSt is 4 custom
of the road which died out in England
when the DOStrOad and the travelling
chariot went out of vogue. In those
days it was considered almost an af-
front for one travelling in a carriage
20 drive past another going the same
way. The travelling class was made up
generally of the rich and leiSurelv, and
rs 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 considered
highly indecorous. To take ones
dust was a common expression of
contempt The custom was not with
out 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 slowest? True it is
some lcOnOclaStS and outsiders drive
past their fellow travellers without
conjunction, but they, 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 my horse is
restless "Or [ must haste to catch
the boat or something of the kind.
But to drive ruthlessly ahead without
a 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 ances-
tors in practice, sought a proud seclu-
sion for their houses. Only the poorest
people build their homes on the main
road and one may travel from one end
of this fair country to the other and
1 not find a single handsome residence
on the public highway There was
another and a very practical reason
for abjurlng 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 peo-
pie who had undesirable homes were
always willing to bestOw their COM
pany 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, coach
man and a 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 dinner, when
there were hundreds, perhaps. scratch
! ing about in the poultry yard; and the
gardens We're CvergrOwn with vege-
! tables, for which there was neither sale
nor consumption. There were ice
houses full Of ice and meadows full of
COWS, and ice cream was manufac trred
! in a big tin bucket, turned about in a
| keg of ice and salt 1t took two women
I and man and boy to make ice
cream, but it took that many to do
everything. The ice houses are among
the most picturesque features in the
landscape here. A great mound of
earth, thirty or forty feet high, was
thrown UP around a place that was
bricked up and looked like a 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 boys and girls
! to roll down when the short, slippery