St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-10-10
OLD-TIME VIRGINIA,
Regions Yet Untouched by Nine
teenth Century Innovations

Lecutu century innovations
Boston Evening Transcri pit.
The genuine, untouched Virginian of
today has often been declared 10 be the
most complete survival of eighteenth
century England now in existence.
There are certain eighteenth-century
customs and phrases and manners in
common use here that have not been
heard or III hundred years in England.
Ono of the quaintest is custom of
the road which died out in England
when the post road and the travelling
chariot went out of vogue. In those
days 1t was considered almost an affront
Tor one traveller In 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, anu perhaps incite the
coachman TO race, was considered
highly. indecorous. To, take ones DUST
was common expression of contempt.
The custom was not 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 rigldly MAIN
tanned. and that among well bred peo-
pie each equipage has TO take the gait
of the slowest? Trne it is, some icono-
claStS and outsiders drive past their
fellow travellers without computations;
but they. therefore, prove their claim to
be called iconOclastS and outsiders.
When 1t is very pressing case, an
apology is called out, such as, pray
excuse me. but my horse is restless" or
Il am III haste to catch the boat" or
something of the kind. But to drive
ruthlesSly ahead without word of
apology is considered the acme of ill
breeding.
Tie roads in this part of the world
are not Interesting, except for their
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 another and not
find single handsome residence on the
public highway. There was another
and very practical reason for abb dring
this public highway. Every mans
house was at the service of every man,
woman, and child in the country; an
Arab hospitality obtained and was en-
Joyed to the full. The people who had
undesirable homes were always willing
To 6eStOW their company upon their
more fortunate neighbOrs, so that it
would not do to be too convenient to the
main arteries of travel. Especially was
this so when a visit from family
meant the entertaining of two coach
horses, coachman, and 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 par
ticular virtue cost little. 1t only meant
the killing of half dozen more chickens
for dinner, when there were hundreds,
perhaps, scratching about the poultry
yard and the gardens were oyergroMn
with vegetables, for which there was
neither sale nor consumption. There
were ice houses full of ice and meadows
full OF cows, and Ice cream was manu-
featured in big tin bucket, turned
about in key 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
picturesque feature of the landscape
here. A great mound of earth, thirty
or forty feet high. was thrown up
around place that was bricked up and
looked like a gigantic well. 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 grass was wet.