The state republican. (Jefferson City, Mo.) 1871-1896, 1894-09-27
OLD CUSTOMS IN VIRGINIA.

Of to-day, says a correspondent, has
often been declared to be the most
complete survival Of eighteenth CEN
fury England now in existence.
There are certain eighteenth CEN
fury customs and phrases and
manners in m use here that
have not been heard of in a hundred
years in England. One of the quaint
est is a custom of the road which
died out in England when the post
road and the travelling chariot went
out of vogue.
In those days it was considered
almost an affront for one travelling
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 n
other coach dash by and give back
its dust and perhaps incite the coach
man to a rage vas considered highly
indecorous. To "take one's dust"
was a common expression of con-
tempt. 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 rigidly maintained, and
that among we'll bred people each
equipage has to take the gait of the
slowest2
True it is, some iconoclasts and
outsiders drive past their fellow
travellers without compunction, but
they, therefore, prove their claims 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 81 am in haste to catch the boat,n
or something of that 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 an
cestors in practice, sought a proud
seclusion for their houses. Only
the poorest people built their homes
on the main road, and IL 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 another
and very practical reason for adjur-
ing 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 willing to bestow their COM
pany upon their nora fortunate
neighbors, 80 that it wouldn't do to
be too convenient to the main arter-
les of travel. Especially was this so
when a visit from a family meant
the entertaining of two coach horses,
a coachman and a maid, for the neg
roes went visiting with the white
people and enjoyed it just as much.
Hospitality was one of their great
virtues and is still, for those people
excel in social virtues, and this par
ticular virtue costs little.
1t only meant the killing of a half
dozen or more chickens for dinner,
when there we're hundreds, perhaps,
scratching about in the poultry yard;
and the gardens were overgrown
with vegetables, for which there was
neither sale nor consumption. There
were icehouses full of ice and mead
ows full of cows, and ice cream was
manufactured in a big tin bucket,
turned about in a keg of ice and salt.
1t took two women and a man and a
boy to make ice cream, but it took
took that many to do everything.
The icehouses are among the most
picturesque features in the landscape
here. A great mound of earth, 80
or 40 feet high, was thrown up
around a place that was bricked up
and locked like a gigantic well. This
was finished at the top by a circular
roof. The sides of the mould were
and turfed, and made nice places for
boys and girls to roll down when the
short, slippery grass was wet.