The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1896-03-14
Tie FOUNDERS OF VIRGINIA.
1ttey Retained the Character Of English.
men In tho Virgin Forests,


ftiey Retained the Character Of EnelisH,
mon In tho Virgin Forests.
Virginia, the oldest of the colonies
was least to be distinguished by any
private character Of her own from
tho rural communities of England
herself. Her population had come tt
her almost without selection
throughout every stage of QUICK
change and troubled fortune thai
England had seen during the fatefuI
days since James Stuart became
king, and Englishmen in Virgins
were in no way radically distinguish.
able from ~Englishmen in England,
except that they were provincials
md frontiersmen. They had thei,
own tasks and ways of life, indeed,
living, as they did, within the old
forests of a virgin continent, upon
the confines of the world. But their
tastes and temperament, spite OF
change and seclusion, they had in
common with Englishmen ut home.
They gave leave to their opinions,
too, with a like downright conf
dcnce and hardibood of belief, never
doubling they knew how practical
affairs should go. They had even
kept the English character as they
had received it against the touch of
time and social revolution, until
Virginians seemed like elder Eng
lishm7n.
England changed, but Virginia did
not. There landed estates spread
themselves with an ample acreage
along to the margins of the streams
that everywhere threaded the virgin
woodland, and the planter drew
about him a body of dependents who
knew no other master; to whom
came, in their s~eclusion, none of that
quick air of change that had so stir
red in England throughout all her
century of revolution Some were
his slaves, bound to him in perpetual
subsection.
Others were his tenants and look
ed upon him as q sort of patron. In
Maryland, whore similar broad es-
tates lay upon every shore, the law
dubbed a great property here and
there a manor" and suffered it to
boast its separate court baron and
private jurisdiction. Virginia gen.
tlemen enjoyed independence and
authority without need Of formal
title.
There was but one center of social
life in Virginia-at Williamsburg,
the village capital, where the gov
ernor had his palace, where stood
the Colonial college, where there
ERE taverns and the town houses
Of sundry planters of the vicinage,
and where there was much gay COM
pany and not a little formal cere-
monial in the season. For the rest,
the Old Dominion made shift to do
without towns. There was no great
mart to which all the trade of the
colony was drawn. Ships came and
went upon each broad river as upon
n highway, taking and discharging
freight at the private wharfs Of tho
several plantations, for ever planter
was his own merchant, shipping his
tobacco to England and importing
thence in return his clothes, his
tools, his househ )ld fittings, his
knowledge of the London fashions
and of the game of politics at home.
His mechanics he found among his
own slaves and dependents. Their
"quarters" and the offices of his
simple establishment showed almost
like a village of themselves where
they stood in irregular groups about
his own square, broad gabled house,
with its airy hall and homelike liv-
ing rooms He might have good
plato upon his sideboard and on his
table, palatable old wine in his Gel
lar, and on the walls about him por-
traits of the stately men and DANES
from whom no took his blood and
breeding. But there was little luxury
in his life. Plain comfort and a
homely abundance sufficed him. He
was a gentleman, owned all he saw
around him, exercised authority and
enjoyed consideration throughout
the colony, but he was no prince.
He lived always in the style of a
provincial and a gentleman com
moner, as his neighbors and friends
did.-New York Advertiser.
Mailing q Bicycle.
Al A~1r~oon k0,,-k l.; III L.