The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1896-05-23
THE FOUNDERS OF VIRGINIA.

THE FOUNDERS OF VIRGINIA.
They Retained the Character Of English
men In the Virgin Forests.
Virginia. the oldest Of the colonies.
was least to be distinguished by any
private character of her own from
the rural communities of England
herself. Her population had come to
her almost without selection
throughout every stage of quick
change and troubled fortune that
England had seen during the Hateful
days since James Stuart became
king, and Englishmen in Virginia
were in no way radically distinguish.
able from Englishmen in England,
except that they were provincials
and frontiersmen.S They had their
own tasks and ways of life, indeed,
living, as they did, within the old
forests of q virgin continent, upon
the confines of the world. But their
tastes and temperament, spite OF
change and seclusion, they had in
common with Englishmen at homo.
They gave leave to their opinions,
too, with a like downright conf.
dence and hardihood of belief, never
doubling they knew how practical
affairs should go. They had even
kept the English character "a they
had received it against the touch OF
time and social revolution, until
Virginians seemed like elder Eng
lishmen.
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 q body of dependents who
knew no other master; to whom
came, in their seclusion, 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 his tenants and look
cd upon him rs q sort of patron. In
Maryland, where 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
were 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
withou5 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
u highway, taking and dischargine
freight at the private wharfs of the
several plantations. for ever planter
was his own merchant, shipping his
tobacco to England and importing
thence in return his clothes, his
tools, his household fittings, his
knowledge Of the London fashions
and of the game of politics Mt home.
His mechanics he found among hi;
own slaves and dependents. Theil
quarters and the offices Of his
simple establishment showed almost
like q 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 goot
plate upon his sideboard and on hi.
table, palatable old wine in his Gel
lar, and on the walls about him por
traits of the stately men and dame.
from whom no took his blood anl
breeding. But there was little luxury
in his life. Plain comfort and
homely abundance sufficed him. H.
was q gentleman, owned all he saw
around him, exercised authority ant
enjoyed consideration Throughout
the colony, but he was no prince
He lived always in the style of {
provincial and a gentleman com
moner, as his neighbors and friends
did.-New York Advertiser.
Mailing . Bicycle.
An American tourist is said (,
have sent his bicycle from London t,
Paris by mail at a cost of q few peno,