The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-06-15
A QUAINT VILLAGE.
fliE ODD FOLK IN AN OLD FASHIONED
NEW ENGLAND TOWN.
There Is No Caste, and Almost Perfect
Equality Exists-Far From the Busy,
Bustiing World and Free From It's Many
Disagreeable Features.

Equality Exists-Far From the Busy,
Bustling World and Free From It's Many
Disagreeable Features.
Nobody staryes To death in our village,
but some of our mountain folk who live
far away on byroads, i'm places which are
often inaccessible in winter, are very poor,
i'll nourished and i'll clothed However,
the prevailing tone in Asher Dill's store
and in the village generally is humorous
one, tone of irony and of good natured
sarcasm. Almost everybody cultivates
fine sense Of humOr-in fact, to be humor-
Gus, and especially TO be good at repartee,
is the one intellectual ambition of the COM
munity We do not care much for learn
ing of any sort. Our letters, which we
put off writing till about six months after
they are due, do not excel in grammar or
penmanship. And il is really astonishing,
even to ourselves, how little we care for
what goes on in the outside world. We
read the papers with only languid inter-
est, being more concerned about the trivial
events in the next town, duly chronicled
In the county paper, than we are about
what is said or done in Washington, i'm
London or i'm Paris. But the sense of hui
NOR Is developed among us in childhood
and is never lost, even in moments of diff
Guilty or of danger.
Last Fourth of July "A desperate charac-
ter who lives on n mountain road in the
outskirts of the town drove into the viii
lage in little rickety cart, waving over
his head a woman's broken and battered
sunshade, which he had picked up some
where. He was very drunk, and before
long the cart was upset His horse, half
hpp1sqn GOLF l-iol-o1 nd ,,ln,,o,oH nd trf41
to run away. The fellow pluckily chung
to the reins and was dragged about on the
ground hither and thither, being finally
extrioated from the ruins of his cart. But
through it all he kept the sunshade in his
hand. 81 don't care anything about my
SELF " he said, as he WAS assisted TO his
feet, the blood streaming from his face,
nor about the boss, nor about the cart, but
wuz determined to save this beautiful
parasol.
TO discuss why this humorous spirit
should he the prevailing spirit ian an An
glo-Saxo community of Puritan descent
would be difficult though pleasant task,
EUt I must content myself here with the
obvious remark that it could not exist eX =
cept in connection with an ample back
ground of leisure. Our village-perhaps
this cardinal fact ought to have been stated
at the outset-enioys blessed immunity
from railroads. The nearest station Is ten
miles off, and the mails come by stage,
which arrives anywhere between z a. IN.
and acknowledgements on some nights in
winter, when it does not arrive at all, be-
| ing prevented by snow storms. Our man
ners, though little brusque, are good, as
manners always are in a community which
| has no "social superiors. Every man in
| the village who is not specially marked
| out by vice or poverty feels himself to be
| the equal, in all essential matters of every
| other man in the world, and this feeling
| goes long way toward producing that
| equality which it assumes. There Is alb
| solutely no stealing among us; it would be
| perfectly safe TO leave all your valuables
| on the front piazza at night, and perhaps
this immunity is one result of equality.
| To steal Is u confession of inferiority in
tolerable among equals. Cheating in a
| horse trade stands, of course, on IA different
J footing, and may be practiced without en-
| tire loss of self respect.) Mr.. Howells has
| expressed this truth. Il believe" he says,
( chat if ever we have equality in this
! world, which SO many good men have
hoped for theft will be unknown"
| The absolute equality which prevails
among us has it's good and bad sides. 1t
makes vulgarity and snobbishness impos-
! sible We are coarse, but never vulgar.
| Vulgarity implies II consciousness or semi
consciousness of inferiority, and among
| us, as L have said, there is no such con
seriousness. On the contrary, there Is a
want of reverence in the village There il
no person or group of persons to set q
standard of manners or of morals for the
rest of the community. Nobody looks M
to anybody elso--not even to the minister
! Age itself scarcely invites respect, and
this want Of reverence giyesa certain hard
and flippant tone to our lives. The physi
clan stands as high as anybody in town
and yet it was only the other day that
heard him addressed by a little, dirty faced
boy, not IL years old, as "doc." SAY
doc, when does the next school term be
gin?' was the inquiry made by this urchir
in all sincerity and the doc" gave him
civil answer, taking no offense ut his want
of respect. Atlantic Monthly.