The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-05-18
A QUAINT VILLAGE.
THE ODD FOLK IN AN OLD FASHIONED
NEW ENGLAND TOWN.

There Is No Caste, and Almost Perfect
Equality Exists-Far From the Busy,
Bustilng World and Free From It's Many
: Disagreeabie Features.
Nobody staryes TO death in our village,
but some Of our mountain folk who live
far away on hyroads, in 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 n humorous
one, tone Of irony and Of good natured
sarcasm. Almost everybody cultiyates u
fine sense of humor--in fact. 10 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 of 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, In
London or I'm Paris But the sense Of hu-
NOR Is developed among us In childhood
and Is never lost, even in moments Of diff
Guilty or of danger.
Last Fourth of July desperate charac-
Ter who lives on a mountain road in the
outskirts of the town drove into the vii
lage in little rickety cart, waving over
his head 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, q half
broken colt, kicked and plunged and tried
to run away. The fellow pluckily clung
20 the reins and was dragged about on the
ground hither and thither, being finally
extricated from the ruins of his cart. But
through it all he kept the sunshade in his
hand. II don't care anything about my
self, f" he said as he was assisted to his
feet, the blood streaming from his face,
nor about the hoss nor about the cart, but
1 wuz determined to save this beautiful
parasol."
To discuss why this humorous spirit
should be the prevailing spirit in an An
glo- Saxon community OF Puritan descent
would be difficult though pleasant task,
but 1 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-perbaps
this cardinal fact ought to have been stated
at the outset-enjoys q blessed immunity
from railroads. The nearest station Is ten
miles off, and the mails come by stage,
which arrives anywhere between a. IN.
and midnight-except 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 snperiors." Every man in
the village who is not specially marked
out by vice or poverty feels himself 20 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 1t 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 confession Of inferiority, in
tolerable among equals. Cheating in q
horse trade stands, of course, on a different
footing, and may be practiced without en-
tire loss of self respect) Mr.. Howells has
expressed this truth. II believe" he says,
that 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 its good and bad sides. 1t
makes vulgarity and snobbishness impos-
sible. We are coarse, but never vulgar.
Vulgarity implies consciousness or semi
consciousness of inferiority, and among
us, as / have said, there is no such con-
seriousness. On the contrary, there is a
want of reverence in the village. There is
no person or group Of persons to set
standard of manners or of morals for the
rest of the community. Nobody looks up
TO anybody else-not even TO the minister.
Age itself scarcely invites respect, and
this want of reverence gives q 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 little dirty faced
boy, not IL years old, as doc" "Say,
doc, when does the next school term be-
ginf" was the inquiry made by this urcbin
in all sincerity, and the ''doc" gave him a
civil answer, taking no offense ut his want
Of respect. "A a~tic Monthly.
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