The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1897-11-20
A QUAINT VILLAGE.
THE ODD FOLK IN AN OLD FASHIONED
NEW ENGLAND TOWN.

There Is No Caste, and Almost Perfee.
, Equality Exists-Far From the Busy,
Busting World and Free From Its Many
pisagreeabie Features.
Nobody staryes to death in our village
but some OF our mountain folk who live
far away on byroads, In places which are
often inaccessible In winter, are very poor,
III nourishod and III clothed. However,
the prevailing tone In Asher Dills store
and in the village generally is humorous
one tone Of irony and of good natured
sarcasm. Almost everybody cultlyates a
fine sense Of humor-in fnot, to be humor.
Gus, and especially to be good at repartee,
Is the one intellectual am hiton 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
ponmanship. And ID is really astonishing
even TO ourselves, how little we care for
what goes on In the outside world. We
read the papers with only a languid inter
! est being more concerned about the trivial
events IN the next town, duly ohronicled
| in the county paper, than we are about
| London or in 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 eharac-
! ter who lives on q mountain road In tho
| outskirts of the town drove into the viii |
! lage In little riokety cart, waving over
| his head q 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 |
broken colt, kicked and plunged and tried |
70 run away. The fellow pluckily chung
to the reins and was dragged about on tho
ground hither and thither, being finally
extricated from the ruins of his cart But
through 10 AL he kept the suushade in his
hand, 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
wu2 determined to save this beautiful
parasol p
To discuss why this humorous spirit
should be the prevailing spirit in an An
glo-Saxon community of Puritan descent
would be q difficult though pleasant task,
but | 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 yillage-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 a. M
and mldnight-except on some nights in
winter, when 1t does not arrive at all, be-
ing prevented by snow storms. Our man
ners, though a 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 y
out by vice or poverty feels himself to be y
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; 1t would be +,
perfectly safe TO leave all your valuables =
on the front piazza at night, and perhaps '
this immunity is one result Of equality v
70 steal is confession Of inferiority, in e
.olerable among equals, (Cheating in a 3
horse trade stands, of course, on a different aa
footing and may be practiced without en- a
Ire loss of self respect) Mr. Howells haa ~ y.
expressed this truth. 1 believe" he SAYS %
y that if ever we have equality in this ~
world, which so many good men have =.
loped for, theft will be unknown" ~
The absolute equality which prevails =
mong us has its good and bad sides 1t y
makes yulgarity and snobbishness impos. -
IDLE. We are coarse but never vulgar
ulgarity implies a consciousness or semi " ~
Consciousness Of inferiority, and among ~
IS, as have said, there is no such con- W
On the contrary, there is a ~
7ant of reverence in the village. There ia %
70 person or group of persons to set q " "
tandard Of manners or of morals for the ca
est Of the community. Nobody looks Irs VI VI
anybody clse-not even to the minister. W
&c itself scarcely invites respect, and
bis want of reverence gives a certain hard a,
nd hippant tone to our lives. The phvsi- ~ ~
an stands as high as anybody in town, ~ ".
nd yet it was only the other day that 1 -
card him addressed bya little, dirty faced Nv
BY, not IL years old, as doc" "Say, Ln'
DC, when does the next school term be. wa
my was the inquiry made by this urchin ~
all sincerity, and the doc" gave him a u
VII answer, taking no offense at his want ~
respect. Atlantic Monthly. S SLS