The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-10-19

probably doesn't know why he does 1t. except that 1t is the proper and con- ventional custom of showing respect. But the custom harks back to the time of chivalry.
 It would be difficult to analyze and determine in the life of the Twentieth Century just how many of It's habits and customs unnoted and unremarked as they are, came down through the centuries. modified but retaining in all the years the distinctiveness of their native origin.
 In the building of the homes of the Old South. the builders little thought or little cared that the estates they were establishing were being built up- on the modified plans of an ancient feudal castle. The resemblance mark ed but wrought in indifference is not in architecture, but in its appoint ments and in its accessories. The old order which are considering offered a startling paradox. In a republic the feudal system was revived and recreat- ed Entertaining a fierce and uncom- promising Democratic sentiment the large slave owner and the large land owner was nevertheless moved by a family and a social pride that was in absolute variance with the professed Democracy of his expressed political convictions. Indeed he was moved by a pride that was nothing short of an arictocratic confidence in his family. in his name and in his ability to manage the affairs of himself and of his de- pendents.
 In this no less than in the methods In which his house and grounds were laid out. he followed the customs of his feudal ancestors, an observance which was no doubt known to himself, but which nevertheless. influenced him and the community life of which he was the head.
 Home and Estate Feudals.
 His home and his estate was feudal, except that neither moat wall nor drawbridge had to be built stone upon stone to keep out enemies or maraud- ing bandits. Even this feature of feudal life was apparent in some of the early estates of Alabama. for some of the wealthy settlers came in before the Indians had given up hope of stop ping the aggressive march of the white mans civilization. It is recorded more than one time In the pioneer history } of Alabama that an early planter had
 built in connection with his house. a walled fort. which was manned by his servants and his dependents and to
 which all looked as refuge where the Indians was aroused 10 0O Dattle and hunt down the white man.
 Fort Mims. the scene of the horrible massacre of men. women and children bI the warriors of Red Eagle, on the Alabama River In 1874. was such fort built not only for the refuge of the landowner. the slave holder and his family but for his neighbors in tn. lcommunity IS well.
 But marking forward. from the pion- eer period with which this article has naught to do except relatively. to the period of the old south, the treatment of which Is its excuse for existence, the investigator finds the feudal system nc less prominent in the sweep and ex- Danse of the community hone. the sea, of the planter, who Is nothing less than an overlord of all that he overlooks. For all practical purposes. his plan- tation might be an ancient barony and his home a fcudal seat where herald could seize q hunters horn and blow a blast that would summon to the walls every fighting man on the place. Copied from English. The Alabama planter with his strong strain of English blood, with his life modelled and guided unconsciously pt rhaps. but no less guided for that by English customs when he came to put uP home and had the money to put it up the way he wanted to, when he came to build he built his house on d sweeting scale. there were acres in the yard that he laid out.
 The site Of the old home house occu- pied but a small part of the space ir this lavish use of the land. First oi all. the building was set far back from