Year: 1867

The ancestors of the good people o1 the United States went to that country ostensibly to escape prosecutions oi aristocratic England, but alas! for the inconsistency of human nature, they were very far from abandoning aristoc. racy when they left the mother coun- try. They took it with them, together with all it's accompanying notions and absurdities, and have left it to their children as an inalienablc legacy, which they seem to be trying to increase every day.

 In the days of the good colony of Virginia, the distinctions between rich and poor were based upon laws which, like thoscFo the Medes and Persians, altered not. One of the most devote followers of this code was wealthy planter, living in what is known as the Northern Neck. He was in all other respects frank, open hearted, manly gentleman; but his estimate of his fel- lowmen was founded on the principles that governed the selection of his hor- scs-blood. Wealth, too, by no means was an unimportant feature with him. He had our human weakness, and, like all of us, was influenced more than he even believed by pounds, siillings and pence.

 This Mir. c. had quite a large family, among them q daughter whose beauty was the standing toast of the country She was just eighteen and budding into lovely womanhood. Not only was she beautiful in person, but her amiable disposition and many accom- plishments made her more than ordi- narily attractive, and half the gentle men of Northern Neck were already signing for her love.

 There was in the country at this time q young man who was already rising in the esteem of his neighbors. He came of good family but was, as yet, poor young surveyor, who had taught himself his profession, and who had spent much of his time in travers- ing unknown forests, with nothing for his guide but his compass, and lis chain for companion, locating lands and settling disputed titles. He was a model of manly beauty, and excelled in all the various fcats of strength in which the olden time Americans took such pride. He was calm and reserved, and there was about him digniiied sweetness of demeanor that accorded well with his frank independence of character He was great favorite with all who knew him, and there was no gathering to which he was not asked.

 Mir. G. seemed especially to like the young man, and it was not long before he insisted that the latter should aban- don all ceremony in his visits to him, and come and go when he pleased. The invitation was heartily given, and as heartily accepted. The young man liked the planter, and he found the so- ciety of the beautiful Mary c. very strong attraction. The result was that he was frequently at the planters resi- dcnce; so frequently indeed, that Mrs. G. felt called upon to ask her husband if he did not think it wrong to permit him to enjoy such unreserved inter- course with their daughter. The fath- CT only laughed at the idea, and said he hoped his daughter knew her position too well to allow anything like love for poor surveyor to blind her to her duty to her family.

 Nevertheless, Mary G. was not SC impressed with this conviction ol duty as was her father. She found more to admire in, the poor surveyor than in all her wealthy aristocratic suitors; and almost before she knew it, her heart passed out of her keeping, and was given to him. She loved him with all the honesty and devotion of her purC heart; and. she would have thought il a happiness to go out into the back, woods and share his fatigues and trou bles. no matter how much sorrow they might bring to her.

 Nor did she love in vain. The young man, whose knowledge of the world was afterwards so great, had not thcr learned to consider as binding the dis functions which society drew hetweel his position and that of the lady. H. knew that in all that makes man, il integrity and honesty of purpose, h' was the equal of any one. He believed that, except in wealth, he stood upon perfect equality with Mary c. and h