Charlemont; Or, The Pride of the Village. a Tale of Kentucky — John Shaqi
Charlemont; Or, The Pride of the Village. a Tale of KentuckySimms, William Gilmore
General
Charlemont; Or, The Pride of the Village. a Tale of Kentucky
Simms, William Gilmore
Kentucky -- Fiction
The reflections which will be most likely to arise from the perusal of
such a history, lead us to a consideration of the social characteristics
of the time and region, and to a consideration of the facility with
which access to society is afforded by the manners and habits of our
forest population. It is in all newly-settled countries, as among the
rustic population of most nations, that the absence of the compensative
resources of wealth leads to a singular and unreserved freedom among
the people. In this way, society endeavors to find equivalents for those
means of enjoyment which a wealthy people may procure from travel, from
luxury, from the arts, and the thousand comforts of a well-provided
homestead. The population of a frontier country, lacking such resources,
scattered over a large territory, and meeting infrequently, feel the
lack of social intercourse; and this lack tends to break down most
of the barriers which a strict convention usually establishes for
the protection, not only of sex and caste, but of its own tastes and
prejudices. Lacking the resources of superior wealth, population, and
civilization, the frontier people are naturally required to throw the
doors open as widely as possible, in order to obtain that intercourse
with their fellows which is, perhaps, the first great craving of
humanity. As a matter of necessity, there is little discrimination
exercised in the admission of their guests. A specious outside,
agreeable manners, cleverness and good humor, will soon make their way
into confidence, without requiring other guaranties for the moral of the
stranger. The people are naturally frank and hospitable; for the simple
reason that these qualities of character are essential for procuring
them that intercourse which they crave. The habits are accessible, the
restraints few, the sympathies are genial, active, easily aroused, and
very confiding. It follows, naturally, that they are frequently wronged
and outraged, and just as naturally that their resentments are keen,
eager, and vindictive. The self-esteem, if not watchful, is revengeful;
and society sanctions promptly the fierce redress--that wild justice of
revenge--which punishes without appeal to law, with its own right hand,
the treacherous guest who has abused the unsuspecting confidence which
welcomed him to a seat upon the sacred hearth. In this brief portrait
of the morale of society, upon our frontiers, you will find the materiel
from which this story has been drawn, and its justification, as a
correct delineation of border life in one of its more settled phases in
the new states. The social description of Charlemont exhibits,
perhaps, a THIRD advance in our forest civilization, from the original
settlement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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