Life in the Clearings versus the BushMoodie, Susanna
History
Life in the Clearings versus the Bush
Moodie, Susanna
Frontier and pioneer life -- Ontario; Moodie, Susannah, 1803-1885; Ontario -- Description and travel
The farmer, in his homespun, may possess the real essentials which make
the gentleman--good feeling, and respect for the feelings of others. The
homely dress, weather-beaten face, and hard hands, could not deprive
him of the honest independence and genial benevolence he derived from
nature. No real gentleman would treat such a man, however humble his
circumstances, with insolence or contempt. But place the same man out of
his class, dress him in the height of fashion, and let him attempt to
imitate the manners of the great, and the whole world would laugh at the
counterfeit.
Uneducated, ignorant people often rise by their industry to great wealth
in the colony; to such the preference shown to the educated man always
seems a puzzle. Their ideas of gentility consist in being the owners of
fine clothes, fine houses, splendid furniture, expensive equipages, and
plenty of money. They have all these, yet even the most ignorant feel
that something else is required. They cannot comprehend the mysterious
ascendancy of mind over mere animal enjoyments; yet they have sense
enough, by bestowing a liberal education on their children, to
endeavour, at least in their case, to remedy the evil.
The affectation of wishing people to think that you had been better off
in the mother country than in Canada, is not confined to the higher
class of emigrants. The very poorest are the most remarked for this
ridiculous boasting. A servant girl of mine told me, with a very grand
toss of the head, "that she did not choose to _demane_ herself by
scrubbing a floor; that she belonged to the _ra'al gintry_ in the
ould counthry, and her papa and mamma niver brought her up to hard
work."
This interesting scion of the aristocracy was one of the coarsest
specimens of female humanity I ever beheld. If I called her to bring
a piece of wood for the parlour fire, she would thrust her tangled,
uncombed red head in at the door, and shout at the top of her voice,
"Did yer holler?"
One of our working men, wishing to impress me with the dignity of his
wife's connexions, said with all becoming solemnity of look and manner--
"Doubtless, ma'am, you have heard in the ould counthry of Connor's
racers. Margaret's father kept those racers."
When I recalled the person of the individual whose fame was so widely
spread at home, and thought of the racers, I could hardly keep a
"straight face," as an American friend terms laughing, when you are
bound to look grave.
One want is greatly felt here; but it is to be hoped that a more liberal
system of education and higher moral culture will remedy the evil. There
is a great deficiency among our professional men and wealthy traders of
that nice sense of honour that marks the conduct and dealings of the
same class at home. Of course many bright exceptions are to be found in
the colony, but too many of the Canadians think it no disgrace to take
every advantage of the ignorance and inexperience of strangers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account