Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1904 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III. THE PEOPLE IN THE COUNTRY AND IN THE CITIES. The rural On my arrival in St. Mary's I was thrown into the t$ midst of the rural population of Kentucky, which does not differ much from that of the rest of the South, with the exception of Louisiana. These people were a compound of simplicity and shrewdness. The first made them occasionally the victims of sharpers; the second lessened the danger whenever their best interests were concerned. You could, in general, enter their cottages at all times of the day. When the men were not present, the good wife and her daughters received you with much simplicity and good nature. They were in fact always fond of a long talk, and if the visitor could bring them some news he was always welcome. Fear, suspicion, distrust, were unknown to them, owing to the total absence of crime, nay, of misconduct in the country. Social intercourse in the United States, North and South, is usually cheerful, gay, nay, jovial. This was then especially true in the Southwest. This, I have no doubt, was especially due to the negroes, who are, like children, fond of a joke, and often carry their good temper to a kind of boisterous hilarity. Now, the farmers in the 60 Southwestern States were not great planters like those of Louisiana (who never had any direct dealings with their field-laborers, but left them to the management of an overseer). The agriculturists of Kentucky, in particular, had few slaves, often at most eight or ten. They were their own overseers, lived constantly with their negroes, and being obliged to humor them in order to make them work better, soon acquired the pleasant habit of joviality. There was thus among them an amiable simplicity that delighted me whenever I was with them. I..."
