19^ Manners, Customs, AKD [t^artll. 



349. From the absence of so many causes of un- 

 easiness, of env3', of jealousy, of rivalsliip, and of mu- 

 tual dislike, society, that is to say, the intercourse 

 between man and man, and family and family, becomes 

 easy and pleasant ; while the universal plenty is the 

 cause of universal hospitality. I know, and have ever 

 known, but little of the people in the cities and towns 

 in America ; but, the difference between them and the 

 people in the country can only be such as is found in 

 all other countries. As to the manner of living in the 

 country, I was, the other day, at a gentleman's house, 

 and 1 asked the lady for her bill of fare for the year. 

 I saw fourteen fat hogs, weighing about twenty score a 

 ■piece, which were to come into the house the next 

 Monday ; for here they slaughter them all in one day. 

 This led me to ask, " Why, in God's name, what do 

 *' you eat in a year 1 " The bill of fare was this, for 

 this present year : about this same quantity of hog- 

 Tneat ; four beeves ; and forty-six fat sheep ! Besides 

 the sucking pigs (of which we had then one on the table), 

 besides lambs, and besides the produce of seventy hen 

 fowls, not to mention good parcels of geese, ducks and 

 turkeys, but, not to forget a garden of three quarters of 

 an acre and the butter of ten cows, not one ounce of 

 •which is ever sold ! What do you think of that \ Why, 

 you will say, this must be some great overgrown farm- 

 er, that has swallowed up half the country ; or some 

 nabob sort of merchant. Not at all. He has only owe 

 hundred and fifty four acres of land, (all he consumes 

 is of the produce of this land), and he lives in the same 

 house that his English-born grandfather lived in. 



350. When the hogs are killed, the house is full of 

 work. The sides are salted down as pork. The hams 

 are smoked. The lean meats are made into sausages, 

 of which, in this family, they make about two hundred 

 weight. These latter, with broiled fish, eggs, dried 

 beef, dried mutton, slices of ham, t»ngue, bread, buttw, 

 cheese, short cakes, buck-wheat cakes, sweet meats 

 of various sorts, and many other things, make up the 

 breakfast fare of the year, and, a dish of beef steakes is 

 frequently added. 



351, When one sees this sort of living, with th» 



