CRAVEN COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA, 1 33 



Every one came to tea prepared either to make or 

 receive visits. 



Bonnets and hats were articles of female dress 

 which were entirely ignored in the Pineville evening 

 visits. In attire a simple elegance prevailed. 

 Young ladies usually dressed in white ; the aged 

 were clad in graver colors. Visits were uncere- 

 rnonious. The guests were received in the piazza. 

 No one ever expected to be invited into the house, 

 and persons might spend a season in social inter- 

 course with the people, without seeing the interior 

 of any house but their own. Sometimes chairs 

 were offered to the visitors, but, more generally, the 

 long benches with which the piazza was furnished 

 were the only seats. No refreshments were offered 

 or expected. But if any one asked for a glass of 

 water, the experienced servant would hand a suffi- 

 cient number of glasses of the pure element to 

 satisfy every one present. For the water (got from 

 wells) was cold, clear, insipid, and refreshing, and 

 all seemed to sympathize in each other's thirst. 



But though the visiting was done at night, and 

 the piazza the reception room, the company did not 

 sit in the dark. In front of the house a fire of 

 light-wood formerly, in later times of pine-straw, 

 was kept constantly burning. The reasons for this 

 practice were manifold. It diffused a cheerful light 

 over the otherwise dark and gloomy lot. The 

 smoke, too, was supposed to be conducive to health ; 



