AMERICAN CHARACTER. 57 



iiighest. Among these stern republicans, I have 

 seen a great deal of family pride, and it is certaiii- 

 \y a natural propensity in the common people to 

 regard with respect the descendants of those illus- 

 trious men who have been the benefactors and the 

 ornaments of the couiUrv. I have sometimes 

 been amused with the adoption of an appellation 

 which I at first misunderstood. When I heard 

 some of the lowest orders of society styled men of 

 family, what, thought I, can this mean ? What a 

 nomen generalissimum for all kinds of folks — but I 

 was soon undeceived ; by a man of family is 

 meant, in common parlance, not a man of dis- 

 tinguished family, but a man having a fajnily. In 

 every state there are great families. In every 

 city, town, village, and district, there are great 

 families, and the invidious airs of self-importance 

 which some of the imbecile members of the would- 

 be-patricians take upon themselves, is often retali- 

 ated and punished by the rising up of new claim- 

 ants to superiority, who bear away the honors of 

 a fastidious aristocracy. In the middle ranks in 

 villages, the bar keeper is an important personage 

 and so is the mistress of the school, who is gene- 

 rally a well educated, well-behaved young woman. 

 They set the fasliions for their associates, and give 

 the tone to opinion. In some places the stage- 



