or no class distinctions, while in others class lines were shar])ly drawn 

 among the young peoi)]e and the older i)eoi)le as well. As a rule those 

 communities where there are no negroes, are one-standard communities, 

 where everybody who is at all decent is at home with everybody else. 

 Class distinctions are most strictly observed in the neighborhoods where 

 the larger slave-holders lived before the War and where the negroes are 

 still much in evidence. These class distinctions are based partly on 

 moral worth, partly on family, partly on wealth and partly on culture. 

 A few of the better educated and more well-to-do country families seem 

 to associate preferably with the town people. 



Social Life 



Of good wholesome social life there is much right in connection with 

 the farmer's everyday work. Picking cotton, threshing wheat, killing 

 hogs, are occasions for friends and neighbors to get together. The prac- 

 tice of trading work is still common here. It is also the custom for 

 whole families to work together out in the cotton fields. 



Besides these incidental forms of association there are other forms of 

 social life. These differ widely in the different districts, depending 

 chiefly upon the number of young people and the amount of initiative and 

 leadership present among them. In some neighborhoods the young 



ONE OF THE OCCASIONS WHEN FARMERS GET TOGETHER 



26 



