11 



oral spirit of insuhor<lin:iti(»!i to law 

 and .■ujt.hority Nvlieiievor it conflicts 

 with their private prejudices and 

 personal whims, with the ready and 

 cheerful compliance with the public 

 demands for the pul>iic good, reti- 

 dered l;y our fathers of sixty years 

 ago, and he must he convinced of the 

 truth of this axiom. This chapter is 

 written not in a spirit of vindictive- 

 ness or the mere love of complaint, 



but w ith a view to awakening the pub- 

 lic Diind to a sense of a prevalent evil, 

 and with a hope thereby to induce a 

 return to healthier methods and a 

 more loyal and patriotic course in the 

 eonducL of jiublic affairs. Should 

 this result in stirring up a spirit of em- 

 ulation of the noble men who subdu- 

 ed the wilds of Macon county to the 

 arts of Christian civilization, I will 

 havci gained the coveted reward. 



PART IV. 



The manneis and customs of a 

 people usually form a fair index to 

 their leading traits of character. By 

 this rule I propose to speak of some 

 of the customs of the people of Ma- 

 con coutity from sixty to seventy 

 years ago. While the customs of s')- 

 ciety were not then so airish as now 

 there was among the more promi- 

 nent families a quiet unobtrusive na- 

 tive dignity and sense of propriety 

 expressive of true man and , woman- 

 hood upon which the arts of fashion 

 have not made any improvement. 

 The matter of courting among young 

 people was done in different style 

 from the present, yet it ha<l the mer- 

 it of being honest and straight. And 

 although, incidents in some of the 

 courtships of those days furnished 

 matter for amusement and laughter, 

 the resulting marriages were usually 

 happy and prosperous. A regular 

 dude could not have got in his work 



of nonsense an<l deception amongst 

 those people. There were no dukes 

 nor }>rinces to delude the giddy and 

 foolish with high sounding titles 

 without merit, and less capacity for 

 conjugal happiness. Merit then con- 

 sisted in sound native brains, honest 

 industry, sobriety and frugality. 

 Whatever of goodness and usefulness 

 there is in the present generation 

 has come from such source. What- 

 ever education teaches or results in 

 idleness, deteriorates manhood and 

 womanhood. The old classic adase 

 is as true of woman as it it is of man: 

 "An idle man's brain is the devil's 

 work-shop." Nor does refinement, 

 so called, alter or modify this verdict. 

 It was the custom in those early 

 days not to rely for help exclusively 

 upon hired labor. In harvesting small 

 grain crops the sickle was mostly 

 used. When a crop was ripe the 

 neighbors were notified and gathered 



