CHAPTEK XV.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF LIFE AND CHARACTER.
Al mondo mal non e senza rimedio.
— Sannazaro.
In newly-settled regions rural simplicity is rare. Ignorance, stupidity, bigotry there may be in abund- ance, but that innocence which arises from isolation, from the absence of the contaminating: influences of fashion, frivolity, falsity, from the arts and humbug of hicrh life, and from the demoralizins; tendencies of social intermixtures, leading to deceit and dissipation, is seldom found in rural districts recently occupied. For the harassing cares, the asperities, the trials of temper attending family migrations, the clearing of a wilderness, and the planting of a home are not such as foster single-mindedness, domestic religion, and the tenderer graces.
As time went by, the moral and social condition of the mining towns greatly improved. There was an industrious, orderly, and intelligent population, with wives and sisters; there were churches, and schools, and libraries, and newspapers; there were well-filled shops, and money enough to patronize them, but yet they were far from being like the clean quiet villages of New York or New England. The stores were open on Sunday, and the saloons were better filled than the churches. The door of the harlot opened upon the most public thoroughfare, and from within might be heard by the passer-by the ribald oath and obscene jest, and the chinking of the gambler's checks.
