|
Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
||||
 |
||||
|
Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
||||
|
|
||||
|
In fact, everybody in the room bore on his head this characteristic emblem of man’s sovereignity; whether it were felt hat, palm-leaf, greasy beaver, or fine new chapeau, there it reposed with true republican independence. In truth, it appeared to be the characteristic mark of every individual. Some wore them tipped rakishly to one side-these were your men of humor, jolly, free-and-easy dogs; some had them jammed independently down over their noses-these were your hard charac- ters, thorough men, who, when they wore their hats, wanted to wear them, and to wear them just as they had a mind to; there were those who had them set far over back-wide-awake men, who wanted a clear prospect; while careless men, who did not know, or care, how their hats sat, had them shaking about in all directions. The various hats, in fact, were quite a Shakespearean study. Divers negroes, in very free-and-easy pantaloons, and with no redundancy in the shirt line, were scuttling about, hither and thither, without bringing to pass any very particular results, except expressing a generic willingness to turn over every- thing in creation generally for the benefit of Mas’r and his guests. Add to this pic- ture a jolly, crackling, rollicking fire, going rejoicingly up a great wide chimney,- the outer door and every window being set wide open, and the calico window-cur- tain flopping and snapping in a good stiff breeze of damp raw air,- and you have an idea of the jollities of a Kentucky tavern. Your Kentuckian of the present day is a good illustration of the doctrine of transmitted instincts and peculiarities. His fathers were mighty hunters,- men who lived in the woods, and slept under the free, open heavens, with the stars to hold |
