Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 4).djvu/94

 party is insupportable, as he is shunned equally by both, and in this populous town lives with respect to society, as though he were in a desert. This may be one cause that Pittsburgh is not celebrated for its hospitality, another, (which is equally applicable to most new settled towns,) is that it is inhabited by people who have fixed here for the express purpose of making money. This employs the whole of their time and attention, when they are not occupied by politicks, and leaves them no leisure to devote to the duties of hospitality. Another cause, which one would scarcely suspect, is pride. Those who from the adventitious circumstance of having settled here at an early period, and purchased, or became possessed of landed property, when from its very low value, it was obtained in the most easy manner, for a mere trifle, now find themselves rich suddenly, from its rapid increase in value. Those who came after them, had not the same opportunities, and of course were not so fortunate. Wealth acquired suddenly, generally operates on the ignorant, to make them wish to seem as if they had always been in the same situation; and in affecting the manners and appearance of the great, they always overact their part, and assume airs of superiority {71} even over the really well born and well bred part of the community, who have been reduced from a more affluent situation, by misfortune, or who have not been so fortunate as themselves in acquiring what stands the possessor in lieu of descent, and all the virtues and accomplishments. This accounts for the pride which generally pervades the fortunate first settlers, but it is carried to such extravagant excess, that I have been credibly informed that some of the females of this class have styled themselves and their families the Well born, to distinguish them from those not quite so wealthy, forgetting that some among them could not tell who had been their ancestors in the second generation.