Page:Henry Adams' History of the United States Vol. 1 (wikilinked).djvu/66

1800. God!" "I am an alligator," cried the other; "half man, half horse; can whip any man on the Mississippi, by God!"  "I am a man," shouted the first; "have the best horse, best dog, best gun, and handsomest wife in all Kentucky, by God!"  "I am a Mississippi snapping­-turtle," rejoined the second; "have bear's claws, alli­gator's teeth, and the devil's tail; can whip any man, by God!"

And on this usual formula of defiance the two fire-­eaters began their fight, biting, gouging, and tearing. Foreigners were deeply impressed by barbarism such as this, and orderly emigrants from New England and Pennsylvania avoided contact with Southern drinkers and fighters; but even then they knew that with a new generation such traits must disappear, and that little could be judged of popular character from the habits of frontiersmen. Perhaps such vices deserved more attention when found in the older communities, but even there they were rather survi­vals of English low-life than products of a new soil, and they were given too much consequence in the tales of foreign travellers.

This was not the only instance where foreigners were struck by what they considered popular traits, which natives rarely noticed. Idle curiosity was commonly represented as universal, especially in the Southern settler who knew no other form of con­versation:—


 * "Frequently have I been stopped by one of them," said Weld, "and without further preface asked where