Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/203

 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS IN HOPKINTON.

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��kin pies, and attendant gratuities of the farmer's kitchen, formed an important part, and frequently crowned the fes- tivity with a social dance to the music of the violin. When instrumental mu- sic was wanting, dancing was kept up to the jingling melody of the best sing- ers in the company.

Hopkinton being several times the seat of the State Government, and al- ways close to the permanent Capitol, inauguration day, or '"lection," natural- ly afforded the people of this town a regularly-recurring opportunity to ex- ercise their taste for social amusement. The fascination of official dignity, the display of military, and accidental ar- ray of attractive and diverting sights and sounds, — all conspired to present an entertainment not likely to be over- looked by the masses of any society. Training and muster days also implied attractions appealing to the same social passion. The muster day, particularly, .was a time of greater local interest and excitement. The mimic war, attended by the thousand and one features that always cluster around an out-door pub- lic exhibition set the hearts of the whole community agog. Nor would our references be complete unless we mentioned further those opportunities of social festivity arising from the gen- eral inter-dependence of society in the prosecution of personal enterprises. The raising and the husking are only preliminary in a list including the quilting, the apple-paring, and similar events of a more social character.

In the past history of this town was developed a social feature for which we cannot to-day show an adequate compliment. When Hopkinton was a centre of commercial and political in- fluence, there was a corresponding rep- resentation of those who tread only the higher paths of social popularity and privilege. There were gentlemen and ladies of the old school, who not only enjoyed the better surroundings afford- ed by their position and power, but al- so trained their households in a rigid etiquette that placed a social value on the words and acts of the individual unentertained in the ranks of the great

��commonalty. Inevitable later changes have left but comparatively little of that higher sociability once so prominent.

MORAL.

In general, throughout the history of this town, its people have exemplified the traits of character proverbially as- cribed to New England. Great crimes have been few, the population being mostly of that industrious class finding- no place for overt acts against the laws of good society. However, a person familiar with only the present state of' our social life can have but little con- ception of the peculiar features of hu- man character always largely obtaining in a pioneer state of civilization. They are only individuals of resolute will and overwhelming personal force that can subdue a wild region, full of wild beasts and wild men. Such as subdue such a wilderness are both positive and stern both in their morals and immor- als. In an intense illustration of a vig- orous ideal, the first settlers in a new country strike heavily right and left, dealing energetic and telling blows, whether battling for the right or wrong. In time the increase of social and re- fining facilities tends more to soften than to obliterate the essential outlines of character pertaining to an incipient community, struggling for existence in a new country.* Hence, in contem- plating the mental character of a peo- ple like ours, assuming the essentials to have been the same since the be- ginning of local history, it becomes our imaginations to intensify their concep- tions the further back they extend into the past.

There was one feature of the earlier moral life of this town that requires a more special explanation. All frontier life is liable to be involved with the ex- periences of criminal adventures. When Hopkinton occupied a promi- nent position on the northern New

ship, one sees an Illustration of this theory in the progressive conduct of local legislation frequently required to accomplish various ends. Acts were at first passed and rescinded in multitudinous in- stances. The incorporation of the township, in 1765, in a large measure appears to have softened many asperities and essentially established the unity and prosperity of the community.
 * In perusing the earlier records of this town-

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