In the southern wilderness, indeed, it does not call
for much formality, nor does a strict adherence to the received rules of
etiquette become at all necessary, to make the traveller "hail fellow,
well met." Anything in that quarter, savoring of reserve or stiffness,
is punished with decided hostility or openly-avowed contempt; and, in
the more rude regions, the refusal to partake in the very social
employments of wrestling or whiskey-drinking, has brought the scrupulous
personage to the more questionable enjoyments of a regular gouging match
and fight. A demure habit is the most unpopular among all classes.
Freedom of manner, on the other hand, obtains confidence readily, and
the heart is won, at once, by an off-handed familiarity of demeanor,
which fails to recognise any inequalities in human condition. The
society and the continued presence of Nature, as it were, in her own
peculiar abode, put aside all merely conventional distinctions, and men
meet upon a common footing.
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