. Historic towns of the Southern States. inof these goodly groups come the gallants who upheld thechivalryof the age, cavaliersof theoldschool, full of starchand powder: most of them the iron gentlemen of the Revo-lution, with leather faces—old campaigners, renowned forlong stories : not long enough absent from the camp tolose their military brusquerie and dare-devil swagger ;proper roystering blades, who had not long ago got outof harness and begun to affect the elegancies of civillife. Who but they ! jolly fellows, fiery and loud, withstern glance of the eye and brisk turn of the head, andsw
. Historic towns of the Southern States. inof these goodly groups come the gallants who upheld thechivalryof the age, cavaliersof theoldschool, full of starchand powder: most of them the iron gentlemen of the Revo-lution, with leather faces—old campaigners, renowned forlong stories : not long enough absent from the camp tolose their military brusquerie and dare-devil swagger ;proper roystering blades, who had not long ago got outof harness and begun to affect the elegancies of civillife. Who but they ! jolly fellows, fiery and loud, withstern glance of the eye and brisk turn of the head, andswash-buckler strut of defiance, like game-cocks, all inthree-cornered cocked hats and powdered hair and cues,and light-colored coats with narrow capes and marvellouslong backs, with the pockets on each hip, and small-clothes that hardly reached the knee, with striped stock-ings, with great buckles in their shoes, and their longsteel watch-chains that hung conceitedly half-way to theknee, with seals in the shape of a sounding-board to a. 32 Baltimore pulpit ; and they walked with such a stir, striking theircanes so hard upon the pavement as to make the littletown ring again. I defy all modern coxcombry to produceanything equal to it — there was such a relish of peaceabout it, and particularly wlien one of these weather-beaten gallants accosted a lady in the street with a bowthat required a whole side pavement to make it in. withthe scrape of his foot, and his cane thrust with a flourishunder his left arm till it projected behind along with hiscue, like the palisades of a clievaiix-de-frist; and nothingcould be more piquant than the lady as she reciprocatedthe salutation with a curtsey that seemed to carry herinto the earth, with her chin bridled to her breast, andsuch a volume of dignity. The rus-In-urbe life of Baltimore wasnearly ended ; with the close of the Revolu-tionary War began a new period in its streets were paved and lighted, betterbridges built, and a
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectcitiesandtowns, booky
