It is in all newly-settled
countries, as among the rustic population of most nations, that the
absence of the compensative resources of wealth leads to a singular
and unreserved freedom among the people. In this way, society
endeavors to find equivalents for those means of enjoyment which
a wealthy people may procure from travel, from luxury, from the
arts, and the thousand comforts of a well-provided homestead. The
population of a frontier country, lacking such resources, scattered
over a large territory, and meeting infrequently, feel the lack of
social intercourse; and this lack tends to break down most of the
barriers which a strict convention usually establishes for the
protection, not only of sex and caste, but of its own tastes and
prejudices. Lacking the resources of superior wealth, population,
and civilization, the frontier people are naturally required to
throw the doors open as widely as possible, in order to obtain that
intercourse with their fellows which is, perhaps, the first great
craving of humanity. As a matter of necessity, there is little
discrimination exercised in the admission of their guests.
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