Part 5

It was at Bristol also that the little German woman, hardly more than a girl, describes how, the very day after her arrival there, her landlady called her attention to what the landlady in question termed "a most charming sight." Stepping hastily to the window, Mrs. Riedesel says, "I beheld two naked men boxing with the greatest fury. I saw their blood flowing and the rage that was painted in their eyes. Little accustomed to such a hateful spectacle, I quickly retreated into the innermost corner of the house to avoid hearing the shouts set up by the spectators whenever a blow was given or received."

Street customs, manners and language are, to a very considerable extent, outward exponents of the moral condition within. It would not be possible to find any place in Europe now where women could be seen going about the streets in the condition as respects raiment which Josselyn, Winslow and Roger Williams seem to intimate was not unusual with the British females of their time; nor would a strumpet even, much less any decent woman, from a foreign land, be treated in the streets of any civilized city as Madame Riedesel describes herself as having been treated in the streets of Bristol in 1777. One cannot conceive of an adulterer or adulteress now doing public penance in a white sheet before a whole congregation assembled for the public worship of God, nor of a really respectable young married couple standing up under the same circumstances and confessing to the sin of fornication. Even if such a thing were done, it would be looked upon as rather suggestive than edifying. All the evidence accordingly indicates that, morally, the improvement made in the nineteenth century as compared with those that preceded it has been more than superficial and in externals only,--that it has been real, in essentials as well as in language and manners. So, while it would not be safe to adopt Burke's splendid generality, that vice has in our time lost half its evil in losing all its grossness, yet it is not unfair to adopt the trope in a modified form, and assert that, in the matter of sexual morality, vice in the nineteenth century as compared with the seventeenth or the eighteenth has lost some part of its evil in losing much of its grossness.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, p. 231.

[2] In 1839 the Rev. William P. Lunt prepared and delivered before the First Congregational Church of Quincy two most scholarly and admirable historical discourses on the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the gathering of the society. In the appendix to these discourses (p. 93) Dr. Lunt states that the earlier records of the church had never been in the possession of either of its then ministers, the Rev. Peter Whitney or himself; and he adds: "In a conversation with Dr. Harris, formerly the respected pastor of Dorchester First Congregational Church, I understood him to say that Mr. Welde, formerly pastor of what is now Braintree Church, had these records in his possession; but when he obtained them, and for what purpose, was not explained. They are probably now irrecoverably lost. As curious and interesting relics of old times, their loss must be regretted."

The extent of this loss is here stated by Dr. Lunt with great moderation. The records in question cover the history of the Braintree church during the whole of the theocratic period in Massachusetts; and, for reasons which will appear in my forthcoming history of Quincy, the loss of these records causes not only an irreparable but a most serious break, so far as Braintree is concerned, in the discussion of one of the most interesting of all the problems connected with the origin and development of the New England town, and system of town-government. There is room for hope that the missing volume may yet come to light.

[3] Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., 2d series, vol. i. p. 239.

[4] "And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican."

[5] 3. "For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed.

4. "In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,

5. "To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."

[6] Ellis, The Puritan Age in Massachusetts, 206-208.

[7] "5. To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."

[8] Trumbull's Blue Laws, True and False, p. 37.

[9] Drake's History of Middlesex County, vol. ii. p. 371.

[10] Butler's History of Groton, pp. 174, 178, 181.

[11] Hutchinson's Diary and Letters, vol. i. p. 232.

[12] Palfrey, vol. v. p. 9.

[13] A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls, &c., 1738, pp. 8-10.

[14] The Rev. Ebenezer Gay, of Hingham.

[15] Lunt's Two Discourses, 1840, p. 48.

[16] Elliott's The New England History, vol. ii. p. 136.

[17] Narrative, pp. 4, 5.

[18] TO BUNDLE. Mr. Grose thus describes this custom: "A man and woman lying on the same bed with their clothes on; an expedient practised in America, on account of a scarcity of beds, where, on such occasions, husbands and parents frequently permitted travellers to _bundle_ with their wives and daughters." (_Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue._)

The Rev. Samuel Peters, in his "General History of Connecticut" (London, 1781), enters largely into the custom of bundling as practised there. He says: "Notwithstanding the great modesty of the females is such, that it would be accounted the greatest rudeness for a gentleman to speak before a lady of a garter or leg, yet it is thought but a piece of civility to ask her to _bundle_." The learned and pious historian endeavors to prove that _bundling_ was not only a Christian custom, but a very polite and prudent one.

The Rev. Andrew Barnaby, who travelled in New England in 1759-60, notices this custom, which then prevailed. He thinks that though it may at first "appear to be the effects of grossness of character, it will, upon deeper research, be found to proceed from simplicity and innocence." (_Travels_, p. 144.)

Van Corlear stopped occasionally in the villages to eat pumpkin-pies, dance at country frolics, and _bundle_ with the Yankee lasses. (_Knickerbocker, New York._)

Bundling is said to be practised in Wales. Whatever may have been the custom in former times, I do not think _bundling_ is now practised anywhere in the United States.

Mr. Masson describes a similar custom in Central Asia: "Many of the Afghan tribes have a custom in wooing similar to what in Wales is known as _bundling-up_, and which they term _namzat baze_. The lover presents himself at the house of his betrothed, with a suitable gift, and in return is allowed to pass the night with her, on the understanding that innocent endearments are not to be exceeded." (_Journeys in Belochistan, Afghanistan, &c._, vol. iii. p. 287.)--BARTLETT, _Dictionary of Americanisms_.

[19] Knickerbocker's History of New York, book iii. chaps. vi., vii.

[20] Elliott's The New England History, vol. i. p. 471.

[21] Letters of Mrs. Adams, (1848,) p. 161.

[22] History, pp. 384-386.

[23] Braintree Records, pp. 480, 499, 500, 523.

[24] See, also, Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., 2d series, vol. iv. p. 10.

[25] Letters and Journals, p. 48.

Transcriber's Notes:

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