share where work was to be done was christened "Lazy Lawrence," and
that was the end of him socially. Cowardice was punished by inexorable
disgrace. The point of honor was as strictly observed as it ever has
been in the idlest and most artificial society. If a man accused
another of falsehood, the ordeal by fisticuffs was instantly resorted
to. Weapons were rarely employed in these chivalrous encounters, being
kept for more serious use with Indians and wild beasts; nevertheless
fists, teeth, and the gouging thumb were often employed with fatal
effect. Yet among this rude and uncouth people there was a genuine and
remarkable respect for law. They seemed to recognize it as an absolute
necessity of their existence. In the territory of Kentucky, and
afterwards in that of Illinois, it occurred at several periods in the
transition from counties to territories and states, that the country
was without any organized authority. But the people were a law unto
themselves. Their improvised courts and councils administered law and
equity; contracts were enforced, debts were collected, and a sort of
order was maintained. It may be said, generally, that the character of
this people was far above their circumstances. In all the accessories
of life, by which we are accustomed to rate communities and races in
the scale of civilization, they were little removed from primitive
barbarism. They dressed in the skins of wild beasts killed by
themselves, and in linen stuffs woven by themselves. They hardly knew
the use of iron except in their firearms and knives. Their food
consisted almost exclusively of game, fish, and roughly ground corn-
meal. Their exchanges were made by barter; many a child grew up
without ever seeing a piece of money. Their habitations were hardly
superior to those of the savages with whom they waged constant war.
Large families lived in log huts, put together without iron, and far
more open to the inclemencies of the skies than the pig-styes of the
careful farmer of to-day. An early schoolmaster says that the first