I should have liked to instance the fact to the
Altrurian, as a proof that this sort of subordination was a part of human
nature, and that a principle which pervaded our civilization, after the
democratic training of our whole national life, must be divinely
implanted. But there was no opportunity for me to speak with him after the
fact had accomplished itself, for by this time he had taken his place in
front of a little clump of low pines and was waiting for the assembly to
quiet itself before he began to speak. I do not think there could have
been less than five hundred present, and the scene had that accidental
picturesqueness which results from the grouping of all sorts of faces and
costumes. Many of our ladies had pretty hats and brilliant parasols, but I
must say that the soberer tone of some of the old farm-wives' brown
calicoes and outdated bonnets contributed to enrich the coloring, and
there was a certain gayety in the sunny glisten of the men's straw hats
everywhere that was very good.
The sky overhead was absolutely stainless, and the light of the cool
afternoon sun streamed upon the slopes of the solemn mountains to the
east.
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