626 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
profound reserve usually marks their social intercourse. The festive gatherings in the "amusement halls" on Saturday nights are either stiff parties or genuine country dances. The "barbe- cue" is common on a general holiday, and the "all-day singing" of a Sunday still remains the acme of enjoyment, affording the perfect blending of sociality and devotion.
One might go on indefinitely with such signs. But since this matter will be encountered again when we arrive at the discus- sion of education and social life among the operatives, we leave it without attempting to adduce other convincing proofs of their rural proclivities.
A second quality differentiating our people from the northern factory communities of today is what may well be called their unmodified Americanism. Up to the present time there is an entire absence of the foreign element of population among them, and the effect of such absence is very marked. Not only do better manners prevail in this people sprung from our own soil, but better morals, greater social purity, less turbulence and lawlessness. Observance of law is easier, more natural, even to illiterate Americans, than to other nations, because law has typi- fied to them from childhood the majesty of right, not the tyranny of might.
The finer respect for women which marks American manhood extends also to these toilers. Except among their very lowest, motherhood inspires the regard it meets in other social classes ; and, while in many of the mills the number of female employees exceeds that of males, yet in few of the better kind are there any mothers of young children at work.
These considerations lead at once to the questions : Where does such a class of labor come from ? What are its antecedents ?
The first is easily answered : the operatives have poured into the new factories, not from town or city, but from the country, direct from the cotton fields, we may say, to the mills. It was certainly not an anomalous movement when cotton was bringing 4^ cents per pound. But with the staple commanding 9 to 10 cents, some reactionary phases must be looked for and provided against.
