the temper of the people as well as a change in the soil when the
Bonnyclabber Country was reached
The traveler at the beginning of the century noticed a change in
the temper of the people as well as a change in the soil when the
Bonnyclabber Country was reached. The time-serving attitude of
the good people of the East now gave place to a ‘consciousness of
independence’ due, Baily remarks, to the fact that each man was
self-sufficient and passed his life ‘without regard to the smiles
and frowns of men in power.’ This spirit was handsomely
illustrated in the case of one burly Westerner who was ‘churched’
for fighting. Showing a surly attitude to the deacon-judges who
sat on his case, he was threatened with civil prosecution and
imprisonment. ‘I don”t want freedom,’ he is said to have replied,
bitterly; ‘I don”t even want to live if I can”t knock down a man
who calls me a liar.’