The old Confederate, writing to his wife, indicated his amazement: "Although he is not a Virginian," he declared, "I must confess that he lives like a gentleman." The name of his Bostonian acquaintance was John Quincy Adams.
I heard this story from a northern lady who has a country place near a small town in Virginia.

In the North this lady's family is far from being unknown, but in Virginia, she assured me, all persons originating outside the State are looked upon as vague beings without "family." "They seem to think," she said, "that Northerners have no parents--that they are made chemically." This does not imply, however, that well-bred Northerners are excluded from society.

Even if they are well off they may get into society; for though money does not count in one's favor in such a town, it does not count against one.

The social requirement of the place is simple.

If people are "nice people," that is enough.
Of course, however, it is one thing to be admitted to Virginia society and another to belong to it by right.