aff"' 
I 4 A Centennial Hiytory of
  in Lexington was stricken. The theory that the inhabitants
  of the river bottoms were more susceptible to fever than those
of the high and dry inland towns of the Bluegrass was ex-
ploded. Louisville consequently profited from that tragic epi-
demic by an influx of settlers who turned to the task of making
the village a pleasant and prosperous place in which to live.
In those early days, especially before the 1820’s, general
cultural conditions in Louisville were largely circumscribed by
the hard, practical considerations of a pioneer society. An
atmosphere of refinement and social grace was not evident
until the third decade of the nineteenth century, but a num-
ber of fortunate circumstances had already created the condi-
tions favorable to a more genteel society. Under the stimulus
of economic prosperity such a cultured society gradually
emerged and took its place in the life of the city. In M’Mur-
trie’s description of Louisville society in 1819 is a fairly ac-
curate and penetrating observation:
Commercial cities of all newly settled countries, whose inhabitants
are gathered from every corner of the earth, who have migrated thither
with but one single object in view, that of acquiring money, are
stamped with no general character, except that of frugality, attention
to business, and an inordinate attachment to money. Absorbed in the
great business of adding dollar to dollar, no time is devoted to litera-
ture or the acquirement of those graceful nothings, which, of no
value in themselves, still constitute one great charm of polished
society.2
This was undoubtedly true of Louisville in 1819, but
H. M’Murtrie recognized the beginnings of something more
urbane and less mercenary in the society of the thriving river
town. It began to blossom in the following decade and bore
fruit in the thirties.
—a