Raintree County, by Ross Lockridge, Jr., is a 1948 novel set in a fictional Indiana county -- Raintree County -- which is based on Henry County, Indiana, where Lockridge's family was from. The novel takes place on a single day in 1892, with flashbacks to earlier in the 19th century. At one point, a phrenologist is visiting Raintree County in the 1850's to teach the Hoosiers about phrenology, and part of his pitch goes like this:
Now we all agree, do we not, that no man can or does exist in rational society without a brain. May I say that in Kentucky, whence I have lately come, I felt some disposition to modify that statement, but --
The Professor waited for the applause and laughter of the crowd to subside.
-- But I see no need to do so for the intelligent and enlightened concourse that I see before my eyes.
Ah, Indiana.
I had to look up "phrenology."
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