Washington Irving: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

While reading The Legend of Sleepy Hollow I felt inclined myself to wonder what the purpose, for Irving was of this tale. I tried to imagine (quite wrongly I suppose) what the message of the story is. I struggled on the following levels.
First I found myself conflicted because not only does Irving fail to explain the outcome for Ichabod, but he also fills the reader’s brain with options which all have different implications as far as any sort of moral. I contemplated that the point of the story was to point out how easily fear can be instilled in humans. That we never feel completely safe and could easily be convinced that we aren’t alone in the wilderness. I.E. Ichabod believed he was being followed, later chased, after Brom Bones taunts his with his manly, yet frightening tale. This made me wonder then if this is really the tale of the headless horseman or if the monster is just disillusioning human paranoia.
My second issue in finding a lesson was that I found that none of the characters deserved any respect. Ichabod Crane is a voracious, freeloading womanizer. Brom Bones is your basic arrogant tool. Katrina is not so much a character but a means to both men’s rapacious ends. Because of my distaste for each person, I couldn’t root for any, nor could filter out a lesson based on any of the character’s behaviors and respective outcomes in the story.
I finally found some resolve in the postscript.
The final sort of "lesson" derived from the story according to the story-teller of the post script of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow begins with the following:"That there is no situation in life but has it's advantages and pleasures, provided that we will but take a joke as we find it."This means that as long as we have a sense of humor, some pleasure or advantage can be derived from any experience. This appropriately appears to be a joke in itself, considering the fate of the legend’s protagonist. It also serves to show that the story-teller implies that legends, particularly this one, are taken too seriously, both in the credibility assigned to them and in regard to the fact that, being legends, they do not involve the person being entertained by them.
The story-teller continues:
"That, therefore, he that runs races with goblin troopers, is likely to have rough riding of it:" which he concludes with the final portion: "Ergo, for a country schoolmaster to be refused the hand of a Dutch heiress, is a certain step to high preferment in state."I found the second part confusing, wondering again if he is just telling the “cautious old gentleman” and the reader to basically shut up, stop worrying and just enjoy the story. On the other hand, it could just be intended irony that the story-teller is reducing the lesson of Ichabod’s experience to advising school-teachers to date on their own level.
It is amusing, however, despite my confusion, that the story-teller equates the risk and/or imprudence of riding with an ill-tempered phantom with pursuing women out of your league. I think that again that the intention is to be humorous, implying that even after all the stupid, sinful and death-inviting behavior of Ichabod, basically the dumbest thing he could do was try to date Katrina.
This final thought leads me to believe that the glib story-teller might just be Brom Bones.