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diff --git a/31709.txt b/31709.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a51bfa6 --- /dev/null +++ b/31709.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9154 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Southern Highlanders, by Horace Kephart + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Our Southern Highlanders + +Author: Horace Kephart + +Release Date: March 20, 2010 [EBook #31709] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR SOUTHERN HIGHLANDERS *** + + + + +Produced by David Garcia, Stephanie Eason, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Kentuckiana Digital Library.) + + + + + + + + + +OUR SOUTHERN HIGHLANDERS + + + + +[Illustration: Photo by U. S. Forest Service + +Big Tom Wilson, the bear hunter, who discovered the body of Prof. Elisha +Mitchell where he perished near the summit of the Peak that afterward +was named in his honor] + + + + + OUR SOUTHERN HIGHLANDERS + + BY + + HORACE KEPHART + + AUTHOR OF "THE BOOK OF CAMPING AND WOODCRAFT," "CAMP + COOKERY," "SPORTING FIREARMS," ETC. + + + _Illustrated_ + + + NEW YORK + OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY + MCMXVI + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY + + OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY + + + All rights reserved + + + First Printing, November 1913 + Second Printing, December 1913 + Third Printing, January 1914 + Fourth Printing, April 1914 + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I. "SOMETHING HIDDEN; GO AND FIND IT" 11 + + II. "THE BACK OF BEYOND" 28 + + III. THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS 50 + + IV. A BEAR HUNT IN THE SMOKIES 75 + + V. MOONSHINE LAND 110 + + VI. WAYS THAT ARE DARK 126 + + VII. A LEAF FROM THE PAST 145 + +VIII. "BLOCKADERS" AND "THE REVENUE" 167 + + IX. THE OUTLANDER AND THE NATIVE 191 + + X. THE PEOPLE OF THE HILLS 212 + + XI. THE LAND OF DO WITHOUT 234 + + XII. HOME FOLKS AND NEIGHBOR PEOPLE 256 + +XIII. THE MOUNTAIN DIALECT 276 + + XIV. THE LAW OF THE WILDERNESS 305 + + XV. THE BLOOD-FEUD 327 + + XVI. WHO ARE THE MOUNTAINEERS? 354 + +XVII. "WHEN THE SLEEPER WAKES" 378 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +Big Tom Wilson, the bear hunter _Frontispiece_ + + FACING PAGE + +Map of Appalachia 8 + +A family of pioneers in the twentieth century 16 + +"The very cliffs are sheathed with trees and shrubs" 24 + +At the Post-Office 32 + +The author in camp in the Big Smokies 40 + +"Bob" 48 + +"There are few jutting crags" 56 + +The bears' home--laurel and rhododendron 64 + +The old copper mine 72 + +"What soldiers these fellows would make under +leadership of some backwoods Napoleon" 80 + +"By and by up they came, carrying the bear on +the trimmed sapling" 88 + +Skinning a frozen bear 96 + +"... Powerful steep and laurely...." 104 + +Mountain still-house hidden in the laurel 112 + +Moonshine still, side view 120 + +Moonshine still in full operation 128 + +Corn mill and blacksmith forge 136 + +A tub-mill 152 + +Cabin on the Little Fork of Sugar Fork of Hazel +Creek in which the author lived alone for three years 160 + +A mountain home 176 + +Many of the homes have but one window 192 + +The schoolhouse 208 + +"At thirty a mountain woman is apt to have a +worn and faded look" 216 + +The misty veil of falling water 232 + +An average mountain cabin 240 + +A bee-gum 248 + +Let the women do the work 264 + +"Till the sky-line blends with the sky itself" 288 + +Whitewater Falls 312 + +The road follows the creek--there may be a dozen +fords in a mile 320 + +"Dense forest and luxuriant undergrowth" 336 + + + + +[Illustration: APPALACHIA + +The wavy black line shows the outer boundaries of Southern Appalachian +Region. The shaded portion shows the chief areas covered by high +mountains, 3,000 to 6,700 feet above sea-level.] + + + + +OUR SOUTHERN HIGHLANDERS + + + + +OUR SOUTHERN HIGHLANDERS + + +CHAPTER I + +"SOMETHING HIDDEN; GO AND FIND IT" + + +In one of Poe's minor tales, written in 1845, there is a vague allusion +to wild mountains in western Virginia "tenanted by fierce and uncouth +races of men." This, so far as I know, was the first reference in +literature to our Southern mountaineers, and it stood as their only +characterization until Miss Murfree ("Charles Egbert Craddock") began +her stories of the Cumberland hills. + +Time and retouching have done little to soften our Highlander's +portrait. Among reading people generally, South as well as North, to +name him is to conjure up a tall, slouching figure in homespun, who +carries a rifle as habitually as he does his hat, and who may tilt its +muzzle toward a stranger before addressing him, the form of salutation +being: + +"Stop thar! Whut's you-unses name? Whar's you-uns a-goin' ter?" + +Let us admit that there is just enough truth in this caricature to give +it a point that will stick. Our typical mountaineer is lank, he is +always unkempt, he is fond of toting a gun on his shoulder, and his +curiosity about a stranger's name and business is promptly, though +politely, outspoken. For the rest, he is a man of mystery. The great +world outside his mountains knows almost as little about him as he does +of it; and that is little indeed. News in order to reach him must be of +such widespread interest as fairly to fall from heaven; correspondingly, +scarce any incidents of mountain life will leak out unless they be of +sensational nature, such as the shooting of a revenue officer in +Carolina, the massacre of a Virginia court, or the outbreak of another +feud in "bloody Breathitt." And so, from the grim sameness of such +reports, the world infers that battle, murder, and sudden death are +commonplaces in Appalachia. + +To be sure, in Miss Murfree's novels, as in those of John Fox, Jr., and +of Alice MacGowan, we do meet characters more genial than feudists and +illicit distillers; none the less, when we have closed the book, who is +it that stands out clearest as type and pattern of the mountaineer? Is +it not he of the long rifle and peremptory challenge? And whether this +be because he gets most of the limelight, or because we have a furtive +liking for that sort of thing (on paper), or whether the armed outlaw be +indeed a genuine protagonist--in any case, the Appalachian people remain +in public estimation to-day, as Poe judged them, an uncouth and fierce +race of men, inhabiting a wild mountain region little known. + +The Southern highlands themselves are a mysterious realm. When I +prepared, eight years ago, for my first sojourn in the Great Smoky +Mountains, which form the master chain of the Appalachian system, I +could find in no library a guide to that region. The most diligent +research failed to discover so much as a magazine article, written +within this generation, that described the land and its people. Nay, +there was not even a novel or a story that showed intimate local +knowledge. Had I been going to Teneriffe or Timbuctu, the libraries +would have furnished information a-plenty; but about this housetop of +eastern America they were strangely silent; it was _terra incognita_. + +On the map I could see that the Southern Appalachians cover an area much +larger than New England, and that they are nearer the center of our +population than any other mountains that deserve the name. Why, then, so +little known? Quaintly there came to mind those lines familiar to my +boyhood: "Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain; +and see the land, what it is; and the people that dwelleth therein, +whether they be strong or weak, few or many; and what the land is that +they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what cities they be that +they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strongholds; and what the land +is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein or not." + +In that dustiest room of a great library where "pub. docs." are stored, +I unearthed a government report on forestry that gave, at last, a clear +idea of the lay of the land. And here was news. We are wont to think of +the South as a low country with sultry climate; yet its mountain chains +stretch uninterruptedly southwestward from Virginia to Alabama, 650 +miles in an air line. They spread over parts of eight contiguous States, +and cover an area somewhat larger than England and Scotland, or about +the same as that of the Alps. In short, the greatest mountain system of +eastern America is massed in our Southland. In its upper zone one sleeps +under blankets the year round. + +In all the region north of Virginia and east of the Black Hills of +Dakota there is but one summit (Mount Washington, in New Hampshire) that +reaches 6,000 feet above sea level, and there are only a dozen others +that exceed 5,000 feet. By contrast, south of the Potomac there are +forty-six peaks, and forty-one miles of dividing ridges, that rise above +6,000 feet, besides 288 mountains and some 300 miles of divide that +stand more than 5,000 feet above the sea. In North Carolina alone the +mountains cover 6,000 square miles, with an _average_ elevation of 2,700 +feet, and with twenty-one peaks that overtop Mount Washington. + +I repeated to myself: "Why, then, so little known?" The Alps and the +Rockies, the Pyrennees and the Harz are more familiar to the American +people, in print and picture, if not by actual visit, than are the +Black, the Balsam, and the Great Smoky Mountains. It is true that summer +tourists flock to Asheville and Toxaway, Linville and Highlands, passing +their time at modern hotels and motoring along a few macadamed roads, +but what do they see of the billowy wilderness that conceals most of the +native homes? Glimpses from afar. What do they learn of the real +mountaineer? Hearsay. For, mark you, nine-tenths of the Appalachian +population are a sequestered folk. The typical, the average mountain +man prefers his native hills and his primitive ancient ways. + +We read more and talk more about the Filipinos, see more of the Chinese +and the Syrians, than of these three million next-door Americans who are +of colonial ancestry and mostly of British stock. New York, we say, is a +cosmopolitan city; more Irish than in Dublin, more Germans than in +Munich, more Italians than in Rome, more Jews than in nine Jerusalems; +but how many New Yorkers ever saw a Southern mountaineer? I am sure that +a party of hillsmen fresh from the back settlements of the Unakas, if +dropped on the streets of any large city in the Union, and left to their +own guidance, would stir up more comment (and probably more trouble) +than would a similar body of whites from any other quarter of the earth; +and yet this same odd people is more purely bred from old American stock +than any other element of our population that occupies, by itself, so +great a territory. + +The mountaineers of the South are marked apart from all other folks by +dialect, by customs, by character, by self-conscious isolation. So true +is this that they call all outsiders "furriners." It matters not whether +your descent be from Puritan or Cavalier, whether you come from +Boston or Chicago, Savannah or New Orleans, in the mountains you are a +"furriner." A traveler, puzzled and scandalized at this, asked a native +of the Cumberlands what he would call a "Dutchman or a Dago." The fellow +studied a bit and then replied: "Them's the outlandish." + + +[Illustration: A Family of Pioneers in the Twentieth Century] + + +Foreigner, outlander, it is all one; we are "different," we are "quar," +to the mountaineer. He knows he is an American; but his conception of +the metes and bounds of America is vague to the vanishing point. As for +countries over-sea--well, when a celebrated Nebraskan returned from his +trip around the globe, one of my backwoods neighbors proudly informed +me: "I see they give Bryan a lot of receptions when he kem back from the +other world." + +No one can understand the attitude of our highlanders toward the rest of +the earth until he realizes their amazing isolation from all that lies +beyond the blue, hazy skyline of their mountains. Conceive a shipload of +emigrants cast away on some unknown island, far from the regular track +of vessels, and left there for five or six generations, unaided and +untroubled by the growth of civilization. Among the descendants of such +a company we would expect to find customs and ideas unaltered from the +time of their forefathers. And that is just what we do find to-day among +our castaways in the sea of mountains. Time has lingered in Appalachia. +The mountain folk still live in the eighteenth century. The progress of +mankind from that age to this is no heritage of theirs. + +Our backwoodsmen of the Blue Ridge and the Unakas, of their connecting +chains, and of the outlying Cumberlands, are still thinking essentially +the same thoughts, still living in much the same fashion, as did their +ancestors in the days of Daniel Boone. Nor is this their fault. They are +a people of keen intelligence and strong initiative when they can see +anything to win. But, as President Frost says, they have been +"beleaguered by nature." They are belated--ghettoed in the midst of a +civilization that is as aloof from them as if it existed only on another +planet. And so, in order to be fair and just with these, our backward +kinsmen, we must, for the time, decivilize ourselves to the extent of +_going back_ and getting an eighteenth century point of view. + +But, first, how comes it that the mountain folk have been so long +detached from the life and movement of their times? Why are they so +foreign to present-day Americanism that they innocently call all the +rest of us foreigners? + +The answer lies on the map. They are creatures of environment, enmeshed +in a labyrinth that has deflected and repelled the march of our nation +for three hundred years. + +In 1728, when Colonel William Byrd, of Westover, was running the +boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina, he finally was +repulsed by parallel chains of savage, unpeopled mountains that rose +tier beyond tier to the westward, everywhere densely forested, and +matted into jungle by laurel and other undergrowth. In his _Journal_, +writing in the quaint, old-fashioned way, he said: "Our country has now +been inhabited more than 130 years by the English, and still we hardly +know anything of the Appalachian Mountains, that are nowhere above 250 +miles from the sea. Whereas the French, who are later comers, have +rang'd from Quebec Southward as far as the Mouth of Mississippi, in the +bay of Mexico, and to the West almost as far as California, which is +either way above 2,000 miles." + +A hundred and thirty years later, the same thing could have been said of +these same mountains; for the "fierce and uncouth races of men" that Poe +faintly heard of remained practically undiscovered until they startled +the nation on the scene of our Civil War, by sending 180,000 of their +riflemen into the Union Army. + +If a corps of surveyors to-day should be engaged to run a line due west +from eastern Virginia to the Blue Grass of Kentucky, they would have an +arduous task. Let us suppose that they start from near Richmond and +proceed along the line of 37 deg. 50'. The Blue Ridge is not especially +difficult: only eight transverse ridges to climb up and down in fourteen +miles, and none of them more than 2,000 feet high from bottom to top. +Then, thirteen miles across the lower end of The Valley, a curious +formation begins. + +As a foretaste, in the three and a half miles crossing Little House and +Big House mountains, one ascends 2,200 feet, descends 1,400, climbs +again 1,600, and goes down 2,000 feet on the far side. Beyond lie steep +and narrow ridges athwart the way, paralleling each other like waves at +sea. Ten distinct mountain chains are scaled and descended in the next +forty miles. There are few "leads" rising gradually to their crests. +Each and every one of these ridges is a Chinese wall magnified to +altitudes of from a thousand to two thousand feet, and covered with +thicket. The hollows between them are merely deep troughs. + +In the next thirty miles we come upon novel topography. Instead of wave +following wave in orderly procession, we find here a choppy sea of small +mountains, with hollows running toward all points of the compass. +Instead of Chinese walls, we now have Chinese puzzles. The innate +perversity of such configuration grows more and more exasperating as we +toil westward. In the two hundred miles from the Greenbrier to the +Kentucky River, the ridges are all but unscalable, and the streams +sprangle in every direction like branches of mountain laurel. + +The only roads follow the beds of tortuous and rock-strewn water +courses, which may be nearly dry when you start out in the morning, but +within an hour may be raging torrents. There are no bridges. One may +ford a dozen times in a mile. A spring "tide" will stop all travel, even +from neighbor to neighbor, for a day or two at a time. Buggies and +carriages are unheard of. In many districts the only means of +transportation is with saddlebags on horseback, or with a "tow sack" +afoot. If the pedestrian tries a short-cut he will learn what the +natives mean when they say: "Goin' up, you can might' nigh stand up +straight and bite the ground; goin' down, a man wants hobnails in the +seat of his pants." + +James Lane Allen was not writing fiction when he said of the far-famed +Wilderness Road into Kentucky: "Despite all that has been done to +civilize it since Boone traced its course in 1790, this honored historic +thoroughfare remains to-day as it was in the beginning, with all its +sloughs and sands, its mud and holes, and jutting ledges of rock and +loose boulders, and twists and turns, and general total depravity.... +One such road was enough. They are said to have been notorious for +profanity, those who came into Kentucky from this side. Naturally. Many +were infidels--there are roads that make a man lose faith. It is known +that the more pious companies of them, as they traveled along, would now +and then give up in despair, sit down, raise a hymn, and have prayers +before they could go further. Perhaps one of the provocations to +homicide among the mountain people should be reckoned this road. I have +seen two of the mildest of men, after riding over it for a few hours, +lose their temper and begin to fight--fight their horses, fight the +flies, fight the cobwebs on their noses." + +Such difficulties of intercommunication are enough to explain the +isolation of the mountaineers. In the more remote regions this +loneliness reaches a degree almost unbelievable. Miss Ellen Semple, in a +fine monograph published in the _Geographical Journal_, of London, in +1901, gave us some examples: + + "These Kentucky mountaineers are not only cut off from the outside + world, but they are separated from each other. Each is confined to + his own locality, and finds his little world within a radius of a + few miles from his cabin. There are many men in these mountains who + have never seen a town, or even the poor village that constitutes + their county-seat.... The women ... are almost as rooted as the + trees. We met one woman who, during the twelve years of her married + life, had lived only ten miles across the mountain from her own + home, but had never in this time been back home to visit her father + and mother. Another back in Perry county told me she had never been + farther from home than Hazard, the county-seat, which is only six + miles distant. Another had never been to the post-office, four + miles away; and another had never seen the ford of the Rockcastle + River, only two miles from her home, and marked, moreover, by the + country store of the district." + + +When I first went into the Smokies, I stopped one night in a single-room +log cabin, and soon had the good people absorbed in my tales of travel +beyond the seas. Finally the housewife said to me, with pathetic +resignation: "Bushnell's the furdest ever I've been." Bushnell, at that +time, was a hamlet of thirty people, only seven miles from where we sat. +When I lived alone on "the Little Fork of Sugar Fork of Hazel Creek," +there were women in the neighborhood, young and old, who had never seen +a railroad, and men who had never boarded a train, although the Murphy +branch ran within sixteen miles of our post-office. The first time that +a party of these people went to the railroad, they were uneasy and +suspicious. Nearing the way-station, a girl in advance came upon the +first negro she ever saw in her life, and ran screaming back: "My +goddamighty, Mam, thar's the boogerman--I done seed him!" + +But before discussing the mountain people and their problems, let us +take an imaginary balloon voyage over their vast domain. South of the +Potomac the Blue Ridge is a narrow rampart rising abruptly from the +east, one or two thousand feet above its base, and descending sharply to +the Shenandoah Valley on the west. Across the Valley begin the +Alleghanies. These mountains, from the Potomac through to the northern +Tennessee border, consist of a multitude of narrow ridges with steep +escarpment on both sides, running southwesterly in parallel chains, and +each chain separated from its neighbors by deep, slender dales. Wherever +one goes westward from the Valley he will encounter tier after tier of +these ridges, as I have already described. + + +[Illustration: Photo by U. S. Forest Service + +"The very cliffs are sheathed with trees and shrubs"--Linville River and +Falls, N. C. The walls of one gorge are from 500 to 2,000 feet high.] + + +As a rule, the links in each chain can be passed by following small +gaps; but often one must make very wide detours. For example, Pine +Mountain (every link has its own distinct name) is practically +impassable for nearly 150 miles, except for two water gaps and five +difficult crossings. Although it averages only a mile thick, the people +on its north side, generally, know less about those on the south than a +Maine Yankee does about Pennsylvania Dutchmen. + +The Alleghanies together have a width of from forty to sixty miles. +Westward of them, for a couple of hundred miles, are the labyrinthine +roughs of West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. + +In southwestern Virginia the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies coalesce, +but soon spread apart again, the Blue Ridge retaining its name, as well +as its general character, although much loftier and more massive than in +the north. The southeast front of the Blue Ridge is a steep escarpment, +rising abruptly from the Piedmont Plateau of Carolina. Not one river +cuts through the Ridge, notwithstanding that the mountains to the +westward are higher and much more massive. It is the watershed of this +whole mountain region. The streams rising on its northwestern front flow +down into central plateaus, and thence cut their way through the Unakas +in deep and precipitous gorges, draining finally into the Gulf of +Mexico, through the Tennessee, Ohio and Mississippi rivers. + +The northwestern range, which corresponds to the Alleghanies of +Virginia, now assumes a character entirely different from them. Instead +of parallel chains of low ridges, we have here, on the border of North +Carolina and Tennessee, a single chain that dwarfs all others in the +Appalachian system. It is cut into segments by the rivers (Nolichucky, +French Broad, Pigeon, Little Tennessee, Hiwassee) that drain the +interior plateaus, and each segment has a distinct name of its own +(Iron, Northern Unaka, Bald, Great Smoky, Southern Unaka or Unicoi +mountains). The Carolina mountaineers still call this system +collectively the Alleghanies, but the U. S. Geological Survey has given +it a more distinctive name, the Unakas. While the Blue Ridge has only +seven peaks that rise above 5,000 feet, the Unakas have 125 summits +exceeding 5,000, and ten that are over 6,000 feet. + +Connecting the Unaka chain with the Blue Ridge are several transverse +ranges, the Stone, Beech, Roan, Yellow, Black, Newfound, Pisgah, Balsam, +Cowee, Nantahala, Tusquitee, and a few minor mountains, which as a whole +are much higher than the Blue Ridge, 156 summits rising over 5,000 +feet, and thirty-six over 6,000 feet above sea-level. + +In northern Georgia the Unakas and the Blue Ridge gradually fade away +into straggling ridges and foothills, which extend into small parts of +South Carolina and Alabama. + +The Cumberland Plateau is not attached to either of these mountain +systems, but is rather a prolongation of the roughs of eastern Kentucky. +It is separated from the Unakas by the broad valley of the Tennessee +River. The Plateau rises very abruptly from the surrounding plains. It +consists mainly of tableland gashed by streams that have cut their way +down in deep narrow gulches with precipitous sides. + +Most of the literature about our Southern mountaineers refers only to +the inhabitants of the comparatively meagre hills of eastern Kentucky, +or to the Cumberlands of Tennessee. Little has been written about the +real mountaineers of southwestern Virginia, western North Carolina, and +the extreme north of Georgia. The great mountain masses still await +their annalist, their artist, and, in some places, even their explorer. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +"THE BACK OF BEYOND" + + +Of certain remote parts of Erin, Jane Barlow says: "In Bogland, if you +inquire the address of such or such person, you will hear not very +infrequently that he or she lives 'off away at the Back of Beyond.'... A +Traveler to the Back of Beyond may consider himself rather exceptionally +fortunate, should he find that he is able to arrive at his destination +by any mode of conveyance other than 'the two standin' feet of him.' +Often enough the last stage of his journey proceeds down some boggy +_boreen_, or up some craggy hill-track, inaccessible to any wheel or +hoof that ever was shod." + +So in Appalachia, one steps shortly from the railway into the primitive. +Most of the river valleys are narrow. In their bottoms the soil is rich, +the farms well kept and generous, the owners comfortable and urbane. But +from the valleys directly spring the mountains, with slopes rising +twenty to forty degrees or more. These mountains cover nine-tenths of +western North Carolina, and among them dwell a majority of the native +people. + +The back country is rough. No boat nor canoe can stem its brawling +waters. No bicycle nor automobile can enter it. No coach can endure its +roads. Here is a land of lumber wagons, and saddle-bags, and shackly +little sleds that are dragged over the bare ground by harnessed steers. +This is the country that ordinary tourists shun. And well for such that +they do, since whoso cares more for bodily comfort than for freedom and +air and elbow-room should tarry by still waters and pleasant pastures. +To him the backwoods could be only what Burns called Argyleshire: "A +country where savage streams tumble over savage mountains, thinly +overspread with savage flocks, which starvingly support as savage +inhabitants." + +When I went south into the mountains I was seeking a Back of Beyond. +This for more reasons than one. With an inborn taste for the wild and +romantic, I yearned for a strange land and a people that had the charm +of originality. Again, I had a passion for early American history; and, +in Far Appalachia, it seemed that I might realize the past in the +present, seeing with my own eyes what life must have been to my pioneer +ancestors of a century or two ago. Besides, I wanted to enjoy a free +life in the open air, the thrill of exploring new ground, the joys of +the chase, and the man's game of matching my woodcraft against the +forces of nature, with no help from servants or hired guides. + +So, casting about for a biding place that would fill such needs, I +picked out the upper settlement of Hazel Creek, far up under the lee of +those Smoky Mountains that I had learned so little about. On the edge of +this settlement, scant two miles from the post-office of Medlin, there +was a copper mine, long disused on account of litigation, and I got +permission to occupy one of its abandoned cabins. + +A mountain settlement consists of all who get their mail at the same +place. Ours was made up of forty-two households (about two hundred +souls) scattered over an area eight miles long by two wide. These are +air-line measurements. All roads and trails "wiggled and wingled around" +so that some families were several miles from a neighbor. Fifteen homes +had no wagon road, and could be reached by no vehicle other than a +narrow sled. Quill Rose had not even a sledpath, but journeyed full five +miles by trail to the nearest wagon road. + +Medlin itself comprised two little stores built of rough planks and +bearing no signs, a corn mill, and four dwellings. A mile and a half +away was the log schoolhouse, which, once or twice a month, served also +as church. Scattered about the settlement were seven tiny tub-mills for +grinding corn, some of them mere open sheds with a capacity of about a +bushel a day. Most of the dwellings were built of logs. Two or three, +only, were weatherboarded frame houses and attained the dignity of a +story and a half. + +All about us was the forest primeval, where roamed some sparse herds of +cattle, razorback hogs, and the wild beasts. Speckled trout were in all +the streams. Bears sometimes raided the fields, and wildcats were a +common nuisance. Our settlement was a mere slash in the vast woodland +that encompassed it. + +The post-office occupied a space about five feet square, in a corner of +one of the stores. There was a daily mail, by rider, serving four other +communities along the way. The contractor for this service had to +furnish two horses, working turnabout, pay the rider, and squeeze his +own profit, out of $499 a year. In Star Route days the mail was carried +afoot, two barefooted young men "toting the sacks on their own wethers" +over this thirty-two-mile round trip, for forty-eight cents a day; and +they boarded themselves! + +In the group that gathered at mail time I often was solicited to "back" +envelopes, give out the news, or decipher letters for men who could not +read. Several times, in the postmaster's absence, I registered letters +for myself, or for someone else, the law of the nation being suspended +by general consent. + +Our stores, as I have said, were small, yet many of their shelves were +empty. Oftentimes there was no flour to be had, no meat, cereals, canned +goods, coffee, sugar, or oil. It excited no comment at all when Old Pete +would lean across his bare counter and lament that "Thar's lots o' folks +a-hurtin' around hyur for lard, and I ain't got none." + +I have seen the time when our neighborhood could get no salt nor tobacco +without making a twenty-four-mile trip over the mountain and back, in +the dead of winter. This was due, partly, to the state of the roads, and +to the fact that there would be no wagon available for weeks at a time. +Wagoning, by the way, was no sinecure. Often it meant to chop a fallen +tree out of the road, and then, with handspikes, "man-power the log +outen the way." Sometimes an axle would break (far upon the mountain, +of course); then a tree must be felled, and a new axle made on the spot +from the green wood, with no tools but axe and jackknife. + + +[Illustration: At the Post-Office] + + +Trade was mostly by barter, in which 'coon skins and ginseng had the +same rank as in the days of Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. Long credits +were given on anticipated crops; but the risks were great and the market +limited by local consumption, as it did not pay to haul bulky +commodities to the railroad. Hence it was self-preservation for the +storekeepers to carry only a slender stock of essentials and take pains +to have little left through unproductive times. + +As a rule, credit would not be asked so long as anything at all could be +offered in trade. When Bill took the last quart of meal from the house, +as rations for a bear hunt, his patient Marg walked five miles to the +store with a skinny old chicken, last of the flock, and offered to +barter it for "a dustin' o' salt." There was not a bite in her house +beyond potatoes, and "'taters don't go good 'thout salt." + +In our primitive community there were no trades, no professions. Every +man was his own farmer, blacksmith, gunsmith, carpenter, cobbler, +miller, tinker. Someone in his family, or a near neighbor, served him as +barber and dentist, and would make him a coffin when he died. One +farmer was also the wagoner of the district, as well as storekeeper, +magistrate, veterinarian, and accoucheur. He also owned the only +"tooth-pullers" in the settlement: a pair of universal forceps that he +designed, forged, filed out, and wielded with barbaric grit. His wife +kept the only boarding-house for leagues around. Truly, an accomplished +couple! + +About two-thirds of our householders owned their homes. Of the remainder +about three-fifths were renters and two-fifths were squatters, in the +sense that these last were permitted to occupy ground for the sake of +reporting trespass and putting out fires--or, maybe, to prevent them +doing both. Nearly all of the wild land belonged to Northern timber +companies who had not yet begun operations (they have done so within the +past three years). + +Titles were confused, owing to careless surveys, or guesswork, in the +past. Many boundaries overlapped, and there were bits of no-man's land +here and there, covered by no deed and subject to entry by anyone who +discovered them. Our old frontier always was notorious for +happy-go-lucky surveys and neglect to make legal entry of claims. Thus +Boone lost the fairest parts of the Kentucky he founded, and was +ejected and sent adrift. In our own time, overlapping boundaries have +led to bitter litigation and murderous feuds. + +As our territory was sparsely occupied, there were none of those +"perpendicular farms" so noticeable in older settlements near the river +valleys, where men plow fields as steep as their own house roofs and +till with the hoe many an acre that is steeper still. John Fox tells of +a Kentucky farmer who fell out of his own cornfield and broke his neck. +I have seen fields in Carolina where this might occur, as where a +forty-five degree slope is tilled to the brink of a precipice. A woman +told me: "I've hoed corn many a time on my knees--yes, I have;" and +another: "Many's the hill o' corn I've propped up with a rock to keep it +from fallin' down-hill."[1] + +Even in our new region many of the fields suffered quickly from erosion. +When a forest is cleared there is a spongy humus on the ground surface +that is extremely rich, but this washes away in a single season. The +soil beneath is good, but thin on the hillsides, and its soluble, +fertile ingredients soon leach out and vanish. Without terracing, which +I have never seen practiced in the mountains of the South, no field with +a surface slope of more than ten degrees (about two feet in ten) will +last more than a few years. As one of my neighbors put it: "Thar, I've +cl'ared me a patch and grubbed hit out--now I can raise me two or three +severe craps!" + +"Then what?" I asked. + +"When corn won't grow no more I can turn the field into grass a couple +o' years." + +"Then you'll rotate, and grow corn again?" + +"La, no! By that time the land will be so poor hit wouldn't raise a +cuss-fight." + +"But then you must move, and begin all over again. This continual moving +must be a great nuisance." + +He rolled his quid and placidly answered: "Huk-uh; when I move, all I +haffter do is put out the fire and call the dog." + +His apparent indifference was only philosophy expressed with sardonic +humor; just as another neighbor would say, "This is good, strong land, +or it wouldn't hold up all the rocks there is around hyur." + +Right here is the basis for much of what strangers call shiftlessness +among the mountaineers. But of that, more anon in other chapters. + +In clearing new ground, everyone followed the ancient custom of girdling +the tree trunks and letting them stand in spectral ugliness until they +rotted and fell. This is a quick and easy way to get rid of the shade +that otherwise would stunt the crops, and it prevents such trees as +chestnut, buckeye and basswood from sprouting from the stumps. In the +fields stood scores of gigantic hemlocks, deadened, that never would be +used even for fuel, save as their bark furnished the women with +quick-burning stove-wood in wet weather. No one dreamt that hemlock ever +would be marketable. And this was only five years ago! + +The tillage was as rude and destructive as anything we read of in +pioneer history. The common plow was a "bull-tongue," which has aptly +been described as "hardly more than a sharpened stick with a metal rim." +The harrows were of wood, throughout, with locust teeth (a friend and I +made one from the green trees in half a day, and it lasted three seasons +on rocky ground). Sometimes no harrow was used at all, the plowed ground +being "drug" with a big evergreen bough. This needed only to be withed +directly to a pony's tail, as they used to do in ancient Ireland, and +the picture of prehistoric agriculture would have been complete. After +the corn was up, all cultivating was done with the hoe. For this the +entire family turned out, the toddlers being left to play in the furrows +while their mother toiled like a man. + +Corn was the staple crop--in fact, the only crop of most farmers. Some +rye was raised along the creek, and a little oats, but our settlement +grew no wheat--there was no mill that could grind it. Wheat is raised, +to some extent, in the river bottoms, and on the plateaus of the +interior. I have seen it flailed out on the bare ground, and winnowed by +pouring the grain and chaff from basket to basket while the women +fluttered aprons or bed-sheets. Corn is topped for the blade-fodder, the +ears gathered from the stalk, and the main stalks afterwards used as +"roughness" (roughage). The cribs generally are ramshackle pens, and +there is much waste from mold and vermin. + +The Carolina mountains are, by nature, one of the best fruit regions in +eastern America. Apples, grapes, and berries, especially, thrive +exceeding well. But our mountaineer is no horticulturist. He lets his +fruit trees take care of themselves, and so, everywhere except on select +farms near the towns, we see old apple and peach trees that never were +pruned, bristling with shoots, and often bearing wizened fruit, dry and +bitter, or half rotted on the stem. + +So, too, the gardens are slighted. Late in the season our average garden +is a miniature jungle, chiefly of weeds that stand high as one's head. +Cabbage and field beans survive and figure mightily in the diet of the +mountaineer. Potatoes generally do well, but few farmers raise enough to +see them through the winter. Generally some tobacco is grown for family +consumption, the strong "twist" being smoked or chewed indifferently. + +An interesting crop in our neighborhood was ginseng, of which there were +several patches in cultivation. This curious plant is native throughout +the Appalachians, but has been exterminated in all but the wildest +regions, on account of the high price that its dried root brings. It has +long since passed out of our pharmacopoeia, and is marketed only in +China, though our own people formerly esteemed it as a panacea for all +ills of the flesh. Colonel Byrd, in his "History of the Dividing Line," +says of it: + + "Though Practice wilt soon make a man of tolerable Vigour an able + Footman, yet, as a help to bear Fatigue I us'd to chew a Root of + Ginseng as I Walk't along. This kept up my Spirits, and made me + trip away as nimbly in my half Jack-Boots as younger men cou'd in + their Shoes. This Plant is in high Esteem in China, where it sells + for its Weight in Silver.... Its vertues are, that it gives an + uncommon Warmth and Vigour to the Blood, and frisks the Spirits, + beyond any other Cordial. It chears the Heart, even of a Man that + has a bad Wife, and makes him look down with great Composure on the + crosses of the World. It promotes insensible Perspiration, + dissolves all Phlegmatick and Viscous Humours, that are apt to + obstruct the Narrow channels of the Nerves. It helps the Memory and + would quicken even Helvetian dullness. 'Tis friendly to the Lungs, + much more than Scolding itself. It comforts the Stomach, and + Strengthens the Bowels, preventing all Colicks and Fluxes. In one + Word, it will make a Man live a great while, and very well while he + does live. And what is more, it will even make Old Age amiable, by + rendering it lively, chearful, and good-humour'd." + + +Alas that only Chinamen and eighteenth-century Cavaliers could absorb +the virtues of this sovereign herb! + +A successful ginseng grower of our settlement told me that two acres of +the plant will bring an income of $2,500 to $5,000 a year, planting +100,000 to the acre. The roots take eight years to mature. They weigh +from one and a half to four ounces each, when fresh, and one-third of +this dried. Two acres produce 25,000 roots a year, by progression. The +dried root, at that time, brought five dollars a pound. At present, I +believe, it is higher. Another friend of mine, who is in this business +extensively, tried exporting for himself, but got only $6.50 a pound in +Amoy, when the U. S. consul at that port assured him that the real +market price was from $12.60 to $24.40. The local trader, knowing +American prices, pocketed the difference. + + +[Illustration: The Author in Camp in the Big Smokies] + + +In times of scarcity many of our people took to the woods and gathered +commoner medicinal roots, such as bloodroot and wild ginger (there are +scores of others growing wild in great profusion), but made only a +pittance at it, as synthetic drugs have mostly taken the place of herbal +simples in modern medicine. Women and children did better, in the days +before Christmas, by gathering galax, "hemlock" (_leucothoe_), and +mistletoe, selling to the dealers at the railroad, who ship them North +for holiday decorations. One bright lad from town informed me, with +evident pride of geography, that "Some of this goes to London, England." +Nearly everywhere in our woods the beautiful ruddy-bronze galax is +abundant. Along the water-courses, _leucothoe_, which similarly turns +bronze in autumn, and lasts throughout the winter, is so prolific as to +be a nuisance to travelers, being hard to push through. + +Most of our farmers had neither horse nor mule. For the rough work of +cultivating the hillsides a single steer hitched to the "bull-tongue" +was better adapted, and the same steer patiently dragged a little sled +to the trading post. On steep declivities the sled is more practical +than a cart or wagon, because it can go where wheels cannot, it does not +require so wide a track, and it "brakes" automatically in going +downhill. Nearly all the farmer's hauling is downhill to his home, or +down farther to the village. A sled can be made quite easily by one man, +out of wood growing on the spot, and with few iron fittings, or none at +all. The runners are usually made of natural sourwood crooks, this +timber being chosen because it wears very smooth and does not fur up nor +splinter. + +The hinterland is naturally adapted to grazing, rather than to +agriculture. As it stands, the best pasturage is high up in the +mountains, where there are "balds" covered with succulent wild grass +that resembles Kentucky bluegrass. Clearing and sowing would extend such +areas indefinitely. The cattle forage for themselves through eight or +nine months of the year, running wild like the razorbacks, and the only +attention given them is when the herdsmen go out to salt them or to mark +the calves. Nearly all the beasts are scrub stock. Jerseys, and other +blooded cattle thrive in the valleys, where there are no free ranges, +but the backwoodsman does not want "critters that haffter be gentled and +hand-fed." The result is that many families go without milk a great part +of the year, and seldom indeed taste butter or beef. + +The truth is that mountain beef, being fed nothing but grass and browse, +with barely enough corn and roughage to keep the animal alive through +winter, is blue-fleshed, watery, and tough. If properly reared, the +quality would be as good as any. Almost any of our farmers could have +had a pasture near home and could have grown hay, but not one in ten +would take the trouble. His cattle were only for export--let the buyer +fatten them! It should be understood that nobody had any provision for +taking care of fresh meat when the weather was not frosty. + +On those rare occasions when somebody killed a beef, he had to travel +all over the neighborhood to dispose of it in small portions. The +carcass was cut up in the same way as a hog, and all parts except the +cheap "bilin' pieces" were sold at the same price: ten cents a pound, or +whatever they would bring on the spot. The butchering was done with an +axe and a jackknife. The meat was either sliced thin and fried to a +crackling, or cut in chunks and boiled furiously just long enough to fit +it for boot-heels. What the butcher mangled, the cook damned. + +Few sheep were raised in our settlement, and these only for their wool. +The untamed Smokies were no place for such defenseless creatures. Sheep +will not, cannot, run wild. They are wholly dependent on the fostering +hand of man and perish without his shepherding. Curiously enough, our +mountaineer knows little or nothing about the goat--an animal perfectly +adapted to the free range of the Smokies. I am convinced that goats +would be more profitable to the small farmers of the wild mountains than +cattle. Goats do not graze, but browse upon the shrubbery, of which +there is a vast superfluity in all the Southern mountains. Unlike the +weak, timorous and stupid sheep, a flock of goats can fight their own +battles against wild animals. They are hardy in any weather, and thrive +from their own pickings where other foragers would starve. + +A good milch goat gives more and richer milk than the average mountain +cow. And a kid yields excellent fresh meat in _manageable_ quantity, at +a time when no one would butcher a beef because it would spoil. I used +to shut my eyes and imagine the transformation that would be wrought in +these mountains by a colony of Swiss, who would turn the coves into +gardens, the moderate slopes into orchards, the steeper ones into +vineyards, by terracing, and who would export the finest of cheese made +from the surplus milk of their goats. But our native mountaineers--well, +a man who will not eat beef nor drink fresh cow's milk, and who despises +butter, cannot be interested in anything of the dairy order. + +The chickens ran wild and scratched for a living; hence were thin, +tough, and poor layers. Eggs seldom were for sale. It was not of much +use to try to raise many chickens where they were unprotected from +hawks, minks, foxes, weasels and snakes. + +Honey often was procured by spotting wild bees to their hoard and +chopping the tree, a mild form of sport in which most settlers are +expert. Our local preacher had a hundred hives of tame bees, producing +1,500 pounds of honey a year, for which he got ten cents a pound at the +railroad. + +The mainstay of every farmer, aside from his cornfield, was his litter +of razorback hogs. "Old cornbread and sowbelly" are a menu complete for +the mountaineer. The wild pig, roaming foot-loose and free over hill and +dale, picks up his own living at all seasons and requires no attention +at all. He is the cheapest possible source of meat and yields the +quickest return: "no other food animal can increase his own weight a +hundred and fifty fold in the first eight months of his life." And so he +is regarded by his owner with the same affection that Connemara Paddy +bestows upon "the gintleman that pays the rint." + +In physique and mentality, the razorback differs even more from a +domestic hog than a wild goose does from a tame one. Shaped in front +like a thin wedge, he can go through laurel thickets like a bear. +Armored with tough hide cushioned by bristles, he despises thorns, +brambles, and rattlesnakes, alike. His extravagantly long snout can +scent like a cat's, and yet burrow, uproot, overturn, as if made of +metal. The long legs, thin flanks, pliant hoofs, fit him to run like a +deer and climb like a goat. In courage and sagacity he outranks all +other beasts. A warrior born, he is also a strategist of the first +order. Like man, he lives a communal life, and unites with others of his +kind for purposes of defense. + +The pig is the only large mammal I know of, besides man, whose eyes +will not shine by reflected light--they are too bold and crafty, I wit. +The razorback has a mind of his own; not instinct, but _mind_--whatever +psychologists may say. He thinks. Anybody can see that when he is not +rooting or sleeping he is studying devilment. He shows remarkable +understanding of human speech, especially profane speech, and even an +uncanny gift of reading men's thoughts, whenever those thoughts are +directed against the peace and dignity of pigship. He bears grudges, +broods over indignities, and plans redresses for the morrow or the week +after. If he cannot get even with you, he will lay for your unsuspecting +friend. And at the last, when arrested in his crimes and lodged in the +pen, he is liable to attacks of mania from sheer helpless rage. + +If you camp out in the mountains, nothing will molest you but razorback +hogs. Bears will flee and wildcats sneak to their dens, but the moment +incense of cooking arises from your camp every pig within two miles will +scent it and hasten to call. You may throw your arm out of joint: they +will laugh in your face. You may curse in five languages: it is music to +their titillating ears. + +Throughout summer and autumn I cooked out of doors, on the woodsman's +range of forked stakes and a lug-pole spanning parallel beds of rock. +When the pigs came, I fed them red-pepper pie. Then all said good-bye to +my hospitality save one slab-sided, tusky old boar--and he planned a +campaign. At the first smell of smoke he would start for my premises. +Hiding securely in a nearby thicket, he would spy on the operations +until my stew got to simmering gently and I would retire to the cabin +and get my fists in the dough. Then, charging at speed, he would knock +down a stake, trip the lug-pole, and send my dinner flying. Every day he +would do this. It got so that I had to sit there facing the fire all +through my cooking, or that beast of a hog would ruin me. With this I +thought he was outgeneraled. Idle dream! He would slip off to my +favorite neighbor's, break through the garden fence, and raise Ned +instanter--all because he hated _me_, for that peppery fraud, and knew +that Bob and I were cronies. + +I dubbed this pig Belial; a name that Bob promptly adapted to his own +notion by calling it Be-liar. "That Be-liar," swore he, "would cross +hell on a rotten rail to git into my 'tater patch!" + +Finally I could stand it no longer, and took down my rifle. It was a +nail-driver, and I, through constant practice in beheading squirrels, +was in good form. However, in the mountains it is more heinous to kill +another man's pig than to shoot the owner. So I took craft for my guide, +and guile for my heart's counsel. I stalked Belial as stealthily as ever +hunter crept on an antelope against the wind. At last I had him dead +right: broadside to me and motionless as if in a daydream. I knew that +if I drilled his ear, or shot his tail clean off, it would only make him +meaner than ever. He sported an uncommonly fine tail, and was proud to +flaunt it. I drew down on that member, purposely a trifle scant, fired, +and--away scuttled that boar, with a _broken_ tail that would dangle and +cling to him disgracefully through life. + + +[Illustration: "Bob"] + + +Exit Belial! It was equivalent to a broken heart. He emigrated, or +committed suicide, I know not which, but the Smoky Mountains knew him no +more. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS + + +For a long time my chief interest was not in human neighbors, but in the +mountains themselves--in that mysterious beckoning hinterland which rose +right back of my chimney and spread upward, outward, almost to three +cardinal points of the compass, mile after mile, hour after hour of +lusty climbing--an Eden still unpeopled and unspoiled. + +I loved of a morning to slip on my haversack, pick up my rifle, or maybe +a mere staff, and stride forth alone over haphazard routes, to enjoy in +my own untutored way the infinite variety of form and color and shade, +of plant and tree and animal life, in that superb wilderness that +towered there far above all homes of men. (And I love it still, albeit +the charm of new discovery is gone from those heights and gulfs that are +now so intimate and full of memories). + +The Carolina mountains have a character all their own. Rising abruptly +from a low base, and then rounding more gradually upward for 2,000 to +5,000 feet above their valleys, their apparent height is more impressive +than that of many a loftier summit in the West which forms only a +protuberance on an elevated plateau. Nearly all of them are clad to +their tops in dense forest and thick undergrowth. Here and there is a +grassy "bald": a natural meadow curiously perched on the very top of a +mountain. There are no bare, rocky summits rising above timber-line, few +jutting crags, no ribs and vertebrae of the earth exposed. Seldom does +one see even a naked ledge of rock. The very cliffs are sheathed with +trees and shrubs, so that one treading their edges has no fear of +falling into an abyss. + +Pinnacles or serrated ridges are rare. There are few commanding peaks. +From almost any summit in Carolina one looks out upon a sea of flowing +curves and dome-shaped eminences undulating, with no great disparity of +height, unto the horizon. Almost everywhere the contours are similar: +steep sides gradually rounding to the tops, smooth-surfaced to the eye +because of the endless verdure. Every ridge is separated from its +sisters by deep and narrow ravines. Not one of the thousand water +courses shows a glint of its dashing stream, save where some far-off +river may reveal, through a gap in the mountain, one single shimmering +curve. In all this vast prospect, a keen eye, knowing where to look, may +detect an occasional farmer's clearing, but to the stranger there is +only mountain and forest, mountain and forest, as far as the eye can +reach. + +Characteristic, too, is the dreamy blue haze, like that of Indian summer +intensified, that ever hovers over the mountains, unless they be swathed +in cloud, or, for a few minutes, after a sharp rain-storm has cleared +the atmosphere. Both the Blue Ridge and the Smoky Mountains owe their +names to this tenuous mist. It softens all outlines, and lends a +mirage-like effect of great distance to objects that are but a few miles +off, while those farther removed grow more and more intangible until +finally the sky-line blends with the sky itself. + +The foreground of such a landscape, in summer, is warm, soft, dreamy, +caressing, habitable; beyond it are gentle and luring solitudes; the +remote ranges are inexpressibly lonesome, isolated and mysterious; but +everywhere the green forest mantle bespeaks a vital present; nowhere +does cold, bare granite stand as the sepulchre of an immemorial past. + +And yet these very mountains of Carolina are among the ancients of the +earth. They were old, very old, before the Alps and the Andes, the +Rockies and the Himalayas were molded into their primal shapes. Upon +them, in after ages, were born the first hardwoods of America--perhaps +those of Europe, too--and upon them to-day the last great hardwood +forests of our country stand in primeval majesty, mutely awaiting their +imminent doom. + +The richness of the Great Smoky forest has been the wonder and the +admiration of everyone who has traversed it. As one climbs from the +river to one of the main peaks, he passes successively through the same +floral zones he would encounter in traveling from mid-Georgia to +southern Canada. + +Starting amid sycamores, elms, gums, willows, persimmons, chinquapins, +he soon enters a region of beech, birch, basswood, magnolia, cucumber, +butternut, holly, sourwood, box elder, ash, maple, buckeye, poplar, +hemlock, and a great number of other growths along the creeks and +branches. On the lower slopes are many species of oaks, with hickory, +hemlock, pitch pine, locust, dogwood, chestnut. In this region nearly +all trees attain their fullest development. On north fronts of hills the +oaks reach a diameter of five to six feet. In cool, rich coves, chestnut +trees grow from six to nine feet across the stump; and tulip poplars up +to ten or eleven feet, their straight trunks towering like gigantic +columns, with scarcely a noticeable taper, seventy or eighty feet to the +nearest limb. + +Ascending above the zone of 3,000 feet, white oak is replaced by the no +less valuable "mountain oak." Beech, birch, buckeye, and chestnut +persist to 5,000 feet. Then, where the beeches dwindle until adult trees +are only knee-high, there begins a sub-arctic zone of black spruce, +balsam, striped maple, aspen and the "Peruvian" or red cherry. + +I have named only a few of the prevailing growths. Nowhere else in the +temperate zone is there such a variety of merchantable timber as in +western Carolina and the Tennessee front of the Unaka system. About a +hundred and twenty species of native trees grow in the Smoky Forest +itself. When Asa Gray visited the North Carolina mountains he +identified, in a thirty-mile trip, a greater variety of indigenous trees +than could be observed in crossing Europe from England to Turkey, or in +a trip from Boston to the Rocky Mountain plateau. As John Muir has said, +our forests, "however slighted by man, must have been a great delight to +God; for they were the best He ever planted." + +The undergrowth is of almost tropical luxuriance and variety. Botanists +say that this is the richest collecting ground in the United States. +Whether one be seeking ferns or fungi or orchids or almost anything else +vegetal, each hour will bring him some new delight. In summer the upper +mountains are one vast flower garden: the white and pink of +rhododendron, the blaze of azalea, conspicuous above all else, in +settings of every imaginable shade of green. + +It was the botanist who discovered this Eden for us. Far back in the +eighteenth century, when this was still "Cherokee Country," inhabited by +no whites but a few Indian-traders, William Bartram of Philadelphia came +plant-hunting into the mountains of western Carolina, and spread their +fame to the world. One of his choicest finds was the fiery azalea, of +which he recorded: "The epithet fiery I annex to this most celebrated +species of azalea, as being expressive of the appearance of its flowers; +which are in general of the color of the finest red-lead, orange, and +bright gold, as well as yellow and cream-color. These various splendid +colors are not only in separate plants, but frequently all the varieties +and shades are seen in separate branches on the same plant; and the +clusters of the blossoms cover the shrubs in such incredible profusion +on the hillsides that, suddenly opening to view from dark shades, we +are alarmed with apprehension of the woods being set on fire. This is +certainly the most gay and brilliant flowering shrub yet known." + +And we of a later age, seeing the same wild gardens still unspoiled, can +appreciate the almost religious fervor of those early botanists, as of +Michaux, for example, who, in 1794, ascending the peak of Grandfather, +broke out in song: "_Monte au sommet de la plus haut montagne de tout +l'Amerique Septentrionale, chante avec mon compagnon-guide l'hymn de +Marsellois, et crie, 'Vive la Liberte et la Republique Francaise!'_" + +Of course Michaux was wildly mistaken in thinking Grandfather "the +highest mountain in all North America." It is far from being even the +highest of the Appalachians. Yet we scarcely know to-day, to a downright +certainty, which peak is supreme among our Southern highlands. The honor +is conceded to Mount Mitchell in the Black Mountains, northeast of +Asheville. Still, the heights of the Carolina peaks have been taken +(with but one exception, so far as I know) only by barometric +measurements, and these, even when official, may vary as much as a +hundred feet for the same mountain. Since the highest ten or a dozen of +our Carolina peaks differ in altitude only one or two hundred feet, +their actual rank has not yet been determined. + + +[Illustration: Photo by U. S. Forest Service + +"There are few jutting crags"--Southeast profile of Whiteside Mountain, +N. C.] + + +For a long time there was controversy as to whether Mount Mitchell or +Clingman Dome was the crowning summit of eastern America. The Coast and +Geodetic Survey gave the height of Mount Mitchell as 6,688 feet; but +later figures of the U. S. Geological Survey are 6,711 and 6,712. In +1859 Buckley claimed for Clingman Dome of the Smokies an altitude of +6,941 feet. In recent government reports the Dome appears variously as +6,619 and 6,660. In 1911 I was told by Mr. H. M. Ramseur that when he +laid out the route of the railroad from Asheville to Murphy he ran a +line of levels from a known datum on this road to the top of Clingman, +and that the result was "four sixes" (6,666 feet above sea-level). It is +probable that second place among the peaks of Appalachia may belong +either to Clingman Dome or Guyot or LeConte, of the Smokies, or to +Balsam Cone of the Black Mountains. + +In any case, the Great Smoky mountains are the master chain of the +Appalachian system, the greatest mass of highland east of the Rockies. +This segment of the Unakas forms the boundary between North Carolina +and Tennessee from the Big Pigeon River to the McDaniel Bald. + +Although some parts of the Smokies are very rugged, with sharp changes +of elevation, yet the range as a whole has no one dominating peak. Mount +Guyot (pronounced _Gee_-o, with _g_ as in get), Mount LeConte, and +Clingman Dome all are over 6,600 feet and under 6,700, according to the +most trustworthy measurements. Many miles of the divide rise 6,000 feet +above sea-level, with only small undulations like ocean swells. + + * * * * * + +The most rugged and difficult part of the Smokies (and of the United +States east of Colorado) is in the sawtooth mountains between Collins +and Guyot, at the headwaters of the Okona Lufty River. I know but few +men who have ever followed this part of the divide, although during the +present year trails have been cut from Clingman to Collins, or near it, +and possibly others beyond to the northeastward. + +In August and September, 1900, Mr. James H. Ferriss and wife, +naturalists from Joliet, Illinois, explored the Smokies to the Lufty Gap +northeast of Clingman, collecting rare species of snails and ferns. No +doubt Mrs. Ferriss is the only white woman who ever went beyond +Clingman or even ascended the Dome itself. She stayed at the Lufty Gap +while her husband and a Carolina mountaineer of my acquaintance +struggled through to Guyot and returned. Of this trip Mr. Ferriss sent +me the following account: + +"We bought another axe of a moonshiner, and, with a week's provisions on +our backs, one of the guides and I took the Consolidated American Black +Bear and Ruffed Grouse Line for Mount Guyot, twenty miles farther by map +measurement. The bears were in full possession of the property, and we +could get no information in the settlements, as the settlers do not +travel this line. They did not know the names of the peaks other than as +tops of the Great Smokies--knew nothing of the character of the country +except that it was rough. The Tennesseeans seem afraid of the mountains, +and the Cherokees of the North Carolina side equally so; for, two miles +from camp, all traces of man, except surveyors' marks, had disappeared. +In the first two days we routed eight bears out of their nests and mud +wallows, and they seemed to stay routed, for upon our return we found +the blackberry crop unharvested and had a bag pudding--'duff'--or what +you call it. + +"A surveyor had run part of the line this year, which helped us +greatly, and the bears had made well-beaten trails part of the way. In +places they had mussed up the ground as much as a barnyard. We tried to +follow the boundary line between the two States, which is exactly upon +the top of the Smokies, but often missed it. The government [state] +surveyor many years ago made two hacks upon the trees, but sometimes the +linemen neglected to use their axes for half a mile or so. It took us +three and one-half days to go, and two and one-half to return, and we +arose with the morning star and worked hard all day. The last day and a +half, going, there was nothing to guide us but the old hacks. + +"Equipped with government maps, a good compass, and a little conceit, I +thought I could follow the boundary-line. In fact, at one time we +intended to go through without a guide. A trail that runs through +blackberry bushes two miles out of three is hard to follow. Then there +was a huckleberry bush reaching to our waists growing thickly upon the +ground as tomato vines, curled hard, and stubborn; and laurel much like +a field of lilac bushes, crooked and strong as iron. In one place we +walked fully a quarter of a mile over the tops of laurel bushes and +these were ten or twelve feet in height, but blown over one way by the +wind. Much of the trail was along rocky edges, sometimes but six inches +or so wide, but almost straight down on both sides for hundreds of feet. +One night, delayed by lack of water, we did not camp till dark, and, +finding a smooth spot, lay down with a small log on each side to hold us +from rolling out of bed. When daylight came we found that, had we rolled +over the logs, my partner would have dropped 500 feet into Tennessee and +I would have dropped as far into North Carolina, unless some friendly +tree top had caught us. Sometimes the mountain forked, and these ridges, +concealed by the balsams, would not be seen. Then there were round +knobs--and who can tell where the highest ridge lies on a round mountain +or a ball? My woolen shirt was torn off to the shoulders, and my +partner, who had started out with corduroys, stayed in the brush until I +got him a pair of overalls from camp." + +Even to the west of Clingman a stranger is likely to find some +desperately rough travel if he should stray from the trail that follows +the divide. It is easy going for anyone in fair weather, but when cloud +settles on the mountain, as it often does without warning, it may be so +thick that one cannot see a tree ten feet away. Under such circumstances +I have myself floundered from daylight till dark through heart-breaking +laurel thickets, and without a bite to eat, not knowing whither I was +going except that it was toward the Little Tennessee River. + +In 1906 I spent the summer in a herders' hut on top of the divide, just +west of the Locust Ridge (miscalled Chestnut Ridge on the map), about +six miles east of Thunderhead. This time I had a partner, and we had a +glorious three months of it, nearly a mile above sea-level, and only +half a day's climb from the nearest settlement. One day I was alone, +Andy having gone down to Medlin for the mail. It had rained a good +deal--in fact, there was a shower nearly every day throughout the +summer, the only semblance of a dry season in the Smokies being the +autumn and early winter. The nights were cold enough for fires and +blankets, even in our well-chinked cabin. + +Well, I had finished my lonesome dinner, and was washing up, when I saw +a man approaching. This was an event, for we seldom saw other men than +our two selves. He was a lame man, wearing an iron extension on one +foot, and he hobbled with a cane. He looked played-out and gaunt. I met +him outside. He smiled as though I looked good to him, and asked with +some eagerness, "Can I buy something to eat here?" + +"No," I answered, "you can't buy anything here"--how his face +fell!--"but I'll give you the best we have, and you're welcome." + +Then you should have seen that smile! + +He seemed to have just enough strength left to drag himself into the +hut. I asked no questions, though wondering what a cripple, evidently a +gentleman, though in rather bad repair, was doing on top of the Smoky +Mountains. It was plain that he had spent more than one night +shelterless in the cold rain, and that he was quite famished. While I +was baking the biscuit and cooking some meat, he told his story. This is +the short of it: + +"I am a Canadian, McGill University man, electrician. My company sent me +to Cincinnati. I got a vacation of a couple of weeks, and thought I'd +take a pedestrian tour. I can walk better than you'd think," and he +tapped the short leg. + +I liked his grit. + +"I knew no place to go," he continued; "so I took a map and looked for +what might be interesting country, not too far from Cincinnati. I picked +out these mountains, got a couple of government topographical sheets, +and, thinking they would serve like European ordnance maps, I had no +fear of going astray. It was my plan to walk through to the Balsam +Mountains, and so on to the Big Pigeon River. I went to Maryville, +Tennessee, and there I was told that I would find a cabin every five or +six miles along the summit from Thunderhead to the Balsams." + +I broke in abruptly: "Whoever told you that was either an impostor or an +ignoramus. There are only four of these shacks on the whole Smoky range. +Two of them, the Russell cabin and the Spencer place, you have already +passed without knowing it. This is called the Hall cabin. None of these +three are occupied save for a week or so in the fall when the cattle are +being rounded up, or by chance, as my partner and I happen to be here +now. Beyond this there is just one shack, at Siler's Meadow. It is down +below the summit, hidden in timber, and you would never have seen it. +Even if you had, you would have found it as bare as a last year's mouse +nest, for nobody ever goes there except a few bear-hunters. From there +onward for forty miles is an uninhabited wilderness so rough that you +could not make seven miles a day in it to save your life, even if you +knew the course; and there is no trail at all. Those government maps +are good and reliable to show the _approaches_ to this wild country, but +where you need them most they are good for nothing." + + +[Illustration: The Bears' Home--Laurel and Rhododendron] + + +"Then," said he, "if I had missed your cabin I would have starved to +death, for I depended on finding a house to the eastward, and would have +followed the trail till I dropped. I have been out in the laurel +thickets, now, three days and two nights; so nothing could have induced +me to leave this trail, once I found it, or until I could see out to a +house on one side or other of the mountain." + +"You would see no house on either side from here to beyond Guyot, about +forty miles. Had you no rations at all?" + +"I traveled light, expecting to find entertainment among the natives. +Here is what I have left." + +He showed me a crumpled buckwheat flapjack, a pinch of tea, and a couple +of ounces of brandy. + +"I was saving them for the last extremity; have had nothing to eat since +yesterday morning. Drink the brandy, please; it came from Montreal." + +"No, my boy, that liquor goes down your own throat instanter. You're the +chap that needs it. This coffee will boil now in a minute. I won't give +you all the food you want, for it wouldn't be prudent; but by and by you +shall have a bellyful." + +Then, as well as he could, he sketched the route he had followed. Where +the trail from Tennessee crosses from Thunderhead to Haw Gap he had +swerved off from the divide, and he discovered his error somewhere in +the neighborhood of Blockhouse. There, instead of retracing his steps, +he sought a short-cut by plunging down to the headwaters of Haw Creek, +thus worming deeper and deeper into the devil's nest. One more day would +have finished him. When I told him that the trip from Clingman to Guyot +would be hard work for a party of experienced mountaineers, and that it +would probably take them a week, during which time they would have to +pack all supplies on their own backs, he agreed that his best course +would be down into Carolina and out to the railroad. + + * * * * * + +Of animal life in the mountains I was most entertained by the raven. +This extraordinary bird was the first creature Noah liberated from the +ark--he must have known, even at that early period of nature study, that +it was the most sagacious of all winged things. Or perhaps Noah and the +raven did not get on well together and he rid himself of the pest at +first opportunity. Doubtless there could have been no peace aboard a +craft that harbored so inquisitive and talkative a fowl. Anyway, the +wild raven has been superlatively shy of man ever since the flood. + +Probably there is no place south of Labrador where our raven (_Corvus +corax principalis_) is seen so often as in the Smokies; and yet, even +here, a man may haunt the tops for weeks without sight or sound of the +ebon mystery--then, for a few days, they will be common. On the +southeast side of the Locust Ridge, opposite Huggins's Hell, between +Bone Valley and the main fork of Hazel Creek, there is a "Raven's Cliff" +where they winter and breed, using the same nests year after year. +Occasionally one is trapped, with bloody groundhog for bait; but I have +yet to meet a man who has succeeded in shooting one. + +If the raven's body be elusive his tongue assuredly is not. No other +animal save man has anything like his vocal range. The raven croaks, +clucks, caws, chuckles, squalls, pleads, "pooh-poohs," grunts, barks, +mimics small birds, hectors, cajoles--yes, pulls a cork, whets a scythe, +files a saw--with his throat. As is well known, ravens can be taught +human speech, like parrots; and I am told they show the same preference +for bad words--which, I think, is quite in character with their +reputation as thieves and butchers. However, I may be prejudiced, seeing +that the raven's favorite dainties for his menu are the eyes of living +fawns and lambs. + +A stranger in these mountains will be surprised at the apparent scarcity +of game animals. It is not unusual for one to hunt all day in an +absolute wilderness, where he sees never a fresh track of man, and not +get a shot at anything fit to eat. The cover is so dense that one +still-hunting (going without dogs) has poor chance of spying the game +that lurks about him; and there really is little of it by comparison +with such huntings fields as the Adirondacks, Maine, Canada, where game +has been conserved for many years. It used to be the same up there. The +late W. J. Stillman, writing in 1877 of the Maine woods, said: + + "The most striking feature of the forest, after one has become + habituated to the gloom, the pathlessness, and the apparent + impenetrability of the screen it forms around him, is the absence + of animal life. You may wander for hours without seeing a living + creature.... One thinks of the woods and the wild beasts; yet in + all the years of my wilderness living I can catalogue the wild + creatures other than squirrels, grouse, and small birds (never + plenty, generally very rare) which I have accidentally encountered + and seen while wandering for hunting or mere pastime in the wild + forest; one deer, one porcupine, one marten (commonly called + sable), and maybe half a dozen hares. You may walk hours and not + see a living creature larger than a fly, for days together and not + see a grouse, a squirrel, or a bird larger than the Canada jay.... + Lands running with game are like those flowing with milk and honey; + and when the sporting books tell you that game is abundant, don't + imagine that you are assured from starvation thereby. I have been + reduced, in a country where deer were swarming, to live several + days together on corn meal." + + +It is much the same to-day in our Appalachian wilderness, where no +protection worthy the name has ever been afforded the game and fish +since Indian times. There is a class of woods-loafers, very common here, +that ranges the forest at all seasons with single-barrel shotguns or +"hog rifles," killing bearing females as well as legitimate game, +fishing at night, even using dynamite in the streams; and so, in spite +of the fact that there is no better game harborage granted by Nature on +our continent than the Carolina mountains, the deer are all but +exterminated in most districts, turkeys and even squirrels are rather +scarce, and good trout fishing is limited to stocked waters or streams +flowing through virgin forest. The only game animal that still holds his +own is the black bear, and he endures in few places other than the +roughest districts, such as that southwest of the Sugarland Mountains, +where laurel and cliffs daunt all but the hardiest of men. + +The only venomous snakes in the mountains are rattlers and copperheads, +the former common, the latter rare. The chance of being bitten by one is +about as remote as that of being struck by lightning--either accident +_might_ happen, of course. The mountaineers have an absurd notion that +the little lizard so common in the hills is rank "pizen." Oddly enough, +they call it a "scorpion." + +From those two pests of the North Woods, black-flies and mosquitoes, the +Smokies are mercifully exempt. At least there are no mosquitoes that +bite or sting, except down in the river valleys where they have been +introduced by railroad trains--and even there they are but a feeble +folk. The reason is that in the mountains there is almost no standing +water where they can breed. + +On the other hand, the common house-fly is extraordinarily numerous and +persistent--a daily curse, even on top of Smoky. I imagine this is due +to the wet climate, as in Ireland. Minute gnats (the "punkies" or +"no-see-ums" of the North) are also offensively present in trout-fishing +time. And every cabin is alive with fleas. A hundred nights I have +anointed myself with citronella from head to foot, and outsmelt a cheap +barber-shop, to escape their plague. In a tent, and without dogs, one +can be immune. + +In most years there are very few chiggers, except on pine ridges. They +are worse along rivers than in the mountains. The ticks of this country +are not numerous, and seldom fasten on man. + +The climate of the Carolina mountains is pleasantly cool in summer. Even +at low altitudes (1,600 to 2,000 feet) the nights generally are +refreshing. It may be hot in the sun, but always cool in the shade. The +air is drier (less relative humidity) than in the lowlands, +notwithstanding that there is greater rainfall here than elsewhere in +the United States outside of Florida and the Puget Sound country. The +annual rainfall varies a great deal according to locality, being least +at Asheville (42 inches) and greatest on the southeastern slope of the +Blue Ridge, where as much as 105 inches has been recorded in a year. The +average rainfall of the whole region is 73 inches a year.[2] + +In general the mornings are apt to be lowery, with fogs hanging low +until, say, 9 o'clock, so that one cannot predict weather for the day. +Heavy dews remain on the bushes until about the same hour. + +The winters are short. What Northerners would call cold weather is not +expected until Christmas, and generally it is gone by the end of +February. Snow sometimes falls on the higher mountains by the first of +October, and the last snow may linger there until April (exceptionally +it falls in May). Tornadoes are unknown here, but sometimes a hurricane +will sweep the upper ranges. On April 19, 1900, a blizzard from the +northwest struck the Smokies. In twenty minutes everything was frozen. +At Siler's Meadow seventeen cattle climbed upon each other for warmth +and froze to death in a solid hecatomb. A herdsman who was out at the +time, and narrowly escaped a similar fate, assured me that "that was the +beatenest snowstorm ever I seen." In the valleys there may be a few days +in January and February when the mercury drops to zero or a few +degrees lower. On the high peaks, of course, the winter cold often is +intense, and on the sunless north side of Clingman there are overhangs +or crevices where a little ice may be found the year around. + + +[Illustration: The old copper mine] + + +Undoubtedly there is vast mineral wealth hidden in the Carolina +mountains. A greater variety of minerals has been found here than in any +other State save Colorado. But, for the present, it is a hard country to +prospect in, owing to the thick covering of the forest floor. Not only +is the underbrush very dense, but beneath it there generally is a thick +stratum of clay overlaying the rocks, even on steep slopes. Gold has +been found in numberless places, but finely disseminated. I do not know +a locality in the mountains proper where a working vein has been +discovered. At my cabin I did just enough panning to get a notion that +if I could stand working in icy water ten hours a day I might average a +dollar in yellow dust by it. The adjacent copper mine carries +considerable gold. Silver and lead are not common, so far as known, but +there are many good copper and iron properties. Gems are mined +profitably in several of the western counties. The corundum, mica, talc, +and monazite are, I believe, unexcelled in the United States. Building +stone is abundant, and there is fine marble in various places. Kaolin is +shipped out in considerable quantities. The rocks chiefly are gneisses, +granites, metamorphosed marbles, quartzites, and slates, all of them far +too old to bear fossils or coal. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A BEAR HUNT IN THE SMOKIES + + +"Git up, pup! you've scrouged right in hyur in front of the fire. You +Dred! what makes you so blamed contentious?" + +Little John shoved both dogs into a corner, and strove to scrape some +coals from under a beech forestick that glowed almost hot enough to melt +brass. + +"This is the wust coggled-up fire I ever seed, to fry by. Bill, hand me +some Old Ned from that suggin o' mine." + +A bearded hunchback reached his long arm to a sack that hung under our +rifles, drew out a chuck of salt pork, and began slicing it with his +jackknife. On inquiry I learned that "Old Ned" is merely slang for fat +pork, but that "suggin" or "sujjit" (the _u_ pronounced like _oo_ in +look) is true mountain dialect for a pouch, valise, or carryall, its +etymology being something to puzzle over. + +Four dogs growled at each other under a long bunk of poles and hay that +spanned one side of our cabin. The fire glared out upon the middle of an +unfloored and windowless room. Deep shadows clung to the walls and +benches, charitably concealing much dirt and disorder left by previous +occupants, much litter of our own contributing. + +At last we were on a saddle of the divide, a mile above sea-level, in a +hut built years ago for temporary lodgment of cattle-men herding on the +grassy "balds" of the Smokies. A sagging clapboard roof covered its two +rooms and the open space between them that we called our "entry." The +State line between North Carolina and Tennessee ran through this +uninclosed hallway. The Carolina room had a puncheon floor and a +clapboard table, also better bunks than its mate; but there had risen a +stiff southerly gale that made the chimney smoke so abominably that we +were forced to take quarters in the neighbor State. + +Granville lifted the lid from a big Dutch oven and reported "Bread's +done." + +There was a flash in the frying-pan, a curse and a puff from Little +John. The coffee-pot boiled over. We gathered about the hewn benches +that served for tables, and sat _a la Turc_ upon the ground. For some +time there was no sound but the gale without and the munching of +ravenous men. + +"If this wind 'll only cease afore mornin', we'll git us a bear +to-morrow." + +A powerful gust struck the cabin, by way of answer; a great roaring +surged up from the gulf of Defeat, from Desolation, and from the other +forks of Bone Valley--clamor of ten thousand trees struggling with the +blast. + +"Hit's gittin' wusser." + +"Any danger of this roost being blown off the mountain?" I inquired. + +"Hit's stood hyur twenty year through all the storms; I reckon it can +stand one more night of it." + +"A man couldn't walk upright, outside the cabin," I asserted, thinking +of the St. Louis tornado, in which I had lain flat on my belly, clinging +to an iron post. + +The hunchback turned to me with a grave face. "I've seed hit blow, here +on top o' Smoky, till a hoss couldn't stand up agin it. You'll spy, +to-morrow, whar several trees has been wind-throwed and busted to +kindlin'." + +I recalled that several, in the South, means many--"a good many," as our +own tongues phrase it. + +"Oh, shucks! Bill Cope," put in "Doc" Jones, "whut do you-uns know about +windstorms? Now, _I've_ hed some experiencin' up hyur that 'll do to tell +about. You remember the big storm three year ago, come grass, when the +cattle all huddled up a-top o' each other and friz in one pile, solid." + +Bill grunted an affirmative. + +"Wal, sir, I was a-herdin', over at the Spencer Place, and was out on +Thunderhead when the wind sprung up. Thar come one turrible vyg'rous +blow that jest nacherally lifted the ground. I went up in the sky, my +coat ripped off, and I went a-sailin' end-over-end." + +"Yes?" + +"Yes. About half an hour later, I lit _spang_ in the mud, way down +yander in Tuckaleechee Cove--yes, sir: ten mile as the crow flies, and a +mile deeper 'n trout-fish swim." + +There was silence for a moment. Then Little John spoke up: "I mind about +that time, Doc; but I disremember which buryin'-ground they-all planted +ye in." + +"Planted! _Me?_ Huh! But I had one tormentin' time findin' my hat!" + +The cabin shook under a heavier blast, to match Bill's yarn. + +"Old Wind-maker's blowin' liars out o' North Car'lina. Hang on to yer +hat, Doc! Whoop! hear 'em a-comin'!" + +"Durn this blow, anyhow! No bear 'll cross the mountain sich a night as +this." + +"Can't we hunt down on the Carolina side?" I asked. + +"That's whar we're goin' to drive; but hit's no use if the bear don't +come over." + +"How is that? Do they sleep in one State and eat in the other?" + +"Yes: you see, the Tennessee side of the mountain is powerful steep and +laurely, so 't man nor dog cain't git over it in lots o' places; that's +whar the bears den. But the mast, sich as acorns and beech and hickory +nuts, is mostly on the Car'lina side; that's whar they hafter come to +feed. So, when it blows like this, they stay at home and suck their paws +till the weather clars." + +"So we'll have to do, at this rate." + +"I'll go see whut the el-e-ments looks like." + +We arose from our squatting postures. John opened the little clapboard +door, which swung violently backward as another gust boomed against the +cabin. Dust and hot ashes scattered in every direction. The dogs sprang +up, one encroached upon another, and they flew at each other's throats. +They were powerful beasts, dangerous to man as well as to the brutes +they were trained to fight; but John was their master, and he soon +booted them into surly subjection. + +"The older dog don't ginerally raise no ruction; hit's the younger one +that's ill," by which he meant vicious. "You, Coaly, you'll git some o' +that meanness shuck outen you if you tackle an old she-bear to-morrow!" + +"Has the young dog ever fought a bear?" + +"No; he don't know nothin'; but I reckon he'll pick up some larnin' in +the next two, three days." + +"Have these dogs got the Plott strain? I've been told that the Plott +hounds are the best bear dogs in the country." + +"'Tain't so," snorted John. "The Plott curs are the best: that is, half +hound, half cur--though what we-uns calls the cur, in this case, raelly +comes from a big furrin dog that I don't rightly know the breed of. +Fellers, you can talk as you please about a streak o' the cur spilin' a +dog; but I know hit ain't so--not for bear fightin' in these mountains, +whar you cain't foller up on hossback, but hafter do your own runnin'." + +"What is the reason, John?" + + +[Illustration: "What soldiers these fellows would make, under leadership +of some Backwoods Napoleon!"] + + +"Waal, hit's like this: a plumb cur, of course, cain't foller a cold +track--he just runs by sight; and he won't hang--he quits. But, +t'other way, no hound 'll raelly fight a bear--hit takes a big severe +dog to do that. Hounds has the best noses, and they'll run a bear all +day and night, and the next day, too; but they won't never tree--they're +afeared to close in. Now, look at them dogs o' mine. A cur ain't got no +dew-claws--them dogs has. My dogs can foller ary trail, same's a hound; +but they'll run right in on the varmint, snappin' and chawin' and +worryin' him till he gits so mad you can hear his tushes pop half a +mile. He cain't run away--he haster stop every bit, and fight. Finally +he gits so tired and het up that he trees to rest hisself. Then we-uns +ketches up and finishes him." + +"Mebbe you-uns don't know that a dew-clawed dog is snake-proof----" + +But somebody, thinking that dog-talk had gone far enough, produced a +bottle of soothing-syrup that was too new to have paid tax. Then we +discovered that there was musical talent, of a sort, in Little John. He +cut a pigeon-wing, twirled around with an imaginary banjo, and sang in a +quaint minor: + + Did you _ever_ see the devil, + With his _pitchfork_ and ladle, + And his _old_ iron shovel, + And his old gourd head? + O, I _will_ go to meetin', + And I _will_ go to meetin', + Yes, I _will_ go to meetin', + In an old tin pan. + + +Other songs followed, with utter irrelevance--mere snatches from +"ballets" composed, mainly, by the mountaineers themselves, though some +dated back to a long-forgotten age when the British ancestors of these +Carolina woodsmen were battling with lance and long-bow. It was one of +modern and local origin that John was singing when there came a +diversion from without-- + + La-a-ay down, boys, + Le's take a nap: + Thar's goin' to be trouble + In the Cumberland Gap-- + + +Our ears were stunned by one sudden thundering crash. The roof rose +visibly, as though pushed upward from within. In an instant we were +blinded by moss and dried mud--the chinking blown from between the logs +of our shabby cabin. Dred and Coaly cowered as though whipped, while +"Doc's" little hound slunk away in the keen misery of fear. We men +looked at each other with lowered eyelids and the grim smile that +denotes readiness, though no special eagerness, for dissolution. Beyond +the "gant-lot" we could hear trees and limbs popping like skirmishers in +action. + +Then that tidal wave of air swept by. The roof settled again with only a +few shingles missing. We went to "redding up." Squalls broke against the +mountainside, hither and yon, like the hammer of Thor testing the +foundations of the earth. But they were below us. Here, on top, there +was only the steady drive of a great surge of wind; and speech was +possible once more. + +"Fellers, you want to mark whut you dream about, to-night: hit'll shore +come true to-morrow." + +"Yes: but you mustn't tell whut yer dream was till the hunt's over, or +it'll spile the charm." + +There ensued a grave discussion of dream-lore, in which the illiterates +of our party declared solemn faith. If one dreamt of blood, he would +surely see blood the next day. Another lucky sign for a hunter was to +dream of quarreling with a woman, for that meant a she-bear; it was +favorable to dream of clear water, but muddy water meant trouble. + +The wind died away. When we went out for a last observation of the +weather we found the air so clear that the lights of Knoxville were +plainly visible, in the north-north west, thirty-two miles in an air +line. Not another light was to be seen on earth, although in some +directions we could scan for nearly a hundred miles. The moon shone +brightly. Things looked rather favorable for the morrow, after all. + + * * * * * + +"Brek-k-k-_fust_!" + +I awoke to a knowledge that somebody had built a roaring fire and was +stirring about. Between the cabin logs one looked out upon a starry sky +and an almost pitch-dark world. What did that pottering vagabond mean by +arousing us in the middle of the night? But I was hungry. Everybody half +arose on elbows and blinked about. Then we got up, each after his +fashion, except one scamp who resumed snoring. + +"Whar's that brekfust you're yellin' about?" + +"Hit's for you-uns to help _git_! I knowed I couldn't roust ye no other +way. Here, you, go down to the spring and fetch water. Rustle out, boys; +we've got to git a soon start if you want bear brains an' liver for +supper." + +The "soon start" tickled me into good humor. + +Our dogs were curled together under the long bunk, having popped indoors +as soon as the way was opened. Somebody trod on Coaly's tail. Coaly +snapped Dred. Instantly there was action between the four. It is +interesting to observe what two or three hundred pounds of dog can do to +a ramshackle berth with a man on top of it. Poles and hay and ragged +quilts flew in every direction. Sleepy Matt went down in the midst of +the melee, swearing valiantly. I went out and hammered ice out of the +wash-basin while Granville and John quelled the riot. Presently our +frying-pans sputtered and the huge coffee-pot began to get up steam. + +"Waal, who dreamt him a good dream?" + +"I did," affirmed the writer. "I dreamt that I had an old colored woman +by the throat and was choking dollars out of her mouth----" + +"Good la!" exclaimed four men in chorus; "you hadn't orter a-told." + +"Why? Wasn't that a lovely dream?" + +"Hit means a she-bear, shore as a cap-shootin' gun; but you've done +spiled it all by tellin'. Mebbe somebody'll git her to-day, but _you_ +won't--your chanct is ruined." + +So the reader will understand why, in this veracious narrative, I cannot +relate any heroic exploits of my own in battling with Ursus Major. And +so you, ambitious one, when you go into the Smokies after that long-lost +bear, remember these two cardinal points of the Law: + + (1) Dream that you are fighting some poor old colored woman. (That + is easy: the victuals you get will fix up your dream, all right.) + And-- + + (2) Keep your mouth shut about it. + + +There was still no sign of rose-color in the eastern sky when we sallied +forth. The ground, to use a mountaineer's expression, was "all spewed up +with frost." Rime crackled underfoot and our mustaches soon stiffened in +the icy wind. + +It was settled that Little John Cable and the hunchback Cope should take +the dogs far down into Bone Valley and start the drive, leaving +Granville, "Doc," Matt, and myself to picket the mountain. I was given a +stand about half a mile east of the cabin, and had but a vague notion of +where the others went. + +By jinks, it was cold! I built a little fire between the buttressing +roots of a big mountain oak, but still my toes and fingers were numb. +This was the 25th of November, and we were at an altitude where +sometimes frost forms in July. The other men were more thinly clad than +I, and with not a stitch of wool beyond their stockings; but they seemed +to revel in the keen air. I wasted some pity on Cope, who had no +underwear worthy of the name; but afterwards I learned that he would not +have worn more clothes if they had been given him. Many a night my +companions had slept out on the mountain without blanket or shelter, +when the ground froze and every twig in the forest was coated with rime +from the winter fog. + +Away out yonder beyond the mighty bulk of Clingman Dome, which, black +with spruce and balsam, looked like a vast bear rising to contemplate +the northern world, there streaked the first faint, nebulous hint of +dawn. Presently the big bear's head was tipped with a golden crown +flashing against the scarlet fires of the firmament, and the earth +awoke. + +A rustling some hundred yards below me gave signal that the gray +squirrels were on their way to water. Out of a tree overhead hopped a +mountain "boomer" (red squirrel), and down he came, eyed me, and +stopped. Cocking his head to one side he challenged peremptorily: "Who +are you? Stump? Stump? Not a stump. What the deuce!" + +I moved my hand. + +"Lawk--the booger-man! Run, run, run!" + +Somewhere from the sky came a strange, half-human note, as of someone +chiding: "_Wal_-lace, _Wal_-lace, _Wat_!" I could get no view for the +trees. Then the voice flexibly changed to a deep-toned "Co-_logne_, +Co-_logne_, Co-_logne_," that rang like a bell through the forest +aisles. + +Two names uttered distinctly from the air! Two scenes conjured in a +breath, vivid but unrelated as in dreams: Wallace--an iron-bound +Scottish coast; Cologne--tall spires, and cliffs along the Rhine! What +magic had flashed such pictures upon a remote summit of the Smoky +Mountains? + +The weird speaker sailed into view--a raven. Forward it swept with great +speed of ebon wings, fairly within gunshot for one teasing moment. Then, +as if to mock my gaping stupor, it hurtled like a hawk far into the safe +distance, whence it flung back loud screams of defiance and chuckles of +derision. + +As the morning drew on, I let the fire die to ashes and basked lazily in +the sun. Not a sound had I heard from the dogs. My hoodoo was working +malignly. Well, let it work. I was comfortable now, and that old bear +could go to any other doom she preferred. It was pleasant enough to +lie here alone in the forest and be free! Aye, it was good to be alive, +and to be far, far away from the broken bottles and old tin cans of +civilization. + + +[Illustration: "By and by up they came, carrying the Bear on a trimmed +sapling"] + + +For many a league to the southward clouds covered all the valleys in +billows of white, from which rose a hundred mountain tops, like islands +in a tropic ocean. My fancy sailed among and beyond them, beyond the +horizon's rim, even unto those far seas that I had sailed in my youth, +to the old times and the old friends that I should never see again. + +But a forenoon is long-drawn-out when one has breakfasted before dawn, +and has nothing to do but sit motionless in the woods and watch and +listen. I got to fingering my rifle trigger impatiently and wishing that +a wild Thanksgiving gobbler might blunder into view. Squirrels made +ceaseless chatter all around my stand. Large hawks shrilled by me within +tempting range, whistling like spent bullets. A groundhog sat up on a +log and whistled, too, after a manner of his own. He was so near that I +could see his nose wiggle. A skunk waddled around for twenty minutes, +and once came so close that I thought he would nibble my boot. I was +among old mossy beeches, scaled with polyphori, and twisted into +postures of torture by their battles with the storms. Below, among +chestnuts and birches, I could hear the _t-wee, t-wee_ of "joree-birds" +(towhees), which winter in the valleys. Incessantly came the +_chip-chip-cluck_ of ground squirrels, the saucy bark of the grays, and +great chirruping among the "boomers," which had ceased swearing and were +hard at work. + +Far off on my left a rifle cracked. I pricked up and listened intently, +but there was never a yelp from a dog. Since it is a law of the chase to +fire at nothing smaller than turkeys, lest big game be scared away, this +shot might mean a gobbler. I knew that Matt Hyde could not, to save his +soul, sit ten minutes on a stand without calling turkeys (and he _could_ +call them, with his unassisted mouth, better than anyone I ever heard +perform with leaf or wing-bone or any other contrivance). + +Thus the slow hours dragged along. I yearned mightily to stretch my +legs. Finally, being certain that no drive would approach my stand that +day, I ambled back to the hut and did a turn at dinner-getting. Things +were smoking, and smelt good, by the time four of our men turned up, all +of them dog-tired and disappointed, but stoical. + +"That pup Coaly chased off atter a wildcat," blurted John. "We held the +old dogs together and let him rip. Then Dred started a deer. It was that +old buck that everybody's shot at, and missed, this three year back. I'd +believe he's a hant if 't wasn't for his tracks--they're the biggest I +ever seen. He must weigh two hunderd and fifty. But he's a foxy cuss. +Tuk right down the bed o' Desolation, up the left prong of Roaring Fork, +right through the Devil's Race-path (how a deer can git through thar I +don't see!), crossed at the Meadow Gap, went down Eagle Creek, and by +now he's in the Little Tennessee. That buck, shorely to God, has wings!" + +We were at table in the Carolina room when Matt Hyde appeared. Sure +enough, he bore a turkey hen. + +"I was callin' a gobbler when this fool thing showed up. I fired a shoot +as she riz in the air, but only bruk her wing. She made off on her legs +like the devil whoppin' out fire. I run, an' she run. Guess I run her +half a mile through all-fired thickets. She piped '_Quit--quit_,' but I +said, 'I'll see you in hell afore I quit!' and the chase resumed. +Finally I knocked her over with a birch stob, and here we are." + +Matt ruefully surveyed his almost denuded legs, evidence of his chase. +"Boys," said he, "I'm nigh breechless!" + + * * * * * + +None but native-born mountaineers could have stood the strain of another +drive that day, for the country that Cope and Cable had been through was +fearful, especially the laurel up Roaring Fork and Killpeter Ridge. But +the stamina of these "withey" little men was even more remarkable than +their endurance of cold. After a small slice of fried pork, a chunk of +half-baked johnny-cake, and a pint or so of coffee, they were as fresh +as ever. + +What soldiers these fellows would make, under leadership of some +backwoods Napoleon who could hold them together!--some man like Daniel +Morgan of the Revolution, who was one of them, yet greater! + +I had made the coffee strong, and it was good stuff that I had brought +from home. After his first deep draught, Little John exclaimed: + +"Hah! boys, that coffee hits whar ye hold it!" + +I thought that a neat compliment from a sharpshooter. + +We took new stands; but the afternoon passed without incident to those +of us on the mountain tops. I returned to camp about five o'clock, and +was surprised to see three of our men lugging across the "gant-lot"[3] +toward the cabin a small female bear. + +"Hyur's yer old nigger woman," shouted John. + +The hunters showed no elation--in fact, they looked sheepish--and I +suspected a nigger in the woodpile. + +"How's this? I didn't hear any drive." + +"There wa'n't none." + +"Then where did you get your bear?" + +"In one of Wit Hensley's traps, dum him! Boys, I wish t' we _hed_ +roasted the temper outen them trap-springs, like we talked o' doin'." + +"Was the bear alive?" + +"Live as a hot coal. See the pup's head!" + +I examined Coaly, who looked sick. The flesh was torn from his lower jaw +and hung down a couple of inches. Two holes in the top of his head +showed where the bear's tusks had tried to crack his skull. + +"When the other dogs found her, he rushed right in. She hadn't been +trapped more'n a few hours, and she larned Coaly somethin' about the +bear business." + +"Won't this spoil him for hunting hereafter?" + +"Not if he has his daddy's and mammy's grit. We'll know by to-morrow +whether he's a shore-enough bear dog; for I've larned now whar they're +crossin'--seed sign a-plenty and it's spang fraish. Coaly, old boy! +you-uns won't be so feisty and brigaty after this, will ye!" + +"John, what do those two words mean?" + +"_Good_ la! whar was you fotch up? Them's common. They mean nigh about +the same thing, only there's a differ. When I say that Doc Jones thar is +brigaty among women-folks, hit means that he's stuck on hisself and +wants to show off----" + +"And John Cable's sulkin' around with his nose out o' jint," interjected +"Doc." + +"Feisty," proceeded the interpreter, "feisty means when a feller's +allers wigglin' about, wantin' ever'body to see him, like a kid when the +preacher comes. You know a feist is one o' them little bitty dogs that +ginerally runs on three legs and pretends a whole lot." + +All of us were indignant at the setter of the trap. It had been hidden +in a trail, with no sign to warn a man from stepping into it. In +Tennessee, I was told, it is a penitentiary offense to set out a bear +trap. We agreed that a similar law ought to be passed as soon as +possible in North Carolina. + +"It's only two years ago," said Granville to me, "that Jasper +Millington, an old man living on the Tennessee side, started acrost the +mountain to get work at the Everett mine, where you live. Not fur from +where we are now, he stepped into a bear trap that was hid in the +leaves, like this one. It broke his leg, and he starved to death in it." + +Despite our indignation meeting, it was decided to carry the trapped +bear's hide to Hensley, and for us to use only the meat as recompense +for trouble, to say nothing of risk to life and limb. Such is the +mountaineers' regard for property rights! + +The animal we had ingloriously won was undersized, weighing scant 175 +pounds. The average weight of Smoky Mountain bears is not great, but +occasionally a very large beast is killed. Matt Hyde told us that he +killed one on the Welch Divide in 1901, the meat of which, dressed, +without the hide, weighed 434 pounds, and the hide "squared eight feet" +when stretched for drying. "Doc" Jones killed a bear that was "kivered +with fat, five inches thick." + +Afterwards I took pains to ask the most famous bear hunters of our +region what were the largest bears they had personally killed. Uncle +Jimmy Crawford, of the Balsam Mountains, estimated his largest at 500 +pounds gross, and the hide of another that he had killed weighed forty +pounds after three days' drying. Quill Rose, of Eagle Creek, said that, +after stripping the hide from one of his bears, he took the fresh skin +by the ears and raised it as high as he could reach above his head, and +that four inches of the butt end of the hide (not legs) trailed on the +ground. "And," he added severely, "thar's no lie about it." Quill is six +feet one and one-half inches tall. Black Bill Walker, of the middle +prong of Little River (Tennessee side), told me "The biggest one I ever +saw killed had a hide that measured ten feet from nose to rump, +stretched for drying. The biggest I ever killed myself measured nine and +a half feet, same way, and weighed a good four hundred net, which, +allowin' for hide, blood, and entrails, would run full five hunderd live +weight." + + +[Illustration: Skinning a frozen bear] + + +Within the past two years two bears of about 500 pounds each have been +killed in Swain and Graham counties, the Cables getting one of them. +The veteran hunters that I have named have killed their hundreds of +bears and are men superior to silly exaggeration. In the Smoky Mountains +the black bear, like most of the trees, attains its fullest development, +and that it occasionally reaches a weight of 500 pounds when "hog fat" +is beyond reasonable doubt, though the average would not be more than +half that weight. + + * * * * * + +We spent the evening in debate as to where the next drive should be +made. Some favored moving six miles eastward, to the old mining shack at +Siler's Meadow, and trying the headwaters of Forney's Creek, around Rip +Shin Thicket and the Gunstick Laurel, driving towards Clingman Dome and +over into the bleak gulf, southwest of the Sugarland Mountains, that I +had named Godforsaken--a title that stuck. We knew there were bears in +that region, though it was a desperately rough country to hunt in. + +But John and the hunchback had found "sign" in the opposite direction. +Bears were crossing from Little River in the neighborhood of Thunderhead +and Briar Knob, coming up just west of the Devil's Court House and +"using" around Block House, Woolly Ridge, Bear Pen, and thereabouts. +The motion carried, and we adjourned to bed. + +We breakfasted on bear meat, the remains of our Thanksgiving turkey, and +wheat bread shortened with bear's grease until it was light as a +feather; and I made tea. It was the first time that Little John ever saw +"store tea." He swallowed some of it as if it had been boneset, under +the impression that it was some sort of "yerb" that would be good for +his insides. Without praising its flavor, he asked what it had cost, +and, when I told him "a dollar a pound," reckoned that it was "rich +man's medicine"; said he preferred dittany or sassafras or goldenrod. +"Doc" Jones opined that it "looked yaller," and he even affirmed that it +"tasted yaller." + +"Waal, people," exclaimed Matt, "I 'low I've done growed a bit, atter +that mess o' meat. Le's be movin'." + +It was a hard pull for me, climbing up the rocky approach to Briar Knob. +This was my first trip to the main divide, and my heart was not yet used +to mountain climbing. + +The boys were anxious for me to get a shot. I was paying them nothing; +it was share-and-share alike; but their neighborly kindness moved them +to do their best for the outlander. + +So they put me on what was probably the best stand for the day. It was +above the Fire-scald, a brule or burnt-over space on the steep southern +side of the ridge between Briar Knob and Laurel Top, overlooking the +grisly slope of Killpeter. Here I could both see and hear an uncommonly +long distance, and if the bear went either east or west I would have +timely warning. + +This Fire-scald, by the way, is a famous place for wildcats. Once in a +blue moon a lynx is killed in the highest zone of the Smokies, up among +the balsams and spruces, where both the flora and fauna, as well as the +climate, resemble those of the Canadian woods. Our native hunters never +heard the word lynx, but call the animal a "catamount." Wolves and +panthers used to be common here, but it is a long time since either has +been killed in this region, albeit impressionable people see wolf tracks +or hear a "pant'er" scream every now and then. + +I had shivered on the mountain top for a couple of hours, hearing only +an occasional yelp from the dogs, which had been working in the thickets +a mile or so below me, when suddenly there burst forth the devil of a +racket. + +On came the chase, right in my direction. Presently I could distinguish +the different notes: the deep bellow of old Dred, the hound-like baying +of Rock and Coaly, and little Towse's feisty yelp. + +I thought that the bear might chance the comparatively open space of the +Fire-scald, because there were still some ashes on the ground that would +dust the dogs' nostrils and throw them off the scent. And such, I +believe, was his intention. But the dogs caught up with him. They nipped +him fore and aft. Time after time he shook them off; but they were true +bear dogs, and, like Matt Hyde after the turkey, they knew no such word +as quit. + +I took a last squint at my rifle sights, made sure there was a cartridge +in the chamber, and then felt my ears grow as I listened. Suddenly the +chase swerved at a right angle and took straight up the side of +Saddle-back. Either the bear would tree, or he would try to smash on +through to the low rhododendron of the Devil's Court House, where dogs +who followed might break their legs. I girded myself and ran, "wiggling +and wingling" along the main divide, and then came the steep pull up +Briar Knob. As I was grading around the summit with all the lope that +was left in me, I heard a rifle crack, half a mile down Saddle-back. Old +"Doc" was somewhere in that vicinity. I halted to listen. Creation, +what a rumpus! Then another shot. Then the warwhoop of the South, that +we read about. + +By and by, up they came, John and Cope and "Doc," two at a time, +carrying the bear on a trimmed sapling. Presently Hyde joined us, then +came Granville, and we filed back to camp, where "Doc" told his story: + +"Boys, them dogs' eyes shined like new money. Coaly fit agin, all right, +and got his tail bit. The bear div down into a sink-hole with the dogs +a-top o' him. Soon's I could shoot without hittin' a dog, I let him have +it. Thought I'd shot him through the head, but he fit on. Then I jumped +down into the sink and kicked him loose from the dogs, or he'd a-killed +Coaly. Waal, sir, he wa'n't hurt a bit--the ball jest glanced off his +head. He riz an' knocked me down with his left paw, an' walked right +over me, an' lit up the ridge. The dogs treed him in a minute. I went to +shoot up at him, but my new hulls [cartridges] fit loose in this old +chamber and this one drap [dropped] out, so the gun stuck. Had to git my +knife out and fix hit. Then the dad-burned gun wouldn't stand roostered +[cocked]; the feather-spring had jumped out o' place. But I held back +with my thumb, and killed him anyhow. + +"Fellers," he added feelingly, "I wish t' my legs growed +hind-side-fust." + +"_What_ fer?" + +"So 's 't I wouldn't bark my shins!" + +"Bears," remarked John, "is all left-handed. Ever note that? Hit's the +left paw you wanter look out fer. He'd a-knocked somethin' out o' yer +head if there'd been much in it, Doc." + +"Funny thing, but hit's true," declared Bill, "that a bear allers dies +flat on his back, onless he's trapped." + +"So do men," said "Doc" grimly; "men who've been shot in battle. You go +along a battlefield, right atter the action, and you'll find most o' the +dead faces pintin' to the sky." + +"Bears is almost human, anyhow. A skinned bear looks like a great +big-bodied man with long arms and stumpy legs." + +I did not relish this turn of the conversation, for we had two bears to +skin immediately. The one that had been hung up over night was frozen +solid, so I photographed her standing on her legs, as in life. When it +came to skinning this beast the job was a mean one; a fellow had to drop +out now and then to warm his fingers. + +The mountaineers have an odd way of sharing the spoils of the chase. +They call it "stoking the meat," a use of the word _stoke_ that I have +never heard elsewhere. The hide is sold, and the proceeds divided +equally among the hunters, but the meat is cut up into as many pieces as +there are partners in the chase; then one man goes indoors or behind a +tree, and somebody at the carcass, laying his hand on a portion, calls +out: "Whose piece is this?" + +"Granville Calhoun's," cries the hidden man, who cannot see it. + +"Whose is this?" + +"Bill Cope's." + +And so on down the line. Everybody gets what chance determines for him, +and there can be no charges of unfairness. + + * * * * * + +It turned very cold that night. The last thing I heard was Matt Hyde +protesting to the hunchback: + +"Durn you, Bill Cope, you're so cussed crooked a man cain't lay cluss +enough to you to keep warm!" + +Once when I awoke in the night the beech trees were cracking like +rifle-shots from the intense frost. + +Next morning John announced that we were going to get another bear. + +"Night afore last," he said, "Bill dremp that he seed a lot o' fat meat +layin' on the table; an' it done come true. Last night I dremp me one +that never was knowed to fail yet. Now you see!" + +It did not look like it by evening. We all worked hard and endured +much--standers as well as drivers--but not a rifle had spoken up to the +time when, from my far-off stand, I yearned for a hot supper. + +Away down in the rear I heard the snort of a locomotive, one of those +cog-wheel affairs that are specially built for mountain climbing. With a +steam-loader and three camps of a hundred men each, it was despoiling +the Tennessee forest. Slowly, but inexorably, a leviathan was crawling +into the wilderness and was soon to consume it. + + +[Illustration: "....Powerful steep and Laurely...."] + + +"All this," I apostrophized, "shall be swept away, tree and plant, beast +and fish. Fire will blacken the earth; flood will swallow and spew forth +the soil. The simple-hearted native men and women will scatter and +disappear. In their stead will come slaves speaking strange tongues, to +toil in the darkness under the rocks. Soot will arise, and foul gases; +the streams will run murky death. Let me not see it! No; I will + + "'... Get me to some far-off land + Where higher mountains under heaven stand ... + Where other thunders roll amid the hills, + Some mightier wind a mightier forest fills + With other strains through other-shapen boughs.'" + + +Wearily I plodded back to camp. No one had arrived but "Doc." The old +man had been thumped rather severely in yesterday's scrimmage, but +complained only of "a touch o' rheumatiz." Just how this disease had +left his clothes in tatters he did not explain. + +It was late when Matt and Granville came in. The crimson and yellow of +sunset had turned to a faultless turquoise, and this to a violet +afterglow; then suddenly night rose from the valleys and enveloped us. + +About nine o'clock I went out on the Little Chestnut Bald and fired +signals, but there was no answer. The last we had known of the drivers +was that they had been beyond Thunderhead, six miles of hard travel to +the westward. There was fog on the mountain. We did some uneasy +speculating. Then Granville and Matt took the lantern and set out for +Briar Knob. "Doc" was too stiff for travel, and I, being at that time a +stranger in the Smokies, would be of no use hunting amid clouds and +darkness. "Doc" and I passed a dreary three hours. Finally, at midnight, +my shots were answered, and soon the dogs came limping in. Dred had been +severely bitten in the shoulders and Rock in the head. Coaly was bloody +about the mouth, where his first day's wound had reopened. Then came the +four men, empty-handed, it seemed, until John slapped a bear's "melt" +(spleen) upon the table. He limped from a bruised hip. + +"That bear outsharped us and went around all o' you-uns. We follered him +clar over to the Spencer Place, and then he doubled and come back on the +fur side o' the ridge. He crossed through the laurel on the Devil's +Court House and tuk down an almighty steep place. It was plumb night by +that time. I fell over a rock clift twenty feet down, and if 't hadn't +been for the laurel I'd a-bruk some bones. I landed right in the middle +of them, bear and dogs, fightin' like gamecocks. The bear clim a tree. +Bill sung out 'Is it fur down thar?' and I said 'Purty fur.' 'Waal, I'm +a-comin',' says he; and with that he grabbed a laurel to swing hisself +down by, but the stem bruk, and down he come suddent, to jine the music. +Hit was so dark I couldn't see my gun barrel, and we wuz all tangled up +in greenbriers as thick as ploughlines. I had to fire twiste afore he +tumbled. Then Matt an' Granville come. The four of us tuk turn-about +crawlin' up out o' thar with the bear on our back. Only one man could +handle him at a time--and he'll go a good two hunderd, that bear. We +gutted him, and left him near the top, to fotch in the mornin'. Fellers, +I'm bodaciously tired out. This is the time I'd give half what I'm worth +for a gallon o' liquor--and I'd promise the rest!" + +"You'd orter see what Coaly did to that varmint," said Bill. "He bit a +hole under the fore leg, through hide and ha'r, clar into the holler, so +t' you can stick your hand in and seize the bear's heart." + +"John, what was that dream of yours?" + +"I dremp I stole a feller's overcoat. Now d'ye see? That means a bear's +hide." + +Coaly, three days ago, had been an inconsequential pup; but now he +looked up into my eyes with the calm dignity that no fool or braggart +can assume. He had been knighted. As he licked his wounds he was proud +of them. "Scars of battle, sir. You may have your swagger ribbons and +prize collars in the New York dog show, but _this_ for me!" + +Poor Coaly! after two more years of valiant service, he was to meet an +evil fortune. In connection with it I will relate a queer coincidence: + +Two years after this hunt, a friend and I spent three summer months in +this same old cabin on top of Smoky. When Andy had to return North he +left with me, for sale, a .30-30 carbine, as he had more guns than he +needed. I showed this carbine to Quill Rose, and the old hunter said: "I +don't like them power-guns; you could shoot clar through a bear and kill +your dog on the other side." The next day I sold the weapon to Granville +Calhoun. Within a short time, word came from Granville's father that +"Old Reelfoot" was despoiling his orchard. This Reelfoot was a large +bear whose cunning had defied our best hunters for five or six years. He +got his name from the fact that he "reeled" or twisted his hind feet in +walking, as some horses do, leaving a peculiar track. This seems rather +common among old bears, for I have known of several "reelfoots" in +other, and widely separated, regions. + +Cable and his dogs were sent for. A drive was made, and the bear was +actually caught within a few rods of old Mr. Calhoun's stable. His teeth +were worn to the gums, and, as he could no longer kill hogs, he had come +down to an apple diet. He was large-framed, but very poor. The only +hunters on the spot were Granville, with the .30-30, and a northern +lumberman named Hastings, with a Luger carbine. After two or three shots +had wounded the bear, he rose on his hind feet and made for Granville. A +.30-30 bullet went clear through the beast at the very instant that +Coaly, who was unseen, jumped up on the log behind it, and the missile +gave both animals their death wound. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +MOONSHINE LAND + + +I was hunting alone in the mountains, and exploring ground that was new +to me. About noon, while descending from a high ridge into a creek +valley, to get some water, I became enmeshed in a rhododendron "slick," +and, to some extent, lost my bearings. + +After floundering about for an hour or two, I suddenly came out upon a +little clearing. Giant hemlocks, girdled and gaunt, rose from a steep +cornfield of five acres, beyond which loomed the primeval forest of the +Great Smoky Mountains. Squat in the foreground sat one of the rudest log +huts I had ever seen, a tiny one-room shack, without window, cellar, or +loft, and without a sawed board showing in its construction. A thin curl +of smoke rose from one end of the cabin, not from a chimney, but from a +mere semi-circle of stones piled four feet high around a hole cut +through the log wall. The stones of this fireplace were not even +plastered together with mud, nor had the builder ever intended to raise +the pile as high as the roof to guard his premises against the imminent +risk of fire. Two low doors of riven boards stood wide open, opposite +each other. These, helped by wide crevices between the unchinked logs, +served to let in some sunlight, and quite too much of the raw November +air. The surroundings were squalid and filthy beyond anything I had +hitherto witnessed in the mountains. As I approached, wading ankle-deep +in muck that reached to the doorsill, two pigs scampered out through the +opposite door. + +Within the hut I found only a slip of a girl, rocking a baby almost as +big as herself, and trying to knit a sock at the same time. She was +toasting her bare toes before the fire, and crooning in a weird minor +some mountain ditty that may have been centuries old. + +I shivered as I looked at this midget, comparing her only garment, a +torn calico dress, with my own stout hunter's garb that seemed none too +warm for such a day as this. + +Knowing that the sudden appearance of a stranger would startle the girl, +I chose the quickest way to reassure her by saluting in the vernacular: + +"Howdy?" + +"Howdy?" she gasped. + +"Who lives here?" + +"Tom Kirby." + +"Kirby? Oh! yes, I know him--we've been hunting together. Is your father +at home?" + +"No, he's out somewheres." + +"Where is your mother?" + +"She's in the field, up yan, gittin' roughness." + +I took some pride in not being stumped by this answer. "Roughness," in +mountain lingo, is any kind of rough fodder, specifically corn fodder. + +"How far is it to the next house?" + +"I don't know; maw, she knows." + +"All right; I'll find her." + +I went up to the field. No one was in sight; but a shock of fodder was +walking away from me, and I conjectured that "maw's" feet were under it; +so I hailed: + +"Hello!" + +The shock turned around, then tumbled over, and there stood revealed a +bare-headed, bare-footed woman, coarse featured but of superb +physique--one of those mountain giantesses who think nothing of +shouldering a two-bushel sack of corn and carrying it a mile or two +without letting it down. + + +[Illustration: Moonshine Still-House Hidden in the Laurel] + + +She flushed, then paled, staring at me round-eyed--frightened, I +thought, by this apparition of a stranger whose approach she had not +detected. To these people of the far backwoods everyone from outside +their mountains is a doubtful character at best. + +However, Mistress Kirby quickly recovered her aplomb. Her mouth +straightened to a thin slit. She planted herself squarely across my +path, now regarding me with contracted lids and a hard glint, till I +felt fairly bayoneted by those steel-gray eyes. + +"Good-morning. Is Mr. Kirby about?" I inquired. + +There was no answer. Instead, the thin slit opened and let out a yell of +almost yodel quality, penetrating as a warwhoop--a yell that would carry +near half a mile. I wondered what she meant by this; but she did not +enlighten me by so much as a single word. It was puzzling, not to say +disconcerting; but, charging it to the custom of a country that still +was new to me, I found my tongue again, and started to give credentials. + +"My name is Kephart. I am staying at the Everett Mine on Sugar Fork----" + +Another yell that set the wild echoes flying. + +"I am acquainted with your husband; we've hunted together. Perhaps he +has told you----" + +Yell number three, same pitch and vigor as before. + +By this time I was quite nonplussed. I waited for her to speak; but +never a word did the woman deign. So there we stood and stared at each +other in silence--I leaning on my rifle, she with red arms akimbo--till +I grew embarrassed, half wondering, too, if the creature were demented. + +Suddenly a light flashed upon my groping wits. This amazon was on +picket. Her three shrieks had been a signal to someone up the branch. +Her attitude showed that there was no thoroughfare in that direction at +present. Circumstances, whatever they were, forbade explanation. +Clearly, the woman thought that I could not help seeing how matters +stood. Not for a moment did she suspect but that her yells, her +belligerent attitude, and her refusal to speak, were the conventional +way, this world over, of intimating that there was a _contretemps_. She +considered that if I was what I claimed to be, an acquaintance of her +husband and on friendly footing, I would be gentleman enough to retire. +If I was something else--an officer, a spy--well, she was there to stop +me until the captain of the guard arrived. + +For one silly moment I was tempted to advance and see what this martial +spouse would do if I tried to pass her on the trail. But a hunter's +instinct made me glance forward to the upper corner of the field. There +was thick cover beyond the fence, with a clear range of a hundred and +fifty yards between it and me--too far for Tom to recognize me, I +thought, but deadly range for his Winchester, I knew. One forward step +of mine would put me in the status of an armed intruder. So I concluded +that common sense would better become me at this juncture than a bit of +fooling that surely would be misinterpreted, and that might end +ingloriously. + +"Ah, well!" I remarked, "when your husband gets back, tell him, please, +that I was sorry to miss him; though I did not call on any special +business--just wanted to say 'Howdy?' you know. Good day!" + +I turned and went down the valley. + +All the way home I speculated on this queer adventure. What was going on +"up yan"? + +A month before, when I had started for this wildest nook of the Smokies, +a friend had intimated that I was venturing into a dubious +district--Moonshine Land. It is but frank to confess that this prospect +was not unpleasant. My only fear had been that I might not find any +moonshiners, or that, having found them, I might not succeed in winning +their confidence to the extent of learning their own side of an +interesting story. As to how I could do this without getting tarred with +the same stick, I was by no means clear; but I hoped that good luck +might find a way. And now it seemed as if luck had indeed favored me +with an excuse for broaching the topic to some friendly mountaineer, so +I could at least see how he would take it. + +And it chanced (or was it chance?) that I had no more than finished +supper, that evening, when a man called at my lonely cabin. He was the +one that I knew best among my scattered neighbors. I gave him a rather +humorous account of my reception by Madame Kirby, and asked him what he +thought she was yelling about. + +There was no answering smile on my visitor's face. He pondered in +silence, weighing many contingencies, it seemed, and ventured no more +than a helpless "Waal, now I wonder!" + +It did not suit me to let the matter go at that; so, on a sudden +impulse, I fired the question point-blank at him: "Do you suppose that +Tom is running a still up there at the head of that little cove?" + +The man's face hardened, and there came a glint into his eyes such as I +had noticed in Mistress Kirby's. + +"Jedgmatically, I don't know." + +"Excuse me! I don't want to know, either. But let me explain just what I +am driving at. People up North, and in the lowlands of the South as +well, have a notion that there is little or nothing going on in these +mountains except feuds and moonshining. They think that a stranger +traveling here alone is in danger of being potted by a bullet from +almost any laurel thicket that he passes, on mere suspicion that he may +be a revenue officer or a spy. Of course, that is nonsense;[4] but there +is one thing that I'm as ignorant about as any novel-reader of them all. +You know my habits; I like to explore--I never take a guide--and when I +come to a place that's particularly wild and primitive, that's just the +place I want to peer into. Now the dubious point is this: Suppose that, +one of these days when I'm out hunting, or looking for rare plants, I +should stumble upon a moonshine still in full operation--what would +happen? What would they do?" + +"Waal, sir, I'll tell you whut they'd do. They'd fust-place ask you some +questions about yourself, and whut you-uns was doin' in that thar neck +o' the woods. Then they'd git you to do some triflin' work about the +still--feed the furnace, or stir the mash--jest so 's 't they could +prove that you took a hand in it your own self." + +"What good would that do?" + +"Hit would make you one o' them in the eyes of the law." + +"I see. But, really, doesn't that seem rather childish? I could easily +convince any court that I did it under compulsion; for that's what it +would amount to." + +"I reckon you-uns would find a United States court purty hard to +convince. The judge 'd right up and want to know why you let grass go to +seed afore you came and informed on them." + +He paused, watched my expression, and then continued quizzically: "I +reckon you wouldn't be in no great hurry to do _that_." + +"No! Then, if I stirred the mash and sampled their liquor, nobody would +be likely to mistreat me?" + +"Shucks! Why, man, whut could they gain by hurtin' you? At the wust, +s'posin' they was convicted by your own evidence, they'd only git a +month or two in the pen. So why should they murder you and get hung for +it? Hit's all 'tarnal foolishness, the notions some folks has!" + +"I thought so. Now, here! the public has been fed all sorts of nonsense +about this moonshining business. I'd like to learn the plain truth about +it, without bias one way or the other. I have no curiosity about +personal affairs, and don't want to learn incriminating details; but I +would like to know how the business is conducted, and especially how it +is regarded from the mountain people's own point of view. I have already +learned that a stranger's life and property are safer here than they +would be on the streets of Chicago or of St. Louis. It will do your +country good to have that known. But I can't say that there is no +moonshining going on here; for a man with a wooden nose could smell it. +Now what is your excuse for defying the law? You don't seem ashamed of +it." + +The man's face turned an angry red. + +"Mister, we-uns hain't no call to be ashamed of ourselves, nor of ary +thing we do. We're poor; but we don't ax no favors. We stay 'way up hyar +in these coves, and mind our own business. When a stranger comes along, +he's welcome to the best we've got, such as 'tis; but if he imposes on +us, he gits his medicine purty damned quick!" + +"And you think the Government tax on whiskey is an imposition." + +"Hit is, under some sarcumstances." + +My guest stretched his legs, and "jedgmatically" proceeded to enlighten +me. + +"Thar's plenty o' men and women grown, in these mountains, who don't +know that the Government is ary thing but a president in a biled shirt +who commands two-three judges and a gang o' revenue officers. They know +thar's a president, because the men folks's voted for him, and the women +folks's seed his pictur. They've heered tell about the judges; and +they've seed the revenuers in flesh and blood. They believe in +supportin' the Government, because hit's the law. Nobody refuses to pay +his taxes, for taxes is fair and squar'. Taxes cost mebbe three cents on +the dollar; and that's all right. But revenue costs a dollar and ten +cents on twenty cents' worth o' liquor; and that's robbin' the people +with a gun to their faces. + +"Of course, I ain't so ignorant as all that--I've traveled about the +country, been to Asheville wunst, and to Waynesville a heap o' +times--and I know the theory. Theory says 't revenue is a tax on luxury. +Waal, that's all right--anything in reason. The big fellers that +makes lots of money out o' stillin', and lives in luxury, ought to pay +handsome for it. But who ever seen luxury cavortin' around in these +Smoky Mountains?" + + +[Illustration: MOONSHINE MILL--SIDE VIEW + +The trails that lead hither are blind and rough. Behind the mill rises +an almost precipitous mountain-side. Much of the corn is brought in on +men's backs at the dead of night.] + + +He paused for a reply. Even then, with my limited experience in the +mountains, I could not help wincing at the idea. Often, in later times, +this man's question came back to me with peculiar force. Luxury! in a +land where the little stores were often out of coffee, sugar, kerosene, +and even salt; where, in dead of winter, there was no meal, much less +flour, to be had for love or money. Luxury! where I had to live on +bear-meat (tough old sow bear) for six weeks, because the only side of +pork that I could find for sale was full of maggots. + +My friend continued: "Whiskey means more to us mountain folks than hit +does to folks in town, whar thar's drug-stores and doctors. Let ary +thing go wrong in the fam'ly--fever, or snake bite, or somethin'--and we +can't git a doctor up hyar less'n three days; and it costs scand'lous. +The only medicines we-uns has is yerbs, which customarily ain't no good +'thout a leetle grain o' whiskey. Now, th'r ain't no saloons allowed in +all these western counties. The nighest State dispensary, even, is sixty +miles away.[5] The law wunt let us have liquor shipped to us from +anywhars in the State. If we git it sent to us from outside the State it +has to come by express--and reg-lar old pop-skull it is, too. So, to be +good law-abiding citizens, we-uns must travel back and forth at a heap +of expense, or pay express rates on pizened liquor--and we are too +durned poor to do ary one or t'other. + +"Now, yan's my field o' corn. I gather the corn, and shuck hit and grind +hit my own self, and the woman she bakes us a pone o' bread to eat--and +I don't pay no tax, do I? Then why can't I make some o' my corn into +pure whiskey to drink, without payin' tax? I tell you, _'taint fair_, +this way the Government does! But, when all's said and done, the main +reason for this 'moonshining,' as you-uns calls it, is bad roads." + +"Bad roads?" I exclaimed. "What the----" + +"Jest thisaway: From hyar to the railroad is seventeen miles, with two +mountains to cross; and you've seed that road! I recollect you-uns said +every one o' them miles was a thousand rods long. Nobody's ever measured +them, except by mountain man's foot-rule--big feet, and a long stride +between 'em. Seven hundred pounds is all the load a good team can haul +over that road, when the weather's good. Hit takes three days to make +the round trip, less'n you break an axle, and then hit takes four. When +you do git to the railroad, th'r ain't no town of a thousand people +within fifty mile. Now us folks ain't even got wagons. Thar's only one +sarviceable wagon in this whole settlement, and you can't hire it +without team and driver, which is two dollars and a half a day. Whar one +o' our leetle sleds can't go, we haffter pack on mule-back or tussle it +on our own wethers. Look, then! The only farm produce we-uns can sell is +corn. You see for yourself that corn can't be shipped outen hyar. We can +trade hit for store credit--that's all. Corn _juice_ is about all we can +tote around over the country and git cash money for. Why, man, that's +the only way some folks has o' payin' their taxes!" + +"But, aside from the work and the worry," I remarked, "there is the +danger of being shot, in this business." + +"Oh, we-uns don't lay _that_ up agin the Government! Hit's as fair for +one as 'tis for t'other. When a revenuer comes sneakin' around, why, +whut he gits, or whut we-uns gits, that's a 'fortune of war,' as the old +sayin' is." + +There is no telegraph, wired or wireless, in the mountains, but there is +an efficient substitute. It seemed as though, in one night, the news +traveled from valley to cove, and from cove to nook, that I was +investigating the moonshining business, and that I was apparently +"safe." Each individual interpreted that word to suit himself. Some +regarded me askance, others were so confiding that their very frankness +threatened at times to become embarrassing. + +Thereafter I had many talks and adventures with men who, at one time or +other, had been engaged in the moonshining industry. Some of these men +had known the inside of the penitentiary; some were not without +blood-guilt. I doubt not that more than one of them could, even now, +find his way through night and fog and laurel thicket to some "beautiful +piece of copper" that has not yet been punched full of holes. They knew +that I was on friendly terms with revenue agents. What was worse, they +knew that I was a scribbler. More than once I took notes in their +presence while interviewing them, and we had the frankest understanding +as to what would become of those notes. + +My immunity was not due to any promises made or hostages given, for +there were none. I did not even pose as an apologist, but merely +volunteered to give a fair report of what I heard and saw. They took me +at my word. Had I used such representations as a mask and secretly +played the spy or informer--well, I would have deserved whatever might +have befallen me. As it was, I never met with any but respectful +treatment from these gentry, nor, to the best of my belief, did they +ever tell me a lie. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +WAYS THAT ARE DARK + + +Our terms moonshiner and moonshining are not used in the mountains. Here +an illicit distiller is called a blockader, his business is blockading, +and the product is blockade liquor. Just as the smugglers of old Britain +called themselves free-traders, thereby proclaiming that they risked and +fought for a principle, so the moonshiner considers himself simply a +blockade-runner dealing in contraband. His offense is only _malum +prohibitum_, not _malum in se_. + +There are two kinds of blockaders, big and little. The big blockader +makes unlicensed whiskey on a fairly large scale. He may have several +stills, operating alternately in different places, so as to avert +suspicion. In any case, the still is large and the output is quite +profitable. The owner himself may not actively engage in the work, but +may furnish the capital and hire confederates to do the distilling for +him, so that personally he shuns the appearance of evil. These big +fellows are rare. They are the ones who seek collusion with the +small-fry of Government officialdom, or, failing in that, instruct their +minions to "kill on sight." + +The little moonshiner is a more interesting character, if for no other +reason than that he fights fair, according to his code, and +single-handed against tremendous odds. He is innocent of graft. There is +nothing between him and the whole power of the Federal Government, +except his own wits and a well-worn Winchester or muzzleloader. He is +very poor; he is very ignorant; he has no friends at court; his +apparatus is crude in the extreme, and his output is miserably small. +This man is usually a good enough citizen in other ways, of decent +standing in his own community, and a right good fellow toward all the +world, save revenue officers. Although a criminal in the eyes of the +law, he is soundly convinced that the law is unjust, and that he is only +exercising his natural rights. Such a man, as President Frost has +pointed out, suffers none of the moral degradation that comes from +violating his conscience; his self-respect is whole. + +In describing the process of making whiskey in the mountain stills, I +shall confine myself to the operations of the little moonshiner, +because they illustrate the surprising shiftiness of our backwoodsmen. +Every man in the big woods is a jack-of-all-trades. His skill in +extemporizing utensils, and even crude machines, out of the trees that +grow around him, is of no mean order. As good cider as ever I drank was +made in a hollowed log fitted with a press-block and operated by a +handspike. It took but half a day's work to make this cider press, and +the only tools used in its construction were an ax, a mattock in lieu of +adze, an auger, and a jackknife. + +It takes two or three men to run a still. It is possible for one man to +do the work, on so small a scale as is usually practiced, but it would +be a hard task for him; then, too, there are few mountaineers who could +individually furnish the capital, small though it be. So three men, let +us say, will "chip in" five or ten dollars apiece, and purchase a +second-hand still, if such is procurable, otherwise a new one, and that +is all the apparatus they have to pay money for. If they should be too +poor even to go to this expense, they will make a retort by inverting a +half-barrel or an old wooden churn over a soap-kettle, and then all they +have to buy is a piece of copper tubing for the worm. + + +[Illustration: Moonshine Still in Full Operation] + + +In choosing a location for their clandestine work, the first +essential is running water. This can be found in almost any gulch; yet, +out of a hundred known spring-branches, only one or two may be suitable +for the business, most of them being too public. In a country where +cattle and hogs run wild, and where a good part of every farmer's time +is taken in keeping track of his stock, there is no place so secret but +that it is liable to be visited at any time, even though it be in the +depths of the great forest, several miles from any human habitation. +Moreover, cattle, and especially hogs, are passionately fond of +still-slop, and can scent it a great distance, so that no still can long +remain unknown to them.[6] Consequently the still must be placed several +miles away from the residence of anyone who might be liable to turn +informer. Although nearly all the mountain people are indulgent in the +matter of blockading, yet personal rivalries and family jealousies are +rife among them, and it is not uncommon for them to inform against +their enemies in the neighborhood. + +Of course, it would not do to set up a still near a common trail--at +least in the far-back settlements. Our mountaineers habitually notice +every track they pass, whether of beast or man, and "read the sign" with +Indian-like facility. Often one of my companions would stop, as though +shot, and point with his toe to the fresh imprint of a human foot in the +dust or mud of a public road, exclaiming: "Now, I wonder who _that_ +feller was! 'Twa'n't (so-and-so), for he hain't got no squar'-headed +bob-nails; 'twa'n't (such-a-one), 'cause he wouldn't be hyar at this +time o' day"; and so he would go on, figuring by a process of +elimination that is extremely cunning, until some such conclusion as +this was reached, "That's some stranger goin' over to Little River +[across the line in Tennessee], and he's footin' hit as if the devil was +atter him--I'll bet he's stobbed somebody and is runnin' from the +sheriff!" Nor is the incident closed with that; our mountaineer will +inquire of neighbors and passersby until he gets a description of the +wayfarer, and then he will pass the word along. + +Some little side-branch is chosen that runs through a gully so choked +with laurel and briers and rhododendron as to be quite impassable, save +by such worming and crawling as must make a great noise. Doubtless a +faint cattle-trail follows the backbone of the ridge above it, and this +is the workers' ordinary highway in going to and fro; but the descent +from ridge to gully is seldom made twice over the same course, lest a +trail be printed direct to the still-house. + +This house is sometimes inclosed with logs, but oftener it is no more +than a shed, built low, so as to be well screened by the undergrowth. A +great hemlock tree may be felled in such position as to help the +masking, so long as its top stays green, which will be about a year. +Back far enough from the still-house to remain in dark shadow when the +furnace is going, there is built a sort of nest for the workmen, barely +high enough to sit up in, roofed with bark and thatched all over with +browse. Here many a dismal hour of night is passed when there is nothing +to do but to wait on the "cooking." Now and then a man crawls on all +fours to the furnace and pitches in a few billets of wood, keeping low +at the time, so as to offer as small a target as possible in the flare +of the fire. Such precaution is especially needed when the number of +confederates is too small for efficient picketing. Around the little +plot where the still-shed and lair are hidden, laurel may be cut in such +way as to make a _cheval-de-frise_, sharp stubs being entangled with +branches, so that a quick charge through them would be out of the +question. Two or three days' work, at most, will build the still-house +and equip it ready for business, without so much as a shingle being +brought from outside. + +After the blockaders have established their still, the next thing is to +make arrangements with some miller who will jeopardize himself by +grinding the sprouted corn; for be it known that corn which has been +forced to sprout is a prime essential in the making of moonshine +whiskey, and that the unlicensed grinding of such corn is an offense +against the law of the United States no less than its distillation. Now, +to any one living in a well-settled country, where there is, perhaps, +only one mill to every hundred farms, and it is visited daily by men +from all over the township, the finding of an accessory in the person of +a miller would seem a most hopeless project. But when you travel in our +southern mountains, one of the first things that will strike you is that +about every fourth or fifth farmer has a tiny tub-mill of his own. Tiny +is indeed the word, for there are few of these mills that can grind +more than a bushel or two of corn in a day; some have a capacity of only +half a bushel in ten hours of steady grinding. Red grains of corn being +harder than white ones, it is a humorous saying in the mountains that "a +red grain in the gryste [grist] will stop the mill." The appurtenances +of such a mill, even to the very buhr-stones themselves, are fashioned +on the spot. How primitive such a meal-grinder may be is shown by the +fact that a neighbor of mine recently offered a new mill, complete, for +sale at six dollars. A few nails, and a country-made iron rynd and +spindle, were the only things in it that he had not made himself, from +the raw materials. + +In making spirits from corn, the first step is to convert the starch of +the grain into sugar. Regular distillers do this in a few hours by using +malt, but at the little blockade still a slower process is used, for +malt is hard to get. The unground corn is placed in a vessel that has a +small hole in the bottom, warm water is poured over the corn and a hot +cloth is placed over the top. As water percolates out through the hole, +the vessel is replenished with more of the warm fluid. This is continued +for two or three days and nights until the corn has put forth sprouts a +couple of inches long. The diastase in the germinating seeds has the +same chemical effect as malt--the starch is changed to sugar. + +The sprouted corn is then dried and ground into meal. This sweet meal is +then made into a mush with boiling water, and is let stand two or three +days. The "sweet mash" thus made is then broken up, and a little rye +malt, similarly prepared in the meantime, is added to it, if rye is +procurable. Fermentation begins at once. In large distilleries, yeast is +added to hasten fermentation, and the mash can then be used in three or +four days; the blockader, however, having no yeast, must let his mash stand +for eight or ten days, keeping it all that time at a proper temperature +for fermentation. This requires not only constant attention, but some +skill as well, for there is no thermometer nor saccharometer in our +mountain still-house. When done, the sugar of what is now "sour mash" +has been converted into carbonic acid and alcohol. The resulting liquid +is technically called the "wash," but blockaders call it "beer." It is +intoxicating, of course, but "sour enough to make a pig squeal." + +This beer is then placed in the still, a vessel with a closed head, +connected with a spiral tube, the worm. The latter is surrounded by a +closed jacket through which cold water is constantly passing. A wood +fire is built in the rude furnace under the still; the spirit rises in +vapor, along with more or less steam; these vapors are condensed in the +cold worm and trickle down into the receiver. The product of this first +distillation (the "low wines" of the trade, the "singlings" of the +blockader) is a weak and impure liquid, which must be redistilled at a +lower temperature to rid it of water and rank oils. + +In moonshiners' parlance, the liquor of second distillation is called +the "doublings." It is in watching and testing the doublings that an +accomplished blockader shows his skill, for if distillation be not +carried far enough, the resulting spirits will be rank, though weak, and +if carried too far, nothing but pure alcohol will result. Regular +distillers are assisted at this stage by scientific instruments by which +the "proof" is tested; but the maker of "mountain dew" has no other +instrument than a small vial, and his testing is done entirely by the +"bead" of the liquor, the little iridescent bubbles that rise when the +vial is tilted. When a mountain man is shown any brand of whiskey, +whether a regular distillery product or not, he invariably tilts the +bottle and levels it again, before tasting; if the bead rises and is +persistent, well and good; if not, he is prepared to condemn the liquor +at once. + +It is possible to make an inferior whiskey at one distillation, by +running the singlings through a steam-chest, commonly known as a +"thumpin'-chist." The advantage claimed is that "Hit allows you to make +your whiskey afore the revenue gits it; that's all." + +The final process is to run the liquor through a rude charcoal filter, +to rid it of most of its fusel oil. This having been done, we have +moonshine whiskey, uncolored, limpid as water, and ready for _immediate +consumption_. + +I fancy that some gentlemen will stare at the words here italicised; but +I am stating facts. + +It is quite impracticable for a blockader to age his whiskey. In the +first place, he is too poor to wait; in the second place, his product is +very small, and the local demand is urgent; in the third place, he has +enough trouble to conceal, or run away with, a mere copper still, to say +nothing of barrels of stored whiskey. Cheerfully he might "waive the +quantum o' the sin," but he is quite alive to "the hazard o' +concealin'." So, while the stuff is yet warm from the still, it is taken +by confederates and quickly disposed of. There is no exaggeration in the +answer a moonshiner once made to me when I asked him how old the best +blockade liquor ever got to be: "If it 'd git to be a month old, it 'd +fool me!" + + +[Illustration: Photo by F. B. Laney + +Cornmill and Blacksmith Forge] + + +They tell a story on a whilom neighbor of mine, the redoubtable Quill +Rose, which, to those who know him, sounds like one of his own: "A +slick-faced dude from Knoxville," said Quill, "told me once that all +good red-liquor was aged, and that if I'd age my blockade it would bring +a fancy price. Well, sir, I tried it; I kept some for three months--and, +by godlings, _it aint so_." + +As for purity, all of the moonshine whiskey used to be pure, and much of +it still is; but every blockader knows how to adulterate, and when one +of them does stoop to such tricks he will stop at no halfway measures. +Some add washing lye, both to increase the yield and to give the liquor +an artificial bead, then prime this abominable fluid with pepper, +ginger, tobacco, or anything else that will make it sting. Even +buckeyes, which are poisonous themselves, are sometimes used to give the +drink a soapy bead. Such decoctions are known in the mountains by the +expressive terms "pop-skull," "bust head," "bumblings" ("they make a +bumbly noise in a feller's head"). Some of them are so toxic that their +continued use might be fatal to the drinker. A few drams may turn a +normally good-hearted fellow into a raging fiend who will shoot or stab +without provocation. + +As a rule, the mountain people have no compunctions about drinking, +their ideas on this, as on other matters of conduct, being those current +everywhere in the eighteenth century. Men, women and children drink +whiskey in family concert. I have seen undiluted spirits drunk, a +spoonful at a time, by a babe that was still at the breast, and she +never batted an eye (when I protested that raw whiskey would ruin the +infant's stomach, the mother replied, with widened eyes: "Why, if +there's liquor about, and she don't git none, _she jist raars_!"). In +spite of this, taking the mountain people by and large, they are an +abstemious race. In drinking, as in everything else, this is the Land of +Do Without. Comparatively few highlanders see liquor oftener than once +or twice a month. The lumberjacks and townspeople get most of the +output; for they can pay the price. + +Blockade whiskey, until recently, sold to the consumer at from $2.50 to +$3.00 a gallon. The average yield is only two gallons to the bushel of +corn. Two and a half gallons is all that can be got out of a bushel by +blockaders' methods, even with the aid of a "thumpin'-chist," unless +lye be added. With corn selling at seventy-five cents to a dollar a +bushel, as it did in our settlement, and taking into account that the +average sales of a little moonshiner's still probably did not exceed a +gallon a day, and that a bootlegger must be rewarded liberally for +marketing the stuff, it will be seen that there was no fortune in this +mysterious trade, before prohibition raised the price. Let me give you a +picture in a few words.-- + +Here in the laurel-thicketed forest, miles from any wagon road, is a +little still, without so much as a roof over it. Hard by is a little +mill. There is not a sawed board in that mill--even the hopper is made +of clapboards riven on the spot. + +Three or four men, haggard from sleepless vigils, strike out into +pathless forest through driving rain. Within five minutes the wet +underbrush has drenched them to the skin. They climb, climb, climb. +There is no trail for a long way; then they reach a faint one that +winds, winds, climbs, climbs. Hour after hour the men climb. Then they +begin to descend. + +They have crossed the divide, a mile above sea-level, and are in another +State. Hour after hour they "climb down," as they would say. They visit +farmers' homes at dead of night. Each man shoulders two bushels of +shelled corn and starts back again over the highest mountain range in +eastern America. It is twenty miles to the little mill. They carry the +corn thither on their own backs. They sprout it, grind it, distill it. +Two of them then carry the whiskey twenty miles in the opposite +direction, and, at the risk of capture and imprisonment, or of death if +they resist, peddle it out by dodging, secret methods. + +This is no fancy sketch; it is literal truth. It is no story of the +olden time, but of our own day. Do you wonder that one of these men +should say, with a sigh--should say this? "Blockadin' is the hardest +work a man ever done. And hit's wearin' on a feller's narves. Fust +chance I git, I'm a-goin' ter quit!" + +And it is a fact that nine out of ten of those who try the moonshining +game do quit before long, of their own accord. + + * * * * * + +One day there came a ripple of excitement in our settlement. A blockader +had shot at Jack Coburn, and a posse had arrested the would-be +assassin--so flew the rumor, and it proved to be true. + +Coburn was a northern man who, years ago, opened a little store on the +edge of the wilderness, bought timber land, and finally rose to +affluence. With ready wit he adapted himself to the ways of the +mountaineers and gained ascendancy among them. Once in a while an +emergency would arise in which it was necessary either to fight or to +back down, and in these contests a certain art that Jack had acquired in +Michigan lumber camps proved the undoing of more than one mountain +tough, at the same time winning the respect of the spectators. He was +what a mountaineer described to me as "a practiced knocker." This +phrase, far from meaning what it would on the Bowery, was interpreted to +me as denoting "a master hand in a knock-fight." Pugilism, as +distinguished from shooting or stabbing, was an unknown art in the +mountains until Jack introduced it. + +Coburn had several tenants, among whom was a character whom we will call +Edwards. In leasing a farm to Edwards, Jack had expressly stipulated +that there was to be no moonshining on the premises. But, by and by, +there was reason to suspect that Edwards was violating this part of the +contract. Coburn did not send for a revenue officer; he merely set forth +on a little still-hunt of his own. Before starting, he picked up a +revolver and was about to stick it in his pocket, but, on second +thought, he concluded that no red-headed man should be trusted with a +loaded gun, even in such a case as this; so he thrust the weapon back +into its drawer, and strode away, with nothing but his two big fists to +enforce a seizure. + +Coburn searched long and diligently, but could find no sign of a still. +Finally, when he was about to give it up, his curiosity was aroused by +the particularly dense browse in the top of an enormous hemlock that had +recently been felled. Pushing his way forward, he discovered a neat +little copper still installed in the treetop itself. He picked up the +contraband utensil, and marched away with it. + +Meantime, Edwards had not been asleep. When Jack came in sight of the +farmhouse, humped under his bulky burden, the enraged moonshiner seized +a shotgun and ran toward him, breathing death and destruction. Jack, +however, trudged along about his business. Edwards, seeing that no bluff +would work, fired; but the range was too great for his birdshot even to +pepper holes through the copper still. + +Edwards made a mistake in firing that shot. It did not hurt Coburn's +skin, but it ruffled his dignity. In this case it was out of the +question to pommel the blackguard, for he had swiftly reloaded his gun. +So Jack ran off with the still, carried it home, sought out our +magistrate, Brooks, and forthwith swore out a warrant. + +Brooks did not fuss over any law books. Moonshining in itself may be +only a peccadillo, a venial sin--let the Government skin its own +skunks--but when a man has promised not to moonshine, and then goes and +does it, why that, by Jeremy, is a breach of contract! Straightway the +magistrate hastened to the post-office, and swore in, as a posse +comitatus, the first four men that he met. + +Now, when four men are picked up at random in our township, it is safe +to assume that at least three of them have been moonshiners themselves, +and know how this sort of thing should be done. At any rate, the posse +wasted no time in discussion. They went straight after that malefactor, +got him, and, within an hour after the shot was fired, he was drummed +out of the county for good and forever. + +But Edwards had a son who was a trifle brash. This son armed himself, +and offered show of battle. He fired two or three shots with his +Winchester (wisely over the posse's heads) and then took to the tall +timber. Dodging from tree to tree he led the impromptu officers such a +dance up the mountainside that by the time they had corralled him they +were "plumb overhet." + +They set that impetuous young man on a sharp-spined little jackass, +strapped his feet under the animal's belly, and their chief (my hunting +partner, he was) drove him, that same night, twenty-five miles over a +horrible mountain trail, and lodged him in the county jail, on a charge +more serious than that of moonshining. + +In due time, a United States deputy arrived in our midst, bearing a +funny-looking hatchet with a pick at one end, which he called a "devil." +With the pick end of this instrument he punched numerous holes through +the offending copper vessel, until the still looked somewhat like a +gigantic horseradish-grater turned inside out. Then he straightened out +the worm by ramming a long stick through it, and triumphantly carried +away with him the copper-sheathed staff, as legal proof, trophy, and +burgeon of office. + +The sorry old still itself reposes to this day in old Brooks's backyard, +where it is regarded by passersby as an emblem, not so much of Federal +omnipotence, as of local efficiency in administering the law with +promptitude, and without a pennyworth of cost to anybody, save to the +offender. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +A LEAF FROM THE PAST + + +In the United States, moonshining is seldom practiced outside the +mountains and foothills of the southern Appalachians, and those parts of +the southwest (namely, in southern Missouri, Arkansas and Texas), into +which the mountaineers have immigrated in considerable numbers. + +Here, then, is a conundrum: How does it happen that moonshining is +distinctly a foible of the southern mountaineer? + +To get to the truth, we must hark back into that eighteenth century +wherein, as I have already remarked, our mountain people are lingering +to this day. We must leave the South; going, first, to Ireland of 150 or +175 years ago, and then to western Pennsylvania shortly after the +Revolution. + +The people of Great Britain, irrespective of race, have always been +ardent haters of excise laws. As Blackstone has curtly said, "From its +original to the present time, the very name of excise has been odious +to the people of England." Dr. Johnson, in his dictionary, defined +excise as "A hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by +the common judges of property, but by wretches hired by those to whom +excise is paid." In 1659, when the town of Edinburgh placed an +additional impost on ale, the Convenanter Nicoll proclaimed it an act so +impious that immediately "God frae the heavens declared his anger by +sending thunder and unheard tempests and storms." And we still recall +Burns' fiery invective: + + Thae curst horse-leeches o' the Excise + Wha mak the whisky stills their prize! + Haud up thy han', Deil! ance, twice, thrice! + There, seize the blinkers! [wretches] + An bake them up in brunstane pies + For poor d--n'd drinkers. + + +Perhaps the chief reason, in England, for this outspoken detestation of +the exciseman lay in the fact that the law empowered him to enter +private houses and to search at his own discretion. In Scotland and +Ireland there was another objection, even more valid in the eyes of the +common people; excise struck heaviest at their national drink. +Englishmen, at the time of which we are speaking, were content with +their ale, not yet having contracted the habit of drinking gin; but +Scotchmen and Irishmen preferred distilled spirits, manufactured, as a +rule, out of their own barley, in small pot-stills (_poteen_ means, +literally, a little pot), the process being a common household art +frequently practiced "every man for himself and his neighbor." A tax, +then, upon whiskey was as odious as a tax upon bread baked on the +domestic hearth--if not, indeed, more so. + +Now, there came a time when the taxes laid upon spirituous liquors had +increased almost to the point of prohibition. This was done, not so much +for the sake of revenue, as for the sake of the public health and +morals. Englishmen had suddenly taken to drinking gin, and the immediate +effect was similar to that of introducing firewater among a race of +savages. There was hue and cry (apparently with good reason), that the +gin habit, spreading like a plague, among a people unused to strong +liquors, would soon exterminate the English race. Parliament, alarmed at +the outlook, then passed an excise law of extreme severity. As always +happens in such cases, the law promptly defeated its own purpose by +breeding a spirit of defiance and resistance among the great body of the +people. + +The heavier the tax, the more widespread became the custom of illicit +distilling. The law was evaded in two different ways, the method +depending somewhat upon the relative loyalty of the people toward the +Crown, and somewhat upon the character of the country, as to whether it +was thickly or thinly settled. + +In rich and populous districts, as around London and Edinburgh and +Dublin, the common practice was to bribe government officials. A +historian of that time declares that "Not infrequently the gauger could +have laid his hands upon a dozen stills within as many hours; but he had +cogent reasons for avoiding discoveries unless absolutely forced to make +them. Where informations were laid, it was by no means uncommon for a +trusty messenger to be dispatched from the residence of the gauger to +give due notice, so that by daybreak next morning 'the boys,' with all +their utensils, might disappear. Now and then they were required to +leave an old and worn-out still in place of that which they were to +remove, so that a report of actual seizure might be made. A good +understanding was thus often kept up between the gaugers and the +distillers; the former not infrequently received a 'duty' upon every +still within his jurisdiction, and his cellars were never without 'a sup +of the best.'... The commerce was carried on to a very great extent, +and openly. Poteen was usually preferred, even by the gentry, to +'Parliament' or 'King's' whiskey. It was known to be free from +adulteration, and had a smoky flavor (arising from the peat fires) which +many liked." Another writer says that "The amount of spirits produced by +distillation avowedly illicit vastly exceeded that produced by the +licensed distilleries. According to Wakefield, stills were erected even +in the kitchens of baronets and in the stables of clergymen." + +However, this sort of thing was not moonshining. It was only the +beginning of that system of wholesale collusion which, in later times, +was perfected in our own country by the "Whiskey Ring." + +Moonshining proper was confined to the poorer class of people, +especially in Ireland, who lived in wild and sparsely settled regions, +who were governed by a clan feeling stronger than their loyalty to the +central Government, and who either could not afford to share their +profits with the gaugers, or disdained to do so. Such people hid their +little pot-stills in inaccessible places, as in the savage mountains and +glens of Connemara, where it was impossible, or at least hazardous, for +the law to reach them. With arms in hand they defied the officers. "The +hatred of the people toward the gauger was for a very long period +intense. The very name invariably aroused the worst passions. To kill a +gauger was considered anything but a crime; wherever it could be done +with comparative safety, he was hunted to the death." + +Thus we see that the townsman's weapon against the government was graft, +and the mountaineer's weapon was his gun--a hundred and fifty years ago, +in Ireland, as they are in America to-day. Whether racial character had +much to do with this is a debatable question. But, having spoken of +race, a new factor, and a curious one, steps into our story. Let it be +noted closely, for it bears directly on a problem that has puzzled many +of our own people, namely: What was the origin of our southern +mountaineers? + +The north of Ireland, at the time of which we have been speaking, was +not settled by Irishmen, but by Scotchmen, who had been imported by +James I. to take the place of native Hibernians whom he had dispossessed +from the three northern counties. These immigrants came to be known as +the Scotch-Irish. They learned how to make poteen in little stills, +after the Irish fashion, and to defend their stills from intrusive +foreigners, also after the Irish fashion. By and by these Scotch-Irish +fell out with the British Government, and large bodies of them emigrated +to America, settling, for the most part, in western Pennsylvania. + +They were a fighting race. Accustomed to plenty of hard knocks at home, +they took to the rough fare and Indian wars of our border as naturally +as ducks take to water. They brought with them, too, an undying hatred +of excise laws, and a spirit of unhesitating resistance to any authority +that sought to enforce such laws. + +It was these Scotchmen, in the main, assisted by a good sprinkling of +native Irish, and by the wilder blades among the Pennsylvania-Dutch, who +drove out the Indians from the Alleghany border, formed our rear-guard +in the Revolution, won that rough mountain region for civilization, left +it when the game became scarce and neighbors' houses too frequent, +followed the mountains southward, settled western Virginia and Carolina, +and formed the vanguard westward into Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, and +so onward till there was no longer a West to conquer. Some of their +descendants remained behind in the fastnesses of the Alleghanies, the +Blue Ridge, and the Unakas, and became, in turn, the progenitors of that +singular race which, by an absurd pleonasm, is now commonly known as +the "mountain whites," but properly southern highlanders. + +The first generation of Pennsylvania frontiersmen knew no laws but those +of their own making. They were too far away, too scattered, and too +poor, for the Crown to bother with them. Then came the Revolution. The +backwoodsmen were loyal to the new American Government--loyal to a man. +They not only fought off the Indians from the rear, but sent many of +their incomparable riflemen to fight at the front as well. + +They were the first English-speaking people to use weapons of precision +(the rifle, introduced by the Pennsylvania-Dutch about 1700, was used by +our backwoodsmen exclusively throughout the war). They were the first to +employ open-order formation in civilized warfare. They were the first +outside colonists to assist their New England brethren at the siege of +Boston. They were mustered in as the First Regiment of Foot of the +Continental Army (being the first troops enrolled by our Congress, and +the first to serve under a Federal banner). They carried the day at +Saratoga, the Cowpens, and King's Mountain. From the beginning to the +end of the war, they were Washington's favorite troops. + + +[Illustration: A Tub Mill] + + +And yet these same men were the first rebels against the authority of +the United States Government! And it was their old commander-in-chief, +Washington himself, who had the ungrateful task of bringing them to +order by a show of Federal bayonets. + +It happened in this wise: + +Up to the year 1791 there had been no excise tax in the United Colonies +or the United States. (One that had been tried in Pennsylvania was +utterly abortive). Then the country fell upon hard times. A larger +revenue had to be raised, and Hamilton suggested an excise. The measure +was bitterly opposed by many public men, notably by Jefferson; but it +passed. Immediately there was trouble in the tall timber. + +Western Pennsylvania, and the mountains southward, had been settled, as +we have seen, by the Scotch-Irish; men who had brought with them a +certain fondness for whiskey, a certain knack in making it, and an +intense hatred of excise, on general as well as special principles. +There were few roads across the mountains, and these few were +execrable--so bad, indeed, that it was impossible for the backwoodsmen +to bring their corn and rye to market, except in a concentrated form. +The farmers of the seaboard had grown rich, from the high prices that +prevailed during the French Revolution; but the mountain farmers had +remained poor, owing partly to difficulties of tillage, but chiefly to +difficulties of transportation. As Albert Gallatin said, in defending +the western people, "We have no means of bringing the produce of our +lands to sale either in grain or in meal. We are therefore distillers +through necessity, not choice, that we may comprehend the greatest value +in the smallest size and weight. The inhabitants of the eastern side of +the mountains can dispose of their grain without the additional labor of +distillation at a higher price than we can after we have disposed that +labor upon it." + +Again, as in all frontier communities, there was a scarcity of cash in +the mountains. Commerce was carried on by barter; but there had to be +some means of raising enough cash to pay taxes, and to purchase such +necessities as sugar, calico, gun powder, etc., from the peddlers who +brought them by pack train across the Alleghanies. Consequently a still +had been set up on nearly every farm. A horse could carry about sixteen +gallons of liquor, which represented eight bushels of grain, in weight +and bulk, and double that amount in value. This whiskey, even after it +had been transported across the mountains, could undersell even so +cheap a beverage as New England rum--so long as no tax was laid upon it. + +But when the newly created Congress passed an excise law, it virtually +placed a heavy tax on the poor mountaineers' grain, and let the grain of +the wealthy eastern farmers pass on to market without a cent of charge. +Naturally enough, the excitable people of the border regarded such a law +as aimed exclusively at themselves. They remonstrated, petitioned, +stormed. "From the passing of the law in January, 1791, there appeared a +marked dissatisfaction in the western parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, +Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. The legislatures of North +Carolina, Virginia and Maryland passed resolutions against the law, and +that of Pennsylvania manifested a strong spirit of opposition to it. As +early as 1791, Washington was informed that throughout this whole region +the people were ready for revolt." "To tax their stills seemed a blow at +the only thing which obdurate nature had given them--a lot hard indeed, +in comparison with that of the people of the sea-board." + +Our western mountains (we call most of them southern mountains now) +resembled somewhat those wild highlands of Connemara to which reference +has been made--only they were far wilder, far less populous, and +inhabited by a people still prouder, more independent, more used to +being a law unto themselves than were their ancestors in old Hibernia. +When the Federal exciseman came among this border people and sought to +levy tribute, they blackened or otherwise disguised themselves and +treated him to a coat of tar and feathers, at the same time threatening +to burn his house. He resigned. Indignation meetings were held, +resolutions were passed calling on all good citizens to _disobey_ the +law, and whenever anyone ventured to express a contrary opinion, or +rented a house to a collector, he, too, was tarred and feathered. If a +prudent or ultra-conscientious individual took out a license and sought +to observe the law, he was visited by a gang of "Whiskey Boys" who +smashed the still and inflicted corporal punishment upon its owner. + +Finally, warrants were issued against the lawbreakers. The attempt to +serve these writs produced an uprising. On July 16, 1794, a company of +mountain militia marched to the house of the inspector, General Neville, +to force him to give up his commission. Neville fired upon them, and, in +the skirmish that ensued, five of the attacking force were wounded and +one was killed. The next day, a regiment of 500 mountaineers, led by +one "Tom the Tinker," burned Neville's house, and forced him to flee for +his life. His guard of eleven U. S. soldiers surrendered, after losing +one killed and several wounded. + +A call was then issued for a meeting of the mountain militia at the +historic Braddock's Field. On Aug. 1, a large body assembled, of whom +2,000 were armed. They marched on Pittsburgh, then a village of 1,200 +souls. The townsmen, eager to conciliate and to ward off pillage, +appointed a committee to meet the mob half way. The committee, finding +that it could not induce the mountain men to go home, made a virtue of +necessity by escorting 5,400 of them into Pittsburgh town. As Fisher +says, "The town was warned by messengers, and every preparation was +made, not for defense, but to extinguish the fire of the Whiskey Boys' +thirst, which would prevent the necessity of having to extinguish the +fire they might apply to houses.... Then the work began. Every citizen +worked like a slave to carry provisions and buckets of whiskey to that +camp." Judge Brackenridge tells us that it was an expensive as well as +laborious day, and cost him personally four barrels of prime old +whiskey. The day ended in a bloodless, but probably uproarious, +jollification. + +On this same day (the Governor of Pennsylvania having declined to +interfere) Washington issued a proclamation against the rioters, and +called for 15,000 militia to quell the insurrection. Meantime he had +appointed commissioners to go into the disaffected region and try to +persuade the people to submit peacefully before the troops should +arrive. Peace was offered on condition that the leaders of the +disturbance should submit to arrest. + +While negotiations were proceeding, the army advanced. Eighteen +ringleaders of the mob were arrested, and the "insurrection" faded away +like smoke. When the troops arrived, there was nothing for them to do. +The insurgent leaders were tried for treason, and two of them were +convicted, but Washington pardoned both of them. The cost of this +expedition was more than one-third of the total expenditures of the +Government, for that year, for all other purposes. The moral effect upon +the nation at large was wholesome, for the Federal Government had +demonstrated, on this its first test, that it could enforce its own laws +and maintain domestic tranquility. The result upon the mountain people +themselves was dubious. Thomas Jefferson wrote to Madison in December: +"The information of our [Virginia's] militia, returned from the +westward, is uniform, that though the people there let them pass +quietly, they were objects of their laughter, not of their fear; that +one thousand men could have cut off their whole force in a thousand +places of the Alleghany; that their detestation of the excise law was +universal, and has now associated with it a detestation of the +Government; and that a separation which was perhaps a very distant and +problematical event, is now near and certain, and determined in the mind +of every man." + +But Jefferson himself came to the presidency within six years, and the +excise tax was promptly repealed, never again to be instituted, save as +a war measure, until within a time so recent that it is now remembered +by men whom we would not call very old. + +The moonshiners of our own day know nothing of the story that has here +been written. Only once, within my knowledge, has it been told in the +mountains, and then the result was so unexpected, that I append the +incident as a color contrast to this rather sombre narrative.-- + +I was calling on a white-bearded patriarch who was a trifle vain of his +historical learning. He could not read, but one of his daughters read +to him, and he had learned by heart nearly all that lay between the two +lids of a "Universal History" such as book agents peddle about. Like one +of John Fox's characters, he was fond of the expression "hist'ry says" +so-and-so, and he considered it a clincher in all matters of debate. + +Our conversation drifted to the topic of moonshining. + +"Down to the time of the Civil War," declared the old settler, "nobody +paid tax on the whiskey he made. Hit was thataway in my Pa's time, and +in Gran'sir's, too. And so 'way back to the time of George Washington. +Now, hist'ry says that Washington was the Father of his Country; and I +reckon he was the _greatest_ man that ever lived--don't you?" + +I murmured a complaisant assent. + +"Waal, sir, if 't was right to make free whiskey in Washington's day, +hit's right _now_!" and the old man brought his fist down on the table. + +"But that is where you make a mistake," I replied. "Washington did +enforce a whiskey tax." Then I told about the Whiskey Insurrection of +1794. + +This was news to Grandpa. He listened with deep attention, his brows +lowering as the narrative proceeded. When it was finished he offered +no comment, but brooded to himself in silence. My own thoughts wandered +far afield, until recalled to the topic by a blunt demand: + + +[Illustration: Cabin on the Little Fork of Sugar Fork of Hazel Creek in +which the author lived alone for three years] + + +"You say Washington done that?" + +"He did." + +"George Washington?" + +"Yes, sir: the Father of his Country." + +"Waal, I'm satisfied now that Washington was a leetle-grain cracked." + + * * * * * + +The law of 1791, although it imposed a tax on whiskey of only 9 to 11 +cents per proof gallon, came near bringing on a civil war, which was +only averted by the leniency of the Federal Government in granting +wholesale amnesty. The most stubborn malcontents in the mountains moved +southward along the Alleghanies into western Virginia and the Carolinas, +where no serious attempt was made to collect the excise; so they could +practice moonshining to their heart's content, and there their +descendants remain to-day. + +On the accession of Jefferson, in 1800, the tax on spirits was repealed. +The war of 1812 compelled the Government to tax whiskey again, but as +this was a war tax, shared by commodities generally, it aroused no +opposition. In 1817 the excise was again repealed; and from that time +until 1862 no specific tax was levied on liquors. During this period of +thirty-five years the average market price of whiskey was 24 cents a +gallon, sometimes dropping as low as 14 cents. Spirits were so cheap +that a "burning fluid," consisting of one part spirits of turpentine to +four or five parts alcohol was used in the lamps of nearly every +household. Moonshining, of course, had ceased to exist. + +Then came the Civil War. In 1862 a tax of 20 cents a gallon was levied. +Early in 1864 it rose to 60 cents. This cut off the industrial use of +spirits, but did not affect its use as a beverage. In the latter part of +1864 the tax leaped to $1.50 a gallon, and the next year it reached the +prohibitive figure of $2. The result of such excessive taxation was just +what it had been in the old times, in Great Britain. In and around the +centers of population there was wholesale fraud and collusion. "Efforts +made to repress and punish frauds were of absolutely no account +whatever.... The current price at which distilled spirits were sold in +the markets was everywhere recognized and commented on by the press as +less than the amount of the tax, allowing nothing whatever for the cost +of manufacture." + +Seeing that the outcome was disastrous from a fiscal point of view--the +revenue from this source was falling to the vanishing point--Congress, +in 1868, cut down the tax to 50 cents a gallon. "Illicit distillation +practically ceased the very hour that the new law came into operation; +... the Government collected during the second year of the continuance +of the act $3 for every one that was obtained during the last year of +the $2 rate." + +In 1869 there came a new administration, with frequent removals of +revenue officials for political purposes. The revenue fell off. In 1872 +the rate was raised to 70 cents, and in 1875 to 90 cents. The result is +thus summarized by David A. Wells: + +"Investigation carefully conducted showed that on the average the +product of illicit distillation costs, through deficient yields, the +necessary bribery of attendants, and the expenses of secret and unusual +methods of transportation, from two to three times as much as the +product of legitimate and legal distillation. So that, calling the +average cost of spirits in the United States 20 cents per gallon, the +product of the illicit distiller would cost 40 to 60 cents, leaving but +10 cents per gallon as the maximum profit to be realized from fraud +under the most favorable conditions--an amount not sufficient to offset +the possibility of severe penalties of fine, imprisonment, and +confiscation of property.... The rate of 70 cents ... constituted a +moderate temptation to fraud. Its increase to 90 cents constituted a +temptation altogether too great for human nature, as employed in +manufacturing and selling whiskey, to resist.... During 1875-6, +highwines sold openly in the Chicago and Cincinnati markets at prices +less than the average cost of production plus the Government tax. +Investigations showed that the persons mainly concerned in the work of +fraud were the Government officials rather than the distillers; and that +a so-called 'Whiskey Ring' ... extended to Washington, and embraced +within its sphere of influence and participation, not merely local +supervisors, collectors, inspectors, and storekeepers of the revenue, +but even officers of the Internal Revenue Bureau, and probably, also, +persons occupying confidential relations with the Executive of the +Nation." + + * * * * * + +Such being the condition of affairs in the centers of civilization in +the latter part of the nineteenth century, let us now turn to the +mountains, and see how matters stood among those primitive people who +were still tarrying in the eighteenth. Their situation at that time is +thus briefly sketched by a southern historian[7]: + +"Before the war these simple folks made their apples and peaches into +brandy, and their corn into whiskey, and these products, with a few +cattle, some dried fruits, honey, beeswax, nuts, wool, hides, fur, +herbs, ginseng and other roots, and woolen socks knitted by the women in +their long winter evenings, formed the stock in trade which they +bartered for their plain necessaries and few luxuries, their homespun +and cotton cloths, sugar, coffee, snuff, and fiddles.... The raising of +a crop of corn in summer, and the getting out of tan-bark and lumber in +winter, were almost their only resources.... The burden of taxation +rested lightly on them. For near two generations no excise duties had +been levied.... The war came on. They were mostly loyal to the Union. +They paid the first moderate tax without a murmur. + +"They were willing to pay any tax that they were able to pay. But +suddenly the tax jumped to $1.50, and then to $2, a gallon. The people +were goaded to open rebellion. Their corn at that time brought only from +25 to 40 cents a bushel; apples and peaches, rarely more than 10 cents +at the stills. These were the only crops that could be grown in their +deep and narrow valleys. Transportation was so difficult, and markets so +remote, that there was no way to utilize the surplus except to distill +it. Their stills were too small to bear the cost of government +supervision. The superior officers of the Revenue Department +(collectors, marshals, and district-attorneys or commissioners) were +paid only by commissions on collections and by fees. Their subordinate +agents, whose income depended upon the number of stills they cut up and +upon the arrests made, were, as a class, brutal and desperate +characters. Guerrilla warfare was the natural sequence." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +"BLOCKADERS" AND "THE REVENUE" + + +Little or no attention seems to have been paid to the moonshining that +was going on in the mountains until about 1876, owing, no doubt, to the +larger game in registered distilleries. In his report for 1876-7, the +new Commissioner of Internal Revenue called attention to the illicit +manufacture of whiskey in the mountain counties of the South, and urged +vigorous measures for its immediate suppression. + +"The extent of these frauds," said he, "would startle belief. I can +safely say that during the past year not less than 3,000 illicit stills +have been operated in the districts named. Those stills are of a +producing capacity of 10 to 50 gallons a day. They are usually located +at inaccessible points in the mountains, away from the ordinary lines of +travel, and are generally owned by unlettered men of desperate +character, armed and ready to resist the officers of the law. Where +occasion requires, they come together in companies of from ten to fifty +persons, gun in hand, to drive the officers out of the country. They +resist as long as resistance is possible, and when their stills are +seized, and they themselves are arrested, they plead ignorance and +poverty, and at once crave the pardon of the Government. + +"These frauds had become so open and notorious ... that I became +satisfied extraordinary measures would be required to break them up. +Collectors were ... each authorized to employ from five to ten +additional deputies.... Experienced revenue agents of perseverance and +courage were assigned to duty to co-operate with the collectors. United +States marshals were called upon to co-operate with the collectors and +to arrest all persons known to have violated the laws, and +district-attorneys were enjoined to prosecute all offenders. + +"In certain portions of the country many citizens not guilty of +violating the law themselves were in strong sympathy with those who did +violate, and the officers in many instances found themselves unsupported +in the execution of the laws by a healthy state of public opinion. The +distillers--ever ready to forcibly resist the officers--were, I have no +doubt, at times treated with harshness. This occasioned much +indignation on the part of those who sympathized with the +lawbreakers...." + +The Commissioner recommended, in his report, the passage of a law +"expressly providing that where a person is caught in the act of +operating an illicit still, he may be arrested without warrant." In +conclusion, he said: "At this time not only is the United States +defrauded of its revenues, and its officers openly resisted, but when +arrests are made it often occurs that prisoners are rescued by mob +violence, and officers and witnesses are often at night dragged from +their homes and cruelly beaten, or waylaid and assassinated." + + * * * * * + +One day I asked a mountain man, "How about the revenue officers? What +sort of men are they?" + +"Torn down scoundrels, every one." + +"Oh, come, now!" + +"Yes, they are; plumb onery--lock, stock, barrel and gun-stick." + +"Consider what they have to go through," I remarked. "Like other +detectives, they cannot secure evidence without practicing deception. +Their occupation is hard and dangerous. Here in the mountains, every +man's hand is against them." + +"Why is it agin them? We ain't all blockaders; yet you can search these +mountains through with a fine-tooth comb and you wunt find ary critter +as has a good word to say for the revenue. The reason is 't we know them +men from 'way back; we know whut they uster do afore they jined the +sarvice, and why they did it. Most of them were blockaders their own +selves, till they saw how they could make more money turncoatin'. They +use their authority to abuse people who ain't never done nothin' nohow. +Dangerous business? Shucks! There's Jim Cody, for a sample [I suppress +the real name]; he was principally raised in this county, and I've +knowed him from a boy. He's been eight years in the Government sarvice, +and hain't never been shot at once. But he's killed a blockader--oh, +yes! He arrested Tom Hayward, a chunk of a boy, that was scared most +fitified and never resisted more'n a mouse. Cody, who was half drunk +his-self, handcuffed Tom, quarreled with him, and shot the boy dead +while the handcuffs was on him! Tom's relations sued Cody in the County +Court, but he carried the case to the Federal Court, and they were too +poor to follow it up. I tell you, though, thar's a settlement less 'n a +thousand mile from the river whar Jim Cody ain't never showed his nose +sence. He knows there'd be another revenue 'murdered.'" + +"It must be ticklish business for an officer to prowl about the +headwaters of these mountain streams, looking for 'sign.'" + +"Hell's banjer! they don't go prodjectin' around looking for stills. +They set at home on their hunkers till some feller comes and informs." + +"What class of people does the informing?" + +"Oh, sometimes hit's some pizen old bum who's been refused credit. +Sometimes hit's the wife or mother of some feller who's drinkin' too +much. Then, agin, hit may be some rival blockader who aims to cut off +the other feller's trade, and, same time, divert suspicion from his own +self. But ginerally hit's jest somebody who has a gredge agin the +blockader fer family reasons, or business reasons, and turns informer to +git even." + +It is only fair to present this side of the case, because there is much +truth in it, and because it goes far to explain the bitter feeling +against revenue agents personally that is almost universal in the +mountains, and is shared even by the mountain preachers. It should be +understood, too, in this connection, that the southern highlander has a +long memory. Slights and injuries suffered by one generation have their +scars transmitted to sons and grandsons. There is no denying that there +have been officers in the revenue service who, stung by the contempt in +which they were held as renegades from their own people, have used their +authority in settling private scores, and have inflicted grievous wrongs +upon innocent people. This is matter of official record. In his report +for 1882, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue himself declared that +"Instances have been brought to my attention where numerous prosecutions +have been instituted for the most trivial violations of law, and the +arrested parties taken long distances and subjected to great +inconveniences and expense, not in the interest of the Government, but +apparently for no other reason than to make costs." + +An ex-United States Commissioner told me that, in the darkest days of +this struggle, when he himself was obliged to buckle on a revolver every +time he put his head out of doors, he had more trouble with his own +deputies than with the moonshiners. "As a rule, none but desperadoes +could be hired for the service," he declared. "For example, one time my +deputy in your county wanted some liquor for himself. He and two of his +cronies crossed the line into South Carolina, raided a still, and got +beastly drunk. The blockaders bushwhacked them, riddled a mule and its +rider with buckshot, and shot my deputy through the brain with a +squirrel rifle. We went over there and buried the victims a few days +later, during a snow storm, working with our holster flaps unbuttoned. I +had all that work and worry simply because that rascal was bent on +getting drunk without paying for it. However, it cost him his life. + +"They were not all like that, though," continued the Judge. "Now and +then there would turn up in the service a man who had entered it from +honorable motives, and whose conduct, at all times, was chivalric and +clean. There was Hersh Harkins, for example, now United States Collector +at Asheville. I had many cases in which Harkins figured." + +"Tell me of one," I urged. + +"Well, one time there was a man named Jenks [that was not the real name, +but it will serve], who was too rich to be suspected of blockading. +Jenks had a license to make brandy, but not whiskey. One day Harkins was +visiting his still-house, and he noticed something dubious. Thrusting +his arm down through the peach pomace, he found mash underneath. It is a +penitentiary offense to mix the two. Harkins procured more evidence +from Jenk's distiller, and hauled the offender before me. The trial was +conducted in a hotel room, full of people. We were not very formal in +those days--kept our hats on. There was no thought of Jenks trying to +run away, for he was well-to-do; so he was given the freedom of the +room. He paced nervously back and forth between my desk and the door, +growing more restless as the trial proceeded. A clerk sat near me, +writing a bond, and Harkins stood behind him dictating its terms. +Suddenly Jenks wheeled around, near the door, jerked out a navy +revolver, fired and bolted. It is hard to say whom he shot at, for the +bullet went through Harkins's coat, through the clerk's hat, and through +my hat, too. I ducked under the desk to get my revolver, and Harkins, +thinking that I was killed, sprang to pick me up; but I came up firing. +It was wonderful how soon that room was emptied! Harkins took after the +fugitive, and had a wild chase; but he got him." + + * * * * * + +It was my good fortune, a few evenings later, to have a long talk with +Mr. Harkins himself. He was a fine giant of a man, standing six feet +three, and symmetrically proportioned. No one looking into his kindly +gray eyes would suspect that they belonged to one who had seen as hard +and dangerous service in the Revenue Department as any man then living. +In an easy, unassuming way he told me many stories of his own adventures +among moonshiners and counterfeiters in the old days when these southern +Appalachians fairly swarmed with desperate characters. One grim affair +will suffice to give an impression of the man, and of the times in which +his spurs were won. + +There was a man on South Mountain, South Carolina, whom, for the sake of +relatives who may still be living, we will call Lafonte. There was +information that Lafonte was running a blind tiger. He got his whiskey +from four brothers who were blockading near his father's house, just +within the North Carolina line. The Government had sent an officer named +Merrill to capture Lafonte, but the latter drove Merrill away with a +shotgun. Harkins then received orders to make the arrest. Taking Merrill +with him as guide, Harkins rode to the father's house, and found Lafonte +himself working near a high fence. As soon as the criminal saw the +officers approaching, he ran for the house to get his gun. Harkins +galloped along the other side of the fence, and, after a +rough-and-tumble fight, captured his man. The officers then carried +their prisoner to the house of a man whose name I have forgotten--call +him White--who lived about two miles away. Meantime they had heard +Lafonte's sister give three piercing screams as a signal to his +confederates in the neighborhood, and they knew that trouble would +quickly brew. + +Breakfast was ready in White's home when the mob arrived. Harkins sent +Merrill in to breakfast, and himself went out on the porch, carbine in +hand, to stand off the thoroughly angry gang. White also went out, +beseeching the mob to disperse. Matters looked squally for a time, but +it was finally agreed that Lafonte should give bond, whereupon he was +promptly released. + +The two officers then finished their breakfast, and shortly set out for +the Blue House, an abandoned schoolhouse about forty miles distant, +where the trial was to be conducted. They were followed at a distance by +Lafonte's half-drunken champions, who were by no means placated, owing +to the fact that the Blue House was in a neighborhood friendly to the +Government. Harkins and Merrill soon dodged to one side in the forest, +until the rioters had passed them, and then proceeded leisurely in the +rear. On their way to the Blue House they cut up four stills, +destroyed a furnace, and made several arrests. + + +[Illustration: A Mountain Home] + + +The next day three United States commissioners opened court in the old +schoolhouse. The room was crowded by curious spectators. The trial had +not proceeded beyond preliminaries when shots and shouts from the +pursuing mob were heard in the distance. Immediately the room was +emptied of both crowd and commissioners, who fled in all directions, +leaving Harkins and Merrill to fight their battle alone. + +There were thirteen men in the moonshiners' mob. They surrounded the +house, and immediately began shooting in through the windows. The +officers returned the fire, but a hard-pine ceiling in the room caused +the bullets of the attacking party to ricochet in all directions and +made the place untenable. Harkins and his comrade sprang out through the +windows, but from opposite sides of the house. Merrill ran, but Harkins +grappled with the men nearest to him, and in a moment the whole force of +desperadoes was upon him like a swarm of bees. Unfortunately, the brave +fellow had left his carbine at the house where he had spent the night. +His only weapon was a revolver that had only three cartridges in the +cylinder. Each of these shots dropped a man; but there were ten men +left. Nothing but Harkins's gigantic strength saved him, that day, from +immediate death. His long arms tackled three or four men at once, and +all went down in a bunch. Others fell on top, as in a college cane-rush. +There had been swift shooting, hitherto, but now it was mostly knife and +pistol-butt. It is almost incredible, but it is true, that this +extraordinary battle waged for three-quarters of an hour. At its end +only one man faced the now thoroughly exhausted and badly wounded, but +indomitable officer. At this fellow, Harkins hurled his pistol; it +struck him in the forehead, and the battle was won. + +A thick overcoat that Mr. Harkins wore was pierced by twenty-one +bullets, seven of which penetrated his body. He received, besides, three +or four bad knife-wounds in his back, and he was literally dripping +blood from head to foot. + +This tragedy had an almost comic sequel. After all danger had passed, a +sheriff appeared on the scene, who placed, not the mob-leader, but the +Federal officer under arrest. Harkins left a guard over the three men +whom he had shot, and submitted to arrest, but demanded that he be taken +to the farmhouse where he had left his horse. This the sheriff actually +refused to permit, although Harkins was evidently past all possibility +of continuing far afoot. Disgusted at such imbecility, the deputy +stalked away from the sheriff, leaving the latter with his mouth open, +and utterly obsessed. + +A short distance up the road, Harkins met a countryman mounted on a +sorry old mule. "Loan me that mule for half an hour," he requested; "you +see, I can walk no further." But the fellow, scared out of his wits by +the spectacle of a man in such desperate plight, refused to accommodate +him. + +"Get down off that mule, or I'll break your neck!" + +The mule changed riders. + +When the story was finished, I asked Mr. Harkins if it was true, as the +reading public generally believes, that moonshiners prefer death to +capture. "Do they shoot a revenue officer at sight?" + +The answer was terse: + +"They used to shoot; nowadays they run." + + * * * * * + +We have come to the time when our Government began in dead earnest to +fight the moonshiners and endeavor to suppress their traffic. It was in +1877. To give a fair picture, from the official standpoint, of the state +of affairs at that time, I will quote from the report of the +Commissioner of Internal Revenue for the year 1877-78: + +"It is with extreme regret," he said, "I find it my duty to report the +great difficulties that have been and still are encountered in many of +the Southern States in the enforcement of the laws. In the mountain +regions of West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, +Georgia and Alabama, and in some portions of Missouri, Arkansas and +Texas, the illicit manufacture of spirits has been carried on for a +number of years, and I am satisfied that the annual loss to the +Government from this source has been very nearly, if not quite, equal to +the annual appropriation for the collection of the internal revenue tax +throughout the whole country. In the regions of country named there are +known to exist about 5,000 copper stills, many of which at certain times +are lawfully used in the production of brandy from apples and peaches, +but I am convinced that a large portion of these stills have been and +are used in the illicit manufacture of spirits. Part of the spirits thus +produced has been consumed in the immediate neighborhood; the balance +has been distributed and sold throughout the adjacent districts. + +"This nefarious business has been carried on, as a rule, by a +determined set of men, who in their various neighborhoods league +together for defense against the officers of the law, and at a given +signal are ready to come together with arms in their hands to drive the +officers of internal revenue out of the country. + +"As illustrating the extraordinary resistance which the officers have +had on some occasions to encounter, I refer to occurrences in Overton +County, Tennessee, in August last, where a posse of eleven internal +revenue officers, who had stopped at a farmer's house for the night, +were attacked by a band of armed illicit distillers, who kept up a +constant fusillade during the whole night, and whose force was augmented +during the following day till it numbered nearly two hundred men. The +officers took shelter in a log house, which served them as a fort, +returning the fire as best they could, and were there besieged for +forty-two hours, three of their party being shot--one through the body, +one through the arm, and one in the face. I directed a strong force to +go to their relief, but in the meantime, through the intervention of +citizens, the besieged officers were permitted to retire, taking their +wounded with them, and without surrendering their arms. + +"So formidable has been the resistance to the enforcement of the laws +that in the districts of 5th Virginia, 6th North Carolina, South +Carolina, 2d and 5th Tennessee, 2d West Virginia, Arkansas, and +Kentucky, I have found it necessary to supply the collectors with +breech-loading carbines. In these districts, and also in the States of +Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, in the 4th district of North Carolina, +and in the 2d and 5th districts of Missouri, I have authorized the +organization of posses ranging from five to sixty in number, to aid in +making seizures and arrests, the object being to have a force +sufficiently strong to deter resistance if possible, and, if need be, to +overcome it." + +The intention of the Revenue Department was certainly not to inflame the +mountain people, but to treat them as considerately as possible. And +yet, the policy of "be to their faults a little blind" had borne no +other fruit than to strengthen the combinations of moonshiners and their +sympathizers to such a degree that they could set the ordinary force of +officers at defiance, and things had come to such a pass that men of +wide experience in the revenue service had reached the conclusion that +"the fraud of illicit distilling was an evil too firmly established to +be uprooted, and that it must be endured." + +The real trouble was that public sentiment in the mountains was almost +unanimously in the moonshiners' favor. Leading citizens were either +directly interested in the traffic, or were in active sympathy with the +distillers. "In some cases," said the Commissioner, "State officers, +including judges on the bench, have sided with the illicit distillers +and have encouraged the use of the State courts for the prosecution of +the officers of the United States upon all sorts of charges, with the +evident purpose of obstructing the enforcement of the laws of the United +States.... I regret to have to record the fact that when the officers of +the United States have been shot down from ambuscade, in cold blood, as +a rule no efforts have been made on the part of the State officers to +arrest the murderers; but in cases where the officers of the United +States have been engaged in enforcement of the laws, and have +unfortunately come in conflict with the violators of the law, and +homicides have occurred, active steps have been at once taken for the +arrest of such officers, and nothing would be left undone by the State +authorities to bring them to trial and punishment." + +There is no question but that this statement of the Commissioner was a +fair presentation of facts; but when he went on to expose the root of +the evil, the underlying sentiment that made, and still makes, illicit +distilling popular among our mountaineers, I think that he was +singularly at fault. This was his explanation--the only one that I have +found in all the reports of the Department from 1870 to 1904: + +"Much of the opposition to the enforcement of the internal revenue laws +[he does not say _all_, but offers no other theory] is properly +attributable to a latent feeling of hostility to the government and laws +of the United States still prevailing in the breasts of a portion of the +people of these districts, and in consequence of this condition of +things the officers of the United States have often been treated very +much as though they were emissaries from some foreign country quartered +upon the people for the collection of tribute." + +This shows an out-and-out misunderstanding of the character of the +mountain people, their history, their proclivities, and the +circumstances of their lives. The southern mountaineers, as a class, +have been remarkably loyal to the Union ever since it was formed. Far +more of them fought for the Union than for the Confederacy in our Civil +War. And, anyway, politics has never had anything to do with the +moonshining question. The reason for illicit distilling is purely an +economic one, as I have shown. If officers of the Federal Government +have been treated as foreigners they have met the same reception that +_all_ outsiders meet from the mountaineers. A native of the Carolina +tidewater is a "furriner" in the Carolina mountains, and so is a native +of the "bluegrass" when he enters the eastern hills of his own State. +The highlander's word "furriner" means to him what +barbaros+ did +to an ancient Greek. Ordinarily he is courteous to the unfortunate +alien, though never deferential; in his heart of hearts he regards the +queer fellow with lofty superiority. This trait is characteristic of all +primitive peoples, of all isolated peoples. It is provincialism, pure +and simple--a provincialism more crudely expressed in Appalachia than in +Gotham or The Hub, but no cruder in essence for all that. + +The vigorous campaign of 1877 bore such fruit that, in the following +year, the Commissioner was able to report: "We virtually have peaceable +possession of the districts of 4th and 5th North Carolina, Georgia, West +Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, and Arkansas, in many of which formidable +resistance to the enforcement of the law has prevailed.... In the +western portion of the 5th Virginia district, in part of West Virginia, +in the 6th North Carolina district, in part of South Carolina, and in +the 2d and 5th districts of Tennessee, I apprehend further serious +difficulties.... It is very desirable, in order to prevent bloodshed, +that the internal revenue forces sent into these infected regions to +make seizures and arrests shall be so strong as to deter armed +resistance." + +In January, 1880, a combined movement by armed bodies of internal +revenue officers was made from West Virginia southwestward through the +mountains and foothills infested with illicit distillers. "The effect of +this movement was to convince violators of the law that it was the +determination of the Government to put an end to frauds and resistance +of authority, and since that time it has been manifest to all +well-meaning men in those regions of the country that the day of the +illicit distiller is past." In his report for 1881-82 the Commissioner +declared that "The supremacy of the laws ... has been established in all +parts of the country." + +As a matter of fact, the number of arrests per annum, which hitherto had +ranged from 1,000 to 3,000, now dropped off considerably, and the +casualties in the service became few and far between. But, in 1894, +Congress increased the tax on spirits from the old 90 cents figure to +$1.10 a gallon. The effect was almost instantaneous. We have no means +of learning how many new moonshine stills were set up, but we do know +that the number of seizures doubled and trebled, and that bloodshed +proportionally increased. Again the complaint went out that "justice was +frequently defeated," even in cases of conviction, by failure to visit +adequate punishment upon the offenders. It is, to-day, a notorious fact +that our blockaders dread their own State courts far more than they do +the Federal courts, because the punishment for selling liquor in the +mountain counties is surer to follow conviction than is the penalty for +violating Federal law. The latter is severe enough, if it were enforced; +for defrauding, or attempting to defraud, the United States of the tax +on spirits, the law prescribes forfeiture of the distillery and +apparatus, and of all spirits and raw materials, besides a fine of not +less than $500 nor more than $5,000, _and_ imprisonment for not less +than six months nor longer than three years. I am not able to say what +percentage of arrests is followed by conviction, nor how many convicted +persons suffer the full penalty of the law. I only know that public +opinion in the mountains did not consider an arrest, or even a +conviction, by the Federal authorities, as a very serious matter during +the period from 1880 up to the past two or three years, and little +resistance was offered by blockaders when captured. + +Recently, however, a new factor has entered the moonshining problem and +profoundly altered it: the South has gone "dry." + +One might have expected that prohibition would be bitterly opposed in +Appalachia, in view of the fact that here the old-fashioned principle +still prevails, in practice, that moderate drinking is neither a sin nor +a disgrace, and that a man has the same right to make his own whiskey as +his own soup, if he chooses. Undoubtedly those who fight the liquor +traffic on purely moral grounds are a small minority in the mountains. +But the blockaders themselves are glad to see prohibitory laws enforced +to the letter, so far as saloons and registered distilleries are +concerned, and the drinking public prefer their native product from both +patriotic and gustatory motives. Such a combination is irresistible. + +When pure "blockade" of normal strength sold as cheaply as it did before +prohibition there was no great profit in it, all risks and expenses +considered. But to-day, even with interstate shipments of liquors to +consumers, a gallon of "blockade" will be watered to half-strength, then +fortified with cologne spirits or other abominations, and peddled out +by bootleggers, at $1.50 a quart, in villages and lumber camps where +somebody always is thirsty and can find the coin to assuage it. Thus, +amid a poverty-stricken class of mountaineers, the temptation to run a +secret still, and adulterate the output, inflames and spreads. + +In any case, the fact is that blockading as a business conducted in +armed defiance of the law is increasing by leaps and bounds since the +mountain region went "dry." The profits to-day are much greater than +before, because liquor is harder to get, in country districts, and +consumers will pay higher prices without question. + +Correspondingly, the risks are greater than ever. Arrests have increased +rapidly, and so have mortal combats between officers and outlaws. +Blockading has returned to much the same status described (as previously +quoted) by our Commissioner of Internal Revenue in 1876. I have not seen +recent revenue reports, but I do not need to; for the war between +officers and moonshiners is so close to us that we almost live within +gun-crack of it. If Mr. Harkins were alive to-day, he would say: "They +used to shoot--and they have taken it up again." + +Observe, please, that this is no argument for or against prohibition. +That is not my business. As a descriptive writer it is my duty to +collect facts, whether pleasant or unpleasant, regardless of my own or +anyone else's bias, and present them in orderly sequence. It is for the +reader to deduce his own conclusions, and with them I have nothing at +all to do. + +I have given in brief the history of illicit distilling because we must +consider it before we can grasp firmly the basic fact that this is not +so much a moral as an economic problem. Men do not make whiskey in +secret, at the peril of imprisonment or death, because they are outlaws +by nature nor from any other kind of depravity, but simply and solely +because it looks like "easy money to poor folks." + +If I may voice my own opinion of a working remedy, it is this: Give the +mountaineers a lawful chance to make decent livings where they are. This +means, first of all, decent roads whereby to market their farm produce +without losing all profit in cost of transportation. The first problem +of Appalachia to-day is the very same problem as that of western +Pennsylvania in 1784. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE OUTLANDER AND THE NATIVE + + +Among the many letters that come to me from men who think of touring or +camping in Highland Dixie there are few but ask, "How are strangers +treated?" + +This question, natural and prudent though it be, never fails to make me +smile, for I know so well the thoughts that lie back of it: "Suppose one +should blunder innocently upon a moonshine still--what would happen? If +a feud were raging in the land, how would a stranger fare? If one goes +alone into the mountains, does he run any risk of being robbed?" + +Before I left the tame West and came into this wild East, I would have +asked a few questions myself, if I had known anyone to answer them. As +it was, I turned up rather abruptly in a backwoods settlement where the +"furriner" was more than a nine-days wonder. I bore no credentials; and +it was quite as well. If I had presented a letter from some clergyman or +from the President of the United States it would have been--just what I +was myself--a curiosity: as when the puppy discovers some weird and +marvelous new bug. + +Everyone greeted me politely but with unfeigned interest. I was welcome +to sup and bed wherever I went. Moonshiners and man-slayers were as +affable as common folks. I dwelt alone for a long time, first in open +camp, afterwards in a secluded hut. Then I boarded with a native family. +Often I left my belongings to look out for themselves whilst I went away +on expeditions of days or weeks at a time. And nobody ever stole from me +so much as a fish-hook or a brass cartridge. So, in the retrospect, I +smile. + +Does this mean, then, that Poe's characterization of the mountaineers is +out of date? Not at all. They are the same "fierce and uncouth race of +men" to-day that they were in his time. Homicide is so prevalent in the +districts that I personally am acquainted with that nearly every adult +citizen has been directly interested in some murder case, either as +principal, officer, witness, kinsman, or friend. + +This grewsome subject I shall treat elsewhere, in detail. It is +introduced here only to emphasize a fact pertinent to the present topic, +namely: that the private wars of the highlanders are limited to their +own people. In our corner of North Carolina no traveler from the +outside ever has been a victim, nor do I know of any such case in the +whole Appalachian region. + + +[Illustration: Many of the homes have but one window] + + +And here is another significant fact: as regards personal property I do +not know any race in the world that is more honest than our backwoodsmen +of the southern mountains. As soon as you leave the railroad you enter a +land where sneak-thieves are rare and burglars almost unheard of. In my +own county and all those adjoining it there has been only one case of +highway robbery and only one of murder for money, so far as I can learn, +in the past _forty_ years. + +The mountain code of conduct is a curious mixture of savagery and +civility. One man will kill another over a pig or a panel of fence (not +for the property's sake, but because of hot words ensuing) and he will +"come clear" in court because every fellow on the jury feels he would +have done the same thing himself under similar provocation; yet these +very men, vengeful and cruel though they are, regard hospitality as a +sacred duty toward wayfarers of any degree, and the bare idea of +stealing from a stranger would excite their instant loathing or +white-hot scorn. + +Anyone of tact and common sense can go as he pleases through the darkest +corner of Appalachia without being molested. Tact, however, implies the +will and the insight to put yourself truly in the other man's place. +Imagine yourself born, bred, circumstanced like him. It implies, also, +the courtesy of doing as you would be done by if you were in that +fellow's shoes. No arrogance, no condescension, but man to man on a +footing of equal manliness. + +And there are "manners" in the rudest community: customs and rules of +conduct that it is well to learn before one goes far afield. For +example, when you stop at a mountain cabin, if no dogs sound an alarm, +do not walk up to the door and knock. You are expected to call out +_Hello!_ until someone comes to inspect you. None but the most intimate +neighbors neglect this usage and there is mighty good reason back of it +in a land where the path to one's door may be a warpath. + +If you are armed, as a hunter, do not fail to remove the cartridges from +the gun, in your host's presence, before you set foot on his porch. Then +give him the weapon or stand it in a corner or hang it up in plain view. +Even our sheriff, when he stopped with us, would lay his revolver on the +mantel-shelf and leave it there until he went his way. If you think a +moment you can see the courtesy of such an act. It proves that the +guest puts implicit trust in the honor of his host and in his ability to +protect all within his house. There never has been a case in which such +trust was violated. + +I knew a traveler who, spending the night in a one-room cabin, was fool +enough (I can use no milder term) to thrust a loaded revolver under his +pillow when he went to bed. In the morning his weapon was still there, +but empty, and its cartridges lay conspicuously on a table across the +room. Nobody said a word about the incident: the hint was left to soak +in. + +The only real danger that one may encounter from the native people, so +long as he behaves himself, is when he comes upon a man who is wild with +liquor and cannot sidestep him. In such case, give him the glad word and +move on at once. I have had a drunken "ball-hooter" (log-roller) from +the lumber camps fire five shots around my head as a _feu-de-joie_, and +then stand tantalizingly, with hammer cocked over the sixth cartridge, +to see what I would do about it. As it chanced, I did not mind his +fireworks, for my head was a-swim with the rising fever of erysipelas +and I had come dragging my heels many an irk mile down from the +mountains to find a doctor. So I merely smiled at the fellow and asked +if he was having a good time. He grinned sheepishly and let me pass +unharmed. + +The chief drawback to travel in this region, aside from the roads, is +not the character of the people, but the quality of bed and board. Of +course there are good hotels at most of the summer resorts, but these +are few and scattering, at present, for a territory so immense. In most +regions where there is noble scenery, unspoiled forest, and good +fishing, the accommodations are extremely rude. Many of the village inns +are dirty, and their tables a shock and a despair to the hungry pilgrim. +There are blessed exceptions, to be sure, but on the other hand the +traveler sometimes will encounter a cuisine that is neither edible nor +speakable, and will be shown to a bed wherein it needs no Sherlock +Holmes to detect that the previous biped retired with his boots on, or +at least with much realty attached to his person. Such places often are +like that unpronounceable town in Russia of which Paragot said: "The +bugs are the most companionable creatures in it, and they are the +cleanest." + +If one be of the same mind as the plain-spoken Dr. Samuel Johnson, that +"the finest landscape in the world is not worth a damn without a cozy +inn in the foreground," he should keep to the stock show-places of our +highlands or seek other playgrounds. + +By far the most comfortable way to stay in the back country at present +is in a camp of one's own where he can keep things tidy and have food to +suit him. If you be, though, of stout stomach and wishful to get true +insight into mountain ways and character you can find some sort of +boarding-place almost anywhere. In such case go first to the sheriff of +the county (in person, not by letter). This officer is a walking bureau +of information and dispenses it freely to any stranger. He knows almost +every man in the county, his character and his circumstances. He may be +depended upon to direct you to the best stopping-places, will tell you +how to get hunting and fishing privileges, and will recommend a good +packer or teamster if such help is wanted. + +Along the railways and main county roads the farmers show a +well-justified mistrust about admitting company for the night. But in +the back districts the latch-string generally is out to all comers. "If +you-uns can stand what we-uns has ter, w'y come right in and set you a +cheer." + +If the man of the house has misgivings as to the state of the larder, he +will say: "I'll ax the woman gin she can git ye a bite." Seldom does +the wife demur, though sometimes her patience is sorely tried. + +A stranger whose calked boots betrayed his calling stopped at Uncle +Mark's to inquire, "Can I git to stay all night?" Aunt Nance, peeping +through a crack, warned her man in a whisper: "Them loggers jest louzes +up folkses houses." Whereat Mark answered the lumberjack: "We don't +ginerally foller takin' in strangers." + +Jack glanced significantly at the lowering clouds, and grunted: +"Uh--looks like I could stand hitched all night!" + +This was too much for Mark. "Well!" he exclaimed, "mebbe we-uns can find +ye a pallet--I'll try to enjoy ye somehow." Which, being interpreted, +means, "I'll entertain you as best I can." + +The hospitality of the backwoods knows no bounds short of sickness in +the family or downright destitution. Travelers often innocently impose +on poor people, and even criticise the scanty fare, when they may be +getting a lion's share of the last loaf in the house. And few of them +realize the actual cost of entertaining company in a home that is long +mountain miles from any market. Fancy yourself making a twenty-mile +round trip over awful roads to carry back a sack of flour on your +shoulder and a can of oil in your hand; then figure what the +transportation is worth. + +Once when I was trying a short-cut through the forest by following vague +directions I swerved to the wrong trail. Sunset found me on the summit +of an unfamiliar mountain, with cold rain setting in, and below me lay +the impenetrable laurel of Huggins's Hell. I turned back to the head of +the nearest water course, not knowing whither it led, fought my way +through thicket and darkness to the nearest house, and asked for +lodging. The man was just coming in from work. He betrayed some anxiety +but admitted me with grave politeness. Then he departed on an errand, +leaving his wife to hear the story of my wanderings. + +I was eager for supper; but madame made no move toward the kitchen. An +hour passed. A little child whimpered with hunger. The mother, flushing, +soothed it on her breast. + +It was well on in the night when her husband returned, bearing a little +"poke" of cornmeal. Then the woman flew to her post. Soon we had hot +bread, three or four slices of pork, and black coffee unsweetened--all +there was in the house. + +It developed that when I arrived there was barely enough meal for the +family's supper and breakfast. My host had to shell some corn, go in +almost pitch darkness, without a lantern, to a tub-mill far down the +branch, wait while it ground out a few spoonfuls to the minute and bring +the meal back. + +Next morning, when I offered pay for my entertainment, he waved it +aside. "I ain't never tuk money from company," he said, "and this ain't +no time to begin." + +Laughing, I slipped some silver into the hand of the eldest child. "This +is not pay; it's a present." The girl was awed into speechlessness at +sight of money of her own, and the parents did not know how to thank me +for her, but bade me "Stay on, stranger; pore folks has a pore way, but +you're welcome to what we got." + +This incident is a little out of the common, nowadays; but it is typical +of what was customary until lumbering and other industrial works began +to invade the solitudes. To-day it is the rule to charge twenty-five +cents a meal and the same for lodging, regardless of what the fare and +the bed may be. When you think of it, this is right, for "the porer +folks is the harder it is to _git_ things." + +The mountaineers always are eager for news. In the drab monotony of +their shut-in lives the coming of an unknown traveler is an event that +will set the whole neighborhood gossiping. Every word and action of his +will be discussed for weeks after he has gone his way. This, of course, +is a trait of rural people everywhere; but imagine, if you can, how it +may be intensified where there are no newspapers, few visitors, and +where the average man gets maybe two or three letters a year! + +Riding up a branch road, you come upon a white-bearded patriarch who +halts you with a wave of the hand. + +"Stranger--meanin' no harm--_whar_ are you gwine?" + +You tell him. + +"What did you say your name was?" + +You had not mentioned it; but you do so now. + +"What mought you-uns foller for a living?" + +It is wise to humor the old man, and tell him frankly what is your +business "up this 'way-off branch." + +Half a mile farther you espy a girl coming toward you. She stops like a +startled fawn, wide-eyed with amazement. Then, at a bound, she dodges +into a thicket, doubles on her course and runs back as fast as her +nimble bare legs can carry her to report that "Some-_body_ 's comin'!" + +At the next house, stopping for a drink of water, you chat a few +moments. High up the opposite hill is a half-hidden cabin from which +keen eyes scrutinize your every move, and a woman cries to her boy: +"Run, Kit, down to Mederses, and ax who _is_ he!" + +As you approach a cross-roads store every idler pricks up to instant +attention. Your presence is detected from every neighboring cabin and +cornfield. Long John quits his plowing, Red John drops his axe, Sick +John ("who's allers ailin', to hear _him_ tell") pops out of bed, and +Lyin' John (whose "mouth ain't no praar-book, if it _does_ open and +shet") grabs his hat, with "I jes' got ter know who that feller is!" +Then all Johns descend their several paths, to congregate at the store +and estimate the stranger as though he were so many board-feet of lumber +in the tree or so many pounds of beef on the hoof. + +In every settlement there is somebody who makes a pleasure of gathering +and spreading news. Such a one we had--a happy-go-lucky fellow from +whom, they said, "you can hear the news jinglin' afore he comes within +gunshot." It amused me to record the many ways he had of announcing his +mission by indirection. Here is the list: + +"I'm jes' broguin' about." + +"Yes, I'm jest cooterin' around." + +"I'm santerin' about." + +"Oh, I'm jes' prodjectin' around." + +"Jist traffickin' about." + +"No, I ain't workin' none--jest spuddin' around." + +"Me? I'm jes' shacklin' around." + +"Yea, la! I'm jist loaferin' about." + +And yet one hears that our mountaineers have a limited vocabulary! + +Although this is no place to discuss the mountain dialect, I must +explain that to "brogue" means to go about in brogues (brogans +nowadays). A "cooter" is a box-tortoise, and the noun is turned into a +verb with an ease characteristic of the mountaineers. "Spuddin' around" +means toddling or jolting along. To "shummick" (also "shammick") is to +shuffle about, idly nosing into things, as a bear does when there is +nothing serious in view. And "shacklin' around" pictures a shackly, +loose-jointed way of walking, expressive of the idle vagabond. + +A stranger takes the mountaineers for simple characters that can be +gauged at a glance. This illusion--for it is an illusion--comes from +the childlike directness with which they ask him the most intimate +questions about himself, from the genuine good-will with which they +admit him to their homes, and from the stark openness of their domestic +affairs in houses where no privacy can possibly exist. + +In so far as simplicity means only a shrewd regard for essentials, a +rigid exclusion of whatever can be done without, perhaps no white race +is nearer a state of nature than these highlanders of ours. Yet this +relates only to the externals of life. Diogenes sat in a tub, but his +thoughts were deep as the sea. And whoever estimates our mountaineers as +a shallow-minded or open-minded people has much to learn. + +When Long John asks, "What you aimin' to do up hyur? How much money do +you make? Whar's your old woman?" he does not really expect sincere +answers. Certainly he will take them with more than a grain of salt. +Conversation, with him, is a game. In quizzing you, the interests that +he is actually curious about lie hidden in the back of his head, and he +will proceed toward them by cunning circumventions, seeking to entrap +you into telling the truth by accident. Being himself born to intrigue +and skilled in dodging the leading question, he assumes that you have +had equal advantages. When you discuss with him any business of serious +concern, if you should go straight to the point, and open your mind +frankly, he would be nonplussed. + +The fact is that our highlanders are a sly, suspicious, and secretive +folk. That, too, is a state of nature. Primitive society is by no means +a Utopia or a Garden of Eden. In wilderness life the feral arts of +concealment, spying, false "leads," and doubling on trails, are the arts +self-preservative. The native backwoodsman practices them as +instinctively and with as little compunction upon his own species as +upon the deer and the wolf from whom he learned them. + +As a friend, no one will spring quicker to your aid, reckless of +consequences, and fight with you to the last ditch; but fear of betrayal +lies at the very bottom of his nature. His sleepless suspicion of +ulterior motives is no more, no less, than a feral trait, inherited from +a long line of forebears whose isolated lives were preserved only by +incessant vigilance against enemies that stalked by night and struck +without warning. + +Casual visitors learn nothing about the true character of the +mountaineers. I am not speaking of personal but of race character--type. +No outsider can discern and measure those powerful but obscure motives, +those rooted prejudices, that constitute their real difference from +other men, until he has lived with the people a long time on terms of +intimacy. Nor can anyone be trusted to portray them if he holds a brief +either for or against this people. The fluttering tourist marks only the +oddities he sees, without knowing the reason for them. On the other +hand, a misguided champion flies to arms at first mention of an +unpleasant fact, and either denies it, clamoring for legal proof, or +tries to befog the whole subject and run it on the rocks of altercation. + +The mountaineers are high-strung and sensitive to criticism. No one has +less use for "that worst scourge of avenging heaven, the candid friend." +Of late years they are growing conscious of their own belatedness, and +that touches a tender spot. "Hit don't take a big seed to hurt a sore +tooth." Since they do not see how anyone can find beauty or historic +interest in ways of life that the rest of the world has cast aside, so +they resent every exposure of their peculiarities as if that were +holding them up to ridicule or blame. + +Strange to say, it provokes them to be called mountaineers, that being a +"furrin word" which they take as a term of reproach. They call +themselves mountain people, or citizens; sometimes humorously "mountain +boomers," the word boomer being their name for the common red squirrel +which is found here only in the upper zones of the mountains. +Backwoodsman is another term that they deem opprobrious. Among +themselves the backwoods are called "the sticks." Hillsman and +highlander are strange words to them--and anything that is strange is +suspicious. Hence it is next to impossible for anyone to write much +about these people without offending them or else falling into singsong +repetition of the same old terms. + +I have found it beyond me to convince anyone here that my studies of the +mountain dialect are made from any better motive than vulgar curiosity. +It has been my habit to jot down, on the spot, every dialectical word or +variant or idiom that I hear, along with the phrase or sentence in which +it occurred; for I never trust memory in such matters. And although I +tell frankly what I am about, and why, yet all that the folks can or +will see is that-- + + A chiel 's amang ye, takin' notes, + And, faith, he'll prent 'em. + + +Nothing worse than dour looks has yet befallen me, but other scribes +have not got off so easy. On more than one occasion newspaper men who +went into eastern Kentucky to report feuds were escorted forcibly to the +railroad and warned never to return. The feudists are scarce to blame, +for the average news story of their wars is neither sacred nor profane +history. It is bad enough to be shown up as an assassin; but when one is +posed as "cocking the _trigger_" of a gun, or shooting a "forty-four" +bullet from a thirty-caliber "automatic _revolver_," who in Kentucky +could be expected to stand it? + +The novelists have their troubles, too. President Frost relates that +when John Fox gave a reading from his Cumberland tales at Berea College +"the mountain boys were ready to mob him. They had no comprehension of +the nature of fiction. Mr. Fox's stories were either true or false. If +they were true, then he was 'no gentleman' for telling all the family +affairs of people who had entertained him with their best. If they were +not true, then, of course, they were libellous upon the mountain people. +Such an attitude may remind us of the general condemnation of fiction by +the 'unco gude' a generation ago." + + +[Illustration: The Schoolhouse] + + +As for settlement workers, let them teach more by example than by +precept. Bishop Wilson has given them some advice that cannot be +bettered: "It must be said with emphasis that our problem is an +exceedingly delicate one. The Highlanders are Scotch-Irish in their +high-spiritedness and proud independence. Those who would help them must +do so in a perfectly frank and kindly way, showing always genuine +interest in them but never a trace of patronizing condescension. As +quick as a flash the mountaineer will recognize and resent the intrusion +of any such spirit, and will refuse even what he sorely needs if he +detects in the accents or the demeanor of the giver any indication of an +air of superiority." + +"The worker among the mountaineers," he continues, "must 'meet with them +on the level and part on the square' and conquer their oftentimes +unreasonable suspicion by genuine brotherly friendship. The less he has +to say about the superiority of other sections or of the deficiencies of +the mountains, the better for his cause. The fact is that comparatively +few workers are at first able to pass muster in this regard under the +searching and silent scrutiny of the mountain people." + +Allow me to add that this is no place for the "unco gude" to exercise +their talents, but rather for those whose studies and travels have +taught them both tolerance and hopefulness. Some well-meaning +missionaries are shocked and scandalized at what seems to them incurable +perversity and race degeneration. It is nothing of the sort. There are +reasons, good reasons, for the worst that we find in any Hell-fer-Sartin +or Loafer's Glory. All that is the inevitable result of isolation and +lack of opportunity. It is no more hopeless than the same features of +life were in the Scotch highlands two centuries ago. + +But it must be known that the future of this really fine race is, at +bottom, an economic problem, which must be studied hand-in-hand with the +educational one. Civilization only repels the mountaineer until you show +him something to gain by it--he knows by instinct what he is bound to +lose. There is no use in teaching cleanliness and thrift to serfs or +outcasts. The _independence_ of the mountain farm must be preserved, or +the fine spirit of the race will vanish and all that is manly in the +Highlander will wither to the core. + +It is far from my own purpose to preach or advise. "Portray the +struggle, and you need write no tract." Still farther is it from my +thought to let characterization degenerate into caricature. Wherever I +tell anything that is unusual or below the average of backwoods life, I +give fair warning that it is admitted only for spice or contrast, and +let it go at that. But even in writing with severe restraint it will be +necessary at times to show conditions so rude and antiquated that +professional apologists will growl, and many others may find my +statements hard to credit as typical of anything at all in our modern +America. + +So, let me remind the reader again that full three-fourths of our +mountaineers still live in the eighteenth century, and that in their +far-flung wilderness, away from large rivers and railways, the habits, +customs, morals of the people have changed but little from those of our +old colonial frontier; in essentials they are closely analogous to what +we read of lower-class English and Scottish life in Covenanter and +Jacobite times. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE PEOPLE OF THE HILLS + + +In delineating a strange race we are prone to disregard what is common +in our own experience and observe sharply what is odd. The oddities we +sketch and remember and tell about. But there is little danger of +misrepresenting the physical features and mental traits of the hill +people, because among them there is one definite type that greatly +predominates. This is not to be wondered at when we remember that fully +three-fourths of our highlanders are practically of the same descent, +have lived the same kind of life for generations, and have intermarried +to a degree unknown in other parts of America. + +Our average mountaineer is lean, inquisitive, shrewd. If that be what +constitutes a Yankee, as is popularly supposed outside of New England, +then this Yankee of the South is as true to type as the conventional +Uncle Sam himself. + +A fat mountaineer is a curiosity. The hill folk even seem to affect a +slender type of comeliness. In Alice MacGowan's _Judith of the +Cumberlands_, old Jepthah Turrentine says of one of his sons: "I named +that boy after the finest man that ever walked God's green earth--and +then the fool had to go and git fat on me! Think of me with a _fat_ son! +I allers did hold that a fat woman was bad enough, but a fat man ort +p'intedly to be led out and killed!" + +Spartan diet does not put on flesh. Still, it should be noted that long +legs, baggy clothing, and scantiness or lack of underwear make people +seem thinner than they really are. Our highlanders are conspicuously a +tall race. Out of seventy-six men that I have listed just as they +occurred to me, but four are below average American height and only two +are fat. About two-thirds of them are brawny or sinewy fellows of great +endurance. The others generally are slab-sided, stoop-shouldered, but +withey. The townsfolk and the valley farmers, being better nourished and +more observant of the prime laws of wholesome living, are noticeably +superior in appearance but not in stamina. + +Nearly all males of the back country have a grave and deliberate +bearing. They travel with the long, sure-footed stride of the born +woodsman, not graceful and lithe like a moccasined Indian (their coarse +brogans forbid it), but shambling as if every joint had too much play. +There is nothing about them to suggest the Swiss or Tyrolean +mountaineers; rather they resemble the gillies of the Scotch Highlands. +Generally they are lean-faced, sallow, level-browed, with rather high +cheek-bones. Gray eyes predominate, sometimes vacuous, but oftener hard, +searching, crafty--the feral eye of primitive man. + +From infancy these people have been schooled to dissimulate and hide +emotion, and ordinarily their faces are as opaque as those of veteran +poker players. Many wear habitually a sullen scowl, hateful and +suspicious, which in men of combative age, and often in the old women, +is sinister and vindictive. The smile of comfortable assurance, the +frank eye of good-fellowship, are rare indeed. Nearly all of the young +people and many of the adults plant themselves before a stranger and +regard him with a fixed stare, peculiarly annoying until one realizes +that they have no thought of impertinence. + +Many of the women are pretty in youth; but hard toil in house and field, +early marriage, frequent child-bearing with shockingly poor attention, +and ignorance or defiance of the plainest necessities of hygiene, soon +warp and age them. At thirty or thirty-five a mountain woman is apt to +have a worn and faded look, with form prematurely bent--and what wonder? +Always bending over the hoe in the cornfield, or bending over the hearth +as she cooks by an open fire, or bending over her baby, or bending to +pick up, for the thousandth time, the wet duds that her lord flings on +the floor as he enters from the woods--what wonder that she soon grows +short-waisted and round-shouldered? + +The voices of the highland women, low toned by habit, often are +singularly sweet, being pitched in a sad, musical, minor key. With +strangers, the women are wont to be shy, but speculative rather than +timid, as they glance betimes with "a slow, long look of mild inquiry, +or of general listlessness, or of unconscious and unaccountable +melancholy." Many, however, scrutinize a visitor calmly for minutes at a +time or frankly measure him with the gipsy eye of Carmen. + +Outsiders, judging from the fruits of labor in more favored lands, have +charged the mountaineers with indolence. It is the wrong word. Shiftless +many of them are--afflicted with that malady which Barrie calls "acute +disinclination to work"--but that is not so much in their physical +nature as in their economic outlook. Rarely do we find mountaineers who +loaf all day on the floor or the doorstep like so many of the poor +whites of the lowlands. If not laboring, they at least must be doing +something, be it no more than walking ten miles to shoot a squirrel or +visit a crony. + +As a class, they have great and restless physical energy. Considering +the quantity and quality of what they eat there is no people who can +beat them in endurance of strain and privation. They are great walkers +and carriers of burdens. Before there was a tub-mill in our settlement +one of my neighbors used to go, every other week, thirteen miles to +mill, carrying a two-bushel sack of corn (112 pounds) and returning with +his meal on the following day. This was done without any pack-strap but +simply shifting the load from one shoulder to the other, betimes. + +One of our women, known as "Long Goody" (I measured her; six feet three +inches she stood) walked eighteen miles across the Smokies into +Tennessee, crossing at an elevation of 5,000 feet, merely to shop more +advantageously than she could at home. The next day she shouldered fifty +pounds of flour and some other groceries, and bore them home before +nightfall. Uncle Jimmy Crawford, in his seventy-second year came to +join a party of us on a bear hunt. He walked twelve miles across the +mountain, carrying his equipment and four days' rations for himself _and +dogs_. Finding that we had gone on ahead of him he followed to our camp +on Siler's Bald, twelve more miles, climbing another 3,000 feet, much of +it by bad trail, finished the twenty-four-mile trip in seven hours--and +then wanted to turn in and help cut the night-wood. Young mountaineers +afoot easily outstrip a horse on a day's journey by road and trail. + + +[Illustration: "At thirty a mountain woman is apt to have a worn and +faded look"] + + +In a climate where it showers about two days out of three through spring +and summer the women go about, like the men, unshielded from the wet. If +you expostulate, one will laugh and reply: "I ain't sugar, nor salt, nor +nobody's honey." Slickers are worn only on horseback--and two-thirds of +our people had no horses. A man who was so eccentric as to carry an +umbrella is known to this day as "Umbrell'" John Walker. + +In winter, one sometimes may see adults and children going barefoot in +snow that is ankle deep. It used to be customary in our settlement to do +the morning chores barefooted in the snow. "Then," said one, "our feet +'d tingle and burn, so 't they wouldn't git a bit cold all day when we +put our shoes on." I knew a family whose children had no shoes all one +winter, and occasionally we had zero weather. + +It seems to have been common, in earlier times, to go barefooted all the +year. Frederick Law Olmsted, a noted writer of the Civil War period, was +told by a squire of the Tennessee hills that "a majority of the folks +went barefoot all winter, though they had snow much of the time four or +five inches deep; and the man said he didn't think most of the men about +here had more than one coat, and they never wore one in winter except on +holidays. 'That was the healthiest way,' he reckoned, 'just to toughen +yourself and not wear no coat.' No matter how cold it was, he 'didn't +wear no coat.'" One of my own neighbors in the Smokies never owned a +coat until after his marriage, when a friend of mine gave him one. + +It is the usual thing for men and boys to wade cold trout streams all +day, come in at sunset, disrobe to shirt and trousers, and then sit in +the piercing drafts of an open cabin drying out before the fire, though +the night be so cool that a stranger beside them shivers in his dry +flannels. After supper, the women, if they have been wearing shoes, will +remove them to ease their feet, no matter if it be freezing cold--and +the cracks in the floor may be an inch wide. + +In bear hunting, our parties usually camped at about 5,000 feet above +sea level. At this elevation, in the long nights before Christmas, the +cold often was bitter and the wind might blow a gale. Sometimes the +native hunters would lie out in the open all night without a sign of a +blanket or an axe. They would say: "La! many's the night I've been out +when the frost was spewed up so high [measuring three or four inches +with the hand], and that right around the fire, too." Cattle hunters in +the mountains never carry a blanket or a shelter-cloth, and they sleep +out wherever night finds them, often in pouring rain or flying snow. On +their arduous trips they find it burden enough to carry the salt for +their cattle, with a frying-pan, cup, corn pone, coffee, and +"sow-belly," all in a grain sack strapped to the man's back. + +Such nurture, from childhood, makes white men as indifferent to the +elements as Fuegians. And it makes them anything but comfortable +companions for one who has been differently reared. During "court week" +when the hotels at the county-seat are overcrowded with countrymen, the +luckless drummers who happen to be there have continuous exercise in +closing doors. No mountaineer closes a door behind him. Winter or +summer, doors are to be shut only when folks go to bed. That is what +they are for. After close study of mountain speech I have failed to +discern that the word draft is understood, except in parts of the +Virginia and Kentucky mountains, where it means a brook. One is reminded +of the colonial, who, visiting England, remarked of the British people: +"It is a survival of the fittest--the fittest to exist in fog." Here, it +is the fittest to survive cold, and wet, and drafts. + +Running barefooted in the snow is exceptional nowadays; but it is by no +means the limit of hardiness or callosity that some of these people +display. It is not so long ago that I passed an open lean-to of chestnut +bark far back in the wilderness, wherein a family of Tennesseans was +spending the year. There were three children, the eldest a lad of +twelve. The entire worldly possessions of this family could easily be +packed around on their backs. Poverty, however, does not account for +such manner of living. There is none so poor in the mountains that he +need rear his children in a bark shed. It is all a matter of taste. + +There is a wealthy man known to everyone around Waynesville, who, being +asked where he resided, as a witness in court, answered: "Three, four +miles up and down Jonathan Creek." The judge was about to fine him for +contempt, when it developed that the witness spoke literal truth. He +lives neither in house nor camp, but perambulates his large estate and +when night comes lies down wherever he may happen to be. In winter he +has been known to go where some of his pigs bedded in the woods, usurp +the middle for himself, and borrow comfort from their bodily heat. + +This man is worth over a hundred thousand dollars. He visited the +world's fairs at Chicago and St. Louis, wearing the old long coat that +serves him also as blanket, and carrying his rations in a sack. Far from +being demented, he is notoriously so shrewd on the stand and so learned +in the law that he is formidable to every attorney who cross-questions +him. + +I cite these last two instances not merely as eccentricities of +character, but as really typical of the bodily stamina that most of the +mountaineers can display if they want to. Their smiling endurance of +cold and wet and privation would have endeared them to the first +Napoleon, who declared that those soldiers were the best who bivouacked +shelterless throughout the year. + +In spite of such apparent "toughness," the mountaineers are not a +notably healthy people. The man who exposes himself wantonly year after +year must pay the piper. Sooner or later he "adopts a rheumatiz," and +the adoption lasts till he dies. So also in dietary matters. The +backwoodsmen through ruthless weeding-out of the normally sensitive have +acquired a wonderful tolerance of swimming grease, doughy bread and +half-fried cabbage; but, even so, they are gnawed by dyspepsia. This +accounts in great measure for the "glunch o' sour disdain" that mars so +many countenances. A neighbor said to me of another: "He has a gredge +agin all creation, and glories in human misery." So would anyone else +who ate at the same table. Many a homicide in the mountains can be +traced directly to bad food and the raw whiskey taken to appease a +soured stomach. + +Every stranger in Appalachia is quick to note the high percentage of +defectives among the people. However, we should bear in mind that in the +mountains proper there are few, if any, public refuges for this class, +and that home ties are so powerful that mountaineers never send their +"fitified folks" or "half-wits," or other unfortunates, to any +institution in the lowlands, so long as it is bearable to have them +around. Such poor creatures as would be segregated in more advanced +communities, far from the public eye, here go at large and reproduce +their kind. + +Extremely early marriages are tolerated, as among all primitive people. +I knew a hobbledehoy of sixteen who married a frail, tuberculous girl of +twelve, and in the same small settlement another lad of sixteen who +wedded a girl of thirteen. In both cases the result was wretched beyond +description. + +The evil consequences of inbreeding of persons closely akin are well +known to the mountaineers; but here knowledge is no deterrent, since +whole districts are interrelated to start with. Owing to the isolation +of the clans, and their extremely limited travels, there are abundant +cases like those caustically mentioned in _King Spruce_: "All Skeets and +Bushees, and married back and forth and crossways and upside down till +ev'ry man is his own grandmother, if he only knew enough to figger +relationship." + +The mountaineers are touchy on these topics and it is but natural that +they should be so. Nevertheless it is the plain duty of society to study +such conditions and apply the remedy. There was a time when the Scotch +people (to cite only one instance out of many) were in still worse +case, threatened with race degeneration; but improved economic +conditions, followed by education, made them over into one of the most +vigorous of modern peoples. + +When I lived up in the Smokies there was no doctor within sixteen miles +(and then, none who ever had attended a medical school). It was +inevitable that my first-aid kit and limited knowledge of medicine +should be requisitioned until I became a sort of "doctor to the +settle_ment_."[8] My services, being free, at once became popular, and +there was no escape; for, if I treated the Smiths, let us say, and +ignored a call from the Robinsons, the slight would be resented by all +Robinson connections throughout the land. So my normal occupations often +were interrupted by such calls as these: + +"John's Lize Ann she ain't much; cain't you-uns give her some +easin'-powder for that hurtin' in her chist?" + +"Old Uncle Bobby Tuttle's got a pone come up on his side; looks like he +mought drap off, him bein' weak and right narvish and sick with a +head-swimmin'." + +"Ike Morgan Pringle's a-been horse-throwed down the clift, and he's in a +manner stone dead." + +"Right sensibly atween the shoulders I've got a pain; somethin' 's gone +wrong with my stummick; I don't 'pear to have no stren'th left; and +sometimes I'm nigh sifflicated. Whut you reckon ails me?" + +"Come right over to Mis' Fullwiler's, quick; she's fell down and busted +a rib inside o' her!" + +On these errands of mercy I soon picked up some rules of practice that +are not laid down in the books. I learned to carry not only my own +bandages but my own towels and utensils for washing and sterilizing. I +kept my mouth shut about germ theories of disease, having no troops to +enforce orders and finding that mere advice incited downright +perversity. I administered potent drugs in person and left nothing to be +taken according to direction except placebos. + +Once, in forgetfulness, I left a tablet of corrosive sublimate on the +mantel after dressing a wound, and the man of the house told me next day +that he had "'lowed to swaller it' and see if it wouldn't ease his +headache!" A geologist and I, exploring the hills with a mountaineer, +fell into discussion of filth diseases and germs, not realizing that we +were overheard. Happening to pass an ant-hill, Frank remarked to me +that formic acid was supposed to be antagonistic to the germ of +laziness. Instantly we heard a growl from our woodsman: "By God, I was +_expectin'_ to hear the like o' that!" + +Ordinarily wounds are stanched with dusty cobwebs and bound up in any +old rag. If infection ensues, Providence has to take the blame. A woman +gashed her foot badly with an axe; I asked her what she did for it; +disdainfully she answered, "Tied it up in sut and a rag, and went to +hoein' corn." + +An injured person gets scant sympathy, if any. So far as outward +demeanor goes, and public comment, the witnesses are utterly callous. +The same indifference is shown in the face of impending death. People +crowd around with no other motive, seemingly, than morbid curiosity to +see a person die. I asked our local preacher what the folks would do if +a man broke his thigh so that the bone protruded. He merely elevated his +eyebrows and replied: "We'd set around and sing until he died." + +The mountaineers' fortitude under severe pain is heroic, though often +needless. For all minor operations and frequently for major ones they +obstinately refuse to take an anesthetic, being perversely suspicious +of everything that they do not understand. Their own minor surgery and +obstetric practice is barbarous. A large proportion of the mountain +doctors know less about human anatomy than a butcher does about a pig's. +Sometimes this ignorance passes below ordinary common sense. There is a +"doctor" still practicing who, after a case of confinement, sits beside +the patient and presses hard upon the hips for half an hour, explaining +that it is to "push the bones back into place; don't you know they +allers comes uncoupled in the socket?" This, I suppose, is the limit; +but there are very many practicing physicians in the back country who +could not name or locate the arteries of either foot or hand to save +their lives. + +It was here I first heard of "tooth-jumping." Let one of my old +neighbors tell it in his own way: + +"You take a cut nail (not one o' those round wire nails) and place its +squar p'int agin the ridge of the tooth, jest under the edge of the gum. +Then jump the tooth out with a hammer. A man who knows how can jump a +tooth without it hurtin' half as bad as pullin'. But old Uncle Neddy +Cyarter went to jump one of his own teeth out, one time, and missed the +nail and mashed his nose with the hammer. He had the weak trembles." + +"I have heard of tooth-jumping," said I, "and reported it to dentists +back home, but they laughed at me." + +"Well, they needn't laugh; for it's so. Some men git to be as +experienced at it as tooth-dentists are at pullin'. They cut around the +gum, and then put the nail at jest sich an angle, slantin' downward for +an upper tooth, or upwards for a lower one, and hit one lick." + +"Will the tooth come at the first lick?" + +"Ginerally. If it didn't, you might as well stick your head in a swarm +o' bees and fergit who you are." + +"Are back teeth extracted in that way?" + +"Yes, sir; any kind of a tooth. I've burnt my holler teeth out with a +red-hot wire." + +"Good God!" + +"Hit's so. The wire'd sizzle like fryin'." + +"Kill the nerve?" + +"No; but it'd sear the mar so it wouldn't be so sensitive." + +"Didn't hurt, eh?" + +"Hurt like hell for a moment. I held the wire one time for Jim Bob +Jimwright, who couldn't reach the spot for hisself. I _told_ him to hold +his tongue back; but when I touched the holler he jumped and wropped +his tongue agin the wire. The words that man used ain't fitty to tell." + +Some of the ailments common in the mountains were new to me. For +instance, "dew pizen," presumably the poison of some weed, which, +dissolved in dew, enters the blood through a scratch or abrasion. As a +woman described it, "Dew pizen comes like a risin', and laws-a-marcy how +it does hurt! I stove a brier in my heel wunst, and then had to hunt +cows every morning in the dew. My leg swelled up black to clar above the +knee, and Dr. Stinchcomb lanced the place seven times. I lay on a pallet +on the floor for over a month. My leg like to killed me. I've seed +persons jest a lot o' sores all over, as big as my hand, from dew +pizen." + +A more mysterious disease is "milk-sick," which prevails in certain +restricted districts, chiefly where the cattle graze in rich and deeply +shaded coves. If not properly treated it is fatal both to the cow and to +any human being who drinks her fresh milk or eats her butter. It is not +transmitted by sour milk or by buttermilk. There is a characteristic +fetor of the breath. It is said that milk from an infected cow will not +foam and that silver is turned black by it. Mountaineers are divided in +opinion as to whether this disease is of vegetable or of mineral origin; +some think it is an efflorescence from gas that settles on plants. This +much is certain: that it disappears from "milk-sick coves" when they are +cleared of timber and the sunlight let in. The prevalent treatment is an +emetic, followed by large doses of apple brandy and honey; then oil to +open the bowels. Perhaps the extraordinary distaste for fresh milk and +butter, or the universal suspicion of these foods that mountaineers +evince in so many localities, may have sprung up from experience with +"milk-sick" cows. I have not found this malady mentioned in any treatise +on medicine; yet it has been known from our earliest frontier times. +Abraham Lincoln's mother died of it. + +That the hill folk remain a rugged and hardy people in spite of +unsanitary conditions so gross that I can barely hint at them, is due +chiefly to their love of pure air and pure water. No mountain cabin +needs a window to ventilate it: there are cracks and cat-holes +everywhere, and, as I have said, the doors are always open except at +night. "Tight houses," sheathed or plastered, are universally despised, +partly from inherited shiftlessness, partly for less obvious reasons. + +One of Miss MacGowan's characters fairly insulted the neighborhood by +building a modern house. "Why lordy! Lookee hyer, Creed," remonstrated +Doss Provine over a question of matching boards and battening joints, +"ef you git yo' pen so almighty tight as that you won't git no fresh +air. Man's bound to have ventilation. Course you can leave the do' open +all the time like we-all do; but when you're a-holdin' co't and +sech-like maybe you'll want to shet the do' sometimes--and then whar'll +ye git breath to breathe?... All these here glass winders is blame +foolishness to _me_. Ef ye need light, open the do'. Ef somebody comes +that ye don't want in, you can shet it and put up a bar. But saw the +walls full o' holes an' set in glass winders, an' any feller that's got +a mind to can pick ye off with a rifle ball as easy as not whilst ye set +by the fire of an evenin'." + +When mountain people move to the lowlands and go to living in +tight-framed houses, they soon deteriorate like Indians. It is of no use +to teach them to ventilate by lowering windows from the top. That is +some more "blame foolishness"--their adherence to old ways is stubborn, +sullen, and perverse to a degree that others cannot comprehend. Then, +too, in the lowlands, they simply cannot stand the water. As Emma Miles +says: "No other advantages will ever make up for the lack of good water. +There is a strong prejudice against pumps; if a well must be dug, it is +usually left open to the air, and the water is reached by means of a +hooked pole which requires some skillful manipulation to prevent losing +the bucket. Cisterns are considered filthy; water that has stood +overnight is 'dead water,' hardly fit to wash one's face in. The +mountaineer takes the same pride in his water supply as the rich man in +his wine cellar, and is in this respect a connoisseur. None but the +purest and coldest of freestone will satisfy him." + +Once when I was staying in a lumber camp on the Tennessee side, near the +top of Smoky, my friend Bob and I tramped down to the nearest town, ten +miles, for supplies. We did not start until after dinner and intended to +spend the night at a hotel. It was a sultry day and we arrived very +thirsty. Bob took some ice-water into his mouth, and instantly spat it +out, exclaiming: "Be damned if I'll stay here; that ain't fit to drink; +I'm goin' back." And back he would have gone, ten miles up a hard grade, +at night, if someone had not shown us a spring. + + +[Illustration: Photo by Arthur Keith + +A misty veil of falling water] + + +A little colony of our Hazel Creek people took a notion to try the +Georgia cotton mills. They nearly died there from homesickness, tight +houses, and "bad water." All but one family returned as soon as they +possibly could. While trying to save enough money to get away one old +man said; "I lied to my God when I left the mountains and kem to these +devilish cotton mills. Ef only He'd turn me into a varmint I'd run back +to-night! Boys, I dream I'm in torment; an' when I wake up I lay thar +an' think o' the spring branch runnin' over the root o' that thar +poplar; an' I say, could I git me one drink o' that water I'd be content +to lay me down and die!" + +Poor old John! In his country there are a hundred spring branches +running over poplar roots; but "_that thar_ poplar": we knew the very +one he meant. It was by the roadside. The brooklet came from a disused +still-house hidden in laurel and hemlock so dense that direct sunlight +never penetrated the glen. Cold and sparkling and crystal clear, the +gushing water enticed every wayfarer to bend and drink, whether he was +thirsty or no. John is back in his own land now, and doubtless often +goes to drink of that veritable fountain of youth. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE LAND OF DO WITHOUT + + +Homespun jeans and linsey used to be the universal garb of the mountain +people. Nowadays you will seldom find them, except in far-back places. +Shoddy "store clothes" are cheaper and easier to get. And this is a +sorry change, for the old-time material was sound and enduring, the +direct product of hard personal toil, and so it was prized and taken +care of; whereas such stuff as a backwoodsman can buy in his crossroads +store is flimsy, soon loses shape and breaks down his own pride of +personal appearance. Our average hillsman now goes about in a dirty blue +shirt, wapsy and ragged trousers toggled up with a nail or two, thick +socks sagging untidily over rusty brogans, and a huge, black, floppy hat +that desecrates the landscape. Presently his hatband disappears, to be +replaced with a groundhog thong, woven in and out of knife slits, like a +shoestring. + +When he comes home he "hangs his hat on the floor" until his wife picks +it up. He never brushes it. In time that battered old headpiece becomes +as pliant to its owner's whim, as expressive of his mood, as a clown's +cap in the circus. Commonly it is a symbol of shiftlessness and +unconcern. A touch, and it becomes a banner of defiance to law and +order. To meet on some lonesome road at night a horseman enveloped to +the heels in a black slicker and topped with one of those prodigious +funnels that conceals his features like a cowl, is to face the Ku Klux +or the Spanish Inquisition. + +When your young mountaineer is properly filled up on corn liquor and +feels like challenging the world, the flesh, and the devil, he pins up +the front of his hat with a thorn, sticks a sprig of balsam or cedar in +the thong for an aigrette, and then gallops forth with bottle and pistol +to tilt against whatsoever may dare oppose him. And on the gray dawn of +the morning after you may find _that hat_ lying wilted in a corner, as +crumpled, spiritless and forlorn as--its owner, upon whom we charitably +drop the curtain. + +I doubt, though, if anywhere in this wide world mere personal appearance +is more deceitful than among our mountaineers. The slovenly lout whom +you shrink from approaching against the wind is one of the most +independent and self-satisfied fellows on earth, as quick to resent alms +as to return a blow. And it is wonderful what soap and clean clothes +will do! About the worst specimen of tatter-demalion that I ever saw +outside of trampdom used to come into town every week, always with a +loaded Winchester on his shoulder. He may have washed his face now and +then, but there was no sign that he ever combed his mane. I took him for +one of those defectives alluded to in a previous chapter; but no, I was +told he was "nobody's fool." The rifle, it was explained, never left his +hand when he was abroad: they said that a feud was brewing "over on +'Larky," and that this man was "in the bilin'." Well, it boiled over, +and the person in question killed two men in front of his own door. + +When the prisoner was brought into court I could not recognize him. A +bath, the barber, and a new store suit had transformed him into a right +good-looking fellow--anything but a tramp, anything but a desperado. He +bore himself throughout that grilling ordeal like the downright man he +was, made out a clear case of self-defense, was set at liberty +and--promptly reverted to a condition in which he is recognizable once +more. + +The women of the back country usually go bareheaded around home and +often barefooted, too, as did the daughters of Highland chiefs a century +or two ago, and for the same reason: simply that they feel better so. +When "visit-in" or expecting visitors their extremities are clad. They +make their own dresses and the style seems never to change. When +traveling horseback they use a man's saddle and ride astride in their +ordinary skirts with an ingenuity of "tucking up" that is beyond my +understanding (as no doubt it should be). Often one sees a man and a +woman riding a-pillion, in which case the lady perches sidewise, of +course. + +If I were disposed to startle the reader, after the manner of +impressionistic writers who strive after effect at any cost, I could +fill a book with oddities observed in the mountains, and that without +exaggeration by commission or omission. Let one or two anecdotes +suffice; and then we will get back to our averages again. I took down +the following incident verbatim (save for proper names) from lips that I +know to be truthful. It is introduced here as a specimen of vivid +offhand description in few words: + +"There was a fam'ly on Pick-Yer-Flint that was named Higgins, and +another named the McBees. They married through and through till the +whole gineration nigh run out; though what helped was that they'd fly +mad sometimes and kill one another like fools. They had great big heads +and mottly faces--ears as big as sheepskins. Well, when they dressed up +to come to church the men--grown men--'d have shirts made of this common +domestic, with the letters _AAA_ on their backs; and them barefooted, +and some without hats, but with three yards of red ribbon around their +necks. The sleeves of their shirts looked like a whole web of cloth jest +sewed up together; and them sleeves'd git full o' wind, and that red +ribbon a-flyin'--O my la! + +"There was lots o' leetle boys of 'em that kem only in their +shirt-tails. There was cracks between the logs that a dog could jump +through, and them leetle fellers 'd git 'em a crack and grin in at us +all through the sarmon. 'T ain't no manner o' use to ax me what the tex' +was that day!" + +I may explain that it still is common in many districts of the mountain +country for small boys to go about through the summer in a single +abbreviated garment and that they are called "shirt-tail boys." + +Some of the expedients that mountain girls invent to make themselves +attractive are bizarre in the extreme. Without invading the sanctities +of toilet, I will cite one instance that is interesting from a +scientific viewpoint. They told me that a certain blue-eyed girl thought +that black eyes were "purtier" and that she actually changed her eyes to +jet black whenever she went to "meetin'" or other public gathering. +While I could see how the trick might be worked, it seemed utterly +absurd that an unschooled maid of the wilderness could acquire either +the knowledge or the means to accomplish such change. Well, one day I +was called to treat a sick baby. While waiting for the medicine to react +I chanced to mention this tale as it had been told me. The father, who +had blue eyes, solemnly assured me that there was "no lie about it," and +said he would convince me in a few minutes. + +He stepped to the garden and plucked a leaf of jimson weed. His wife +crushed the leaf and instilled a drop of its juice into one of his eyes. +I took out my watch. One side of the eyeball reddened slightly. The man +said "hit smarts a leetle--not much." Within fifteen minutes the pupil +had expanded like a cat's eye in the dark, leaving a rim of blue iris so +thin as to be quite unnoticeable without close inspection. The eye +consequently was jet black and its expression utterly changed. My host +said it did not affect his vision materially, save that "things glimmer +a bit." I met him again the next day and he still was an odd-looking +creature indeed, with one eye a light blue and the other an absolute +black. The thing puzzled me until I recalled that the Latin name of +jimson weed is _Datura stramonium_; then, in a flash, it came to me that +stramonium is a powerful mydriatic. + +If our man killer, hitherto mentioned, had had blue or gray eyes and had +not chosen to stand trial, then, with a cake of soap and a new suit and +a jimson leaf he might have made himself over so that his own mother +would not have known him. These simple facts are offered gratis to +writers of detective tales, whose stock of disguises nowadays is so +threadbare and (pardon me) so absurd. + +The mountain home of to-day is the log cabin of the American +pioneer--not such a lodge as well-to-do people affect in Adirondack +"camps" (which cost more than framed structures of similar size), but a +pen that can be erected by four "corner men" in one day and is finished +by the owner at his leisure. The commonest type is a single large room, +with maybe a narrow porch in front and a plank door, a big stone +chimney at one end, a single sash for a window at the other, and a seven +or eight-foot lean-to at the rear for kitchen. + + +[Illustration: An Average Mountain Cabin] + + +Some of the early settlers, who had first choice of land, took pains in +building their houses, squaring the logs like bridge timbers, joining +them closely, smoothing their puncheons with an adze almost as truly as +if they were planed, and using mortar instead of clay in laying chimney +and hearth. But such houses nowadays are rare. If a man can afford so +much effort as all that he will build a framed dwelling. If not, he will +content himself with such a cabin as I have described. If he prospers he +may add a duplicate of it alongside and cover the whole with one roof, +leaving a ten or twelve-foot entry between. + +In Carolina they seldom build a house of round logs, but rather hew the +inner and outer faces flat, out of a curious notion that this adds an +appearance of finish to the structure. If only they would turn the logs +over, so that the flat faces joined, leaving at least the outside in the +natural round, the house would need hardly any chinking and the effect +would be far more pleasing to good taste. As it is they merely notch the +logs at the corners, leaving wide spaces to be filled up with splits, +rocks, mud--anything to keep out the weather. As a matter of fact, few +houses ever are thoroughly chinked and he who would take pains to make a +workmanlike job of chinking would be ridiculed as "fussin' around like +an old granny-woman." Nobody but a tenderfoot feels drafts, you know. + +It is hard to keep such a dwelling clean, even if the family be small. +The whole structure being built of green timber throughout, soon +shrinks, checks, warps and sags, so that there cannot be a square joint, +a neat fit, a perpendicular face, or a level place anywhere about it. +The roof droops in a season or two, the shingles curl and leaky places +open. Flooring shrinks apart, leaving wide and irregular cracks through +which the winter winds are sucked upward as through so many flues (no +mountain home has a cellar under it). Everywhere there are crannies and +rough surfaces to hold dust and soot, there being probably not a single +planed board in the whole house. + +But, for all that, there is something very attractive and picturesque +about the little old log cabin. In its setting of ancient forests and +mighty hills it fits, it harmonizes, where the prim and precise product +of modern carpentry would shock an artistic eye. The very roughness of +the honest logs and the home-made furniture gives texture to the +picture. Having no mathematically straight lines nor uniform curves, the +cabin's outlines conform to its surroundings. Without artificial stain, +or varnish, or veneer, it _is_ what it seems, a genuine thing, a jewel +in the rough. And it is a home. When wind whistles through the cracks +and snow sifts into the corners of the room one draws his stumpy little +split-bottomed chair close to the wide hearth and really knows the +comfort of fire leaping and sap singing from big birch logs. + +Every room except the kitchen (if there be a kitchen) has a couple of +beds in it: enough all told for the family and, generally, one spare +bed. If much company comes, some pallets are made on the floor for the +women and children of the household. In a single-room cabin there +usually is a cockloft, reached by a ladder, for storage, and maybe a +bunk or two. Closets and pantries there are none, for they would only +furnish good harborage for woods-rats and other vermin. + +Everything must be in sight and accessible to the housewife's little +sedge broom. Linen and small articles of apparel are stored in a chest +or a cheap little tin trunk or two. Most of the family wardrobe hangs +from pegs in the walls or nails in the loft beams, along with strings +of dried apples, peppers, bunches of herbs, twists of tobacco, gourds +full of seeds, the hunter's pouch, and other odd bric-a-brac interesting +to "furrin" eyes. The narrow mantel-shelf holds pipes and snuff and +various other articles of frequent use, among them a twig or two of +sweet birch that has been chewed to shreds at one end and is queerly +discolored with something brown (this is what the mountain woman calls +her "tooth brush"--a snuff stick, understand). + +For wall decorations there may be a few gaudy advertisements +lithographed in colors, perhaps some halftones from magazines that +travelers have left (a magazine is always called a "book" in this +region, as, I think, throughout the South). Of late years the agents for +photo-enlarging companies have invaded the mountains and have reaped a +harvest; for if there be one curse of civilization that our hillsman +craves, it is a huge _tinted_ "family group" in an abominable rococo +frame. + +There is an almanac in the cabin, but no clock. "What does man need of a +clock when he has a good-crowin' rooster?" Strange as it may seem, in +this roughest of backwoods countries I have never seen candles, unless +they were brought in by outsiders like myself. Beef, you must remember, +is exported, not eaten, by our farmers, and hence there is no tallow to +make candles with. Instead of these, every home is provided with a +kerosene lamp of narrow wick, and seldom do you find a chimney for it. +This is partly because lamp chimneys are hard to carry safely over the +mountain roads and partly because "man can do without sich like, +anyhow." But kerosene, also, is hard to transport, and so one sometimes +will find pine knots used for illumination; but oftener the woman will +pour hog's grease into a tin or saucer, twist up a bit of rag for the +wick and so make a "slut" that, believe me, deserves the name. In fact, +the supply of pine knots within convenient distance of home is soon +exhausted, and anyway, as the mountaineer disdains to be forehanded, he +would burn up the knots for kindling rather than save any for +illumination. + +Very few cabins have carpet on the floor. It would hold too much mud +from the feet of the men who would not use a scraper if there was one. +Beds generally are bought, nowadays, at the stores, but some are +home-made, with bedcords of bast rope. Tables and chairs mostly are made +on the spot or obtained by barter from some handy neighbor. In many +homes you will still find the ancient spinning-wheel, with a hand-loom +on the porch and in the loft there will be a set of quilting frames for +making "kivers." + +Out in the yard you see an ash hopper for running the lye to make soap, +maybe a few bee gums sawed from hollow logs, and a crude but effective +cider press. At the spring there is a box for cold storage in summer. +Near by stands the great iron kettle for boiling clothes, making soap, +scalding pigs, and a variety of other uses. Alongside of it is the +"battlin' block" on which the family wash is hammered with a beetle +("battlin' stick") if the woman has no washboard, which very often is +the case. + +Naturally there can be no privacy and hence no delicacy, in such a home. +I never will forget my embarrassment about getting to bed the first +night I ever spent in a one-room cabin where there was a good-sized +family. I did not know what was expected of me. When everybody looked +sleepy I went outdoors and strolled around in the moonlight until the +women had time to retire. On returning to the house I found them still +bolt upright around the hearth. Then the hostess pointed to the bed I +was to occupy and said it was ready whenever I was. Well, I "shucked off +my clothes," tumbled in, turned my face to the wall, and immediately +everybody else did the same. That is the way to do: just _go_ to bed! I +lay there awake for a long time. Finally I had to roll over. A ruddy +glow from the embers showed the family in all postures of deep, healthy +slumber. It also showed something glittering on the nipple of the long, +muzzle-loading rifle that hung over the father's bed. It was a bright, +new percussion cap, where a greased rag had been when I went out for my +moonlight stroll. There was no need of a curtain in that house. They +could do without. + +I have been describing an average mountain home. In valleys and coves +there are better ones, of course. Along the railroads, and on fertile +plateaus between the Blue Ridge and the Unakas, are hundreds of fine +farms, cultivated by machinery, and here dwell a class of farmers that +are scarcely to be distinguished from people of similar station in the +West. But a prosperous and educated few are not the people. When +speaking of southern mountaineers I mean the mass, or the average, and +the pictures here given are typical of that mass. It is not the +well-to-do valley people, but the real mountaineers, who are especially +interesting to the reading public; and they are interesting _chiefly_ +because they preserve traits and manners that have been transmitted +almost unchanged from ancient times--because, as John Fox puts it, they +are "a distinct remnant of an Anglo-Saxon past." + +Almost everywhere in the backwoods of Appalachia we have with us to-day, +in flesh and blood, the Indian-fighter of our colonial border--aye, back +of him, the half-wild clansman of elder Britain--adapted to other +conditions, but still virtually the same in character, in ideas, in +attitude toward the outer world. Here, in great part, is spoken to-day +the language of Piers the Ploughman, a speech long dead elsewhere, save +as fragments survive in some dialects of rural England. + +No picture of mountain life would be complete or just if it omitted a +class lower than the average hillsman I have been describing. As this is +not a pleasant topic, I shall be terse. Hundreds of backwoods families, +large ones at that, exist in "blind" cabins that remind one somewhat of +Irish hovels, Norwegian saeters, the "black houses" of the Hebrides, the +windowless rock piles inhabited by Corsican shepherds and by Basques of +the Pyrenees. Such a cabin has but one room for all purposes. In rainy +or gusty weather, when the two doors must be closed, no light enters the +room save through cracks in the wall and down the chimney. In the +damp climate of western Carolina such an interior is fusty, or even wet. +In many cases the chimney is no more than a semi-circular pile of rough +rocks and rises no higher than a man's shoulder, hence the common +saying, "You can set by the fire and spit out through the chimbly." When +the wind blows "contrary" one's lungs choke and his eyes stream from the +smoke. + + +[Illustration: A Bee-Gum] + + +In some of these places you will find a "pet pig" harbored in the house. +I know of two cases where the pig was kept in a box directly under the +table, so that scraps could be chucked to him without rising from +dinner. + +Hastening from this extreme, we still shall find dire poverty the rule +rather than the exception among the multitude of "branch-water people." +One house will have only an earthen floor; another will be so small that +"you cain't cuss a cat in it 'thout gittin' ha'r in yer teeth." Utensils +are limited to a frying-pan, an iron pot, a coffee-pot, a bucket, and +some gourds. There is not enough tableware to go around, and children +eat out of their parents' plates, or all "soup-in together" around one +bowl of stew or porridge. + +Even to families that are fairly well-to-do there will come periods of +famine, such as Lincoln, speaking of his boyhood, called "pretty +pinching times." Hickory ashes then are used as a substitute for soda in +biscuits, and the empty salt-gourd will be soaked for brine to cook +with. Once, when I was boarding with a good family, our stores ran out +of everything, and none of our neighbors had the least to spare. We had +no meat of any kind for two weeks (the game had migrated) and no lard or +other grease for nearly a week. Then the meal and salt played out. One +day we were reduced to potatoes "straight," which were parboiled in +fresh water, and then burnt a little on the surface as substitute for +salt. Another day we had not a bite but string beans boiled in unsalted +water. + +It is not uncommon in the far backwoods for a traveler, asking for a +match, to be told there is none in the house, nor even the pioneer's +flint and steel. Should the embers on the hearth go out, someone must +tramp to a neighbor's and fetch fire on a torch. Hence the saying: "Have +you come to borry fire, that you're in sich a hurry you can't chat?" + +The shifts and expedients to which some of the mountain women are put, +from lack of utensils and vessels, are simply pathetic. John Fox tells +of a young preacher who stopped at a cabin in Georgia to pass the night. +"His hostess, as a mark of unusual distinction, killed a chicken, and +dressed it in a pan. She rinsed the pan and made up her dough in it. She +rinsed it again and went out and used it for a milk-pail. She came in, +rinsed it again, and went to the spring and brought it back full of +water. She filled up the glasses on the table, and gave him the pan with +the rest of the water in which to wash his hands. The woman was not a +slattern; it was the only utensil she had." + +Such poverty is exceptional; yet it is an all but universal rule that +anything that cannot be cooked in a pot or fried in a pan must go +begging in the mountains. Once I helped my hostess to make kraut. We +chopped up a hundred pounds of cabbage with no cutter but a tin +coffee-can, holding this in the two hands and chopping downward with the +edge. Many times I stopped to hammer the edge smooth on a round stick. +Verily this is the land of make-it-yourself-or-do-without! + +Yet, however destitute the mountain people may be, they are never +abject. The mordant misery of hunger is borne with a sardonic grin. +After a course of such diet as described above, a woman laughingly said +to me: "I'm gittin' the dropsy--the meat is all droppin' off my bones." +During the campaign of 1904 a brother Democrat confided to me that "The +people around hyur is so pore that if free silver war shipped in by the +carload, we-uns couldn't pay the freight." So, when a settlement is +dubbed Poverty, it is with no suggestion of whining lament, but with the +stoical good-humor that shows in Needmore, Poor Fork, Long Hungry, No +Pone, and No Fat--all of them real names. + +Occasionally, as at "hog-killin' time," the poorest live in abundance; +occasionally, as at Christmas, they will go on sprees. But, taking them +the year through, the Highlanders are a notably abstemious race. When a +family is reduced to dry corn bread and black coffee unsweetened--so +much and no more--it will joke about the lack of meat and vegetables. +And, when there is meat, two mountaineers engaged in hard outdoor work +will consume less of it than a northern office-man would eat. Indeed, +the heartiness with which "furriners" stuff themselves is a wonder and a +merriment to the people of the hills. When a friend came to visit me, +the landlady giggled an aside to her husband: "Git the almanick and see +when that feller 'll full!" (as though she were bidding him look to see +when the moon would be full). + +In truth, it is not so bad to be poor where everyone else is in the same +fix. One does not lose caste nor self-respect. He is not tempted by a +display of good things all around him, nor is he embittered by the +haughtiness and extravagance of the rich. And, socially, the mountaineer +is a democrat by nature: equal to any man, as all men are equal before +him. Even though hunger be eating like a slow acid into his vitals, he +still will preserve a high spirit, a proud independence, that accepts no +favor unless it be offered in a neighborly way, as man to man. I have +never seen a mountain beggar; never heard of one. + +Charity, or anything that smells to him like charity, is declined with +patrician dignity or open scorn. In the last house up Hazel Creek dwelt +"old man" Stiles. He had a large family, and was on the verge of +destitution. His eldest son, a veteran from the Philippines, had been +invalided home, and died there. Jack Coburn, in the kindness of his +heart, sent away and got a blank form of application to the Government +for funeral expenses, to which the family was entitled by law. He filled +it out, all but the signature, and rode away up to Stiles's to have the +old man sign it. But Stiles peremptorily refused to accept from the +nation what was due his dead son. "I ain't that hard pushed yit," was +his first and last word on the subject. This might seem to be the very +perversity of ignorance; but it was, in fact, renunciation on a point of +honor, and native pride refused to see the matter in any other light. + +The mountaineer, born and bred to Spartan self-denial, has a scorn of +luxury, regarding its effeminacies with the same contempt as does the +nomadic Arab. And any assumption of superiority he will resent with blow +or sarcasm. A ragged hobbledehoy stood on the Vanderbilt grounds at +Biltmore, mouth open but silent, watching a gardener at work. The +latter, annoyed by the boy's vacuous stare, spoke up sharply: "What do +you want?" Like a flash the lad retorted: "Oh, dad sent me down hyur to +look at the place--said if I liked it, he mought buy it for me." + +Once, as an experiment, I took a backwoodsman from the Smokies to +Knoxville, and put him up at a good hotel. Was he self-conscious, +bashful? Not a bit of it. When the waiter brought him a juicy +tenderloin, he snapped: "I don't eat my meat raw!" It was hard to find +anything on the long menu that he would eat. On the street he held his +head proudly erect, and regarded the crowd with an expression of "Tetch +me gin ye dar!" Although the surroundings were as strange to him as a +city of Mars would be to us, he showed neither concern nor approval, +but rather a fine disdain, like that of Diogenes at the country fair: +"Lord, how many things there be in this world of which Diogenes hath no +need!" + +The poverty of the mountain people is naked, but high-minded and +unashamed. To comment on it, as I have done, is taken as an +impertinence. This is a fine trait, in its way, though rather hard on a +descriptive writer whose motives are ascribed to mere vulgarity and a +taste for scandal-mongering. The people, of course, have no ghost of an +idea that poverty may be more picturesque than luxury; and they are +quite as far from conceiving that a plain and friendly statement of +their actual condition, published to the world, is the surest way to +awaken the nation to consciousness of its duties toward a region that it +has so long and so singularly neglected. + +The worst enemies of the mountain people are those public men who, +knowing the true state of things, yet conceal or deny the facts in order +to salve a sore local pride, encourage the supine fatalism of "what must +be will be," and so drug the highlanders back into their Rip Van Winkle +sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +HOME FOLKS AND NEIGHBOR PEOPLE + + +Despite the low standard of living that prevails in the backwoods, the +average mountain home is a happy one, as homes go. There is little worry +and less fret. Nobody's nerves are on edge. Our highlander views all +exigencies of life with the calm fortitude and tolerant good-humor of +Bret Harte's southwesterner, "to whom cyclones, famine, drought, floods, +pestilence and savages were things to be accepted, and whom disaster, if +it did not stimulate, certainly did not appall." + +It is a patriarchal existence. The man of the house is lord. He takes no +orders from anybody at home or abroad. Whether he shall work or visit or +roam the woods with dog and gun is nobody's affair but his own. About +family matters he consults with his wife, but in the end his word is +law. If Madame be a bit shrewish he is likely to tolerate it as natural +to the weaker vessel; but if she should go too far he checks her with a +curt "Shet up!" and the incident is closed. + +"The woman," as every wife is called, has her kingdom within the house, +and her man seldom meddles with its administration. Now and then he may +grumble "A woman's allers findin' somethin' to do that a man can't see +no sense in;" but, then, the Lord made women fussy over trifles--His +ways are inscrutable--so why bother about it? + +The mountain farmer's wife is not only a household drudge, but a +field-hand as well. She helps to plant, hoes corn, gathers fodder, +sometimes even plows or splits rails. It is the commonest of sights for +a woman to be awkwardly hacking up firewood with a dull axe. When her +man leaves home on a journey he is not likely to have laid in wood for +the stove or hearth: so she and the children must drag from the +hillsides whatever dead timber they can find. + +Outside the towns no hat is lifted to maid or wife. A swain would +consider it belittled his dignity. At table, if women be seated at all, +the dishes are passed first to the men; but generally the wife stands by +and serves. There is no conscious discourtesy in such customs; but they +betoken an indifference to woman's weakness, a disregard for her finer +nature, a denial of her proper rank, that are real and deep-seated in +the mountaineer. To him she is little more than a sort of superior +domestic animal. The chivalric regard for women that characterized our +pioneers of the Far West is altogether lacking in the habits of the +backwoodsman of Appalachia. + +And yet it is seldom that a highland woman complains of her lot. She +knows no other. From aboriginal times the men of her race have been +warriors, hunters, herdsmen, clearers of forests, and their women have +toiled in the fields. Indeed she would scarce respect her husband if he +did not lord it over her and cast upon her the menial tasks. It is +"manners" for a woman to drudge and obey. All respectable wives do that. +And they stay at home where they belong, never visiting or going +anywhere without first asking their husband's consent. + +I am satisfied that there is less bickering in mountain households than +in the most advanced society of Christendom. Certainly there are fewer +divorces in proportion to the marriages. This is not by grace of any +uncommon regard for the seventh commandment, but rather from a more +tolerant attitude of mind. + +Mountain women marry early, many of them at fourteen or fifteen, and +nearly all before they are twenty. Large families are the rule, seven +to ten children being considered normal, and fifteen is not an uncommon +number; but the infant mortality is high. + +The children have few toys other than rag dolls, broken bits of crockery +for "play-purties," and such "ridey-hosses" and so forth as they make +for themselves. They play few games, but rather frisk about like young +colts without aim or method. Every mountain child has at least one dog +for a playfellow, and sometimes a pet pig is equally familiar. In many +districts there is not enough level land for a ballground. A prime +amusement of the small boys is "rocking" (throwing stones at marks or at +each other), in which rather doubtful pastime they become singularly +expert. + +To encourage a child to do chores about the house and stable, he may be +promised a pig of his own the next time a sow litters. To know when to +look for the pigs an expedient is practiced that I never heard of +elsewhere: the child bores a small hole at the base of his thumbnail. I +was assured by a mountain preacher that the hole "will grow out to the +edge of the nail in three months and twenty-four days"--the period, he +said, of a sow's gestation (in reality the average term is about three +months). + +Most mountaineers are indulgent, super-indulgent parents. The oft-heard +threat "I'll w'ar ye out with a hick'ry!" is seldom carried out. The +boys, especially, grow up with little restraint beyond their own natural +sense of filial duty. Little children are allowed to eat and drink +anything they want--green fruit, adulterated candy, fresh cider, no +matter what--to the limit of repletion; and fatal consequences are not +rare. I have observed the very perversity of license allowed children, +similar to what Julian Ralph tells of a man on Bullskin Creek, who, +explaining why his child died, said that "No one couldn't make her take +no medicine; she just wouldn't take it; she was a Baker through and +through, and you never could make a Baker do nothin' he didn't want to!" + +The saddest spectacle in the mountains is the tiny burial-ground, +without a headstone or headboard in it, all overgrown with weeds, and +perhaps unfenced, with cattle grazing over the low mounds or sunken +graves. The spot seems never to be visited between interments. I have +remarked elsewhere that most mountaineers are singularly callous in the +presence of serious injury or death. They show a no less remarkable lack +of reverence for the dead. Nothing on earth can be more poignantly +lonesome than one of these mountain burial-places, nothing so mutely +evident of neglect. + +Funeral services are extremely simple. In the backwoods, where lumber is +scarce, a coffin will be knocked together from rough planks taken from +someone's loft, or out of puncheons hewn from the green trees. It is +slung on poles and carried like a litter. The only exercises at the +grave are singing and praying; and sometimes even those are omitted, as +in case no preacher can be summoned in time. + +In all back settlements that I have visited, from Kentucky southward, +there is a strange custom as to the funeral sermon, that seems to have +no analogue elsewhere. It is not preached until long after the +interment, maybe a year or several years. In some districts the practice +is to hold joint services, at the same time and place, for all in the +neighborhood who died within the year. The time chosen will be after the +crops are gathered, so that everybody can attend. In other places a +husband's funeral sermon is postponed until his wife dies, or _vice +versa_, though the interval may be many years. These collective funeral +services last two or three days, and are attended by hundreds of people, +like a camp-meeting. + +Strange scenes sometimes are witnessed at the graveside, prompted +perhaps by weird superstitions. At one of our burials, which was +attended by more than the usual retinue of kinsfolk, there were present +two mothers who bore each other the deadliest hate that women know. Each +had a child at her breast. When the clods fell, they silently exchanged +babies long enough for each to suckle her rival's child. Was it a +reconciliation cemented by the very life of their blood? Or was it a +charm to keep off evil spirits? No one could (or would) explain it to +me. + +Weddings never are celebrated in church, but at the home of the bride, +and are jolly occasions, of course. Often the young men, stimulated with +more or less "moonshine," add the literally stunning compliment of a +shivaree. + +The mountaineers have a native fondness for music and dancing, which, +with the shouting-spells of their revivals, are the only outlets for +those powerful emotions which otherwise they studiously conceal. The +harmony of "part singing" is unknown in the back districts, where men +and women both sing in a jerky treble. Most of their music is in the +weird, plaintive minor key that seems spontaneous with primitive people +throughout the world. Not only the tone, but the sentiment of their +hymns and ballads is usually of a melancholy nature, expressing the +wrath of God and the doom of sinners, or the luckless adventures of wild +blades and of maidens all forlorn. A Highlander might well say, with the +clown in _A Winter's Tale_, "I love a ballad but even too well; if it be +doleful matter, merrily set down, or a very pleasant thing indeed, and +sung lamentably." + +But where banjo and fiddle enter, the vapors vanish. Up strike The Fox +Chase, Shady Grove, Gamblin' man, Sourwood Mountain, and knees are +limbered, and merry voices rise.-- + + Call up your dog, O call up your dog! + Call up your dog! + Call up your dog! + Let 's a-go huntin' to ketch a groundhog. + Rang tang a-whaddle linky day! + + +Wherever the church has not put its ban on "twistifications" the country +dance is the chief amusement of young and old. I have never succeeded in +memorizing the queer "calls" at these dances, in proper order, and so +take the liberty of quoting from Mr. Haney's _Mountain People of +Kentucky_.-- + + "Eight hands up and go to the left; half and back; corners turn; + partners sash-i-ate. First four, forwards and back; forward again + and cross over; forward and back and home you go. Gents stand and + ladies swing in the center; own partners and half sash-i-ate. + + "Eight hands and gone again; half and back; partners by the right + and opposite by the left--sash-i-ate. Right hands across and howdy + do? Left and back and how are you? Opposite partners, half + sash-i-ate and go to the next (and so on for each couple). + + "All hands up and go to the left. Hit the floor. Corners turn and + sash-i-ate. First couple cage the bird with three arms around. Bird + hop out and hoot-owl in; three arms around and hootin' agin. Swing + and circle four, ladies change and gents the same; right and left; + the shoo-fly swing (and so on for each couple)." + + +In homes where dancing is not permitted, and often in others, +"play-parties" are held, at which social games are practiced with +childlike abandon: Roll the Platter, Weavilly Wheat, Needle's Eye, We +Fish Who Bite, Grin an' Go 'Foot, Swing the Cymblin, Skip t' m' Lou +(pronounced "Skip-tum a-loo") and many others of a rollicking, +half-dancing nature. + + Round the house; skip t' m' Lou, my darlin'. + Steal my partner and I'll steal again; skip (etc.). + Take her and go with her--I don't care; skip (etc.). + I can get another as pretty as you; skip (etc.). + Pretty as a red-bird, and prettier too; skip (etc.). + + +A substitute for the church fair is the "poke-supper," at which dainty +pokes (bags) of cake and other home-made delicacies are auctioned off +to the highest bidder. Whoever bids-in a poke is entitled to eat with +the girl who prepared it, and escort her home. The rivalry excited among +the mountain swains by such artful lures may be judged from the fact +that, in a neighborhood where a man's work brings only a dollar a day, a +pretty girl's poke may be bid up to ten, twenty, or even fifty dollars. + + +[Illustration: Let the women do the work] + + +As a rule, the only holidays observed in the mountains, outside the +towns, are Christmas and New Year's. Christmas is celebrated after the +southern fashion, which seems bizarre indeed to one witnessing it for +the first time. The boys and men, having no firecrackers (which they +would disdain, anyway), go about shooting revolvers and drinking to the +limit of capacity or supply. Blank cartridges are never used in this +uproarious jollification, and the courses of the bullets are left to +chance, so that discreet people keep their noses indoors. Christmas is a +day of license, of general indulgence, it being tacitly assumed that +punishment is remitted for any ordinary sins of the flesh that may be +committed on that day. There is no church festivity, nor are Christmas +trees ever set up. Few mountain children hang up their stockings, and +many have never heard of Santa Claus. + +New Year's Day is celebrated with whatever effervescence remains from +Christmas, and in the same manner; but generally it is a feeble +reminder, as the liquid stimulus has run short and there are many sore +heads in the neighborhood. + +Most of the mountain preachers nowadays denounce dances and +"play-parties" as sinful diversions, though their real objection seems +to be that such gatherings are counter-attractions that thin out the +religious ones. Be that as it may, they certainly have put a damper on +frolics, so that in very many mountain settlements "goin' to meetin'" is +recognized primarily as a social function and affords almost the only +chance for recreation in which family can join family without restraint. + +Meetings are held in the log schoolhouse. The congregation ranges +itself, men on one side, women on the other, on rude benches that +sometimes have no backs. Everybody goes. If one judged from attendance +he would rate our highlanders as the most religious people in America. +This impression is strengthened, in a stranger, by the grave and +astoundingly patient attention that is given an illiterate or nearly +illiterate minister while he holds forth for two or three mortal hours +on the beauties of predestination, free-will, foreordination, +immersion, foot-washing, or on the delinquencies of "them acorn-fed +critters that has gone New Light over in Cope's Cove." + +After an _al fresco_ lunch, everybody doggedly returns to hear another +circuit-rider expound and denounce at the top of his voice until late +afternoon--as long as "the spirit lasts" and he has "good wind." When he +warms up, he throws in a gasping _ah_ or _uh_ at short intervals, which +constitutes the "holy tone." Doctor MacClintock gives this example: "Oh, +brethren, repent ye, and repent ye of your sins, ah; fer if ye don't ah, +the Lord, ah, he will grab yer by the seat of yer pants, ah, and held +yer over hell fire till ye holler like a coon!" + +During these services there is a good deal of running in and out by the +men and boys, most of whom gradually congregate on the outside to +whittle, gossip, drive bargains, and debate among themselves some point +of dogma that is too good to keep still about. + +Nearly all of our highlanders, from youth upward, show an amazing +fondness for theological dispute. This consists mainly in capping texts, +instead of reasoning, with the single-minded purpose of confusing or +downing an opponent. Into this battle of memories rather than of wits +the most worthless scapegrace will enter with keen gusto and perfect +seriousness. I have known two or three hundred mountain lumber-jacks, +hard-swearing and hard-drinking tough-as-they-make-'ems, to be whetted +to a fighting edge over the rocky problem "Was Saul damned?" (Can a +suicide enter the kingdom of heaven?) + +The mountaineers are intensely, universally Protestant. You will seldom +find a backwoodsman who knows what a Roman Catholic is. As John Fox +says, "He is the only man in the world whom the Catholic Church has made +little or no effort to proselyte. Dislike of Episcopalianism is still +strong among people who do not know, or pretend not to know, what the +word means. 'Any Episcopalians around here?' asked a clergyman at a +mountain cabin. 'I don't know,' said the old woman. 'Jim's got the skins +of a lot o' varmints up in the loft. Mebbe you can find one up thar.'" + +The first settlers of Appalachia mainly were Presbyterians, as became +Scotch-Irishmen, but they fell away from that faith, partly because the +wilderness was too poor to support a regular ministry, and partly +because it was too democratic for Calvinism with its supreme authority +of the clergy. This much of seventeenth century Calvinism the +mountaineer retains: a passion for hair-splitting argument over points +of doctrine, and the cocksure intolerance of John Knox; but the +ancestral creed itself has been forgotten. + +The circuit-rider, whether Methodist or Baptist, found here a field ripe +for his harvest. Being himself self-supporting and unassuming, he won +easily the confidence of the people. He preached a highly emotional +religion that worked his audience into the ecstasy that all primitive +people love. And he introduced a mighty agent of evangelization among +outdoor folk when he started the camp-meeting. + +The season for camp-meetings is from mid-August to October. The festival +may last a week in one place. It is a jubilee-week to the work-worn and +home-chained women, their only diversion from a year of unspeakably +monotonous toil. And for the young folks, it is their theater, their +circus, their county fair. (I say this with no disrespect: "big-meetin' +time" is a gala week, if there be any such thing at all in the +mountains--its attractiveness is full as much secular as spiritual to +the great body of the people.) + +It is a camp by day only, or up to closing time. No mountaineer owns a +tent. Preachers and exhorters are housed nearby, and visitors from all +the country scatter about with their friends, or sleep in the open, +cooking their meals by the wayside. + +In these backwoods revival meetings we can witness to-day the weird +phenomena of ungovernable shouting, ecstasy, bodily contortions, trance, +catalepsy, and other results of hypnotic suggestion and the contagious +one-mindedness of an overwrought crowd. This is called "taking a big +through," and is regarded as the madness of supernatural joy. It is a +mild form of that extraordinary frenzy which swept the Kentucky +settlements in 1800, when thousands of men and women at the +camp-meetings fell victims to "the jerks," "barking exercises," erotic +vagaries, physical wreckage, or insanity, to which the frenzy led. + +Many mountaineers are easily carried away by new doctrines extravagantly +presented. Religious mania is taken for inspiration by the superstitious +who are looking for "signs and wonders." At one time Mormon prophets +lured women from the backwoods of western Carolina and eastern +Tennessee. Later there was a similar exodus of people to the +Castellites, a sect of whom it was commonly remarked that "everybody who +joins the Castellites goes crazy." In our day the same may be said of +the Holy Rollers and Holiness People. + +In a feud town of eastern Kentucky, not long ago, I saw two Holiness +exhorters prancing before a solemnly attentive crowd in the court-house +square, one of them shouting and exhibiting the "holy laugh," while the +other pointed to the Cumberland River and cried, "I don't say _if_ I had +the faith, I say I _have_ the faith, to walk over that river dry-shod!" +I scanned the crowd, and saw nothing but belief, or willingness to +believe, on any countenance. Of course, most mountaineers are more +intelligent than that; but few of them are free from superstitions of +one kind or other. There are to-day many believers in witchcraft among +them (though none own it to any but their intimates) and nearly +everybody in the hills has faith in portents. + +The mountain clergy, as a general rule, are hostile to "book larnin'," +for "there ain't no Holy Ghost in it." One of them who had spent three +months at a theological school told President Frost, "Yes, the seminary +is a good place ter go and git rested up, but 'tain't worth while fer me +ter go thar no more 's long as I've got good wind." + +It used to amuse me to explain how I knew that the earth was a sphere; +but one day, when I was busy, a tiresome old preacher put the +everlasting question to me: "Do you believe the yearth is round?" An +impish perversity seized me and I answered, "No--all blamed humbug!" +"Amen!" cried my delighted catechist, "I knowed in reason you had more +sense." + +In general the religion of the mountaineers has little influence on +every-day behavior, little to do with the moral law. Salvation is by +faith alone, and not by works. Sometimes a man is "churched" for +breaking the Sabbath, "cussin'," "tale-bearin'"; but sins of the flesh +are rarely punished, being regarded as amiable frailties of mankind. It +should be understood that the mountaineer's morals are "all tail-first," +like those of Alan Breck in Stevenson's _Kidnapped_. + +One of our old-timers nonchalantly admitted in court that he and a +preacher had marked a false corner-tree which figured in an important +land suit. On cross-examination he was asked: + +"You admit that you and Preacher X---- forged that corner-tree? Didn't +you give Preacher X---- a good character, in your testimony? Do you +consider it consistent with his profession as a minister of the Gospel +to forge corner-trees?" + +"Aw," replied the witness, "religion ain't got nothin' to do with +corner-trees!" + +John Fox relates that, "A feud leader who had about exterminated the +opposing faction, and had made a good fortune for a mountaineer while +doing it, for he kept his men busy getting out timber when they weren't +fighting, said to me in all seriousness: + +"'I have triumphed agin my enemies time and time agin. The Lord's on my +side, and I gits a better and better Christian ever' year.' + +"A preacher, riding down a ravine, came upon an old mountaineer hiding +in the bushes with his rifle. + +"'What are you doing there, my friend?' + +"'Ride on, stranger,' was the easy answer. 'I'm a-waitin' fer Jim +Johnson, and with the help of the Lawd I'm goin' to blow his damn head +off.'" + +But let us never lose sight of the fact that these people, +intellectually, are not living in our age. To judge them fairly we must +go back and get a medieval point of view, which, by the way, persisted +in Europe and America until well into the Georgian period. If history be +too dry, read Stevenson's _Kidnapped_, and especially its sequel _David +Balfour_, to learn what that viewpoint was. The parallel is so +close--eighteenth century Britain and twentieth century +Appalachia--that here we walk the same paths with Alan and David, the +Edinboro' law-sharks, Katriona and Lady Allardyce. The only difference +of moment is that we have no aristocracy. + +As for the morals of our highlanders, they are precisely what any +well-read person would expect after taking their belatedness into +consideration. In speech and conduct, when at ease among themselves, +they are frank, old-fashioned Englishmen and Scots, such as Fielding and +Smollet and Pepys and Burns have shown us to the life. Their manners are +boorish, of course, judged by a feminized modern standard, and their +home conversation is as coarse as the mixed-company speeches in +Shakespeare's comedies or the offhand pleasantries of Good Queen Bess. + +But what is refinement? What is morality? + +"I don't mind," said the Beloved Vagabond, "I don't mind the frank +dungheap outside a German peasant's kitchen window; but what I loathe +and abominate is the dungheap hidden beneath Hedwige's draper papa's +parlor floor." And we do well to consider that fine remark by Sir Oliver +Lodge: "Vice is reversion to a lower type _after perception of a +higher_." + +I have seen the worst as well as the best of Appalachia. There _are_ +"places on Sand Mountain"--scores of them--where unspeakable orgies +prevail at times. But I know that between these two extremes the great +mass of the mountain people are very like persons of similar station +elsewhere, just human, with human frailties, only a little more honest, +I think, in owning them. And even in the tenebra of far-back coves, +where conditions exist as gross as anything to be found in the wynds and +closes of our great cities, there is this blessed difference: that these +half-wild creatures have not been hopelessly submerged, have not been +driven into desperate war against society. The worst of them still have +good traits, strong characters, something responsive to decent +treatment. They are kind-hearted, loyal to their friends, quick to help +anyone in distress. They know nothing of civilization. They are simply +_the unstarted_--and their thews are sound. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE MOUNTAIN DIALECT + + +One day I handed a volume of John Fox's stories to a neighbor and asked +him to read it, being curious to learn how those vivid pictures of +mountain life would impress one who was born and bred in the same +atmosphere. He scanned a few lines of the dialogue, then suddenly stared +at me in amazement. + +"What's the matter with it?" I asked, wondering what he could have found +to startle him at the very beginning of a story. + +"Why, that feller _don't know how to spell_!" + +Gravely I explained that dialect must be spelled as it is pronounced, so +far as possible, or the life and savor of it would be lost. But it was +of no use. My friend was outraged. "That tale-teller then is jest makin' +fun of the mountain people by misspellin' our talk. You educated folks +don't spell your own words the way you say them." + +A most palpable hit; and it gave me a new point of view. + +To the mountaineers themselves their speech is natural and proper, of +course, and when they see it bared to the spotlight, all eyes drawn +toward it by an orthography that is as odd to them as it is to us, they +are stirred to wrath, just as we would be if our conversation were +reported by some Josh Billings or Artemas Ward. + +The curse of dialect writing is elision. Still, no one can write it +without using the apostrophe more than he likes to; for our highland +speech is excessively clipped. "I'm comin' d'reck'ly" has a quaintness +that should not be lost. We cannot visualize the shambling but eager +mountaineer with a sample of ore in his hand unless the writer reports +him faithfully: "Wisht you'd 'zamine this rock fer me--I heern tell you +was one o' them 'sperts." + +Although the hillsmen save some breath in this way, they waste a good +deal by inserting sounds where they do not belong. Sometimes it is only +an added consonant: gyarden, acrost, corkus (caucus); sometimes a +syllable: loaferer, musicianer, suddenty. Occasionally a word is both +added to and clipped from, as cyarn (carrion). They are fond of grace +syllables: "I gotta me a deck o' cyards." "There ain't nary bitty sense +in it." + +More interesting are substitutions of one sound for another. In mountain +dialect all vowels may be interchanged with others. Various sounds of +_a_ are confused with _e_, as hed (had), kem (came), keerful; or with +_i_, grit (grate), rifle (raffle); with _o_, pomper, toper (taper), +wrop; or with _u_, fur, ruther. So any other vowel may serve in place of +_e_: sarve, chist, upsot, tumble. Any other may displace _i_: arn +(iron), eetch, hender, whope or whup. The _o_ sounds are more stable, +but we have crap (crop), yan, clus, and many similar variants. Any other +vowel may do for _u_: braysh or bresh (brush), shet, sich, shore (sure). + +Mountaineers have peculiar difficulty with diphthongs: haar (hair), +cheer (chair), brile, and a host of others. The word coil is variously +pronounced quile, querl or quorl. + +Substitution of consonants is not so common as of vowels, but most +hillsmen say nabel (navel), ballet (ballad), Babtis', rench or rinch, +brickie (brittle), and many say atter or arter, jue (due), tejus, +vascinator (fascinator--a woman's scarf). They never drop _h_, nor +substitute anything for it. + +The word woman has suffered some strange sea-changes. Most mountaineers +pronounce it correctly, but some drop the _w_ ('oman), others add an +_r_ (womern and wimmern), while in Michell County, North Carolina, we +hear the extraordinary forms ummern and dummern ("La, look at all the +dummerunses a-comin'!") + +On the other hand, some words that most Americans mispronounce are +always sounded correctly in the southern highlands, as dew and new +(never doo, noo). Creek is always given its true _ee_ sound, never +crick. Nare (as we spell it in dialect stories) is simply the right +pronunciation of ne'er, and nary is ne'er a, with the _a_ turned into a +short _i_ sound. + +It should be understood that the dialect varies a good deal from place +to place, and, even in the same neighborhood, we rarely hear all +families speaking it alike. Outlanders who essay to write it are prone +to err by making their characters speak it too consistently. It is only +in the backwoods, or among old people and the penned-at-home women, that +the dialect is used with any integrity. In railroad towns we hear little +of it, and farmers who trade in those towns adapt their speech somewhat +to the company they may be in. The same man, at different times, may say +can't and cain't, set and sot, jest and jes' and jist, atter and arter +or after, seed and seen, here and hyur and hyar, heerd and heern or +heard, sich and sech, took and tuk--there is no uniformity about it. An +unconscious sense of euphony seems to govern the choice of hit or it, +there or thar. + +Since the Appalachian people have a marked Scotch-Irish strain, we would +expect their speech to show a strong Scotch influence. So far as +vocabulary is concerned, there is really little of it. A few words, +caigy (cadgy), coggled, fernent, gin for if, needcessity, trollop, +almost exhaust the list of distinct Scotticisms. The Scotch-Irish, as we +call them, were mainly Ulstermen, and the Ulster dialect of to-day bears +little analogy to that of Appalachia. + +Scotch influence does appear, however, in one vital characteristic of +the pronunciation: with few exceptions our highlanders sound _r_ +distinctly wherever it occurs, though they never trill it. In the +British Isles this constant sounding of _r_ in all positions is +peculiar, I think, to Scotland, Ireland, and a few small districts in +the northern border counties of England. With us it is general practice +outside of New England and those parts of the southern lowlands that had +no flood of Celtic immigration in the eighteenth century. I have never +heard a Carolina mountaineer say niggah or No'th Ca'lina, though in the +last word the syllable _ro_ is often elided. + +In some mountain districts we hear do' (door), flo', mo', yo', co'te, +sca'ce (long _a_), pusson; but such skipping of the _r_ is common only +where lowland influence has crept in. Much oftener the _r_ is dropped +from dare, first, girl, horse, nurse, parcel, worth (dast, fust, gal, +hoss, nuss, passel, wuth). By way of compensation the hillsmen sometimes +insert a euphonic _r_ where it has no business; just as many New +Englanders say, "The idear of it!" + +Throughout Appalachia such words as last, past, advantage, are +pronounced with the same vowel sound as is heard in man. This helps to +delimit the people, classifying them with Pennsylvanians and Westerners: +a linguistic grouping that will prove significant when we come to study +the origin and history of this isolated race. + +An editor who had made one or two short trips into the mountains once +wrote me that he thought the average mountaineer's vocabulary did not +exceed three hundred words. This may be a natural inference if one +spends but a few weeks among these people and sees them only under the +prosaic conditions of workaday life. But gain their intimacy and you +shall find that even the illiterates among them have a range of +expression that is truly remarkable. I have myself taken down from the +lips of Carolina mountaineers some eight hundred dialectical or +obsolete words, to say nothing of the much greater number of standard +English terms that they command. + +Seldom is a "hill-billy" at a loss for a word. Lacking other means of +expression, there will come "spang" from his mouth a coinage of his own. +Instantly he will create (always from English roots, of course) new +words by combination, or by turning nouns into verbs or otherwise +interchanging the parts of speech. + +Crudity or deficiency of the verb characterizes the speech of all +primitive peoples. In mountain vernacular many words that serve as verbs +are only nouns of action, or adjectives, or even adverbs. "That bear 'll +meat me a month." "They churched Pitt for tale-bearin'." "Granny kept +faultin' us all day." "Are ye fixin' to go squirrelin'?" "Sis blouses +her waist a-purpose to carry a pistol." "My boy Jesse book-kept for the +camp." "I disgust bad liquor." "This poke salat eats good." "I ain't +goin' to bed it no longer" (lie abed). "We can muscle this log up." "I +wouldn't pleasure them enough to say it." "Josh ain't much on +sweet-heartin'." "I don't confidence them dogs much." "The creek away up +thar turkey-tails out into numerous leetle forks." + +A verb will be coined from an adverb: "We better git some wood, bettern +we?" Or from an adjective: "Much that dog and see won't he come along" +(pet him, make much of him). "I didn't do nary thing to contrary her." +"Baby, that onion 'll strong ye!" "Little Jimmy fell down and benastied +himself to beat the devil." + +Conversely, nouns are created from verbs. "Hit don't make no differ." "I +didn't hear no give-out at meetin'" (announcement). "You can git ye one +more gittin' o' wood up thar." "That Nantahala is a master shut-in, jest +a plumb gorge." Or from an adjective: "Them bugs--the little old +hatefuls!" "If anybody wanted a history of this county for fifty years +he'd git a lavish of it by reading that mine-suit testimony." Or from an +adverb: "Nance tuk the biggest through at meetin'!" (shouting spell). An +old lady quoted to me in a plaintive quaver: + + "It matters not, so I've been told, + Where the body goes when the heart grows cold; + +"But," she added, "a person has a rather about where he'd be put." + +In mountain vernacular the Old English strong past tense still lives in +begun, drunk, holped, rung, shrunk, sprung, stunk, sung, sunk, swum. +Holp is used both as preterite and as infinitive: the _o_ is long, and +the _l_ distinctly sounded by most of the people, but elided by such as +drop it from almost, already, self (the _l_ is elided from help by many +who use that form of the verb). + +Examples of a strong preterite with dialectical change of the vowel are +bruk, brung, drap or drapped, drug, friz, roke or ruck (raked), saunt +(sent), shet, shuck (shook), whoped (long _o_). The variant whupped is a +Scotticism. Whope is sometimes used in the present tense, but whup is +more common. By some the vowel of whup is sounded like _oo_ in book (Mr. +Fox writes "whoop," which, I presume, he intends for that sound). + +In many cases a weak preterite supplants the proper strong one: div, +driv, fit, gi'n or give, rid, riv, riz, writ, done, run, seen or seed, +blowed, crowed, drawed, growed, knowed, throwed. + +There are many corrupt forms of the verb, such as gwine for gone or +going, mought (mowt) for might, dim, het, ort or orter, wed (weeded), +war (was or were--the _a_ as in far), shun (shone), cotch (in all +tenses) or cotched, fotch or fotched, borned, hurted, dremp. + +Peculiar adjectives are formed from verbs. "Chair-bottoming is easy +settin'-down work." "When my youngest was a leetle set-along child" +(interpreted as "settin' along the floor"). "That Thunderhead is the +torndowndest place!" "Them's the travellinest hosses ever I seed." +"She's the workinest woman!" "Jim is the disablest one o' the fam'ly." +"Damn this fotch-on kraut that comes in tin cans!" + +A verb may serve as an adverb: "If I'd a-been thoughted enough." An +adverb may be used as an adjective: "I hope the folks with you is gaily" +(well). An adjective can serve as an adverb: "He laughed master." +Sometimes a conjunction is employed as a preposition: "We have oblige to +take care on him." + +These are not mere blunders of individual illiterates, but usages common +throughout the mountains, and hence real dialect. + +The ancient syllabic plural is preserved in beasties (horses), nesties, +posties, trousies (these are not diminutives), and in that strange word +dummerunses that I cited before. + +Pleonasms are abundant. "I done done it" (have done it or did do it). +"Durin' the while." "In this day and time." "I thought it would surely, +undoubtedly turn cold." "A small, little bitty hole." "Jane's a +tol'able big, large, fleshy woman." "I ginerally, usually take a dram +mornin's." "These ridges is might' nigh straight up and down, and, as +the feller said, perpendic'lar." + +Everywhere in the mountains we hear of biscuit-bread, ham-meat, +rifle-gun, rock-clift, ridin'-critter, cow-brute, man-person, +women-folks, preacher-man, granny-woman and neighbor-people. In this +category belong the famous double-barreled pronouns: we-all and you-all +in Kentucky, we-uns and you-uns in Carolina and Tennessee. (I have even +heard such locution as this: "Let's we-uns all go over to youerunses +house.") Such usages are regarded generally as mere barbarisms, and so +they are in English, but Miss Murfree cites correlatives in the Romance +languages: French _nous autres_, Italian _noi altri_, Spanish +_nosotros_. + +The mountaineers have some queer ways of intensifying expression. "I'd +_tell_ a man," with the stress as here indicated, is simply a strong +affirmative. "We had one more _time_" means a rousing good time. +"P'int-blank" is a superlative or an epithet: "We jist p'int-blank got +it to do." "Well, p'int-blank, if they ever come back again, I'll move!" + +A double negative is so common that it may be crowded into a single +word: "I did it the unthoughtless of anything I ever done in my life." +Triple negatives are easy: "I ain't got nary none." A mountaineer can +accomplish the quadruple: "That boy ain't never done nothin' nohow." +Yea, even the quintuple: "I ain't never seen no men-folks of no kind do +no washin'." + +On the other hand, the veriest illiterates often startle a stranger by +glib use of some word that most of us picked up in school or seldom use +informally. "I can make a hunderd pound o' pork outen that hog--tutor it +jist right." "Them clouds denote rain." "She's so dilitary!" "They stood +thar and caviled about it." "That exceeds the measure." "Old Tom is +blind, but he can discern when the sun is shinin'." "Jerry proffered to +fix the gun for me." I had supposed that the words cuckold and moon-calf +had none but literary usage in America, but we often hear them in the +mountains, cuckold being employed both as verb and as noun, and +moon-calf in its baldly literal sense that would make Prospero's taunt +to Caliban a superlative insult. + +Our highlander often speaks in Elizabethan or Chaucerian or even +pre-Chaucerian terms. His pronoun hit antedates English itself, being +the Anglo-Saxon neuter of he. Ey God, a favorite expletive, is the +original of egad, and goes back of Chaucer. Ax for ask and kag for keg +were the primitive and legitimate forms, which we trace as far as the +time of Layamon. When the mountain boy challenges his mate: "I dar ye--I +ain't afeared!" his verb and participle are of the same ancient and +sterling rank. Afore, atwixt, awar, heap o' folks, peart, up and done +it, usen for used, all these everyday expressions of the backwoods were +contemporary with the _Canterbury Tales_. + +A man said to me of three of our acquaintances: "There's been a fray on +the river--I don't know how the fraction begun, but Os feathered into +Dan and Phil, feedin' them lead." He meant fray in its original sense of +deadly combat, as was fitting where two men were killed. Fraction for +rupture is an archaic word, rare in literature, though we find it in +_Troilus and Cressida_. "Feathered into them!" Where else can we hear +to-day a phrase that passed out of standard English when "villainous +saltpetre" supplanted the long-bow? It means to bury an arrow up to the +feather, as when the old chronicler Harrison says, "An other arrow +should haue beene fethered in his bowels." + + +[Illustration: Photo by Arthur Keith + +"Till the skyline blends with the sky itself."--Great Smokies. N. C. +from Mt. Collins.] + + +Our schoolmaster, composing a form of oath for the new mail-carrier, +remarked: "Let me study this thing over; then I can edzact it"--a verb +so rare and obsolete that we find it in no American dictionary, but only +in Murray. + +A remarkable word, common in the Smokies, is dauncy, defined for me as +"mincy about eating," which is to say fastidious, over-nice. Dauncy +probably is a variant of daunch, of which the _Oxford New English +Dictionary_ cites but one example, from the _Townley Mysteries_ of +_circa_ 1460. + +A queer term used by Carolina mountaineers, without the faintest notion +of its origin, is doney (long _o_) or doney-gal, meaning a sweetheart. +Its history is unique. British sailors of the olden time brought it to +England from Spanish or Italian ports. Doney is simply _dona_ or _donna_ +a trifle anglicized in pronunciation. Odd, though, that it should be +preserved in America by none but backwoodsmen whose ancestors for two +centuries never saw the tides! + +In the vocabulary of the mountaineers I have detected only three words +of directly foreign origin. Doney is one. Another is kraut, which is the +sole contribution to highland speech of those numerous Germans (mostly +Pennsylvania Dutch) who joined the first settlers in this region, and +whose descendants, under wondrously anglicized names, form to-day a +considerable element of the highland population. The third is sashiate +(French _chasse_), used in calling figures at the country dances. + +There is something intrinsically, stubbornly English in the nature of +the mountaineer: he will assimilate nothing foreign. In the Smokies the +Eastern Band of Cherokees still holds its ancient capital on the Okona +Lufty River, and the whites mingle freely with these redskins, bearing +them no such despite as they do negroes, but eating at the same table +and admitting Indians to the white compartment of a Jim Crow car. Yet +the mountain dialect contains not one word of Cherokee origin, albeit +many of the whites can speak a little Cherokee. + +In our county some Indians always appear at each term of court, and an +interpreter must be engaged. He never goes by that name, but by the +obsolete title linkister or link'ster, by some lin-gis-ter. + +Many other old-fashioned terms are preserved in Appalachia that sound +delightfully quaint to strangers who never met them outside of books. A +married woman is not addressed as Missis by the mountaineers, but as +Mistress when they speak formally, and as Mis' or Miz' for a +contraction. We will hear an aged man referred to as "old Grandsir'" +So-and-So. "Back this letter for me" is a phrase unchanged from the days +before envelopes, when an address had to be written on the back of the +letter itself. "Can I borry a race of ginger?" means the unground +root--you will find the word in _A Winter's Tale_. "Them sorry fellers" +denotes scabby knaves, good-for-nothings. Sorry has no etymological +connection with sorrow, but literally means sore-y, covered with sores, +and the highlander sticks to its original import. + +We have in the mountains many home-born words to fit the circumstances +of backwoods life. When maize has passed from the soft and milky stage +of roasting-ears, but is not yet hard enough for grinding, the ears are +grated into a soft meal and baked into delectable pones called +gritted-bread. + +In some places to-day we still find the ancient quern or hand-mill, +jocularly called an armstrong-machine. Someone who irked from turning it +invented the extraordinary improvement that goes by the name of +pounding-mill. This consists of a pole pivoted horizontally on top of a +post and free to move up and down like the walking-beam of an +old-fashioned engine. To one end of this pole is attached a heavy +pestle that works in a mortar underneath. At the other end is a box +from which water flows from an elevated spout. When the box fills it +will go down, lifting the pestle; then the water spills out and the +pestle's weight lifts the box back again. + +Who knows what a toddick or taddle is? I did not until my friend Dargan +reported it from the Nantahala. "Ben didn't git a full turn o' meal, but +jest a toddick." When a farmer goes to one of our little tub-mills, +mentioned in previous chapters, he leaves a portion of the meal as toll. +This he measures out in a toll-dish or toddick or taddle (the name +varies with the locality) which the mill-owner left for that purpose. +Toddick, then, is a small measure. A turn of meal is so called because +"each man's corn is ground in turn--he waits his turn." + +When one dines in a cabin back in the hills he will taste some strange +dishes that go by still stranger names. Beans dried in the pod, then +boiled "hull and all," are called leather-breeches (this is not slang, +but the regular name). Green beans in the pod are called snaps; when +shelled they are shuck-beans. The old Germans taught their Scotch and +English neighbors the merits of scrapple, but here it is known as +poor-do. Lath-open bread is made from biscuit dough, with soda and +buttermilk, in the usual way, except that the shortening is worked in +last. It is then baked in flat cakes, and has the peculiar property of +parting readily into thin flakes when broken edgewise. I suppose that +poor-do was originally poor-doin's, and lath-open bread denotes that it +opens into lath-like strips. But etymology cannot be pushed recklessly +in the mountains, and I offer these clews as a mere surmise. + +Your hostess, proffering apple sauce, will ask, "Do you love sass?" I +had to kick my chum Andy's shins the first time he faced this question. +It is well for a traveler to be forewarned that the word love is +commonly used here in the sense of like or relish. + +If one is especially fond of a certain dish he declares that he is a +fool about it. "I'm a plumb fool about pickle-beans." Conversely, "I +ain't much of a fool about liver" is rather more than a hint of +distaste. "I et me a bait" literally means a mere snack, but jocosely it +may admit a hearty meal. If the provender be scant the hostess may say, +"That's right at a smidgen," meaning little more than a mite; but if +plenteous, then there are rimptions. + +To "grabble 'taters" is to pick from a hill of new potatoes a few of +the best, then smooth back the soil without disturbing the immature +ones. + +If the house be in disorder it is said to be all gormed or gaumed up, or +things are just in a mommick. + +When a man is tired he likely will call it worried; if in a hurry, he is +in a swivvet; if nervous, he has the all-overs; if declining in health, +he is on the down-go. If he and his neighbor dislike each other, there +is a hardness between them; if they quarrel, it is a ruction, a rippit, +a jower, or an upscuddle--so be it there are no fatalities which would +amount to a real fray. + +A choleric or fretful person is tetchious. Survigrous (ser-_vi_-grus) is +a superlative of vigorous (here pronounced _vi_-grus, with long _i_): as +"a survigrous baby," "a most survigrous cusser." Bodaciously means +bodily or entirely: "I'm bodaciously ruint" (seriously injured). "Sim +greened him out bodaciously" (to green out or sap is to outwit in +trade). To disfurnish or discon_fit_ means to incommode: "I hope it has +not disconfit you very bad." + +To shamp means to shingle or trim one's hair. A bastard is a woods-colt +or an outsider. Slaunchways denotes slanting, and si-godlin or +si-antigodlin is out of plumb or out of square (factitious words, of +course--mere nonsense terms, like catawampus). + +Critter and beast are usually restricted to horse and mule, and brute to +a bovine. A bull or boar is not to be mentioned as such in mixed +company, but male-brute and male-hog are used as euphemisms.[9] + +A female shoat is called a gilt. A spotted animal is said to be pieded +(pied), and a striped one is listed. In the Smokies a toad is called a +frog or a toad-frog, and a toadstool is a frog-stool. The woodpecker is +turned around into a peckerwood, except that the giant woodpecker (here +still a common bird) is known as a woodcock or woodhen. + +What the mountaineers call hemlock is the shrub leucothoe. The hemlock +tree is named spruce-pine, while spruce is he-balsam, balsam itself is +she-balsam, laurel is ivy, and rhododendron is laurel. In some places +pine needles are called twinkles, and the locust insect is known as a +ferro (Pharaoh?). A treetop left on the ground after logging is called +the lap. Sobby wood means soggy or sodden, and the verb is to sob. + +Evening, in the mountains, begins at noon instead of at sunset. Spell is +used in the sense of while ("a good spell atterward") and soon for early +("a soon start in the morning"). The hillsmen say "a year come June," +"Thursday 'twas a week ago," and "the year nineteen and eight." + +Many common English words are used in peculiar senses by the mountain +folk, as call for name or mention or occasion, clever for obliging, +mimic or mock for resemble, a power or a sight for much, risin' for +exceeding (also for inflammation), ruin for injure, scout for elude, +stove for jabbed, surround for go around, word for phrase, take off for +help yourself. Tale always means an idle or malicious report. + +Some highland usages that sound odd to us are really no more than the +original and literal meanings, as budget for bag or parcel, hampered for +shackled or jailed. When a mountain swain "carries his gal to meetin'" +he is not performing so great an athletic feat as was reported by +Benjamin Franklin, who said, "My father carried his wife with three +children to New England" (from Pennsylvania). + +A mountaineer does not throw a stone; he "flings a rock." He sharpens +tools on a grindin'-rock or whet-rock. Tomato, cabbage, molasses and +baking powder are used always as plural nouns. "Pass me them molasses." +"I'll have a few more of them cabbage." "How many bakin'-powders has you +got?" + +Many other peculiar words and phrases are explained in their proper +place elsewhere in this volume. + +The speech of the southern highlanders is alive with quaint idioms. "I +swapped hosses, and I'll tell you fer why." "Your name ain't much +common." "Who got to beat?" "You think me of it in the mornin'." "I 'low +to go to town to-morrow." "The woman's aimin' to go to meetin'." "I had +in head to plow to-day, but hit's come on to rain." "I've laid off and +laid off to fix that fence." "Reckon Pete was knowin' to the +sarcumstance?" "I'll name it to Newt, if so be he's thar." "I knowed in +reason she'd have the mullygrubs over them doin's." "You cain't handily +blame her." + +"Air ye plumb bereft?" "How come it was this: he done me dirt." "I ain't +carin' which nor whether about it." "Sam went to Andrews or to Murphy, +one." "I tuk my fut in my hand and lit out." "He lit a rag fer home." +"Don't much believe the wagon 'll come to-day." "Tain't powerful long +to dinner, I don't reckon." "Phil's Ann give it out to each and every +that Walt and Layunie 'd orter wed." + +"Howdy, Tom: light and hitch." + +"Reckon I'd better git on." + +"Come in and set." + +"Cain't stop long." + +"Oh, set down and eat you some supper!" + +"I've been." + +"Won't ye stay the night? Looks like to me we'll have a rainin', windin' +spell." + +"No: I'll haffter go down." + +"Well, come agin, and fix to stay a week." + +"You-uns come down with me." + +"Won't go now, I guess, Tom." + +"Giddep! I'll be back by in the mornin'." + +"Farwell!" + +Rather laconic. Yet, on occasion, when the mountaineer is drawn out of +his natural reserve and allows his emotions free rein, there are few +educated people who can match his picturesque and pungent diction. His +trick of apt phrasing is intuitive. Like an artist striking off a +portrait or a caricature with a few swift strokes his characterization +is quick and vivid. Whether he use quaint obsolete English or equally +delightful perversions, what he says will go straight to the mark with +epigrammatic force. + +I cannot quit this topic without reference to the bizarre and original +place-names that sprinkle the map of Appalachia. + +Many readers of John Fox's novels take for granted that the author +coined such piquant titles as Lonesome, Troublesome, Hell fer Sartin, +and Kingdom Come. But all of these are real names in the Kentucky +mountains. They denote rough country, and the country _is_ rough, so +that to a traveler it is plain enough why travel and travail were used +interchangeably in old editions of Shakespeare. There is nothing like +first-hand knowledge of mountain roads to revive sixteenth-century +habits of thought and speech. The most scrupulous visitor will fain +admit the aptness of mountain nomenclature. + +Kentucky has no monopoly of grotesque and whimsical local names. The +whole Appalachian region, from the Virginias to Alabama, is peppered +with them. Whatever else the southern mountaineer may be, he is +original. Elsewhere throughout America we have place-names imported from +the Old World as thick as weeds; but the pioneers of the southern hills +either forgot that there was an Old World or they disdained to borrow +from it. + +Personal names applied to localities are common enough, but they are +those of actual settlers, not of notables honored from afar (Mitchell, +LeConte, Guyot, were not the highlanders' names for those peaks). Often +a surname is put to such use, as Jake's Creek, Old Nell Knob, and Big +Jonathan Run. We even have Granny's Branch, and Daddy and Mammy creeks. + +In the main it is characteristic of our Appalachian place-names that +they are descriptive or commemorate some incident. The Shut-in is a +gorge; the Suck is a whirlpool; Pinch-gut is a narrow passage between +the cliffs. Calf-killer Run is "whar a meat-eatin' bear was usin'," and +Barren She Mountain was the death-ground of a she-bear that had no cubs. +Kemmer's Old Stand was a certain hunter's favorite ambush on a runway. +Meat-scaffold Branch is where venison was hung up for "jerking." +Graining-block Creek was a trappers' rendezvous, and Honey Camp Run is +where the bee hunters stayed. Lick-log denotes a notched log used for +salting cattle. Still-house Branch was a moonshiners' retreat. Skin-linn +Fork is where the bast was peeled from young lindens. Big Butt is what +Westerners call a butte. Ball-play Bottom was a lacrosse field of the +Indians. Pizen Gulch was infested with poison ivy or sumach. Keerless +Knob is "a joyful place for wild salat" (_amaranthus_). A "hell" or +"slick" or "woolly-head" or "yaller patch" is a thicket of laurel or +rhododendron, impassable save where the bears have bored out trails. + +The qualities of the raw backwoodsmen are printed from untouched +negatives in the names he has left upon the map. His literalness shows +in Black Rock, Standing Stone, Sharp Top, Twenty Mile, Naked Place, The +Pocket, Tumbling Creek, and in the endless designations taken from +trees, plants, minerals, or animals noted on the spot. Incidents of his +lonely life are signalized in Dusk Camp Run, Mad Sheep Mountain, Dog +Slaughter Creek, Drowning Creek, Burnt Cabin Branch, Broken Leg, Raw +Dough, Burnt Pone, Sandy Mush, and a hundred others. His contentious +spirit blazes forth in Fighting Creek, Shooting Creek, Gouge-eye, +Vengeance, Four Killer, and Disputanta. + +Sometimes even his superstitions are commemorated. In Owesley County, +Kentucky, is a range of hills bearing the singular name of Whoop fer +Larrie. A party of hunters, so the legend goes, had encamped for the +night in the shelter of a bluff. They were startled from sleep by a +loud rumble, as of some wagon hurrying along the pathless ridge, and +they heard a voice shouting "Whoop fer Larrie! Whoop fer Larrie!" The +hills would return no echo, for the cry came from a riotous "ha'nt." + +A sardonic humor, sometimes smudged with "that touch of grossness in our +English race," characterizes many of the backwoods place-names. In the +mountains of Old Virginia we have Dry Tripe settlement and Jerk 'em +Tight. In West Virginia are Take In Creek, Get In Run, Seldom Seen +Hollow, Odd, Buster Knob, Shabby Room, and Stretch Yer Neck. North +Carolina has its Shoo Bird Mountain, Big Bugaboo Creek, Weary Hut, Frog +Level, Shake a Rag, and the Chunky Gal. In eastern Tennessee are No Time +settlement and No Business Knob, with creeks known as Big Soak, Suee, Go +Forth, and How Come You. Georgia has produced Scataway, Too Nigh, Long +Nose, Dug Down, Silly Cook, Turkey Trot, Broke Jug Creek, and Tear +Breeches Ridge. + +Allowing some license for the mountaineer's irreverence, his whimsical +fancies, and his scorn of sentimentalism, it must be said that his +descriptive terms are usually apposite and sometimes felicitous. Often +he is poetically imaginative, occasionally romantic, and generally +picturesque. Roan Mountain, Grandfather, the Lone Bald, Craggy Dome, +the Black Brothers, Hairy Bear, the Balsam Cone, Sunset Mountain, the +Little Snowbird, are names that linger lovingly in one's memory. + +The writer recalls with pleasure not only the features but the mere +titles of that superb landscape that he shared with the wild creatures +and a few woodsmen when living far up on the divide of the Great Smoky +Mountains. Immediately below his cabin were the Defeat and Desolation +branches of Bone Valley, with Hazel Creek meandering to the Little +Tennessee. Cheoah, Tululah, Santeetlah, the Tuckaseegee, and the +Nantahala (Valley of the Noonday Sun) flowed through gorges overlooked +by the Wauchecha, the Yalaka and the Cowee ranges, Tellico, Wahyah, the +Standing Indian and the Tusquitee.[10] Sonorous names, these, which our +pioneers had the good sense to adopt from the aborigines. + +To the east were Cold Spring Knob, the Miry Ridge, Siler's Bald, +Clingman's Dome, and the great peaks at the head of Okona Lufty. On the +west rose Brier Knob, Laurel Top, Thunderhead, Blockhouse, the +Fodder-stack, and various "balds" of the Unakas guarding Hiwassee. To +the northward were Cade's Cove and the vale of Tuckaleechee, with +Chilhowee in the near distance, and the Appalachian Valley stretching +beyond our ramparts to where the far Cumberlands marked an ever-blue +horizon. + +What matter that the plenteous roughs about us were branded with rude or +opprobrious names? Rip Shin Thicket, Dog-hobble Ridge, the Rough Arm, +Bear-wallow, Woolly Ridge, Roaring Fork, Huggins's Hell, the Devil's +Racepath, his Den, his Courthouse, and other playgrounds of Old +Nick--they, too, were well and fitly named. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE LAW OF THE WILDERNESS + + +It is only a town-dreamed allegory that represents Nature as a fond +mother suckling her young upon her breast. Those who have lived +literally close to wild Nature know her for a tyrant, void of pity and +of mercy, from whom nothing can be wrung without toil and the risk of +death. + +To all pioneer men--to their women and children, too--life has been one +long, hard, cruel war against elemental powers. Nothing else than +warlike arts, nothing short of warlike hazards, could have subdued the +beasts and savages, felled the forests and made our land habitable for +those teeming millions who can exist only in a state of mutual +dependence and cultivation. The first lesson of pioneering was +self-reliance. "Provide with thine own arm," said the Wilderness, +"against frost and famine and skulking foes, or thou shalt surely die!" + +But there were compensations. As the school of the woods was harsh and +stern, so it brought up sons and daughters of lion heart. And its +reward to those who endured was the most outright independence to be had +on earth. No king was so irresponsible as the pioneer, no czar so +absolute as he. It needed no martyr spirit in him to sing: + + "I am the master of my fate, + I am the captain of my soul." + + +We have seen that the Appalachian region was peculiar in this: that good +bottom lands were few and far between. So our mountain farmers were cut +off more from the world and from each other, were thrown still more upon +their individual resources, than other pioneers. By compulsion their +self-reliance was more complete; hence their independence grew more +haughty, their individualism more intense. And these traits, exaggerated +as they were by force of environment, remain unweakened among their +descendants to the present day. + +Here, then, is a key to much that is puzzling in highland character. In +the beginning isolation was forced upon the mountaineers; they accepted +it as inevitable and bore it with stoical fortitude until in time they +came to love solitude for its own sake and to find compensations in it +for lack of society. + +Says a native writer, Miss Emma Miles, in a clever and illuminating book +on _The Spirit of the Mountains_: "We who live so far apart that we +rarely see more of one another than the blue smoke of each other's +chimneys are never at ease without the feel of the forest on every +side--room to breathe, to expand, to develop, as well as to hunt and to +wander at will. The nature of the mountaineer demands that he have +solitude for the unhampered growth of his personality, wing-room for his +eagle heart." + +Such feeling, such longing, most of us have experienced in passing +moods; but in the highlander it is a permanent state of mind, sustaining +him from the cradle to the grave. To enjoy freedom and air and +elbow-room he cheerfully puts aside all that society can offer, and +stints himself and bears adversity with a calm and steadfast soul. To be +free, unbeholden, lord of himself and his surroundings--that is the wine +of life to a mountaineer. + +Such a man cannot stand it to be bossed around. If he works for another, +it must be on a footing of equality. Poverty may oblige him to take a +turn on some "public works" (by which he means any job where many men +work together, such as lumbering or railroad building), but he must be +handled with more respect than is shown common laborers elsewhere. At a +sharp order or a curse from the foreman he will flare back: "That's +enough out o' you!" and immediately he will drop his tools. Generally he +will stay on a job just long enough to earn money for immediate needs; +then back to the farm he goes. + +Bear in mind that in the mountains every person is accorded the +consideration that his own qualities entitle him to, and no whit more. +It has always been so. Our Highlanders have neither memory nor tradition +of ever having been herded together, lorded over, persecuted or denied +the privileges of free-men. So, even within their clans, there is no +servility nor any headship by right of birth. Leaders arise, when +needed, only by virtue of acknowledged ability and efficiency. In this +respect there is no analogy whatever to the clan system of ancient +Scotland, to which the loose social structure of our own highlanders has +been compared. + +We might expect such fiery individualism to cool gradually as population +grew denser; but, oddly enough, crowding only intensifies it in the shy +backwoodsman. Neighborliness has not grown in the mountains--it is on +the wane. There are to-day fewer log-rollings and house-raisings, fewer +husking bees and quilting parties than in former times; _and no new +social gatherings have taken their place_. Our mountain farmer, seeing +all arable land taken up, and the free range ever narrowing, has grown +jealous and distrustful, resenting the encroachment of too many sharers +in what once he felt was his own unfenced domain. And so it has come +about that the very quality that is his strength and charm as a man--his +staunch individualism--is proving his weakness and reproach as a +neighbor and citizen. The virtue of a time out-worn has become the vice +of an age new-born. + +The mountaineers are non-social. As they stand to-day, each man +"fighting for his own hand, with his back against the wall," they +recognize no social compact. Each one is suspicious of the other. Except +as kinsmen or partisans they cannot pull together. Speak to them of +community of interests, try to show them the advantages of co-operation, +and you might as well be proffering advice to the North Star. They will +not work together zealously even to improve their neighborhood roads, +each mistrusting that the other may gain some trifling advantage over +himself or turn fewer shovelfuls of earth. Labor chiefs fail to organize +unions or granges among them because they simply will not stick +together. + +Miss Miles says of her people (the italics are my own): "There is no +such thing as a community of mountaineers. They are knit together, man +to man, as friends, but not as a body of men.... Our men are almost +incapable of concerted action unless they are needed by the +Government.... Between blood-relationship and the Federal Government no +relations of master and servant, rich and poor, learned and ignorant, +employer and employee, are interposed to bind society into a whole.... +_The mountaineers must awake to a consciousness of themselves as a +people._ For although throughout the highlands of Kentucky, Tennessee +and the Carolinas our nature is one, our hopes, our loves, our daily +life the same, we are yet a people asleep, _a race without knowledge of +its own existence_. This condition is due ... to the isolation that +separates the mountaineer from all the world but his own blood and kin, +and to the consequent utter simplicity of social relations. When they +shall have established a unity of thought corresponding to their +homogeneity of character, then their love of country will assume a +practical form, and then, indeed, America, with all her peoples, can +boast no stronger sons than these same mountaineers." + +To the Highlanders of four States here mentioned should be added all +those of Old Virginia, West Virginia, Georgia, and Alabama, making an +aggregate to-day of close on four million souls. Together they +constitute a distinct people. Not only are they all closely akin in +blood, in speech, in ideas, in manners, in ways of living; but their +needs, their problems are identical throughout this vast domain. There +is no other ethnic group in America so unmixed as these mountaineers and +so segregated from all others. + +And the strange thing is that they do not know it. Their isolation is so +complete that they have no race consciousness at all. In this respect I +can think of no other people on the face of the earth to which they may +be likened. + +As compensation for the peculiar weakness of their social structure, the +Highlanders display an undying devotion to family and kindred. +Mountaineers everywhere are passionately attached to their homes. Tear +away from his native rock your Switzer, your Tyrolean, your Basque, your +Montenegrin, and all alike are stricken with homesickness beyond speech +or cure. At the first chance they will return, and thenceforth will +cling to their patrimonies, however poor these be. + +So, too, our man of the Appalachians.--"I went down into the valley, +wunst, and I declar I nigh sultered! 'Pears like there ain't breath +enough to go round, with all them people. And the water don't do a body +no good; an' you cain't eat hearty, nor sleep good o' nights. Course +they pay big money down thar; but I'd a heap-sight ruther ketch me a big +old 'coon fer his hide. Boys, I did hone fer my dog Fiddler, an' the +times we'd have a-huntin', and the trout-fishin', an' the smell o' the +woods, and nobody bossin' and jowerin' at all. I'm a hill-billy, all +right, and they needn't to glory their old flat lands to me!" + +Domestic affection is seldom expressed by the mountaineers--not even by +motherly or sisterly kisses--but it is very deep and real for all that. +In fact, the ties of kinship are stronger with them, and extend to +remoter degrees of consanguinity, than with any other Americans that I +know. Here again we see working the old feudal idea, an anachronism, but +often a beautiful one, in this bustling commercial age. Our hived and +promiscuous life in cities is breaking down the old fealty of kith and +kin. "God gives us our relatives," sighs the modern, "but, thank God, we +can choose our friends!" Such words would strike a mountaineer deep +with horror. Rather would he go the limit of Stevenson's Saint Ives: +"If it is a question of going to hell, go to hell like a gentleman, with +your ancestors!" + + +[Illustration: Photo by U. S. Forest Service + +Whitewater Falls] + + +When the wilderness came to be settled by white men, courts were feeble +to puerility, and every man was a law unto himself. Many hard characters +came in with the pioneers--bad neighbors, arrogant, thievish, bold. As +society was not organized for mutual protection, it was inevitable that +cousin should look to cousin for help in time of trouble. So arose the +clan, the family league, and, as things change very slowly in the +mountains, we still have clan loyalty outside of and superior to the +law. "My family _right or wrong_!" is a slogan to which every highlander +will rise, with money or arms in hand, and for it he will lay down his +last dollar, the last drop of his blood. There is scarce any limit to +which this fealty will not go. Your brother or cousin may have committed +a crime that shocks you as it does all other decent citizens; but will +you give him up to the officers and testify against him? Not if you are +a mountaineer. You will hide him out in the laurel, carry him food, keep +him posted, help him to break jail, perjure yourself for him in +court--anything, everything, to get him clear. + +We see here a survival, very real and widespread, in this +twentieth-century Appalachia, of a condition that was general throughout +the Scotch Highlands in the far past. "The great virtue of the +Highlander," says Lecky, "was his fidelity to his chief and to his clan. +It took the place of patriotism and of loyalty to his sovereign.... In +the reign of James V., an insurrection of Clan Chattan having been +suppressed by Murray, two hundred of the insurgents were condemned to +death. Each one as he was led to the gallows was offered a pardon if he +would reveal the hiding-place of his chief, but they all answered that, +were they acquainted with it, no sort of punishment could induce them to +be guilty of treachery to their leader.... In 1745 the house of +Macpherson of Cluny was burnt to the ground by the King's troops. A +reward of L1,000 was offered for his apprehension. A large body of +soldiers was stationed in the district and a step of promotion was +promised to any officer who should secure him. Yet for nine years the +chief was able to live concealed on his own property in a cave which his +clansmen dug for him during the night, and, though upwards of one +hundred persons knew of his place of retreat, no bribe or menace could +extort the secret." + +The same chivalrous, self-sacrificing fidelity to family and to clan +leader is still shown by our own highlanders, as scores of feuds and +hundreds of criminal trials attest. All this is openly and unblushingly +"above the law"; but let us remember that the law itself, in many of +these localities, is but a feeble, dilatory thing that offers +practically no protection to those who would obey its letter. So, in an +imperfectly organized society, it is good to have blood-ties that are +faithful unto death. And none knows it better than he who has missed +it--he who has lived strange and alone in some wild, lawless region +where everyone else had a clan to back him. + +So far as primitive society is concerned, we may admit with the Scotch +historian Henderson that "the clan system of government was in its way +an ideally perfect one--probably the only perfect one that has ever +existed.... The clansman was not the subject--a term implying some sort +of conquest--but the kinsman of his chief.... Obedience became rather a +privilege than a task, and no possible bribery or menace could shake his +fidelity. Towards the Sassenach or the members of clans at feud with him +he might act meanly, treacherously, and cruelly without check and +without compunction, for there he recognized no moral obligations +whatever. But as a clansman to his clan he was courteous, truthful, +virtuous, benevolent, with notions of honor as punctilious as those of +the ancient knight." + +The trouble with clan government was, as this same writer has pointed +out, that "it was the very thoroughness of its adaptation to early needs +that made it so hard to adjust to new necessities. In its principles and +motives it was essentially opposed to the bent of modern influences. Its +appeal was to sentiment rather than to law or even reason: it was a +system not of the letter but of the spirit.... The clan system was +efficient only within a narrow area; it gave rise to interminable feuds; +and it was inapplicable to the circumstances created by the rise of +modern industry and trade." + +Everywhere throughout Highland Dixie to-day we can observe how clan +loyalty interferes with the administration of justice. When a case +involving some strong family comes up in the courts, immediately a cloud +of false witnesses arises, men who should testify on the other side are +bribed or run out of the country before subpoenas can be served, and +every juror knows that his peace and prosperity in future depend largely +upon which side he espouses. + +To what lengths the hostility of a clan may go in defying justice was +shown recently in the massacre of almost a whole court by the Allen clan +at Hillsville, Virginia. The news of that atrocity swept like wildfire +throughout all Appalachia, its history is being reviewed to-day in +thousands of mountain cabins, and it is deeply significant that, away +out here in western Carolina, where no Allen blood relationship +prejudices men's minds, the prevailing judgment of our backwoodsmen is +that the State of Virginia did wrong in executing any of the offenders. +"There was something back of it--you mark my words," say the country +folk. And the drummers, cattle-buyers, and others who pass this way from +southwestern Virginia tell us, "Everybody up our way sympathizes with +the Allens." + +In some measure this morbid sentiment is due to the spectacular features +of the Hillsville tragedy. If there be one human quality that the +mountaineer admires above all others, it is "nerve." And what greater +display of nerve has been made in this generation than for a few +clansmen to shoot down a judge at the bench, the public prosecutor, the +sheriff, the clerk of the court, and two jurymen, then take to the +mountain laurel like Corsicans to the _maquis_, and defy the armed +power of the country? The cause does not matter, to a mountaineer. Our +Highlanders are anything but robbers, for instance, and yet the only +outsider who has ballads sung in his memory throughout Appalachia is +Jesse James!--unless Jack Donohue was one--I do not know.-- + + Come all ye bold undaunted men + And outlaws of the day, + Who'd rather wear the ball and chain + Than work in slavery! + + * * * * + + Said Donohue to his comrades, + "If you'll prove true to me, + This day I'll fight with all my might, + I'll fight for liberty; + Be of good courage, be bold and strong, + Be galliant and be true; + This day I'll fight with all my might," + Says bold Jack Donohue. + + * * * * + + Six policemen he shot down + Before the fatal ball + Pierced the heart of Donohue + And 'casioned him to fall; + And then he closed his struggling eyes, + And bid this world adieu. + Come all ye boys that fear no noise, + And pray for Donohue! + + +No doubt the mountain minstrels are already composing ballads in honor +of the Allens; for it is a fact we cannot blink at that the outlaw is +the popular hero of Appalachia to-day, as Rob Roy and Robin Hood were in +the Britain of long ago. This is not due to any ingrained hostility to +law and order as such, but simply to admiration for any men who fight +desperately against overwhelming odds. There is a glamour about bold and +lawless adventure that fascinates mature men and women who have never +outgrown youthful habits of mind. Whoever has the reputation of being a +dangerous man to cross--the "marked" man, who carries his life upon his +sleeve, but bears himself as a smiling cavalier--he is the only true +aristocrat among a valorous but primitive people. + +But this is only half an explanation. The statement that our highlanders +are not hostile to law and order must be qualified to this extent: they +have a profound distrust of the courts. The mountaineer is not only a +born fighter but he is also litigious by nature and tradition. A +stranger will be surprised to find how deeply the average backwoodsman +is versed in the petty subtleties of legal practice. It comes from +experience. "Court-week" draws bigger crowds than a circus. The +mountaineer who has never served as juror, witness, or principal in a +lawsuit is a curiosity. And this familiarity has bred secret contempt. I +violate no confidence in saying that many a mountaineer would hold up +one hand to testify his respect for the law while the other hand hovered +over his pistol. + +Why so? + +Just because his experience has taught him (rightly or wrongly--but he +firmly believes it) that courts are swayed by sinister influences when +important matters are at stake. Those influences are clan money and clan +votes. Hence, if he or a kinsman be involved in "lawin'" with a member +of some rival tribe, he does not look for impartial treatment, but +prepares to fight cunning with cunning, local influence with local +influence. There are no moral obligations here. "All's fair in love and +war"--and this is one form of war. + +If the reader will take down his _David Balfour_ and read the intrigues, +plots, and counterplots of David's attorneys and those of the Crown, he +will grasp our own highlanders' viewpoint. + + +[Illustration: Photo by Arthur Keith + +The road follows the Creek.--There may be a dozen fords in a mile.] + + +That mountain courts are often impotent is due in part to the +limitations under which their officers are obliged to serve. For +example, in the judicial district where I reside, the solicitor +(State's attorney) receives nothing but fees, and then only _in case +of conviction_. It might seem that this would stir him to extra zeal, +and perhaps it does; but he has a large circuit, there are no local +officials specially interested in securing evidence for him while the +case is white-hot, everything spurs the defendant to get rid of +dangerous witnesses before the solicitor can get at them, public opinion +is extremely lenient toward homicides, and man-slayers so often get off +scot-free after the most faithful and laborious efforts of the +solicitor, that he becomes discouraged. + +The sheriff, too, serves without salary, getting only fees and a +percentage of tax collections. How this works, in securing witnesses, +may be shown by an anecdote.-- + +I looked up from my work, one day, to see a neighbor striding swiftly +along the trail that passed my cabin. + +"You seem in a hurry, John. Woods afire?" + +"No: I'm dodgin' the sheriff." + +"Whose pig was it?" + +"Aw! He wants me as witness in a concealed weepon case." + +"One of your boys?" + +"Huk-uh: nobody as I'm keerin' fer." + +"Then why don't you go?" + +"I cain't afford to. I'd haffter walk nineteen miles out to the +railroad, pay seventy cents the round-trip to the county-site, pay my +board thar fer mebbe a week, and then a witness don't git no fee at all +onless they convict." + +"What does the sheriff get for coming away up here?" + +"Thirty cents for each witness he cotches. He won't git me, Mister Man; +not if I know these woods since yistiddy." + +Verily the law of Swain is hard on the solicitor, hard on the sheriff, +and hard on the witness, too! + +Mountaineers place a low valuation on human life. I need not go outside +my own habitat for illustrations. In our judicial district, which +comprises the westernmost seven counties of North Carolina, the present +yearly toll of homicides varies, according to counties, from about one +in 1,000 to one in 2,500 of the population. And ours is not a feud +district, nor are there any negroes to speak of. Compare these figures +with the rate of homicide in the United States at large, about one to +8,300 population; of Italy, one to 66,000; Great Britain, one to +111,000; Germany, one to 200,000. + +And the worst of it is that no Black Hand conspirators or ward gun-men +or other professional criminals figure in these killings. Practically +all of them are committed by representative citizens, mostly farmers. +Take that fact home, and think what it means. Remember, too, that most +of these murderers either escape with light penal sentences or none at +all. The only capital sentence imposed in our district within the past +ten years was upon an Indian who had assaulted and murdered a white girl +(there was no red tape or procrastination about _that_ trial, the +court-house being filled with men who were ready to lynch him under the +judge's nose if the sentence were not satisfactory). + +I said at the very outset of this book that "Our mountain folk still +live in the eighteenth century. The progress of mankind from that age to +this is no heritage of theirs.... And so, in order to be fair and just +with these our backward kinsmen, we must, for the time, decivilize +ourselves to the extent of _going back_ and getting an eighteenth +century point of view." + +As regards the valuation of human life, what was that point of view? + +The late Professor Shaler of Harvard, himself a Southerner, one time +explained the prevalence of manslaughter among southern gentlemen. His +remarks apply with equal truth to our mountaineers, for they, however +poor they may be in worldly goods, are by no means "poor white trash," +but rather patricians, like the ragged but lofty chiefs and clansmen of +old Scotland.-- + + "Nothing so surprises the northern people as the fact that southern + men of good estate will, for what seems to the distant onlooker + trifling matters of dispute, proceed to slay each other. Nothing so + gravely offends the characteristic southern man as the incapacity + of his brethren of northern societies to perceive that such action + is natural and consistent with the rules of gentlemanly behavior. + The only way to understand these differences of opinion is by a + proper consideration of the history of the moral growth of these + diverse peoples. + + "The Southerner has retained and fostered--in a certain way + reinstated--the medieval estimate as to the value of life. In the + opinion of those ages it was but lightly esteemed; it was not a + supreme good for which almost all else was to be sacrificed, but + something to be taken in hand and put in risk in the pursuit of + manly ideals. + + "Modernism has worked to intensify the passion for existence until + those who are the most under its dominion cannot well conceive how + a man, except for some supreme duty to which he is pledged by + altruistic motives, can give up his own life or take that of his + neighbor. If these people of to-day will but perceive that the + characteristic Southerner has preserved the motives of two + centuries ago, if they will but inform themselves as to the state + of mind on this subject which prevailed in the epoch when those + motives were shaped in men, they will see that their judgment is + harsh and unreasonable. It is much as if they judged the actions of + Englishmen of the seventeenth century by the changed standards of + to-day. + + "Nor will it be altogether reasonable to condemn the lack of regard + of life which we find in the southern gentleman as compared with + his northern contemporary. We must, of course, reprobate in every + way the evil consequences of this state of mind; but the question + as to the propriety of that extreme devotion to continued mundane + existence which is so manifest in our modern civilization is + certainly open to debate. Irrational and brutal as are the ways in + which the old-fashioned gentleman of the South shows that his + regard for his own honor or that of his household outweighs his + love of life, it must be remembered that the same condition existed + in the richest ages of our race--those which gave proportionally + the largest share of ability and nobility to its history. + + "As long as men are more keenly sensitive to the opinions of their + fellows than they are to the other goods which existence brings + them, as long as this opinion makes personal valor and truthfulness + the jewels of their lives, we must expect now and then to have + degradation of the essentially noble motives. It is, undoubtedly, a + dangerous state of mind, but not one that is degraded."--(_North + American Review_, October, 1890.) + + +"The motives of two centuries ago" are the motives of present-day +Appalachia. Here the right of private war is not questioned, outside of +a judge's charge from the bench, which everybody takes as a mere +formality, a convention that is not to be taken seriously. The argument +is this: that when Society, as represented by the State, cannot protect +a man or secure him his dues, then he is not only justified but in duty +bound to defend himself or seize what is his own. And in the mountains +Society with the big _S_ is often powerless against the Clan with a +bigger _C_. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE BLOOD-FEUD + + +In Corsica, when a man is wronged by another, public sentiment requires +that he redress his own grievance, and that his family and friends shall +share the consequences. + +"Before the law made us citizens, great Nature made us men." + +"When one has an enemy, one must choose between the three +S's--_schiopetto, stiletto, strada_: the rifle, the dagger, or +flight." + +"There are two presents to be made to an enemy--_palla calda o ferro +freddo_: hot shot or cold steel." + +The Corsican code of honor does not require that vengeance be taken in +fair fight. Rather should there be a sudden thrust of the knife, or a +pistol fired point-blank into the enemy's breast, or a rifle-shot from +some ambush picked in advance. + +The assassin is not conscious of any cowardice in such act. If the +trouble between him and his foe had been strictly a personal matter, to +be settled forever by one man's fall, then he might have welcomed a +duel with all the punctilios. But his blood is not his alone--it belongs +to his clan. Whenever a Corsican is slain his family takes up the feud. +A vendetta ensues--a war of extermination by clan against clan. + +Now, the chief object of war, as all strategists agree, is to inflict +the greatest loss upon the enemy with the least loss to one's own side. +Hence we have hostilities without declaration of war; we have the +ambush, the night attack, masked batteries, mines and submarines. Thus +we murder hundreds asleep or unshriven. This is war. + +Moreover, while a soldier must be brave in any extremity, it is no less +his duty to save himself unharmed as long as he can, so that he may help +his own side and kill more and more of the enemy. Therefore it is proper +and military for him to "snipe" his foes by deliberate sharpshooting +from behind any lurking-place that he can find. This is war. + +And the vendetta, says our Corsican, is nothing else than war. + +When Matteo has been slain by an enemy, his friends carry his body home +and swear vengeance over the corpse, while his wife soaks her +handkerchief in his wounds to keep as a token whereby she will incite +her children, as they grow up, to war against all kinsmen of their +father's murderer. + +Then a son or brother of Matteo slips forth into the night, full-armed +to slay like a dog any member of the rival faction whom he may find at a +disadvantage. The deed done, he flies to the _maquis_, the mountain +thicket, and there he will hide, dodging the gendarmes, fighting off his +enemies--an outlaw with a price upon his head, but pitied or admired by +all Corsicans outside the feud, and succored by his clan. + +It is a far cry from the Mediterranean to our own Appalachia: so why +this prelude? Our mountaineers never heard of Corsica. Not a drop of +South European blood flows in their veins. Few of them ever heard one +word of a foreign tongue. True. And yet we shall mark some strange +analogies between Corsican vendettas and Appalachian feuds, Corsican +clannishness and Appalachian clannishness, Corsican women and our +mountain women--before this chapter ends. + +Long, long ago, in the mountains of eastern Kentucky, Dr. Abner Baker +married a Miss White. Daniel Bates married Baker's sister, but separated +from her in 1844. Baker charged Bates with undue intimacy with his wife, +and killed him. The Whites, defending their kinswoman, prosecuted the +Doctor, but he was acquitted, and moved to Cuba. + +Afterwards Baker returned. In flat violation of the Constitution of the +United States, he was tried a second time for the murder of Bates, was +convicted, and was hanged. Thenceforth there was "bad blood" between the +Bakers and the Whites, involving the Garrards on one side and the +Howards on the other, as allies to the respective clans. + +In 1898, Tom Baker, reputed to be the best shot in the Kentucky +mountains, bought a note given by A. B. Howard, for whom he was cutting +timber. Howard became furious, a fight ensued, one of the Howard boys +and Burt Stores were killed from ambush, and the elder Howard was +wounded. + +Thereupon Jim Howard, son of the clan chief, sought out Tom Baker's +father, who was county attorney, compelled the unarmed old man to fall +upon his knees, shot him twenty-five times with careful aim to avoid a +vital spot, and so killed him by inches. Howard was tried and convicted +of murder, but it is said that a pardon was offered him if he would go +to the State Capitol at Frankfort and assassinate Governor Goebel, which +he is charged with having done. + +In Clay County, where this feud waged, the judge, clerk, sheriff, and +jailer were of the White clan. Tom Baker killed a brother of the sheriff +and took to the hills rather than give himself up to a court ruled by +his foemen. Then Albert Garrard was fired upon from ambush while riding +with his wife to a religious meeting. He removed to Pineville, in +another county, under guard of two armed men, both of whom were shot +dead "from the bresh." + +Governor Bradley sent State troops into Clay County, and Tom Baker +surrendered to them. Baker was tried in the Knox Circuit Court, on a +change of venue, and was sentenced to the penitentiary for life. On +appeal his attorneys secured a reversal of the verdict, and Baker was +released on bail. The new trial was set for June, 1899. Governor Bradley +again sent a company of State militia, with a Gatling gun, to Manchester +where the trial was to be held. Baker was put in a guard-tent surrounded +by a squad of soldiers. A hundred yards or so from this tent stood the +unoccupied residence of the sheriff, at the foot of a wooded mountain. +An assassin hidden in this house spied upon the guard-tent, and, when +Baker appeared, shot him dead with a rifle, then took to the woods and +escaped. + +I quote now from a history of this feud published in _Munsey's Magazine_ +of November, 1903.-- + + "Captain John Bryan, of the 2d Kentucky, said to the widow of the + murdered Tom Baker, after they returned from the funeral: + + "'Mrs. Baker, why don't you leave this miserable country and escape + from these terrible feuds? Move away, and teach your children to + forget.' + + "'Captain Bryan,' said the widow, and she spoke evenly and quietly, + 'I have twelve sons. It will be the chief aim of my life to bring + them up to avenge their father's death. Each day I shall show my + boys _the handkerchief stained with his blood_, and tell them who + murdered him.'" + + +Corsican vendetta or Kentucky feud--what are language and race against +age-long isolation and an environment that keeps humanity feral to the +core? + +Shortly after Baker's death, four Griffins, of the White-Howard faction, +ambushed Big John Philpotts and his cousin, wounding the former severely +and the latter mortally. Big John fought them from behind a log and +killed all four. + +On July 17, 1899, four of the Philpotts were attacked by four Morrises, +of the Howard side. Three men were killed, three mortally wounded, and +the other two were severely injured. No arrests were made. + +Finally, in 1901, the two clans fought a pitched battle in front of the +court-house in Manchester. At its conclusion they formally signed a +truce. + +This is a mere scenario of a feud in the wealthiest and best-schooled +county of eastern Kentucky. Two of the families involved were of +distinguished lineage, counting in their ranks a governor, three +generals, a member of Congress, and a prohibition candidate for the +Presidency. + +In reviewing this feud, Governor Bradley stated: + + "The whole fault in Clay County is a vitiated public sentiment and + a failure of the civil authorities to do their duty. The laws are + insufficient for the Governor to apply a remedy. Such feuds have + been in progress more or less for years, and no Governor of the + State has ever been able to quell them. They have terminated only + when their force was spent by one side or the other being killed or + moving out of the country." + + +"The laws are insufficient for the Governor to apply a remedy." One +naturally asks, "How so?" The answer is that the Governor cannot send +troops into a county except upon request of the civil authorities, and +they must go as a posse to civil officers. In most feuds these officers +are partisans (in fact, it is a favorite ruse for one clan to win or +usurp the county offices before making war). Hence the State troops +would only serve as a reinforcement to one of the contending factions. +To show how this works out, we will sketch briefly the course of another +feud.-- + +In Rowan County, Kentucky, in 1884, there was an election quarrel +between two members of the Martin and Toliver families. The Logans sided +with the Martins and the Youngs with the Tolivers. The Logan-Martin +faction elected their candidate for sheriff by a margin of twelve votes. +Then there was an affray in which one Logan was killed and three were +wounded. + +As usual, in feuds, no immediate redress was attempted, but the injured +clan plotted its vengeance with deadly deliberation. After five months, +Dick Martin killed Floyd Toliver. His own people worked the trick of +arresting him themselves and sent him to Winchester for safe-keeping. +The Tolivers succeeded in having him brought back on a forged order and +killed him when he was bound and helpless. + +The leader of the Young-Toliver faction was a notorious bravo named +Craig Toliver. To strengthen his power he became candidate for town +marshal of Morehead, and he won the office by intimidation at the polls. +Then, for two years, a bushwhacking war went on. Three times the +Governor sent troops into Rowan County, but each time they found nothing +but creeks and thickets to fight. Then he prevailed upon the clans to +sign a truce and expatriate their chiefs for one year in distant States. +Craig Toliver obeyed the order by going to Missouri, but returned +several months before the expiration of his term, _resumed office_, and +renewed his atrocities. In the warfare that ensued all the county +officers were involved, from the judge down. + +In 1887, Proctor Knott, Governor of Kentucky, said in his message, of +the Logan-Toliver feud: + + "Though composed of only a small portion of the community, these + factions have succeeded by their violence in overawing and + silencing the voice of the peaceful element, and in intimidating + the officers of the law. Having their origin partly in party + rancor, they have ceased to have any political significance, and + have become contests of personal ambition and revenge; each party + seeking apparently to possess itself of the machinery of justice in + order that it may, under the forms of law, seek the gratification + of personal animosities. + + "During the present year the local leader of one of these factions + came in possession of the office of police judge of the town of + Morehead. Under color of the authority of that office, and + sustained by an armed band of adherents, he exercised despotic sway + over the town and its vicinage. He banished citizens who were + obnoxious to him; and, in one instance, after arresting two + citizens who seem to have been guilty of no offense, he and his + party, attended by a deputy sheriff of the county, murdered them in + cold blood. + + "This act of atrocity fully aroused the community. A posse acting + under the authority of a warrant from the county judge attacked the + police judge and his adherents on the 22d of June last, killed + several of their number, and put the rest to flight, and + temporarily restored something like tranquility to the community. + + "The proceedings of the Circuit Court, which was held in August, + were not calculated to inspire the citizens with confidence in + securing justice. The report of the Adjutant General on this + subject shows, from information derived 'from representative men + without reference to party affiliations,' that the judge of the + Circuit Court seems so far under the influence of the reputed + leader of one of the factions as to permit such an organization of + the grand juries as will effectually prevent the indictment of + members of that faction for the most flagrant crimes." + + +The posse here mentioned was organized by Daniel Boone Logan, a cousin +of the two young men who had been murdered, a college graduate, and a +lawyer of good standing. With the assent of the Governor, he gathered +fifty to seventy-five picked men and armed them with the best modern +rifles and revolvers. Some of the men were of his own clan; others he +hired. His plan was to end the war by exterminating the Tolivers. + + +[Illustration: Photo by U. S. Forest Service + +"Dense forest luxuriant undergrowth."--Mixed hardwoods, Jackson Co., N. C.] + + +The posse, led by Logan and the sheriff, suddenly surrounded the town of +Morehead. Everybody gave in except Craig Toliver, Jay Toliver, Bud +Toliver, and Hiram Cook, who barricaded themselves in the railroad +station, where all of them were shot dead by the posse. + +Boone Logan was indicted for murder. At the trial he admitted the +killings; but he showed that the feud had cost the lives of not less +than twenty-three men, that not one person had been legally punished for +these murders, and that he had acted for the good of the public in +ending this infamous struggle. The court accepted this view of the case, +the community sustained it, and the "war" was closed. + +A feud, in the restricted sense here used, is an armed conflict between +families, each endeavoring to exterminate or drive out the other. It +spreads swiftly not only to blood-kin and relatives by marriage, but to +friends and retainers as well. It may lie dormant for a time, perhaps +for a generation, and then burst forth with recruited strength long +after its original cause has ceased to interest anyone, or maybe after +it has been forgotten. + +Such feuds are by no means prevalent throughout the length and breadth +of Appalachia, but are restricted mostly to certain well defined +districts, of which the chief, in extent of territory as well as in the +number and ferocity of its "wars," is the country round the upper waters +of the Kentucky, Licking, Big Sandy, Tug, and Cumberland rivers, +embracing many of the mountain counties of eastern Kentucky and +adjoining parts of West Virginia, Old Virginia, and Tennessee. In this +thinly settled region probably five hundred men have been slain in feuds +since our centennial year, and only three of the murderers, so far as I +know, have been executed by law. + +The active feudists, as a rule, include only a small part of the +community; but public sentiment, in feud districts, approves or at least +tolerates the vendetta, just as it does in Corsica or the Balkans. Those +citizens who are not directly implicated take pains to hear little and +see less. They keep their mouths shut. They can neither be persuaded, +bribed, nor coerced into informing or testifying against either side, +but, on the contrary, will throw dust in the eyes of an investigator or +try to stare him down. A jury composed of such men will not convict +anybody. + +When a feud is raging, nobody outside the warring clans is in any danger +at all. A stranger is safer in the heart of Feuddom than he would be in +Chicago or New York, so long as he attends strictly to his own business, +asks no questions, and tells no "tales." If, on the contrary, he should +express horror or curiosity, he is regarded as a busybody or suspected +as a spy, and is likely to be run out of the country or even "laywayed" +and silenced forever. + +What causes feuds? + +Some of them start in mere drunken rows or in a dispute over a game of +cards; others in quarrels over land boundaries or other property. The +Hatfield-McCoy feud started because Randolph McCoy penned up two wild +hogs that were claimed by Floyd Hatfield. The spite over these hogs +broke out two years later, and one partisan was killed from ambush. The +feud itself began in 1882 over a debt of $1.75, with the hogs and the +bushwhacking brought up in recrimination. Love of women is the primary +cause, or the secondary aggravation, of many a feud. Some of the most +widespread and deadliest vendettas have originated in political strifes. + +It should be understood that national and state politics cut little or +no figure in these "wars." Local politics in most of the mountain +counties is merely a factional fight, in which family matters and +business interests are involved, and the contest becomes bitterly +personal on that account. This explains most of the collusion or +partisanship of county officers and their remissness in enforcing the +law in murder cases. Family ties or political alliances override even +the oath of office. + +Within the past year I have heard a deputy sheriff admit nonchalantly, +on the stand, that when a homicide was committed near him, and he was +the only officer in the vicinity, he advised the slayer to take to the +mountains and "hide out." The judge questioned him sharply on this +point, was reassured by the witness that it was so, and then--offered no +comment at all. Within the same period, in another but not distant +court, a desperado from the Shelton Laurel, on trial for murder, +admitted that he had shot six men since he moved over from Tennessee to +North Carolina, and swore that while he was being held in jail pending +trial for this last offense the sheriff permitted him to "keep a gun in +his cell, drink whiskey in the jail, and eat at table with the family of +the sheriff." + +Feuds spread not only through clan fealty but also because they offer +excellent chances to pay off old scores. The mountaineer has a long +memory. The average highlander is fiery and combative by nature, but at +the same time cunning and vindictive. If publicly insulted he will +strike at once, but if he feels wronged by some act that does not demand +instant retaliation he will brood over it and plot patiently to get his +enemy at a disadvantage. Some mountaineers always fight fair; but many +of them prefer to wait and watch quietly until the foe gets drunk and +unwary, or until he is engaged in some illegal or scandalous act, or +until he is known to be carrying a concealed weapon, whereupon he can be +shot down unexpectedly and his assailant can "prove" by friendly +witnesses that he acted in self-defense. So, if a man be involved in +feud, he may be assassinated from ambush by someone who is not concerned +in the clan trouble, but who has hated him for years on another account, +and who knows that his death now will be charged up to the opposing +faction. + +From the earliest times it has been customary for our highlanders to go +armed most of the time. This was a necessity in the old Indian-fighting +days, and throughout the kukluxing and white-capping era following the +Civil War. Such a habit, once formed, is hard to eradicate. Even to-day, +in all parts of Appalachia that I am familiar with, most of the young +men, I judge, and many of the older ones, carry concealed weapons. + +Among them I have never seen a stand-up and knock-down fight according +to the rules of the ring. They have many rough-and-tumble brawls, in +which they slug, wrestle, kick, bite, strangle, until one gets the other +down, whereat the one on top continues to maul his victim until he cries +"Enough!" Oftener a club or stone will be used in mad endeavor to knock +the opponent senseless at a blow. There is no compunction about striking +foul and very little about "double-teaming." Let us pause long enough to +admit that this was the British and American way of man-handling, +universal among the common people, until well into the nineteenth +century--and the mountaineers are still ignorant of any other, except +fighting with weapons. + +Many of the young men carry home-made billies or "brass knucks." Every +man and boy has at least a pocket-knife with serviceable blade. Fights +with such crude weapons are frequent. There are few spectacles more +sickening than two powerful but awkward men slashing each other with +common jack-knives, though the fatalities are much less frequent than in +gun-fighting. I have known two old mountain preachers to draw knives on +each other at the close of a sermon. + +The typical highland bravo always carries a revolver or an automatic +pistol. This is likely to be a weapon of large bore and good +stopping-power that is worn in a shoulder-holster concealed under the +coat or vest or shirt. Most mountaineers are good shots with such arms, +though not so deadly quick as the frontiersmen of our old-time West--in +fact, they cannot be so quick without wearing the weapon exposed. When a +highlander has time, he prefers to hold his pistol in both hands (left +clasped over right) and aims it as he would a rifle. To a Westerner such +gun practice looks absurd; but it is accurate, beyond question. Few +mountain gun-fights fail to score at least one victim. + +The average mountain woman is as combative in spirit as her menfolk. She +would despise any man who took insult or injury without showing fight. +In fact, the woman, in many cases, deliberately stirs up trouble out of +vanity, or for the sheer excitement of it. Some of the older women +display the ferocity of she-wolves. The mother of a large family said in +my presence, with the calm earnestness of one fully experienced: "If a +feller 'd treated me the way ------ did ------ I'd git me a +forty-some-odd and shoot enough meat off o' his bones to feed a +hound-dog a week." Three of this woman's brothers had been shot dead in +frays. One of them killed the first husband of her sister, who married +again, and whose second husband was killed by a man with whom she then +tried a third matrimonial venture. Such matters may not be interesting +in themselves, but they give one pause when he learns, in addition, that +these people are received as friends and on a footing of equality by +everybody in their community. + +That the mountaineers are fierce and relentless in their feuds is beyond +denial. A warfare of bushwhacking and assassination knows no +refinements. Quarter is neither given nor expected. Property, however, +is not violated, and women are not often injured. There have been some +atrocious exceptions. In the Hatfield-McCoy feud, Cap Hatfield and Tom +Wallace attacked the latter's wife and her mother at night, dragged both +women from bed, and Cap beat the old woman with a cow's tail that he had +clipped off "jes' to see 'er jump." He broke two of the woman's ribs, +leaving her injured for life, while Tom beat his wife. Later, on New +Year's night, 1888, a gang of the Hatfields surrounded the home of +Randolph McCoy, killed the eldest daughter, Allaphare, broke her +mother's ribs and knocked her senseless with their guns, and killed a +son, Calvin. In several instances women who fought in defense of their +homes have been killed, as in the case of Mrs. Charles Daniels and her +16-year-old daughter, in Pike County, Kentucky, in November, 1909. + +The mountain women do not shrink from feuds, but on the contrary excite +and cheer their men to desperate deeds, and sometimes fight by their +side. In the French-Eversole feud, a woman, learning that her unarmed +husband was besieged by his foes, seized his rifle, filled her apron +with cartridges, rushed past the firing-line, and stood by her "old man" +until he beat his assailants off. When men are "hiding out" in the +laurel, it is the women's part, which they never shirk, to carry them +food and information. + +In every feud each clan has a leader, a man of prominence either on +account of his wealth or his political influence or his shrewdness or +his physical prowess. This leader's orders are obeyed, while hostilities +last, with the same unquestioning loyalty that the old Scotch retainer +showed to his chieftain. Either the leader or someone acting for him +supplies the men with food, with weapons if they need them, with +ammunition, and with money. Sometimes mercenaries are hired. Mr. Fox +says that "In one local war, I remember, four dollars per day were the +wages of the fighting man, and the leader on one occasion, while +besieging his enemies--in the county court-house--tried to purchase a +cannon, and from no other place than the State arsenal, and from no +other personage than the Governor himself." In some of the feuds +professional bravos have been employed who would assassinate, for a few +dollars, anybody who was pointed out to them, provided he was alien to +their own clans. + +The character of the highland bravo is precisely that of the western +"bad man" as pictured by Jed Parker in Stewart Edward White's _Arizona +Nights_: + + "'There's a good deal of romance been written about the "bad man," + and there's about the same amount of nonsense. The bad man is just + a plain murderer, neither more nor less. He never does get into a + real, good, plain, stand-up gun-fight if he can possibly help it. + His killin's are done from behind a door, or when he's got his man + dead to rights. There's Sam Cook. You've all heard of him. He had + nerve, of course, and when he was backed into a corner he made + good; and he was sure sudden death with a gun. But when he went out + for a man deliberate, he didn't take no special chances.... + + "'The point is that these yere bad men are a low-down, miserable + proposition, and plain, cold-blooded murderers, willin' to wait for + a sure thing, and without no compunctions whatever. The bad man + takes you unawares, when you're sleepin', or talkin', or drinkin', + or lookin' to see what for a day it's goin' to be, anyway. He don't + give you no show, and sooner or later he's goin' to get you in the + safest and easiest way for himself. There ain't no romance about + that.'" + + +And there is no romance about a real mountain feud. It is marked by +suave treachery, "double-teaming," "laywaying," "blind-shooting," and +general heartlessness and brutality. If one side refuses to assassinate +but seeks open, honorable combat, as has happened in several feuds, it +is sure to be beaten. Whoever appeals to the law is sure to be beaten. +In either case he is considered a fool or a coward by most of the +countryside. Our highlander, untouched by the culture of the world about +him, has never been taught the meaning of fair play. Magnanimity to a +fallen foe he would regard as sure proof of an addled brain. The motive +of one who forgives his enemy is utterly beyond his comprehension. As +for bushwhacking, "Hit's as fa'r for one as 'tis for t'other. You can't +fight a man fa'r and squar who'll shoot you in the back. A pore man +can't fight money in the courts." In this he is simply his ancient +Scotch or English ancestor born over again. Such was the code of +Jacobite Scotland and Tudor England. And _back there_ is where our +mountaineer belongs in the scale of human evolution. + +The feud, as Miss Miles puts it, is an outbreak of _perverted_ family +affection. Its mainspring is an honorable clan loyalty. It is a direct +consequence of the clan organization that our mountaineers preserve as +it was handed down to them by their forefathers. The implacability of +their vengeance, the treacheries they practice, the murders from ambush, +are invariable features of clan warfare wherever and by whomsoever it is +waged. They are not vices or crimes peculiar to the Kentuckian or the +Corsican or the Sicilian or the Albanian or the Arab, but natural +results of clan government, which in turn is a result of isolation, of +physical environment, of geographical position unfavorable to free +intercourse and commerce with the world at large. + +The most hideous feature of the feud is the shooting down of unarmed or +unwarned men. Assassination, in our modern eyes, is the last and lowest +infamy of a coward. Such it truly is, when committed in the civilized +society of our day. But in studying primitive races, or in going back +along the line of our own ancestry to the civilized society of two +centuries ago, we must face and acknowledge the strange paradox of a +valorous and honorable people (according to their lights) who, in +certain cases, practiced assassination without compunction and, in fact, +with pride. History is red with it in those very "richest ages of our +race" that Professor Shaler cited. Until a century or two ago, +throughout Christendom, the secret murder of enemies was committed +unblushingly by nobles and kings and prelates, often with a pious "Thus +sayeth the Lord!" It was practiced by men valiant in open battle, and by +those wise in the counsels of the realm. Take Scotland, for example, as +pictured by a native writer.-- + + "No tenet nor practice, no influence nor power nor principality in + the Scotland of the past has outvied assassination in ascendancy or + in moment. Not theoretically, indeed, but practically, it occupied + for centuries a distinct, almost a supreme, place in her political + constitution--was, in fact, the understood if not recognized + expedient always in reserve should other milder and more hallowed + methods fail of accomplishing the desired political or, it might + be, religious consummation.... + + "For centuries such justice as was exercised was haphazard and + rude, and practically there was no law but the will of the + stronger. Few, if any, of the great families but had their special + feud; and feuds once originated survived for ages; to forget them + would have been treason to the dead, and wild purposes of revenge + were handed down from generation to generation as a sacred legacy. + + "To take an enemy at a disadvantage was not deemed mean and + contemptible, but-- + + 'Of all the arts in which the wise excel + Nature's chief masterpiece.' + + To do it boldly and adroitly was to win a peculiar halo of renown; + and thus assassination ceased to be the weapon of the avowed + desperado, and came to be wielded unblushingly not only by + so-called men of honor, but by the so-called religious as well. A + noble did not scruple to use it against his king, and the king + himself felt no dishonor in resorting to it against a dangerous + noble. James I. was hacked to death in the night by Sir Robert + Graham; and James I. rid himself of the imperious and intriguing + Douglas by suddenly stabbing him while within his own royal palace + under protection of a safe conduct. + + "The leaders of the Reformation discerned in assassination (that of + their enemies) the special 'work and judgment of God.'... When the + assassination of Cardinal Beaton took place in 1546, all the savage + details of it were set down by Knox with unbridled gusto. 'These + things we wreat mearlie,' is his own ingenuous comment on his + performance. + + "The burden of George Buchanan's _De Jure Regni apud Scotos_ is the + lawfulness or righteousness of the removal--by assassination or any + other fitting or convenient means--of incompetent kings, whether + heinously wicked and tyrannical or merely unwise and weak of + purpose; and he cites as a case in point and an 'example in time + coming,' the murder of James III., which, if it were only on + account of the assassin's hideous travesty of the last offices of + the Church, would deserve to be held in unique and everlasting + detestation."--(Henderson, _Old-world Scotland_, 182-186.) + + +Yet the Scots have always been a notably warlike and fearless race. So, +too, are our southern mountaineers: in the Civil War and the Spanish War +they sent a larger proportion of their men into the service than almost +any other section of our country. + +Let us not overlook the fact that it demands courage of a high order for +one to stay in a feud-infested district, conscious of being marked for +slaughter--stay there month in and month out, year in and year out, not +knowing at what moment he may be beset by overpowering numbers, from +what laurel thicket he may be shot, or at what hour of the night he may +be called to his door and struck dead before his family. On the credit +side of their valor, then, be it entered that few mountaineers will +shrink from such ordeal when, even from no fault of their own, it is +thrust upon them. + +The blood-feud is simply a horrible survival of medievalism. It is the +highlander's misfortune to be stranded far out of the course of +civilization. He is no worse than that bygone age that he really belongs +to. In some ways he is better. He is far less cruel than his ancestors +were--than our ancestors were. He does not torture with the tumbril, +the stocks, the ducking-stool, the pillory, the branding-irons, the +ear-pruners and nostril-shears and tongue-branks that were in everyday +use under the old criminal code. He does not tie a woman to the cart's +tail and publicly lash her bare back until it streams with blood, nor +does he hang a man for picking somebody's pocket of twelve pence and a +farthing. He does not go slumming in bedlam, paying tuppence for the +sport of mocking the maniacs until they rattle their chains in rage or +horror. He does not turn executions of criminals into public festivals. +He never has been known to burn a condemned one at the stake. If he +hangs a man, he does not first draw his entrails and burn them before +his eyes, with a mob crowding about to jeer the poor devil's flinching +or to compliment him on his "nerve." Yet all these pleasantries were +proper and legal in Christian Britain two centuries ago. + +This isolated and belated people who still carry on the blood-feud are +not half so much to blame for such a savage survival as the rich, +powerful, educated, twentieth-century nation that abandons them as if +they were hopelessly derelict or wrecked. It took but a few decades to +civilize Scotland. How much swifter and surer and easier are our means +of enlightenment to-day! Let us not forget that these highlanders are +blood of our blood and bone of our bone; for they are old-time Americans +to a man, proud of their nationality, and passionately loyal to the flag +that they, more than any other of us, according to their strength, have +fought and suffered for. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +WHO ARE THE MOUNTAINEERS? + + +The Southern Appalachian Mountains happen to be parceled out among eight +different States, and for that reason they are seldom considered as a +geographical unit. In the same way their inhabitants are thought of as +Kentucky mountaineers or Carolina mountaineers, and so on, but not often +as a body of Appalachian mountaineers. And yet these inhabitants are as +distinct an ethnographic group as the mountains themselves are a +geographic group. + +The mountaineers are homogeneous so far as speech and manners and +experiences and ideals can make them. In the aggregate they are nearly +twice as numerous and cover twice as much territory as any one of the +States among which they have been distributed; but in each of these +States they occupy only the backyard, and generally take back seats in +the councils of the commonwealth. They have been fenced off from each +other by political boundaries, and have no such coherence among +themselves as would come from common leadership or a sense of common +origin and mutual dependence. + +And they are a people without annals. Back of their grandfathers they +have neither screed nor hearsay. "Borned in the kentry and ain't never +been out o' hit" is all that most of them can say for themselves. Here +and there one will assert, "My foreparents war principally Scotch," or +"Us Bumgyarners [Baumgartners] was Dutch," but such traditions of a +far-back foreign origin are uncommon. + +Who are these southern mountaineers? Whence came they? What is the +secret of their belatedness and isolation? + +Before the Civil War they were seldom heard of in the outside world. +Vaguely it was understood that the Appalachian highlands were occupied +by a peculiar people called "mountain whites." This odd name was given +them not to distinguish them from mountain negroes, for there were, +practically, no mountain negroes; but to indicate their similarity, in +social condition and economic status, to the "poor whites" of the +southern lowlands. It was assumed, on no historical basis whatever, that +the highlanders came from the more venturesome or desperate element of +the "poor whites," and differed from these only to the extent that +environment had shaped them. + +Since this theory still prevails throughout the South, and is accepted +generally elsewhere on its face value, it deserves just enough +consideration to refute it. + +The unfortunate class known as poor whites in the South is descended +mainly from the convicts and indentured servants with which England +supplied labor to the southern plantations before slavery days. The +Cavaliers who founded and dominated southern society came from the +conservative, the feudal element of England. Their character and +training were essentially aristocratic and military. They were not +town-dwellers, but masters of plantations. Their chief crop and article +of export was tobacco. The culture of tobacco required an abundance of +cheap and servile labor. + +On the plantations there was little demand for skilled labor, small room +anywhere for a middle class of manufacturers and merchants, no +inducement for independent farmers who would till with their own hands. +Outside of the planters and a small professional class there was little +employment offered save what was menial and degrading. Consequently the +South was shunned, from the beginning, by British yeomanry and by the +thrifty Teutons such as flocked into the northern provinces. The demand +for menials on the plantations was met, then, by importing bond-servants +from Great Britain. These were obtained in three ways.-- + +1. Convicted criminals were deported to serve out their terms on the +plantations. Some of these had been charged only with political +offenses, and had the making of good citizens; but the greater number +were rogues of the shiftless and petty delinquent order, such as were +too lazy to work but not desperate enough to have incurred capital +sentences. + +2. Boys and girls, chiefly from the slums of British seaports, were +kidnapped and sold into temporary slavery on the plantations. + +3. Impoverished people who wished to emigrate, but could not pay for +their passage, voluntarily sold their services for a term of years in +return for transportation. + +Thus a considerable proportion of the white laborers of the South, in +the seventeenth century, were criminals or ne'er-do-wells from the +start. A large number of the others came from the dregs of society. As +for the remainder, the companionships into which they were thrust, the +brutalities to which they were subjected, their impotence before the +law, the contempt in which they were held by the ruling caste, and the +wretchedness of their prospect when released, were enough to undermine +all but the strongest characters. Few ever succeeded in rising to +respectable positions. + +Then came a vast social change. At a time when the laboring classes of +Europe had achieved emancipation from serfdom, and feudalism was +overthrown, African slavery in our own Southland laid the foundation for +a new feudalism. Southern society reverted to a type that the rest of +the civilized world had outgrown. + +The effect upon white labor was deplorable. The former bond-servants +were now freedmen, it is true, but freedmen shorn of such opportunities +as they were fitted to use. Sprung from a more or less degraded stock, +still branded by caste, untrained to any career demanding skill and +intelligence, devitalized by evil habits of life, densely ignorant of +the world around them, these, the naturally shiftless, were now turned +out into the backwoods to shift for themselves. It was inevitable that +most of them should degenerate even below the level of their former +estate, for they were no longer forced into steady industry. + +The white freedmen generally became squatters on such land as was unfit +for tobacco, cotton, and other crops profitable to slave-owners. As the +plantations expanded, these freedmen were pushed further and further +back upon more and more sterile soil. They became "pine-landers" or +"piney-woods-people," "sand-hillers," "knob-people," "corn-crackers" or +"crackers," gaining a bare subsistence from corn planted and "tended" +chiefly by the women and children, from hogs running wild in the forest, +and from desultory hunting and fishing. As a class, such whites lapsed +into sloth and apathy. Even the institution of slavery they regarded +with cynical tolerance, doubtless realizing that if it were not for the +blacks they would be slaves themselves. + +Now these poor whites had nothing to do with settling the mountains. +There was then, and still is, plenty of wild land for them in their +native lowlands. They had neither the initiative nor the courage to seek +a promised land far away among the unexplored and savage peaks of the +western country. They were a brave enough folk in facing familiar +dangers, but they had a terror of the unknown, being densely ignorant +and superstitious. The mountains, to those who ever heard of them, +suggested nothing but laborious climbing amid mysterious and portentous +perils. The poor whites were not highlanders by descent, nor had they a +whit of the bold, self-reliant spirit of our western pioneers. They +never entered Appalachia until after it had been won and settled by a +far manlier race, and even then they went only in driblets. The theory +that the southern mountains were peopled mainly by outcasts or refugees +from old settlements in the lowlands rests on no other basis than +imagination. + +How the mountains actually were settled is another and a very different +story.-- + +The first frontiersmen of the Appalachians were those Swiss and Palatine +Germans who began flocking into Pennsylvania about 1682. They settled +westward of the Quakers in the fertile limestone belts at the foot of +the Blue Ridge and the Alleghanies. Here they formed the Quakers' buffer +against the Indians, and, for some time, theirs were the westernmost +settlements of British subjects in America. These Germans were of the +Reformed or Lutheran faith. They were strongly democratic in a social +sense, and detested slavery. They were model farmers and many of them +were skilled workmen at trades. + +Shortly after the tide of German immigration set into Pennsylvania, +another and quite different class of foreigners began to arrive in this +province, attracted hither by the same lodestones that drew the Germans, +namely, democratic institutions and religious liberty. These newcomers +were the Scotch-Irish, or Ulstermen of Ireland. + +When James I., in 1607, confiscated the estates of the native Irish in +six counties of Ulster, he planted them with Scotch and English +Presbyterians. These outsiders came to be known as Scotch-Irish, because +they were chiefly of Scotch blood and had settled in Ireland. The native +Irish, to whom they were alien both by blood and by religion, detested +them as usurpers, and fought them many a bloody battle. + +In time, as their leases in Ulster began to expire, the Scotch-Irish +themselves came in conflict with the Crown, by whom they were persecuted +and evicted. Then the Ulstermen began immigrating in large numbers to +Pennsylvania. As Froude says, "In the two years that followed the Antrim +evictions, thirty thousand Protestants left Ulster for a land where +there was no legal robbery, and where those who sowed the seed could +reap the harvest." + +So it was that these people became, in their turn, our westernmost +frontiersmen, taking up land just outside the German settlements. +Immediately they began to clash with the Indians, and there followed a +long series of border wars, waged with extreme ferocity, in which +sometimes it is hard to say which side was most to blame. One thing, +however, is certain: if any race was ordained to exterminate the Indians +that race was the Scotch-Irish. + +They were a brave but hot-headed folk, as might be expected of a people +who for a century had been planted amid hostile Hibernians. Justin +Winsor describes them as having "all that excitable character which goes +with a keen-minded adherence to original sin, total depravity, +predestination, and election," and as seeing "no use in an Indian but to +be a target for their bullets." They were quick-witted as well as +quick-tempered, rather visionary, imperious, and aggressive. + +Being by tradition and habit a border people the Scotch-Irish pushed to +the extreme western fringe of settlement amid the Alleghanies. They were +not over-solicitous about the quality of soil. When Arthur Lee, of +Virginia, was telling Doctor Samuel Johnson, in London, of a colony of +Scotch who had settled upon a particularly sterile tract in western +Virginia, and had expressed his wonder that they should do so, Johnson +replied, "Why, sir, all barrenness is comparative: the Scotch will never +know that it is barren." + +West of the Susquehanna, however, the land was so rocky and poor that +even the Scotch shied at it, and so, when eastern Pennsylvania became +crowded, the overflow of settlers passed not westward but southwestward, +along the Cumberland Valley, into western Maryland, and then into the +Shenandoah and those other long, narrow, parallel valleys of western +Virginia that we noted in our first chapter. This western region still +lay unoccupied and scarcely known by the Virginians themselves. Its +fertile lands were discovered by Pennsylvania Dutchmen. The first house +in western Virginia was erected by one of them, Joist Hite, and he +established a colony of his people near the future site of Winchester. A +majority of those who settled in the eastern part of the Shenandoah +Valley were Pennsylvania Dutch, while the Scotch-Irish, following in +their train, pushed a little to the west of them and occupied more +exposed positions. There were representatives of other races along the +border: English, Irish, French Huguenots, and so on; but everywhere the +Scotch-Irish and Germans predominated. + +And the southwestward movement, once started, never stopped. So there +went on a gradual but sure progress of northern peoples across the +Potomac, up the Shenandoah, across the Staunton, the Dan, the Yadkin, +until the western piedmont and foot-hill region of Carolina was +similarly settled, chiefly by Pennsylvanians. + +The archivist of North Carolina, the late William L. Saunders, Secretary +of State, said in one of his historical sketches that "to Lancaster and +York counties, in Pennsylvania, North Carolina owes more of her +population than to any other known part of the world." He called +attention to the interesting fact that when the North Carolina boys of +Scotch-Irish and Pennsylvania Dutch descent followed Lee into +Pennsylvania in the Gettysburg campaign, they were returning to the +homes of their ancestors, by precisely the same route that those +ancestors had taken in going south. + +Among those who made the long trek from Pennsylvania southward in the +eighteenth century, were Daniel Boone and the ancestors of David +Crockett, Samuel Houston, John C. Calhoun, "Stonewall" Jackson, and +Abraham Lincoln. Boone and the Lincolns, although English themselves, +had been neighbors in Berks County, one of the most German parts of all +eastern Pennsylvania. + +So the western piedmont and the mountains were settled neither by +Cavaliers nor by poor whites, but by a radically distinct and even +antagonistic people who are appropriately called the Roundheads of the +South. These Roundheads had little or nothing to do with slavery, +detested the state church, loathed tithes, and distrusted all authority +save that of conspicuous merit and natural justice. The first +characteristic that these pioneers developed was an intense +individualism. The strong and even violent independence that made them +forsake all the comforts of civilization and prefer the wild freedom of +the border was fanned at times into turbulence and riot; but it blazed +forth at a happy time for this country when our liberties were +imperilled. + +Daniel Boone first appears in history when, from his new home on the +Yadkin, he crossed the Blue Ridge and the Unakas into that part of +western Carolina which is now eastern Tennessee. He was exploring the +Watauga region as early as 1760. Both British and French Indian traders +and soldiers had been in this region before him, but had left few marks +of their wanderings. In 1761 a party of hunters from Pennsylvania and +contiguous counties of Virginia, piloted by Boone, began to use this +region as a hunting-ground, on account of the great abundance of game. +From them, and especially from Boone, the fame of its attractions spread +to the settlements on the eastern slope of the mountains, and in the +winter of 1768-69 the first permanent occupation of eastern Tennessee +was made by a few families from North Carolina. + +About this time there broke out in Carolina a struggle between the +independent settlers of the piedmont and the rich trading and official +class of the coast. The former rose in bodies under the name of +Regulators and a battle followed in which they were defeated. To escape +from the persecutions of the aristocracy, many of the Regulators and +their friends crossed the Appalachian Mountains and built their cabins +in the Watauga region. Here, in 1772, there was established by these +"rebels" the first republic in America, based upon a written +constitution "the first ever adopted by a community of American-born +freemen." Of these pioneers in "The Winning of the West," Theodore +Roosevelt says: "As in western Virginia the first settlers came, for the +most part, from Pennsylvania, so, in turn, in what was then western +North Carolina, and is now eastern Tennessee, the first settlers came +mainly from Virginia, and indeed, in great part, from this same +Pennsylvania stock." + +Boone first visited Kentucky, on a hunting trip, in 1769. Six years +later he began to colonize it, in flat defiance of the British +government, and in the face of a menacing proclamation from the royal +governor of North Carolina. On the Kentucky River, three days after the +battle of Lexington, the flag of the new colony of Transylvania was run +up on his fort at Boonesborough. It was not until the following August +that these "rebels of Kentuck" heard of the signing of the Declaration +of Independence, and celebrated it with shrill warwhoops around a +bonfire in the center of their stockade. + +Such was the stuff of which the Appalachian frontiersmen were made. They +were the first Americans to cut loose entirely from the seaboard and +fall back upon their own resources. They were the first to establish +governments of their own, in defiance of king and aristocracy. Says John +Fiske: + + "Jefferson is often called the father of modern American democracy; + in a certain sense the Shenandoah Valley and adjacent Appalachian + regions may be called its cradle. In that rude frontier society, + life assumed many new aspects, old customs were forgotten, old + distinctions abolished, social equality acquired even more + importance than unchecked individualism. The notions, sometimes + crude and noxious, sometimes just and wholesome, which + characterized Jeffersonian democracy, flourished greatly on the + frontier and have thence been propagated eastward through the older + communities, affecting their legislation and their politics more or + less according to frequency of contact and intercourse. + Massachusetts, relatively remote and relatively ancient, has been + perhaps least affected by this group of ideas, but all parts of the + United States have felt its influence powerfully. This phase of + democracy, which is destined to continue so long as frontier life + retains any importance, can nowhere be so well studied in its + beginnings as among the Presbyterian population of the Appalachian + region in the 18th century." + + +During the Revolution, the Appalachian frontier was held by a double +line of the men whom we have been considering: one line east of the +mountains, and the other west of them. The mountain region itself +remained almost uninhabited by whites, because the pioneers who crossed +it were seeking better hunting grounds and farmsteads than the mountains +afforded. It was not until the buffalo and elk and beaver had been +driven out of Tennessee and Kentucky, and those rolling savannahs were +being fenced and tilled, that much attention was given to the mountains +proper. Then small companies of hunters and trappers from both east and +west began to move into the highlands and settle there. + +These explorers, pushing outward from the cross-mountain trails in every +direction, found many interesting things that had been overlooked in the +scurry of migration westward. They discovered fair river valleys and +rich coves, adapted to tillage, which soon attracted settlers of a +better class; and so, gradually, the mountain solitudes began to echo +with the ring of axes and the lowing of herds. By 1830 about a million +permanent settlers occupied the southern Appalachians. Naturally, most +of them came from adjoining regions--from the foot of the Blue Ridge on +one side and from the foot of the Unakas or of the Cumberlands on the +other, and hence they were chiefly of the same frontier stock that we +have been describing. No colonies of farmers from a distance ever have +been imported into the mountains, down to our own day. + +Deterioration of the mountain people began as soon as population began +to press upon the limits of subsistence. At first, naturally, the best +people among the mountaineers were attracted to the best lands. And +there to-day, in the generous river valleys, we find a class of +citizens superior to the average mountaineers that we have been +considering in this book. But the number and extent of such valleys was +narrowly limited. The United States topographers report that in +Appalachia, as a whole, the mountain slopes occupy 90 per cent. of the +total area, and that 85 per cent. of the land has a steeper slope than +one foot in five. So, as the years passed, a larger and larger +proportion of the highlanders was forced back along the creek branches +and up along the steep hillsides to "scrabble" for a living. + +It will be asked, Why did not this overplus do as other crowded +Americans did: move west? + +First, because they were so immured in the mountains, so utterly cut off +from communication with the outer world, that they did not know anything +about the opportunities offered new settlers in far-away lands. Moving +"west" to them would have meant merely going a few days' wagon-travel +down into the lowlands of Kentucky or Tennessee, which already were +thickly settled by a people of very different social class. Here they +could not hope to be anything but tenants or menials, ruled over by +proprietors or bosses--and they would die rather than endure such +treatment. As for the new lands of the farther West, there was scarce a +peasant in Ireland or in Scandinavia but knew more about them than did +the southern mountaineers. + +Second, because they were passionately attached to their homes and +kindred, to their own old-fashioned ways. The mountaineer shrinks from +lowland society as he does from the water and the climate of such +regions. He is never at ease until back with his home-folks, foot-loose +and free. + +Third, because there was nothing in his environment to arouse ambition. +The hard, hopeless life of the mountain farm, sustained only by a meager +and ill-cooked diet, begat laziness and shiftless unconcern. + +Finally, the poverty of the hillside farmers and branch-water people was +so extreme that they could not gather funds to emigrate with. There were +no industries to which a man might turn and earn ready money, no markets +in which he could sell a surplus from the farm. + +So, while the transmontane settlers grew rapidly in wealth and culture, +their kinsfolk back in the mountains either stood still or retrograded, +and the contrast was due not nearly so much to any difference of +capacity as to a law of Nature that dooms an isolated and impoverished +people to deterioration. + +Beyond this, it is not to be overlooked that the mountains were cursed +with a considerable incubus of naturally weak or depraved characters, +not lowland "poor whites," but a miscellaneous flotsam from all +quarters, which, after more or less circling round and round, was drawn +into the stagnant eddy of highland society as derelicts drift into the +Sargasso Sea. In the train of western immigration there were some feeble +souls who never got across the mountains. These have been described +tersely as the men who lost heart on account of a broken axle. + +The anemic element thus introduced is less noticeable in Kentucky than +in Virginia and the States farther south--for the reason, no doubt, that +it took at least two axles to reach Kentucky--but it exists in all parts +of Appalachia. Moreover, the vast roughs of the mountain region offered +harborage for outlaws, desperadoes of the border, and here many of them +settled and propagated their kind. In the backwoods one cannot choose +his neighbors. All are on equal footing. Hence the contagion of crime +and shiftlessness spreads to decent families and tends to undermine +them. + +We can understand, then, how it happened in many cases that highland +families founded by well-informed and thrifty pioneers deteriorated +into illiterate and idle triflers, all run down at heels. Lincoln's +family is an apt illustration. His grandfather sold his Virginia farms +for seventeen thousand dollars and bought large tracts of land in +Kentucky. But Abraham Lincoln's father set up housekeeping in a shed, +later built a log hut of one room without doors or windows (although he +was a carpenter by trade), then moved to another cabin a little better, +tired of it, moved over into Indiana, and made his family spend the +winter in a half-faced camp, where they were saved from freezing by +keeping up a great log fire in front of the lean-to through days and +nights when the temperature was far below zero. The Lincolns were not +mountaineers, but they were of the same stock, and were subjected to +much the same vicissitudes. + +So the southern highlanders languished in isolation, sunk in a Rip Van +Winkle sleep, until aroused by the thunder-crash of the Civil War. Let +John Fox tell the extraordinary result of that awakening.-- + + "The American mountaineer was discovered, I say, at the beginning + of the war, when the Confederate leaders were counting on the + presumption that Mason and Dixon's Line was the dividing line + between the North and South, and formed, therefore, the plan of + marching an army from Wheeling, in West Virginia, to some point on + the Lakes, and thus dissevering the North at one blow. + + "The plan seemed so feasible that it is said to have materially + aided the sale of Confederate bonds in England. But when Captain + Garnett, a West Point graduate, started to carry it out, he got no + farther than Harper's Ferry. When he struck the mountains, he + struck enemies who shot at his men from ambush, cut down bridges + before him, carried the news of his march to the Federals, and + Garnett himself fell with a bullet from a mountaineer's squirrel + rifle at Harper's Ferry. + + "Then the South began to realize what a long, lean, powerful arm of + the Union it was that the southern mountaineer stretched through + its very vitals; for that arm helped hold Kentucky in the Union by + giving preponderance to the Union sympathizers in the Blue-grass; + it kept the east Tennesseans loyal to the man; it made West + Virginia, as the phrase goes, 'secede from secession'; it drew out + a horde of one hundred thousand volunteers, when Lincoln called for + troops, depleting Jackson County, Kentucky, for instance, of every + male under sixty years of age and over fifteen; and it raised a + hostile barrier between the armies of the coast and the armies of + the Mississippi. The North has never realized, perhaps, what it + owes for its victory to this non-slaveholding southern + mountaineer." + + +President Frost, of Berea College, says: + + "The loyalty of this region in the Civil War was a surprise to both + northern and southern statesmen. The mountain people owned land + but did not own slaves, and the national feeling of the + revolutionary period had not spent its force among them. Their + services in West Virginia and east Tennessee are perhaps generally + known. But very few know or remember that the whole mountain region + was loyal [except where conscripted]. General Carl Schurz had + soldiers enlisted in the mountains of Alabama, and the writer has + recently seen a letter written by the Confederate Governor of South + Carolina in which he relates to General Hardee the troubles caused + by Union sentiment in the mountain counties. + + "It is pathetic to know how these mountain regiments disbanded with + no poet or historian or monument to perpetuate the memory of their + valor. The very flag that was first on Lookout Mountain and 'waved + above the clouds' was lost to fame in an obscure mountain home + until Berea discovered and rescued it from oblivion and + destruction." + + +It may be added that no other part of our country suffered longer or +more severely from the aftermath of war. Throughout that struggle the +mountain region was a nest for bushwhackers and bandits that preyed upon +the aged and defenseless who were left at home, and thus there was left +an evil legacy of neighborhood wrongs and private grudges. Most of the +mountain counties had incurred the bitter hostility of their own States +by standing loyal to the Union. After Appomattox they were cast back +into a worse isolation than they had ever known. Most unfortunately, +too, the Federal Government, at this juncture, instead of interposing +to restore law and order in the highlands, turned the loyalty of the +mountaineers into outlawry, as in 1794, by imposing a prohibitive excise +tax upon their chief merchantable commodity. + +Left, then, to their own devices, unchecked by any stronger arm, +inflamed by a multitude of personal wrongs, habituated to the shedding +of human blood, contemptuous of State laws that did not reach them, +enraged by Federal acts that impugned, as they thought, an inalienable +right of man, it was inevitable that this fiery and vindictive race +should fall speedily into warring among themselves. Old scores were now +to be wiped out in a reign of terror. The open combat of bannered war +was turned into the secret ferocity of family feuds. + +But the mountaineers of to-day are face to face with a mighty change. +The feud epoch has ceased throughout the greater part of Appalachia. A +new era dawns. Everywhere the highways of civilization are pushing into +remote mountain fastnesses. Vast enterprises are being installed. The +timber and the minerals are being garnered. The mighty waterpower that +has been running to waste since these mountains rose from the primal sea +is now about to be harnessed in the service of man. Along with this +economic revolution will come, inevitably, good schools, newspapers, a +finer and more liberal social life. The highlander, at last, is to be +caught up in the current of human progress. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +"WHEN THE SLEEPER WAKES" + + +The southern mountaineers are pre-eminently a rural folk. When the +twentieth century opened, only four per cent. of them dwelt in cities of +8,000 inhabitants and upwards. There were but seven such cities in all +Appalachia--a region larger than England and Scotland combined--and +these owed their development to outside influences. Only 77 out of 186 +mountain counties had towns of 1,000 and upwards. + +Our highlanders are the most homogeneous people in the United States. In +1900, out of a total population of 3,039,835, there were only 18,617 of +foreign birth. This includes the cities and industrial camps. Back in +the mountains, a man using any other tongue than English, or speaking +broken English, was regarded as a freak. Nine mountain counties of +Virginia, four of West Virginia, fifteen of Kentucky, ten of Tennessee, +nine of North Carolina, eight of Georgia, two of Alabama, and one of +South Carolina had less than ten foreign-born residents each. Three of +them had none at all. + +Compare the North Atlantic states. In this same census year, 57 per +cent. of their people lived in cities of 8,000 and upwards. As for +foreigners--the one city of Fall River, Mass., with 104,863 inhabitants, +had 50,042 of foreign birth. + +The mountains proper are free not only from foreigners but from negroes +as well. There are many blacks in the larger valleys and towns, but +throughout most of Appalachia the population is almost exclusively +white. In 1900, Jackson County, Ky. (the same that sent every one of its +sons into the Union army who could bear arms), had only nineteen negroes +among 10,542 whites; Johnson County, Ky., only one black resident among +13,729 whites; Dickenson County, Va., not a single negro within its +borders. + +In many mountain settlements negroes are not allowed to tarry. It has +been assumed that this prejudice against colored folk had its origin far +back in the time when "poor whites" found themselves thrust aside by +competition with slave labor. This is an error. Our mountaineers never +had to compete with slavery. Few of them knew anything about it except +from hearsay. Their dislike of negroes is simply an instinctive racial +antipathy, plus a contempt for anyone who submits to servile conditions. +A neighbor in the Smokies said to me: "I b'lieve in treatin' niggers +squar. The Bible says they're human--leastways some says it does--and so +there'd orter be a place for them. But it's _some place else_--not +around me!" That is the whole thing in a nutshell. + +Here, then, is Appalachia: one of the great land-locked areas of the +globe, more English in speech than Britain itself, more American by +blood than any other part of America, encompassed by a high-tensioned +civilization, yet less affected to-day by modern ideas, less cognizant +of modern progress, than any other part of the English-speaking world. + +Of course, such an anomaly cannot continue. Commercialism has discovered +the mountains at last, and no sentiment, however honest, however +hallowed, can keep it out. The transformation is swift. Suddenly the +mountaineer is awakened from his eighteenth-century bed by the blare of +steam whistles and the boom of dynamite. He sees his forests leveled and +whisked away; his rivers dammed by concrete walls and shot into turbines +that outpower all the horses in Appalachia. He is dazed by electric +lights, nonplussed by speaking wires, awed by vast transfers of +property, incensed by rude demands. Aroused, now, and wide-eyed, he +realizes with sinking heart that here is a sudden end of that Old +Dispensation under which he and his ancestors were born, the beginning +of a New Order that heeds him and his neighbors not a whit. + +All this insults his conservatism. The old way was the established order +of the universe: to change it is fairly impious. What is the good of all +this fuss and fury? That fifty-story building they tell about, in their +big city--what is it but another Tower of Babel? And these silly, +stuck-up strangers who brag and brag about "modern improvements"--what +are they, under their fine manners and fine clothes? Hirelings all. +Shrewdly he observes them in their relations to each other.-- + + "Each man is some man's servant; every soul + Is by some other's presence quite discrowned." + +Proudly he contrasts his ragged self: he who never has acknowledged a +superior, never has taken an order from living man, save as a patriot in +time of war. And he turns upon his heel. + +Yet, before he can fairly credit it as a reality, the lands around his +own home are bought up by corporations. All about him, slash, crash, go +the devastating forces. His old neighbors vanish. New and unwelcome ones +swarm in. He is crowded, but ignored. His hard-earned patrimony is +robbed of all that made it precious: its home-like seclusion, +independence, dignity. He sells out, and moves away to some uninvaded +place where he "will not be bothered." + +"I don't like these improve_ments_," said an old mountaineer to me. +"Some calls them 'progress,' and says they put money to circulatin'. So +they do; but _who gits it_?" + +There is a class of highlanders more sanguine, more adaptable, that +welcomes all outsiders who come with skill and capital to develop their +country. Many of these are shrewd traders in merchandise or in real +estate, or they are capable foremen who can handle native labor much +better than any strangers could. Such men naturally profit by the +change. + +Others, deluded by what seems easy money, sell their little homesteads +for just enough cash to set them up as laborers in town or camp. Being +untrained to any trade, they can get only the lowest wages, which are +quickly dissipated in rent and in foods that formerly they raised for +themselves. Unused to continuous labor, they irk under its discipline, +drop out, and fall into desultory habits. Meantime false ambitions +arise, especially among the womenfolk. Store credit soon runs such a +family in debt. + +"When I was a young man," said one of my neighbors, "the traders never +thought of bringin' meal in here. If a man run out of meal, why, he was +_out_, and he had to live on 'taters or somethin' else. Nowadays we +dress better, and live better, but some other feller allers has his +hands in our pockets." + +Then it is "good-by" to the old independence that made such characters +manly. Enmeshed in obligations that they cannot meet, they struggle +vainly, brood hopelessly, and lose that dearest of all possessions, +their self-respect. Servility is literal hell to a mountaineer, and when +it is forced upon him he turns into a mean, underhanded, slinking +fellow, easily tempted into crime. + +The curse of our invading civilization is that its vanguard is composed +of men who care nothing for the welfare of the people they dispossess. A +northern lumberman admitted to me, with frankness unusual in his class, +that "All we want here is to get the most we can out of this country, as +quick as we can, and then get out." This is all we can expect of those +who exploit raw materials, or of manufactures that employ only cheap +labor. Until we have industries that demand skilled workmen, and until +manual training schools are established in the mountains, we may look +for deterioration, rather than betterment, of those highlanders who +leave their farms. + +All who know the mountaineers intimately have observed that the sudden +inroad of commercialism has a bad effect upon them. As President Frost +says, "Ruthless change is knocking at the door of every mountain cabin. +The jackals of civilization have already abused the confidence of many a +highland home. The lumber, coal, and mineral wealth of the mountains is +to be possessed, and the unprincipled vanguard of commercialism can +easily debauch a simple people. The question is whether the mountain +people can be enlightened and guided so that they can have a part in the +development of their own country, or whether they must give place to +foreigners and melt away like so many Indians." + +It is easy to say that the fittest will survive. But the fittest for +what? Miss Miles answers: "I have heard it said that civilization, when +it touches the people of the backwoods, acts as a useful precipitant in +thus sending the dregs to the bottom. As a matter of fact, it is only +the shrewder and more determined, not the truly fit, that survive the +struggle. Among these very submerged ones, reduced to dependence on an +alien people, there are thousands who inherit the skill of their +forefathers who fashioned their own locks, musical instruments, and +guns. And these very women who are breaking their health and spirit over +a thankless tub of suds ought surely to turn their talents to better +account, ought to be designing and weaving coverlets and Roman-striped +rugs, or 'piecing' the quilt patterns now so popular. Need these razors +be used to cut grindstones? Must this free folk who are in many ways the +truest Americans of America be brought under the yoke of caste division, +to the degradation of all their finer qualities, merely for lack of the +right work to do?" + +There are some who would have it so; who would calmly write for these +our own kindred, as for the Indians, _fuerunt_--their day is past. In a +History of Southern Literature, written not long ago by a professor in +the University of Virginia, a sketch of Miss Murfree's work closes with +these words: "There [at Beersheba Springs, Tenn.] it was that she first +studied the curious type of humanity, the Tennessee mountaineer, a +people so ignorant, so superstitious, so far behind the world of to-day +as to excite wonder and even pity in all who see them.... [She] is +telling the story of a people who, in these opening years of the 20th +century, wander on through their limited range of life much as their +ancestors for generations have wandered. They, too, will some time +vanish--the sooner the better." + +One cannot read such a sentiment without wonder and even pity for the +ignorance of history and of human nature that it discloses. Is the case +of our mountaineers so much worse than that of the Scotch highlanders of +two centuries ago? We know that those Scotchmen did not "vanish--the +quicker the better." What were they before civilization reached them? +Let us open the ready pages of Macaulay.-- + + "It is not easy for a modern Englishman ... to believe that, in the + time of his great-grandfathers, Saint James's Street had as little + connection with the Grampians as with the Andes. Yet so it was. In + the south of our island scarcely anything was known about the + Celtic part of Scotland; and what was known excited no feeling but + contempt and loathing.... + + "It is not strange that the Wild Scotch, as they were sometimes + called, should, in the 17th century, have been considered by the + Saxons as mere savages. But it is surely strange that, considered + as savages, they should not have been objects of interest and + curiosity. The English were then abundantly inquisitive about the + manners of rude nations separated from our island by great + continents and oceans. Numerous books were printed describing the + laws, the superstitions, the cabins, the repasts, the dresses, the + marriages, the funerals of Laplanders and Hottentots, Mohawks and + Malays. The plays and poems of that age are full of allusions to + the usages of the black men of Africa and the red men of America. + The only barbarian about whom there was no wish to have any + information was the Highlander.... + + "While the old Gaelic institutions were in full vigor, no account + of them was given by any observer qualified to judge of them + fairly. Had such an observer studied the character of the + Highlanders, he would doubtless have found in it closely + intermingled the good and the bad qualities of an uncivilised + nation. He would have found that the people had no love for their + country or for their king, that they had no attachment to any + commonwealth larger than the clan, or to any magistrate superior to + the chief. He would have found that life was governed by a code of + morality and honor widely different from that which is established + in peaceful and prosperous societies. He would have learned that a + stab in the back, or a shot from behind a fragment of rock, were + approved modes of taking satisfaction for insults. He would have + heard men relate boastfully how they or their fathers had wracked + on hereditary enemies in a neighboring valley such vengeance as + would have made old soldiers of the Thirty Years' War shudder. + + "He would have found that robbery was held to be a calling not + merely innocent but honorable. He would have seen, wherever he + turned, that dislike of steady industry, and that disposition to + throw on the weaker sex the heaviest part of manual labor, which + are characteristic of savages. He would have been struck by the + spectacle of athletic men basking in the sun, angling for salmon, + or taking aim at grouse, while their aged mothers, their pregnant + wives, their tender daughters, were reaping the scanty harvest of + oats. Nor did the women repine at their hard lot. In their view it + was quite fit that a man, especially if he assumed the aristocratic + title of Duinhe Wassel and adorned his bonnet with the eagle's + feather, should take his ease, except when he was fighting, + hunting, or marauding. To mention the name of such a man in + connection with commerce or with any mechanical art was an insult. + Agriculture was indeed less despised. Yet a highborn warrior was + much more becomingly employed in plundering the land of others than + in tilling his own. + + "The religion of the greater part of the Highlands was a rude + mixture of Popery and Paganism. The symbol of redemption was + associated with heathen sacrifices and incantations. Baptised men + poured libations of ale on one Daemon, and set out drink offerings + of milk for another. Seers wrapped themselves up in bulls' hides, + and awaited, in that vesture, the inspiration which was to reveal + the future. Even among those minstrels and genealogists whose + hereditary vocation was to preserve the memory of past events, an + enquirer would have found very few who could read. In truth, he + might easily have journeyed from sea to sea without discovering a + page of Gaelic printed or written. + + "The price which he would have had to pay for his knowledge of the + country would have been heavy. He would have had to endure + hardships as great as if he had sojourned among the Esquimaux or + the Samoyeds. Here and there, indeed, at the castle of some great + lord who had a seat in the Parliament and Privy Council, and who + was accustomed to pass a large part of his life in the cities of + the South, might have been found wigs and embroidered coats, plate + and fine linen, lace and jewels, French dishes and French wines. + But, in general, the traveler would have been forced to content + himself with very different quarters. In many dwellings the + furniture, the food, the clothing, nay, the very hair and skin of + his hosts, would have put his philosophy to the proof. His lodging + would sometimes have been in a hut of which every nook would have + swarmed with vermin. He would have inhaled an atmosphere thick with + peat smoke, and foul with a hundred exhalations. At supper grain + fit only for horses would have been set before him, accompanied + with a cake of blood drawn from living cows. Some of the company + with whom he would have feasted would have been covered with + cutaneous eruptions, and others would have been smeared with tar + like sheep. His couch would have been the bare earth, dry or wet as + the weather might be; and from that couch he would have risen half + poisoned with stench, half blind with the reek of turf, and half + mad with the itch. + + "This is not an attractive picture. And yet an enlightened and + dispassionate observer would have found in the character and + manners of this rude people something which might well excite + admiration and a good hope. Their courage was what great exploits + achieved in all the four quarters of the globe have since proved it + to be. Their intense attachment to their own tribe and to their own + patriarch, though politically a great evil, partook of the nature + of virtue. The sentiment was misdirected and ill regulated; but + still it was heroic. There must be some elevation of soul in a man + who loves the society of which he is a member and the leader whom + he follows with a love stronger than the love of life. It was true + that the Highlander had few scruples about shedding the blood of an + enemy; but it was not less true that he had high notions of the + duty of observing faith to allies and hospitality to guests. It was + true that his predatory habits were most pernicious to the + commonwealth. Yet those erred greatly who imagined that he bore any + resemblance to villains who, in rich and well governed communities, + live by stealing. When he drove before him the herds of Lowland + farmers up the pass which led to his native glen, he no more + considered himself as a thief than the Raleighs and Drakes + considered themselves as thieves when they divided the cargoes of + Spanish galleons. He was a warrior seizing lawful prize of war, of + war never once intermitted during the thirty-five generations which + had passed away since the Teutonic invaders had driven the children + of the soil to the mountains.... + + "His inordinate pride of birth and his contempt for labor and trade + were indeed great weaknesses, and had done far more than the + inclemency of the air and the sterility of the soil to keep his + country poor and rude. Yet even here there was some compensation. + It must in fairness be acknowledged that the patrician virtues were + not less widely diffused among the population of the Highlands than + the patrician vices. As there was no other part of the island where + men, sordidly clothed, lodged, and fed, indulged themselves to such + a degree in the idle, sauntering habits of an aristocracy, so + there was no other part of the island where such men had in such a + degree the better qualities of an aristocracy, grace and dignity of + manner, self-respect, and that noble sensibility which makes + dishonor more terrible than death. A gentleman of Skye or Lochaber, + whose clothes were begrimed with the accumulated filth of years, + and whose hovel smelt worse than an English hogstye, would often do + the honors of that hovel with a lofty courtesy worthy of the + splendid circle of Versailles. Though he had as little + book-learning as the most stupid ploughboys of England, it would + have been a great error to put him in the same intellectual rank + with such ploughboys. It is indeed only by reading that men can + become profoundly acquainted with any science. But the arts of + poetry and rhetoric may be carried near to absolute perfection, and + may exercise a mighty influence on the public mind, in an age in + which books are wholly or almost wholly unknown." + + +So, too, in the rudest communities of Appalachia, among the most +trifling and unmoral natives of this region, among the illiterate and +hide-bound, there still is much to excite admiration and good hope. I +have not shrunk from telling the truth about these people, even when it +was far from pleasant; but I would have preserved strict silence had I +not seen in the most backward of them certain sterling qualities of +manliness that our nation can ill afford to waste. It is a truth as old +as the human race that savageries may co-exist with admirable qualities +of head and heart. The only people who can consistently despair of the +future for even the lowest of our mountaineers are those who deny +evolution and who believe, with Archbishop Usher, that man was created +_perfect_ at 9 A. M. on the 21st of October, in the year B. C. 4004. + +Let us remember, Sir and Madam, that we ourselves are descended from +white barbarians. From William the Conqueror, you? Very well; how many +other ancestors of yours were walking about England and elsewhere at the +time of William? Untold thousands of them were just such people as you +can find to-day brawling in some mountain still-house (unless there has +been a deal of incest somewhere along your line), and you have +infinitely more of their blood in your veins than you have of the +Conqueror's--who, by the way, could he be re-incarnated, would not be +tolerated in your drawing-room for half an hour. I may have made the +point too brutally plain; but if it sinks through the smug +self-complacency of those who "do not belong to the masses," who act as +though civilization and morals and good manners were entailed to them +through a mere dozen or so of selected ancestors, I remain unrepentant +and unashamed. Let us thank whatever gods there be that it is not +merely thou and I, our few friends and next of kin, but all humanity, +that scientific faith embraces and will sustain. + +"People who have been among the southern mountaineers testify," says Mr. +Fox, "that, as a race, they are proud, sensitive, hospitable, kindly, +obliging in an unreckoning way that is almost pathetic, honest, loyal, +in spite of their common ignorance, poverty, and isolation; that they +are naturally capable, eager to learn, easy to uplift. Americans to the +core, they make the southern mountains a storehouse of patriotism; in +themselves they are an important offset to the Old World outcasts whom +we have welcomed to our shores; and they surely deserve as much +consideration from the nation as the negroes, or as the heathen, to whom +we give millions." + +President Frost, of Berea College, who has worked among these people for +nearly a lifetime, and has helped to educate their young folks by +thousands, says: "It does one's heart good to help a young Lincoln who +comes walking in perhaps a three-days' journey on foot, with a few +hard-earned dollars in his pocket and a great eagerness for the +education he can so faintly comprehend. (Scores of our young people see +their first railroad train at Berea.) And it is a joy to welcome the +mountain girl who comes back after having taught her first school, +bringing the money to pay her debts and buy her first comfortable +outfit--including rubbers and suitable underclothing--and perhaps +bringing with her a younger sister. Such a girl exerts a great influence +in her school and mountain home. An enthusiastic mountaineer described +an example in this wise: 'I tell yeou hit teks a moughty resol_ute_ gal +ter do what that thar gal has done. She got, I reckon, about the +toughest deestric' in the ceounty, which is sayin' a good deal. An' then +fer boardin'-place--well, there warn't much choice. There was one house, +with one room. But she kep right on, an' yeou would hev thought she was +havin' the finest kind of a time, ter look at her. An' then the last +day, when they was sayin' their pieces and sich, some sorry fellers come +in thar full o' moonshine an' shot their revolvers. I'm a-tellin' ye hit +takes a moughty resol_ute_ gal." + +The great need of our mountaineers to-day is trained leaders of their +own. The future of Appalachia lies mostly in the hands of those resolute +native boys and girls who win the education fitting them for such +leadership. Here is where the nation at large is summoned by a solemn +duty. And it should act quickly, because commercialism exploits and +debauches quickly. But the schools needed here are not ordinary graded +schools. They should be vocational schools that will turn out good +farmers, good mechanics, good housewives. Meantime let a model farm be +established in every mountain county showing how to get the most out of +mountain land. Such object lessons would speedily work an economic +revolution. It is an economic problem, fundamentally, that the +mountaineer has to face. + + +THE END + + + + +Footnotes: + +[1] A friend of mine on the U. S. Geological Survey tested with his +clinometer a mountain cornfield that sloped at an angle of fifty +degrees. + +[2] Average annual rainfall of New York City, 44 inches; of Glencoe, in +the Scotch Highlands, nearly 130 inches. + +[3] _Gant-lot_: a fenced enclosure into which cattle are driven after +cutting them out from those of other owners. So called because the +mountain cattle run wild, feeding only on grass and browse, and "they +couldn't travel well to market when filled up on green stuff: so they're +penned up to git _gant_ and nimble." + +[4] Pure bluff of mine, at that time; but it was good policy to assume +perfect confidence. + +[5] This was in 1904. There are no dispensaries in North Carolina now. + +[6] It is a curious fact that most horses despise the stuff. A +celebrated revenue officer told me that for several years he rode a +horse which was in the habit of drinking a mouthful from every stream +that he forded; but if there was the least taint of still-slop in the +water, he would whisk his nose about and refuse to drink. The officer +then had only to follow up the stream, and he would infallibly find a +still. + +[7] Ellwood Wilson, Sr., in the _Sewanee Review_. + +[8] In mountain dialect such words as settlement, government, studyment +(reverie) are accented on the last syllable, or drawled with equal +stress throughout. + +[9] So also in the lowland South. An extraordinary affectation of +propriety appeared in a dispatch to the _Atlanta Constitution_ of +October 29, 1912, which reported that an exhibitor of cattle at the +State fair had been seriously horned by a _male cow_. + +[10] Pronounced Chee-_o_-ah, Chil-_how_-ee, Cow-_ee_, Cul-lo-_whee_, +High-_wah_-see, Nan-tah-_hay_-lah, O-_ko_-na, _Luf_-ty, San-_teet_-lah, +_Tel_-li-co, Tuck-a-_lee_-chee, Tuck-a-_see_-gee, Tuh-_loo_-lah, +Tus-_quit_-ee, Wah-_yah_ (explosively on last syllable), _Wau_-ke-chah, +Yah-_lah_-kah (commonly Ah-lar-ka or _'Lar_-ky by the settlers), +You-_nay_-kah. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _underscore_. + +The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these +letters have been replaced with +transliterations+. + +Additional spacing after some of the quotes is intentional to indicate +both the end of a quotation and the beginning of a new paragraph as +presented in the original text. + +The following misprints have been corrected: + "Hiddden" corrected to "Hidden" (Table of Contents) + "sing" corrected to "sting" (page 70) + "hav-" corrected to "having" (page 134) + "and and" corrected to "and" (page 148) + "could could" corrected to "could" (page 172) + "haled" corrected to "hauled" (page 174) + "Some the expedients" corrected to "Some of the expedients" (page 238) + "hoplessly" corrected to "hopelessly" (page 275) + "civlization" corrected to "civilization" (page 384) + +Printer's inconsistencies in hyphenation usage have been retained. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Our Southern Highlanders, by Horace Kephart + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR SOUTHERN HIGHLANDERS *** + +***** This file should be named 31709.txt or 31709.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/7/0/31709/ + +Produced by David Garcia, Stephanie Eason, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. 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