The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1868-04-14
Gheqntellil
Life I'm the Back woods of west Vir
EInIa.

Life I'm the Back woods of west YIr
| Einla.
The following which appears as cor
respondence In the Springfield Repu6li-
can, was written, we believe, from
Wayne county. There are very few
parts of the State, where the picture
would be recognized:
"As general rule, the more land a
man owns the poorer he is. II he
owns GOO acres OF land, he will try to
cultivate 100, lose on that, while the
other 500 earn not a cent in rent or pro.
duce, unless it happens to be convent
ent to the river, with plenty of timber
on it. Nearly all the landowners in
herited their property. Very few begin
with nothing and get farms. When
the young man gets married and re-
solves to begin for himself, he goes into
the creek bottom, where the mountains
are on all sides of him, (for tine streams
| are as crooked as the famous sti ok that
was so crooked it couldn't lie STILL and
chops down the trees for his cabin.
When the logs are ready ne gets his
neighbors to help him, and puts up his
house, one story, one room. q door on
each side, hole for light, and stone
| fireplace that will take in nearly one
eighth of a cord of wood at once. The
shingles are split from u white oak
| log; the doors are made OF thin boards
split in the same way, fastened with
wooden pegs, hung on wooden hinges,
and fastened with wooden latch and
leather string. The chimney is laid in
| the clay of the country for mortar, and
no money is required in the building.
The old folks usually furnish the bed
and bedding, II the young woman has
them not, and a bedstead is soon made
NJ hi l.
and ak. Two tin-cups for coffee, plates
and knives and forks, and a kettle for
baking corn-cake and frying the ba-
con, brought from the old home, starts
them satisfactorily in housekeeping.
The table and chairs are rude enough,
made, like the floor, from planks split
from a straight poplar tree. They keep
geese to furnish feathers for new beds
as they are wanted; u couple of sheep
soon increases to generous flock, and
the young woman knows how to card
and spin, and a neighbor will loan the
use of hand-loom TO weave her linsey.
woOlsey and all wool for clothing and
bed blankets. 1t costs nothing to keep
| the sheep. In the mountains and hol-
lows they iced on wild pea vines,
leaves, moss and shrubs, find shelter
in the rock caves, and take care of
themselves through the year, though
many of their young are Killed every
year by foxes and wildcats.
In few years the hastily constructed
| log cabin begins to lean over, or some
of the logs get out of place. If our
friend has been prosperous he puts up
a new two story log house. and indulges
in the luxury of n glass window. But
the house is sure to be ill-looking, and
as inconvenient as it could be if the
| builder had tried to make 1t SO. If he
Is very extravagant he has two rooms
on the ground floor, and the kitchen for
cooking in another house. If he hus
exceedingly high notions OF progress,
he will have a rail fence about the
house so that the hogs cannot come In
when they please; and his wife will not
permit the hens to lay eggs on the beds,
and not more than two half starved
dogs will be about under foot. heard
the presiding elder of this circuit, OF
the Methodist Episcopal Church North,
telling one day that he found the peo-
pie in the mountains very hospitable;
| that they treated him as we'll as their
means, ways of living and knowledge
would permit, but he could not
excuse them for some of their delin-
quencies. He lately stopped for the
night with n worthy church brother,
but did not sleep we'll. He ,"thought
some OF the family breathed very badly,
and it kept me awake. Toward MORN
| ing l had made up my mind that
some one of the family was lying un-
/
bed to myself, and called to brother
L. to know If il was SO, determined
that the uncomfortablys sleeping person
under the bed should share with me, if
1t was one one of the boys, as suppos-
ed. Brother Z. stirred up the fire to
began TO shoo.ayl shO0'ay! till he
drove a large hog from under my bed"
Sometimes, not often, tho traveller VIII
see front yard fenced with paling,
| and poor attempts to cultivate flowers.
They are exceptions TO the general rule
and provoke comment in these roo
raj" districts. The men have no taste
for anything of the kind; they will not
even attend TO the garden. "My old
| 'oman allus tends the garden truck"
| In these and many other respects lin
ger the customs of the aboriglnes.
The women go barefooted in warm
weather. 1t is the practice universally.
The children from twoto eight years
old wear only a short shirt in summer
that is the rule; the few exceptions are
| found in the villages and in some
wealthy families. The women smoke,
as do also some young girls; cob
bored ont and stick weed for stem
make pipe. A pitch pine stick or a
rag and hog fat In saucer or hollow
| stone, serve for candle, petroleum ana
gas.
OF course there are no good school
advantages. When eight families live
within three miles of u meeting house,
school will be kept few weeks in
two or three years. The girls and boys
| learn to plant and hoe corn, but are
very dull in books, chiefly in conse-
Quence of employing poor teachers.
| The teacher must be a fighting man,
use tho hickory freely, and never spark
the girls-not, as l understand it, that
it is wrong TO be tender with the
young women, but it would produce
jealousy and create a rumpus. Ayoung
| lady of eighteen told me the other day
that when she was little girl she went
! to cloud" school, and laughed at my
| ignorance when told her did not
know what cloud" school was. L
thought had heard of all kinds of
slow coaches, but that there were
schools where all the scholars were re-
uuired to study their spelling in loud
voice, was new to me. On further in
curry found that it was the common
practice here a few years ago. Some
of those who have the means send their
boys away to school, and those who
have suCn advantages are pretty fair
scholars. A great many shreWd, mo-
ney-making men cannot read or write.
The member of the Legislature from an
adjoining county, in 1856, could write
his name, but no more. AS conse-
ouence of few schools and poor teach
ers, the mass of this population make
cross marks for signatures. 1t Is NOT
exclusively among the poorest, for hall
the signatures to deeds on record are OF
this Correspondence Of the
Springfield Republican,.