New-York tribune., 1880-09-26
THE HOOSIER AT HOME.


MEMS OF THE HoosTER DiaLECr-oPENING UP
AFOREsT COUNTRY.
lFRoy AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE rRIBUNs'
INDIANAPOLIS, Sept 15.-There are those who
object to a Presidential campaign once IN four
years because it makes a disturbance we In IN
diana are not of that sort. We are in O contested
State. We have appreciation of rockets that
melt into colored 500 feet in the air. We en-
joy torchlights, Chinese lanterns and Roman can
dies. We like gay professions and an exhibition OF
youth, straight legs and vigorous chests We have
a"wigwam" in indianapolis, usually pronounced
"wigwarm," very properly, which is crammed IN
side on every occasion OF public speaking ana sur
rounded outside with "Diggers and white men, all
IN row." A sour crowd bodily, though greatly
edited mentally We are getting all the education
we can ont of the campaign. and there is nothing
better for shaking up the popular brain, and such
shaking some of our people need sorely.
The cloud from the steam-threshing machine no
longer floats across the thick background Of our
green woods. Our wheat is harvested, Is being
sod and the money is being spent. The golden bun
OF the stubble outlines every gentle bilock. Our
State glded with wheat and now isto be gilded
with gold Indiana is destined to lose her charm of
wild, sylvan sweetness and picturesque poverty.
The rich are we'll enough. and we have the
Grandest rich people the world but all rich folks
have one fault their "uninterestlngness." Neither
they particularly interesting who are poor with
out the the least trace of inelegance, who culti-
vate literature on q little oatmeal, whose thin
carpets and curtains spotless, whose turf IS
weedless; then poverty is not permanent. But
we feel o sharp for the poverty that lives
over q cheap grocery leans ont of window and
looks greasy and lazy. Individuals who wonder how
they can make their old shoes last until they can
get money enough to buy ones absorb us.
Those who live in log huts with chckweed about
the thresholds. and who throw dishwater, melon
rinds and potato peengs out OF their front doors,
excite us. And as to interesting poverty, nothing
can equal certain of our Hoosers. We have class
of genuine and pure Gets who have never yet been
serfs have adopted the feudal ways of Anglo
Saxons and Normans, and have never yet learned
to work. They are still like their ancestors, the
gallant savages' of the Hebrides, untrammeled by
artificial life. They are descended from Scotch
Hghlanders. who came to America before the Rev
oution. Their character is simply fascinating. In
credible self-conceit and ignorance and an Arab
imperturbability are theirs. Take gang OF Hoo
sier hog-drovers of the primitive species, wander
ing up and down muddy car-yard at midnight
looking for the caboose they composedy bear the
disgust of the railroad men. who in true railroad
style utterly loathc persons who don't know what
they do and refuse to answer questions. Finding
the caboose at last, with locked doors, the hog
drovers climb in at a window. light a lantern aud
fire and TRANQUILITY SIT on their heels munchng
crackers talking of hogs and reckoning their gains
mt two and half cents per pound on their boots,
lyOu can make rs many figures as you ike In the
tallow and dust of hog drovers boots) while the
caboose is switched up and down IN the dark
ness with Jerks that almost make them turn somer
saults The half-dozen fourmen. drummers aud
machinists who have joined them. spend their time
Joking and swearing, but the hog-droyers utter
not a word of irritation Hoosier OF the fasci-
mating type thinks himself above his superors. He
is tall man; clay soil develops tall races-our
State-officers average six feet two. He has tawny
hair and skin of deeper glow than the tint of the
natives of Illinois, who often strawcolor as to
hair and complexion. Aud the calm deep noncha-
lance of the Hoosier gaze very different from the
bright shrewdness of Buckeye looks and the bold
effrontery of the Illinois stare.
These prImcval Hoosicrs exceedingly lazy.
You will see three of them riding load Of
wood which they are selling, and five OF them in a
wagon drawn By miserable old horse and occu-
pied in selling few fish, The man who brings tan
bark to market is dressed in blue jeans and an un-
beached shirt He wears no shoes, and his hat looks
as if he had fought bumblebees with it for ten years
Our fresh emigrants scorn these Western Celts,
IS so taken with their naughty ideness as to rear
his children in imitation of them. The deterorated
German OF Irish girl is curiosity. She wears
winter and summer a ragged wOoen costume of
fashionable cut, her dress "hangs in string" her
hare heels stick through her shoes and stockings
She has no occupation whatever and cherishes q
towering disdan for industry and economy, and for
all arts and handicrafts The English Usually
keep their own ways nevertheless, sometimes
Won will see a fne-featured EnglishwOman with
sons having wild, dark apathetic faces-born In
the woods and dead to aspiration and endeavor.
little wheat money and political campaigning will
probably benefit these folk somewhat.
A Hoosier of the primeval sort-and no other Is
worth talking about in my opinion-lives in half
ruined log house, with the clay crumbling from its
creyices. He 'staggers" his windows, as an archi-
tect would say His chimney of mud and sticks,
essence of laziness, stands the outside of his
bouse 40 does his la ider for going up stairs. He
bos no gates grandmother and all have to climb
fances Inside of his house Is rag carpet. bed on
the floor and a pariOr organ that has never been
busted Foreign cooking recipes. with their weigh
ings and soakings and chOppings and pourings from
one bowl to another, are not useful to the lady OF
this mansion. Nor is she interested in ranges and
saucenans Hcr stove stands ont of doors, perhaps,
with nothing but the sky over it, She does her
work quickly and easily, displaying superhuman
ener0y In making the least Of it, Her cooking and
her beds-bnt here we come to n painful point and,
like Serne when he drew his Captive, are forced to
90 ON with different part of the picture. In little
hamlet of such houses everything, inhabitants and
all are dust color. The children play in the dust of
the road scrapng it together and throwing it mp to
fall on their hair and down their necks. Those
.'voung ones' think God made Adam out of the dust
where the teams go along. The village may be only
three wears DID, but it looks as If the sweepings of
three centuries were blowing about its streets The
villagers have mania for building little sheds aud
usipp them when half blown down. and there they
stand in the mellow Indiana sunshine which ira
dates them with its peculiar. melting mstness The
.oo+ 10 strawn with sticks and chips. The