Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-01-16

FROM Letter 10 the N. I. Ifibune.l
Our MONDAY halt was at a log house by the
roadsde-tho home Of one of the county Off
cials. lie owned three or four farms, was
told, and yet his house was without windows,
the wind came in through a hundred cracks,
and there was no cook stove, and not news
paper was to be seen, or a book, save few
law books and public documents. l went
into the Kitchen which was also bedroom and
dining room, TO sec how dinner was prepared
without "a stove A dough of corn meal and
water was moulded into two large cakes and
placed in an iron skillet which stood on the
Goals in the huge fireplace An iron cover
was placed on the skillet and Goals heaped on
top of it. This was the oven. In a big fry
lug pan chunks Of fresh pork simmered, and
when they were done a dozen eggs were
broken into the fat, aud empted, fat and all,
into dish. The coffee-pot sputtered in one
corner of the fireplace. No sugar was served
with the coffee, and there we're no teaspoons
on the table. None were needed, however,
as there was no occasion for stirring the cof-
fee in the cups. The old lady who presided
at the table said the seven girls who looked
on were all hers, and that she had three sons.
Ten children, therefore, were growing up in
good health, TO all appearances, in spite of
the coarse, greasy food aud the draugbts of
the rheumatic old house. 1T is all owing to
the mountain air" said our guide the tall
colonel, as We rode away. People have
large families. and raise EN-. too children
never die, and nothing but old age finishes
the grown folks, unless they are killed by ac-
cident.' The number of children these
mountaineers bring into the world is really
surprising. Every cabin swarns with dirty,
ragged urchns. | asked a man the other
day what the soil on the mountain was good
for. " Taint of much account for corn" he
said, "but it's powerful for Irish potatoes
and children" He should have mentioned
apples too. l never saw such mighty apple
trees as grow on some of the old clearings up
on the plateau. They are of enormous girth
and height, and if they received any atten-
ton from their shiftless owners would pro-
duce great quantities of fine fruit. As it is,
they 60 on bearing year after year, and in
some places have survived the log hut they
once shaded. and stand among the scrub oaks
and young pines reminders of some settler
who has gone to Texas or was driven out by
the guerillas in war time and never came
back
My journey to-day, WAS from lockwood
up the Tennessee valley to Loudon. rail-
way, used chiefly for transporting pig iron,
runs from the furnaces at lockwood to
landing on the river. 1t is a passenger and
mail route, but no sort Of a car is run for the
stand on the coal in the tender during the
trip of five miles. At the river l embarked
on an old, wheeZy, ramshackle steamboat
the dirtiest craft l ever saw in all my travel
ling on Southern waters. The rotten floor
of the cabin deck could easily have been
broken by vigorous stamp of the foot, and
the crazy structure of the upper works threat
ened to fall to pieces at every jar Of the ma
chinery. The full, muddy current of the riv-
er ran by an uubroken stretch Of cornfelds,
dotted at long intervals by a log cabin. In
all the seven hours journey, save in the town
OF Kingston | did not see a dozen houses
that were not primitive log huts and yet the
Tennessee Valley was settled before the Ohio.
The men who possess the fertile farms
live just as their grandfathers did-content
with their log cabins aud their rude fare of
hog and hoe-cake. The river was alive with
RATS of white wood logs on their way from
the mountains up the Clinch and Powell riy-
ers to a market in Chattanooga. The RATS
men shouted and danced as the steamboat
passed.
Among our passengers was slouchy young
man, wearing dirty, colarless shirt, rag
ged overcoat, and an old, greasy felt hat
His clothing, face and unkempt hair marked
him as one of the poor mountain whites, but
l learned in talking with him that he was a
member of the Legislature on his way to at
tend the session at Nashville. He proved to
be more intelligent than his looks indicated,
and my opinion of him improved hundred
per cent. when he said be was in favor of
paying the State debt, and was confident the
people would not consent to Reputation after
the question had been agitated a year longer.