Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1883-12-12
Peculiar keOpls.

returned from a sojourn of some
months in the mountains Of East Ten
nessee, rambling over them sometimes
on horseback and sometimes afoot. In
this way / have become pretty well ac-
quainted with the mountaineers of the
Chilhowee and Smoky ranges, and am
sure that readers will be interested in
faithful description of this peculiar
people," who are, however, in no wise
''zealous of good works." nor of any
other kind of works. since the Govern
ment has broken up the illicit distiller-
les in their mountain gorges. They
are classed in the South as ''pOor
white trash" Everywhere they are the
same people, possessing the same
marked characistics, speaking the same
low grade of civilization. People of
the same sort are found in various parts
of Maryland, Virginia, the two Caro-
linas and Georgia. In all these re-
gions they hold social grade below
that of the negroes. Their origin is
enveloped in mystery. No one knows
from what nationality they have
sprung.
The men of these mountain slopes
are tall, lOose-jointed, and walk with
long, swinging strides; they have
lazy, dO-nothing and care.for-nothing
air in both speech and movement.
Most Of them go bare-footed-an wear
very tight-fitting linsey-woolsey trou-
sers, dyed brown with the bark of the
walnut. They have no suspenders,
and very few of them wear coats Of any
kind. Their shirts are made of
coarse cotton material, and are gener-
ally so dirty that it is impossible to
tell the original color. Most of them
wear slouched wool hats that look as
if they had seen many years of hard
service, some few having homemade
hats Of plated rye straw. Almost
every man seen on the road had long,
rustic-looking rifle on his shoulder, an
ox-horn powder flask and a cow skin
shOt-puneh swung around his neck.
The women are in keeping with the
men. Their dress is made of the
same material, only a shade ligtei color.
There is no fit about the waists of their
garments and the skirts are most eco
nomically narrow, and never so long as
to suggest the idea of a trail; conse-
quently their large, wide-spreading
bare feet are exposed at every step.
They wear a kind of sunbonnet of the
same material as their dress, shapeless,
limp and tapping around their brown
and sallow face.
The young girls are so dirty that, if
they have any personal beauty, it is
covered. In early life the teeth are
discolored and decayed, caused doubt
less by their constant use of tobacco.
Men, women and children all chew the
weed inceSsantly, and also smoke ami
use snuff. Splitting with these people
is not only habit, it i, a pastime.
BY long practice they have acquired a
surprising skill in emitting tobacco
juice from between his teeth, sending
it with a peculiar Kissing sound to a
distance of nine or ten feet, always
aiming at some object directly in front
ofthem, and seldom failing to hit it.
They can spit at long range with the
same precision and Certainty with
which they shoot, being as sure to hit
the mark at ten feet with tobacco juice
as they are to bring down the squirrel
from the top of the tallest tree with
their unerring rifle. The two highest
accomplishments with the men are to
be able to shoot and spit well, and men
and women both actually hold splitting
matches.