St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-02-06
TENNESSEE MOUNTAINEERS.
People Who Live in Windowless
Cabins, But Have Black Walnut

Fences.
Chicago Tribune
81 always had an idea that the stories
we read about the ignorance OF the peO-
pie living in the mountain regions of
Tennessee were eXaggeratiOns," said a
Chicago man who lately made visit to
to the southeastern part of that state.
''But now | know better. These re-
ports are not only true, but the facts
have not been half told. l am not
| easily astonished, but [ confess l was
astonished by what. l saw in Ten
| men down there who have grown
old and have raised families who can
neither read nor write, and have never
| in their lives been far enough away
| from their homes to lose sight of the
| smoke that curied out OF their chimneys.
| l knew there was time when people
| lived in houses that had no windows in
| them, but | never dreamed that such
state of affairs existed in this enlight-
| ened age. Yet there are plenty of such
habitatiOns in Tennessee, and the peo-
pie who live in them are quite as much
| representatives of civilization as their
| dwellings. They have no knowledge
| whatever of the existence of world
that extends beyond the range of their
vision on clear day. will say, how
ever, that with them ignorance is decid-
| eddy bliSSful. To possess a rifle or a
| shotgun and jug of whisky is the
| limit of their ambition. They know
nothing of the value of money except
as regards its power to purchase liquor
and ammunition. -
Zone day man whom met had Oc
casion to go from his home to the county
| m N fnl
gence than most of his fellows, abuthe
had never in his life been away from
home before. He had never seen a
| town. The nearest approach to. one
| he had seen was the collection of houses
about the store where he sold his truck
and bought his bacon. When he got
back from the county seat L asked him
what he thought of what he saw.
| 'Well,' said he, all | got ter say is this:
| If this world is as big on the right NV us
as 1t is on the left she must be reglur
! Whale.'
81 was once riding up in the Cumber-
land mountains" continued the Chi
/ cagO man, ''when l saw bearded
1 mountaineer splitting big tree he had
felled. 1t was huge black walnut. 1
said to him: My friend, what are you
dOing?' Pm maxim fence rails, was
i his reply. 'Wen,' l said you
uOH mean 10 tell me you are making
fence-railS out of that piece of timber?
4 why, sartin. That's good log, amt
I it?' 1t was as fine black walnut log as
4 Lever saw, and if my friend had known
4 enough to get somebody with few oxen
4 or mules to drag the log to the railroad
4 he could have sold it for $500, for it was
\ worth more than that.
| ."But it is not only the mOuntaineerS
| whose density of ignorance is aStOnish-
ing. observed case notable as show
ing in striking manner why the South
is so far behind the rest of the country
in the matter of progress. The lumber
| used in Tennessee for building pur-
poses is poplar, as the mountains are
full of it and pine is scarce. Sawmills
are established in the 'coves,' and the
millman cuts up logs hauled to his saws
by the mOuntaineers. He pays certain
sum for logs, and then, figuring compen-
Sation for his work of saving,
sets a price on his product. 1t
happened that at the time l
was in Tennessee the price of lumber
was SIS per 1000 feet. A man of my ac-
quaintance was having house built,
and determined to have the interior fin
ished with hardwood and red cedar,
which abounded in that region. Ac-
cOrdingly he asked the sawmill man
what he would charge for lumber of the
kind wanted. My friend was greatly
Pastonished on being told that the price
would be just the same as for poplar
| SIS per 1000. That sawmill man will
| probably never get rich. Had he taken
his hardwood and cedar lumber to the