The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-02-07
TENNESSEE MOUNTAINEERs.
People Who Live in 1Vindowless Cabins bu
Have Black Walnut Fences.
From the Chicago Tribune

Have Black Walnut Fences.
From the Chicago Tribune
81 always had an idea that the stories we
read about the ignorance of the people living
i'll the mountain regions of Tennessee were ex-
aggerations, said Chicago man who lately
made visit to tho southeastern part of that
state. "But now / know better These reports
are not only true, but the facts have not been
half told. am not easily astoniShed, but L
confess l was astonshed by what saw in Ten
nessee. Why, there are lots of 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 curled out of their chimneyS. | knew
there was o time when people lived in houses
that had no windows in them, but | never
dreamed that such state of affairs existed in
this enlightened age Yet there are plenty of
such habitations in Tennessee. And the people
who live in them are quite as much represen-
tatives 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. Twill say, however,
that with them ignorance is decidedly blissful.
To possess rifle or q shotgun and a 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 am
munition.
zone day man whom I met had occasion
to go from his home to the county seat. He
was man of more intelligence than most of
his follows, but he 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
seat asked him what he thought Of what he
saw. WELL said he, all got ter say is this :
If this world is rs big on the right nv us rs it
is on the left she must be regular whale.
81 was once riding up i'll the Cumberland
mountains" continued the Chicago man,
"when / saw n bearded mountaineer splitting
big tree he had felled. 1t was huge black
walnut / said to him: My friend. what are
you doing?' I'm maxim fence-rails, was his
reply. Well said, you don't mean to tell
me you are making fence rails out of that
piece of timber?' why, sartin. That's good
log, amt to- 1t was as fine black walnut
log as ever saw, and if my friend had known
enough to got somebody with few oxen or
mules to drag the log to the railroad he could
have sold it for $780, for it was worth moro
than that
''But it is not oily the mountaineers whose
density of Ignorance is astonishing. observed
case notable as showing i'll q striking manner
why the south is far behind the rest of the
country In the matter of progress. The lum-
| Der used i'll Tennessee for building purposes is
poplar, as the mountains are full of il and pine
| is scarce. Saw-mils are established in the
| 'coyes,' and the milllnan cuts up logs hauled
| TO his saws by the mountainous. He pays Il
| certain sum for logs, and then, figuring COM
pensation for his work of saving sets price
on his product. 1t happened that at the time
| l was in Tennessee the price of lumber was
| $13 per 1000 feet. A man of my acquaintance
was having house built, and determined to
| have the interior finished 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 astonished on being told
| that the price would be just the same as for
| poplar-S18 per 1000. That sawmill man will
| probably never got rich. Had he taken his hard
| wood and cedar lumber to the railroad and
shipped it to Chattanooga or Nashville it
would there have brought him So or $50 per
| 1000.
conc more yarn" adaed the Chicago man,
"a big strapping boy came into the grocery
store while | was there and offered bag Of
| hickory nuts for sale. He wanted quarter for
them. To afford me little amusement the
storekeepor threw down IS goldpiece and
asked tho boy if he would sell them for that.
! NO, stree, he said you can't cheat me. /
want a quarter The storekoeper aftel ward
told me that the boy didn't know what the
| gold piece was. lie said the boy, like most
people in that region, had no conception what
| ever of any amount Of money exceeding dol
lar. That was his limit, beyond which his
! fancy declined to carry him"