New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-11-03
THE FEUD.
EPISODES OF SOUTHERN LIFE


In Mark Twain's TIucklcbcrry FINN tho hero II
one place says to his friend. Buck GraneeI1oru
Just after he (Buck had shot at Harvey shepcrueof
In the woods:
ibid you want to XIII him. Buckl'
dwell, bet did,
"What did he do 10 you7"
"Himl He done nothing TO me-
"Well. then. what did you want 10 kill him lor'
"why, nothing-only It's on account Of tho feud'
whats foud15
"why. where was you raised1 Don't YOU kno"
what feud isl"
Never heard Of IL before-teI me about IT,
"wen,n says Buck. :" a feud is this wav n n'ol
has quarrel with another and Kills MIN u'ou
that other mans brother kills him. then tho osno'
brothers, on both sides, goes for one another 'uo.
tho cousins chip Inland by andby everybody 1"o.
of, and there amt no more feud. But us n
slow and takes long tmon
Bucks ideas Of a feud do lot seom to have 80
very clear, but perhaps no knew nearly as muo"
about them as anybody. The particular ieuu no
interested in had been going on some thirty 49,,
and there had been "a right smarp -
of funerala' He free TO admit that his To-
had got q few buckshot IN him." but no was -,
couraged the past years work." VIC got ono :,
they got onc' Buck about fourteen Soai' -.
age and hoped soon TO "get one himsei-anu ~
did, and was got" himself by the other SUD
"Huckloberry Finn is fiction, but 1t gives 80 -
good account of old-tme Southern ieuu' -
said that an old English castle is not complc'e
does not have a ghost, and 1t might almost W nc
that no Southern family living In the ruIa ,
tricts IS Just what 1t should be without goou' -
feud-few such families Of large size whlch n.
lived in the community for many years are whhou'
such an in Institution at least II may not be So oO ~,
as some which have recently been brought 10 P"omr
attention in Kentucky-n fact there may never u I
bloDdshed at al-but the thorough undying na,i'" =,
some other neIghborIng family will usually ~ 10
found. Nor are they all confined l."
South though IL is here that they lo''"-
their greatest perfection, and we hhu
man killing another man because their groaFsr"'1
fathers had some trouble which neither knows 'n'
thing about. In fact, 1t is probably owing Hoio y" -
different conditions under which the peopio ~
lived in the North and South than 10 inc uin0',, 49,"
IN temperament which makes more lar'ca"',,o
feuds IN one than IN the Other stasnauon ~
movements Of the population Is the great ui','.g
ing cause of family tends In the North uoN,.
children NAV grow I'D in family and not one Oh
them settle down 20 live within a hundred nii'o'
or more OF their old home-they go West or " "
cities the Irresistible Yankee instinct TO move vi
seldom allows a clan OF any size to accnIhu'"' -
II were. In any one locahV' ,o
the South especially In the more ~, =,
sections It Is no uncommon thing to ma s'',o -
families. or some times nearly half the people III :"
county. morc or loss closely related, the malorl'y
hearing a common name And there is pretty SUR
TO be another family Of about the same size IN ~Io
same county and Il is also pretty nkeiy 1hA' w -,
Is some misunderstanding between them anu a ~
has ripened into open war We have feud' IInn'
and stagnation aided and abettcd by merry ulspo'i
tons, and perhaps usually somewhat 10" n''I =.
tone are the great promoters OF feuds. ~
quarrel Is good thing but not absolutely ne'csS'
Time IS the main thing. and Sir Lucius olr1gs'r' ""o
could start quarrel bring II 10 its height ana nave
meeting arranged for its settlement all inside OF
one fun minute OF sixty seconds. would have hed
supreme contempt for Southern feud, which reduirrs
e quarter Of century to start and fifty years u
make IL really Interesting