The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1890-03-19

many of these mountain passes. IL ID
n narrow defile between the overhang-
ing rocks of mountain, which by
some convulsi6n of nature must have
split in twain Great, rough stones,
covered and wrsathed with laurel from
the bottom of the pass to the apex,
afford impenetrable hidingplaces from
which the riders can he plainly seen,
while the bushwhacker is as much out
of sight as though he had never ex-
listed. Land spectators Mt one time
some years ago were as badly hated as
were the officers of the law, and they
Jared roughly when caught, although
that fact has changed considerably OF
late. Some years ago land specula-
tor, whom Twill call Brown, as the story
man, and a Baptist preacher started
through the mountains toward Cum
berland Gap. They were riding splen-
did horses, and, of course, carried the
old-time saddle-bags with them. They
had not gotten into Crackers Neck fifty
yards before they were halted by sew
eral armed men, whom they did not see
at all until the guns were stuck almost in
their faces. They were dismounted in
jiffy, and while one of the men went
through their clothing and saddle
bags the others stood guard over them.
The spectators papers soon betrayed
his business, but the documents car
ried by the preacher were a puzzle.
They were sermons. The speculator
was tied to a tree and whipped with
wythes most numerically, after which
his hands were tied and he was seated
on log while the gang tried to olsen
tangle the preachers documents. They
were written in miserable hand at
best, as the preacher afterward admit
ted. The only thing either of the gang
could make out was the title to one OF
the sermons, Saved from the Wreck.
After porting over it for some time
the leader said to the preacher:
Say, mister, was it steamboat or
train you was blowed up on? 2"
The preacher then told the men that
he was man of God and that he was
merely going through the mountains to
North Carolina, where he was going to
take charge of church. After talking
the matter over for some time they gave
the preacher his horse and other prop
erty and told him he might go on, but
advised him to go back, as he would
be more apt to find the devil than God
in these mountains. The Spectator
was cleaned out and started back afoot
and advised never to attempt to come
into that country again, and / don't be-
lieve he ever did.
This is the character of the country
wild, mountainous and almost inn
penetrable, and thinly populated by a
people who are hundred years be-
hind the times and who to-day are liv-
ing over again in a somewhat modified
form the lives of their ancestors of a
century ago. Is it any wonder, then,
that the Hatfields and McCoys, the
Tollivers, Underwoods, and others of
like ilk can and do defy the laws and
laugh at the efforts of courts, backed
as they often are 10y companies of sol
diers and even batteries of artillery ?
Nothing but a greater civilization can
or will remedy these troubles, but that
seems now in fair way of accomplish
ment, as several railroads are projected
and more than one commenced through
the hills and valleys of this rich but at
present almost valueless country.