Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-10-12

I was Influenced in my decision to allow
him to come along by talk had with
mountaineer up country.
II reckon it's called Egypt" he said.
because it's a place of heather darkness;
go is that it's the widest. toughest and most
inaccessible mountain country, inhabited
by the toughest, savagest and most lswless
community anywhere to be found in the
State. They average man a week killed
up there-shot or stabbed. Officers can
scarcely be found to go in there for the pur-
pose of serving warrants. 1t is regular
haunt of illicit stills. Revenue men don't
trouble them much, from the fact that, if
one bolder or more jealous than most of his
fellows gets in there he's seldom heard from
again. The men--not all of them, of course,
but the majority-are rough, wild, reck-
less, devllish set, fne-looking often, and
sometimes with a certain dash, bravado and
attracti veness about them that the more
humble and decent grubbers of the soil
lack.
WOMEN DO ALL THE WORK.
They hunt, fish, drink whisky, Loaf around
the little stores of the settlement, gambling
and fighting, while the women-some of
them ill-used slaves. but many no better
than the men-do such work, in house and
field, as is done. I heard some fellows up
there discussing brutal shooting affair, in
which one man had killed another In cold
blood.
"'Was he arrested p asked.
Nav, responded the narrator, with a
surprised circumfex, she never killed but
one man.
Well, we reached the southern edge of
Egypt about noon. The landscape and
surroundings here underwent a gradual
change as we progressed. The country grew
wilder and more rugged, but was much
more thickly settled. Just at dusk we
rode up to big rambling house. consisting
of number of small ones, evidently built
at different times, and Joined together in
irregular formlessness by open passages and
porches, some one or two being entirely de-
tached. While some one came out and
minded the hounds off, us, my brother
in-law remarked: Now, my lady, 1 think
you'll get enough of this thing right here.
This is about the toughest place and the
hardest lot we have to encounter" and
upon the heels Of this we went into the
house, without my having time to reply. I
was braced to the point of mental and
moral rigidity, and it was well.
AN INTERIOR VIEW.
1t was Rembrandt Interior. No light
except big open fire, where the supper
was being cooked, and around which hung
q number of shock-headed, vacant-eyed chill
dren and the whole gang of gaunt, hungry
looking hounds - the latter kicked and
cuffed away every few minutes, with much
tumuIt and riot. As my eyes grew accus-
toned to the light examined the surround
ings. There was bed, thought. in each
of the four corners of the room, made by
boring hole in a log at the right distance
from the corner on each side and inserting
poles, these two poles being supported where
they met at the outer corner by post. Then
a framework of withes is woven across, and
the bedding laid on.
found, when light was made by means
of rag floating in small pan of grease,
that the fourth one of these primitive
structures was our dining table: and in the
log at my corner was bored an auger hole,
which served as salt cellar. The supper OF
corn bread. sweet potatoes, possum, rabbit
and coffee (with sorghum) was not bad, and
I ate notwithstanding the repulsive-not to
say disgusting-looking children an0 the
reproachful gIances of the hounds.
DIDN'T SLEEP ALIKE.
When the tobacco business had been set
tied, Mr.. Bernard asked about the sleeping
arrangements, and the woman showed US
two rooms with real beds in them. I was
so tired 1 slept soundly. The next morning,
after breakfast which was an exact repro
duction of the last nights supper, rabbit,