Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1891-11-26

I
accustomed to such work; then he sud
denly handed them back, and said:
"You unS ken read.'
| | said we both had that accomplish
ment.
"Wa'al, read them papers, and if SO
be it should turn out that you uns can't
read 'em right, then it'd be doggone
sight bettah If yu uns wussn't never
bawn."
read the furloughs exactly as had
written them, the men and the boy
watching me the while IKE hawks.
Then / had to explain my object in car
rying the note book, and at Mr.. ST Kyle's
request I read extracts from that, show
ing that we had been in South Carolina
the week before. This had an excellent
effect. ST Kyle and his brother Mart
and his son Flint shook hands with us
and promised to help us through.
We resumed our march with our
strange allies, and about mile beyond
the place Of meeting we came to bowl
shaped valley, in the center Of which
there was cluster Of log cabins. Here
there was an extensive cornheld, and
the cattle and mules grazing along the
creek, with number of tow headed
and nearly naked children watching
them, showed that Mr.. 81 Kyle was
more prosperous than the average
mountaineer.
/ We were conducted into one Of the
cabins and introduced to Mrs. Kyle,
particularly gaunt woman, with very
long, yellow teeth, and to her daughter,
Sally, wild eyed and rather pretty girl
Of sixteen, whose feet appeared to be as
little acquainted with shoes as her 1.-THE
and supple form was with corsets. There
were two beds in the room, and benches
Of hewn logs with legs fitted In auger
holes answered for chairs. We handed
our guns and trappings to our host, and
Mart Kyle, the brother, brought in
rusty tin can full Of vile smelling raw
whisky and gourd to drink it from.
AS it would be gross breach Of
mountain hospitality to refuse the treat,
drank some to the health Of Mrs. Kyle.
The gourd was passed around, our hostess
and her daughter drinking with the
ready ease that comes Of long practice.
Bell praised the whisky and said that,
good as it was, lie thought that few
months more age would improve it.
Before our supper Of bread, bacon and
milk the gourd was again passed around,
and to my surprise 81 Kyle gave all the
children a drink Of whisky, explaining
\ to me that shit was the best thing iii
4 the world for worms;" then he asked
blessing. a majority Of these noun
\ taineers are of Scotch Irish descent, as
the names and physiognomies indicate,
and the asking Of blessing before meals
/ is simply the survival of an ancestral
custom. 1t did not impress me as hav-
4 ing any religious significance, for Mr..
Kyle and his wife and all the children
swore with remarkable ease and fuency,
and they were as unconstrained in all
their actions as SO many savages.
After supper, and when it was quite
dark, our host proposed that we should
visit the still. 'sAnd ez thar's no KNOWN
4 jest what we uns may expec' in these
( var times, reckon he said, ..ez how
hit mout swell to have yer guns handy,
for no id tax in kind hunter is
gwine to catch 81 Kyle asleep" We
slung our carbines; then, each being
provided with pine knot torch, We
started out
About half mile from the cabin we
entered rocky glen admirably adapted
I for defense. A hundred yards from the
i entrance it widened out into little am
phitheater, and here, set against tow
ering rock, was the still. The stencil
told that there was pigpen in the
vicinity.
The glow from the log building and
the boisterous laughter of men showed
that there were others ahead Of us, and
chat they had been doing their best to
keep Mr.. Kyle's whisky from getting
old. There were eight men in the still
house, all in the prime Of life, all dressed
in butternut trousers and cotton shirts,
and all with powder horns and bullet
pouches slung from their shoulders and
long hunting rifles within reach. These
men shook hands with Bell and myself
as if we We're old friends, and that they
had heard Of our arrival and all about
us was shown by their addressing each
Of us by his proper name.
With the two Kyles there were ten
mountain men in the still house that
night. They were physically strong and
brave, just the fellows for soldiers, yet
not one of them had been in the army.
Nearly all Of them had been conscripted,
and when expressed surprise at their
being able to avoid the service, they
laughed, and declared with much pride
that they had ''desarted, and they ''al-
lowed that if any sojers had come into
the hills to take we uns, they'd had a
Id sight harder time Of hit than if
they run into the Yanks." And these,
| have every reason to believe, fairly
represented the men Of the Blue Ridge
from West Virginia down to Alabama.
Not man Of the party could read,
and their ignorance Of the outside world
was astounding. They We're loud in
their denunciation of '.niggahs and
Yanks," and seemed to have only the
Faguest notion Of the causes that led up
to the war; but they took no pains to
conceal their contempt for the Con
federacy," principally, it would seem,
because of the conscription and the tax
In kind. Stories OF Sherman's advance
On Atlanta had reached them, but 50
long as he kept away from sold Haber-
sham they did not care if he overran
The state; indeed, they rather hoped that
he would do 50, and they were par
ticularly anxious that he should catch
and hang "Old Joe Brown then the
governor Of Georgia.
That night Bell and slept in one Of
the beds with two Of the children. The
oldest girl and another lot Of children
slept in the trundlebed, and 81 Kyle, his
wife and the rest Of the family occupied
the bed across the way. The whole ar
rangement was entirely primitive and
unconventional
After breakfast the next morning Mr..
Kyle, after refusing pay for his hospital
ity, placed some corn bread, bacon and
a bottle of whisky in a bag, which he
gave to Bell; then he accompanied us
for several miles. He gave us directions
which, if followed out, he assured us
would take us, without hurt or harm, T"
to the Tallulah river and the home Of
Sim Sleigh's family.
FRO EE coNTINUED.l