The World. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1891-1896, 1892-10-13
QUEER IOUEILIEEERs.
THE PECULIAR PEOPLE FOUND m EAST
TENNESSEE.

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Dsink whistey asd shoot.
The southern pountaincers, from the
Oxarks to the Blue Ridge and far on east
ward up into the AIleghanies, have cause
70 complain OF Misrepresentation. Writ
ers Of romances, wearing kid gloves,
glossy shoes and immaculate linen, have
for years been writing Of these mountain
people-judging them all from the speci-
mems seen loafing upon hotel verandas or
peddling fruit In the towns.
There IL no poetry In the mountains. II
mountaineer should feel poetry in his
bones he would make a bee-line run for
the nearest wildcat still and apply the
sovereign snake bite remedy internally
until he recovered his senses.
The only poetry he ever hears IL the
peroration Of . candidates speech or the
long metre hymn lined out Sundays by
the circuit rider. The homeopathic doses
In which he takes these will convince
people who know him that the mount
aineer II very practicaI- minded man.
Nor are there any Apollos Of manly
beauty among the mountaineers.
The men are either little, scrawny,
leather skinned, 'possom- faced fellows;
lank, lean, sallow and snaggle- toothed
men ofmiddle size; or great, big, paunehy,
blear-eyed brutes, splay- footed and
bushy- headed as buffalo bulls. Ninety
nine mountain men in q hundred are
built according to some one OF these
specifications and the odd man Is apt to
combine the worst traits Of all
They can all shoot, though. The little,
weazen faced moonshiner dwarf can
handle just as big a gun, and do it as well,
as the Goliath OF the mountains. Indeed,
it is common saying in the mountains,
"The littler the man the bigger the
game"
To shoot plumb to centre every time,
fight his weight in wildcats, and make
better corn whiskey than any other man
10 the triple ambition of every dweller
among the crags. These are points upon
which 1t Is wise to accept the mount
aineers own assertion.
He will, II desired, back 1t mp with
satisfactory-or unsatisfactory proof,
but 1t Ii difficult to say which is the most
disagreeable, the gun, the plain fight, OF
q drink of the best " whiskey. Either
one 10 apt to prove fatal /" when you first
try it," rs Patrick Mulhatton, ex-Deputy
United States Marshal, said. Ii was his
last joke. The male mountaineer 10 an
animal pure and simplest least, he is
very simple NJ . man, and pure animal.
He has no romance, manly beauty nor in-
nate refinement In him. He 10 q big, ugly
brute, and extremely unreliable a. q
friend or an enemy.
The women are not beautiful It 10 on
rare occasions that even q pretty girl ID
met, and these are very young. Early
marriage or misfortune makes /" old
women Of them, and snuff dipping, in
diligence with the men In drinking the
fiery, oily homemade whiskey, and con-
slant exposure, regardless of personal
care, soon give them the appearance OF
sWarthy, hollow checked, thin-chested
wrecks.
Life Ii very prosaic affair in the
mountains, q losing conflict with dirt,
poverty and disease at home, and almost
inevitably with the law in some shape
abroad. The mountaineer is born law
breaker; more, however, through want
of thought than with evil intent. He is,
above all, a child OF freedom, a law unto
himself. Where thousand men feel this
way internal conflicts are inevitable, and
the same spirit brings them into conflict
with the Federal Government.
The mountaineer is miserabiy poor,
and rarely has dollar OF his own money
aside from the returns from his still. His
farm consists OF small "patch here
and there on the stony, unresponsive
hills. For 1t is often impossible to get a
field of any considerable size in one piece
in country SO broken that one has to
drive into the next county to find a
level place big enough to skin beef on, Z.
and where man can sit before his fire.
side, and, looking up the chimney, see
his COW grazing on the mountain side.
The millers and distillers are the lnoneyed
men OF the country. The mills are home
built affairs, primitive as a boys hutter-
mill, placed in narrow gorges OF the
creeks, and the distilleries are equally
cheap and simple.
A copper kettle and a coil of hollow
pipe are all he need trouble about. The
mountaineer makes for himself from the
tree trunks about him the necessary tubs,
casks, &c. In the beginning, when he ia
desperately poor, indeed, he uses his
wife's dinner kettle or washpot--Which
she got from her folks when she married
and ~detaching the long barrel of his
old fashioned muzzle-loading rifle con-
verts it for time into a very serviceable
worm.
A cool mountain stream in secluded
nook furnishes the needed water, and the
friendly miller readily chops up his
"turn" of corn into coarse meal. The
lonely, illiterate, poverty stricken mount
aineer, with his % contrivance, is then
ready to begin contest with the govern
ment that may bring bread, meat and
clothes to his family, but will surely cost
him his liberty and possibly his life.
In either Of these unfortunate events
the Illicit whiskey maker will regard
himself and all his neighbors will regard
him as sadly wronged person. They
cannot apparently see the matter in the
same light that outsiders do. The corn
is theirs, the water is free, and the tools
are their own. Why 10 it any more Q
crime to make whiskey from their own