The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1892-08-18
MOUNTAIN pEsPERApoEa
Fhsy HAVE llaas Parts Of K.ntuoky !. D.r,
: Continent,

MOUNTAIN DE9PERADoE9.
They Have Ma1s Parts Of Kentueky : D.rk
Continent.
The sentence to death OF Talto4 Hail,
tho mountain desperate, is another
evidence that tho wild country extend
Ing along tho borders Of West Virgins,
Virgins, Kentucky and Tennessee and
farther south is making IN effort to
1ree itself from the various desperadoes
and bands of desperadoes who have
long given to these sections a character
not In accordance with American civil
3zation. For several generations it has
been impossible to secure the convic-
ton OF murderer there. If the courts
themselves were not Influenced by par
tisanship, the witnesses were afraid to
testify, and no man suffered for taking
another's life unless the friends of that
other took his own in payment. This
was the case In the most isolated neiph-
borhoods, which were almost as COM
pletely shut out from tho world as
IT they had been located in the South
seas.
But since the miners and the railroad
builders and others have entered these
regions the population is becoming
gradually reclaimed. Many of the worst
desperadoes have been punished. Some
have been hanged, others are in the
penitentiary for life, and since the law
now gives some protection, witnesses
are not afraid.to offer their evidence.
Thus more convictions are sure to fol-
low. and in time the once half-wild pop
ulation of the Alleghenies will become
a. orderly as the inhabitants of any
other part of the union.
There have been many false impress
sions concerning these mountain feuds
and battles. It has often been said
that they will offer good material for
the future novelist when time shall
have thrown q little romance over them.
Perhaps they will, but there is no ro-
nance about them at present, though
tho latter argument is not valid against
tho novel writer, for we have always
believed that SCOTS picturesque high
land outlaws were in reality the com.
monest sort of cattle thieves and as
sassins, who wore dirty clothes and
sneaked around the mountains because
they were too lazy to work.
In the same manner the writer will
have to give his imagination very vigor-
Gus exercise when he deals with the
desperadoes of the Alleghenies. They
are an idle, worthless set, who prey
upon and bully the Industrious and or
derby portion of the community, while
nearly all their feuds are generated and
kept alive by deep rotations at the il
licit distilleries.
There is nothing picturesque or in
spring in the appearance of these des-
peradoes. If the curious expect to see
tall, agile mountaineers, with erect
heads and bold eyes and the manners of
Rob Roy, they can prepare themselves
for disappointment Usually they are
small, sallow and shrunken, shutting
Of gait, unsteady of eye and never erect
Of form, and if the truth must be told
about them they are cowardly. The
most notorious murderers never fight
face to face with their victims and on
equal terms, as the bold outlaws in the
story books do, but they seek every ad-
vantage The proper name for it is not
fighting, but assassination. Usually q
man is ambushed and shot when he is
least expecting danger, and if there is
any open fight at all it is because one
party is able to attack another in over
whelming numbers.
Frequently in these mountain feuds
women and children are killed as merci-
lessly as if they were men, and it has
been favorite method for one faction
to surround a cabin at night, set it on
tire and shoot the inmates as they ran
put Such things as these show of
what stuff the braves of the Alleghen-
les are made.
It should also be known that the des-
peradoes form but small fraction of
tho mountain population, They have
hitherto carried things with such a
high hand that they have given their
bad tone, in the eye Of the public out
side, to the character of all. The great
bulk of the mountaineers of the Allegha-
MES, whether in this state or another,
are law.abiding citizens, and when re-.
loved of the incubus of the desperadoes,
which they will be, will give to their
country reputation for peace and
good Observation-Disclosures Herald.