River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1892-08-18
MOUNTAIN pEspERApoEs.
rhey Have Made Part. Of Kentucky Oar


The sentence to death of Talton Hall,
he mountain desperate. is another
evidence that the wild country extend
ng along the borders of West Virginia.
Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee and
farther south is making an effort to
iree itself from the various desperadoes
and bands of desperadoes who have
.ong given to these sections n character
not in accordance with American civil
cation. For several generations it has
been impossible to secure the convic-
ton of murderer there. If the courts
themselves were not influenced by par
asanship, tas witnesses We're afraid to
testify, and no man suffered for taking
inother's life unless the friends of that
other took his own in payment. This
was the case in the most isolated neigh
oorhoods, which were almost as COM
pletely shut out from the world as
4 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
lesperadoes have been punished. Some
have been hanged, others are in the
oenitentiary for life, and since the law
aow gives some protection, witnesses
ire not afraid to offer their evidence.
Thus more convictions are sure to fol-
ow, and in time the once half-wild pop
alation of the Alleghenies will become
as orderly as the inhabitants of any
,ther part of the union.
There have been many false impress
Iions concerning these mountain feuds
md battles. 1t has often been said
that they will offer good material for
he future novelist when time shall
nave thrown a little romance over them.
Perhaps they will, but there is no ro-
nance about them at present, though
The latter argument is not valid against
the novel writer, for we have always
believed that Scott's picturesque high
and outlaws were in reality the COM
honest sort of cattle thieves and as.
Iassins. who wore dirty clothes and
ineaked around the mountains because
hey were too lazy to work.
In the same manner the writer will
have to give his Imagination very vigor-
Dus exercise when he deals with the
iesperadoes of the Alleghenies. They
are an i@le, worthless set, who prey
apon and bully the industrious and or
Derby portion of the community, while
nearly al 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
Tor disappointment. Usually they are
small, sallow and shrunken, shufiing
Of gait, unsteady of eye and never erect
IF 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 eve = adj
vantage. The proper name for it Is not
lighting, but assassination. Usually a
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-
Iessly as if they were men, and it has
been favorite method for one faction
to surround a cabin at night, set it on
FIRE and shoot the inmates as they ran
out. Such things as these show of
what stuff the braves of the Alleghen-
les are made.
1t should also be known that the des-
psradoes form but small fraction of
the 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-
teved of the incubus of the desperadoes,
which they will be, will give to their
coun Try a reputation for peace and
good behavior. Herald.