The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-11-21
THE MouNTAlNEERs.
Some Real Facts in Regard to Them Inter-
estingIy Told.
Washington Start

An interesting article appears in the
Star of the 18th instant, purporting te
give results of observations by DR. J
II. Porter while prosecuting scientific
researches among the southern ALE.
ghanies. Some popular fallacies are
exposed, while others more hurtful are
reiterated. L was born and reared among
these same mountains, and, as school
teacher, timber agent, special deputy col
lector and special examiner for the bu-
reau of pensions, have had ample oppor.
tunity to study the natives and know
fairly well their peculiarities of belief,
yernacular and habits. There is scarcely
a section, however remote, in western
North Carolina, east Tennessee, south
western Virginia and southeastern Ken
lucky with which l am not familiar
with every cross-road and by-path.
Observations as to the use of whisky
and the snuff habit will admit of modi-
ications in a large degree. The men of
the mountains do use whisky-that is,
justifes the statement that vastly
smaller proportion are addicted to its
abuse, or use, than in the cities of the
south elsehere. The whisky manufac-
tured by Bill. Nye's "mountain chemists"
is generally sold to bar-keepers in the
nal revenue stamps. Habitual drunken
ness is looked upon by the mountain
people as a great disgrace, and the use of
whisky for other than medicinal pur-
poses is regarded as ground sufficient for
the expulsion of the offender from almost
any church. 1t is just to say that the
snuff habit exists in isolated cases.
Some of the women use snuff-usually
old ones--in the most remote districts.
Among the young girls the habit is not
found, except in the worst classes. The
average mountain girl is Disguised at
the thought of such a habit and she is in
no danger of taking up the cigarette
habit, which is becoming too
prevalent among certain of the female
population of our cities.
The popular belief on this point is
quite misleading. Among the older
people signing by mar. is too common.
They had little opportunity to acquire
education. They, or their fathers, were
pioneers of the mounains. They cleared
the forests, built roads, erected rude
structures for worship and were kept
hard at work to keep the wolf from the
door. They had no trade except among
themselves, and the men manufactured
their own farm implements, even nails,
by means of the old fashioned hammer
and anvil in the rude FORCES of the coun-
try. Many OF them knew something of
the three i" Rs" "readin', 'ritin', and
'rithmetic," while Some of the more
q vsk-~ 10 -
Quotations. There are few of the young
er generations who cannot read and
write and "cipher too" There are few
young men, especially in the mountains
of east Tennessee, who have not mas
tered the rudiments OF English grammar
and the common school arithmetic.
For the latter theysseem tosshave..particu-
lar aptitude. A large. Percentage of
them have fair knowledge of algebra,
cemetery, trigonometry, and some of
them would give Yale and Harvard
graduates points on integral and differ
entail calculus and idiomatic Latin and
Greek. In one Of the widest sections
Of that whole mountain region, of my
personal knowledge, nine young men
have taken classical courses-three of
them at Yale. They did not belong to
families above the, average, and literally
worked their way through college. Some
of them took thigh rank. in their classes
none of them were below the average.
Yes, to some extent, but
only among 1.-The. most ignorant classes,
which form smaller proportion of pop
ulation than in our large cities. There
are some who believe with Longfellow
that
GAIL houses wherein men have lived
and died are haunted houses
there are places in almost every com
munity-houses where mysterious deaths
have occurred, spots by the wayside
where human blood ha been shed
where the simply folk quicken their foot
farmer boy is apt to experience creepy
feeling up his spinal column and ten
dency on the part of his hair to lift his
hat from his head, and if he does not
whistle some wild rollicknig mountain
air to keep up his courage he will proba-
bly, break into run. There are legends
among the people not unlike those of
Herne the Hunter, the Flying Dutch
man, and the Headless Hessian. While
the people of these mountains are largely
Scotch-Irfsh, there are great number
who are Of German extraction. And,
SO farssas have been able to judge, most
of the superstitions that have existed
consisted OF the localization of the folk
lore of the Germans. There are traditions
have few points of difference from
Hackelberg- ljager-shell hunter
as he is called by the Germans, who was
condemned to hunt on until the iudg-
ment because he hunted on SUNDAYS.
He hunts accompanied by two dogs, in
heaven all the year around, except at
Christmas, when he hunts on earth.
Should one of his dogs run into a house
as his master rushes by he will lie down
in the ashes and nothing can make
him stir until the year has gone around
and the hunter leaves again. He brings
bad luck to the household where he takes
up his abode. Then have hear in these
mountains another legend not unlike
Frederick Barbarrossa-"R Beardn-
sleeping with his knights around him
under the ravens hill until his red
beard had grown through the table on
which his head is resting These are
simply legends-beyond the experience
of the Oldest inhabitants attaching to
some locality-believed by nobody.
There are, however, superstitions of more
recent date, and without suspicion of
classical origin. In certain localities
there are people who reco ant experiences
of personal contact with haunts. One
favorite method the haunts have for
amusing themselves is to get on horses,
at certain points, behind their riders and
ride to some other certain point ON the