News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1895-12-12
PENNSYLVANIA MOUNTAINOUS.
They Live in Primitive style, Regardless

They Live in Primitive style, Regardless OF
the Busy, Rushing World.
Moonshining is secretely carried on
all over the mountains. 1t is the
earnest conviction of those people
=, hat they have divire light to con
, vert the product of their farms into
liquor, which they can readily dis
pose of at a better price than they
can the raw products. They still
hold to the principle for which all
western Pennsylvania rose in arms
ever century ago, but they are no
more ancient in this contention than
they are in all their modes of life.
Within the mountain cabin every
thing is as primitive as without and
roundabout. Most of these are one
story, with loft above, and contain
Tut two small apartments. Built
against the log building is the mas
sive stone chimney, and the chink
| holes between the notched logs OF
which the ca bin is built are filed with
mud. All the furnishings are rude
and mostly home made, and the few
utensils are of the most Anticipated
pattern. The door is low and the
windows few and small. Some cabins
have stairs to the loft, some ladder
and some only pegs. In the |, # the
wife has her weav wing loom, spinning
wheel and reel, and here she kreps her
fl TX and wool. 1t is here that the
material for clothing is spun and
woven. Pine knots and tallow can
dies furnish the light, hut when night
comes the family generally goes TO
bed. Bedsteads are generally made
by the head of the family, but some
times we find fl1shily painted sp'c i.
men, which has descended from sire
to son. Cradles are hewn fro m logs
and the rounded surface serves as
rockers.
If school houses are to be hPralds
of civil 'z4tion then the mountain re-
gion is like the country of the Gauls
before. the coming of Caesar. Way
down toward the foot of the range
we may see little batter ed and faded
building, but few indeed are the chill
dren of the mountain region who en-
Joy its benefits. We scarcely ever
meet man or woman who is able to
read and write intelIigently, and a
daily paper is an entire stranger to
the mountain cabin.
Only the weekly papers reach it,
and these not for a month after they
are issued. The mountaineer has no
occasion to go to the village at the
foot of the range oftener than once
a month. Many of the gray headed
sePrs have never seen railroad, and
plenty of the strapping youths have
never been a dozen miles from home
This is one place, at least, where the
sports of our grandfathers are still
in vogue, and the highest ambition
of a youth or maiden of the region is
to attend log rolling, wood chop
ping, corn husking, house or barn
raising, apple cutting or stone pick
ing, with their accompanying lights
of merrime MT. When the work for
which the fro|ic is held is finished and
supper over the room is cleared, and
the old fiddler appears upon the
scene, and soon the strains of such
old tunes as the "Virginia Reel, y
cold Dan Tucker" and the "Jrish
Washerwoman" fill the evening air
One by one the couples of dancers
take their places, and then ensues a
period of hilarity and uproar that
would rival an Indian powwow.-
Pittsburg Dispatch.