The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-08-20


in the service brought on Keeling YER
tigo, which made railroading danger
ous. So he came back to his rather bar
rem farm. However, in this land of
plain living his $12 month will nearly
keep a small family. AS I trudged on
to this place another citizen, apparently
not thoroughly reconstructed, pointed
out to me with great glee where 'tOld
Burnside and his cannon stuck in the
mud. - If said mud was any worse that
winter than it was when 1 walked
through it, my only wonder is that the
army could even make a start, for this
has been d wet season, and the red clay
hills of Stafford county are WEAKNESS
20 the legs
In traversing this state on any paral-
lei and still more in going up the water
slope one notices some very interesting
changes both in the country and people.
Virginia, as it was before the war, and
to some extent still is, consisted Of four
tolerably distinct typographical sections,
inhabited by four very distinct peoples.
First was tide water Virginia Here
were the old immortal families-Was
ington, Lee, Gusts, Monroe, Beverly
and so on down to Taliaferro, pro-
nounced Tolliver. The limit of this sec
ton is marked by line Of big cities,
which are all at the head of navigation
Washington, Fredericksburg, Rich
mond and Petersburg.
Within a few miles westward, or up
to the slope across this line, a great
change is observed There the early set
tiers were sturdy middle class yeomen
like Peter Jefferson, the father of
Thomas. Among the first were many
exiled Presbyterians from the north of
Ireland. Into this section from the aris-
tocratic region came younger sons, over
seers who had saved some money, bank
rupts and men who had lost their first
standing, but were still ''good hvers, -
as the local phrase goes, and all these
together made up the population which
extends to the Blue Ridge
A Matter of Speech.
Crossing the ridge into the valley, one
notes a still greater change. That re-
gion was largely settled by an overflow
from Pennsylvania and Maryland and
then from far New England, with col
onies of Dunkers, Moravians and the
last Presbyterian exiles from Derry,
Antrim and Down. Finally 1 900 or
1900 Hessians, who were captured at
Saratoga and sent here because provi-
sions were cheap, returned as settlers
after the war. To this day the pronunci-
alton of educated people in the valley is
rather like that of Massachusetts, The
greatest change of all, however, is found
in crossing the Alleghanies westward.
In 1860 much of West Virginia was, and
in some parts it still is, wilder than the
widest part Of Montana, more western
than the most secluded valley in Cali
fornia and more ''Hoosier" than the
most undeveloped section of southern
Indiana or Illinois.
Into one group of counties which con-
sist of little four or five acre patches of
tillable lard, intermingled with from 3
to so times as much rocky wilderness,
fed all the runaway apprentices of the
old colonial system and every man who
had committed some offenSe that eXclud-
ed him from decent society and yet was
not sufficient to send him to state pris-
on. Many of the originals were trans
ported from England for the good of
their native land, and only the most
reckless of them had the energy to run
away. Later they were joined by every
called rusty" and along with them
came all the restless and loose footed
men who preferred to fish and hunt and
lounge rather than work and a few peo-
pie of tolerably solid character.
The whole highland region of the
middle south furnished that overflow
which gave rise to the typical "Hoo-
sier'' Of southern Indiana, the "swamp
sucker of southern Illinois, the "pike"
of Missouri and, finally, the rabble of
the plains which struggled across to the
Pacific even before the annexation Of
that territory have met them every
where, from the old fields of Carolina
to the Willamette and the Sacramento,
and everywhere recognized the long,
lank, loose jOinted man, the yellow
dogs, the lean cattle and the peculiar
intonation which no standard vowel
signs can represent. dramatically the
language is a mixture of African negro
idioms, pennsylvania Dutch literal
" translated into English and degen-
crate form of the dialect of the west Of
England, and its main characteristic is
that it differs from English and Latin
and follows the analogy Of Greek and
French in doubling the negatives In
fact, it seems to be a point with the
earnest speaker to put in as many mega
tives as possible.
The Select z. f. VS..
Probably no select class in the world
has so completely maintained it's blood
| by refusal of marriage with the other
! classes as the so. called ''F. +. V. 50 of
| Virginia, and so it resulted that the two
great streams have flowed side by side
for a century and a half without inter
mingling. Thus it came about that Vir-
| ginia supplied US in the west with our
best and our worst. Everywhere natives
of Virginia were prominent as our ora
! -, laxrx-orc ana v,raaobore