Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-08-02

very seldom convinced by argument and would rather die than yield to force. Into this section from the aristocratic region came younger sons, overseers who had saved some money, bankrupts 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 still greater change. That region was largely settled by an overflow from Pennsylvania and Maryland and then from far New England, with colonies of Dunkers, MoraVians and the last Presby- terian exiles from Derry, Antrim and Down. Finally 1000 or 5000 Hessians, who were captured at Saratoga and sent here because provisions were cheap, re- turned as settlers after the war. To this day the pronunciation of educated people in the valley is rather like that of Massa- chusetts. In StauntOn, Harrisonburg and Winchester, for instance, one rarely hears the ''haef'' and ''hade'' of the far south for half and head, but often the broad old English of the middle shires which children from other sections satirize in the familiar sentence, Ut made me lahf to see the cahf go down the pahth in minute and hahf' The greatest change of all, however, is found in crossing the Ale ghanies 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 val ley in California and more 'Hoosier" than the most undeveloped section of southern Indiana or Illinois.
 Into one group of counties which consist of little four or five acre patches of tillable land, intermingled with from to 50 times as much rocky wilderness, fled all the runaway apprentices of the old colonial system and every man who had commit ted some offense that excluded him from decent society and yet was not sufficient to send him to state prison. Many of the originals were transported 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 man who had committed what they 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 few people of tol- erably solid character.
 The whole highland region of the mid ! dle south furnished that overflow which gave rise to the typical "Hoosier" of south ern Indiana, the swamp sucker" of south | ern Illinois, the pike of Missouri and | finally the rabble of the plains which | struggled across to the Pacific even before l the annexation of that territory. 1 have met them everywhere, from the old fields of Carolina to the Willamette and the Sac ramento, and everywhere recognized the long, lank loose jointed men, the yellow dogs, the lean cattle and the peculiar into | nation which no standard vowel signs can represent. Grammatically the language is 0 mixture of African negro idioms, ''Penn- sylvania Dutch," literally translated into English and a degenerate form of the dia- lect of the west of England, and its main l characteristic is that it differs from Eng | fish and Latin and follows the analogy of 1 Greek and French in doubling the mega | tives. In fact, it seems to be point with the earnest speaker to put in as many neg atives as possible. Thus the tramping | farmland says to a farmer, "You don t | know O nobody what don't want to hire | nobody to do nothin nowhere around here, | don't you?" and the farmer replies, "No, | 1 don't"
 The Select F. F. V.'s.
 | Probably no select class in the world has | 50 completely maintained its blood by re fusal of marriage with the other classes as
 the so called IF. F. Y. 's'' of Virginia, and
 so it resulted that the two great streams l
 a half without inter1ningling. Thus ii
 came about that Virginia supplied us in
 the west with our best and our worst. Ev'
 anywhere natives of Virginia were promi
 nent as our orators, statesmen, lawyers
 and preachers, and it is claimed that 6
 section of the old state containing no more
 than 10000 square miles has produced
 more governors, congressman, general:
 and great orators than any other equa
 area since the golden age of Athens. Thi'
 division illustrates also the most curious
 phenomenon of the war. As in the border
 states of the north active and dangerous
 sympathy with the rebellion could only bt
 found, aside from the city rabble, in tht
 regions where these 'mcan whites" wer'
 most numerous, so in the central soutl
 Union sentiment was strongest in the re
 zion which Pollard characterized as "th'
 land of rocks, fist fights and ignorance
 It isn't very flattering to the pride o
 either side, but we may as well admit thu
 hard, cold truth-tho bone and sinew ant
 brain of the south went into the rebellion
 and, looking back 31 years later, it's thousand wonders that they did not mak } it a success J. H. BEADLE.