Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-11-21
PENNSYLVANIA MOUNTAINEERs.
They Live In Primitive Style, Regard
less of the Busy, Rushing World.
From the Pittsburg Dispatch.

They Live In Primitive Style, Regard
less of the Busy, Rushing World.
From the Pittsburg Dispatch.
Moonshining Is secretly carried on Ill
over the mountains. 1t Is the earnest con-
viction of those people that they have
divine il not a lawful right to convert the
product of their farms into liquor, which
they can really dispose Of at a better
price than they can the raw products.
They still hold 10 the principle for which
all western Pennsylvania rose in arms over
a century ago, but they are no more
ancient in this contention than they are in
all their modes of life.
Within the mountain cabin everything is
as primitive as without and round about.
Most Of these are one-story, with a loft
above and contain but two small apart
ments. Built against the log building is
the massive stone chimney, and the chink
holes between the notched logs of which
the cabin is built are filled 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 small and few. Some cabins
have stairs to the loft, some ladder, and
some only pegs. In the loft the wife has
her weaving loom, spinning wheel and reel,
and here she keeps her flax and wool.
1t is here that the material for clothing Is
spun and woven. Pine knots and tallow
candles furnish the light. but when night
comes the family generally goes to bed.
Bedsteads are generally made by the head
of the family, but sometimes we find
fashily painted specimen, which has de-
scended from sire to son. Cradles are
hewn from logs and the rounded surface
serves rockers.
If school houses are to be heralds of
civilization then the mountain region is like
the country of the GaulS before the COM
ing of Caesar. Way down toward the foot
of the range We may see a little battered
and faded building, but few, indeed, are
the children of the mountain region who
enjoy its benefits. We scarcely ever meet
man or woman who is able to read and
write intelligently, and a daily paper Is an
entire stranger to the mountain cabin.
Only the weekly papers reach 1t, and
these not for a month after they are issued
The mountafneer has no occasion to go to
the village at the foot of the range oftener
than once month. Many of the gray
headed seers 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 still in vogue and
the highest ambition OF youth or maiden
OF the region is to attend a log rolling,
wood chopping, corn husking, house or
barn raising, apple cutting or stone pick
ing, with their accompanying nights of
merriment. When the work for which the
frollc is held is finished and supper over
the room is cleared, and the old fiddler ap-
of such old tunes as the Virginia Reel
"Old Dan Tucker and the Irish Washer
woman 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.