Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-09-07

in Sassafras, the cistern water, which is
used for the laundry, and tones all gar
ments down to a beautiful Quaker gray in
one or two washings, so that the expert
enced lady teachers carried black silk hand
kerchiefs and wore black silk aprons for
the sake Of appearances, and there was
the drinking water, which was of a rich
brown color, and left heavy mineral de-
posit in the bottom of the glass. It was
said that acetic acid would render it COM
paratively harmless.
Compensation and Drawbacks.
There were compensations. The light of
the sun took on rare and wonderful beauty
in that atmosphere of mist and cloud
burning away to a dazzling, intensely blue
sky at midday. The moonlight was as
white as arctic snow and vivid as cleo
tricity There were dark nights, to be sure,
and these have their perils in Sassafras.
Ideala stepped off the veranda one evening
and landed on something round and solid.
which rolled over with grunt. 1t proved
tn be the back of a pig, who had chosen
the path of learning as likely to be n path
OF peace, and Seemed so little disturbed by
the intrusion that 1deala said she felt like
making an apology. A little further on she
saw two white streaks in the darkness,
and found a COW lying directly across the
road. Not being the traditional young
woman in some respects she calmly walk
ed around the beast and went on her way;
but after that she carried a lantern.
The strange, dreamy folklore of the peo-
pie was of unceasing interest to her.
When the railway cut through Cumber-
land Gap, where many dead Of the north
and south are buried in one long trench,
the contractors had to import men to do
the work. The natives refused to dis
turb that trench; they said 1.-The hants
would walk" But their imagination is
crudely improvident even in ghost legends.
One serious-eyed young fellow had YER
sion of his own.
Eyes, thar's a place at Sandy Creek Gap
where they say folks hev viewed some
mighty curious things. The old folks used
to tell about it when l was small, and I'd
get my back right close to their knees and
not dare to go to bed scarcely. They said
If you come up one side of the gap sheep
would come out of the bushes and try to
get up and ride behind you, al If you
come up the other side a man al dressed
in red would come and stand in the path
and make like he goin' to cut you. One
night when I was about eighteen I had to
go through that gap after dark, and when
l started up the road I could feel my hair
rise so l thought 1t would tip my hat on.
Then 1 felt the ground begin to sink, and
l went right careful. By and by 1 looked
up, and there was the settlement in plain
sight. and by the time I got there 1 had
kind O. come to the conclusion that there
warn't no such things as ha'nts. But
when I told the old man that. he looked at
me right curious, and said 'Ah. you were
not born to see sights
Awakening of the MOuntnineer.
The young skeptic ended his story with
CLEAN of demure fun in his deep-set eyes,
and it was evident that local superstitions
had lost their terrors for him. The noun
taineer has awakened from his Rip Van
Wrinkle sleep and is coming down into the
valleys. The great veins of coal in the
Cumberland are Icing opened, and boys
gather in the small towns that spring up
about the mines. each with long, keen
knife in his boot and great ambition for
war in his heart. The old blacksmith in
Sassafras had eight sons, for each of
whom, as they reached the age of sixteen,
he forged a bowie knife, with the remark,
Cut yer way, boys. cut yer way" Edu-
Gated this Highland population will be-the
only question is. how?
Ideala says the question will be simpli-
fled when one small town does not have to
support two schools which are always at
loSgerheads. She also says that no asso-
citation in a big city can direct the details
of school in the wilderness skillfully and
with understanding.