The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-07-03
WHAT CAUSES THE FEUDS.
ENTr, "FORTT-FIIES," BAD ROADS,
AND mo- NsHISE W~HJSKET.
nae Nsads shut the Kentucky s1ouathipeers
on rreis the world In Idienoss FIVe Months
IN tho Wear ana Interfere with scheOI-
IpG-Cenvicts ts he Put ut Road. Building.

+. mountain tGuuB IN hGnLuCKyI IL n question
civilized people often ask. Citizens Of the Blue
Grass region Of this State are generally willing
70 allow the law to take It's course when n muir
der has boon committed. One hundred miles
away nv tho crow flies, in the counties of Clay,
Perry. Breathitt, Powell, Bell. Harlan, Letcher,
Monifee, and Lawrence, Il different code pre-
walls. II a man Ia killed his kinsmen are in
duty bound to kill the murderer. II Tho dead
man has been killed from ambush, IL Is consid-
cred right and proper 10 uso the same tactics
In tho taking off OF the murderer. 1t is not con-
pidered cowardly to shoot the slayer of n mem
Dor of ones family from behind a tree. II Is
simply ropRying in kind. These facts admitted,
The question quoted comes unblddon.
The answer 10 hard TO find. Congressman
David q. Coson Of Bell county, who has just
been mnde Colonel OF tho Fourth Kentucky
Volunteer Infantry, now being modified at
Lexington, In answer to this question, said:
You ask n question difficult TO answer. We
mountain men have been kept so far away
from tho influence Or the law that every one of
Ms has had 70 depend on his good right arm to
defend his rights of person and property. l have
had two brothers killed. One OF them was
hrBt shot to pieces by an enemy, and we
thought he would never recover. Then all the
hate Of . century rose UP within me, and / took
. Winchester and started to kill the men who.
Os i supposed, had killed my brother. I.folt
that IL was my duty to kin them. l did not
think I was about to commit another wrong in
trying to right the one we had suffered at the
assessing hands. / did not think it would DO
assassination for me to kill them from am
bush, as i started out to do. / felt glad that
was 80 soon to kill them. l failed to.gct across
the mountain In time to intercept the men. and
] never got n shot at them. But ] know just
how q mountnineer feels when he wants to
avenRe a wrong.
We'll. my brother got well, but he was after
ward killed, and he killed his slayer after he had
been shot through tho heart. My other brother
was killed Inst year by an assassin. You see,
rho law with us does not work rapidly or justly.
A murderer is generally able to prove an alibi,
for he nearly always kills his victim without be.
Ing seen. This leaves no other course open to
rs save fighting the destroyer with his own
Are. 1t may seem strange to you people of the
Blue Grass that these things are true, but l do
not hesitate to say that were your best men to
remove to the mountains they would soon BIS
imbued with the mountain spirit, and they
would adopt our method of Fighting wrongs."
But you haven't answered my question:"
said the correspondent.
mo, I have not. replied the Colonel, land,
70 toll you the truth, / cannot answer 1t. as so
many different things go to make up the cause
Of mountain feuds. They come UP from time to
time, n score or more of men are killed, and
when the leaders are out of the way tho wars
stop, and that's all there is to 1t. l am sorry
that nothing can be done to prevent these out
breaks, but I suppose they will continue to
astonish the world as long as we have noun
tains inhabited by a race of people who are will.
igg and ready 10 kill when:they think it is their
duty to do So"
DR.. Blair, a practitioner of Pineville. Bell
county, and a man OF more than ordinary ability,
was asked what caused mountain feuds. He said:
Envy has a great deal to do with bringing
on mountain feuds. If one or TWO boys in a
family Of poor mountaineers become ambitious
and try to rise in the world their more INDECENT
companions are filed with envy and often do all
in their power to drag the workers down. This
was the case with my brother and mo. We were
1etcher county. Only a bare living could be
made on the farm, and we decided to educate
ourselves and try to be somebody. We were
soon able TO teach school, and at night l would
study medicine, and my brother would read up
on the higher branches. In due time I went TO
z medical college. got my diploma. and went
back to my county, town to practice. My
Several of our :ncighbors. boys who did not
love books and WHO put in the most of their
time consuming moonshine whiskey and shoot.
day because we would not drink with them.
enViou S"s Of our; our success sassss' y" They sno began Wsl' rs sys,
tematio warfare on US; They tried to make US
e eEns BODY that T books dEeilt oarninE sn had tnen made sdeS c sSIa
ards Of the Blair boys. They threatened to kin
Fl II we oSr S Chemist nSs i issHG , grew so T Scid ' anS So
un6earable that we determined to fight i out
iSTs r Then; we w seu R9u iind a anG the IF '4 nsa Sss tine as'S oar
s sPs o1 t triSd to W run d} E1 So6, Of 59TH we sss SDsped
and for q while we were not molestcd, but IA
long war. l left and settled in Pineville. which is
out of reach of the mon who tried to kill me be-
cause / wanted to make something OF myself.
Ny brother also left and is teaching in a college
far away from the land of feuds. Had we not
learned by contact with tho outside world that
It Is wrong to kill our fellow mon we would no
this day, had ihev not killed us in the mean.
time. Yes. sir. it is envy in nine cases out of
ten that causes mountain feuds.''
Mrs. Lucas, who keeps a hotel in Manchester.
Clay county. where the Baker Howard feqd is
Federal soldier Col Lucas, when asked what
caused, m9Hntsin Ieuds, replied; THE forty;
she called them by their mountain name. Con
tinning., she said:
and supper. and II we put two or more men in
the same med room ON at E. night Oh they talk about forty.
joct at night and the first subject in the morn.
Ing; 1t Is the 'forty-fve' all the time Men
every tree between here and London, on a road
Swenty-touT miles In length. has been shot at.
every one Of them. i is shoot, shoot ali the
time. Not content with shooting at trees. tur-
p pSsS sH of O Sess ia fSf tcWn at seG ni @s9 JUST Ei'l i snoG ps sf fnn
o. the thing; fo9 had an example OF this the
bullet that killed him lodged in the wall of the
room In which you were sleeping. The fellow
who fired those shots had nothing against the
dog. He had thought about shooting so much
and had been restrained SO long because the SOL
diers were here that he had to fire off his pistol.
He happened to see The poor dog and blazed
away at him. If no had seen a man whom he
did not like no would. in all probability, have
!, shot him.
Boys learn to shoot the 'forty-Aye' before
they arc .old enough to learn their \. Il. C's.
and tho result is that when they grow up they
arc wild to shoot somebody. When one Of
them hits a tree in the centre while engaged
In target practice. some one in the crowd will
say, That shot would have killed a man. Thus
they are brought to associate the shooting of
. forty five with the killing OF a man, and
when they bacome men, and often before, they
get into a difficulty and tho rGsult is that tho
deadly 'forty-hVe' 10 brought into play and
smother foud has boon launched. We want
moro books and Tower forty -nves.' Take away
the pistols. give us good books and teach our
young mon and young women how to read and
understand them. and / will guarantee that the
mountain feud will become a thing of tho past"
Hayden Brock. a young mountaincer. who