The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-02-25

The latest tragical developments in the
case Of the Goyernorship of Kentucky have
once more attracted public attention to the
Kentucky mountaineer of whom so much
romance has been already written and pub
| lished. One who has had. and used. oppor-
tunfties for studying this remarkable type
! of humanity at close range had this to say
| about them last week:
Those l have watched closely have
mostly been either moonshiners or inform
| ers against moonshners. They were OF
both sexes An illicit still in the noun
tains of Kentucky appears TO be family
affair." and the sisters, daughters, and
nieces of the moonsiner-in-c chief all help
in the business. Naturally when one has
read n Southern mountaineer novel or Two,
| one looks over he faces of the mountain
women in the Federal Court in Louisville
/ with some anticipation of seeing. at least
here and there, rare tyres OF feminine
! loneliness. but in this l was ludicrousy
disappointed; every mountaineer woman
| over say. twenty-five years old that
| ever saw was of repulsive appearance. and
the younger ones were all plain, with the
exception of one very young girl-an as
sistant to her father in the moonshining
business-who was fairly good-looking
This exceptionally well-favored girl SEEM
! ed TO have touched the courts heart, for
| the court when a verdict OF Guilty had
been returned, called her to the bench
| and gave her paternal lecture. during
which lecture her face expressed all ths
I varying emotions that you may see flittina
| over the lineaments of a stuffed parrot in
a showcase.
Unity and invariability of expression.
| should say. are the chief characteristics
of the Kentucky mountaineer's physiogno-
my. His one expression is, in most cases,
/ that OF vacuum, but many specimens carry
| a look Of conscious guilt or suspicion. or
haunting fear-I hardly know how to de-
| scribe ii. except by saying that II is any
thing but honest and fearless. That i'm
movable look Of either fear or vscuity and
a pasty, unwholesome complexion and
humpbacked slouching walk-the. feet
| dragged over the ground, rather
than lifted-are what make up in my mind
| the composite picture of the Kentucky
mountaineeT. II might be fair to remind
| you again that most OF my experience OF
! these people has been among criminals and
| hired informers, but the records of the
| United States courts in those parts, taken
in conjunction with the census. tend 10
show that most of the people there re
either moonshiners or informers or beth
| by turns.
II may say. to-. that the only Ken
! lucky mountaineer with an engaging face
in my recollection was an informer. Him
| | picked out of n bunch in the corridor
outside the courtroom. where he. was
waiting his turn to be called. He was
very young man, with dark and. strange
| ", a rudy complexion. The brightness
| Of hic mr. he
smile marked him out in that crowd just
| as distinctly as a red fez or turban
| would When he told about the case he
was interested ir, and the certainty OF a
conviction. he beamed with delight. When
| / asked him IL he did not expect the de-
PENDANT to shoot him after the expiration
| Of his penitentiary term he shook MS
head knowingly and beamed again |
think he regarded man-stalking as a game
| that two could play at, and then. his an
tagonist having been kept without an OPP
portunity of practice for so many years.
! the advantage would, OF course, be with
| him. My impression was that this young
] man had in him some chance strain oil
| Romany blood: certainly he was not like
/ the other mountaineers of his district.
/ If the purveyors OF mountalneer romance
| ever And him he is certain TO figure in
fiction as type OF his people.
| AS to what they are like at home. ]
cannot tell you much, having never spent
more than one week in the Kentucky
mountains. | know they have some quaint,
| matter fact ways in their handling of
firearms The general rule is for re-
spec'ful man'-that Is. man who can make
himself respected-to ride into town with a
| Winchester resting across his mules neck
| in front of him. and wife seated on "a pill
| lion behind him. He always seemed TO me
| TO be turning his head from side to side.
| as II in the habit of expecting to find an
enemy in ambush behind anything that
might be big enough TO conceal an en-
envy. but this may have been only my own
| Imagination. Otherwise. the mountaineer
ON Tnuleback In his own county always
seemed to me much what he seemed in the
Federal Court at Louisville-tired and i'll
| fed and without any particular reason IN
his own mind for wishing to live.
"AII those stories one reads of tue grim
humor of rlountaineer manslayeTs-mostly
| moonshner stories-may be true enough,
| and If you have studied the ways OF the
| people a little you will appreciate the
| humor OF their sayings all the more be-
cause the people themselves generally seem
absolutely incapable of approaching humor
| lust to give one example: When an ac-
uuaintance of mica lawyer and an out
| lander in Pike county-was looking for a
certain native who was supposed to pos
| sess information that would be valuable In
| an important timber suit. he stopped at a
cabin and asked an old woman with corn
| cob pipe whether So-and-sos house was
near there. The old woman answered,
rTain't fur, and showed him how to get
to It.
Just as he turned his mule TO ride
| away. she called after him. He amt Twin
thur no more mister oh. he said. 'how's
that? Moved away 'No--couldnt shoot
wuth shucks.' | don't believe that old
woman had the lest idea that there was
anything humorous in her answer. The
essence of humor il incongruity, and she
saw no suggestion Of incongruity in what
she said.
why / spoke Just now 81 this lawyer as
an 'outlander' was because in that county.
and among the boom towns OF the Cum
berland Mountains generally. the agents Of
capitalists the mine managers. the timber
cutters, most of the lawyers. the hotel
keepers. the preachers, and the doctors
form a community as distinct from the
natives as the 'outlanders in the Transva-
al Rand. The 'outlanders' come there
from all parts of the United States. from
Canada, and largely from England. Few
of them come from the other parts of Ken
lucky They seem to regard the natives
as quite an alien race, and. judging from
hearsay. the native mountalneer would
need a good deal OF explanation TO make
him understand that New Yorker is his
fellow-citizen and a Canadian Is not
New York Tribune.
Many Court-Martini Cases.
| t,Jgc Advocai. General Iicber Of the Arfnv