The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1903-10-09
HAVE MANY GOOD TRAITS,
Mountaneers of the South Are Not All
Violators of the Law

Boston TRANSCRIPTS: A short statis-
llcal paper on The Mountain People
in Eastern Kentucky" which appears
IN the May number of the Berea COL
lege quarterly, is calculated to reawak-
en- the interest of those into whose
hands 1T falls in the condition and flu
ture prospects of this primitive people
what is said of eastern Kentucky could
doubtless be said with Slight variations
ABOUT large portions OF Tennessee and
Virginia, and, indeed, of the mountain
region included in tie Appalachian
system generally, but this will do as a
specimen chapter and by considering
the subject in subdivisions, perspective
ana proportion can be kept better in
hand. The Appalachian division of
Kentucky comprises practically thirty
five counties, covering 1884 square
miles, or a tritle over a third of the
area of the whole state. This exceeds
by about seventy square miles the
combined area of Connecticut and
Massachusetts.
Yet in 1900 this mountain population
was 476,0S5, While that of the whole
state was 2,147,174, so that a third of
the state contained less than quarter
or the people,, though taking out the
cities from the reckoning the mountain
population is about equal to the rural
population in the other portions of the
state. A fact that should be of great
interest is that they are chilly native
large majority, descended from the
hardy stock that went a-pioneering in
those noble attitudes and soltudes a
hundred years or more ago and never
left them. The number of foreign born
in all that population is only little
over 1000, while Tor the rest of the
state it is over $4,000 The negroes do
tn no Oft 40
tain conditions, there being only 1919,
while in the rest of the state there are
2I2,5S7, Massachusetts and Connecticut
having also nearly four times as many
in an equal area.
1t would be hard to find in any other
part of the country, old or new, such
Il homogeneous people. They are GER
tainly not decadent people in one
sense of the term. The old-fashionel.
large families that We're once so COM
mon in New England are still the rule.
in the Kentucky mountains. Of the
native white population in 1900 Alb per
cent We're between Vie ages of S and
20 years, While in Massachusetts the
percentage was only 23.3. The number
OF native whites in 1850 was 1902
and in 1890 it was 4"3,59O. They are
still a primitive people; their advance
has been arrested, bit their capacity
for development has not been afro
phied by being SO long sdetracked
from the highway of the more rapid
civilized progression that has obtained
elsewhere.
They still exhibit admirable qualities.
They maintain their pride and indie
pcndence. The minds Of the people
have lain fallow for many years, but
they respond richly to cultivation.
They are the most hopeful of the poor
whites of the south. Perhaps in the
whole country there is not more
hopeful class to work upon under prop
er conditions. Such condition., insti-
tutions like Berea college are doine,
their best to furnish. It has struggled
bravely in behalf of these people with
results in the highest degree encour-
aging. Lincoln university, General
Towards pet enterprise is for the ben
ct Of the same class.