The Savannah morning news., 1903-07-07

be the scene of more bloody deeds of
feudal warfare than any other similar
area in this country, if not in the
whole world, Sicily not excepted. The
people of that region have been
brought into close touch with the out
er world by the building, a few years
ago, of railroad from Lexington to
Jackson. This has accustomed them to
strangers, and they no longer look up
on the visitor as a revenue" who
should be slain from ambush before
he can make trouble by discovering a
'moonshine" still. But 1t has had no
effect upon the feud spirit of the COM
munity.
Judge Marcum was a lawyer of abil-
ity and of high standing at the bar of
the state. He was born and reared in
Breathitt county, and his character
and achievements demonstrate the
latent qualities of strength in the
mountains of Kentucky. His assassina-
ton also illustrates. better than any
recent occurrence, the other qualities
in their character which make them
an interesting subject to the student
of ethnology.
In studying them they must be dealt
with wholly as a distinct race of peo-
pie. They may be, as contended by
most students who have Investigated
their history. the direct descendants of
a large element of the original Scotch
and English settlers of American who
retreated to the mountains for safety
at the outbreak of the Revolutionary
War. If this is true, their progeny have
peopled the entire range of mountains
through Kentucky. the Carolinas,
Georgia and Tennessee, for there are
so many traits in common among the
inhabitants of these respective regions
that the many marked similarities of
speech, manners, and morals must be
due to common race origin. The Ken
lucky mountaineers are the most
backward-perhaps conservative is a
better word-of any of their kind. In
appearance and conduct they have
made no marked advance in hundred
years. The men are tall, cadaverous,
and low-browed. The hair of their
heads almost meets their eyebrows.
giving them the appearance of a hairy
race. The women are straight and hip
less, narrow-chested and almost as
fiat-bosomed as men. There is less SEN
timent among them than among any
other class of women known in this
country. Broadly speaking, few of
them have any strong or constant at
tachments. IlleRitimacy is so common
in their love affairs that the woman
who becomes a mother before she Is a
wife does not lose social caste.
A curious statement regarding the
habits and the slow improvements no.
ticeable among these mountaineers was
made recently by a missionary sent in
to Breathitt county several years ago
by the Presbyterian Church. This man
was surprised to find that the people
of the mountains, generally speaking,
are better versed in the Bible than are
the masses in other and more favored
communities. In fact, Ii is about the
only literature they have, and with a
facility that is startling to the strang-
er they can quote the sacred book
from beginning to end.
The missionary soon learned that IL
was not the Bible his charges needed.
but correct habits of living. According
ly be applied himself to a study Of
their most pressing need. This he dis
covered was the lack of knowledge on
the part of the women how best TO
prepare the simple food upon which the
native subsist After he taught the
women of one household how to cook,
ne observed in short time that there
was an improvement In the conduct
Of the men Of that particular house.
hold. He extended his culinary mis-
sionary work from one family to an
other until a considerable community
showed in the conduct Of the men and
women that his experiment was @Rise.
Then he taught these same women
how to keep their small houses and
huts clean. This still further stiffen-
ed their pride and made the men re-
spect them more.
Now this Presbyterian missionary
can count dozen or more communities
in his mountainous charge where the
morals of the women have undergone
a very great and encouraging change,
and the men are noticeably less inclin-
ed to lie in wait for feudal enemy
and shoot him from ambush. The mis-
sionary calls these communities white
spots" He says If his name should be
published in connection with this story
his life might pay the forfeit He has
learned that the mountaineers do not
want to have their characters or af-
fairs discussed by the outside world
This he regards as only another ex-
hibition of the clean feeling which
they inherited from their Scotch and
English ancestors, and which asserts
itself so constantly and violently in
feuds.
Judge Marcum's assassination was
due to this feud spirit, although he
had been careful all his life to hold
aloof from feuds. He had merely taken
the lawsuit Of the leader Of one faction
against another, and had called at the
Court House the day he was killed to
file some necessary papers in the case.
His assassination illustrates the short
sighted philosophy of the mountain
feudist, and serves to show what so
many people unacquainted with the
Kentucky mountaineer refuse TO be-
liave that the ASIA ssfnatiOn of Gov