The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-06-17
HAVE LEFT FETD BELT.
NEARLY ALL WENT BY THE GUN
 ROUTE.

| Half hundred mOuntaineerS left the | feud belt of Kentucky last year. Near
 ly all went by the gun route and most of them didn't have time to say their
 prayers.
 | Most of the feudists who quit fighting
 last year were daredevils when it came
 to facing bullets, but nearly every one
 would run like a streak of greased light
 ming from a preacher or camera fiend. A typical rase is that of General Ben Butler Souders and Thomas Jefferson
 Henderson, old and bitter rivals in the 1 Bell country feud that cost thirty lives | to date Putting aside their hatrd for | the time being, they had met on the | banks of "Yaller" creek. within sight of the notorious Quarter house, and had l just consummated the sale of brindle COW to their mutual satisfaction, when
 camera man strolled along.
 The general" was the first to spy the | black boxed instrument, and the in stant he did so that instant he stood not on the order of his charging full speed down the mountain side. Thomas 1 Jefferson stood his ground well: few moments later he became acquainted with the cause of his old enemy's pre- cippitate flight, and then he, too, took l to his heels in the direction marked out
 by the general" Only the latter's
 venerable father, Squire Sonders, stay l ed to face the camera.
 "Ye see." ingeniously explained the | squire. "th' general is right supersti- 1 tious about them -draWin' boxes. The general hev fit some an he ain't | lookin' Ger no trouble no more. They
 ain't a better man nor he be an if he's had killin' ter do hit were bekase they | warn't no one else in Yaller creek good an hefty enough ter do hit only him." Only after an hours persuasion and detailed explanation of the working of the "pictu drawin'. box" would the
 squire consent to be photographed, and it required all of two hours diplomatic
 eloquence to induce Thomas Jefferson
 Henderson the next day to pose before
 the camera. Praise of the picturesque
 ness of his withered mother. sitting in the doorway churning, finally had the desired ecect.
 Well, I reckon" said Thomas, eff you
 all is agoin' ter make a drawin' O the
 old shack hit pears oughter be in it;
 but, durn it all. I'd ruther hey gun
 pintin' at me-"
 The only leader in all the feud coun-
 try who showed no fear or backward
 ness of the camera was Anse Hatfield.
 The possible commercial value to him of his likeness gave him courage to pose.
 You all kin draw my picture" he
 said, "an alter hits drawed, you all
 kin write a historXfin a book about hit,
 an then I'll tell you what we all kin do.
 We kin taike these hyah dawgs, an this
 hyah gun. an tn picture at you Il draw, an tn book, an make a sight O money. They's money en these hyah
 feuds. even even if they is worry and divilmint. Why, I kin sell tn hide O a ba'ar fer $1O more nor hits worth jest bekase hit were killed by ole Devil Anse. An they ain't a 10th in tn jaws O tn varmint 'at kaint sell fer s1 a tooth for tn same reason"
 These same caren1a-shy daredevils of the mountains take particular delight in having their families and their cemeter- ies pictured. They will go to no end of trouble to induce "th' ol woman" and ''th' gals" to pose by their spinning wheels, which are still universally used in this region, and do anything to help
 'th' drawin' O tn wimmin folk
 The average feud man thinks about the courts as does Thomas Jefferson Henderson.
 When the courts do begin to talk, then it is that the feud country sends repre- sentatives from far and near. Court week and election day are it's red letter events, the only times in the year when there is general outpouring of dwell- CTS of mountain-side shacks to a com- mon center
 Until an old dinner bell dissolves court for recess. the mountaineer spectators emulate the jury in adorning with to- bacco juice the floor of the dingy room, with its many broken window panes. Then they slouch out onto the green, surrounding the seat of justice, lie around in groups, swap yarns and to- bacco plugs, devour watermelons, whit tie boards and sticks until the grass is filtered with countless pine slivers, and now and then look after their mules and plugs" hitched to the courthouse fence in the rear Recess over, a court at tendant sticks his head out of a second story window, rings the bell Justify, and bawls for the witnesses in the murder case on trial to come into court.
 But there is no immediate response to the official summons. The Kentucky is nothing if not deliberate in all his movements and methods. A quarter of an hour later, one homespun- clad man after another struggles up on his feet. There is laugh and an ex- tra joke cracked as the fat man and principal wit and gossip of the town is hoisted from the grass by two os his satellites and waddles off on his pudgy feet. Then in leisurely Indian file, the outdoor gathering slouchily adjourns to the ancient courthouse. leaving a wide trail of tobacco juice in its wake.
 The courthouse of Harlan county is typical of similar structures in feud land. Twenty years ago it was besieg- ed by one-half of the towns male pop- ulation while the other half was barri- | caded within during one of the botterest of the early feudal wars. Scores of men were killed in those days, and for three ! years the military arm of the state was unable to suppress this miniature revo- lution, which finally fought itself out in l the mountains that cluster about and overhang the picturesque little county