The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-10

EElH list John Fox, jr.), once upon
E time, says writer in the Literary
tEHRI World, that a stern sense Of
duty will make men coura geous-
make heroes of them, even. I've observed
that at Big Stone Gap. The Gap is in the
Cumberland mountains, Virginia, about
twenty miles from the Kentucky line. 1
went down there some years ago with about
thirty other college men-mostly from Har
ward and Yale and Columbia. The place
was absolutely lawless. The men who were
carrying on feuds there used to pursue one
another all over the mountains and terrorize
the people. Now. we were down there for
business. So we organized a police force.
l think there was nothing ever like it, We
were something more than a vigilance
committee. We each had a Winchester,
badge. and club, and we each took turn in
patrolling the town. When a citizen got too
offensive, we marched him off TO the Gala
boose; and at first the calaboose couldn't
hold all our prisoners. If a man showed
any disposition to defy us, we simply hit
him the head. The next day, perhaps,
he would come to town in an orderly man.
ner. and the very of that knocked
him down and thrashed him would say
'Howdy to him. That disarmed him OF
suspicion. He might have thought that we
Were bent on a wholesale feud, but when
he found out that we let him have his own
way so long as he was on his good beha~
vior, then the great light of law and order
came down upon him. In year and half
we had Big Stone Gap ideally quiet. A
woman could walk around town at any time
of the night or day and never be insulted.
That's what college police force did for
a wild nest in the Cumberland mountains.
Outside of Big Stone Gap, the inhabit-
ants, as a rule, live far apart. The noun
taineer prefers to have his neighbors at
least a few miles off. That was Daniel
Boone's preference, too, you remember.
When he found a family within some miles
of him he moved farther West. His name,
by the way, is borne by families in the
mountains. / drew the character of Boone
Stallard, in The kentuckians,' for instance,
from young man named Boone Logan"
1t is a remarkable feature of Mr.. Fox's
literary career that he has never had a
manuscript rejected His first story, bear
ing the felicitous title, "A Mountain Eu-
ropa," was promptly accepted by the pub
lisners of the Century Magazine when he
submitted 1t to them a dozen years ago
Later appeared two collections of mountain
tales. one entitled Hell fer Sartin." and
the other "A Cumberland Vendetta" His
first novel was The Kentuckians," which
was first published serially in Harper's
Monthly. The curiously abrupt ending Of
THE Kentuckians'' has aroused much COM
ment. Readers are left in doubt as to
which of the two heroes. Marshall, the son
of Kentucky blue blood. or Stallard, the
SluIuy 10 W VIII lllS uoiu6H
ter of the Governor. 81 did not mean to
make the matter puzzlng," Mr. Fox ex-
planned to a friend. Ito those who have
| written me as If an enigma existed, L re-
fer them to 'Stallard shook his head his
| home and hers and why 'Katherine's eyes
/ filed with tears. Romantic young women,
| overcome with sympathy for Stallard, may
take comfort thusly: Long. long after
wards, when Stallard was a Cabinet Min
/ ister he was persuaded one night to at
! tend some social function. Looking
| q beautiful
woman, familiar in face and figure. And
/ she was dressed i'm black -"