The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1904-01-21

! IN sHrFrLEss MOUNTAIN CASINO
ton, and cordially backed up his wife's
assertions.
What happy, peaceful, contented life
they led. Their mountains shut them off
from the storms and frets OF the busy
world almost as il they lad. been in the
moon. Their farms supplied them with an
abundance OF the very best food, and their
women were quite skilful in preparing it.
They found great deal of the happiness
of life in good lfvingpaa~ eootsz
you bet there is" interrupted Shorty
unctuously. ME and Si know that
There's where yon-iearned to be such a
wonderful cook, wasn't itT'
Largely. found that, with all my
academy education there were a lot Of
things they knew that / didn't, and
started in to learn them, to be on equality
with them. even learned to spin and
weave, to make my own clothes, il neces-
sary, or to teach other people, who did not
have that knowledge. They took great
deal OF pride in their substantial, comfor-
table houses, their solid stone fences, their
clean fields, and their sleek cattle and
horses, and lastly in their children, as
they grew older. With their religion, this
bounded their lives. A boys ambition as
he grew up was to have another farm like
his fathers. with stone house, stone
walls around the fields, goodly lot of
stock, and one of the round, rosy-cheeked
girls to live in his house, and care for It
and him as his mother did for his fathers
They read their Bibles morning, evening
and on Sundays, had few old religious
books; worked for one another, and traded
for what they did not have, or could not
make, and were. content to have more in
house and field each year than they had the
previous one. When one Of them got sick
the old mothers of the flock doctored him
back to life, or into the graveyard, with
herb-teas. They never voted, and took no
more interest in politics than they did in
the Gulf Stream. The Democratic and
Republican parties primaries, conven-
tons and elections were not mentioned in
the Bible. Therefore, they would have
none OF them. Sometimes they knew the
name of the Governor of Georgia, but
never that Of the President of the United
States. All that belonged to a sinful, car
nal world, far away over the mountains
Not newspaper penetrated into the cove
and the first lesson the elders impressed
upon me was to talk as little as possible
of the outside world Talk of that kind
was likely to make their young men dis
contented, and put rambling notions in
their heads. Several who had gone away
IN the past had never been heard of more,
and probably come to an evil end, as a
judgment for straying from the faith of
their fathers. Nothing new was welcomed
in the Wartburg settlement The old had
been good enough for the fathers and
GRANDPA theirs, and would be good enough
for the sons, as soon as they had come to
the years to understand it. l understood
and appreciated them, and readily fell in
with their ideas. They were so God-fear-
ing, SO upright, so comfortable and con-
tented, that it seemed a sin to bring into
that little Paradise the bitter fruits of he
Tree Of knowledge. l had seen enough
OF the other side Of life to want to
keep these primitive people unsullied from
that wisdom whose roots too often reach
down to hell. My old Bible was received
as a sacred relic and my apostolic creden-
tials. They took me at once into their
very life. Their highest Joy was to hear
me read from it the old, forgotten German
words. and render them into English.
when l had started from the Nortl,
the Presidential campaign was warming
up, and my sympathies were all with the
Free Sellers and the Rail Splitter of Illi-
nois. heard great deal Of hot talk
as journeyed through the South, but all
thought of politics fled from he like a last
nights dream, in this pure peaceful at
mosphere, where men. If they talked of
anything besides their crops and farms
and families, only discussed the hard
iacoftS1shCsc VI 4 hoiodi, TIC IuechtltSS vi
Moses, the stiff -neckedness of the Jews,
the pride and selfishness of the High
Priests. and Pontius Pilates bloody injus-
tice. We had the Bible, its parallels,
proverbs, words OF wisdom, and admo-
nitions constantly before us, when we
thought OF anything beside the work and
incidents of the day. / had had good
many troubles in my life and grinding
worries in getting through the academy
This haven OF rest was SO delightful to me
that l fell readily into its spirit, and
wanted to know no other. became deeply
interested in teaching the children, and in
reading the Bible to the older ones on Sun
day, preaching, and explaining it to them.
and discussing it with them at their homes
on weekday evenings. They could never
get enough of the Bible. and were very
shrewd in their comments upon it. Some
of the happiest hours ever knew were
spent in talking over Biblical events with
the older men and women, and rendering
into everyday speech the quaint, strong
old German words. So the Summer, the
Fall, the Winter passed, and the Spring
came without my even knowing who, had
been elected President, that South Caro-
lima had seeded, followed by the other
States: that Fort Sumter bad been fred
on, and sreat war wis ID progress. with
awful battles having been fought When.
Hans had come hack from his yearly
journey TO town he had reported that there
w0 q ras,ch fxcifoynnnt there ond III Of fhora