Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-14

Hill SHlINO
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no lack of beverages In the market and no
Increase in the selling price.
There is said to be an actual increase In
the number of legitimate distilieries In the
state. The federal officials claim that the
restrictive state laws are not enforced and
that they have increased demonstrating
or "blockading, as they call Illicit distill-
Ing down here now. They assert that the
state and local taxes are heavy that the
d1stillers who have been doing an open and
lawful business in the towns have been
driven out into the mountains
The Mountain People
The mountain people," that peculiar race
| OF Scotch-lrish ancestry who have inhabit-
| ed the lonely valleys and bleak mountain
| sides OF the Appalachian range for two GEN.
turtles, and have preserved their indiyiduali-
| ty in defiance of the advance and influence
OF modern civilization, slowly but grad
ualy yielding to the inevitable and are leav-
| ing their log cabins and changing their
| ways. The men are going into the timber
| camps. the mines, the sew mills, the furni-
| ture factories and other manufacturing in
| situations, and are working for the rail-
| roads, and the women are finding employ
incnt AS operators III the cotton mills and
as domestic servants in the households of
| the cities and towns This breaking up is
attributed very largely to the mission work
carried on down here by the northern Pres
| byterian churches. They have five large
| training schools for boys and girls in this
Immediate vicinity and the Epworth League
| OF the Methodist Church has industrial
school for girls at Brevard. a town on the
| Southern railway about forty miles from
| Asheville. The boys are taught the rudi-
ments of book learning and manual train
| ing In the various trades. They make
| cellent engineers, machinlsts carpenters,
cabinet makers and wagon makers and
| take especially to the building trades in
preference TO farming. The girls are taught
| cooking, dressmaking, millinery. mending
and the household arts as well as reading,
writing and 'rithmetic.
| The principal object is to make them bet
ter wives and mothers, to teach them tho
important art of home-making. aud ID in
spire in them an ambition to ftTe better,
and have more comforts and get more cat
or life than has been enjoyed by their
fathers and grandfathers in the primitive
one-room mountain cabins, They have
been the most comfoTtless people in Ameri-
ca. Hardy enduring, accomplishing and
Indifferent to their own interests, genera
ton after generation has been born and
! has passed away on the bleak mountain
/ sides without making any effort n improve
their condition, until northern missionaries
came in and coaxed them to send their
children to school The result, however,
has been the reverse of what was intended.
The young women, after spending four or
five years In comfortable quarters, with at
tractive surroundings and congeaial COM
panions refuse to go back to the lonesome
log cabins and undertake the almost hope
less task of uplifting and regenerating their
families. They prefer to remain in the
towns and cities and have sought employ
ment in the factories and in the families as
servants. The young men have been even
more reluctant to resume the terrible
counters with nature upon the rocky ard
unfertile hillsides. They have sought en-
ployment in the mechanical trades along
md
ufactories that are invading this country
to work UP the raw material which Is so
| accessible and abundant.
The Old Cabin Deserted.
AS natural consequence when the old
| folks die. the cabin is deserted and the
| farm is left untitled The growing genera
ton refuses to continue the struggle for
existence that has been made by its fore
fathers for 200 years and seeks more con-
genial and profitable employment Those
VINO are familiar with what is going on tell
me that the mountain people will prac
| Ideally be extinct after the present gener-
alton has gone to its account.
One of the signs of degeneration that is
! pointed out among this remarkable race is
their recent yielding to new and fantas
| spicuous characteristics have been their
| pride. their piety and the tenacity with
which they have adhered to the extreme
| Caivinistir theology: but, of late, l am
;old. holiness" preachers and "sanctifca-
| tionists" have come into the country and
| have been making a great many converts
among the women and the men who have
| been raised on corn bread, bacon and the
doctrine of election.
Great Theological Disputants.
4 mountaineer of North Carolina has al
ways been able to discuss theological prob
| lens, although he could not read or write
Salvation by faith and the damnation of
| a.
| been baptized has been for centuries the
l. most familiar topic of conversation at the
| fireside of every cabin. l remember some
| years ago, while taking drive into the
| mountains around Hot Springs. North Car
| DINA, meeting a forlorn-looking boy about
| thirteen or fourteen years of age at ferry
| across the French Broad river. The ferry
man was 'joshing" him and in a half
| earnest, haf-5ocular way was running
| down the boys father as an idle, worthless,
| drunken gambling. good-for-nothing moon
| sinner. The boy showed no signs of re-
| SENTIMENT he aid not contradict deny
| any of the charges, but after a little he
looked up Into the ferryman's face and
| asked
"Mr. Jones, did you all ever hear my
father pray? I'll bet you all anything that
nary man in this county can beat my
/ father praying.
| And the ferryman told me afterward that
| the rascal had remarkable gift of elo-
| quence in prayer. and although he was alb
solutely illiterate. knew the Bible from end
| to end and was the champion Calvinistic
controversiaiist in that community.
| This reminds me of President Roosevelt's
story about Pat Garrett, the famous from
tiersman whose exciting career is familiar
| to everybody In the southwest. The Presi-
| dent says that when he nominated Garrett
| for a federal Office at Ell Paso, he expected
| opposition from the religious portion of the
| community and sure enough. 1t arrived
| on time. But, to his astonishment. the
| good people down In that country did not
object TO him on moral. but on theological.
grounds. They did not accuse Garrett OF
! being gambler and horse racer. a whis-
| ky drinker. IA saloon keeper and a disreput-
able character generally as he expected
but they accused him Of being unsound on
| the doctrine OF infant damnation.
Heinrich Conried, director of the Metro
politan Opera House, was acquitted In New
York yesterday Of q charge of violating the