The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-31
LOVE VS. LAW.

They came race 10 race as they IurH- ed a bend in the rough and narrow trail leading up the Cumberland Noun tains to Laurel Cove and both stopped and stared for half a minute before the young man raised his hat and ex- cused his absent -mindedness. The young woman blushed, stammered reply and passed on, and in minute the trees and bushes hid them from each other.
 The one everybody for five miles around knew as Abe Goodman's daugh- ter Tilda. The other had just appeared in the neighborhood claiming to be botanist and a naturalist, and had se- cured a temporary home at the cabin of Saul Markham. For the last two years Tilda had been down to Nashville 'beln' eddicated" as her father and mother put it, and was now teaching the dozen children of the mountaineers in the log schoolhouse which the young man had passed forty rods before meet ing her.
 Tilda had come from mountaineer stock Her father was rough, uncouth, and ignorant Her mother was unedu- cated and plain. The girl had lived in poverty, surrounded by poverty, and yet she was like none of the rest. Ma ture had given her a good figure and a handsome face, and the time spent In the city had made, what the na- lives called, a lady of her. The aston ishment of the young man, who hao given his name as Arthur Griggs, was but natural.
 The stranger who goes among the people of the Southern mountains IS from the outset suspected man. and the first suspicion which rests on him is that he must be a revenue spy
 Revenue men have raided and de- stroyed scores of stills in the coves and ravines and sent scores and scores Of rnoonshiners to the penitentiary, but other stills are brought in and other men take the places of those who have fallen under the ban of the law. It was so thirty years ago; 1t is so to- day: 1t will be so thirty years hence. The mountaineer argues that he Is law unto himself. He argues that he has a right to live. He argues that where he has no market for his corn as corn he has a right to turn 1t into whiskey to make market. The Gov ernment does not argue with him. II sends men into the mountains to break up his business and imprison him. The rnoonshiner works in secret. So does the Government. He depends upon the honesty of his neighbors not to give him away. The revenue men coax threaten. bribe and work in every un- work in every underhand way to ger an advantage. Tho enmity is more bit fer than is tho personal fueds. When A mountaineer goes down to the towns he is trailed about, cross questioned, made drunk if possible and his wife and children offered money to betray him.
 When the revenue men send spy up the mountains to 2ose out and re- mort on stills he takes his life in his hands. He may go as a buyer of tim her or coal or iron lands-as a travel CT, peddler or artist-as a fur buyer preacher, or newspaper man, but the shadow of death walks by his side until he has proved himself all right In that case he Is heard of again down in the lowlands, In the other case he is reported missing"
 botanist and a naturalist from Harvard" was what Griggs claimed to be, and he was taken into the cabin of the mountainer without question. There was no undue curiosity about him. He was free to come and free to go AS the neighbors were intro duced to him they seemed to accept him as Saul Harkham had done. He walked about in contentment and slept in peace He did not know that he never moved a hundred feet from the cabin door without being under sur veilance: that every action was watch ed; that men whom he had never seen looked in on him when he slept; that other men gathered together in the laurel thickets and reported on