The sun., 1908-11-22
MOUNrAfNEERs.
the RieneeR CebdltIens Of life In the
AppalachiAns.
From the Bsrea Quarterly,

|
Take tho conditions of country life any.
whero and intensity them many. dearees
and you will have mountain life az Il passe,
on to-day In the pine scented atmosphere
OF the Blue Ridge and the great Smoky
Mountains. The mountalneer Is a Colonial
survival. with all the pride and self-respect
which belongs to a landholder; and his
lack of worldly superfuities. rather than
otherwise. contributes to his noble inde
pendence of spirit. But all this must be
found out by sympathetic approaches
for our mountain friend Is reserved, shy
not to say suspicious. and often appears
at a great disadvantage In his first contact
with ";urriners.
To begin. then. with the pioneer condI.
tions, we have remoteness from markets and
a corresponding shift In farm activities
many Of the old fashioped household manu-.
factures-soap, sorghum molasses ,"lonp
sweetenin' y and the beautiful prod ucts of
the freside Misunderstanding. Ready
money is scarce and to be got mainly
from forest products where there are
streams to float the logs, and from cattle
"a crop that can walk to market.
Such a community in the Appalachian
Mounta aims, as on the old New York or Ohio
frontier, naturally rears large families
and has a much intensified family life
and family feeling, Parents and children.
brothers and sisters, are much shut into
their own society and the feeling OF the
clan Mary n s s te the ote
to assert themselves In these Isolated val
leys.
"deadenings fields where the trees have
been eirdied and left standing in ghasty
nakedness 80 that the little bull tongue
and the sun shine in to mature the crop
fashion, as not to leave the soil unduy
oHDssan e hs fRe f WIN NE bsGTy bsr
and bushes Is ahard one and you may see the
whole family afeldIfather mother, boys
snd sed3t toll eo so socaSs Saf
and so healthful
Out of this intense family feeling grows
e falls II edhdOce shs eO
or dread. and when man ia killed by some
the next Of kin to take justice into his h
The antiquarian finds endless interest
In the British survlyals, which are readily
traced when one. begins an intelligent
kiver" which you have seen, perhaps, in
English tapestry. and which must have
been transmitted from. mother to daughter
of song that you W I'll not easily find In book
but which harks back tofcir rcumstances OF
English town life quite remote from the
experience Of the singer. Professor Shaler
of Harvard once found man in Wise
county, Virginia. hunting with an English
crosshow. or course he owned a rife
as well. but powder was hard to get, and he
had not lost the tradition Of the art by which
the famous crossbow had been made among
his British forebears. We say British
because the Scotch and English strains are
everywhere mingled in the mountains.
The traveller stopping at a lonely cottage
may hear the mother quiet an unruly child
by saying Behave, now. son, or Clavers
will get you!" It is doubtful whether the
woman knows anything Of the bogey. she
thus conjures UP to "haud the wretch In
order" but she is really. referring to Claver-
house, the Scotch rough rider who harried
the Covenanters in ancient days!
One OF the most important things to learn
about life In the mountains Is that Appala-
chian America contains all grades Of society.
They are clad much alike. and all are sui.
ficiently primitive to the gaze Of an out
sider but the DISTINCTIONS. are real and
keenly felt. Every county has Its aristoc-
racy-its select families that hold them
selves quite apart from the common when
1t comes to marriages and higher social
functions Far below the landowners
are the renters. The mountains have
their share OF dleness and Of crime, but
the vices of the mountains are largely OF
the Homeric type. which are really less
corrmpting than the sins Of more artificial
CoDditiOu