Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1913-07-02

tnSF6 are several peas IN one OF the
most home-like rooms Imaginable
Sinking laZily into a feather bed which
fills the old four-poster, the tired way
farer is soon in the land of dreams.
Awakened the next morning by the
quack, quack of geese-for this is a
place of many fowls-the voices OF
ewes and lambs are heard calling
across the hilltop. The cowbells
tinkle cheerily This is mountain life.
The housewife cooks the breakfast.
You are up, dressed and ready. Soon
one of the girls goes out to milk. she
uses a cup to milk in. When it is full
it is emptied into the bucket. Ask her
/ why she doesn't milk in the bucket.
and her reply is: IF the COW should
kick, I'll lose only cupful of milk
instead of bucketful."
In these mountain homes there are
many children. Usually one or two
of the older girls wait on the table,
and they press you always to have
more The children eat when the rest
do, every one sitting in his accus
toned place on tho long bench. but
not until the guest is seated first.
In the center of the table Is large
dish of honey Near it is pitcher OF
milk The honey is passed first, for
the mountaineers are good liyers"
| and they believe in having the best
+! first. Next come the corn or wheat
bread, apple butter, peach butter.
| stewed blackberries, pawpaw ham
and eggs, beans and tree strip.
| The mountains have only bride
paths and tail ofttimes so steep that
one misstep would mean death tc
horse and rider hundreds of feet be-
low. The first automobile has yet to
come The locomotive halts in a far
distant valley. The telephone does
not ring. These trails wind and wind
until you have lost all points of the
compass, but are the main thorough.
fares of travel.
Where they cross streams, notches
are cut in trees on the river bank. IL
the water is above the notch cut in the
tree. it is unsafe to cross at the near
est habitation until the waters fall be-
low the safety mark. At different
points along the larger streams dug
outs are used for crossing. They are
logs chopped out, something in the
shape of a boat. They are the ferries
at foot-path crossings, as well as the
canoes of hunters and trappers.
Down near the Kentucky line you
are liable, in the forest on the steep
mountainside, to meet man on horse
/ b0O Of ;v 81 III
| short distance away. in a deep ra-
vine is log building about six by
nine feet 1t is the grist, mill. The
roof is covered with thin boards, spit
out of oak timbers, called shocks ;"
They are laid like shingles. To hold
them down, a stiff pole is laid cross
wise in the center, and a hole is bored
in the end of the pole. A pin is then
driven in to hold the shocks down
The people come to the mill, carry
ing their grain on the horses. from
many miles. The mills are free for
them to do their own grinding. The
door, if there is one, is never locked.
/ small water wheel in the bottom
turns the burr stone. After the grist
|
and the miller returns Sometimes 1t
takes one day to come and grind, AMI
the shades of twilight fall the second
day before home is reached,
When the distance is not too far,
the women go to market Their eggs
are placed in either end of a bag
made with both ends closed and the
| opaDinO in tho middle The o~roz =. !.
packed in buckets of grain and then
they are placed on a horse, one on
each side.
Nearly everything is packed, ex-
cept in the valley, where wagons are
used somewhat, though it's not I'm.
usual to see six-footer with a pack
on his back slowly winding his way
up the mountainside
Even Uncle Sans mall is carried
in leather bags. The men and women
in the region are of giant stature and
the families are large. There are fam.
lilies in which the children number
twenty and many where the number
runs from dozen to fifteen o,
eighteen.
Crude as is the life, the people are
really progressive. They are homes,
and Industrious. Their hospitality "a
unbounded. But if you do them ar
intentional wrong. you might just a,
well disappear. quietly and humbly
They have no use for a crooked
man.