The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1914-05-08
A PEN PICTURE OF INEz.
Continued from page one9


shadows, and the autumn air is liter
ally like wine, one wants to run and
jump.
Ten miles to Inez! UP among the
mountains, through great forests, by
picturesque rocks, fording bridgeless
streams and over the worst and rough
est and most adorable road in the
world, you come upon the valley where
Inez waits. There are few carriages
in use, and there can be but few in use
on roads like these. Everyone rides
horseback or on a mule and the OLD
time saddle bags are in frequent use.
Often a man would pass us with
rifle laid across the saddle, for game
and feuds are plentiful.
The only buildings along the road
are log cabins with an outside Chin
ney of stone and plaster. Occasionally
these are built with a rough board
porch in front, and the rooms inside
are fioored with plank; many have no
floor but the ground, and are often
without glazed windows, solid wood
en- shutter closing the opening. Hogs
are anywhere, running in the roads
and not infrequently in and out of the
single room that forms the interior Of
the single room that forms the inter
ior of the cabin. an-faced women
stand in the door, generally surround
ed by a group OF tow headed children
and almost always smoking a long cob
pipe In the dooryard, resting on
some stones, is a big iron kettle, in
which is done the family washing, a
fire being kindled underneath. From
the well, close at hand, long sweep
draws the moss covered bucket. Ev-
erywhere is poverty, sometimes re-
voting in its squallor, but everywhere
is a kindness that redeems 1t.
These are short-lived people. You
see girls of fifteen, pretty and attrac-
tive; but they marry young, most OF
them while in their teens, and fade
quickly. Indeed, one of the most inn
pressive things about this mountain
life is the absence of the middle aged
woman, who elsewhere is so prominent
socially. You see only girls and old
women. A woman of thirty passes for
old, and looks like a woman of sixty.
1t seems a mistake to send mission
aries, as is being done, to these noun
tain people. They are better Christians,
collectively, than we are; charitable,
earnest, faithfully keeping every com
mandment except the sixth. But what
they need is someone to come among
them and teach them the laws of
health. Outside of Inez l did not no
tice a single well so placed as to be
free from pollution, and the disregard
of the commonest laws of cleanliness
and ventilation is simply appalling
Hundreds of people will crowd a little
church for hours, with every breath of
air excluded, and their school houses
are air tight In the winter the win
dowless huts are simply death traps.
AS a result of these conditions con-
sumption and typhoid make fearful in
roads, and the pathetic and misdirect-
ed efforts of the people to escape from
these diseases only add to the mortal
ity they seek to avoid. Nowhere is
there a greater sale for patent cough
medicines and various nostrums. One
family sold all the mineral rights in
their land to Chicago firm for ten
years. supply of pills, and every home
has shelf on which stands a row of
various medicines, continually resort
in the valleys fertile. the people re-
ligious, kindly and entirely capable of
education-all that is lacking is an
influence, necessarily from the outside,
that will make their lives more com
Portable. They've plenty of religion;
what they need is sanitation.
Inez itself is a little white washed
village nuggled in valley and guard
ed by great hills. There are two or
three rambling streets and shady
square where the Jail and courthouse
stand. as well as three tiny one-story
buildings-offices of the attorneys who
constitute the bar of Martin county,
This square is enclosed by fence,
and is entered by two stiles. In one
corner is the town well, and in one of
the trees hangs the court house bell.
Along the fence many mules and
horses are always tied.
The hotel which is not far away,
and the meals-which, by the way,
were served by the editor of the local
weekly newspaper-were the best
ever ate in place so remote, game
of all kinds being on the table in abun-
dance. From the current issue of that
l clipped the official notice
of an adjoining county, herewith liter
ally reproduced. 1t tells better than
many words OF description the condi-
ton of life in the mountains
JOHNSON COUNTY COURT.