The Huttig news., 1914-12-12

vals of truce, lives had been snuffed cut in the fiercely burning hate of these men whose ancestors had been comrades.
 Old Spicer South and his nephew Samson were the direct lineal descen- dants of the namer of Misery Their kinsmen dwelt about them: the Souths, the Jasrers, the Spicers, the Wileys, the Millers and McCagers. Other fam flies related only by marriage and close association, were, in feud align ment, none the less "Souths.', And over beyond the ridge, where the springs and brooks flowed the other way to feed Crippleshin, dwelt the Hollmans, the Purvises, the Asberries the Follises and the Daltons-men equally strong in their vindictive fealty to the code of the vendetta.
 By mountain standards old Spicer South was rich. His lands had been claimed when tracts could be had for the taking, and, though he had to make his cross mark when there was a con tract to be signed, his instructive mind was shrewd and far seeing The tinkle of his cowbells was heard for a long distance along the creek bottoms. His hillside fields were the richest and his coVes the most fertile in that country. Some day. when railroad should bur TOW through his section, bringing the development of coal and timber at the head of the rails, sleeping fortune would yawn and awake to enrich him There were black outeroppings along the cliffs, which lie knew ran deep In veins of bituminous wealth But to that time he looked with fereboding for ne had been raised to the stand ards of his forefathers and saw in the coming of new regima a curtailment of personal liberty For new-fangled ideas he held only the aversion of deep-roeted prejudice. He hoped that he might I've out his days and pass before the foreigner held his land and the law became power stronger than the individual or the clan. The law was his enemy because it said to him. Thou shalt not" when he sought to take the fellow corn which bruising labor had eoaxed from scattered rock. strewn fields to his own mash vat and saiil It meant. also tyranneus power usually seized and administered by enemies, which undertook to forbid the personal settlement of personal quarrels. But his eyes, which could not read print, could read the signs of the times. He foresaw the ineV. itable coming Of that day Already he he had given up the worm and mash vat, and no longer sought to make or sell illicit liquor That was a conces. sion to the federal power, which could no longer be successfully fought. State power WAS still largely a weapon in faetional hands, and in his country the Hollmaps were the office holders To the Hollmans he could make TO concessions. h Samson, born to be the fighting man, reared to be the fighting man, equipped by nature with deep hatreds and tigerish courage, there had cropped out from time to time tho restless spirit of the philos- opher and hunger for knowledge That was matter in which the old man found his bitterest and most SC 1 cret apprehension
 It was at this house that George Iescott distinguished landscape paint CT of New York and the world at large arrived in the twilight
 Whatever enemy might have to be met tomorrow, old Spicer South rec ognized as a more immediate call upon his attention the wounded guest of today. One of he kinsmen proved to have a rude working knowledge of bone setting and before the half, hour had passed Leseotts wrist was in splint, and his injuries as we'll tended as possible, which proved to be quite we'll enough.
 While Spicer South and his cousins had been sustaining themselves or building up completeness by tilling their sCil the leaders of the other fac ton were basiRg larger fortunes on the profits of merchandise and trade So, although Spicer South could nei- ther read nor write, his chief enemy, Micah Holman, was to outward seem ing an urbane and fairly equipped man of affairs. Judged by their heads, the elansmen were rougher and more illit- crate on Misery, and in closer touch with civilization on Crippleshin. A deeper scrutiny showed this seeming to be one ot the strange anomalies of the mountains.
 Micah Hoffman had established him self at HiXOn, that shack town which had passed of late years from feudal
 ounty seat to the Sections one point of coz act with the outside world; a town where the ancient and modern orders brushed shoulders; where the new was tolerated. but dared not be- come aggressive. Directly across the street from the courthouse stood an emple frame building, on whose side wall was emba2oned the legend, "Hollman's Mammoth Department