The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1914-12-19

Hollmans. the Purvys, the Asberries,
the Hoilises and the Daitons-men
equally strong in their YindictiYe
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 con-
tract to be signed, his instructive mind
was shrewd and far seeing. The tinkIe
Of his cowbells was heard for long
distance along the creek bottoms. His
hillside fields were the richest and his
coVes the most fertile in that country.
Some day, when a railroad should bur
row 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 outcroppings along
the cliffs, which he knew ran deep in
veins of bituminous wealth. But to
that time he looked with foreboding,
for he had been raised to the stand
ards Of his forefathers and saw in the
coming of new regime curtailment
Of personal liberty. For new-fangled
ideas he held only the aversion of
deep-rooted prejudice. He hoped that
he might live 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 emery, because it said to him,
Thou shalt not" when he sought to
take the yellow corn which bruising
labor had coaxed from scattered rock
strewn fields to his own mash vat and
still. It meant, also, a tyrannous
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-
liable coming of that day. Already 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
factional hands, and in his country
the Hollmans were the office holders
To the Hollmans he could make no
concessions. In 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 the restless spirit Of the phiIos-
opher and a hunger for knowledge
That was a matter in which the old
man found his bitterest and most Sc
cret apprehension.
1t was at this house that George
Lescott, distinguished landscape paint
er 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 the kinsmen proved
to have rude working knowledge of
| bone setting, and before the half hour
had passed Lescott's wrist was in a
| splint, and his injuries as well 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 soil the leaders of the other fac
| ton were basing larger fortunes on
| the profits of merchandise and trade.
So, although SpIcer South could nei-
Their 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
clansmen were rougher and more Hit
crate on Misery. and in closer touch
with civilization on Crippleshin. A
deeper scrutiny showed this seeming
to be one Of the strange anomalies OF
the mountains.
Micah Holman had established him.
self at Hixon. that shack town which
had passed Of late years from feudaI
| county seat to the sectton's one point