The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1915-02-11
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CUNBERLANDS
~ CHARLES NEVILLE BUCK
XxTTH n ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
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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 a new regime curtailment
Of personal liberty. For new-fangled
ideas he held only the aversion Of
deep-rooted prejudice. He hoped that
he might I've out his days and pass
before the foreigner held his land and
the law became a power stronger than
the individual or the clan. The law
was his enemy, because 1t 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. 1t 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-
table 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 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 Hoilmans we're 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 philos'
opher and a hunger for knowledge.
That was matter in which the old
man found his bitterest and most Sc
cret apprehension.
It was at this house that George
Lescott, distinguished landscape paint
err 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 a rude working knowledge Of
bone setting, and before the half hour
had passed Lescott's wrist was In a
splint, and his injuries as we'll tended
as possible, which proved to be quite
well 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 Tilt
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 feudal
county seat to the sections one point
of contact 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
ample frame building, on whose side
wall was emblazoned the legend,
"Hollman's Mammoth Department
Store" That was the secret strong
hold of Holman power. He had al
ways spoken deploringly of that spirit
Of lawleesness which had given the
mountains a bad name.
When the railroad came to Hixon
It found In Judge HOLMAN a public
spirited citizen" Incidentally, the tim
Der that 1t hauled and the coal that
its nat cars carried down to the Blue.
grass went largely to his consignees.
He had 80 astutely anticipated coming
events that, when the first scouts of
capital sought options they found
themselves constantly referred to
Judge Holman. No wheel, 1t seemed.
could turn without his nod. It was
natural that the genial storekeeper
should become the big man of the
community and inevitable that the one
big man should become the dictator.
His inherited place as leader Of the
Hollmans in the feud he had SEEM
ingly passed on as an obsolete pre-
r0gatiVe.
Yet, In business matters, he was
found to drive q hard bargain, and
men came to regard 1t the part Of
good policy to meet rather than COM
bat his requirements. It was essen
tial to his purposes that the officers
of the law in his country should be In
sympathy with him. sympathy soon
became abject subservience. When 3
South had opposed Jesse Purvy In the
primary as candidate for high sheriff
he was found one day lying on his
face with a bullet-riddled body. 1t
may have been a coincidence which
pointed to Jim Asberry, the judges
nephew, as the assassin. At all events,
the Judges nephew was poor boy,
and a charitable grand Jury declined
to indict him.
In the course Of FIVE years several
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