The Beaver herald. [volume] (Beaver, O.T. [Okla.]) 1895-1923, 1915-12-02

field girls wrote on a white pillar at
the front OF her often bereaved house
There is no place like home" The |
sequel tells that cynical traveller |
passing that way reflected on the an.
nails of that dwelling and added in
postscript: 'Leastways not this side |
of hell"
The story of the Hatfield Mccoy |
feud is in many ways that of other |
wars" which have made Of the roof !
tree OF the eastern divide land be-
| leaguered and unique.
In the war between the Haveys and
the McBriars there was more than the
| forgotten episode of a stray razorback
which was not surrendered to its law
full owners. They had for decades
hated and killed each other with a
| fidelity of bitterness that made all
their truces and intermarriages fail of
permanent peace.
Between the territories where they
had originally settled stretched bar.
rier OF hills broken by only one gap
The McBriars had made their first
habitations east of that ridge and gap
where the waters ran toward the sea.
The Haveys had set up their power
to the west. where the creeks and
springs fed the rivers that went down
to the Blue-Grass and to Tennessee
Had the two clans been content to re-
main respectively on the sunrise and
sunset slopes of the backbone, they
might never have clashed, but there
were bright-eyed women to the west
and east. Feminine Havey eyes lured
McBriar suitors. and McBriar girls
seemed TO the Havey men worth any
dare that fate might set. So IT has
been since young Montagues and
Capulets ignored deadlines-and long
before. Smoke went up from cabins
on both sides that housed men and
women of both clans. Hatred scat
tered and set up new points of infec-
tion all along Tribulation and beyond
, its headwaters.
In Civil war and subsequent politics
between them-and each faction had
, been a power
II was to the leadership of such a
clan that Bad Anse had succeeded
, when hardly twenty-one by the death
of father whose end had not come
, upon bed of illness.
: II was to the herding of such a flock
5 that he had ridden away from the
: cabin OF Fletch McNash on the night
= when the girls scornful taunt fol.
3 lowed him.
It was an unfortunate thing that
{ Cal Douglas should, on a February
: afternoon, have shot to death his
= brother-in-law, Noah Watt, even II. as
r Cal earnestly assured the jury. "he
was Jest obleeged an beholden ter dc
Q It." All the circumstances of the af
b fair were inopportune for his kinsmat
A and the kinsmen Of the man who died
[ with bullet through his vitals.
a Cal bore a name for surly character
n and even in land where grudge- bear
ing is a religion he was deemed ultra
d fanatical In tanning the flame of ha
|. tired. Noah Watt himself was little
loved by either the Haveys. into whose
family he had married, or the McBri
ars, from whom he sprang. Neigh
bors told OF frequent and violent bick
erings between the man and his
shrewish wife. who was the twin sis
ter of Cal Douglas.
"Cal Douglas an Noey Watts WON
an air es much alike es two peas in {
pod" went neighborhood pronounce
| ment They air both soured OF
! mankind an they glories in human
misery"
Had the fight on that winter eve
1 ming ended in the death of both par
\ ticipants, McBriars and Haveys woulC
alike have called II a gentle riddanc,
| and dropped the matter where 1t stood
| But since a Havey had slain a Nc
H Briar and the Havey still lived
II could not, in honor be so dropped |
Il left an uneven score
y Since the mountaineer has little L
I do in the winter and spring save gos
sip, the affair grew in importanc
l with rehearsing, and to each tellin
j was added new features. II was sig
Z nificantly pointed out east of the ridg
that Noah had incurred the displeas
ure of Bad Anse Havey by the susp
cion of tale-bearing to old Milt MC
Briar 1t was argued that the partict
lar wife-beating which led to the tral
edy might have passed as uney entfull
as several similar episodes heretofor,
had not the heads of the Haveys mad
is it pretext for eliminating McBria
ID who dwelt in their midst and carrie
ID news across the ridge to his ow
h. people.
it For several years the feud ha
le slept, not the complete sleep OF deati
RI but the ftful, simmering sleep of cal
lr tious animoslty But neither clan Eel
ly so overwhelmingly strong as to couI
a. an issue just yet and, realizing tn
Is desperate quality of any outbreal
IL 10Th NH MnRrlar mnunr unnm IN