Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1915-04-02

ovt In the fercely 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 manner of Misery. Their
kinsmen dwelt about them: the Souths,
the Jaspers, the Spicers, the Wileys,
the Millers and McCagers. Other fam
lilies, 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 othsr
way to feed Crippleshin, dwelt the
Hollmans the Purvises, the Asberries,
the Hollises 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 con-
tract to be signed, his instructive mind
was shrewd and far seeing. The tinkle
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 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 a 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
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 OF
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 nc
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 tc
time the restless spirit of the philos
opher and hunger for knowledge
That was a matter in which the ole
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
| a rrivod in tho tuyi1ioh+
Whatever enemy might have to bt
met tomorrow, old Spicer South rec
ognized as a more immediate cal
upon his attention the wounded CUES
Of today. One Of the kinsmen proved
to have rude working knowledge O
bone setting, and before the half hou
had passed Lescott's wrist was in
splint, and his injuries as we'll tended
as possible, which proved to be quit,
we'll enough.
While Spicer South and his cousin
had been sustaining themselves O
building up completeness by tillin,
their soil the leaders of the other fac
Vim NClC booill6 ldl SCI fortunes Oh
the profits of merchandise and trade
So, although Spicer South could mel
Their read nor write, his chief enemy
Micah Holman, was to outward seem
ing an urbane and fairly equipped mai
Of affairs. Judged by their heads, tn
clansmen were rougher and more illit
crate on Misery, and in closer toucl
with civilization on Crippleshin.
deeper scrutiny showed this seemin
to be one of the strange anomalies @
, the mountains.
Micah Holman had established hin
self at Hixon, that shack town whic
: had passed of late years from feuda
county seat to the sections one poin
Of contact with the outside world;
town where the ancient and moder
orders brushed shoulders; where tn
new was tolerated, but dared not b.
come aggressive. Directly across tn
street from the courthouse stood a
ample frame bqilding, on whose sid
wall was enh'azoned the legend