McNairy County independent. (Selmer, McNairy County, Tenn.) 1902-1969, 1916-04-07
NEW YORK
LETTER
ANN,NNANVANyANNANcNNNVIN

bloody feuds have been fought in the
times past, the people are as different
from the western Tennesseeans as
though they belonged to another ma
tion.
Thirteen years ago | was special
pension examiner in the Big Sandy
River region, and often Travelled
among the feudists, but was never
better treated in my life. The wind
ing strings of mountains left no space
for public roads but the creeks that
wound around through them, and |
Travelled for hundreds of miles along
rocky beds Of streams, sometimes on
ice, In the summer | could see the
men, women and children working
away upon the steep mountain sides,
their little rocky corn patches. where
it did not look like corn couhl find
footing, let alone the people who
worked it. One man told me of GO
ing along the road one day, when he
saw a man, horse and pillow changing
ends as they rolled down the mountain
side, Landing in the creek, the man
pulled the trace-ehains from around
his neck, got up, bowed, and said:
Excuse me, mister, | jist fell out of
my farm The food of these people
was different from any I had seen.
They had way Of putting whole
green corn in barrels with salt, till it
got sour like crout;; and they served
green beans the same way; so that
the tables smelt pretty vinegary. Hog
was the great meat diet; salt boiled
pork and turnips, and that everlasting
sour corn, met me at every table,
Consumption was common among them
and | figured out it was because they
married so young; girl there who
was over sixteen and unmarried being
considered an old maid. They were
often mothers at fourteen. Then they
intermarned so with each other, that
there was little new blood in the re-
gion. Bill Hamilton would settle at
head Of the creek and have about ten
little Hamiltons; his children would
marry into the family across in the
next hollow, or into bunch a little
further down the creek. Few of them
could read or write. took one old
ladY's statement and handed her the
pen to sign it. "Lord, mister / can't
write!" she exclaimed. when | was
a gal the folks kept me a-gwine to
the corn field from mornin' till night,
and / never had no book-larnin'."
People of few, powerful emotions,
are always dangerous. Feuds that
cost dozens Of lives started about the
alleged theft Of a shoat, but the ma
tives killed each other daily. Stran-
gers we're well treated. | have seen
Kentucky mountaineer run his last
lone rooster to its death to give me a
good meal. The rooster was tough,
but the tenderness Of the mans heart
that killed it for me made it good.
Some of the large families lived in
one-room houses, where were grown
girls. They all loved to hear me talk
about the great city of Washington
and the world outside. The man Of
the house did all the talking; the
girls made no sound but an OCCASION
al giggle or whisper to each other,
and they never would sit down when
was at the. table. When bedtime
came, the mother would signal the
daughters, and they all stepped out
and the old man said: "Now. mister,
hits your time to git into bed.' There
was a bed in each corner of the one
room, and | had the best one. After
| was tucked in nicely, the mother
and her stalwart girls came in, the
little kerosene lamp was blown out,
and | heard the women shutting of
their garments and slipping into bed
They were all up and busy with break.
fast before ! woke in the morning
The old man had said the night be.
fore: "Well, mister, we love, to hear
ye talk; hits jist like book; but hits
eight o'clock, and We inginneraly turr
in at seven. for we've got to git uE
at four; and guess yore tired too
For my supper, lodging, breakfast ant
feed for two horses night and morn
ind, they would not take more thar
fifty cents, sometimes saying tha
they kept no hotel, and like to set
strangers anyhow. as SO few of then
ever came that way. ] would tall
Russian and other languages to th'