Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1916-01-21

oNAANA VAS NA0N -
passing that way reflected on the an
nails of that dwelling and added in
postscript: "Leastwsys not this side
of hell"
The story OF the Hatfeld-McCoy
feud is In many ways that Of other
wars" which have made Of the roof
tree Of the eastern divide a 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 oil
their truces and intermarriages fail Of
permanent peace.
Between the territories where they
had originally settled stretched a 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 BLUEGRASS and to Tennessee.
Had the two clans been content to re.
main respectively on the sunrise and
might never have clashed, but there
were bright-eyed women to the west
and east. Feminine Havey eyes lured
McBriar s~uitors, and McBriar girls
seemed TO the Havey men worth any
dare that fate might set. So 1t has
been since young Montagues and
| Capulets ignored deadlines-and long
before. Smoke went up from cabins
IN both sides that housed men and
women Of both clans. Hatred scat.
tered and set up new points Of infec'
ton all along Trlbulation and beyond
Its headwaters.
In Civil var and subsequent politics
a line Of fierce cleavage had yawned
between them-and each faction had
been a power.
It was to the leadership of such q
clan that Bad Anse had succeeded
, when hardly twenty-one by the GNth
of a father whose end had not come
| upon a bed Of illness.
: 1t was to the herding Of such a flock
that he had ridden away from the
cabin of Fetch McNash on the night
: when the girls scornful taunt fol
lowed him.
1t was an unfortunate thing that
Cal Douglas should, on a February
afternoon, have shot to death his
brother-in-law, Noah Watt, even II, al
Cal earnestly assured the Jury. "he
was Jest obleeged an beholden ter dc
3 It." All the circumstances Of the at
, fair were inopportune for his kinsmaf
and the kinsmen Of the man who dice
[ with a bullet through his vitals.
4 Cal bore a name for surly character
and even in a land where g~rudge.bear
ing Is a religion he was deemed ultra
fanatical In tanning the fame 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 hi
shrewish wife, who was the twin sis
ter of Cal Douglas.
Gal Douglas an Noey Watts won
an air es much alike es two peas in
pod" went neighborhood pronounce
ment. They air both soured oil
mankind an they glories In human
misery"
Had the fight on that winter eve
ming ended in the death Of both par
Elephants, McBriars and Haveys woul,
alike have called 1t a gentle riddanc
and dropped the matter where it stood
But since a Havey had slain a Nc
Briar and the Havey still lived 1
could not, in honor, be so dropped. |
left an uneven score.
= Since the mountaineer has little t
do in the winter and spring save COS
sip, the affair grew In importanc
with rehearsing. and to each tellin
! was added new features. 1t was sit
~niicantly pointed out east of the ridg
that Noah had incurred the displeaI
ure Of Bad Anse Havey by the susp
cion OF tale-bearing to old Milt NJ,
Briar. 1t vas argued that the particl
lar wife-beating which led to the ira,
edy might have passed as uneventfull
as several similar episodes heretofor,
had not the heads Of the Haveys mad
Is 1t a pretext for eliminating a McBria
ID who dwelt in their midst and carrie
ID news across the ridge to his ow
b. people,
For several years the feud ha
le slept, not the complete sleep Of dealt
ri but the ftful, simmering sleep OF ca
lr tious animosity. But neither clan fe
so overwhelmingly strong as to coul
a.. an issue just yet and, realizing Ii
Is desperate quality OF any outbrea.
both Milt McBriar over yon" an
lie Anse Havey over here had guarde
the more belligerent kinsmen wit
jealous eye. They had until now he
them checked and leashed, thong
growing.
,e For these reasons the trial Of C.
ut Douglas had been awaited with
g. sense OF crisis in the town Of Per