The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1918-07-05
TAR Heels won BY
open HEART TALKS
Tact OF u. S. Officials Sue
cessful In Bringing In
Deserters.
louisville TIerald.)

NLouloNilt iltTdlu.D
Washington, June 30.-Tar Heel
Mountain, in North Carolina, is again
part of the United States. Never a
real part of the country when II came
20 the enforcement of revenue law. IL
withdrew utterly when draft came.
Tar Heel would fight for Tar Heel
necessary, but Tar Heel would not go
TO a foreign war.
But to-day the mountain is one
hundred per cent loyal, Il is a cea-
ter OF patriotism and Washington
credits II to the judgment and hero
j. ism OF special agent of the Depart
ment OF Justice. whose name the de-
partment withholds and refers to as
Agent A."
Way back in the mountains of
Carolina. where runs undiluted the
blood of the early English settlers.
but where ignorance and superstition
hold firm against the feeble inroads
of the educated. old Tar Heel Noun
tain rears its wooded crest.
STEPPED In Ignorance.
The people of Tar Heel read no
newspapers and have few schools.
They know little of the war. They
have seen telephone wires and few
have ridden on trains, but to most
the fastest means of communication
is horseback. The women still
ride on a piliion behind her
man. and the movement of freight
is by oxens, yolked six and eight to a
rough cart and "gee'd and haw'd over
the narrow corduroy roads by walk
ing drivers brandishins long gcads.
Their language In a corruption of the
old Elizabethan English, and TO most
of them the "outlander" is n revenu-
err" or at least an object of suspicion.
Into this land came the draft, and
with the draft resentment that they
should be taken from their homes to
fight on alien soil. Many refused to
register. others failed 10 respond
when called to the colors. and II was
only clan that the government was
enabled to make a showing in the
national army.
Dcscrters Hide In Mountains.
Gradually the men were won in
until nine were left who had refused
TO report to the draft boards. Hiding
in the caves in the mountains or con-
vcealed in the homes.of their mountain
kin were thirteen deserters, who had
been called in the draft and sent to
camp. whence they had fled.
The S5C-a-head reward offered by
the government for deserters stirred
officers to every effort at captures.
But as they rode the mountain trails
their approach was signaled by the
hooting of an owl or the call of the
dove. closely initiated by the noun
tain sentinels. And when the sheriffs'
posses too closely pressed the fugi-
tives the whining of a bullet across
the road in some dark patch of trail
was warning that il was not worth
while along that path.
Posse after posse came back empty
handed. The mountain boosted that I!
IL held its own, and about the sheriff's
Office in the courthouse at Bakers |
vile gloom fought with tobacco |
smoke for the air.
There was no solace for the depu- |
ties even in the corn whisky that |
>slipped down from the mountain in /
its usual mysterious channel, and the |
long leaves of tobacco, sun-cured at |
the doors of their homes, lost their
usual fragrance.
Teaches Lesson or Patriotism.
!, Then came agent A." The attack
was called off, and he, alone and
unarmed, rode into the mountain to
spread the story of the war and its
lessons of patriotism.
He met the mountain men and
their women, always sending mes
sages of patriotism and service to the
outlaws. None of these did he ever
see. but at times he felt certain that
they were under the same roof with
him, and that from half-opened doors
ears gathered each word he left as
messages for them.
They were Anglo-Saxons and his
words took root in their hearts. The
deserters, Wess Ellis, Peter Ledford,
Landon r. Green, Brown Buchanan,
Carrial Saskins, Peter Garland, Ben
famine Franklin, Robert Dixon
Blaine Hughes, Daniel Rexter Cooper
Arthur Blevens, Blaine Green ana
william Freeman, began to talk
among themselves and with the draft
eyaders, and their friends bore word
to agent A."
tIa issuad masses to the men by