The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1921-11-04
Sweet Cider 6Oc Gallon


apparently no race suicide problem
among these people despite the fact
that it is claimed that the real Ameri-
cans. are dying out in this country
Babies are everywhere and the camp
| life, when it is not raining, is a con-
tinual vacation to the boys and girls.
Now that school has commenced
many of these children have to trudge
miles to get to the little country
school houses. In the case of the
Lick Greek colony which is near Will
hanson, the country seat, the negro
children have to walk six miles to get
to school. The smaller colored child
rem do without, but the white children
have little school house just over the
hill
William X. Kenyon, of Iowa, leader
of the progressive farmer element in
the United States senate, and Samuel
M. Shortridge, a newspaper publisher
| of California, recently elected to the
senate, made the investigation. Both
seemed very sympathetic. One of
the invariable questions they would
ask miner or a miners wife would
be: "Are you born in this country 2"
Then answer just as Invariably would
be "No."
"Where were you born? ?" "Oh, I
was born in Alabama" would come
the somewhat startling response.
Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee,
Ohio, Pennsylvania and good old
"Kaintuck" of Daniel Boone renown
and, of course, the mountain state of
West Virginia We're the birthplaces of
all these people, the direct descend
ents of the early settlers of eastern
Virginia and the southern seaboard.
Yet they would say that they were
not born in this country. "This coun-
| try" in the mountain region means
the immediate vicinity, and usually
the valley in which the people are liv-
ing at the particular moment A
"furriner" there means anybody who
lives over the hill, which counting the
upward and the downward climb of
these clifflike mountains would mean
that anybody five miles away would
be presumed to be an alien.
Even the mountaineer with the
shaggy beard who replied to Senator
Shortridge's question of his birthplace
with the laconic "Kaintuck" did not
quite make himself clear on the SUBJ
ject of his Americanism because the
senator from California did not un-
derstand that Kentucky was meant
until the peculiar pronunciation was
repeated to him, and then he re-
| trieved the situation by telling the
crowd of miners story about a Ken
tuckian he met out on the coast.
1t was hoary jest but the miners
enjoyed it. The senator's friend COM
pared the two states, which were
equally exceptional in his opinion:
California, the land of the eternal
sunshine and Kentucky, the land of
the continual moonshine."
There was no moonshine in evil
dence among the miners but booze
was frequently evident among the
forces of law and order, and it was
rumored that there are stocks of
booze in the fastness of Don Chafin's
own stronghold. This, however, could
not be verified.
But one brief visit to these natives
of American-Tennesseeans, Alabam-
ans, Kentuckians and Virginians is
ample evidence that the revolutionary
spirit of their ,forefathers is not yet
dead, the Daughters of the American
Revolution and the Colonial Danes to
the contrary Notwithstanding.
| "a Va IA
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