Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-10-05

dows. the smart cottages in which
miners wives use electric irons and
| coasters, and the smooth streets ap-
rear strangely exotic in this part OF
the world. 1t is eleven miles across
the mountain to Big Stone Gap, va,
tho home of the late John Fox, Jf,
| writer OF Kentucky mountain
! stories-only eleven miles across
the wilderness of Pine Mountain, yet
about two days by rail via d
boro, and through Cumberland Gap
and back up the Virginia SIDE OF
the range!
Lynch is a new camp spic and
span, the highest town in Kentuchy'
at the end of a branch of the Louis
Vile & Nashville up Cumberland
River and the tiny aftluent OF M
Cumberland, Looney Greek, which
rises on Black Mountain.
McRoberts, at the ermlnus OF
another branch, running up n OF
the forks of Kentucky River, and
jenkins, across the divide from Nc
| Roberts at the head of the valley
OF Elkhorn, a tributary of Big
SANDY River, are older camps, less
up to date, less conspicuous as
models, less interesting to students
o. welfare work as 1T is done by
mining companies. But in some re-
spects these camps have been I'M
proved by time.
Jenkins lies in a narrow valley
of Alpine appearance, not without
it's blue lake to carry u the 1e-
scmblance to Swiss scenery, and
plentifully supplied with vine COW
vered cottages and flower gardens
b~espeaking long occupancy. The
lake, some twenty acres of the
| water of a moutain stream i'm
| pounded by a dam which provides
power, is surrounded by homes of
company officers, and upon II size
OF it is the company club house
which serves as a home for unmar-
ried miners and office employees.
Canadian anoes and q sail boat,
cat rugged, give the lake the APP
pearance of a similar body of water
flanked by cottages occupied by a
summer colony for pleasure.
The Famous Trail
Above it where blue sky and dark
pine tops meet, runs the Trail of
the Lonesome Pine" described by
John Fox, Jr., in a novel of that
! title which has been seen in drama
tized form on both tie stage and
screen. If Mr.. Fox drew upon his
imagination for the loneliness of his
heroine he did not have to depart
from reality in describing the rare
beauty of the scenery.
And almost within sight OF the
club house and the lake the print
tive life of the mountains which Fox
depicts still survives. A June Toll
liver of the heights might stand at
the Lonesome Pine at nightfan
looking down upon a dark valley
! starred with electric lights, and re-
turn home to a nearby log cabin
lighted by a log fire in the evening
Czechs, Lithuanians, Greeks, Mag
vars, Italians, men of many races
occupy the cottages OF jenkins en-
powered in vines and flowers, which
cling to precipitous mountainsides
resembling in their surroundings
not, in architecture, chalets in
Switzerland.
When Jenkins was founded by
men some OF whom remain In
charge as company officers. the ma
chinery and building material were
brought in by OK teams to trans
form a ~forested gorge into a nina.
ture city with wide lawns of blue
grass and streets as smooth as those
OF Washington.
Communication between McRob-
erts and Lynch is maintained fel
the purpose Of the coal mine oper'
ators by mean of a tunnel under
the divide through which mine car!
alone are run. Passengers cross
the divide in light automobiles wher
the weather is dry. 1t is roughel
work than riding a mule but some
what faster going.
Such coal camps as Lynch arc
Jenkins and many smaller ones les
handsomely equipped, surrounded
by the old mountain life, draw al
labcrers. by the lure of high wages
some of the native m~ountaineers
Others more conservative remain
steadfastly by their cabins, cultivat
Ing crops in fields so slanting tina
corn cannot be gathered in a wagoi
bu. only in a slide.
;. mo wages would tempt the fel
low who lives up there" said a min
ing man pointing upward to
mountaineer's home perched wher
} an eagle might have made its nest
The foreigners" indicating a groul
: of miners-"can earn more in
week than the native ever had a
Lone time. but his type prefers pcv
: erty and the freedom of the hills"