Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-10-05

5UVlS vi Ao6 49,
water boundary between the coal fields
of West Virginia and eastern Ken
lucky, and the scene of the famous
Hatfield Mccoy feud of other days,
! a patriarchal mountaineer stood in the
bow of a rude john boat with a spear
poised to strike. Over the boats bow
was suspended an iron fire basket and
the. bright flame from burning pine
knots flared over the clear shallow
water of the river revealing the fish
to the mar with the ''fizRig."
The train roared into the darkness
of the narrow valley before the spear
man struck. The patriarch with the
poised gig remained a mental picture
of the survival of the old life of the
wilderness in a period in which mine
bosses in khaki, concrete coal tipples,
electro lights in mountsin shacks,
gasoline filling stations and public
| garages in villages struggling on
mountainsides, silk stockings > and
fashionably cut skirts worn by wives
and daughters of Italians. Croats,
Slovenes, and Serbians, working IN
Kentucky mines. mark the transition
of this region from its former primi-
tive state.
Throughout the coal anti oil fields
of Kentucky there are everywhere
striking evidences of change. In the
great coal camps model homes for
miners compare favorably with the
latest modern tenements in progressive
American cities. Within a few miles of
these trig little cities made by power
full corporations to house their armies
of foreign and native coal dlggers,
whose language is polyglot and whose
American slang is as ~up-to-date as the
gowns and hats worn by their women
folk. one Slights-'lights' is the local
term-from a mule before a log CABIN
He hears Elizabethan English, de-
Perforated from long use where schools
are few and poor, spoken by men and
women of the purest Anglo-Saxon
blood. although this blood has suffered
deterioration by reason OF complete
isolation of clans since the mountains
were settled by pioneers from Virginia
"whose wagons broke down IN the
Mountains" Luckier travellers reached
the Bluegrass with the result that
their descendants inherited the land
and fairness thereof.
At Lynch, where the ground floor
of the company hotel is l,SO0 feet
above sea level. and the crest of the
mountains within sight of the hotel
verapda is 1000 feet, a single coal
tipple, said to be the largest IN the
world. has a capacity of 12,0O0 tons
a day.
Here until a few years ago was
wilderness and silence. NOWADAYS
there is q small city Boosting itself
a model OF sanitary arrangement. Inc
limited States Coal and Coke company,
q branch of the United States Steel
corporation. lodges miners. n as a
courtesy transients not engaged 10
mining. in n hotel as well equipped as
q smsrt summer resort in the North
Carolina mountains.
The company department store ON
mares well with the best eStabllsh,
n1ent in any American city OF -OO,oUo
in appearance, fixtures ana STOCK. ls
basement includes a model meat mar
ket and cold storage plant IN wnlc1
miners wives do their table shopping
CITY Merchandising Advantages
In his mercantile establishment
vonng miner may sit ut a taDie I'D th'
m~ezanninc floor of the drugstore al
smart as any on Z Street IN WASH.
ington eating ices and cakes WIN M
best girl" or go into the clothlhg atI
M rtment and fit himself out as wei
as he could in Louisville or olncIn
natl If he is a spender, as miners
often are. be can buy cigars up TO .
each. and at that price they are some
times sold, The miners Wlfe o.
laughter can pay as much for her sill
Stockings in Lynch as she could II
New York. The president OF q srea
corporation who was one among seF
erai magnates who visited Lyhch u
Ioot over a late example of mode
nine csmp arrangement Joklngly sai'
;, bn wonld take his wife, in New York
|. Tho hest pair of silk stockings IN I'M
store. When he paid the saiesWomal
he said he had set his wife a oa'
example in the purchasing Oh eA
:, pensiye women's furnishings.
The chubby atmosphere of the com
= nonv hotel upon whose broad porcl
easy chairs command a view or a SKY
line high upon Black mountain, IN,
cI;ck Of billiard balls heard through
, tbe omen basement windows, the smar
cnt+eaes in which miners wives us'
electrical irons and coasters, and TN
' emooth streets appear strangely ex
otic in this part of the world. It. !
> ~ miles across the mountain to 81
Stone Can. Va, the home of the lat
= Jobn Fox. Jr.. writer of kentuck,
. mountain stories-only IL miles acros
the wilderness Of Pine mountain, ye
t about . days by rail via Niddles6orG
and through Cumberland Gap and bacI
m the Virginia side of the range!
lynch is a new camp, spic and span
tho highest town in Kentucky, of tn
, end Of a branch of the Louisville 4
Nashville. I'D Cumberland river and tn
+ tinv affIuent of the Cumberland, Loone
: creek. which rises on Black noun
tain.
other branch. running up one OF tn
: forks of Kentucky river. and Jenkln'
c across the divide from McRoberts, q
the head of the valley of Elkhorn,
:, tributary of Big Sandy river, are olde
camps. less up to date. less conspiC
nous as models, less interesting.
students Of welfare work as If is don
y nv mining companies. But in som
: r~espects these camps have been I'm
d proved by time.
Jenkins lies in a narrow valley {
Anime appearance, not without its blu
Lake to carry out the resemblance t
Swiss scenery. and plentifully supple
with vine covered cottages and floWe
s gardens, bespeaking long occupanc.
=, THE lake. some 20 acres of the waite
of A mountain stream impounded by
c dam which provides power, is the con
e pauv club house, which serves as
home for unmarried miners and offiC
employees. Canadian canoes and a sal
S boat. catrigged, give the lake the az
pearance Of a similar body of waite
thanked by cottages occupied by a sum
j. NOR colony for pleasure.