New-York tribune., 1922-02-12


.-.., +be;r cabins and bar the doors They're
.-;,htened of people. They're frightened Of
and I've known 'em for years. They'll
:. scsred stiff OF you troopers
o,r host rose and brought from another
~, half-bushel basket. In shape it resem-
Nd those ricketv containers in which the
...rer grocer heaps potatoes. In texture ard
,.orx,uansnip it was as different from these
=. n a carpet OF 1spahan from the rag rugs
:, New England farmhouse.
r. uas woven of brown, weathered strips.
~r,,,on thin and half inch wide, cut with
,.,;oate care from the heart of white oak.
Ga tight was the weave that when you held
no basket up to the window and loolei into
.hs aarinc mouth no speck Of light filtered
.,rough. Smaller wlthes had been used ,o
A;,d On the rim with a craftsmanship an artist
might envy.
srbat's the sort Of work they do our most
explained.
"rt will hold water he added after we
baa ,na11elled at what appeared, even to our
.,rskillcd eyes, masterpiece of basket max
;no And then reading correctly the incre-
dul;tv on the faces of the sergeant and myself.
10 went to the pump and proved it. This
fabric Of oak strips was not only basket
# was bucket as we'll.
"They make the best baskets in the world,
remarked our host, and was probably correct
But you'll never get within hundred
Yards of any of them,' he prophesied In this,
however, he erred.
For by grace OF the uniforms we wore and
the whim of the goddess of luck, who smiled
or. us after leading US for hours along the
blind hill trails, we found the squalid group Of
cabins that is the city Of the Frightened Poo
pe and spoke to their inhabitants, face to face.
For many years-people Of the lowanCs say
TWO centuries or more-they have lived in the
heart Of the hills. slipping with each gencr-
alton little further from man-madc law
and little nearer to those elemental statutes
framed by cold and hunger and the mating cry.
They have no religion, as the foxes and
squirrels have none. What statutes and trad-
tons they brought with them out of that un-
known land from which they hailed, have
died Of age and disuse long since Birth and
mating and death come to them as they come
to the iurred and feathered wild creatures of
these hills. They keep no livestock no pou-
Try and their efforts al agriculture arc limited
@daggled little patches of corn and potatoes.
which live or wither as rain and insect pests
see fit.
atoms, shrinking in fright from outside con
.act untouched by the swelling tide of civil
zation. They dwell, these feeble. frightened
folk in the hlls-rot of the Virginias or
Carolinas-but Of the enlightened State of New
York. which yearly sends it's thousands Of
dollars 10 civilize the nountaineers of the Blue
Ridge but forgets the Frightened People of its
9n Columbia County.
Ten miles, the crow flies from the flour
lSling city of Hudson; a short days ride, as
the automobile counts time, from the greatest
city of the western world; an hours walk
from the summer colony on the shores of Lake
Charlotte, men and women are living and bear
ing offspring and dying without knowing the
name Of God; with no knowledge even of the
alphabet inbred. an@mic. benighted: never
having seen a railroad train or a modern
highway
The fear of the outlander. strong as the ami
mails terror Of fire. has kept them from such
hagrant violations Of the law as might have
brought them. willy nilly, into contact with the
outside world.
Steal? the lowander snorts when you ask
aSn'' "Shucks, no, They amt got that spunk.
Ahey mind their own business and they'll
'hank You to mind yours
80 they do with a fervor that amounts to
passion. Deep in the heart of the Columbia
Mills the Frightened People drop back each
year along that road of evolution their far
Instant forebears Travelled upward. Content
III lite that would be horror to one who
AAo"s better, they live and bear and die.
"''f more than biped animals, except for that
S'aAge gift of basket making that still burns
H.