Democratic Sentinel, Volume 3, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1879 — OLD-TIME REMINISCENCES. [ARTICLE]

OLD-TIME REMINISCENCES.

flic New England of tho South, and tho Necessity for Its Development. BY W. W. Ah I trust my readers are by this time aware, I am not writing merely to amuse those who chance to honor me with their attention, but with the hope that what is hei-e set down bearing upon past and existing conditions of the South may serve to draw attention to what in the end may subserve the advantage and prosperity, in some degree, at least, of both sections. I jmrpo.se to deal to some extent with the substantial resources and attractions with which the South is really so richly endowed, if, perchance, some may turn to these advantages, and, sooner or later, reap good returns from them. Let me remark, then, that most undoubtedly the poverty, and resulting ignorance and simplicity, of the mountain districts—because prosperity, and resulting wealth, in most cases means education, books and a thousand different enterprises—came largely of the unfortunate start made two-thirds of a century ago, and not from lack of resources in the country itself. The first settlers believed implicitly in the pleasures and profits—whatever they were of the chase, and, so long as they could raise corn enough to furnish bread for themselves and feed for their stock, they troubled themselves but little beyond this, their meat, until hogs and cattle become a substitute and necessity, being gotten “ out of the woods.” Placed in these rich and well-wooded and watered valleys, excepting now and then a small peach or apple orchard where fruit of the best kind might be made to yield a superabundance, they thus existed for half or two-thirds of a century, the world, somehow, never having let its daylight stream in upon them. And yet, all through that region, . where only the traveler on horseback or on foot could make his way, coal and iron are everywhere “cropping out” from tho hillsides, in a manner that would, make unlimited fortunes for New Lngland with the same conditions. Tho truth seems to have been, that the advantages for living could be had on far too easy terms. And, in illustration of this, let me give ah incident, tho leading features of which might be multiplied indefinitely. On one of my many jaunts through those valloyft, I came upon one so exceedingly charming in all its belongings that a friend of mine along could only utter exclamations of pleased surprise. The occupant of the one habitation in it was evidently the “monarch of all he surveyed.” With his picturesque log cabin, located on a small eminence in the middle of the valley, behind him was a fine peach and apple orchard, while a little further off was a rustic mill turned by the beautiful stream that noisily bowled its way downward, while upward toward the tops of the hills that shut in this little paradise waved the arms of great forest trees, cottonwood, oak, and others, that seemed to bend over the place protectmgly to shield it from tempests and all else that might threaten it. Cleared und ricli fields in ample supply completed the picture. I have said above that life and its comforts here were had on. too easy conditions. Stopping to get breakfast and our horses fed, the good woman of 1 10 ,, house, to “give us something to do, she said, “while she was preparing the meal,” brought forward some plates ot tho most beautiful honey in its white comb I was ever fortunate enough to A nd she added, “the bees had left that rich hive of honey the day belore, and she couldn’t think of a single reason for their doing so—but was completely puzzled.” Weil, it was not long before an admirable breakfast was smoking on the table before us, and then, in the eourse of conversation, we learned that the family*were doing their best to dispose of their beautiful place for the purpose of moving to Missouri. Alas,” I said to the good woman, “ I didn t believe there was any ‘ vale of content’ in this worjd, whatever the

poets might sayfor I could no more understand why they could think of leaving their present beautiful home, for any far-away place whatever, than she could understand why the bees had left their hive with its ample supply of honey, to go winging their way in search of some fancied better home. Well, the poor woman hung her head for an instant, as 6he stammered sorrfe half-way justification for the proposed flight, enough to convince me, however, that I had only made her merely unhappy, perhaps, and I left, quite convinced that the example set by our far-off progenitors, in showing restlessness in whatever Eden located, was still and always would be a characteristic of their descendants to the very end; that that Adam and Eve were not all who had been located discontentedly in pleasant places. One strong and controlling reason why, in all the past history of emigration and settlement of the whole country, the rich valleys of Kentucky have been so much overlooked was that the range of rough mountains, extending almost from the Ohio river to Cumberland Gap, compelled trains of emigrant wagons to keep on southwest clear to the last-named place, as to the only point where this tremendous cape could be “doubled;” and,once through the “Gap,” then before them lay a feasible road to Central Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, and, indeed, to the whole West. And if, comparatively, a few in these early times diverged mountain wards from this great leading pathway to richer lands, they were those who especially liked hunting for its own sake; and who, in the mountain districts, would be sure of sport not to be found for any length of time in a more agricultural district. So it was, then—as I have said in the first portion of this chapter—the mountain ranges and valleys were in the outset peopled with those who transmitted their unthrifty ways to their descendants; and hence, whatever the native resources of those fine valleys, they have largely remained undeveloped to this day. But—the query is worth entertaining—is it indeed the case that because the great tides of emigration, assisted by railroads and other potent agencies, have swept past this great mountain region on both sides, to find homes in the far West 4 —is it so that this section will be overlooked and neglected to the very end? Will there not cornea reaction; a desire to look up desirable places nearer home? and, making of this mountain region with its unbounded water power, its mineral wealth, its iron, and coal, and copper, and lead, and salt, a true New England of the South, develop it to better conditions and results than hitherto it has been fortunate enough to experience? Blessed especially as its residents are with good health, and this to a degree excelled by no other region on the continent, all this should awaken public attention to its advantages, and cause some more of our people to benefit by them. And in regard to what has been here said of the mountain regions of Kentucky and Tennessee—indeed of that whole scope of country in the headwaters of the Big Sandy and New rivers on the one side and the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers on the other—much the same reasons exist for making infinitely valuable to the people of this coxmtry for homes the mountainous region of North Georgia, and the sections of that character adjoining. In that naturally favored hill country, it was declared by the Clierokcos when they were made to abandon it for the lands west of the Mississippi, “a man was never sick or sorry;” and at present it is-encouraging to know that every year public attention it getting somewhat more drawn to it, the chief attraction being its mild and healthful climate, which supplies favorable conditions for many who find it impossible to live in the severer climate of the North. But there are potent reasons why the people of the South themselves should turn to the development of that portion of their territory, which, after all, has more elements of real power in it than anything offered to them besides. The mountainous region of the South is emphatically the white man’s country. And bearing in mind that the two greatest elements of power known to this or any age are iron and coal; that these are the agencies that in the end make nations rich and respected, and this consideration alone should make the fortunate possessors of such elements of strength eager to make the most of them. The great mistake that the South has made in the past was in entertaining the belief that the agricultural, or, as some of her political oracles fondly termed it, “the patriarchal condition,” was that which was most desirable—that which would most certainly give her empire and greatness—not reflecting that iron commands not only gold, but everjthing else almost of which it is the representative. Fear, it should be borne in mind, however reluctant we may be to acknowledge it, is too often in this world a constituent or condition of respect; and we may say of cannon foundries and ship-yards that, although these may not lay the world under tribute as does cotton, they compel that tribute of respect, without which cotton, money or anything else may be comparatively valueless.

I have said that the hill region is the white man’s country; and this 1 ecause, while he must in the very nature of the case leave cotton and rice and sugar culture to the colored race, he himself > —could he blit realize it—can do with these mineral treasures what the other race can never do—can develop power! And, although what I am going to adduce may be deemed but a trite or hackneyed illustration, yet what other country on tho face of the whole earth, save England, has been able, upon almost the basis alone of the two simple elements of development indicated iron and coal—to make almost every other civilized, or even half civilized, nation pay a money tribute to her to the extent annually of more than $2,000,000,000 ? Whatever nation wants money goes to her; and the obligations, consequently, that appear at the London Stock Exchange comprise, perhaps, four or five hundred millions of dollars, on which we alone as one nation pay interest ; and this, along with the bonds of Egypt, Turkey, the South American states, all far-off nations, indeed, besides those, including to a greater or less extent all the nations of Europe. Intelligent labor, let it be noted, does not, as a general thing, seize upon a hoe, and, under the blazing sun of the Gulf States, undertake to develop the cotton plant; neither will it wade in the rice swamps for a meager wage. But intelligent labor builds cotton mills, and, taking the raw material supplied by a different grade of labor, spins it, weaves it, colors it, adds an hundred fold value to it, and reaps a proportionate reward. In like manner, it seizes upon the crude material of the mines, and out of it fashions engines to pump, to grind, to hammer and saw; it constructs locomotives to carry to remunerative markets the raw material supplied by its less-intelligent co-worker of the fields and forests; and, demonstrating as all this does the place for the white man of the Soifth to occupy, if he desires progress, wealth, power, and with these the world’s profound respect, what hinders him from yet seizing upon it to begin itr earnest that true advancement too long postponed, and yet not too late to realize? And, in taking this view of the case,

why should not the two races work onward in entire and cordial harmony ? more especially when never before in the history of any nation were two lines of occupation both essential to general progress more distinctly marked out, or each as could be more consistently made to refrain from interfering one with the other. Progress for the whole means progress for every individual, if the latter be earnest and industrious ; and, for once leaving more to itself that barren field of politics where thousands quarrel for months that one may get some paltry office, turn to an earnest development of resources which, ultimately meaning substantial power, will in the end enable them to command what hitherto they may have been satisfied to wrangle for or solicit. To quit these questions of political economy, with which I trust I have Dot wearied the reader, I would note that, in the past, the chief product of many of these mountain districts were gaant, “ razor-backed” hogs, which, seldom fattened there, were collected in droves every fall, and with infinite patience driven to the corn-fields of the East Tennessee valleys, the Hiawassee and others; and, turned loose in them to riot and destroy at will, would in the end take on fat enough to make them acceptable and salable to the planters, lower down, of the Carolinasand Georgia, when driven thither finally. The method in vogue was to purchase the field of standing corn at an agreed price, the hogs to gather as much of it as they could. And, perhaps, a harder set of chaps for any sort of fun that offered could scarcely be found anywhere than these same hogdrovers. On the cars comiDg from the coast to Atlanta city on one occasion, a gang of them had —as it were—taken possession of the car of which I was an occupant; and all night long they kept up a constant uproar of coarse witticisms and stunning guffaws, hideous to listen to, yet impossible not to laugh at. One of their dramatic performances was travestying a Methodist “ anxious meeting ;” and carried out in the most reckless and even impious manner, with prayers and hymns, one could but know that their opportunities had been complete to have educated themselves to everything that was better. Interrupted in their sport by the announcement of supper, one of them, a great six-footer, on his return to the car uttered a most characteristic declaration: “ Boys, that was a splendid supper; I was eating for fifty cents, but they only charged me a quarter! ” Besides the considerable amount of hogs that the mountain districts of Kentucky furnished to the lowland consumers, great numbers of beef cattle found a market thence, on foot; while Central Kentucky and Upper-Middle Tennessee furnished in the same manner great droves of mules for the cotton fields of the Gulf States, and fine horses for all sections. Speaking of horses —something that, more than hemp or tobacco, perhaps, might be called the great staple of Kentucky—the moral code in regard to trading is represented as remarkably loose, every horse-buyer, or trader, being accredited and complimented with smartness enough to take care of himself. “All fair in a horse swap,” appeared to be the beginning and end of any rule governing the matter, so that whoever presumed to hope for much, if any, speculation out of these sharp traders was as likely as any way to find his hoped-for balance on the wrong side of the ledger. The “ sharpest practice” that I remember of becoming acquainted with in this line was boasted of by the fellow who was the principal actor in it, and happened in this wise: Being the owner of a very fine horse whose only and marked deficiency was that he had a regular “ rat tail,” he had failed in all attempts to dispose of him on that account, until accident suggested and threw in his way the means of supplying the want. A neighbor having lost, a fine horse who happened to have a large flowing tail, it occurred to the roguish horse-trader that, if he could somehow appropriate for his own steed that desirable member, it might be made the means of accomplishing to advantage the long-deferred sale. Acting upon this idea, he carefully separated it, leaving nothing but the hide, to which of course the hair clung fast, and this he strained over his own horse’s stump, sewed it tightly, and then hurried off to find a purchaser. This he accomplished without delay; and the ibuyer, much pleased with his bargain, took him home and put him in a stall. The next morning early he was summoned to the stable by the noise made by the horse, who was kicking the sides of the stall in the intervals of looking backward as if in distress; and after a good deal of investigation into the cause for the trick was performed so neatly that it quite baffled him at found the rawhide of the false tail had shrunk, and, sewed strongly, was pinching the poor horse so unmercifully that ho couldn’t stand still. Believed of it, there stood his neighbor’s rat-tailed horse; and when directly afterward the scamp was charged with it, of course he did it, he said, unblushingly, indeed with hearty peals of laughter, as if it was the climax of good jokes, winding up his confession with the received axiom, “All fair in a horse swap;” and that he expected his neighbor to “trade on his own judgment ,” as he himself had done. Of course the cheat didn’t get into the courts; it was too novel and too acute, “too good” for that; but the victimized pocketed his loss, relying upon getting even with the successful trickster some day in the future, or, at least, making himself “square” off of somebody else. Chicago, 111.