Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/133

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ClIAXGiya COXDITIONS IX KEXTiVKr 127

between opposing families, and between opposing members of a family. Modern arms were introduced into the region. The physiography of the land favored bushwaeking. During the war the Kentucky moun- taineers suffered more sharply than the mountain people of any other state, except Tennessee. Also, many of the principals of the post-war feuds were boys during the Civil War, whose imaginations were filled with the horrors which the mountains witnessed during the four years. It is said by the mountain people that the actual numbers engaged in the feuds has ranged from 10 to 60 on a side; that the duration has been from 1 to 40 years; that perhaps not 10 per cent, of the mountain people have had a personal difliculty sufficient to cause fighting; prob- ably not 40 per cent, of them have gone to a court house to prosecute or defend a case; and that half of the enlisted partisans never have faced the music on a showdown fight.

In some parts of the region, as about Oneida, education is causing the decline of the feud; hut in other sections it flourishes, as near Pound Gap {"Trail of the Lonesome Pine"), near where, it is said, some eleven men were killed in three months during the spring of 1914.

The home, also, is changing. One still can see the windowless log cabin with its " dog-trot " — the open passage way between the two rooms; but some roofs are of shingles, and some of tin, while frame structures are appearing, and brick. Mountain simplicity and hospitality are illus- trated by one man who said, "I want a good house; two rooms . . . one for the family and one for company, each big enough for a bed in every cnmer . . , and a iean-to cook room."

The following is a description from Profes.oor Penniman's unpub- lislied tales of the mountains:

Three days are ample to build a log-cabin twenty feet square. The part before tbe roof is called a "pole pen." This is run up iu a few hours. The

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