Page:The Scientific Monthly vol. 3.djvu/136

 130 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY

of romantic love, hate, sacrifice and revenge are sung in almost all of the log cabins. Thereby the visitor, who may have thought that the mountaineers neither weep nor smile, learns with delight that their natures are intensely fluid. The songs are sung in slow time, and in minor tones difficult to express in written music. An effort is being made to collect the words and write the music before it becomes too late.

The open hospitality, once common, is shrinking. An old man in his watermelon patch put it thus : " I used to raise melons for the whole valley, so that the folks would come to sit and talk with me on the porch while we ate them. But now too many foreigners have come in; they would eat me out of home.'' There is a kindly affectionate courtesy for one another among the people, which, it is hoped, will survive.

There is such a great need for improvement in sanitation that what has taken place is negligible.

The native is accustomed to work in his fields by seasons, with periods of rest between. In fifteen days of travel I saw, during one of these "off" periods in September, but two men at w^ork in the field. It has been his wont to w^ork during the favorable time, or when the larder is empty ; or to rest during the unfavorable season, or while pro- visions are at hand. Therefore, in general, the population is unsuited to the routine of work in the mines, the manufacturing plants, and the lumbering camps, now appearing in the region under the control of out- side capital. Furthermore, it is without a disposition to cooperate. Hence such workers are at once the despair and menace of the employer and the labor union. Consequently, foreign labor is imported, and the mountain man is in the way, as was the Indian. He will not necessarily become happy if, to meet modern industrial c»onditions, he throws off lightly his old attitude toward life gained through centuries of adapta- tion in the mountains. A few of the most versatile natives are profiting by the rapid changes; but the great majority, formerly independent land-owning farmers, are not. Many are seeking employment in mill or mine, or are w'ithdrawing to the headwaters. It is significant that the leaders in the mountains, native and mission, deplore the rapid advance of industry into the region, and that they are bending every effort to prepare a civilization over a century in arrears, to meet the rude shock of the worst of our culture. In the 1911 term of court. Perry County, being invaded rapidly by railway construction, had nearly 600 cases : Owslev Countv, without access to railways, had less than 40 cases. A mountain guide in Pound Gap lamented, '^The devil is coming into the mountains on wheels.'' Eight years ago I rejoiced with a clean cut, delifrhtful, enerfretic man who was returninsf home from the Kentuckv Mountains huovant because he had doubled liis fortune by securing some of the virgin forest at an absurdly low price. He w-as bringing wealth and good cheer to his northern family. Xow, with those slopes in mind, deforested, gullied, scorcliod, and sold ("unloaded"), I am not rejoic-

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