cerned with national issues, and hence are of little help concerning local 
problems. However, since the mountain men are good at politics, some 
make of the local contests a profitable business. Recently in some sec- 
tions such men have turned their attention to the school, for the sake 
of profit in the appointment of teachers. There the trustee runs for 
office upon a platform statement of which teachers he favors. In some 
sections the vote runs high in school elections, while it is light on other 
matters. An increasing number of women yote on school affairs. Another 
favorite field of the politician is the handling of road taxes. 
Deep seated prejudice, due to poverty, exists against taxation of 
any kind. In 1906 the per capita state and county tax was $4.62 for 
Woodward County, in the Blue Grass, while in the mountains it ranged 
from $0.40 in Elliott County to $1.75 in Harlan. Little returns are ob- 
tained by taxation of lumber and mineral resources. 
The feud was transplanted from Europe into the Blue Grass, the 
Kentucky mountains, and elsewhere. It survived among the isolated 
valleys of the mountains, where it was fostered by folk-song, the flaring 
resentment of the Indian fighter and pioneer, and the habits of thought 
natural in isolated communities where for a long time there was neither 
sheriff nor jury and where, even to this day, the government hardly has 
been able to inspire confidence or dread. The Civil War greatly increased 
and intensified the feud: Prior to 1860 few weapons had been used in 
the mountains, and few deaths had resulted. In the region in 1860 there 
were 10,098 slaves and 1,280 free colored people. The lines grew sharp 
between the Union and Confederate counties, as well as between opposing 
families, and between opposing members of a family. Modern arms were 
introduced into the region. The physiography of the land favored bush- 
whacking. During the war the Kentucky mountaineers 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 all of these horrors. 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 difficulty sufficient to cause fighting; probably not 
40 per cent. of them have gone to a court house to prosecute or defend 
a ease; and that half of the enlisted partisans never have faced the 
