The Days of a Man 1883 



indigent But Uncinaria does not tell the whole story; 



strains heredity too plays its part. Many indigent strains 

 in our Southern mountains go back to English 

 prisoners of debt unloaded at Jamestown, Virginia, 

 in the seventeenth century; among these were a 

 considerable number of persons not fitted for suc- 

 cessful living anywhere. Yet it must be admitted 

 that lack of education and want of vocational train- 

 ing are large factors in the social problem presented 

 by the "poor whites," for in many of them flows 

 the "blue blood" of England. And of course not 

 all those banished by British "justice" in the days 

 of the Stuarts were either debtors, paupers, or 

 criminals. Some had won the disfavor of county 

 squires by acts of poaching, or by independence of 

 character. In the New World, however, most in- 

 dividuals of this type found means of self-extrication. 

 Into the mountains the negroes rarely penetrate. 

 As a general rule, also, Kentucky hill people are 

 too poor ever to have owned slaves; thus for 



Vdiey generations the "valley folk" have been their tradi- 



f lk tional enemies. This fact appeared especially when 

 sheriffs from the lowland attempted to suppress 

 "moonshining," or when they tried to interfere in 

 a mountain feud, a kind of sport limited only by 

 its own rigid etiquette. 



A record of our tramp was written by Clarence 

 L. Goodwin, one of the boys. From it I may be al- 

 lowed to quote the following, in spite of its very 

 complimentary reference to myself, because of the 

 light it throws on a phase of my success as a teacher: 



To most of us it gave a heartier appreciation of our leader. 



He led the charge on the milk houses and was always in 



front. He took his turn with the others, and was not too high- 



n 248 a 



