CABINWARD-CABINS OF NECESSITY 



By Robert Sparks Walker 



ON THIS subject, one who has lived in a cabin of In the real cabin of necessity, however, there was not 

 necessity ought to be able to write fully and con- an intimation of sentiment and no such thoughts were 

 vincingly. Having a number of years' experience ever associated with it, because it was the dwelling 

 of cabin-life from the fact that necessity compelled my place of our ancestors who were pioneer settlers. The 

 father to utilize the trees 

 of the virgin land in a sort 

 of primitive fashion, I hope 

 I may be pardoned for 

 making the statement that 

 this much of "Cabinward," 

 is a mere reflection on the 

 past. The first thing that 

 comes to our mind is, 

 what really is a cabin, 



anyway? We hasten to 

 ascertain what the old 

 lexicographer says, and we 

 turn with curious interest 

 to the dictionary to find 

 that he defines the word 

 as meaning "a small home, 

 cottage or hut." In the 

 minds of the American 

 people from custom and 

 usage there has been estab- 

 lished a definition which is 



THE HUMBLE COT OF A LOVER OF FLOWERS 



This cabin of necessity has been made beautiful by the profuse 

 planting of blossoming flowers. 



thought of being com- 

 pelled to dwell in a cabin 

 was sharply if not bitterly 

 spurned by proud young 

 Americans for a century 

 or more. This unfavorable 

 consideration of the homes 

 of American pioneers came 

 naturally. Our early set- 

 tlers were a proud and 

 ambitious people. They 

 yearned for something bet- 

 ter than a mere log hut 

 a house of more dignity, 

 more spacious and more 

 expressive of their ambi- 

 tion to call home. So we 

 cannot blame their descend- 

 ants from cherishing the 

 thoughts of a mansion. 

 But despite the fact that 

 proud ambition went lurk- 



a little bit diflferent and which stands out more distinctly ing within the hewn logs of our ancestors, something 

 than the one left by Webster, for it is generally under- greater had its birth there. Life in these cabins produced 

 stood that a cabin is a small, rustic house built of logs. It the only quality and the necessary quality to temper 



!S of no lit- 

 tle interest to 

 note how the 

 mean i n g s of 

 words of this 

 kind sometimes 

 change. For ex- 

 ample, the word 

 cottage former- 

 ly referred to a 

 small house of 

 the poor, but 

 now reference 

 to a home by 

 the use of the 

 word immedi- 

 ately suggests 

 a charm ing 

 sentiment 

 that carries 

 with it no 

 thoughts of pov- 

 erty whatever. 



A TYPICAL MOUNTAIN CABIN 



Well sheltered from the rains, this cabin of necessity the home of an old bear hunter in the 



Smoky Mountains of North Carolina illustrates one great use of forest trees. 



proud ambition. 

 That quality 

 and great level- 

 ing power was 

 humility. It is 

 quite impossi- 

 ble to surround 

 a cabin just a 

 plain, log hut 

 withanyoth- 

 er kind of at- 

 mosphere than 

 humility. This 

 alone has made 

 more American 

 statesmen and 

 other great 

 men than any 

 other influence 

 in this country. 

 The thing that 

 made Abraham 

 Lincoln great, 



