yarns and exchange views on the crops, on the weather, on politics and 

 on religion. The stores of town and village are also frequent meeting 

 places, especially on Saturday afternoon, when farmers and farmers' 

 wives and children come in large numbers. County Court Day, the first 

 Monday in each month, has also become an important feature of country 

 life. Farmers from all over the county come in to swap horses and mules 

 and meet friends. The investigator knew nothing of the custom, when 

 one beautiful first Monday in November he started in the country on a 

 tour of investigation. He did not know there were so many people in the 

 county as he saw on the road that morning. When he called at the 

 homes of the men whom he wanted to see he found none of them at home. 

 The whole countryside was deserted by its men-folk. The women had 

 generally stayed at home. 



Politics 



Gibson County, like most of the South, is strongly Democratic. The 

 sway of tradition is very strong and men do not readily break across party 

 lines. In the last State election, however, when the temperance question 

 was involved, many men who had never in their lives voted anything else 

 than the straight Democratic ticket violated all precedent and voted for 

 a Republican governor. The investigator talked with one such man, a 

 fine old Confederate soldier. He seemed to be a little doubtful as to 

 whether he had done right, but on the whole he thought he had. With 

 him it had been a case of religious duty against political tradition, and 

 religion won. 



Leadership 



For the most part the country districts are without wise and public- 

 spirited leaders. There are some splendid exceptions to this and the 

 influence of certain men could be very clearly seen in the vigorous condi- 

 tion of three of the farmers' union locals, and the excellent condition of 

 the schools in the same neighborhoods. A fine monument to the devotion 

 and self-sacrifice of a little group of men under the leadership of a country 

 doctor is to be found in Laneview College, the most interesting school in 

 the county. Two of these four neighborhoods have vigorous community 

 churches. Leadership is also shown in the formation of the Fruit- 

 growers' Association and the original spread of the Farmers' Unions 

 through the county. 



Social and Economic Standards 



There is unquestionable difference between the different neighborhoods 

 in this respect. Some seemed to have a fine democratic spirit, with little 



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