12 



ceruecl 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 vote 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 10,09S 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 

 shai'ply 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 case; and that half of the enlisted partisans never have faced the 



