Chapter VI

Attention is thus briefly directed to that line of towns which are springing up, or will in time spring up, in the mountain passes of the Cumberland, and are making the backwoods of Kentucky the fore-front of a new civilization. Through these three passes in the outer wall of Cumberland Mountain, and through that pass at Pineville in the inner wall behind Cumberland Gap--through these four it is believed that there must stream the railroads carrying to the South its timbers and coals; to the North its timbers, coal, and iron; and carrying to both from these towns, as independent centres of manufacture, all those products the crude materials of which exist in economic combinations on the spot.

It is idle to say that all these places cannot become important. The competition will be keen, and the fittest will survive; but all these are fit to survive, each having advantages of its own. Big Stone Gap lies so much nearer the East and the Atlantic seaboard; Big Creek Gap so much nearer the West and the Ohio and Mississippi valleys and the Lakes; Cumberland Gap and Pineville so much nearer an intermediate region.

But as the writer has stated, it is the human, not the industrial, problem to be solved by this development that possessed for him the main interest. One seems to see in the perforation and breaking up of Cumberland Mountain an event as decisive of the destiny of Kentucky as though the vast wall had fallen, destroying the isolation of the State, bringing into it the new, and letting the old be scattered until it is lost. But while there is no space here to deal with those changes that are rapidly passing over Kentucky life and obliterating old manners and customs, old types of character and ideals of life, old virtues and graces as well as old vices and horrors--there is a special topic too closely connected with the foregoing facts not to be considered: the effect of this development upon the Kentucky mountaineers.

The buying up of the mountain lands has unsettled a large part of these people. Already there has been formed among them a class of tenants paying rent and living in their old homes. But in the main there are three movements among them. Some desert the mountains altogether, and descend to the Blue-grass Region with a passion for farming. On county-court days in blue-grass towns it has been possible of late to notice this peculiar type mingling in the market-places with the traditional type of blue-grass farmer. There is thus going on, especially along the border counties, a quiet interfusion of the two human elements of the Kentucky highlander and the Kentucky lowlander, so long distinct in blood, physique, history, and ideas of life. To less extent, the mountaineers go farther west, beginning life again beyond the Mississippi.

A second general tendency among them is to be absorbed by the civilization that is springing up in the mountains. They flock to these towns, keep store, are shrewd and active speculators in real estate, and successful developers of small capital. The first business house put up in the new Pineville was built by a mountaineer.

But the third, and, as far as can be learned, the most general movement among them is to retire at the approach of civilization to remoter regions of the mountains, where they may live without criticism or observation their hereditary, squalid, unambitious, stationary life. But to these retreats they must in time be followed, therefrom dislodged, and again set going. Thus a whole race of people are being scattered, absorbed, civilized. You may go far before you will find a fact so full of consequences to the future of the State.

Within a few years the commonwealth of Kentucky will be a hundred years old. All in all, it would seem that with the close of its first century the old Kentucky passes away; and that the second century will bring in a new Kentucky--new in many ways, but new most of all on account of the civilization of the Cumberland.

THE END

FLUTE AND VIOLIN,

And Other Kentucky Tales and Romances. By JAMES LANE ALLEN. With Illustrations. Post 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 50.

A careful perusal of the six tales here printed reveals and
emphasizes a rare talent and a power in romantic fiction which are
as rare as they are acceptable.... Our native fiction can show
nothing finer in its way than these beautiful Kentucky stories,
which are all the better for having a Southern flavor, and
picturing an ideal side of Southern life.--_Hartford Courant._

The stories of this volume are fiction of high artistic
value--fiction to be read and remembered as something rare, fine,
and deeply touching.--_Independent_, N. Y.

These are beautiful sketches.... Never, perhaps, has the charm
of Kentucky scenery been more vividly and invitingly illustrated
than in this work, and for tenderness of touch and pathetic
interest few stories can equal "Sister Dolorosa." In all the
tales there is a delicious spice of romance, while the artistic
taste in which they are told makes them models of good story
telling.--_Observer_, N. Y.

Very charming stories.... "Two Gentlemen of Kentucky" is an
especially delightful sketch.--_N. Y. Sun._

In these stories Mr. Allen has given us some tender and touching
work, which is characteristic and unhackneyed, and of which the
individual flavor is most refreshing. There is, too, a power in
these tales which touches the reader.--_Boston Courier._

All the stories are unusual in character, scene, and treatment,
and all will repay careful reading.--_San Francisco Chronicle._

With the temperament and sympathies of the idealist, Mr. James
Lane Allen combines the fidelity to detail usually associated
only with the strict adherent of realism in art, and the result
is--for the reader somewhat satiated with the outpourings of
conventional story-writers--a series of entirely new and grateful
sensations.--_Boston Beacon._

PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK.

_The above work is for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent by the publishers, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, Canada, or Mexico, on receipt of the price._

BY CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER.

AS WE WERE SAYING. With Portrait, and Illustrated by H. W. MCVICKAR
and others. 16mo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 00.

So dainty and delightsome a little book may it be everybody's good
hap to possess.--_Evangelist_, N. Y.

Who but Mr. Warner could dandle these trifles so gracefully
before the mind and make their angles flash out new and hidden
meanings.--_Critic_, N. Y.

OUR ITALY. An Exposition of the Climate and Resources of Southern
California. Illustrated. 8vo, Cloth, Ornamental, Gilt Top and
Uncut Edges, $2 50.

Mr. Warner is a prince of travellers and sight-seers--so genial,
so kindly, so ready to be pleased, so imperturable under
discomfort, so full of interpretation, so prophetic in hope....
In this book are a little history, a little prophecy, a few
fascinating statistics, many interesting facts, much practical
suggestion, and abundant humor and charm.--_Evangelist_, N. Y.

A LITTLE JOURNEY IN THE WORLD. A Novel. Post 8vo, Half Leather,
Gilt Top and Uncut Edges, $1 50.

The vigor and vividness of the tale and its sustained interest are
not its only or its chief merits. It is a study of American life
of to-day, possessed with shrewd insight and fidelity.--George
William Curtis.

STUDIES IN THE SOUTH AND WEST. With Comments on Canada. Post 8vo,
Half Leather, Gilt Top and Uncut Edges, $1 75.

A witty, instructive book, as brilliant in its pictures as it is
warm in its kindness: and we feel sure that it is with a patriotic
impulse that we say that we shall be glad to learn that the number
of its readers bears some proportion to its merits and its power
for good.--N. Y. Commercial Advertiser.

THEIR PILGRIMAGE. Richly Illustrated by C. S. REINHART. Post 8vo,
Half Leather, Gilt Top and Uncut Edges, $2 00.

Mr. Warner's pen-pictures of the characters typical of each
resort, of the manner of life followed at each, of the humor and
absurdities peculiar to Saratoga, or Newport, or Bar Harbor, as
the case may be, are as good-natured as they are clever. The
satire, when there is any, is of the mildest, and the general tone
is that of one glad to look on the brightest side of the cheerful,
pleasure-seeking world.--_Christian Union_, N. Y.

PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK.

_The above works are for sale by all booksellers, or will be sent by the publishers, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, Canada, or Mexico, on receipt of price._

......

Transcriber's Note:

Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.