Southern Mountaineers, The . lackof prosperity induces shiftlessness, and where shift-lessness rules, there is little initiative; and it requiresa strong spirit of initiative to break loose from timeimmemorial associations. Conservatism dominates inthe secluded sections of the Appalachians. The mountaineers bump of inhabitativeness is fully developed. He has a strong attachment to his native heath, its bracing air, its refreshing 7°^ , , water, its unrestrained liberty. Attachment .. ,ti i-, x • , ,. « rears like 1 cam t live nownere else, he tells you. He does not know nostalgia by that name,
Southern Mountaineers, The . lackof prosperity induces shiftlessness, and where shift-lessness rules, there is little initiative; and it requiresa strong spirit of initiative to break loose from timeimmemorial associations. Conservatism dominates inthe secluded sections of the Appalachians. The mountaineers bump of inhabitativeness is fully developed. He has a strong attachment to his native heath, its bracing air, its refreshing 7°^ , , water, its unrestrained liberty. Attachment .. ,ti i-, x • , ,. « rears like 1 cam t live nownere else, he tells you. He does not know nostalgia by that name, but in exile he may die of it. Dear is that shed to which his soul conforms,And dear that hill which lifts him to the the loud torrent and the whirlwinds roarBut bind him to his native mountains more. Ambition lies dormant in his nature. There isnothing in his immediate environ- Ambition ^^^^ ^^ arouse it; and all else is Dormant vague and uncertain rumor. His forebears, so far as he has any knowledge of w MOUNTAINEERS REASON FOR BEING 63 have been content jest to rock along; and, pray,why should he set himself up to be any better thanhis own kith and kin, past or present? Though poor the peasants hut, his feasts though small,He sees his little lot the lot of all. The geologist speaks of the Appalachian type offolding; and so may we speak of the folding awayof the human ambitions petrified in the strata of Ap-palachian existence. In these hills nature yields to amans utmost endeavor hardly more than enough tokeep soul and body together; and if there is a sur-plus of products, there is no market for that the mountaineer yields to the orderings of fate,and throws away ambition, and contents himself withraising what is absolutely necessary for actual exist-ence, and philosophically comforts himself with thebackwoods aphorism, Enoughs a-plenty. A native timidity also dominates the as a lion in physical danger, he shrinks fromthe soc
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