The Anglo-Saxons of the Kentucky Mountains      11



the edges with coloured calico, were the handiwork of his wife.
Only the iron stove with its few utensils, and some table knives,
testified to any connection with the outside world. The old flint-
lock gun and powder-horn hanging from a rafter gave the finishing
touch of local colour to this typical pioneer home. Daniel Boone's
first cabin in the Kentucky wilderness could not have been more
primitive.
  Some or most of these features can be found in all mountain
homes. Some cabins are still provided with hand-mills for grinding
their corn when the water-mills cease to run in a dry summer. Clay
lamps of classic design, in which grease is burned with a floating
wick, are still to be met with; and the manufactured product from
the country store is guiltless of chimney. Every cabin has its spin-
ning-wheel, and the end of the "shed-room" is usually occupied by
a hand-loom. ,Only in rare cases is there any effort to beautify these
mountain homes., Paper flowers, made from old newspaper, a wood-
cut from some periodical, and a gaudy advertisement distributed by
an itinerant vendor of patent medicines, make up the interior deco-
ration of a cabin. Sometimes the walls are entirely papered with
newspapers, which are more eagerly sought for this purpose than
for their literary contents. Material for exterior decoration is more
accessible to the mountain housewife, and hence we find, where her
work-burdened life will permit, that she has done all she can for her
front yard. Poppies, phlox, hollyhock, altheas, and dahlias lift their
iany-coloured blooms above the rail fence. Over the porch, where
there is one, climb morning-glory, sweet potato vines, and wild
mountain ivy; and from the edge of the roof are suspended home-
made hanging baskets, contrived from old tin cans, buckets, or any-
th1ing that will hold soil, and filled with the various ferns and creepers
which the forests furnish in great beauty and abundance.
  A vegetable garden is always to be found at the side or rear of the
cabin. This is never large, even for a big family. It is ploughed in
the spring by the man of the household, and enriched by manure
fronm the barn, being the only part of the whole farm to receive any
fertilizer. Any subsequent ploughing and all weeding and cultiva-
tion of the vegetables is done by the women. The average mountain
garden will yield potatoes, beets, cabbages, onions, pumpkins, and
tomatoes of dwarf size. Beans are raised in considerable quantities
and dried for winter use. The provisions for the luxuries of life
are few. Adjoining. every garden is a small patch of tobacco, which
is raised only for home consumption. It is consumed, moreover, by



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