THE REMNANT OF AN INDIAN RACE. Dear Sir: Your letter of yesterday received. I happen to have the information you seek. The Nashville American of June 26, 1910 (since consolidated with the Nashville Tennessean) published a paper of about 10 pages in celebration of its 98th anniversary and in this paper is the true story of a small number of people to be found in a few counties of East Tennessee, as in other sections of the Appalachian region, called Melungeons or Malungeons. I have traveled horse-back before, during and since the Civil War, in the counties where these people live, and have seen them in their cabin homes and from information received independently of what Judge Shepherd says, I am satisfied his statement is to be relied upon. The foremost jury lawyer of East Tenn. of his generation was the late Hon. John Netherland, the son-in-law of the John A. McKinney, referred to by Lucy S. V. King, and he gave me the same account, substantially, of the origin of these people that Judge Shepherd does. Netherland was the Whig candidate for Governor of Tennessee in 1859, against Isham G. Harris. He died in the 80's. He was a slave-owner and practised law in all the East Tennessee counties, which these people live. Prior to 1824 free negrocs voted in Tennessee, and when in that year the State Constitution was so amended as to disfranchise "all free persons of color", it was sometimes made the pretext of refusing the franchise to these people of perfect. ly straight hair, small hands and shapely feet who bore no more resemblance to a negro than do members of the Spanish or Portugese embassies of Washington. As to whether they voted or not, in the few counties where they were up to the Civil War, depended upon the disposition of the election officers and the closeness of the contest. But I will add that the election officers were very rarely unfair and their right to vote rarely challenged. Sometimes, in a very close contest, some fellow would challenge it and the man would forego exercising his rights rather than fight about it. They have not been of a lawless or turbulent disposition. They realized the prejudice against them because of their dark complexion. Some of them served in the Confederate, and some in the Federal East Tennessee Regiment, but neither side would have accepted them had they believed they had negro blood in their veins. In my boyhood days they were called Portugese. The word Mulangeon is comparatively modern as to its general use. As a rule they did not go into either army; did not wish to. They preferred agriculture; happy in their mountain cabins. The extract from McKinney's speech is garbled. He truly said the language of the disfranchising clause included these people because it embraced "all free persons of color" but notwithstanding that the majority of them always voted because their neighbors did not regard them as negroes or as having negro blood in their veins. I believe there was some mixture of these Portugese with the Cherokee Indians, but not with negroes. Lying, sensational newspaper correspondents, from the North, originally started this racket to show that Southern whites were given to miscegenating with negroes, and to have something to write about. Some Southern writers have imitated them, magnifying fifty or one hundred fold the number of these people. Gen. Wm. T. Sherman did some things I disapproved as much as you do, but he hit the nail on the head when he said that "there were some newspaper correspondents who, to create a sensation and for pay, would slander their grandmothers." Of course, some of the people were shiftless and degraded, as are some of all races, but I remember a notable exception by the name of Wm. Lyle. He was a prosperous country merchant who came to Knoxville every year to buy goods of our wholesale dealers and was treated by every one, with the utmost respect. He was spoken of as a Portugese, and bore no more resemblance to a negro than any Spaniard or Portugese. He dressed elegantly, was well informed and as polished and refined as half the members of Congress, and more so than many of them. In the early history of the country, there were many Spanish and Portugese sailors, who settled on the South Carolina and North Carolina coast. One of these was a Spanish ship carpenter by name of Farragut. In North Calorina, he married a poor girl and drifted to this city (then a town of about 1,200 people) where he followed the trade of house-carpenter, and here was born his subsequently famous son, Admiral David G. Farragut. His Spanish father was a dark-skinned man. Finally, the decision of the Supreme Court of Tennessee in 1872, referred to by Judge Shepherd, should be conclusive on this subject. Every one of the five members of that Court was a Confederate and Democrat. The Chief Justice, A. Q. P. Nicholson, was the Colleague of Andrew Johnson in the U. S. Senate in 1861. Jas. W. Deaderick, after this decision and after the death of Nicholson, also of the bench at the time, succeeded Nicholson as Chief Justice. He was not himself in the army but every one of his seven sons were at the front in the Confederate Army, some of whom were badly wounded and the other three Judges had honorable records as Confederate soldiers. Judge Shepherd himself was a Confederate soldier. JOHN B. BROWNLOW. P. S. Lyle is not a Portugese name, neither is that of the American Darbey's French, as was that of their ancestor D. Aubigney. MAGAZINE WAS A REVELATION. Dear Sir It is with trembling heart and tear-dimed eyes that I lay aside the latest issue of your magazine. It seems to me as if I had ben awakened from a horrible night-mare, and I truly thank God for just the man you are proving yourself to be, a modern revelator. As I read your words, and feel the depth and intensity of the meaning, I think of John the Beloved, of Jesus who was banished to the lonely isle of Patinos for showing what was, is and will be. He looked down the ages and saw just what you are writing about today. John was Jesus' dearest and clcrest friend and Jesus whispered more secrets into his heart than any of the others; enough that made him shake his finger in the Pope's face and say thou art the man. In Rev. 13 Chap. 18 verse, he says: Here is wisdom, he that Lath understanding, let him count the number of the Beast, for it is the number of a man and his number is six hundred eleven score and six", which is clearly a reference to the year (666 A. D. in which Pope Gregory by his shrewdness united State and Church. John saw it and called attention to it; said that he would steal the old Jewish Religion, inject a dead Christ into it. John also referred to a statement of Peter in wnich Peter corroborated John's vision of the Papacy in which he called it the Pagan Church, a bloody whore, and further on he says in Chap. 17-9 verse: "Again hear the mind that hath wisdom, the seven heads are the seven mountains on which the woman sitith" Bloody Whore Romen Church, which of course is the city of Rome and Papacy. Peter backs John up in all is statements, which goes to show that Peter himself hated the Papacy, and refered to it distinctly in the three lines, past present and future as "that was, is, and will be" upon the earth. My God, perilous times are upon us now, what is to be done Here I am and use me. ERNEST E. TUGGLE. 2124 Booker, Little Rock, Ark. A PREACHER AND SOME ROMAN CATHOLICS IN WEST VIRGINIA. Dear Sir: In the years 1909-1910 I was the pastor of the Southern Methodist churches in Burnsville and Gassaway, W. Va. Along in February, 1910, I announced in the Gassaway Times, the weekly paper of that place, a series of sermons and studies, on the Roman Catholic church. Gassaway had a forty-thousand-dollar stone church presented to the Catholics of that town by a number of Missouri politicians. Kerens, the one who contributed largely to the Republican campaign fund in the fall of 1908, and one who is now being compensated by serving the post of our representative at the court of Austria (a Catholic country, by the way). For his campaign contributions Taft rewarded him with this important mission. When the time came for these services as announced, the Catholics were present and on the front seat. When apprised of the fact, I was almost stunned, but got a whiff of fresh air, steadied myself, and began my discourse, tracing Roman Catholic principles to paganism purely. I talked nearly an hour and aidn't get half through. well started in my discourse, the lady spokesman of the party received too severe a shock, and gave me the lie. stopped, but rallied, and went ahead. When I During the interim between this and the next service, when I was to conclude the sermon on Roman Catholicism, a lengthy petition came to me asking me to discontinue the sermons and preach some simple Gospel discourse. In looking down at the end, I was surprised to find the names of my own congregation attached to the petition. I was hot then sure enough, having somewhat the red hair disposition myself. When time came for the next service I simply announced what my congregation had done, to all the people of the congregation. Some faces turned as red as beet roots and hair almost stood on end (the petition was gotten up secretly). I then told the congregation how the Catholics of New York had stifled the pen of the noted author, Arthur Brisbane, and that now a Protestant congregation had played into the hands of the Catholics, and were being used to stop the mouths of Protestant preachers. This fired my congregation more than they could stand. They appealed to my Presiding Elder to remove me, and I was cited to trial. I was not present, but sent a written statement. The trial came off at Sutton, W. Va. Charges were preferred against me for preaching against Catholics and causing strife in the town, but my Presiding Elder, the Rev. W. I. Canter, who was an intelligent and broad-minded man, sustained me and refused to remove me. After being sustained, I agreed to resign if they would pay what was due me, which they did. Afterwards, I learned that the Catholics had threatened to take patronage away from my members if they allowed me to continue. (My members were merchants in the town). This is a sample of how they operate here in West Virginia. If Protestants do not stand by the Protestant preacher, they can not expect to do much. I say, on with your fight. The people are with you, and good is being accomplished. The Catholics now fear your expose of their heinous methods. Very respectfully, ORMAN T. HEADLEY. Waterman, West Va. "DREAMS, RHYMES AND FANCIES." By Victor Reese. Calvert & Hatch, Printers, Cleveland, Ohio. In this world, there are numberless souls attuned to poetic sentiment, and these sentimental spirits must find expression in rhyme. To themselves, they seem original. Honestly, they write as though they were the first to feel the gladness of Spring, the opulence of autumn and the dreariness of winter. They were the first to recognize the beauties of nature-hence they must sing, sweetly, tenderly of nature's varied and changing splendors. It is sad to grow old, sad to lose frieds, sad to find so much disappointment in life, sad to love the fair and not be loved in return by the aforesaid fair-but these poetic souls of our day appear to believe that it was left to them to discover all this, and to poetically interpret the novel truths to an unfeeling world. In the little volume under review are many short poems of exquisite finish, true sentiment, and tender feeling. They make agreeable reading, but they add nothing to one's range of thought or expression. The keys they touch are as familiiar as "Home, Sweet Home." The titles of the poems indicate their level: "A Belated South Wind;" "A Lover's Plea;" "A Song of Sighs;" "A Woman's Heart;" "A Wraith;" "Among the Graves;" "Autumn;" "Departed Yesterday;" "For Your Sweet Sake;" "In Your Dear Eyes;" "When Love Caressed Me;" "Where I Would Rest:" "The Violet;" "Some Day;" &c. One poem in the volume strikes a different note, and deals with the concrete. If the author will develop that vein, abandoning melancholy musing on abstract sentimentalities, he may produce some work much more valuable than he has yet published. The poem referred to entitled "The Wise Old Owl." "When the little folks go on the journey of dream, As the good little folks all do- Then the old barred owl with his eyes agleam, And wickedly gleaming too, Comes out of the hole where all day long He hides from the children's view To who, to who! If any little boy did anything wrong That wise old owl knows whoWho, who! That little boy's sleep Will not be deep For the wise old owl knows who Who, who! Now good little girls and good little boys As good little folks all do To who, to who? ND ASSOCIATED COMPANIES BELL SYST Comparison of the Distance Traveled by Earth and Bell Telephone Messages “A BOOK OF VERSES." By Robert Loveman. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., Publishers. The poet is a Georgian, whose work meritts very much more attention than it has received in his native State. He is not only an artist in composition, but is a thinker who has sounded the depths of human problems. There is much originality in his conceptions, and much beauty in the forms in which he embodies them. A few specimens from his collection will best serve the purpose of showing his genius. At Lethe Wharf. At Lethe wharf, what fleets of rhymes, And books and tomes of bygone times, Forgotten crafts of many climes, At Lethe wharf. A thousand poets dreamed of bliss, Close to a dismal sunken pier, A Deed. He did a deed, a gracious deed— He did a deed, a loving deed- Voices. There are voices in the air crying, "Come," There are voices in the air calling, "Come," And the voices, O the voices, crying "Come." This Coat of Clay. This coat of clay doth hinder me, O, brave, new battles to be won, T. E. W. Waterloo. By Thomas E. Watson. (From the Waterloo, Iowa, "Reporter.") To read Thomas E. Watson, the Southern young historical writer, is to see the images he paints stand out in bold relief against the background. Anyone who has read his "Napoleon," "The Story of France," or "The Life of Thomas Jefferson" knows what to exepet in his latest addition to historical research-"Waterloo." The bock was first published in 1908 but the second edition just off the press contains much new matter not found in the first. Since the early edition was run several new volumes on Napoleon and his battles, have been published, and from these the author has drawn new material for the work. "Waterloo" is a concise story of the great battle told in language that cannot be misunderstood. The author is a graphic writer and his descriptions speak volumes. He analyzes the character of the men in command, he describes the positions in detail of the armies, he compares their relative strength and the advantages of the positions are shown. Step by step he carries the reader through that great struggle with a style so natural that one feels himself a part of the great army. The book makes a welcome addition to any school or library, for it is historically correct. Accompanying the English army were commissioners appointed by the various governments which had confederated against Napoleon. Each of these commissioners made an individual account of the battle, and it is from these reports the author gets much of his material. "Waterloo," by Thomas E. Watson, is published by the Neale Publishing Company of New York and Washington, $1.00 net. IF YOU'RE FEELING BLUE READ "WHERE THE HAND O'GOD IS SEEN.” By CAPTAIN JACK CRAWFORD PRICE $1. THE JEFFERSONIAN, THOMSON, GA. |