under, it adds to the soil more than the growing crop took from the soil. For the same reason, the ground in a forest where the annual fall of leaves is left to decay, becomes richer year by year. If, however, the land is so steep that the decaying leaves are washed away by rains, the soil will grow poorer. But the lowlands and valleys where the decaying matter will find lodgment, will become fertile at the expense of the steep hillsides. Forest fires are doubly destructive. They not only

kill the trees, but they strip the ground of its leaves, rendering it bare and sterile. The protecting blanket of leaves being burned off, the soil is left unprotected against the attacks of dashing rains; and the fine grains of sand and dust are washed away, leaving naked rocks where forests once flourished.

CHAPTER V.

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

1. Difficulties Encountered by Early Settlers.-Emigrants who go to a new country usually find that difficulties, for the first few years, are greater than in the older country. This was the case in pioneer days in West Virginia. The people who took up their homes west of the Alleghanies, came from communities where they had more advantages and where the earning of a livelihood did not cost such a struggle. The imaginations of persons who really know but little of the conditions of the frontiers, often surround the life of the pioneers with a halo of romance which does not belong to it. The lot of the first settlers was hard. The hope of better things was, in reality, the mainspring of their perseverance. As the time in which the pioneers lived recedes in the past, the tendency to view it as romantic grows more and more. In this case, distance lends enchantment. The reality' was very stern; the fiction is very pleasant. It is time that history should dispel the glamour which romance has cast round the early times, and should show how earnest was the purpose of the first settlers, how troubled were the times, and how hard the life.

2. The Spirit of Adventure.--A persistent spirit of adventure, itself a manifestation of strength, always had an influence in the westward movement. The men could have lived very well where they were; but the wilderness of the West, little explored and vaguely known, seemed to promise something better. The spirit of expansion and of conquest was upon the people. The pioneer demanded room. He wanted acres. He wanted freedom in its largest sense; not so much

a freedom of thought or worship, as a freedom of action. The majority of the frontiersmen were not scholars, thinkers, or religious enthusiasts. They came to take possession of land with wide borders. They claimed and exercised the privilege of possessing the wilderness and making of it a civilized country. It was with them as much a matter of intuition as of reason. For the accomplishment of this great purpose they were willing to labor, to face danger, to fight, and, if necessary, to die in the cause of civilization and in the very van of its onward march. History has no lesson more instructive than the lives of these heroic men.

3. Seeking a New Home. When the pioneer and his family left their eastern abode for a new home west of the Alleghanies, they possessed few household goods. There were a few pots and kettles, an ax or two, some wooden or pewter dishes and vessels, homespun clothing, a rifle, a horse or two, and little more. The horses, equipped with wooden packsaddles, carried all of the chattles, and sometimes carried the small children. The larger members of the household traveled afoot. Thus they followed paths across the mountains, perhaps not seeing a human abode for days. At night they slept by a fire in the woods, and by day they trudged through the sun or rain. When they had reached their destination and had selected in some fertile valley the place of their future abode, they fell to work with energy, building a house to shelter them.

4. The Woodsman's Cabin.-The house which the settler built was of logs. It was usually small, one room and probably a rude attic. The logs were sometimes hewn, more frequently not. The doors and floors were of timbers flattened with an ax. Nails were not often used; and if used at all, they were such as were hammered into shape in a neighboring blacksmith shop. The spaces between the logs were closed with blocks of wood, or with stones, and with a plaster made of mud. Every article of furniture was homemade.

The

chimneys was spacious, often capable of receiving logs ten feet long. Stoves were unknown. Cooking was done by the open fire. The crane, which was an iron hook fastened in the chimney, served for hanging the kettle. The doors were thick enough to be bullet proof. Defense against Indians was, for many years, the first consideration. Windows were few and small, seldom containing glass. A greased paper pasted over an aperture a few inches wide and a few feet long, served to let in light. Often there was no window of any kind in the cabin. Such a house was not warm in winter. Many chinks let in the cold. Lamps of the rudest kind only were in use. They consisted of a pan of grease with a cotton string laid in for a wick. Candles were a luxury. Blazing pine splinters took the place of the lamp in many cabins.

5. Farms and Crops.-Much labor was required to clear the small fields with which the first settlers surrounded their cabins. Fire did as much as the ax. Logs were burnt off by throwing one across another. They were afterwards rolled into heaps and burned. Plowing was as often done with oxen as with horses. The chief crop was corn. Flax in small patches was raised. It was broken, hackled, spun, and woven at home. From it the summer clothing of the family was made. Woolen clothing was not so easily provided, because sheep raising was difficult on account of wolves and other wild animals. Fruit was not abundant for many years after settlements began in western Virginia. The planting of orchards came later. Probably the oldest apple orchard in the State, west of the Alleghanies, was planted at Beverly, Randolph County, in 1775. A few of the trees are yet living. Hogs being able to defend themselves against wild animals, were found profitable. Aside from pork, the family's meat came largely from the woods. The settlers were expert hunters and lived much of the time in the forests. They often spent too much time at hunting and too little at work. Some of the clothing was made of dressed skins of deer.

6. Markets and Trading.-The people had but little to sell. and could buy but little. Furs, skins, and ginseng were the chief articles sent to market. They traded these commodities for salt, iron, and the few necessary articles which they were unable to make at home. Their markets were eastern towns, Williamsburg and Baltimore very early, and Winchester and Cumberland later. Packhorses went on those distant journeys, and each neighborhood sent a caravan at least once a year. There were no roads, only paths. Often not even the overhanging branches of trees, or the large logs across the path, were cut away. Bridges were not thought of. Ferries were few.

7. The Culture of the People.-Such a country as thisjust making a commencement at settlement-could not boast of much education or culture, except what some of the people brought with them from their former eastern homes. Books were few. Exact statistics on the subject are wanting, but it is doubtful if, on the average, there was one book to the cabin in the early years of West Virginia. The manner of life did not encourage literary culture. If books had been desired, many of the people could not spare money to buy them. An examination of writings and signatures in the courthouses of our State, belonging to the first quarter of the century after the earliest settlements were made, shows how low was the standard of education, even among persons who had charge of public affairs, and who, no doubt, were above their neighbors in point of education. Even the clerks often misspelled the most common words; and signatures of justices of the peace were frequently illegible scrawls. Schools, in the ordinary sense of the word, did not exist in the earliest years of the settlements. Later, in the more thickly peopled districts, the teacher was sometimes found. He was nearly always a man of limited education. If "he could write and cipher too," it was deemed quite sufficient. The pupil who could master the arithmetic to "the rule of three" (simple proportion) was considered well educated. Poor children, if left orphans, were