have a firm lodgment in their minds, but lie there unqualified by knowledge of later occurrences. An anecdote related by John Mitchell will illustrate. Scarcely had the United States diplomatic agent just now spoken of, departed upon an Oriental mission, when the weary Irish patriot arrived from Australia, in this isolated region. He, too, sought retirement, and in Tuckaleechee Cove, near the Smoky Mountains, he found it, with his family. One day some of the neighbors met together, after the not unfrequent idling custom of men in the mountains--perhaps for friendly gossip, or to shoot at a mark in rivalry of skill for a prize. One said: “Who is this stranger, anyhow? He don’t do nuthin’ only him and his son go fishin’ and shootin’.” “O,” another replied, “don’t you know who that is? That’s John Mitchell, the exile of the British Government.” “British Government indeed!” said the first speaker. “I thought we had whipp’d that consarn out long ago.”[8] One virtue obtains almost universally among the people of East Tennessee--that of hospitality. It has to some extent diminished in the valleys, where the inhabitants live as did their ancestors from plentiful tables and various dishes, but where, since the war ended, the increase of travel and of commercial intercourse with other parts of the country have checked generosity and enlarged prudence. Yet it has lost none of its olden-time proportions in the mountains, where the table lacks nothing in abundance but a good deal in variety; where the narrow range of habitual diet affords small opportunity for skill in cookery, and even that opportunity has not been improved. There the signs of an advanced civilization--the steam-engine, the telegraph and the telephone--have never invaded the air with whistle or wires; but the stranger will be kindly entertained for the night at little or no charge, and probably when he departs in the morning, will be cheered on his way by the expressed hope of his host that he will come again. Not that the landlord thinks money is worthless. For he and his countrymen are sharp traders. Without adventuring at the start upon fixed sums, they “beat about the bush” to find out how much can be had or how little be paid by them, and both buyer and seller are wide awake to “get the best of the bargain.” They also know points of law, and are unduly given to litigation in defense of their real or supposed rights.