othing more than "craps," or
"African billiards" as they call it now. Among the whites, offenses
against property are few. In many rural counties a white man is seldom
charged with theft, fraud, or forgery. A white man is occasionally
arraigned for "disposing of mortgaged property," or for malicious
mischief, including the destruction of property.

The homicide rate, however, is high. Generally the figures given include
the negro, and he is somewhat more homicidal than the white, but the white
rate is among the highest in the world. Blood feuds actually exist in the
Southern Appalachians, though perhaps their number is not so large as is
commonly believed. The moonshiner's antipathy to revenue officers leads
him to use firearms upon occasion, but homicide occurs also in intelligent
communities where the general tone is high. Individuals of excellent
standing in business or professional life sometimes shoot to kill their
fellows and in the past have usually escaped the extreme penalty and often
have avoided punishment altogether. It would seem that life is held rather
cheaply in many Southern communities.

Until recently much of the South has remained a frontier, as some of it
is to this day, and in frontier communities men are accustomed to take
the law into their own hands and are reluctant to depend upon inadequate
or ineffective police protection. Despising physical cowardice, the
individual prides himself upon his ability to maintain his rights and to
protect his honor without calling for assistance. Frontiersmen are quick
to resent an affront, and when their veracity is impugned they fight.
The word "lie" is not considered a polite mode of expressing dissent. All
over the South, in every class of society, one finds this sensitiveness to
an accusation of lack of veracity. Such a theory of life dies hard. The
presence of a less advanced race is perhaps not conducive to self-control.
The dominant race, determined to maintain its position of superiority,
is likely to resent a real or fancied affront to its dignity. A warped
sense of honor, a sort of belated theory of chivalry, is responsible for
some acts of violence. A seducer is likely to be called to account and the
slayer, by invoking the "unwritten law," has usually been acquitted. Such
a case lends itself to the display of flamboyant oratory, and the plea of
"protecting the home" has set many murderers free. Perhaps the South is
becoming less susceptible to orato