Henry Beitzel of Accident in Garrett County was, by all accounts, a savvy entrepreneur with multiple income streams (farming, mining, maple-sugar making), a hardworking craftsman who laid brick for the new English Lutheran Church building, an avid newspaper reader who sent six children to school. He was, in short, no dummy. Yet, when he and two friends traveled by train to Pittsburgh to sell a crop of home-grown Christmas trees in December 1892, they amused themselves -- and, doubtless, attracted business -- by playing wide-eyed, ignorant hillbillies, predecessors of the later stereotyped characters in Li'l Abner, No Time for Sergeants and The Beverly Hillbillies. Their rube act made good copy for the big afternoon daily, The Pittsburg Press , which for years had Pennsylvania's second-largest circulation, behind only the Inquirer of Philadelphia (and which would not add the "h" to its name until 30 years later). The Press headline told the story: Visitors From M...
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