The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1890-02-12
HEATHER NEAR HOME.

The Tribes That Blot Berkshire's BeautI-
full Hills--AIission Work Needed.
Hidden away among the blue hills of
Berkshire, or appearing like scars upon
her sunny valleys, one occasionally sees
weather beaten, 5parnsbackle houses, sur
rounded by neglected gardens, fields and
orchards Yards encountered with old
wagons, a bony, superannuated horse,
grazing at will, and the presence of UNI
couth individuals show, what we would
otherwise scarcely suspect, that these are
the dwelling places of human beings. In
ninety-nine cases out of hundred the
jewellers in these isolated rookeries and
mountain cabins belong to class whose
standards are far below those of the ordi-
nary iIliterate laborer-a class that is
considered hardly within the pale of our
civilization. The children of this class
are dull often to idiocy. This and their
irregular attendance at school accounts
for the fact that they are furnished with
the barest rudiments of knowledge.
Catherine Sedgwick speaks of these as
people who hang on the outskirts of
civilization and comments on their dia-
lect and peculiar manners.
A gentleman of unquestioned veracity
says that in one of the families there
were not as many articles of clothing as
there were children, and ON the rare APP
proach of q team the rnclad ones scut-
| tied like so many rabbits into the bushes.
The mother made dread" by stirring
water into flour and throwing this paste
on the stove. In summer the children
fed, like the babes in the wood, mostly
on berries. There was but one chair,
which was occupied by the father The
mother, after throwing the potatoes out
of the pot, made it do duty as chair.
Another numerous tribe, living near this
one, had but one bed.
The picturesquenesso of the street gamin
is lacking among the children of this
class. They are positively repulsive.
One of them, | remember, was dis
tinguished from ali the rest by certain
fawn like grace and shyness, and an ex-
preston of great sadness in her dark
eyes. One cold day walked with her
toward her cherries home. Bitter winds
blew her straight, dark hair about her
pale, thin face; no shoes protected her
feet from the ground, and only thread
bare waterproof cape was thrown over
her calico gown. At first she was very
reticent, but by and by growing COM
municative among other things she told
me that one of her brothers had died the
winter before. "1e set his clothes ON
fire an got burnt awful. Bimeby M
grandfather and M Uncle Ding came in,
an M father he took the quilt often ST
to show um. They want no fire, an ST
got awful bad an hollared an, hollared.
Then gran'father an Ding an pa they
started to get the doctor, but they forgot
to, an ST he died, an the hide cum all
often him." The lack of feeling in the
child's tone and face as she related this
story told but too plainly of her blunted
moral sense and of the distortion of
natural affection. That her brothers
death should be due to oarelessness was
to her as much a matterof course as that
frost should blight flowers.
last winter q babe belonging to one
tribe was left alone in cold house. 1t
crept out into the deep snow, where it
was found by passer by, crying Bit
terly. Its mother, when informed of the
fact, not only made no excuse, but
showed no pain at the thought of her in
fant's suffering. One family in Great
harrington was discovered living on the
flesh of an old desd horse. The women
have none of that faculty known in
Yankeedom as "gumption. They waste,
or do not adapt to their wants, what is
given to them. On Beartown mountain
/ have seen 6-year-old boy tripping
down the hill in 15-year-old girls
dress
Missionaries are needed among these
tribes-not the sort that degrade sacred
things by issuing such invitations as
"come and grab Jesus, but intelligent,
earnest and sympathetic men. Let us
mourn less over the fate of the Pacific
heather and the dense ignorance of the
Tennessee mountaineer while such q
beam remains in our eyes as the goddess
and illiterate condition of these tribes
Lee (Mass.) Cor. Boston Herald.