The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1892-11-10
Go0b s0iDS EDUCATE


Great Problems Will be Soived
HAea the itoadnakiag FRA Begins
/ country road. Overhead the
gray squir. els chatter AID = fright
ened hare scuds swiftly across. ike
a !Ying shadow. The trees shoot
out long green boughs that knock OF
a mans hat as he rides unwarilv. or
brush him in the face with their
thick leaves. Here and there fal-
len tree obstruets the road, and marks
Of detour up the bank and through
the broken underbrush of the adjoin-
ing wood are visible. A little
stream dashcs over the road in wet
seasons, trIckling sweet lullah,es as
it glides sway. In dry seasons .here
is an ugly and mcenvenient furrow
left By it's overflow. The road would
seem to have been left to such way
fares as gray squirrels-who after all
choose the elevated railway of tree
boughs-and wild creatures of surer
!Oot IjthU IfdIl.
The rains have washed deep aud
rough 2ullies; the rocks stand up
bare and sharp OF tooth on one side,
and deep mudholes on the other en-
trap even the cautious. If two We.
hlclcs meet, there is no room to pass.
although unused land Oh either side
stretches to the edge of vision. If
the drivers are respectively man and
woman, the man, with instructive
gallantry, drags his vehicle out of
the Way, backing, turning and tax
ing all risks himself; if two men,
they settle the matter ~ith much
strong language.
The battered and broken vehicles
tell the story, with their long success
sion Of rude mendings; the harness
tied together with bits Of rope or
roughly patched, the horses tired and
thin and melancholy with hard pull
ling. Truly the gray squirrels nave
the beat Of it.
There few houses along the road.
4 population remains sparse aud
scattered where there are no roads,
and there, too, are found those path
etic households of the old and help
less. The young men-aye, and
often young women-are gone to the
towns-gone anywhere there is a
chance for them. If thev had raised
good crops, fine fruits, how transport
them to market? If they had good
horses, the hard wear and tear Of the
roads used them up. If they were
ingenious or thrifty there were no
neighbors to give "a word or two of
wholesome praise, to keep up a friend
ly competition, to trade the barter
ideas with; there was worn ont think
ing III the old grooves as we'll as
worn out harness. And in the short
winter days and long winter nights
the house was drearily isolated from
other houses by long stretches of
muddy and rougbt ways, and the
sight of 4 human face at the door
was startling,
Do You wonder tnat old supersti-
tons and prejudices and old fe1ds
survive in lonely country districts,
aud old despares and fears cloud the
brain? 1t has been said that the
Salem madness Of witch murder was
greatly due to the slow and infre-
quent communication between the
towrs of old days. There was time
for Ut healthy broodIng. We don't
bate our neighbors if there Is Il brisk
intercourse; if We have cried over
their dead and rejoiced at their good
luck and been helped by them on
days of worries and hurrics. We
don't doubt the divine kindness
when We see it revealed in the kindly
faces of men and women about lis.
The loneliness and isolation of
country places where Lo roads. or
worse than none, separate-not con-
uect-places, this is the secret Of
human overflow into large towns, and
when those who 60 are mentally and
morally uneducated, OF crowded
sinms and tenement houses and even
yiler places. Man needs man. The
best part of education is not in ma
ture, not in books-it is in hnman
intercourse. The free shows of the
streets and bulletin boards, word
flashing to meet word, the continual
presence where news is made where
life is acted getting knowledge at first
hand-this is part of the city's
training.
But YOU will say truly that it is
but poor stuff many Of its scholars
get-profanity, voice, all manner C
vileness-and that they ought not to
need to come to town to get its better
elements. Well, give them. then, 4
wholesome country intercourse,
heighborly talk set in clear air, the
spectacular play of shower and
sunset with others beside them to
look, too-a country with roads and
they will stay content. A nation of
roadmers Is L nation of educators, of
ciyilize:s. and the day when a hearty
interest in road making springs up in
the country will be the day which
marks the beginning of the solution
of some of our most serious social
and poiltical problems--Ella f.
Mosby in Kate Fields Washington,
What The Editor Gets.