The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1894-07-21
A SILENT TRAGEDY.
HEROIsM OF A MOTHER IN THE
CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS.

Longing For the Outside World Crushed
Back In Her Heart Because She Did Not
Want Her Daughters to Learn of Bright
er Things Beyond Their Reach,
There are tragedies in nearly all peo-
pies lives, though some may never know
them by that name. We find them, too,
in most unexpected places, which re-
minds me that one day I stopped for
dinner at house in the Cumberland
mountains SO deep in the Businesses that
1 had to employ guide to show me the
way to the first road that would take me
out to the county road. The family con-
sisted of a man and wife, with six daugh-
tiers, and more ignorant lot of people
l think l never saw. After the dinner
of bacon, beans and corn bread, the Ran
and girls went back to the field, and 1
talked awhile to the woman before re-
Stunning my journey. She was typical
mountaineeress, tall, angular and sallow,
but there was CLEAN of intelligence in
her face, quite unlike the lack lusterness
of the usual woman of the mountains.
Don't you get very lonely, away off
here to YOURSELF" l asked her as she
busted about the table.
81 reckon 1 mought, eff I had time"
she replied, "but l don't give myself
no time to think about things like that"
And what about your girls? Don't
they want to get out among peopleF
'Not ez l ever herd em say"
"Do they go to school in winter?''
mo"
"Have they never been?"
Not yit," this half apologetically.
do they have anything to read?"
"They can't read"
Cant readf' | repeated in surprise, |
for even though the older mountaineers
cannot read and write, as rule, the i,
younger ones, under more modern civ !
can.
mo, they can't" she said as if irri-
tated by my tone.
care you SO far from the schoolhouse /
that you can't send themP" was my next
venture.
Its two miles, and they could go, but
I won't let EN-"
This was new phase, and the matter
became more interesting.
"Why not?" 1 asked, with a persist
ence that was risky.
She stopped her work and turned her
face to me.
"Them gals" she said, tdon't know
1,,4 |
that thar river down thar; they don't
know what is goin on in the world out
side; they never seen no steam cars ner
boats ner telegrafts ner telephones ner
inc houses ner beautiful clos ner gen.
llemen ner ladies; they don't hardly
know thar's such, but l do, fer I've saw
people ez hez seen 'em, and they've told
ne. Many's the night I've gone to bed
md cried myself to sleep in the loft that
wuz my bedroom, thinkin about what
jhar Wnz in the world that | couldn't
wen hope to git look at. got SO !
could read. and then read about 'em
Ill, and that made it wuss. Thar wuL
lothin but mountains and loneliness and
silence fer me, and / couldn't help my
elf nohow.
Then 1 married Jim, and we come
lere. Jim can't read ner write, and the
,ore teller is satisfied, fer he don't know
10 more than the gals does and they're
company fer each other. The gals
night git like wuz eff they larnt readfn
md writin, and how could they ever git I
way frum this place and go among sicp I
lifferent things? They couldn't, jist th' {
anne ez l couldn't, and eff kin keep EN- {
rum KNOWN whut's away off whar the ;
fountains amt, ner the lonesomeness, /
er the silence I'm goin ter do it and let
I'm live and die right here wnaE they
If a heap better satisfied than ther t
nother has ever been, though they never /
eered her sag nothin about it, one way s
er t'other, and they never will" (
The hard lines of determination had {
ONE into her face when she began
peaking, and could see they were Z
ressing back the tears of disappoint- >
lent as she talked to me, and when she :
lrned to her work again she brushed !
er eyes hastily, while sat there think. :
lg of the silent heroism an encomplain. !
lg sacrifice of this woman, longing in :
ne solitude of the mountains for the :
readth and the beauty of the world be-. =