Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-06-13
MOUNTAIN MISSIONS.
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE POOR WHITES" OF THIS HILL COUNTRY.

Southern Clergyman Refutes the Charge
 That Ignorance and squalor Are Preva-
 lent to Any Remarkable Degree In the
 Mountain Districts.
 Sectionalists who desire to create for themselves field of operations and an income in a charming and healthful southern climate not infreQuently write very touching articles for the northern press on the deplorable condition of the mountain whites" of the south and the need of mission work" among them Such persons, in descriptions of life among the mountains of western North Carolina and east Tennessee, pile on the agony" in a marvellous manner. Some times they do it with an utter disregard for the truth. They represent the excep- ton to be the rule, and picture scenes and conditions common enough in parts of the north and west perhaps, large cities as well as country places. but very rare among the people of the Appalachian region of the south One would think from their accounts that the southern mountains were swarming with cave dwellers The aim seems to be to per petuate the ideas of that class of philan- thropists who find a peculiar pleasure in contemplating poverty, ignorance and degradation in the south since the civil war
 Not long since The Sun noticed an ap- peal of this sort for aid to mission work for mountain whites," showing that it was in effect libel upon the people it professed to describe. Any person fa- miliar with the Appalachian region of the south would see at Il glance how ab- surd the whole thing was. The Christian Union for Dec. 31, 1892, contains letter from Rev. D. Atkins, q Methodist minis ter of Hendersonville, N. C., which com pletely demolishes the mountain white" myth. MT. Atkins will be conceded to know what he is writing about. He was born and reared in the alleged God for and degradation. He entered college there, entered the ministry there and spent F years there as minister and teacher.
 As Methodist minister, he says, "l have gone into the most out of the way places and mingled freely with all sorts of people in 20 counties of North Caro- lima and Virginia and in nearly all the worst parts of east Tennessee. have visited these people at their homes, have eaten with them, slept in their houses and seen them in every condition" Yet Mir. Atkins has not once beheld the slum scenes Mrs Paddock described i'll re- cent number of The Christian Union. Your correspondent" he says, must have found some secluded spot 1 never saw, for in all my travels never saw the things she writes of, and it seems strange that 1 should not even have heard of such things in all these years. There is poverty here and ignorance. too, but neither is in that prevalent form you would suppose from the article of Mrs Paddock. You might live here an age and never hear of such savage and weird funeral customs as Professor Bemis, an other correspondent writing from the south. told your readers about.
 The situation is not such as was de scribed by The Unions correspondents. Putting it in d nutshell, MT. Atkins says of Mrs. Paddock's picture: "She has pre- sented the very worst possible case that could be found in the remotest part and made it a sample of all the :, ,00O, ,OO0 here, so that if any one should receive an i'm pression from such writing he would sup pose no other kind of people could be found here"
 AS matter of fact, the mountain whites" are not a distinct class. Their ancestors says MT. Atkins, were not out laws, but pioneers from the coast coun- try. They generally own their farms and make a comfortable living. To say they hunt for living Is absurd There is lit tie wealth and not as much luxury as might be, but the people live decently. There are some log houses, three-fourths of which have windows. None are plas- tered with mud. as alleged. or without wooden floors But few have only one room Generally the houses are quite comfortable All have good open fire places. Fuel is abundant and costs noth- ing. so that the correspondents story of children covering their limbs with warm ashes to keep from freezing" is specially absurd The people. MT. Atkins afirms, are already religious and moral. They ob- serve Sunday and attend Sunda% school. There is scarcely district where there is not a school for at least three months in the year Few persons are unable to read and write. and such cases are so raro as to excite surprise among the neighbors.
 As respects the girls who were de scribed as overworked and vicious, MT Atkins says not one in hundred would know herself by that description. "The common virtues," he says-'chastity, honesty. truthfulness, etc.-are rather more prevalent than in other sections l have seen. The girls are healthy, strong and full of spirit They marry at good age, make excellent wives and mothers, and do much less hard work than their sisters of the north and vest" and Mr Atkins spent four years in the west They do not work in the field. 1t is by no means" says the writer, ''the custom of the country. Home life is as pure as it is anywhere 1 have been" In word, the mountain white," with his abysmal degradation. is a myth and needs no mission. ."-Baltimore Sun.
 In Memory of Columbus.
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