The herald., 1894-07-13
A SILENT TRAGEDY.
iiEROlSM OF A MOTHER IN THE
CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS.

CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS.
a longing For the Outside World Crushed
Back In Hcr Heart Because She Did Not
Want Her Daughters to Learn OF Bright
er Things Beyond Their Reach.
There are tragedies in nearly all peo
ples 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 1 stopped 70,
dinner at house in the Cumberland
mountains SO deep in the Businesses thai
had to employ a guide to show me the
way to the first road that would take me
out to the county road. The family con-
sisted of q man and wife, with six daugh.
ters, and a more ignorant lot of people
think | never saw. After the dinner
of bacon, beans and corn bread, the man
and girls went back to the field, and |
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 got very lonely, away Of
here to yourself?' ] asked her as sha
busted about the table.
81 reckon I mought, eff 1 had time
she replied, "but 1 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 people:"
"Not ez l ever heerd 'em say"
''Do they go to school in winter?'
"No."
''Have they never been?"
''Not yit," this half apologetically.
''Do they have anything to read?"
| "Thay can't read"
.'Can't read?" I repeated in surprise,
for even though the older mountaineers
cannot read and write, as rule, the
younger ones, under more modern CIV
ilization, can.
mo, they can't" she said as if irri-
tated by my tone.
''Are you so far from the schoolhouse
that you can't send them?" was my next
venture.
.'It's two miles, and they could go, but
won't let 'em."
This was @ new phase, and the matter
became more interesting.
"Why not?" / asked, with a persist
ence that was risky.
She stopped her work and turned her
face to me.
i"Them gals" she said, "don't know
nothin but these here mountains and
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
fine houses ner beautiful clos ner gen.
tlemen ner ladies; they don't hardly
know thar's such, but do, fer I've saw
people ez hez seen 'em, and they've told
me. Many's the night I've gone to bed
and cried myself TO sleep in the loft that
wuz my bedroom, thinkin about what
thar wuz in the world that / couldn't
even hope to git look at got so l
could read, and then l read about 'em
all, and that made 1t wuss. Thar wuz
nothin but mountains and loneliness and
silence fer me, and I couldn't help my
self nohow.
''Then 1 married Jim, and we come
here. Jim can't read ner write, and the
pore feller is satisfied, fer he don't know
no more than the gals does and they're
company fer each other. The gals
might git like I wuz eff they larnt readin
and writin, and how could they ever git
away frum this place and go among SIGH
different things? They couldn't jist the
same ez couldn't, and eff I kin keep 'em
frum KNOWN whut's away off whar the
mountains amt, ner the lonesomeness,
ner the silence I'm goin ter do it and let
'em live and die right here whar they
air heap better satisfied than ther
mother has ever been, though they never
heered her say nothin about it, one way
ner t'other. and they never will"
The hard lines of determination had
come into her face when she began
speaking, and I could see they were
pressing back the tears of disappoint-
ment as she talked to me, and when she
turned to her work again she brushed
her eyes hastily, while l sat there think
ing Of the silent heroism and uncomplain-
ing sacrifice of this woman, longing in
the solitude of the mountains for the
breadth and the beauty of the world be-
yond them, yet never voicing her wish;
walking straight through the darkness
of ignorance, knowing of the light above
it, standing fast with her family about
her, as the millions rushed on toward
the higher attainments of life, crushing
her soul down into its narrow confines
and keeping it there, because she realized
that for her and for hers this was the
earth and the fullness thereof.-Detroit
Free Press.
| Ellcnborough's Sarcasm.