The Washington times., 1901-07-28
FOR MOUNTAIN MAIDS.
Novel student Life atsan Industrial
College at Asheyflle.


Novel student Life atsan Industrial
| College at Asheville.
| The quaintest college girls in the United
States are at the Normal and Industrial
institute at Asheville. N. c., which is in
tended for the benefit of the young women
OF the mountain districts. There are al
ways three or four youthful widows and
ahiid wives In the classes, early marriages
being customary among the mountaineers.
ana the sudden disappearance of hus-
| bands. either because of social feuds or
the vigilance of the revenue officers. be-
ing too common an occurrence to excite
surprise.
The first thing the girls are taught on
entering the institute. says an exchange
in its interesting account of the school.
Is how to do without tobacco and be con-
tent And the teachers have become ex-
pert in lecturing on this subject and ex-
planning just why the use of the weed
Is inconsistent with polite behavior. 1t
takes several weeks to bring the girls to
the point of voluntarily resigning into the
faculty's hands the little private stores
of tobacco and snuff which they brought
along in their home luggage. but once
this milestone in the training is passed
the pupils show such ready interest in all
that is taught that their progress Is
rapid
As rule they are sturdy, healthy
promising-looking girls, straightforward
and easy to deal with. They show re-
markable quickness of apprehension con-
sidering what contrast the college dis
cipline presents to the rough, free life
they were used to.
Few of these mountain girls when they
come to the school have ever seen look
ing-glass. or a clothes brush, or even the
most ordinary of toilet or housekeep-
ing Implements" said a woman familiar
with the school and its workings. They
have never held a pen in their fingers
or taken hold of a book A table set for
meal Is wonderful object, as Is a two
story house. And most OF them go up
and down stairs for the first few weeks
with all the awkwardness and caution of
people undergoing a novel sensation. The
only objects you could show them that
would seem familiar would be guns and
shooting and trapping apparatus, or the
heavy-lidded ovens for cooking over an
open fire.
1T is some time before the mountain
girls quaint dialect wears off through in
tercourse with her college associations.
Miss s., there's power of hardness
in our room. teacher will be told some
morning. and iater 1t develops that the
girl means that the three or four girls In
the room have quarreled and authority
Two girls who, although they could
between them raise only 81 for their ex-
penses, were admitted to the college, said
afterward. in describing hGw anxious they
were to. get in. that they had just been
'a-snortin to come for long time.
"A girl who has puzzled for long over a
difficuit task will tell you that she's clean
done, plumb wore to frazzle over it.
AS class. these> mountaineers are
down on all affectation and do not hesi-
tate to speak their mind when any one Of
them falls short of the standard. Once
girl being Ill her cousin carried some
toast and coffee to her room for her. In
transit some of the coffee spilled on the
toast and the sick girl said she could not
eat 1t on that account. The cousin delib-
erately took UP her sewing and proceeded
to ugbraid her en- the subject.
Now. Sairy, yer kin eat thet good
enough II you wants ter, she said. We
uns waz riz up. together. What kin eat
yer kin cat and we kin eat jst anything
So yer needn't be putin on and a put
tin on, jist cause we've come here to live
Yer nuther sumthin' nor some nuther
the same old Jane. So nary jip of
nuthin' else will you get but that toast
Sometimes, after the longest training
in conventional speech and expression a
ticulariy at times when she feels strongly
on any subject
So your husband was your cousin and
your mothers husband was her cousin
band had been run off by Government Off
GERS year before. and who had been res
cued from family where she was clear
ly one too many and not well treated.
cousin matches in our settlement. and |
It time some on us was a gittin' outen |
ourn kinfolks
Those familiar with the conditions
agree with this opinion The particular |
antilles settled in a given cove stay there |
or generations. man rarely goes more !
han two or three miles away for a wife. 1
Neighborhood and family plarreIs Al re- hot /
md frequent. In some districts where II |
vas designed to establish a school. with |
m educated mountain girl as teacher, the
Mort had TO DE abandoned because of the |
vendettaS that prevented
my unity of feeling in public matters.
The local preachers of various denomi-
atlons. who occasionally traverse the dis
riot can barely read and write them
elves. and for them to offer the light of
Instruction Is as the blind leading the
lind.
:" If you uns is got anything to give
ooKin 1s TO the export of this preachin' it
fnl be gradually received / heard one of
hese preachers announce once when a |
election was to be taken up.
FROM the beginning of the institution
nc OF the discoura gementS met with was
he early marriages. Nearly all the girls
pproached on the subject of attending
ne. schooi were anxious to come: but
ONE, although only thirteen or fourteen,
thers who could not arrange to enter
became wives before the
ext school term opened.
Many of the little girls arrive at the
chool in rfckety ox-carts drawn by one
r two oxen; sometimes by mule and
n OK hitched together. Some walk in
ompany with their elders. two or three
ays' journey leading to an eventfuI end. !
Is noticeable that very few of the girls !
fter having got an insight into the world | !
nd better order of living show con- /,
ampt for their parents or friends. There |
GEMS strong tie of affection binding
hem to their kinfolk and old associations. | '
nd they are always ready TO make ex
uses for the poverty and hardship at | I
ONE. The teachers who come in contact
18th the young mountain women regard
lem as very promising. apt scholars"