New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-11-23
LIGHT IN THE MOUNTAINS.
Plea for Mountaineers Touches Hearts of
Abbott Collegiate Association.

plea fol the lighting of a torch IN the
tains of Tennessee struck such responsive chord
in the Abbott Collegiate Association. which held its
annual meeting yesterday afternoon in the Brick
PRESBYTERIAN Church that the sum of $500 i'm
mediately subscribed a scholarship for noun
tain student IN the Maryville College This sum-
insignificant it appears will secure six years m
struction for some bright mountain boy or girl who
may hereafter be the means of transforming whole
communities in the almost inaccessible Businesses
of the Southern Appalachians.
The plea which touched the hearts Of the Abbott
Association was made by Miss Margaret e. Henry.
herself the granddaughter Of a mountaineer ana
A teacher in the Maryvile College. Miss Henry
knows the nountaineers as few outsiders have a
chance of knowing them. and she believes that they
are capable of great things.
They seem hard and cruel and revengeful, she
said but touch them with the light of love and
there will be such It transformation as you cannot
foreteH. Their thirst for knowledge. when once
it has been awakened. is Unsuitable. one OF the
pupils of the MaryvilIe College came on foot all
alone through the mountain, a three days journey.
because she had heard from passing colporteur
that beyond the mountains which had shut her in
all her life from the outside world was a college
which admitted girls.
Our boys live four in room. small that
there is hardly space for anything but their beds
and a stove They do their washing and
cooking and study by little lamp with wick
scarcely wider than my finger, to oil
This desire for knowledge, it appears, is not con-
fined to the rising generation. II is experienced by
the middle aged and the old we'll as Miss Henry
told an amusing story to illustrate
There is a valley in the mountains she said
where for forty years no schoolhoUse door was
ever opened and no sermon was ever heard. No
woman ever came out of that valley, and no out
slider ever entered il, except Mormon missionaries
or revenue officers. \ few years ago a party of
ministers and other people followed little river
trail up into the mountains till they came to TINS
valley They camped there over Sunday, and as
one of them lay in hammock reading the blole
he attracted the attention Of some of the emil
dren They ran their father to inquire what that
pcned also to be the patriarch Of the valley. an
swered that It was preacher man ., hi1
An what's a preacher man: askeu Ii'e 0Hi'-
dren. .,.r,oro,,. 81
and then he roars an roars. an stamps win potn
don't be good youn go to the bad place 49,, obt,-
This description sounded so enucng TO Int enc o
dren that they clamOred for an opportunity 10 See
the performance and the preacher man was ac-
cordingy invited to hold a forth fd1ra under tree.
said Miss Henry. and odd congregation assem-
twenty dirty mountain children some lank noun
tain dogs. with few razor back hogs N 'he mta
peighborhood and some gaunt, Splndle Ies6eu
chickens getting under every ones feet. dqn
know what the preacher @n f3ok a Io effect
upon the lord of the valley. II didn't klnale any
with a desire for learning and the schoghouse
which stands IN that valley IS the IesuI. tr+a
"A summer settlement has now been started
there by some womens CLUBS of Tennessee ana
the Transformation is wonderful. It's good enough
for heaven one mountaineer said to me. he hau
vcalkcd ten miles through the mountains to make
plea for his valley, where you had 9nly 10
scratch the ground little to strike the piackeat
hell | had TO tell him that could not heip MIN,
and he went back to his mountain home with tne
tears streaming down his cheeks -eus,.
The association reelected the foloWIng oi1cets'
President Mrs. Melville Emory Mead treas
nrer Mr. F. T. Lathrop: secretary. Miss Gertrude
F McNamee. Vlce-Presidents- Mrs. J. J4Tre!
RIodgett Mrs William II. Bead.eston. Mrs. ii; .
Church Mrs Edwin Corning Mrs. Henry Z. Emo
Mrs Thomas Hooker. Mrs. Walter w. Law MIS-
" d Moore Mrs. William l.. Skidmore. Mrs Ar
thur r. Sullivan Mrs Henry y satteriee br'
IIIia Holmes Smith and Mrs. Cornelius H. SHlth.
An address was given by Mrs Mary Van Auken
Mills of Vassar College, and a message was ret'
from President Taylor of NaSsar College. TINS IN
stitution being the outgrowth OF the Spingier OF
Institute.