Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-04-21

Rough board screens were erected at the
mouth as protection from the weather. An
other missionary got the nucleus OF school
together IN a deserted blacksmith shop,
Backwoods lumber Offices, abandoned
churches, one-room mountain cabins and
prairie sod houses, the woods themselves
and natures arbors have been used as
places suitable for organizing schools.
Wherever 1t may be most convenient for
the people round about to gather, there a
school Is started.
Before he can organize a school, the mis-
sionary needs6isit personally all the fami-
Hes of the neighborhood. This is task
OF days frequently. because of the great
distances between habitatfons In the Ken
lucky mountains the missionary has to
walk the greater part of the time while
ma king his house-to-house vIsitations, so
miserable are the roads. Even then It is
all he can do sometimes to keep himself and
horse from slipping over the edge of a
precipice.
Difficulties of Recruiter.
As general rule, # is not difficult to
get sufficient number of persons inter-
ested to make the organizing of a school
feasible. The scheme of the missionary is
welcomed as a diversion. If nothing else
There are few diversions in the mountains
or pioneer country The stfrest problem
which the missionary has to overcome is to
get mold OF the right man for superintend-
ent.
This task is especially difficult among the
mountain whites because very few of them
| can read or write. Their native preachers
are generally amazingly illiterate men. The
search then Is for a deyout man who can
read. even haltingly. That such men are
rare among the mountain whites Is proved
oy the circumstance that Missionary Little
ana MS feliow workers in the region have
been compelled quite a number of times to
accept, as superin tendents, men Innocent of
any DOCK education whatever-men who
nave never Deheld school house, not even
IN picture book. Imagine, if you can.
such man leading little band Of saw
forty children, and perhaps one-f,fih a.
MANY srownups. Imagine him an active
member of a famous feud family. a man
VINO has killed three men; ana. further.
imagine him the owner OF a fiourishIne
whisky still. man ready to shoot a rev.
enue oincer on sight from ambush. He
devout mamie?
We'll, 1t all depends on the point of view
me average mountain white sees nothing
wrong IN running a still. in protecting
what ne looks upon as his rightful prop
eTty, even to the point of killing; and the
e etan spirit is SO strong in him that he
holds it right to kill also in a feud. Other
wise, however, this man is devout Chris
tfan. Untn the missionary came his way.
ne mad never seen a Bible, but he has al
or the mountain white in the Bible, even
10 the whale story. is unshakable He
does not swear. He is kind and faithful
to his family. He holds family prayer
AZ iiAo Sobiii- I1o STANDS ready to do
all he can for the advancement of the
Christian religion, but he can see nothing
at variance to Christs teachings in feuds
and stills.
these lamentable twin weaknesses but he
does talk plainly in his sermons against
the evils of hanging about stills and get
ting drunk and neglecting duties, and the
sun owners nod vigorous assent. Also, he
talks against murder, setting forth plainly
how 1t is condemned by the Bible. The
mountalneers nod assent and the feudists
shake hands with the missionary after
Sunday school, tell him they're glad to
have heard him, and perhaps week later
are busy shooting one another. For to
take life in a feud is not murder, but clean
vengeance-a difference that only noun
tain white can distinguish.
Another difficulty that the missionary
experiences among these people arises
from their very limited vocabulary Not
one in ten of them has ever seen the
Bible. and mountain cabins that have ever
contained printed page of any sort are
almost as scarce as hens teeth. AS re-
suit, such simple Biblical words as "shep-
herd and vineyard are not understood,
and the missionary has to be at constant
pains to explain to grown men and women
the meaning of Biblical words that your
children have been intimately acquainted
with almost since babyhood. Better still,
the missionary should acquire the simple
language of the mountains and fit it to the
lessons.
These are representative of the regional
conditions that confront the missionary on
the frontier. in the backwoods, in the set
tied states-wherever he labors.
Two Famous Missionaries.
The missionaries of the American Union,
which has been in existence since 1924,
have gathered 5000, 900 children into more
than 100000 schools and placed over &c.
600 600 worth of Hterature-Bibles, lesson
leaves, school papers, etc.-in the hands of
scholars and their parents.
Perhaps the most famous of all Sunday
school missionaries, past and present, was
Stephen Paxson. He was induced to at
tend a school formed by the American
Union at Winchester ILL.,, in the first days
of the napoleonic scheme to dot the Mis-
sissippi valley with Sunday schools. He
went to the school for four years without
missing Sunday became converted, was
made a Union missionary, and from that
time till his death he planted 1914 Sunday
schools, where no Sunday school had ex-
S3,405 scholars and teachers" This work
done in country free of the linking
railroad Paxson originated the now wide
ly prevailing system of county and state
Sunday school conventions personally or
ganizing Illinois and other states.
The only man to approach Parsons rec
ord is Martin B. Lewis of Red Wing,
MINI. When he was forty Mr.. Lewis re-
moved to Minnesota account of his
wife's tender health. This was in the re-
gion's pioneer days. He became Amer
sorting business, and for forty-six years
he has gone about in Minnesota and Wis
consin organizing schools. All told. he
has fathered 1850 schools with a member
ship of 36, 900 children One hundred and
eighty churches of various denominations
have developed from these schools.
One of the most remarkable incidents in
Mr.. Lewis career centered about the grass
hopper plague which persisted over the
southwestern portion of Minnesota in 1873
and for four years thereafter.
Shortly after he was appointed special
agent by Gov. John S. Pillsbury to carry
food to those starving families who were
too sensitive to come for 1t at the public
relief depots. Mr.. Lewis met with the
people CT Redwood county at little place
called Walnut Grove and led them In their
prayers that the county be rid of the pest.
There was an unbeliever in the gathering
and in order to express his disapprovaI Of
the suppIications of his fellow farmers he
made a lot of unnecessary noise as he
passed in and out of the little school house
on his trips to get fresh fuel for the fire.
But the greatest disturbance that he made
was when he suddenly burst into the ROOM
crying excitedly: "They are going! They
are gofngi"
The little gathering, rushing into the
open, beheld the heavens dark with clouds
Of insects passing by
Mr. Lewis related this incident the fol-
lowing Sunday in church in ST. Paul