The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1906-06-21
Strong Plea for Popular
Education.
Address of Mrs. Lindsay Patterson,
Of North Carolina, Before the
Conference for Education in the
South-Effective Work of Wo-
mems Clubs.

conference TOT EQucdtl0d In th(
South-Effective Work of Wo
mems Clubs.
Mrs. Lindsay Patterson, OF Nortf
Carolina, in her stirring address be
fore the Conference for Education il
the South at Lexington, KY, made
an ear''~'t plea for popular educa.
ton. She said in part:
"All children have a dreamland-a
land that beckons and soothes and
charms; a land where ones fancy
wanders and ones heart fingers
Mine was your beautiful country O
Kentucky.
Gone OF the family plantations was
at Cumberland Gap, where Kentucky
Virginia and Tennessee march to-
gether, and through the plantation
ran the old Wilderness road, Travelled
so many years ago by the buffalo
hunting the salt ticks; by the Indians
hunting the buffalo, and by Boone
and his men hunting homes. Along
that same road we also travelled
four children on one horse-Old Bill
twenty years ago, and broad as he
was long, given to lying down in the
creek with US on hot days and spin
ming round and round like Il TOP
when he had gone as far as he thought
he ought to go; yet Notwithstanding
these trifie idiOsyncrasies, worth his
weight in radium-nothing in your
State or any other could touch him
"My brother rode first, because he
was a boy, and the horse was his
fathers; then my cousin rode next,
because he was another boy; then my
girl cousin, because she was com
pany, and |, last, because | was only
girl and nobody in particular.
Every day we paraded to the sulphur
springs, because sulphur water puri-
fled the blood, and purifying the
blood was very momentOus thing
i'll those times, exceeded only in i'm
pOrtance by Bible verse and good
manners.
"Our blood properly attended to,
ii the weather were fair, we followed
the Wilderness road to the gap in the
mountain. There we rested, hunted
Indian arrOwheads, ate our fried
chicken and horse cakes and looked
over into Kentucky. Then we claimed
things; my brother claimed the farms
of Kentucky; my cousin the creeks
that had catfish and swimming olos;
my girl consin the little pigs and
muscovy ducks; but l claimed always
the Wilderness road. My claim met
with no approval, but l didn't care:
| knew what | wanted, and that was
that some time or other it would take
me all the way into Kentucky. To-
day the Wilderness road ends where
my heart has long been, with you,
and am very glad.
''North Carolina is that section of
our country known as the Awful
Warming. We are the white litter
ates of America, not plain illiterates,
we could stagger along under that
burden, but white illiterates. We ha d
done our days work and were sitting
down with our knitting while the
other States were yawning and rub
bling their eyes and wondering if it
were not getting up time. So, DR..
McIver, a prophet who is an honor to
his country and is honored by it, was
only following in the footsteps of the
fathers, when, in 1902, at the State
Normal College in Greensboro, he Or
ganized the first Woman's Associa-
ton for the Betterment of Public
Schools. The movement proved so
successful, SO beneficial, that other
States became interested.
I'm July, 1905, Prof p. 2. Claxton,
of the Summer School of the South,
then in session at Knoxville, Tenn,
called a meeting of women interested
in school improvement. The meet
ing lasted two days and educational
conditions in each Southern State
were thoroughly discussed. 1t was
decided that the best solution of the
problem was to form an interstate
association with a president and gen
eral officers, whose duty it should be
to acguaint themselves with what
had been done in all the States and
bind it together into one harmonious
helpful whole, and State officers who
should have charge of the work in
their own States. If it can be ar.
ranged, we hope to have yearly meet.
ing to which we may take our failures
and learn how to make them sue
cesses.
SIN Tennessee, an association not
vet a year old, reports a piano, free
singing lessons, school drills by re-
tired army officer, good library, pic
lures and magazines. All this has
been brought about by one woman
and her only complaint is that the
lack of funds prevent her doing more
I'm Arkansas, one association
raised 800 and another 5000 in
little less than three months, the
funds, of course, being applied to the
Improvement of schools.
I'm Texas the wOmen's clubs arr
taking up the matter, giving time
and labor and money. In Louisiana
the work is to be presented at thu
superintendent meeting in Batol
Rouge.
Now, because this is woman''
work as we'll as womanly work, ant
the two are by no means always sy
nonymous, we ask you every one tt
help. Scandinavian legends tell u
OF "primeval words or words o
such tremendous meaning that the,
possessed life and power of thei
own, when called upon, to ban o
bless. The people held them in suel
reverence that their use was largel,
confined to the priests, who in turf
taught them to each succeeding gen
GRAFTON, for, should those holy word
be forgotten, the nation must perish
America has her primeval words
Some of them tell of a small begin
ming, and growth so stupendou
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