The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-12
GLOWING PICTURE OF
 LAUDERDALE'S SCHOOLS
 PAST AND IN THE FUTURE

In view of the recent educational revival
 in Iauderdale county, during which the
 county jumped in and seized the oppor-
 tunity offered by the state to get new
 school houses, the following educational
 address, delivered by Dr. w. J. ker-
 nachan of Florence, will be of interest;
 Ladies and Gentlemen-It Is great
 pleasure to be with you today; to nave
 the privilege of shaking hands and look
 ing into your eyes as friends and neigh-
 bors srould. l rejoice with you Tn your
 sturdy boys and sweet faced girls that
 surround you. who have the greatest
 inheritance upon earth-American citizen-
 ship.
 What are we here for?
 We meet today to discuss in what way,
 by what means and how soon we can
 give every white child in Lauderdale coun-
 ty an equal opportunity to optaln an
 education. wish to say, that, judging
 the future by the past, It will be very
 I shall try and paint for you three
 pictures:
 Laudderdale county as 1t was.
 Lauderdale county as it is
 Lauderdale county as it will be.
 In all these pictures there will be the
 same ackground-beautiful hills and hol-
 lows, whose feet are kissed by dashing
 streams rushing to meet a uODl6 IlN6Is
 Now for the foreground of our first
 picture-Lauderdale county as it was:
 To make truthful picture, we will have
 to look at it as we work and remember
 that the first picture is of Lauderdale county more than twenty years ago. To
 se Lauderdale county then, as now, we had to take the public roads. What was the condition of those public roadsP They were dreary miles of mud and mire which nt irarN h Ia hof horses have been known to have stalled with an empty wagon and regular attend ance upon either church or school was an absolute impossibility. Our church houses and school houses were far from what they should have been, dreary with out and cold and uninviting within. Our preachers and teachers were at that time not exactly down to date. As I was more under the control of the teacher l shall speak of him. I never heard of one who | taught as the trustees wished that the world was either round or fiat, but l | do know of one who whistled and taught | the children dancing. When a person passing suggested to him that it was | his business to teach the children their ] lessons rather than dancing, he drew his knife and ran after him threatening | to cut his throat for meddling with his | business He was a white school teacher and teaching white children. The aver | age home at that time was neither roomy, | well built nor comfortable, it was fre- quently one room with slat door and a | plank shutter for window, the furniture consisted of corded bed, a plain table | in the center, 'chist' on the side and enough split bottomed chairs for the grown folks; the children had blocks or | had to "hunker down." The only picture | on the wall was the drug store almanac | that hung by the chimney piece A cooking stove was curiosity and a sew ing machine Ia sight to sec" OK teams were plentiful and buggies scarce. A wooden mold board blow and a bull tongue were the latest fashion in farming l tools. Think of the gin of "the good old | time' pulled by six or eight little mules, and of the hamper basket which you | hitched to your back and carried the seed cotton from the wagon up the ladder | to the gin breast and how later on you | hitched the same hamper basket to a tired back and carried the lint cotton up to the press. crawled in and ''tromped 1t down. so that it could be mashed into the form of a bale by two more little mules. Saloons and swearing, like pigs and pigs tracks, were to be seen and heard
 everywhere. Our court house was as full
 of lawyers and lawsuits as our Jail was of prisoners, and the first day of criminal court week made the streets look like a CiIChS was III lOWH- our Ouly IdllTOdQ came a quarter of a mile into the county
 and stopped in front of big limestone
 bluff Electric cars, lights and telephones had never been heard of. The only manu- factories in the county were two little cotton mills that the creeks have since washed away.
 Now for the second picture-Lauderdale county as 1t is
 The grand old river still flows at her
 feet. the beautiful streams bless both
 man and beast, and her hills and valleys furnish food and shelter for the best people on earth. But there have been changes and changes for the betterment
 of our people all along the line. When you start out 1o see what these changes
 are, you will find that our public roads, while far from what they should be, are twice as good as they were back fin the good old times" from Florence to the Ten
 nessee line; in other words, now you can haul twice as much in half the time Now that is encouraging and we can all see the time near at hand when Lauder
 dale county will have a first class system of roads all paid for and not owe a dollar of debt, and debts my friends, whether public or private terrible. Our school houses, church houses, and do not forget the parsonages, a great many new ones have been built and old ones have been remodeled and improved so that today Lauderdale county has the finest church house in the Tennessee valley, her par sonagas are a credit to any community and her school houses-I regret to say, are still a long way from what they should be. Our preachers and teachers, none are below the third grade and good many are first and second grade. We are climbing. Our dwelling houses