New-York tribune., 1907-10-06
BEREA'S QUEER
COMMENCEMENT.
MOUNT4INEERS OF KEN
TUCKY MIKE 1T UNIQUE.
Many Come in Wagons and Camp
out on the Campus.

out on the Campus.
A college commencement which. besides possess
ing the usual academic solennity, partakes of the
nature of a county fair and county court day
IS of the annual features at Berea College.
The institution IS In the borderland between the
Kentucky Blue Grass region and the Cumberland
Mountains. and TO it come early each June scme
five or six thousand men, women and children OF
the strongly individual types developed by the in
dependent life of that region.
On commencement day the usually quiet college
campus becomes a tethering ground for thousands
of horses, and is almost choked with wagons
which, with hickory chairs for seats, have brought
whole families from the blue hills. unspeaka-
bic roads. with buggies and smarter turnouts
form the more prosperous Blue Grass farms.
While the graduation ceremonies being
ried in great tabernacle" built for use on
that day of the year only horse swapping,
electioneering. dickering wood and land deals
with innumerable family reunions and unlimited
gossip, going outside and booths which
dispense the usual concomitants Of a circus do
rushing business, their wares being almost un-
known in the mountains and being, therefore.
greatly desired.
Just why these thousands, many of whom have
little interest IN the college the students should
gather its campus annually has never been ex-
planed. but the crowds have been there since the
Civil War days. and in about the numbers.
In the old days It often happened that feudsmen
who had successfully avoided meeting at home
would chance upon each other in the throng and
then there would be a sudden scattering of the
crowds 10 the shelter Of tree trunks and wagons
till one went down But of late years the
peaceful influence Of the place has made itself
felt, and there IS seldom Of
''drunk and disorderly.''
The assembly remains, however, the greatest
drs wing card in Eastern Kentucky, and many a
wagonload Of mon and women comes to it over
hundred miles Of mountains, fording streams and
walking up hills which too steep for the horses
strength often spending two three days the
road. As they near the town they find the hos
SfnFaf Ter nxIne and m hl
nights before and after the great day parties may
be seen encamped along the pixies leading into the
hills and often the campus itself.
One girl. living fifty miles from Berea, was found
wandering around the college buildings
mencement morning and was taken in tow by a
girl student In the course OF the disJointed con-
versation it that che had kept four
acre plot of corn hoed all spring in order to
her transportation to town. She asked why
she had wanted TO come badly.
oh hit seemed like I'd never git ary other
chanel TO see the world. was the response, and
the girl seemed satisfied she Nstarted home that
night.
A MOTLEY PROCESSION.
The procession through the big campus gates
begins about o'clock in the morning. 1t becomes
steady stream by seven. and there is little let-up
ill noon About two the ebb begins.
Probably nowhere else could such a procession
be seen About q third of the comers on
critter- back" the term being used to include those
who ride mules, of whom there many. The
riders of all kinds and classes. and their
tunes not the conventional habits but their
seats might Well be envied by most of the beau
tifully outftted riders In New York parks. Many
animals carry double. some triple and few quad
ruple- Frequently man, his wife and the young
est baby will be on one "critter," while three
more children. between two and seven. will be
another. Most of the women carry umbrellas,
though horseback; all wear heavy woollen mitts
10 prevent their hands from tanning freckling-
this IS Of the steruest conventions of noun
tain fashjon-and many Of them bring homespun
and woven ''kvers' for exhibition in the hresIde
industries fair which is one OF the newer features
Of the day. It is an enlghtening lesson on how
to make horse earn his living.
The wagons scarcely less picturesque. AS
the mountain roads do not permit of driving for
pleasure, there are few passenger conveyances on
them and in the face of the necessity OF getting
several persons somewhere at once lumber wagons
and bark tricks pressed into service. One
Of these will hold eight of the homemade hickory
Chairs and Is therefore. allowing inevitable
babies. capable of carrying ten persons.
A ride In of these cOnveyances is a thing 10
be remembered with awe. When the horses start
the chair tits backward; when they stop It pitches
forward, bringing your knees against the chair in
front and your toes under its descending feet And
when a hill the wagon takes smart pace,
pitching into ruts fitting side the other
over the uneven roadbed, and humping stones
It would If going down a fight stairs, the
chair becomes fairly inspired drunk with power.
II sWays and lunges, moves suddenly from under
YOU and as suddenly comes back and strikes you
behind the knees it twists to right left pitches
like unbroken colt pirouettes gracefully
one leg. When all the other chairs doing the
fail out, though you set your teeth hard to pre-
vent your heart from leaving you-there is always
violence TO counteract the last you reach
the bottom of the Hill with the firm conviction that
you would have pitched from the rear OF the wagon
II you had not nearly gone both sides at
once. with inner feeling Of thankfulness that
You escaped falling under the horses hoofs.
The mountaineers, however, make their long trips
in this way, and appear, solemn usual, but
happy, unrufhed and often in immaculate white,
in the early dawn Of commencement day.
In Berea the graduates, sweet girl and other
kinds, not, is usual. the centre Of at
traction and yet the ceremonies inside the big
Tabernacle which excuse rather than
a for the gathering. far from unin-
feresting. The audience of three or four thousand
changes constanty-men, carrying whips and
sometimes babies coming and going, and
women, always with babies hocking IN for
the music and going out when it ends. except when
the babies have gone 10 sleep Sticks of red and
white peppermint candy. each weighing pound,
10 match the magnitude of the occasion, can be
Feen everywhere, and. thanks TO them, the chill
dren seldom make trouble Mountain lovers and
the girls they "a-taIkin TO" often share this
and other delicacies they sit together OF wan
Ger, hand in hand through the crowd.
REAL ORATORS DEMANDED
The tabernacle" itself is q great wooden struct-