The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1907-11-28
POOR PEOPLE IN THE SOUTH
A Striking illustration of Ignorance
Causing Poverty.

Causing Poverty.
The twinship Of poverty and ignor-
ance is strikingly illustrated in the
mountain region of North Carolina.
The rural mountaineers, excepting
those who own the fertile valleys, are
the poorest people to be found In the
South, says the Charleston News and
Courier. The plantation negroes in
South Carolina enjoy comforts and lux
uries of which the dweller IL the how
els In the little clearings Tar up the
mountain side have scarcely dreamed.
Their scanty cabbage, corn and apple
crops provide them with only enough
cash to purchase in small quantities
such necessaries as sugar and coffee
to them the choicest and most priced
luxuries of life.
Yet between these people and easy
living stands only the barrier of not
knowing how to produce the scores of
things for which there Is a ready and
ever-growing market at their doors
The villages and larger towns TEEN
with summer visitors, many OF them
residents and housekespers for three
Or four months. These flock to the
but from ali the interior of the SOUTH
ern country. Hundreds OF families Of
well-to-do farmers of the Piedmont as
well as from rice and sea island cot
ton plantations fill the boarding houses
and hotels
Nature has made these mountains q
food-producing region, but the singular
anomaly Is that nothing Is so difficult
to find in it as good things to eat. In
the smaller towns days pass In the
summer when pat of butter Is not to
be had for love or money. -Four years
ago 1t was the experience of a we'll
known Charlestonian to arrive at a
fashionable hotel at supper time. AS
he strolled into the dining room and
took his seat at the nearest table the
100 or more guests at the other tables
began to clap their hands In applause
They were not greeting the Charles
tonian, but a procession Of walters
with the first butter that had been seen
in forty-eight hours,
Fruit in the mountains, with the ex-
ception Of apples, Is scarce and the ap-
pies are often undesirable citizens of
the fruit kingdom. Grapes should be
plentiful, but they are to be seen only
in few places, of which Tryon is a
noteworthy example. Delicious rasp-
berries may be easily raised. but only
here and there are they heard Of The
few peaches offered for sale show plain
~ that they are produced by their own
exertions; they have never known cult
walton. With the exception of green
corn, cabbage and beans, the fruits of
North Carolina; the husbandman Is not
in alliance with nature. The native
beef is second rate, though the lamb
and mutton are excellent Indeed,
lambs chops and roasting ears are the
redeeming foods of the country. Poul-
try and eggs could be produced at NOM
inal cost, but the supply is never plenti-
full and the prices are always high.
OF course, it is not intended to say
that there is nothing TO eat. Visitors
with plenty of money do not starve, but
the opportunity is present for the
mountain people to cultivate numerous
crops, which they could sell at excel
| lent profit.
The mountaineers are not law. To
walk fifteen miles to Waynesvllle or
Hendersonville with pail of buckle
berries which will sell for 10 cents re
quires physical energy. The trouble is
| ignorance. The same kind of energy
exerted in the care of peach trees, in
fertilizing them. and in spraying them
would yield 81 instead of 40 cents.
Outside Of the towns and the spler.
did valleys, the North Carolina noun
tainee-s are a race going to waste
| Hardy, brave, honest and intelligent
they are languishing in the :lullest pow
erty, they are shiyerlng In rags when
the winter sets in, for no otner reason
| than that there Is no one 20 tell them
how to do; to arouse them; to start
them on the easy route to a comforta-
bic condition of life.