Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-03-21
HELP HIM, BUT WASTE NO
MAUDLIN PITY ON HIM
b. BISHOP w. 4. Candler


/ familiar with their own language, in a
purer form than any other which can be
placed before them There can be no
doubt that better English is spoken by
the people at large in New England than
any where else in the world: and there
can be equally little doubt that this is
due to the fact that until now, the Bible
has helped form the diction of almost
every child that has been educated at a
New England school" If these words
of DR.. Peabody had their application to
the New England child, they are not
without their application to the noun
taineer of North Georgia also. He is not
very modish in his manner of speech, but
he is Biblical, strong. and clear. His
speech is Anglo-Saxon to the core.
And he is no moral delinquent. I'm
/ fortunately there are vices among the
mountaineers, as wrong-doing is found
every where in this sin-cursed world;
but it would be hard to prove that he
| is as immoral as the Inhabitants of our
urban communities.
Some of the mountaineers run Illicit
distilleries, and for this they are to be
censured severely But shall men who
violate dehantly our prohibition laws cast
StOHC dL MIN IOT THIS OHGnSG. QdTc
affirm that with reference to crimes
against the liquor laws the cities Of At
lanta and Savannah contain more Grim
mails than do all the mountain counties
of Nprth Georgia.
Some of the mountaineers gamble at
cards; but few, if any of them. ever
gamble on cotton or pork or wheat. None
/ of their women gamble at bridge. In
deed, the mountains women are home
i1~,r
knowledge of them, | feel justified in
saying that the goodwomen of our noun
tain counties observe as perfectly as any
women in the world the exhortation of
st. Paul that women should be sober,
and love their husbands, and love their
children and be discreet, chaste, keep
ers- at-home, and obedient to their own
husbands. (Titus ii:4-0. The sight of
many a mountain matron, clad not FASH
ionably but IN garments made by her
own hands, suggests to devout observ-
er the words of ST. Peter concerning
saintly womanhood: Whose adoring let
| IL not be that outward adoring of plait-
ling the hair, and of wearing of gold, or
| of putting on of apparel; but let it be the
hidden man of the heart, in that which
is not corruptible, even the ornament of
a meek and quiet spirit which is in the
sight of God OF great price. For after
this manner in the old time the holy
women also, who trusted in God adorned
themselves, being in subsection unto their
own husbands, even as Sarah obeyed
Abraham. calling him Lord. q Peter iii:
lS4,5). At family affairs 1 have met such
mountain matrons, with their husbands
and children, in cabin homes, and with
them / have worshiped the God of their
fathers and mine, and have found in
them a faith and reverence not always
found in more pretentious establishments.
When L have Joined them In their I'M
lfeigned devotions I have thought of a
stanza in THE Cotter's Saturday Night"
of Burns, in which the poet describes the
family worship of a highland home:
Compared with this, how poor religions
pride,
In all the pomp of method and of art.
When men display to congregations
4 wide,
Deyotion's every grace except the heart!
The power incensed the pageant will de-
4, sert,
The pompous strain, the sacerdotal stole;
But haply in some cottage far apart,
May hear, well pleased, the language of
the soul,
And in his book of life the inmates poor
enroll"
/ 1 have worshiped in Westminster Abb
~
st. Giles in Edinburgh, listened to chant
ing priests in Notre Dame in Paris, and
witnessed pompous ceremonials in the
great cathedral of AIexicoI City; but as
God is my witness have found more
elevating and comforting manifestations
/ of the divine presence at the family
altar of a mountaineer in the Blue Ridge
Mountains than ever found at all these
| splendid shrines. There was a genuine
his worship which seems impossible to
men who are engaged in executing a re-
ligious spectacle.
/ Our brethren and sisters of the noun
tains do need help with their schools, but
/ they do not call for our pity because
they are poor, miserable mendicant peo-
pie. Such they are not They are very
worthy people, whom we need to prize
and cultivate as we would a seed-plat
from which choice plants are drawn. And
some of the churches (mostly the Bap-
] fist and Methodist Churches) have been
/ helping them in the matter Of their
schools for years,--long before some of
our "reformers" ever began their pretty
talk about THE poor mountain whites
young Harris College, named for that
princely man, Judge Young IL @. Harris
of Athens, who gave many thousands to
the school. has been running some thirty
been in operation nearly as long. And
there are others which might be men
toned. The men and women who have
been teaching in these schools all these
years, and who are stin teaching
in them. have met the youths
of the mountains with no discred-
ting pity for them. They have looked
upon them with respect and admiration,
and they have helped many of them to
become some of the most honorable,
useful and efficient citizens In our COM
monwealth. A mountaineer, who was pre-
pared for college at Walesca. and who
then worked his way through Emory
College, is one of the candidates for
United States Senator, and without in
truding myself into that race 1 may be
permitted to say that Georgia has had
more than once far less able men in the
Senate than that mountaineer. If 1 mis-
take not the lamented Senator Clay was
educated at a mountain college of the
Methodist Church,-Hiawassee College in
East Tennessee
1t is time we had done with a maudlin
sentimentality over the poor whites of