The Washington times., 1911-04-25

Started From Bible Tale
Read to Three Shy, Wild
Mountain Waits.
FIVE THOUSAND A
YEAR, EXPENSES
One Dress or Jewel Worn Here
Could Buy New Life for Some
Poor Yearner.

who, until they strayed into her life
that afternoon as she sat reading In
her cabin den, had never seen book
Twelve months more, and there were
four mountain day schools IN the coun-
ty 1t soon became evident, however,
that these day schools could not be
maintained and held together by one
person, even with the limited aid given
by the State.
ferent as they were iIliterate, and the
school attendance of their children was
absolutely irregular. Neither were they
willing to cooperate with the teachers
in the matter of discipline.
IT saw" said Miss Berry, that the
salvation of our mountain whites lay In
training their children In a nome scnooi
where strict discipline and industriaI
training could go hand in hand with
book learning.
room building planned by me, ana ouilt
with the greatest economy by poorly
skilled carpenters. whose Work i su,
peryised. 1t was much harder 10 nno
boarding pupils than it was to MI .
Sunday school
Learning Greek
Before Arithmetic.
"In a filthy cabin far in the hills
had found two boys boarding them
selves and paying 81 a month tuition 10
a super animated old school master, VINO
was teaching them the Greek alphabet
though they did not yet know aritn-
metic I coralled these two ooys' anu
promised them a literary and indusflaI
education at $50 year, Win poaTa orL- IN
cluded, and with the privilege ol "oiS
ing their way through
'aThe opening of my school mad Deen
announced for Monday morning, IN tne
middle of January, 1902 On the Satur-
day morning a ramshackle oid moun- noun.
tain wagon drew up before the ooor,
and a boy, holding an old trunk In MS
arms, climbed down. He had come 10
try the new school, and was our nTst
volunteer pupil. Another showed up
Monday, and the school opened with
one buiIding, five pupils, and two teach
ers, and about eighty acres OF 1oIest
land. our Industrial equipment consist
ed of the old horse, 'Roney' one smah
plow, two hoes, rake, two dun axes,
and a mattock with whlcn you ois
stumps. ,.
"Our school buildings and equipment
now represent an investment or SZpOO.
We have Just established a school Ior
girls, because 1 found that we were
Educating the boys away from their SIS
ters and sweethearts.
Go Back to
Reclaim Parents.
More than a thousand boys have
come to our school and gone back 10
the mountains to reclaim their people
from the superstition sand ignorance
into which they have fallen
There are now fifty girls In our
girls dormitory, and a waiting list OF
those who are pleading with US 10 take
them. We have boys and girls from the
rural and mountain districts OF Georgia,
Alabama, Tennessee. and virginia
ii have to raise $4,000 every year IN
order to keep the work going. Our
needs are CRYING needs. When see the
ieweIs and gowns of the women here, I
wonder what these women would do II
they could but realize that a single
gown, a single jewel, would mean the
onening of a whole new life to some
splendid mountain boy or girl.
Nesting back there in the mountains
Is a neat cabin that is desolate today.
And nearby is a simple white stone,
which Is visited only by the old father
and mother of the boy who sleeps be-
meath it. On the gravestone Is the re-
rnarkabIe inscription. which tells what
'The Sunday Lady has meant to the
mountain people. 1t is this:
Ale was faithful unto death; by re-
quest of Miss Martha Berry.