The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1912-03-19
FEARS ALIENS DEED =
WILL HURT HER WORK
Miss Lydia Holman Explains Her
Efforts Among Southern
Mountaineers.
STATE TO BLAME, SHE SAYS
In That II Has Neglected These People,
Who Remain Primitive, Helpless
and Forlorn in Their Lives.

Miss Lydia Holman. the trained nurse
who went to live among the North Carolina
mountaine twelve years ago. and has
since made It her life work to bring the
comforts OF modern nursing. hygiene
and social service to the isolated noun
tain people," said yesterday that she
feared that her work here in raising funds
Tor the Holman Association might be
handicapped by the outbreak OF the
Aliens in the Virginia mountains. The
calamity as she calls the Allen shooting.
will, she fears. serve to create in the minds
OF the public an idea Of the mountain
people in general which will "misrepre-
sent them terribly"
The Aliens" she said. probably are
not so very different from other noun
taineers. and it is not they but the State
of Virginia that has neglected them. that
is to blame. II you were to 60 into their
homes later on you would probably find
them quiet. soft spoken people who would
meet you with splendid hospitality-if
they didn't suspect you OF being a revenue
man. Nowhere in the country are there
better people than in the mountains. The,
mountaineer IL the best sort OF man that
| America can produce. He's the best
neighbor in the world He'll stand by
you in all sorts OF trouble and he'll do 1t
whether he believes as you do or not
Miss Holman went on to explain that
her mountain people were misunderstood
because the world at large insisted upon
| judging them by standards that don't
obtain in the hills. Up in tho mounta ms.
she said. are. il you include the hill dis
tricts Of North Carolina. Tennessee.
Georgia. Kentucky and Virginia. over
| 1900 men and women OF the purest
American strain who are cut of from the
outside world almost as completely as
\ though n great wall were built around
, them. They are. she said. a simple people
with the virtues as well as the vices Of
the American people Of 200 years ago.
They are honest. just and kindly accord
ing to their own code.
| Most OF these mountain people, Miss
Holman says have the greatest respect
for the courts but it is a respect quail
| fed by their own standards and ideas Of
Justice. They are rather likely to say:
VI was here before the courts came.
! and my kin ,stilled whiskey before the
law was made"
Miss Holman tells OF an old woman
|
for making Illicit wine. went something
| like this:
Didn't the good Lord give me good
vineyard and didn't he make the vines
grow? l had to sell that wine to get
money to pay my preacher with"
Miss Holman & work among the noun
talneers began by accident. She was
called TO attend woman who was i'll
with typhoid at her rough summer cot
tage beck in the mountains near Ledger.
\. {. The patient recovered and this
to the mountaineers seemed little short
OF a miracle. for they had learned from
hard experience that typhoid was nearly
always fatal to them. There was no
doctor in the district and the mountain
eers begged Miss Holman to stay among
them. They came to her with all sorts
OF ills and soon she found that from nurs-
ing and advising she had gone TO prac-
tising medicine-and she does not hold
a physicians license.
She gave UP the work and came back
to New York. where sshe did settlement
nursing: But her mountain people were
always in her mind. Il couldn't forget"
she says. the mountain folk. in their
terrible isolation and almost changeless
lives from birth to DEATH the hardships
and uncertain chances OF motherhood
and babyhood, So she went back.
| Presently she was answering the calls
OF her people day and night at was
practising medicinel' she asks and an
swers Yes Would you live in any COM
munity miles from a physician and let
people suffer or die IL you could help them?
Would fear of scorn from womens clubs
or rant Of the uneducated or fear of the
newspapers or Jail cause You to hesitate
a moment il you could relieve suffering
or prevent death? Then be fair in your
judgment OF the work attempted and he
just
The work grew until. in order to handle
| the ftnancoa the Holman Asanciat no