New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-03-24
People of the Blue Ridge lg-
norant of the Ways
of Civilization.
"Iudre not. that We be not JUDGED

Judge not, that We be not judged.
This is the text Of the little sermon on
the Allen case which was preached quite in
formally the other day by Miss Lydia Hoi-
man. Of AItapass, y. c. This is the oner-
setlc little woman who has lived for twelve
years among the mountain folk nursing,
teaching, sewing up their cuts and loving
their kind hearts, as she put it when
Tribune reporter saw her at the home OF
her friend. Miss Winifred Holt, No. A East
18th street She feels very badly about
the rough deeds in Iiillsville, Va.
Il pray this may not giye people the
idea that all mountain people are lawless
and bloodthirsty." she sighed. Il have
lived among them for twelve years, and |
know. They are by nature as mild, gentle
and kird as anybody you would want 10
find anywhere II they have done wrong IT
is because they feel themselves Wronged
and they don't know any more than little
angry child knows what Is the wisest thing
10 do We must not hold overselves coldly
sIoof. Let US rather say: Forgive them,
for they know not what they do If the
state of Virginia had spent as much money
in educating the Aliens as IL has in hunt
ing them, il might have been better al
around As il is, we who have had every
advantage Of city life must not Judge those
who we have allowed TO grow up without
these advantages.
and how about the beam in our own
ewes? Is the city so free from murder and
laVlcssness" Whenever anything Of this
sort happens (Which is not so often, either)
the mountain people are judged by the same
standards as those applied TO offenders who
have had every opportunity. Isn't 1t differ
ent when a man does wrong who has been
to school and church, had books to read,
music to hear and good people to associate
with-if he chooses-from the case when
man does wrong who has never known
any law but his own desires, has never
learned TO read or had books to read " ne
could and has never had any one to appeal
10 the nobility that lies in his soul? Doesn't
II speak we'll for that starving soul that
there is SO little crime in the mountains
and that usually under the influence Of
liquor? The mountains have none Of the
advantages and no more murders than the
city has.
I'm the twelve years 7 have been with
the mountain people l have ridden alone
night and day through lonely roads and
never been uolested. went away one win
ter. and SIX weeks after l had gone my
neighbcr wrote me that I had left my kitch-
en- door open and that he had closed IL to
keep the hens out. You couldn't trust New
Workers. like that could you? You can go
10 the mountain families any time and be
sure of . welcome. Whatever they have is
yours They may be suspicious Of your
business. but they will give you food and
shelter.
And for one another they will endure any
amount of hardship. Is a woman dying on
q lonely hilltop The nearest neignbOr will
ride fifty or sixty miles in a night TO fetch
the doctor is a man in trouble? His
neigh5ors will stand by him. That is prob
ably the explanation of the Allen case. His
friends may not approve OF what he did,
but he was probably a good neighbOr to
them, so their code Of honor tells them to
help him with their lives Il need be. And
the women will help. too-brave devoted.
passionate women, they stick 10 their man
through FIRE and bullets. They fight for
their own Just as any real mother fights
for her children. be she human or animal
such pitiful woman's lives, though. 1t
was really on account Of the women that l
began my mountain work. / was nurse.
caring for a friend who had been taken Ill IN
her mountain cottage and had sent for me.
While I was there II seemed TO me the
hired man was always taking a few days
on to so 20 a funeral. / wondered how
there could be funeral after funeral in that
way So l asked They reaiS were fu-
nerals-and usually those Of women. who
had died I'm childbirth. With no doctor
within reach. with only the care Of an
ignorant neighbor. was IT strange that
death or invalidism was the lot of most of
the women? And was II strange that i
stayed down there 10 help when I could?
''Well, ] stayed and fought typhoid fever.
the most common Of mountain scourges,
tuberculosis; its close second. smallpox,
trachoma and hookworm disease. but
wasn't licensed physician. only nurse,
so my conscience troubled me for practising
medicine. / wrote to tho State Board OF
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