Mount Vernon signal. (Mt. Vernon, Ky.) 18??-current, 1913-07-11

the scene OF extensive develop
ment and statistics are presented
to show the progress that is being
made. 1t is shown that according
to the census of 1910 there are
33,43I white illiterates in the
seventeen counties. Prof. Ash
worth comedies that this is bad
showing, but it means the zap
proXimately one person out of
every ten is illiterate," which is
very different from the frequently
repeated assertion that lew
mountaineers can read and write
His article continues:
MANY who write and speak OF
this section base their assertions
on old, antiquated jokes and
stories told by our fathers years
ago, and upon works of fiction
which refer to conditions long
since past. Much stress is laid
upon Fox'S novels in their charac-
terization of this section and its
people. No account is taken Of
the fact that the time OF the Little
Shepherd of Kingdom Come dates
back to and before the Civil War,
and that the Trail OF the Lone
some Pine carries us back twenty
FIVE years. What can be more un.
scientific than the acceptance of
highly colored descriptions of per-
sons and events of more than a
quarter of a century ago as appE-
cable to the present? There has
been a persistent refusal 10 recog-
nize the prodigious strides made
in industrial, and consequently in
other, lines of development dur
ing the last twenty-five or thirty
wears, and tie blind assertion is
made that They live just as they
did hundred years ago. An ex-
ample of this was seen at the
missionary exposition in Balti-
more, where the Little Shepherd OF
Kingdom Come was advertised as
one of the most popular mission
airy books OF the day.
The extent to which one may
be misled by this Judging of the
present by the school system of
Wise county twenty three years
ago with the system of today
Then there were about thirty
schools in the county and about
the same number of teachers.
The schools were taught in rough
log buildings, and the total school
fund was $1,000. Now, according
to the superintendent report,
there are Seventy-seven scho ools,
employing I6I teachers. The
buildings are modern, several OF
them having cost from $50: oon to
SIS, 900 each. For the year end.
|, ing September, 1911. the total sum
spent on schools in the county was
SIG, 649.eI. Similar advances
have been made along other lines 1"
In summing up. Prof. Ashworth
says that the mountain people
have neither Growing virtues
nor peculiar vices which strikingly
differentiate them from other rural
Americans" 1t is his purpo e,
he asserts, ''to correct wrong i'm
pressions, not to laud the noun
tain people. " In calling atten-
ton to the many misrepresenta-
tons that have been put into print
he is doing a great service for
that portion of Virginia, as well as
for the mountain regions of Ken
lucky, Tennessee and other States
The mountain people are making
progress. Conditions to-day are
in great contrast to those of twenty
or thirty years ago and it is time
that we were hearing less about
''the typical mountaineer. u
Courier Journal.
Amen. Now let the c. J. try tc
explain why it is agin the noun
tains receiving any appropriation
from Congress for the construc.
ton of the proposed Boone Way
from Cumberland Gap to Graf
Orchard?
The Courier Journal, the great