The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1913-12-16
HERE PROTEST IS VOICED
FOR OUR MOUNTAINEERS
Wherein Is Set Out How Accounts OF Them And
Their Llfe Are q Matter Exaggerated By Those

al IA mountains as
citizens, working as do other clergv
Hnhone tneir people. They baptiza
~ oaDies, teach the children. marry
me young folks, visit the sick. bury
the oead. and do not hesitate to ask
nelp from the rest Of the world. They
~o 10 mimic the incongruities of
speech, they do not tell narrowing
stories Of immortality, because in their
ruin tney can not. 1t does not ex-
ISL except in isolated cases-this flthv
evil living.
1t is as just to tell these horrors
as prevalent among our people as i
Is to quote the following and saw if
IS typical of life in New York State:
Poughkeepsle, n. Y, Oct. 25-
Living In a shack on the east side Of
Pawling Mountain, Mrs. Charles
and her eight children were
today found by Miss Anna Hotchkiss.
Du!chess county agent for dependent
chlldren. Persons who had seer
Of the family half naked
and apparently starving asked Miss |
Hotchkiss to investigate.
The wOman and children resented
the advance Of the county agent.
None of the children. the eldest of
whom is a girl Of 20, has attended
scnool. The children speak in gut
terals. n were hardly understood
by the agent. The mother said they
depended on game for food.
As to New England.
Many years ago / worked in the
United States Census office. It hap
pened that the most illiterate sched-
ule coming under my eye had been
sent from Massachusetts. but the
thought that it was typical Of Massa-
chusetts did not present itself.
When in any New England coun-
try neighborhood one hears their pro-
vincial hadn't ought" ito hum"
"snOop," and other expressions min
telligible to strangers. One does not
presume hat New Englanders are
u~nacquainted with polite speech.
Voices a Protest.
This sort Of thing from men and
women actuated by philanthropy or
by pecuniary need might be passed
in silence. The article in The News
and Observer OF November so, how
ever. copying a letter from an official
OF the United States Bureau of Edu-
, cation calls for u protest. not only
, from our H~ighlanders. but from North
> Carolina. / hope Prof. II. w. Foght
|, or the United States Bureau of Edu-
. cation has been niSQuOted and that
2 he will say so, but it is we'll &c cor
rect his errors to say nothing # his
bad taste. For a Government ofiicia
> to ridicule a people to whom he ha:
. been sent and paid to help is, to say
/ the least, bad form.
= He says: From the beginning O.
the Republic up to the last year
: whole counties in the mountain re
gions have had no public school
+. whatever. For generations, the PEG
- pie grew up entirely ignorant VIII
:. Prof. Foght kindly name the coun
= ties in which there were mo publ
schools whatever up to last year?
AZ 0--- 49, $50. NO ytt0 fro ~
North Carolina. one infers that h
: means North Carolina counties. II
may. owever refer to counties in tn
little mountains Of Missouri.
~ VIII Tell Another Story.
He has not done the investigator
which the United States Bureau Q
Education sent him to do. When n
= speakS ex-Cathedra he will have IN
=, formed himself and will tell anothe
story. He need but search the libra
- nv of the United States Bureau Q
Education to find reports from on
devoted State superintendent OF Pub
lie Instruction, Calvin II. Wiley. |
:. these reports We ind Tor l6oo-o'
"a that in the then twenty-one ountal
counties there were 727 public schools
III In these schools there were taught 30
d 776 children. No account is taken {
the private schools OF which tne1
"a were a goodly nunber That The pee
- pie were not wholly lHiterate IS prove
by the lives of President or our star
l University, OF Governor Vance and {
=, his brother. also Of General Gins
!. man and of other men of that da
ie' who made history They were me
~ of the mountains who attended u
:, ..old field schools as the puoi
~ schools then were called.
OF After Reconstruction Time.
as After the storm Of war. came II
e ere of reconstruction which consume
- the States resources. lne Scho
UT f,,nd went with all else and We ma
7. 10 wore reports till SO, when ,.
nn Ashby was the so-called super'n'en
y. ont Of public instruction. =,
He gave no statistics and IS cnlei
ne >now now as having asked tha. =
m doors Of our University be opened
10 naoroas II is right. however. to 81
ks eyen a scallawag his dues n :,
mist not forget that he urged |,
establishment Of a normal school /