The Washington herald., 1914-02-11
WHO'S WHO AMONG
PROGRESSIVE WOMEN
BY MARY y. MULLETT.

BY MARY y. MULLETT.
tCopynght. 1910, By Mcclure Nevspaprr syndi1ts)
Once In a while some woman carries out
public work SO original ana yet 30
bristling with plain common sense that
everybody wonders why In the world It
wasn't thought of sooner. Such woman
is Mrs. Cora Wilson Stewart. Of Ken
tucky-and it's a great pity there aren't
more like her.
A little over two years ago. the people
of Rowan County. Kentucky. did them
selves a better turn than they dreamed
Of when they elected Mrs. i6tewart their
county superintendent of schools. Rowan
County lis in the eastern part OF the State.
In the Cumberland Mountain region. BY
this time everybody knows that the
nnonitain whites OF the South have to
scrape along on pretty poor ptekings in
the matter Of education. so 1t Ii no be-
trsyal OF confidence to state that Rowan
County was not exactly overfed mentally.
In the autumn OF 1911 there were 1.l5s
illiterates in that county, and there were
hundreds of other men and women who
barely escaped the iiliterate column. They
could read and write-if the reading
wasn't too hard and IL the writing didn't
have to be very lesible. But so far as
book-learning went, their minds were as
scsntily furnished Is their rough noun
tain cabins were And that is saying
good deal
Mrs. Stewart studied this situat ton care
fully and decided that the county schools
of which she was superintendent must
provide education for everybody that
needed II, whether the pupil to be taught
was eight years old or eighty. OF course,
tht grown-ups couldn't and wouldn't go
to the regular school sessions. So Mrs.
Stewart hit upon the brilliant expedient
of having moonlight schools" for their
benefit.
First. she studied out by herself the de-
tails OF her plan. Then she outlined IL to
the teachers in the little mountain school
houses and asked for volunteers-for of
course there was no money to pay them
for this extra duty. To the everlasting
credit of those teachers-many Of them
natives themselves of Rowan County
every one Of them responded.
Made Round Of Calls.
On Labor Day. September 4. 1911. these
teachers made a round OF calls on the
families in their respective districts. They
explained the plan. and announced that
the first session Of the moonlight schools
would be held the following evening.
Mrs. Stewart and her teachers had their
hopes. but they were not expecting any
immediate rush to the fields Of knowl-
edge. They thought the idea would have
to make its way slowly. and they were
prepared to be patient Consequently
they were as astonished as they were de-
lighted the next evening when more than
go men and women between the ages OF
the schoolhouses and were enrolled as
pupils
Right here. by way of contrast. let me
put down what has been the result of
Mrs. Stewards two years Of work. The
number of illiterates in Rowan County
today. instead of being 1,l52. is just ex-
actly twenty-three, OF these twenty
three, Mrs. Stewart says that four are
too stubborn to learn" six have seri-
ously defective eyesisht. five are idiots,
six are either confirmed invalids, or have
been seriously i'll since the moonlight
schools were begun. and two have only
recently moved into the county.
Here Is a record of which any woman
might well be proud. The details of II
touch ones heart and thrill ones imag-
ination. These men and women have
grasped the opportunities offered them
with such eager determination that the
things they have accomplished are al
most incredible.
Ont 1ldn, Thirty years Oiu. Was dDit, al
ter only four lessons. to write a legible
letter. Another man. fifty years old.
fwrote a legible letter after he had been
moonlight pupil just seven nights.
A .seventy-year-old woman wrote a leg
ible letter after eight nights at the school.
In several of the classes there were min
listers who could neither read nor write.
For to be a minister in the Southern
mountains is not necessarily proof OF the
possession of education. One of these IL
literate preachers learned in a few weeks
hard study to read the Bible and the
newspaper. After seven lessons he wrote
to the superintendent a letter expressing
such heartfelt joy over his achievements
that 1t was positively pathetic,
what Is Taught.
In addition to reading and writing.
arithmetic and spelling are taught. and
there are brief lessons in the most essen
tial facts of geography, history. grammar,
civics. sanitation, agriculture. and hor-
ticulture. Before these classes opened
nobody had taken much interest in the
school. One of the trustees said. recently:
.I've lived in this district fifty-five
years: and while the school used to drag
along somehow. we never had gathering
there. and nobody ever visited il. But
before we'd had night school three weeks
We began to pick up. we papered inc
building. put in new windows. bought new
stovepipe. mades some new steps. and
Clipped in and got a supply Of fuel for
the winter. Now we've got a live Sunday
school, a singing school. a prayer meeting
once week, and preaching twice
month. Even the folks from the next
county are beginning to come over to
our little schoolhouse."
That's Che sort Of story that warns
ones heah One of the frown men, who
has learned to read and write. says he
wouldn't take $1,000 for that knowledge;
and there are others that talk that same
way. The work has now spread to ten
other counties, and the enrolment in
RoEan CoilnfY has uassed the ]. 800 mark.