Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1914-01-31
The Crazy Mountain School

Montana Blankets Association, in thei-
plans for the betterment of the Mon
tana rural schools, are emphasizing
the point that the best way to get BET
ter buildings and better equipment is
tC do the best you can with what yot
have. In this connection the example
of the Crazy Mountain School, which
has the poorest building and poorest
equipment in Park County, is cited
The Crazy Mountain school house is
10 by II shack, with roof which
slants but one way and is covered
with black tar paper Cracks in the
floor were SO big that pencils easily
fell through them The only light that
came in was from three tiny windows
two in the rear and one on the left.
| The hole cut through the roof to &C
commodate the stoVepipe was SO large
that when it rained the water ran in
to the stove and put the fire out. Rain
also beat in at the door, which was
held shut by a chain hooked over
nail. The desks were borrowed from
neighboring school which had thrown
them away as useless. The seats were
held up by sticks of wood, unless a
pupil was fortunate enough to find i
box of the right size to use as an indi-
yidual chair, and the teachers desk
was a plank nailed to two sticks and
set against the wall
Into this school last spring came
Miss Angelina Baker, as teacher, and
8 pupils, representing four different
families. Although the weather was
damp for the first three weeks they
had no fire. Most of the pupils had no
books. But teacher and pupils went
to work to do the best they could with
what they had and to get better equip
ment as fast as they could
One day premium list of the Mon
tana state fair, which is held at Hell
ena each year. came to this little
school Both teacher and pupils began
to read to see what there was they
could do Best kindergarten work. -"
they knew they could not do that
BEST shop work." that sounded even
more hopeless. Best collection Of
wild flowers, pressed and mounted,
with description of five;" everybody
shouted: "Of course We cant" and the
race was on.
The Mexican children who lived far
up on the mountain plucked the flow
ers belonging to the higher attitudes,
while the rest brought in those pecul-
lar to the lowlands and meadows. At
school the flowers were placed in text
books and magazines, and in the alb
sence of flower press the boys and
girls would sit on them At home the
flowers were put in books under the
heaviest weights that could be found
One boy placed two sacks of -four on
the books, another a tool chest, while
third said the heaviest thing he could
| find was the large bucket" in which
his father carried the feed to the pigs.
| The girls resorted to just as ingenious
expedients, utilizing trunks, bureaus,
and even one leg of bed in which
adults were sleeping, in order that the
necessary amount of pressure might
| Ge ODIdlu6u.
When the days Of collection and
pressing the flowers were over, all Of
the specimens were brought together,
and after the very best ones had been
selected, each was carefully mounted
en- white board, and the entire collec-
ten of 68 wild flowers was sent to the
S:'+a department OF education to be
e7-e~ed at the fair. When the judges
gaze their decision it was found that
the Crazy Mountain School had won
ts- =rst prize, the blue ribbon and the
= sor the best collection of wild flow
or from any school in the state
On the day of the prize award thu
ru~al inspector stood in the little