The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-17
BY FLORA MILNER HARRISON

In reply to Mrs Stewarts surprised question she said
 Sometimes the neighbors were busy and sometimes the cricks were up, and l got tired anyway, runnin' round and botherin' the neighbors. and then I just wanted to read with my own eyes what Jane had writ with h4r own hand so went to the store and got me a speller, and I sot up till midnight and sometimes till daylight until l larned to read and spell and write"
 She then slowly spelled out her dauSh- ter's letter and with Mrs Wilson's help she wrote her first letter
 Not long afterward prepossessng mountain man. while waiting to speak with Mrs. Stewart at her office, fingered some books wis;fully. turned them over and over. and finally laid them down with sigh Mrs Stewart, knowing the scare ity of reading matter In his section. asked if he would like to take book home with him.
 No" he said with tears in his eyes. q can't read or write. T would give % years of my life if I could.''
 Following this incident Mrs. Stewart heard a handsome slx-foot mountain boy of 2l. sing long and interesting ballad. It was partly original and partly bor- rowed from the English. and it was sung with ease and ability.
 Mrs. Stewart asked if he would write her copy of the ballad.
 ''I would if ] could write have thought up hundred of them. some bet ter than that. but I forget them before l can get somebody to write them down.
 Then 1t was that Mn. Stewart deter4t mined that some help must be given the grown people. The day schools were crowded, and beside the mountain people must give all their time during the day to their work. As an inspiration came the idea of rural night schools or moon- light schools, as they would have to be conducted on moonlight nights when travel over steep. rugged roads was least hazardous Mrs. Stewart gathered the teachers of the rural grammar schools. explained her plan. and called for vol unteer service. The teachers responded With heart and soul in the cause On La Dor Day, September 4. 1911. these teachers walked over their districts, explained the plan and announced that on the following evening the moonlight schools would be opened in the district schoolhouses. Mrs Stewart and the teachers realized that it was great undertaking and they did not suppose that the response would be unan- 1mous however great might be the de- sire of many to learn to read and write They expected there you'd be some 15O persons enrolling. an average of two or three for each teacher; but next evening when the school bells rang for the first moonlight schools of America 1900 pupils. ranging in age from IS to SC years went trooping in from hollows and hills Some went to improve their limited knowledge or reading, spelling and writing and some went to receive their first lessons There were illiterate merchants, ministers who could scarcely read, and lumbermen who went to the night schools and learned to read and write. Mothers were there for the purpose of learning to write letters to absent sons and daughters, and fathers that they might be able to prepare their own ballots In voting
 Nearly third of the population of one H,tie county enrolled, and 1t contained no greater proportion of illiterates than do many others in the south. All the ex- cuses and hinderances that could fall to any people were theirs-high hills, bridge less stTeam;t rough roads. weariness from their days work, emba ira ssment of be- ginning so late in life, and many others; but they did not want to make excuses: they wanted to learn.
 Many of the teachers were mountain girls and boys who had gone away to school and had returned to teach in their home county. They Knew better than anyone else the limitations, the reserve and the pride of these older people whom they were teaching. Several married teachers who rode on horseback to school each day arranged to board nearer the school during the moonlight sessions