Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-06-18

TYPE OF TENNESSE.
TINE Rev. S. A. D. Smith, who is
doing an excellent educational
and uplift work in the mountain
regions of Tennessee, was in Harris
burg the other day on his way home
from the Presbyterian General AS
sembly. Playing on his initials his
friends in fun, sometimes refer to him
as Sad" Smith, but he is anything
but that Despite the difficulties and
hardships that attend his work the
Rev. Mr.. Smith is happier in his call
ing than many a minister at the
head of fashionable city church. He
Is an opumist by nature and great
believer in the future of the noun
taineers to whom he bears the mes
sage of Christian civilization.
The mountain folks of Tennessee
are fine Outstanding type of hu-
manity," said he to a Harrisburg
friend. They might be called true
American stock, for they come down
tiers untouched by the stream of i'm
migration that has since poured over
the land. They have lodged in an
eddy, SO to speak, and the stream of
progress and of civilization influences
has passed them by while they con-
tinue to go round and round in their
little circle, with here and there a
touch from the outside such as and
others have been able to give.
These people live in primitive
fashion, and they have come through
hardships that would have blotted
out or driven out a less hardy race"
The Rev. Mr.. Smith painted a
ditions of the mountain folks. He
said:
The cabin home and large family
are the reards of the major part
of the population in this section. The
farms indicate that their owners have
never heard of scientific farming.
They still use the old-time implements
and transact their business just as
| their forefathers did many years ago.
Sometimes we travel for miles with
out seeing a painted dwelling. The
! old-time spinning wheel and loom are
still considered necessities in many
places and sometimes occupy the
larger part of the one-room dwelling
where the family resides, cooks, eats,
sleeps and entertains company Night
overtakes us. tired and hungry. He
call at the fence of a cabin home
we do not go in because the watch
dog makes it unsafe for us to ap-
proach nearer without protection
our call is answered. and We are COR
daily invited to come in. The old
man. and the boys have just re-
| gals are preparing supper, and the
| old woman sits in the corner smok-
| ing a corn cob pipe. We try tc ap-
| pear as homelike and comfortable as
| possible, for it would not do to ap-
pear otherwise. Within a short while
we are acquainted with the family
and all seem delighted that we have
stopped to spend the night with them.
The supper is soon prepared and
served. 1t consists of corn bread, hog
meat, coffee, milk, butter, beans, po-
tatoes and such like. They take us
into their confidence and give us the
| history of what is going on in the
community. The news they impart
runs something like this: Had
preaching over at the schoolhouse last
Sunday, and a man got drunk and
painted the thing red. A wildcat was
cut up in the community the other
night, and one of the neighbors ar
rested for making and selling whisky.
So goes the conversation until late
bedtime. Finally the beds are pre-
pared, the lights are extinguished and
the whole family is in dreamland un-
til about four o'clock in the morning,
when we all arise, eat the hastily
prepared breakfast, and after being
cordially invited to stop again at any
time, we are soon on our journey,
while the nights lodging has cost us
| nOInlnS DuL SOOQ Wishes ana prom
Use to come agin.'
''It is true that a large per cent OF
the population of this section have
better homes and more conveniences
than the one we have just visited, but
they cannot be kinder and more hos
pitable than their neighbors who live
down under the hill in log cabin
with q stick and clay chimney and
windows without glass.
Their Education.
THE whole country is divided into
districts; and one-room schoolhouses
are located at community centers
where free schools of short duration
are taught in the fall of the year
The barefooted boys and girls as
semble from miles around at eight
o'clock in the morning and spend the
day more in play than study. The
old log schoolhouse of twenty years
ago, with large fireplace in one end
a chink knocked out for a window
and backless split-log benches fol
desks is now almost a thing of the
past. 1t is being rapidly replaced BY
better things.
"The teachers are chosen, as a rule
not on account of their efficiency, but
because of some friendship or family
tie, regardless of the interests of the
community.
VERY few of them teach more thar
one year at the same place, and fewer
still expect to make teaching theil
: profession. The result of this Is tha
they do not prepare themselves fol
teaching, and the free school
, amounts to comparatively little Ye
in spite of these environments. many
of the most brilliant minds have
emerged from these mountains. anc
the world has felt the power of theil
lives.
Their Religion.
These people are very simple IL
their religion. They are averse tt
any formality, and have little use fol
anything beyond a preaching service
The predominating churches are the
Methodist, Baptist Presbyterian and
Christian or Campbellite.
THE country church is usually G
one-room frame or log building cen
trally located, surrounded by a beauti
, full grove and accessible to water
This house often serves the double
, purpose of a schoolhouse during ths
! week and church on Sunday. Some
, times two, three or four denomina
tions organize churches In this same
house, each claiming a Sunday; anC
, 1t is sad to note the rivalry and strife
that is thus generated among. thes'
deluded people of the Lord.
. THE pastor usually lives milei
away and only visits the communit!
| once a month, or more seldom still
, when hindered by severe weather o.
Ahigh water. Possibly ninety per cen