The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-07-24

CHOSEN as mead OF the department OF
poetry of the Kansas Authors club
Miss Perkins attended the spring
meeting of the club, and visited friends
in Topeka short time.
The West Side Forestry club will
meet Thursday of this week with Mrs
S. L. Nelson. at her country home IN
the West Tenth road. Miss Edna Hey
wood will have the paper for the art
ernoon, her subject being BIRDS ahc
their economic value to the forests
Miss Haywood is regarded as an au-
thority on the subject on which she
viii speak. She has written text
book about birds, dealing especially
with the Identification of native birds
The hostesses for the afternoon are:
Mrs. Nelson and Mrs. j. NJ. Brown
Answers to roll call will be Bird
suggestions"
Mrs. Albert Searle entertained few
of her young women friends at thIm-
bles Friday afternoon.
The Topeka alumnae chapter of the
Pi Beta Phi national sorority is CEN
tering its interest, along with the 9th
er chapters, in an enterprise that is
absorbing the attention of the organ
ization and on which it is eoncentrat-
ing its efforts.
The national conclaVe of the Phi
Phis has Just closed at Berkeley, Cal,
and the members here are awaiting
with interest news of the conventions
action regarding this cherished plan
of the society.
Some five years ago, at the national
corclave Of the sorority held in SWath-
more. Pa, the representatives of the
Washington alumnae club, OF WASH
ington, d. c., the Columbia Alpha
chapter az it is called, presented to the
convention the plan of establishing
settlement school in the south for the
benefit of the mountaIneers- The pro-
p0sal met with enthusiastic response,
and the aIumnae chapter from George
Washington university was given
charge of the arrangements, and
fund was voted from the treasury to
put the institution on its feet. Miss
Emma Harper Turner, former presi
dent of the national sorority, was APP
pointed chairman, and Miss May KEEL
Ter, the present president, and num-
her of others, were appointed to in
Vestigate the situation and learn the
best location for the new school.
They began to correspond with edu-
Gators of the south, all of whom ad-
Vised them to join with the existing
public school system and not attempt
the establishment of an independent
school. Nearly two years were spent
in trying to make arrangements
through local educators, and then
finding that the leaders of the noun
tain districts were not in sympathy
with the movement the club decided
to send some of its members to the
south who were instructed to come
back with something definite accom-
plished.
At the next annual conclave. Miss
Lulu McCabe of Topeka, then of
Washington, D. c., and a graduate of
George Washington university, was a
delegate from Washington. The per-
sons appointed for the task went
south and procured some land to be
rented for the school grounds. on
which was a ramshackle building that
was used as the school house. During
the year that followed the Chicago
Alumnae club was given charge of the
management of the school. Dele
gates were instructed to go south and
buy land, trying to enlist the help of
the mountain people who were at
tending the school or sending their
children to it.
The students in the school and their
people were strongly in favor Of con-
tinuing the school which had been
established at Gatlinburg, Tenn,
mountain hamlet so miles from Knox
vile. which is reached not by rail-
road but by number of wagon roads
connecting with the villages of the
county
Mrs. Elizabeth Helmick, of Chicago,
was one of the members on the trip to
make the purchase of land. The peo-
pie of the neighborhood favored the
school, and the board in charge of the
public school opposed X. There were
stirring times in Gatlinburg. The wom-
en- gave their ultimatum that if the
deed to the land did not reach them
within a certain time, the school would
be moved elsewhere. The time ex-
pired, grips were packed, and the stage
coach ready to haul the visitors away.
Anxious children and parents stood
about hoping that some arrangement
could still be made to keep the insti-
tuition in the town. The stage was all
set for a melOdramatic climax, and it
came, when, as the coach was starting,
someone came running, waving the
deed. The day was saved.
Immediately material was placed
on the ground for good school build
ing. The mountain people furnished
some of the lumber from their tim Der
land, and the men of the community
were given work on the building. Dur
ing the year 1913 the institution was
completed The house contains read
ing room and library, entertain
ment hall, besides the school rooms.
The building is used as a social center
organized which meet in the hall, and
entertainments are given by the gift
ed ones of the neighborhood. The
school teaches besides the regular
school studies, domestic science and
manual training. The girls and women
are taught sewing and cooking, fruit
canning, and various branches of
household management. The school
has two years of high school, besides
the grades, and the classes are filled,
both with children and grown people.
Men and women are going to the
school with their children and learn
ing to read and write. Many of the
people of the village never saw an