The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1916-03-31
Az OhPROflTA6LE' STUMP COVERED FIELD +


specific incidents were related TO
them. and the fact that there We're
1.152 such men and women whom
tho schools of the past had left be
hind was dwclt upon. The teachers
were asked to volunteer for night
school service, TO open their schools
on moonlight evenings TO give these
people n chance
This they cheerfully agreed to do
and on Labor Day, September 4
1911. these teachers celebrated bv
visiting every farmhouse and every
hovel, inviting people of all classes
to attend the moonlight schools which
were to open their sessions the next
evening. They expected some re-
sponse and hoped for from one to
three pupils in attendance at each
school-perhaps one hundred and
fifty the county over
These country folk had all the
excuses that any toil-worn people
ever had. There were rugged roads
Z d.,
without bridges to cross. children to
lead, and babies to carry: but they
were not seeking excuses. they We're
seeking knowledge. And so they
came hurrying in groups; they came
travelling for miles; they came car
rying babes in arms: they came bent
with age and leaning on canes: they
came 1900 strong.
The youngest student was eighteen
and the oldest eighty-six. Some
learned to write their names the first
evening, and some required two even
lngs for this feat. Their JOY i'm this
achievement, simple though it was. is
beyond the power of pen TO describe
They wrote their names on trees.
fences, posts. barns. barrcl-staves.
HNd every available scrap of paper
.-o-" who possessed even meager
means Gr,y L out of hiding and de-
posted il in the ~-k writing their
checks and signing the. mes with
childish pride. Letters soon began to
so to loved ones in either counties
and far distant states.
Usually the first of these letters
rame to the Office of the county sup
erintcndent Romantic. i'm the his
,ory Of this movement is the fact that
tie first three letters written from
the moonlight schools came in this
order: the first from mother who
had children absent i'm the West; the
second from the man who had said
hewould give twenty years Of his life
If he could read and write. and the
third from the boy who would forget
his ballads before anybody came along
to set them down
Educators were skeptical OF the
plan, and freely predicted that. after
the novelty had worn off, the inter
est would wane. But in the second
session, the first years record was
surpassed in every particular: 1000
were enrolled, $50 learned to read
and write. and a man eighty-seven
years old entered and put to shame
the record of the proud School
girl OF eightysiX OF the year before
There were many incidents of real
ly remarkable individual develop
ment. A man no had labored Tor
years at $3.50 a day enrolled, spec
ializing In mathematician that par
ticular branch in which he was in
/ terested. numbering At the end of
the six weeks session he was promo
ted at salary double that which he
had received before.
In was not unusual in travelling
over the country 10 find in the day
schools here and there. after the
moonlight schools had closed, a mon
or woman seated at the desk with
a child. One school trustee who bad
attended a moonlight school en-
tered the day school afterward, and
sat In the seat with his own twelve
iyear-old boy, studying the same books
and reciting in the same Classes
Another school trustee accompanied
his wife to the moonlight school. she
being the teacher. and afterwards
sbecame her pupil during the day az