The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1916-09-08
MOUNTAIN GIRL MAKES
FIRST VISIT TO CITY.

Here is the way the Louisville Times
writes up a girl from the mountains OF
Eastern Kentucky on her first visit to
city:
II a girl OF IS, OF unusual beauty, in
tellect and refinement. should have
gone to sleep a hundred years ago and
had Just awakened she would doubtless
have experienced the same sensation
as Miss Mary Combs, who has recently
been visiting in Louisville.
The mountains OF Eastern Kentucky
have indeed played strange part In
the life OF the natives. AS BARRIERS
they have kept intact and preserved
4 the. purest Anglo Saxon people, who
cherish the same traditions, supersti-
tons, customs and language OF old
Elizabethan England.
Miss Combs was born and reared in
Clay-co.. KY, forty miles from a rail-
road, and where the steep, rough noun
tain roads have had little Improvement.
On this account many OF the natives
have seen little OF the outside world.
When Miss Combs started TO Louis
willie she had never seen n railroad.
This implies also that she had never
seen the improvements and inventions
OF the past hundred years. Her per-
sonality and charm of manner would
lead a stranger 10 believe that she mad
enjoyed every advantage OF city life.
For the first time she saw steam en-
gines. automobiles. street cars. eleva-
tors, tall buildings, paved streets, cleo
fFfn liRhfa liUhfa nd hfnhrahu nf
other things too numerous to mention.
This case is not an exceptional one,
for hundreds OF persons in Clay-co.,
grown 10 middle and old age. have seen
none OF the inventions OF the past CEN
tury and know nothing OF the modern
methods OF living. These people have
made little progress, living in practi-
cally tho same manner ais their ances-
tors, who blszed the way through Cum
berland Gap from Virginia and North
Carolina.
After n thirteen hours ride in jolt
wagon Miss Combs reached East Bern
stadt. whore, for the first time. she saw
n railroad, She went from there to Crab
Orchard. where she was brought 20
Louisville by Mr.. and Mrs. Claude Mat
lack In their automobile, the first she
had ever seen or ridden in. Then, step
by step. the progress and inventions OF
modern times, of which she had read
but never seen, were unfolded to her
Level fields of hemp and bluegrass
stretching for miles were n revelation
TO her. In amazement she gazed upon
the modern farming implements. silos.
auto trucks. carriages and other i'm
provements never seen by one impris-
oned by the mountains
She gradually saw something Of city
life in passing through Danville, Har-
rodsburg, Lexington, Frankfort and in
TO Louisville. Here she spent several
days in visiting factories, churches,
theaters, parks and enjoying everything
that appeals to a normal 1S-year- old
girl.
Miss Combs is a senior In the Oneida
Baptist Institute, a school founded and
fostered by Burns OF the Mountains"
who is devoting his life to the educa-
ton and enlightenment OF the noun
tain people. He has been the main in
strument in stopping the feuds, and
through his system OF christian educa-
ton is making II possible for the pres
ent generation to live different lives
from their forefathers and to get out
of the mountain businesses and see
how the world is progressing.