The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-04-02
TrdchOma In the Mountdins
By DoRoTY H. sTILE
tciusive Service the urvey Press Bureau

the moral backing of law and the very actual presence of the county sheriff, who is as quick to answer a ca.i as he IS on the trigger. Few wilfully resist unGer these circumstances wien actually caught, but it often happens that the suspect is mot at home.'' when the phy- sicianS arrive.
 There is one telephone line in Hind man now, which stretches for a few miles through the valley, and which has caused the doctors a good deal of an- noyance. For a while advance informa- ton seemed to travel faster than usual, hut the wire was not suspected until Dr. Duke caught a mountaineer in the act. He did not hear the doctor come in as he was passing the word on Paul Revere route of warning:
 'You-all better watch out. The doc tors is aimin' to ride up Lef' Hand fork
 It is only fair to the great majority of morntaineers to assert strongly that such cases are few in number. As a community the inhabitants are deeply grateful for the medical aid which they cften regard as nothing short of a mi racle. Those who shrink from it do so in their superstitious ignorance, born of century-lopg isolation within mountain tarriers.
 you may see on all sides visible signs of the scourge. You will see men in the prime of life with hats pulled over hsdeously tortured eyes; old people snuff fling along with the uncertain steps of blindness; mother, her eyes blood-shot and running, bending over the baby at her breast; and little children hiding afraid to bear the pain of being in the sun.
 SATURDAY PILGRIMAGE
 On Saturday mornings the forerunners of the pilgrimage begin to arrive at the hospital as early as 6 or '. Whole fam flies come in jolt wagons. the women in calico and homespun and the huge black sun-bonnets without which no mountain woman is we'll dressed Some times one of these sun-bonneted figures appears on horse or muleback, perched on a meal sack behind her lord and mas ter It is no uncommon sight to see a nan and two children on a mule, the little girl always seated decorously be- hind. Whatever comes they take with the spartan-like courage that distin- guishes the mountaineer.
 Tho srongest ally of trachoma in the mountains is the family towel One flaps in the doorway of every mountain cabin, and when a child with sore eyes and three with sound eyes have been using it indiscrininately for three weeks or more, the result is not hard to fore tCii ISy tAiC iWCll tltCtC.s ID usually c hollowed-out stone basin filled with stag rant, unchanged water, where the fam fly, sick and well, perform their ablu- tions.
 On the beds built for three or four, are dirty blankets on which sore eyes are wiped. Let patient, cured on the operating table at the hospital, go back to such surroundings, and 1t Wifi not he long before he is again riding up to the clinic.
 It is a. hopeful sign to see the standard of living in town houses near the school and the hospital, in comparson with those of the outlying district. The force of example and the campaign of sanitary education are every day widen ing the circle. The insistence of the "furriners' on separate towels, is not regarded as so mysteriously 'fotchedon as it was in the early days. There was s time when an old woman, visiting the settlement for the first time made as her only comment:
 ''Gee-oh! You-'uns must hev a mough- ty big old towel for all them children!'
 Such is part of that great movement for conservation in our country.