Hermanner Volksblatt. [volume] (Hermann, Mo.) 1875-1928, 1919-12-05
Christmas Eue
on Paint Rock
By C. M. MORRISON

bunch Of folks. Take down in the
Paint Rock neighborhood as an Illus
tration. 1t is, or used to be, back
woods all right. but you a hardly call
1t that any more. Anyway, it is about
"two whoops and a boiler" over the
ridge. Another name the natives had
for it around here was Happy Hol-
low" so called mostly because it
looked like it was anything but happy.
Mostly log houses over there, and
It's q solemn fact that a good many
of them had stick and clay chimneys
and were daubed with plain yellow
mud. Half grown youngsters there
went barefoot right through corn gath
ering and up till hog killing time. Old
Paint Rock was always a pretty good
market for blockade whisky" and 1t
was even whispered around that they
made a pretty good article of white
mule" in the neighborhood some
where.
1t isn't much wonder that the war
drives" paid mighty little attention to
these folks and yet they were as good
Americans as you eve saw. None Of
that lodging the draft stuff went with
them. They went and they went with
a whoop. But their attitude seemed
to be that while they would take care
Of the fighting somebody also would
have to raise the money.
Most Of them we're good workers, too,
but they had mighty little. They saved
next to nothing. Thrift" was a word
that you didn't hear in the Paint Rock
country down Happy Hollow" way.
They worked over here on this side on
the farms, but they simply never had
$50 at a time. And they weren't used
to the installment plan of doing bust.
ness. When the Paint Rock man had
finished a days work it was a Ease
Of pay me now" with him when sun.
down came.
Just how the War Savings Stamps
idea ever got into Happy Hollow" is
a mystery. Doubtless the first citi-
zen who got it took it as curiosity. 1t
must have been at that. 1t wasn't
exactly money, you know. More of a
sort Of a promise to pay, you see But
somehow the idea of getting together
four dollars and some odd cents and
loaning it to the government away off
yonder at Washington, made a hit.
1t u~ndeniably did. The promise Of
Uncle Sam to pay SIS in cash on a
given date sort Of fascinated the Paint
Rockers. You see, all their lives they
had been owing the other fellow or the
government or somebody money. and
this other-way-around thing pleased
and interested them. They began
reading the circulars about the War
Savings Stamps and Fostering the
nearest postmaster about them. Be
fore they knew it they had been
formed into a War Savings Society.
First thing you knew a Paint Rock
er's social standing was being deter
mined by the number Of "Baby Bonds"
that he had or was thought to have.
That Savings Society is still doing
business and gathering in a new mem
Der now and then. Folks owe there
INT W otdSh uiotlCi stamp VII top vi
the ones they already have. A few of
them are even beginning to eye the
Certificates" now and again.
Christmas had always been a pretty
hectic and frolicsome time over in the
Hollow" But the last time, instead
Of gathering into a band that wandered
out of the valley to disturb other folks
on Christmas Eve, Paint Rock had a
funny kind of a Christmas Eve cele.
bration. 1t was a Christmas tree with
a w. s. S. chapter to it. They held it
in the little old school house that
stands on the hill above the creek.
The dragged a big tree out Of the
woods and down n hill and up an
| other and set 1t up. OF ours all the
presents that they hung On the tree
were not Baby Bonds" but you
would have been surprised if you had
kept tab, to see how many of them
were.
1t would have been a little out of the
ordinary anywhere, but over on Paint
Rock that kind of a Christmas tree
was little short of revolutionary to
folks who remembered the rain, tar
rim old-time Christmas that the Hap
py Hollow" folks had always cele-
brated.
1t was the accepted thing to make
somebody else in the family a pres.
ent Of a War Savings Stamp. And the
big boots and the weather beaten
hands of the old-time Paint Rockers
made the rafters ring when some
youngsters came marching up the aisle
in response to his name and went back
red faced and pleased looking with one
on the governments promises to pay.
1t looked like everybody understood
that every bond that had been
bought and given away was adding
to the sum total of the wealth and re-
spectability of a little community that
had never gone in very strong for
saving of any kind-no matter wheth.
er it Vas daylight" soap, grease or
what not.
1t has all had the effect of making
the Paint Rock folks understand what
the government means to them and
what they mean to the government.
They feel like they are a part of the
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