Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1920-12-10
Christmas -EUe
on Paint Rock
By c. III. MORRISON.

Paint Rock neighborhood as an illus
tration. 1t is, or used to be, back
woods all right, but you can hardly call
! it that any more. Anyway, it is about
-"two .whoops and boiler" over the
ridge. Another name the natives had
for it around here was Happy Hel-
low" so called mestly because it
looked like il was anything but happy
Mostly log houses over there, and
! it's @ solemn fact that good many
OF them had stick and clay ehimneys
and were daubed with piain yellow
| mud Half grown youngsters there
went barefoot right through corn gath
erins and up till hog killing time. Old
Paint Rock was always a pretty good
market for blockade whisky" and it
was even whispered around that they
| made q pretty good article of white
mule" in the neighberhood some
| where.
1t isn't much wonder that the war
drives" paid mighty little attention to
| these folks and yet they were as coed
Americans as you ever 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 lighting somebody also would
have to raise the money.
/ Most OF them were good workers5too,
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
I $50 st a time. And they weren't used
10 the installment plan of doing bust
ness. When the Paint Rock man had
! finished a days work it was a case
of pay me now with him when sun,
down came.
Just how the War Savings Stamps
idea ever got into Happy Hollow" is
q mystery. Doubtless the first citi-
zen who got 1t took it as curiosity 1t
must have been at that 1t wasn't
exactly money, you know. More CT a
sort of promise to pay, you see. But
somehow the idea CT getting together
four dollars and some odd cents and
loaning ii to the government away Off
yonder at Washington, made a hit
1t undeniably did. The promise OF
Uncle Sam to pay IS 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 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 ne had or was thought to have.
That Savings Society is still doing
! business and gathering in a new mem
Der now and then Folks over there
like to stack another stamp on top of
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 ban0 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. 8. s. chapter to it. They held il
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 one hill and up an
other and set it up. Of course all the
presents that they hung on the tres
were not "Baby Bonds" but yor
would have been surprised If you ha6
kept tab, to see how many Of then
!, were.
1t would have been a little out Of the
ordinary anywhere, but over on Pain
Rock that kind Of Christmas tres
was little short of revolutionary tt
folks who remembered the rain. tar
rim old-time Christmas that the Hap
4 ~ Hollow" folks had always eele
brated.
1t was the accepted thing to max.
somebody else in the family a pres
ent of War Savings Stamp. And the
big boots and the weather beateI
hands of the old-time Paint Rocker:
made the -rafters ring when some
youngsters came marching up the aisl.
in response to his name and went bach
red faced and pleased looking with on,
On the governments promises to pay
1t looked like everybody understood
that every bond that had beer
bought and given away was addins
to the sum total of the wealth and re
speetability of little community tina
had never gone in very strong foi
saving of any kind--no matter wheth
er 1t was daylight" soap, grease O.
what not.
1t has all had the effect of making
the Paint Rock folks understand VIVA
the government means to them aat
what they mean to the government
They feel like they are part Of tn,
machinery q the nation now, and tina
they have real interest in it, outsids
of paying taxes and voting when cleo
ton day comes around. And you can,
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