The Mena weekly star., 1920-08-19
The Osarks Reclaimed

tFrom the Christian science Nio1itoE
 Certainly there is no more delight ful spot in all the vast territory of the middle west in the United States than that embraced in what is known as the Ozark region, in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. Those who have learned to know this picturesque mountainous expanse. with its hun dreds of swiftly-running brooks, its resplendent foliage, ad it's rugged hills and towering mountains, blue in the haze of incompatible summer after moons and blue gray twilights. are not at all hesitant in asserting that even New England can rightfully claim no superiority when the natural beauties of the southern playground are com pared with the Berkshires, the White Mountains. the Green Mountains, or the vast wooded hills and dales of Maine. Any argument attempted by the easterner who might seek to con- vince the partisan of the South would be futile. largely because of the un- explored possibilities and resources, If they may be so called, of the O2arKs. Unnumbered square miles of that great territory have hardly been sur veyed, and still remain quite unexplor- ed. 1t is always difficult to argue against possibilities.
 In the more populous sections of Alb fhn nZnrk O. zion has always been regarded as "back country" Parts of it have been, and remain, inaccessible to railroads, and naturally partake of the eharac-- , teristics of countries seldom reached by travellers, and in which little heed is paid to current happenings. The war, because of it's effect upon the people of all sections, no matter how remote, caused more general awak- ening in the Ozarks than had been ex- perienced since the Civil War, when the contending forces of the North and South met in actual conflict in the Border State. But4it is, it seems, an aftermath of the recent war that is working the great change in the hill country which promises, not only its industrial and social reclamation, but it's redemption and rejuvenation. Opie Read, the novelist. has given to the world as faithful a picture of the Ozarks and the people of the hill coun- try of Missouri and Arkansas as Char les Egbert Craddock, his versatile con- temporary, has given of the sections and peoples of the mountain country farther to the east and south. The peo- pie of the more progressive sections, particularly of the Ozark country, have not been willing that MT. Reads appraisal of the people of their sec tion as a whole should be accepted, be- cause of a possible wrong impression that might be gained. Their conten- tion, like similar protests, was too general, perhaps, to permit of it be- ing considered on it's merits, and the indictment, if it may be so termed, still stands.
 But now, it appears, circumstance, in the concrete form of national pro- hibition law, is doing for the Ozark region and its people what the de- mands of society for intensification in industry, progressiveness in agricul- ture, state pride, the abolition of illi- teracy, and in fact, broader Ameri- canism, have heretofore failed to ac- complish. Schools are displacing illi- cit stills, triangular, rail-fenced corn and rye patches are being transformed into broad fields, mountain valleys are being used for pastures, where flocks and herds find an abundance of grass and forage, and the lawless elements, loag menace to those who sought to enforce state and national regulations are yielding willingly to the power of the government of which they have come to realize themselves a compo- nent part.
 The transformation, under. present economic conditions, will no doubt, be easily wrought, and quickly. The mo- tor-driven truck will make easily ac- Icessible those sections of the hill coun- try which it is apparently impossible to reach by steam railways, and the markets of the world will absorb read fly the products of the prolific soil peculiarly adapted to the raising of fruits and vegetables, poultry and corn. The tourists of decade hence who shall go into the Ozark country to write brief for Opie Read, in defense perhaps, of that writer's characteri- zation of the members of the duck lin" family, will quite likely find il somewhat difficult to fortify his side of the case. Progress of the kinC which is just now making it's appear ance in the hills of Missouri and Ar. kansas is not conducive to the perpetu- ation of the "Jucklin" type. The school house in the Ozarks bids fail to accomplish what it accomplished ir the backwoods of Indiana, a genera. tion ago. Edward Eggleston found for his "Hoosier Schoolmaster," anc for his "End of the World" in Buc Means, Schockey, and the rest. real oi imaginary charact ITS not greatly dis similar tc those oort .aved by the writers of later day who hav. deal. with the people of region which has been, but which Is no longer, remote