Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1920-04-20
MOUNTAIN GIRL. IS NOT TIVE WILD THING
 SHE IS PICTURED
Generally, She's Girl Scout and Wears Shoes
 'Neverything

For two centuries the hardy dwel- ! [ers of the Blue Ridge Mountains, in Virginia and Kentucky, North Caro- ina, and Tennessee have formed one of the most picturesque peoples of the nation. Their isolation from the rest of the world, through natures natural barriers of mountains and forests, has been largely responsible for insufficient school education, failure of industry and enterprise, prevalence of feuds and "home- made law" accompanied however by deep rooted ideals of sturdy virtue.
 The girl of the mountains, as you have pictured her from the novels of best known authors and still more recently from the modern "movie" screen, is lank, rugged, untutored, Addressed girl, woman before her years. She did all the hard work about the home but otherwise differ ed little from the men of the coun- try. and she was just as dangerous a person to trifle with, for of course she "toted" gun.
 This conception is all wrong and out of date today and if you would know the mountain girl as she is, you must revise all your previous ideas. Miss Maid of the Blue Ridge is now sharp, alert, tidy, neatly gowned young person. The same ruddy cheeks and flashing eye with head held high, and the sturdy frame and 1.-the figure are still hers and will always be, for that is her heritage. But there is dash and vim about her that gives her an en- tirely new character, a pleasing per sonality and one quite as distinc- tive though different, from her old self.
 If you chance to see her in her favorite regalia, brown middy blouse and khaki skirt, scarf and olive drab roll hat, you will best ap- preciate and immediately recognize her. She is Girl Scout.
 Scouting for girls has been intro duced into the mountains and is spreading like the growing of green grass in spring. In Kentucky and Virginia especially has scouting al ready taken root. Girls are keen for the scouting program of healthful and helpful fun and activity, and pa rents have accepted it for it's worth.
 Attend School.
 In the breaking down of the re- serve and natural aloofness of these girls and in bringing about the group idea of participation in sports and scouting has worked wonders. All that her sister of the city or suburban town can do, Miss Mountaineer can accomplish and not infrequently excel, for she catches on' quickly. This is the case at Pine Mt, Harlan County, Ky., in the heart of the Blue Ridge. Natural physical conditions have not chang ed much in the mountains, however, and the magic outward and mental change in the> girls is simply the product of one big idea-scouting. The schools still lack electric light and hot water; thirty miles is, as be- fore, long days journey, and Bal timore and Washington, as England and the Alps, are "out wonder" in the general direction of the north east where miles away lies the nearest railway station. There is only the vaguest conception of eith- CT the United States or the Ken lucky Government.
 At school the girls get up at five thirty o'clock in the morning and do the chores and after lessons are fin ished, engage in the tasks about the house and field that is their lot.
 And after days work the size of which might put to shame the ef- forts of many a city dweller, the girls find time for half hour or more of scouting before supper, and for a whole two hours on Saturday afternoons, when work is finished by three o'clock. Bed time is eight o'clock sharp, which may account in part for the general health of the girls. What do the city girls think about this.
 From the small beginning of one troop with single patrol, less than a year ago, there are now several hundred girls in the region enrolled as, scouts, and the movement is still in it's infancy.
 An interesting description of the life of the district is contained in a letter received last week at National Headquarters of the Girl Scouts, 189 ave-, New York City, by Mrs. Jane Deeter Rippin, National Director, from Miss Lucretia Gar field, in charge of the Girl Scout work in the Kentucky mountains. Miss Garfield, from Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mt, Harlan Co.,, in Kentucky, wrote as follows:
 "The girls here do not have much leisure time but they are keenly en- thusiastic about scouting. Every girl in the school of ten years or over has joined troop. Our meetings are an inspiration to me. The girls have not had as many years of school as girls of their ages in other parts of the country, and it is therefore, harded for them to meet the tender foot tests. Yet they would not for one moment allow me to make the tests any easier, and as a result the girls are quite up to standard.
 Daily Routine
 "You will appreciate that our To- cation makes it harded for the peO- i, ple here to realize their connection with the rest of the country. We are by mountains on all sides over which we must climb to reach the outside world. The nearest sta ton is four miles across Pine Mt, over steep, rough and dangerous trail, and the nearest town of any size is some ten or Twelve miles far thsr. Most of the children come {