The Big Sandy news. [volume] (Louisa, Ky.) 1885-1929, 1921-01-07
HOW We APPEAR TO THE "FuR-
iNER" WHO COMES AMONG
US.

j.
stories for its impression of Il
mountain people is rapidly chang
ing its mind in regard to tn
very important element of our popula
u0n. The mountain people in the pas
have been isolated from the rest of tn
world Their means were meager @
dearning anything of what was goin
On in the world outside of their noun
lain walls. On the other hand. OWN,
tp the lack of inducements that woul,
attract the outer world to them ant
thus bring them into contact with 9th
er people, the world has been as ignor.
ant OF them as they have been of the
world outside.
But times have changed. The vast
beds of coal that underlie the noun
nins have brought into them millions
OF dollars of capital and Thousands of
people from the outside. Instead of
unding the mountaineer to be an ami
NAL with hoofs and horns, these peo>
PIE have found him to be of the genus
aomo who has been fighting to preserve
what civilization has given under very
ADVERSE circumstances Instead of be-
eng the morose character who would
Tor the very JOY of 1t shoot his neigh
Dor from behind some tree and, before
no was mt to mix and mingle with civ
Atzed people, had TO undergo a course
ot heroic treatment at the hands of
some supermen from the outside, as a
rule, are hospitable and are willing to
Grasp every opportunity to better their
conditions. We have our criminal ele- |
ment who kill sometimes, moonshine, |
bootleg and rob, but the percentage of !
TINS element when compared to the T
whole population is not as large as il /
will be found in New York, Chicago or
any other of the great centers of pop
ulation.
The outside world is finding this to
he fact and the articles published in
our magazines, instead of being lurid
pictures as in the past of the barbarity /
q the mountain people, are now more N
dair to them. AS an example, we are
quoting from Mountain Mothers"
written by Winifred Kirkland. appear !
ing in the November issue Of the La S
dies Home Journal
Stressing the need of better under a
standing of the mountain people. the y
author writes: Among our many plans
f0r Americanism, wish the first might Il
% the Americanizing of Americans by
introducing them to each other. And Of
e Is not the men that would intro
nuce either, but the mothers, and es- 4
pecially the mountain mothers. But 81
me fundamental trouble in such get T
ans together would be that all moth &C
rs. TO be known, should be seen at In
aome, and above all women in the ST
world, mountain mothers need to be
net In their setting in order to be ap- CO
,reciated"
Abiding to the war efforts OF the
fountain mother, she continues: /
shall always remember the rail- col
Dad way stations in 1917, with their plt
roups of mountain boys going Off to me
'ar. In Northern villages there were lif,
ands playing and crowds shouting
bodily, but not here. 1.-the, sunburn- rig
l children of the woods, the BOYS bea
ere, who had never before been ten
lies from home, and yet who gave wo
emselves, and theiE mothers gave to
em. with an unquestioning logged son
urage. cry
IT'S turrible fur" a mother said. it
ut his country needs him; and then :"
tn CLEAN of pride, she sure can for
DOT straight. / reckon them Ger her
ms will find that out" that
Inc mountain man can shoot ara
.raight, and often because it was shy,
own mother who taught him along has
IN other straight things seek
Is to the much exaggerated ignor Il
,e OF the mountain women the the
nor says: WON
IL is not because of her Ignorance Of
because of her knowledge that / dren
N that | could take some other fines
liners that know-restless mothers. tiful
'ried mothers, puzzled mothers-to in n
Z some one of the mountain moth maps
tt9t know. There is much that fail [
Re or the rest of US might learn more
II sitting on cabin doorsteps for If much
others are superior to the mountain IA
nen In, say, sanitation, we are too the
n INFERIOR to her In sanity" tespe
escribing the mountain children in highl
mountain home, she says: alone
mere Is sound to which the gion
ntalns have accustomed me-the ger
y Jolting thud when a mountain white
ner, II she possesses neither cradle 9Th
rocker, puts her baby to sleep by touch
ing forward and backwards on two centul
OF straight chair. 1t is a rough ed so
py, out 1t does not seem to hurt the y
paoy any more than his being IAN
ed about once every twenty min for O.
AS we sit there the youngsters quaint
come swarming, bright eyed. quick virtue
shy as squirrels. They peer from day is
the dusky doorway. Some little to I
beautiful as baby faun's, poems she is
frame of rhododendron. The gotten
er children wear but single gar tiser
) an apron that buttons up the
revealing a sturdy little body
nourisned on corn bread and but
TX. There is usually some two
old lying fast asleep on the bed ~,
plump and hron,n - te porch Saturd
n -yhat should be constructive harvey
SIN, the writer continues. MRS
,untain childran arc sick TO
by oaks until they reach their 1ohn
and then overwork begins to spent e =
growing bodies. A reedy bow of WE.
N, just beginning to stretch to sever
18th of spine and limb that char Eva "a
es the mountaineer, often gets me
that he never afterwards con- eireh ..
Little sisters, who from the ,., rasl
hey are four years old "totep = , ,,i
oies often grow up without any wis Miss =,
Of strength. Little boys and I'm ny,
ust, OF course, help In the corn .,,,, ih !,
tho s,,ort st-ay,,,o,,. .ne not sun Every
7 '' =. s''-o.9 e'ason' an Cay nigl