The Belding banner-news., 1921-03-30
A LOVER OF
HUMANITY MAKES
DREAMS COME TRUE
BURNS OF THE MOUNTAINS"
TO BE LAST NUMBER ON II.
S. LECTURE COURSE


veins of Americans, there will be in
terest in the gripping story of
achievement told by President James
A. Burns, of Oneida Institute, KY,
who appears in the M. +. church on
Monday, April A, as the last num-
Der of the III. S. Lecture course. The.
average college president is man of
the study, specialized and astute, with
vast fund of book information at
his disposal, but with scant touch
with Americans in the making. Burns
is different. He has a face that looks
as if it had been hewn from stone
when the gods were in mood to be
careless as to artistic effect. 1t is
sad face. reminiscent of Lincoln in
thedeep lines and the smile which
occasionally lights it. 1t is the face
of a man who has seen life, and who
has found himself. Nobody could call
him beautiful, if beauty is to be
judged from exterior appea -ances,
and the correspondence school grad
uate of me "how-to- -get-on- the
platform i n-three-lessons" course
would be palsied by his utter lack
Of grace. When he makes his ap-
pea rance your first thought is that
you wish you had your money back,
and he looks just as sorry as you are
that he is there. Then something
happens. A slow drawling voice falls
on your ear. A story begins to un-
fold. 1t isn't story shaken from a
magazine chestnut tree or dragged
from the anecdotes picked by Noah
and carried into the ark to be handed
down to suffering generations and at
last embalmed in the Ladies' Home
Journal. There's nothing humorous
in it. But there's humanity in it.
Folks begin to sit up and take notice
You feel instinctively that this man
care nothing about himself but ev-
e-ything about the story that he has
to tell. A sob rises in his voice and
almost chokes him, but a smile tack
les it and it goes down on the one
yard line just when everybody lis
getting ready to sob with him. Kinks
English Of the purity of the immor-
tai address at Gettysburg clothes the
story of matchless interest, and ST.
lence settles down on the crowd till
the ticking of a Swiss watch sounds
in the stiffness like a jitney bus get
ting unde- way.
Out of the Kentucky hills you see
a godly father leading his little flock
to new home in the hills off West
Virginia, not because he loved his
Kentucky home less, but because he
loved his children more, and his low
ing heart recoiled from the sacri-
Ice of his boys which he knew must
inevitably follow a marriage into the
feud families which had just been
consummated by relative. You see
that family toiling in the West Viz
ginia mountains, the ffal passing of
the father, and the determination of
the bov. Burns, to go back to the
Kentucky around which a halo of
romance has always hung. Then the
awkening-the bitter recognition of
the truth of the contention of the ia
the- that the feud would claim them
the feud spirits rise in the heart of
the man who loved peace, and his ef-
fort to get peace bv killing off those
who disagreed with him. Breathless-
ly YOU follow him into the midst of
sanguinary battle brought on by
foolish boys aligned with the feud
families-you feel the impact of the
fight as plainly as though you were
an eve witness, and you understand
as you never could understand before
the truth as to the feud leader, whose
splendid leadership is standing be-
tween his people and utter decima-
ton.
And the glorious story of the
breaking of the light! How the vi
old mill where numbd less battles
met to listen to a plan to save Ken
tucky's future citizens from the blot
of feudism. You feel the tenseness
Of the atmosphere, thes pirit of an
tagonism and district. In the match
less simplicity of the telling of the
story you visualize the scene, you
hear the simple recital Of the plan
and with bated breath await the is
sue. You see feud leaders advncing
to the center Of the old mill with
pistol butts in hand, and then in a
binding mist of tears. you see the
Great Reconciliatior-not because
these mountain Anglo -Saxoits were
afraid of each other, or feared to die
but because the love of their chill
dren, which passes all understand
ing, had moved their hearts.
The voice hesitates and stops. The
lecture is over. You scarcely recog-
nize the departing lecturer as he re-
treats toward the exit A halo of
beauty has descended upon the face
of the man, sudden grace has sur
rounded him. In it you see that crea-
tion of nature-a man. You go away
and think about him and his story.
1t digs down into you, and refuses to
be shaken off. And there dawns up
on you the consciousness that you
have listened to matchless orator,
who with the simple sentences of
Lincoln and the indefinable grace
which clings to sincerity, HAS driven
home a twentieth century application
of the truths taught by the man who
walked by Galilee.
Like President Burns? Hear him
for a quarter of an haur and then
go away if you can. And if you
chance to be one Of those rare crea-
tions to whom that thrilling story of
American achievement brings no
thrill of pride, look well to the staff
which ID flowing in your veins. You