The Washington times., 1923-04-24
HILLS CHILDREN
|NPLEAFOR
SCHOOLS
One Million Seek Education,
Boy Tells New York Com
munity Forum.
By MARGERY REX.

NEW YORK, April 24.-Some
things fermented today in the Blue
Grass country besides "moonshine.
Eight little shepherds of lost
fIocks have come to New York fol
help.
From the misty mountains OF
Kentucky these eight young boys
have journeyed to plead that
schools may supplant stills, that
men like Abraham Lincoln may be
the ideal product of their isolated
land, instead of Illicit liquor.
The. lost tribes of America are
the forbears of the eight emissaries
from Kentucky. English, Irish and
Scotch early settlers OF this coun.
try must have had branches on
their family trees that got perma-
nently tangled up with the brush
Of Southern mountain sides. Grad.
ually they withdrew from the ad.
vancing world, yet keeping the
sturdy standards of pioneers. But
intermarriage did nothing to i'm.
prove the quality Of the stock
which has survived.
Plead for Advantages.
Youth in the hills has felt the
same disturbance that recently has
passed over young people in the
outer world of the plains and the
cities. These courageous boys who
have come to plead for their chance
know that If youth doesn't fight for
advantages their helpless elders
never will.
Give us education" the Ken.
lucky lads argue, land that will
stop moonshiTie manufacture quicker
than a United States revenue Off.
Ger can"
Strangely enough, these otherwise
illiterate people are able to quote
the Bible and Shakespeare. They
speak a dialect derived TO some
extent from the Elizabethan Eng
lish. They sing Elizabethan songs
These characteristics have beer
handed on through the generations
of hill folk, though the outside
world and its work leave them un
touched.
Private warfare and private re
venge are part of their code, which
after all, expresses. a chivalrous
frame of mind rather than ans
brutal degeneracy. Like the Eliza
bethans, each one goes armed
scorning the protection of authority
and here, as in the England OF
Shakespeare time, mountain girls
marry as early as the fourteen.year'
old Juliet
Now. like a spark buried beneath,
the ashes Of scores of years, this
demand for learning springs up
1t has flashed around the mountains
like a torch in the night. 1t gave
courage to representatives of this
generation who answered searching
questions the other night at the
community house open forum OF
this city before which the youngsters
laid their case.
More Abraham LincOl1s.
IF you can help US a little now
Chairman Corbett Franklin, aged
sixteen, said, you're going to have
more Abraham Lincolns from the
mountains
Dan Martin. fifteen, answered
the question, What do you think
about this moonshine business in
the mountains?" with Educate the
boys and girls if you want to Dc
away with it,"
One million boys are waiting in
the South, the chairman told the
audience at the forum who were in.
terested in the National Child Wei
fare Association.
he said. 1.-The United States needs
now, you're going to get results
some day you'll be mighty glad Of
Perhaps young Franklin had In
mind 1.-THE greatest hero Of the
war" Sergeant Yorke, a mountaineer
who had helped himself by aiding
the people; to them he had been
both minister of the Gospel and
brother.
One strong factor in civiliza ton
Is conspicously lacking in the noun
tains. that is. the guidance Of intel
igent mother love.
Where whjskey and firearms are
common household articles, The
domestic morale is apt to be low
For one woman with Nancy Hanks
inspirational power, there are hun
dreds OF poor, benighted mothers
who could not help their BOYS snt
girls II they would. Their horizon
Is bounded by the hilltops.
Even Children Armed,
In the mountain country ever
children go armed at the beginninp
or such school terms as there are
the pupils have to be relieved Of
their weapons. Ten is the average
number OF offspring OF mountain
families, which shows WHY thi,
good stock never has died out ant
why it may again become a stronG
branch Of the race and once more
produce such men as Lincoln, Dan
lei Boone and Andrew Jackson, al
boys from the mountains.
Where education has been th,
habit feuds are said to have becon1,
less bitter, in some cases dying out
tdomicides have likewise decreased