Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-29
CIVILIZATION GOES BY FOLK
In MOUNTAIN ssHOLLOWS'
Inhabitants' Standard of Living Likened
to Balkan Peasants or European
Serfs of 200 Years Ago.

This involves some difficult problems,
made more difncult by the wide range
OF living conditions to which different
hollows are accustomed. Some, espe.
cially those which have had the benefit
OF church missions, with their earnest
and self-sacrificing directors, will be
able TO adjust themselves easily to life
in the valleys. The behavior OF others
with whom lack of contacts l. out
standing is problematical. Thrown into
. new, faster and more complex en-
vironment without preparation, they are
likely to grope about blindly in their
efforts to make the necessary adjust
ments.
The problem, according to competent
observers. cannot be considered strictly
one OF tlliteracy. The people Of those
hoilows which have had neither mis-
sion nor public schools are, Of course,
illiterate. and at the level Of culture at
which they exist they have little need
for literacy. But recent intelligence
tests revealed what appears TO be o
curious mental condition which extends
under the surface of literacy. The
minds are there, but asleep. Despite
whatever degenerative effects may have
resulted from generations Of cross
breeding, the children show q good
capacity to learn once the mentality
has been awakened.
Range Of Activity Is Limited.
But the range Of mental activity has
been so limited that the first impression
Is likely to be that of defective intelli-
gence. There is, for example, among
many Of these children only an obscure
ortentation Of the self In space and
time. The sense Of distance appears
vague. The sense Of time extends only
q short way from the immediate pres
ent. Children did rather poorly when
asked the year and month, but most
knew the day Of the week.
An outstanding characteristic was the
ignorance OF events In the outside world
Famous names. such as Washington and
Lincoln, meant nothing to the children.
They did not even designate human
beings. This condition would not OBJ
tain with many OF the adults who have
had better contacts. For the children
the hollow" has been the world-at
least until the opening of q tiny log
school this Summer, when wonders
were accomplished in q few weeks, for
the rate Of learning capacity Il quite
rapid.
With many Of the children the prob
lem OF literacy extends downward to
training the senses to degree which
comes without conscious effort in more
stimulating environments
A Virginia county weekly, comment
ing On recent series of articles de-
scribing the condition Of some Of these
children, made the point that they had
not been denied education, since there
were schoolhouSes within a few miles
where they would be welcomed.
This is true. There also is q fine
rural prosperity within a few miles in
which the adults might make a place
for themselves. Some Of the richest
agricultural counties in the United
states are ''just over the hill" within a
few hours walk.
Lack Home Environment.
A few years ago. certainly before the
coming Of consolidated rural schools
and school buses, children in various
rural communities were trudging every
day. through the slush of Spring and
through binding Winter snowstorms
such as unheard Of in this area, to the
village schools over longer distances than
these children would have to 60. But such
children had the stimulating home en-
vironment which drove them on to en-
dure physical hardships for an educa-
ton. They lived on q certain level of
culture of which literacy was an essen
tial part.
Here in the mountains It is different.
Before the children will trudge miles
TO school over the narrow Blue Ridge
foot trails the Level Of community cul.
ture must be raised to provide the es-
Sential stimulus. For yearning for lit
eracy and the better things of life sell
dom exists except as part of a culture
pattern. If the culture pattern were
SO changed as to provide the necessary
stimulus to bring the children to the
schools few miles distant. the trans
formation would nf n,
which would bring up-to-date schools
close at hand. comfortable and roomy
houses, large tracts of titled mountain
side and industrious living.
1t would be as well to say that an
infant starved to death in q house
where the pantry shelves were loaded
with provisions from which 1t could
have prepared q meal for itself, and
that therefore nobody was to blame.
The mountain children-at least those
in the poorest hollows-require educa-
ton in the nursery bottle stage and
not the cook-stove stage. It must be
brought to them in their hill cradles
The unframed minds are not likely to
climb out Of the cradles to go after it.
No Stimulating Factors.
Very likely Abraham Lincoln walked
10 miles over the lonely priairie to bor-
row a book. but these mountain chill
dren are not Abraham Lincolns. Even
If one of them had the potential men
tally Of Lincoln there is almost COM
plete lack Of the stimulating factors
which transformed that potentiality into
actually.
1t also has been pointed out that
various church denominations have pro-
vided schools and accomplished such
excellent results that the culture level
OF whole communities has been changed.
That also is true. Probably It would
be impossible to praise too highly the
church schools. But this is not q for
eign mission field. It is a part of the
United States in 1929, where education
Is presumed generally to be dispensed
in q different manner.