Evening star., 1933-08-12
FIRST LADY VISITS
FOLK MUSIC FETE
Retraces Mountain Roads
Father Travelled When in
Timber Company.
(See Page (A-3.)
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
WHITE TOP MOUNTAIN, Va, Aug
ust 12.-Winding mountain roads that
her father travelled when he was a tim
ber company executive, traced q path
today for Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt
to White Top Mountains summit for
the third interstate folk music festival.
There were shorter roads and more
modern, but Mrs Roosevelt preferred
the longer and the more diffcult be-
cause 1t was the road over which
Elliott Roosevelt rode on horseback
| among the mountain folk who knew
and loved him.
They turned out today for the First
Lady. Bows were put to f1ddles and
feet were set to dancing as thousands
made the winding trip to White Top
Square Dance Held.
Through the Summer night, the giant
| pavilion swayed to feet that executed
the square dance. The rising sun looked
out upon the merrymakers, who had
promised to keep a'dancing until the
First Lady Of the Land arrived.
"Cluck Old Hen." Flop Eared Mule"
"Black-Eyed Susan" and Granny, Will
Your Dog Bite?" were some Of the age
old tunes drawn from the fiddle, banjo
and dulcimer.
A special program was arranged for
Mrs, Roosevelt. with only the star per-
formers OF the more than 800 musicians.
singers and dancers chosen to partici-
pate.
| Final contests Of the White Top folk
music festival were begun early today
IN order to complete all ARRANGEMENTS
Tor the visit Of the festivals most dis
tlngulshed guest, Mrs. Franklin D.
Roosevelt. who was expected to remain
from about 1880 until o'clock this
afternoon.
Great bonfires spotted the summit of
the picturesque mountain as the crowd
OF visitors, estimated at 10000 people
rose from their sleeping quarters in
tents, automobiles and under trees.
Sky Threatens Visitors.
Smoke rose slowly into threatening
SKY as breakfasts were prepared and
visitors from 81 States thawed out
chilled bodies which as many as three
blankets failed to keep warm last night
The chilly air at the 5.600-foot elevation
OF White Top made breath vapor
readily visible.
Finalists in the banjo, fiddle, band,
jig. square dance and other contests
began to play at 9 o'clock with the
S"FSSs"eAoAA Va SOLlPICtllS COIllcSlS De-
fore II 80.
Following the close of the festival
this afternoon, Mrs Roosevelt was in
vlted to attend national folk music
conference at which the problem of
more widely educating the public in
the folk culture of the mountain soun-
try will be discussed.
Mrs: Roosevelt left Washington short
~ before midnight for Abingdon, the
town at the foot Of White Top Noun
tain where her father. Elliott Roose-
velt, spent the last few years of his
A strong personal pull, as we'll as her
deep interest in the 3-year-old
White Top folk festival movement to
give annual expression to mountain
lore, drew Mrs. Roosevelt to the place
Forty years ago, long before John
Powell, Richmond pianist and com
poser, or Percy McKaye. dramatist dis
| covered 1t, Mrs. Roosevelts father was
writing to his small daughter in New
York lyric descriptions Of the beauty of
the virginia mountains and the charm
of their people.
He told Of the singing, too-said it
reminded him Of the songs his mother
used to sing. And In q letter he de-
scribed the dancing.
To Preserve Songs.
Now erudite college professors are
taking down, to preserve for posteritv
the songs and the dances that the first
English and Scotch Irish settlers
brought to this country and which have
been handed down. unchanged, from
generation to generation, in the noun
tain country.
With Mrs. Roosevelt is her COM
panion Of many trips and business
partner, Miss Nancy Cook: her secre-
| tary, Mrs. Malvina Thompson Schei-
der, and party Of newspaper women
Because she. received so many in
vitations she could accept only few
Of them, and because she didn't wish
| to hurt anybodys feelings by refusing
some and accepting others. she plan