The Waterbury Democrat., 1937-11-18
Trailer Priest

ing, skidding, with 8 four foot ditch on one side of the road and drop of a few more feet on the other side to which soft muddy shoulders lent a convenient slide, when out of the night over our car radio which is 8 great comfort, came the words of that old song. "Is 1t true what they Say about Dixie?" The cold rain had be chilled right through, there were no magnolias that I could see, the car was covered with red clay-and so was Thy heart was staying close to my throat as each slip brought me nearer to the ditch which I finally escaped, and an- swered as I reached the concrete pavement which meant I was only a mile or so from home, Well, not tonight is 1t true what they say about Dixie.
 But perhaps I was not in an en- thusiastic frame of mind. I had stepped out of the car and in a school yard where we are holding services this week as 1t is too cold for outside work, and stepped into a mud puddle which went right up, over the top and down into my low shoes. Try sometime-juSt for fun to deliver a fifteen minute talk with a shoe full of mud. had to go through two full hours of Question Box program, Sermon, Motion Pic ture and Commentary on Life of Jesus Christ, with one shoe full Of oozy, gummy. noisy mud. Public speaking professors really should not neglect this test for their stu- dents. There is nothing like 1t as a means of acquiring poise before an audience.
 We have been in the south lit- tie over two months now. We have not had enough time to write a book about our experiences but eight straight weeks of mission revival work, the first four in the open, the last four in school houses have given us an opportunity to judge our aud fences and with some degree of &C., curacy report our findings.
 We began our trailer chapel work in an open lot at Cowan where we were very well received. Our night ly attendance Contrary to the Time Magazine report I've seem averaged three hundred and the chief of police told us "This is the first Catholic preaching we have ever heard here." We were given cordial treatment here as well as at our second stop which was Decherd Here too an open lot was the church. with attendance on one night going to seven hundred. Tn Cowan there was one Catholic fam fly, in Decherd there were three. These were the largest towns in which we have worked, they are centers of rural populations with fine schools, though the first has a population of not more than four teen hundred and the second is un- der a thousand.
 Since the second week, at Dec- herd, we have been working in country districts where, with a sim gle exception, they have no electri- city, no modern conveniences, no sidewalks. The IVA has not arrived in certain of these sections as yet. For the past four weeks we have been conducting our mission "re- vivals" in school houses. A stove in the center of the largest room fur nishes heat. the Kohler Motor 0n the back of the Ford furnishes us with power for the lights which we string ourselves and for our Sound Motion Picture equipment; t!ie desks and added benches accomo- date the people while those unable to gain admission crowd the win dows. Our trailer-chapel makes a travelling rectory.
 What territory do we cover? Our parish with headquarters at Win chester includes thirteen counties.