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Mountain Life & Work vol. 05 no. 3 October, 1929

Mountain Life & Work vol. 05 no. 3 October, 1929 Council of the Southern Mountains 400dpi TIFF G4 page images University of Kentucky, Electronic Information Access & Management Center Lexington, Kentucky 2003 mlwv5n31029 These pages may freely searched and displayed. Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically. Mountain Life & Work vol. 05 no. 3 October, 1929 Council of the Southern Mountains Berea College; Council of the Southern Mountains Berea, Kentucky October, 1929 $IMLS This electronic text file was created by Optical Character Recognition (OCR). No corrections have been made to the OCR-ed text and no editing has been done to the content of the original document. Encoding has been done through an automated process using the recommendations for Level 1 of the TEI in Libraries Guidelines. Digital page images are linked to the text file. Volume V October, 1929 Number III Adjustments to Rural Industrial Changes-Olive D. Campbell . . . . . . . Playing the Game of Self-Support-A. E. Sutherland, M.D. . . . . . . . . . Working Together on the Cumberland Plateau-Edwin E. White . . . . Old Speckles-James D. Burton Pioneer Night School-Hannah Jewett Powell "The Living Tradition"-Bonnie T. Willis Scarlet Fever Surrenders-Gladys H. Dick, M.D. . . . . . The Half-and-Half Nurse-Helen Orth . . . . . . . Virginia's Plan for Mental Hygiene-Frank Bane . . . Southern Mill Hills (Book Review) -Blm2.che Nicola 24 Poor Relief in Kentucky -Artlru)° H. Estabwook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 1 J 7 10 11 20 22 Published at Berea College, Berea, Ky., in the interest of fellowship and mutual understanding between the Appalachian Mountains and the rest of the nation Mountain 1,ife ~„ Work Volume V October, 1929 Number III Published at Berea College, Berea, Ky., in the interest of fellowship and mutual understanding between the Appalachian Mountains and the rest of the nation Mountain Life and Work Helen H. Dingman ... . . Dr. Wm. James Hutchins Orrin L. Keener . . .. . .. William P. Fenn . . . . . . . .......... Editor ....... Counsellor . Associate Editor . Associate Editor CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Dr. Warren H. Wilson . . . . . . New York City Mrs. John C Campbell ....Brasstown, N, C. Mr. Marshall E. Vaughn . . . . . . . Atlanta, Ga. Hon. W. 0. Saunders . . . . Elizabeth City, N. C. Dr. John P. McConnell . . . . East Radford, Va. Dr. Arthur T. McCormack . . . . Louisville, Ky. Dr. E, C Branson . . . . . . . . Chapel Hill, N. C. Dr. John J. Tigert . . . . . . . . . . Gainesville, Fla. ISSUED QUARTERLY-JANUARY, APRIL, JULY, OCTOBER Subscription Price $1.00 per year. Single Copy 30c. Entered at the Post Office at Berea, Ky., as second class mail matter. ADDRESS ALL COMMUNICATIONS TO MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK BEREA, KENTUCKY Adjustment to Rural Industrial Changes* When I have been away in the cities and return to our mountain country, I am struck anew with its beauty. I find myself wondering why anyone lives anywhere else. Why the noise, the confusion, the dirt, the scramble, when one may have the fresh stillness, the independence of life among these blue and green hills? With an odd sense of shock one faces the fact that our young people, at least the majority of the more energetic and ambitious, do not feel the same way. Analyze the average rural mountain community where there is no special industry. You will find plenty of substantial old people used to pioneer simplicity; many middle aged and even younger married people of native ability, but usually with~ut a great deal of book education or vocational * Extracts from speech delivered by Olive Dame Campbell at meeting of N. E. A., Atlanta, Ga., July, X924, training, striving under most difficult conditions to make a living from the soil and to give their children better opportunities. When, however, one looks for the young peopleespecially the unmarried young people-of eighteen or twenty to twenty-five or thirty years of age who are equal in calibre to the old people, energetic and ambitious, he is struck with their absence. Here one and there onegirls predominating largely-among a group of untrained, uneducated youth who are at best, undeveloped and limited, too often purposeless, drifting, idle, and even vicious. What is the difficulty? Certainly the condition is not peculiar to the mountains, or to the South, although topography, climate, diet, and special diseases such as hookworm, play their part. If one would give the answer in one word, the nearest word would be poverty -poverty economic, social, cultural. Economic Poverty. In our immediate section the average annual income of the small farmer is between eighty-five and ninety dollars. The land-owning farmer-and our people are largely land-owning-has, of course his land, his garden from which he gets most of his living, and his corn, but ninety dollars does not offer a wide margin for taxes, clothes, books, education, seeds, fertilizer, etc. For a single trip from the county seat we pay the doctor seven dollars. Poverty in Social Life. The old occasions for getting together, log-rollings, house-raisings, quiltings and the like, have largely passed. We still have some all-day singings, "Decorations," and an occasional singing school. Sickness and funerals furnish always an opportunity to get together. But all in all, the church is still the main social institution of our mountain country. The protracted meeting is our spiritual and social outlet. The consolidated school helps the more or less immediate neighborhood, Page 2 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK October, 192!' but parents at a distance find it next to impossible to share in most of the activities. One dares to say that under present conditions in our rural mountain sections, the consolidated school breaks up more than it enriches the social life of the little community. Poverty in Cultural Resources. The topography and history of the mountain country explain why, over large areas, our elementary schools have been very poor. While they are improving greatly, they are still inadequate. As a result we have a large population which, if not actually illiterate, is very much limited. This population presents a rather special educational problem of which we hear much and which must always be considered, but which cannot be considered apart from the economic and social phases of poverty. We must have elementary education for all, if we are to progress, but elementary education cannot solve our problem. It is not too much to say, I think, that the high school is largely for those who are to leave the farm and the more rural districts. Because it is standardized it must set emphasis upon acquiring certain definite amounts of information, and it does this, usually, without relating these facts to the life the boy or girl in the country has to live. It recognizes book knowledge as preparation for life and does not take into consideration the conditions which must be faced if the student goes back into a rural home. It does not try to help him to an understanding and control of his life and environment, and to the joy that comes from such understanding and control. It is one thing for the country boy with high school or college training to go out into the city. When, however, the untrained uneducated country boy goes to the city or industrial center-that is to the "public works", as we call any large operations, whether factories in Ohio, mines in Kentucky, or mills in North or South Carolina-he is fitted only for heavy or unskilled labor. He is used to widely scattered farms, where he does not have to consider the preference of his neighbors, and where ignorance of modern hygiene and sanitation do not have such immediately disastrous effects as in an industrial settlement. Crowded into close living quarters, he becomes, in his indifference to all social regulations, a problem to the city -even a menace. If he is unmarried, or leaves his family back on the farm, he can save, if he is so minded, and may bring back, if he returns, enough capital to give him a good start at home. On the other hand, if he takes his family with him, the expense is so great that, unless all the family work, he finds himself in worse financial condition than if he had put in a crop at home, and, too often, much poorer in health. The uncertainty of industrial work is another difficulty. The mountain worker may be thrown out of work any time and have to return to rented or depleted land. In any case he is restless and unsettled, whether at home or abroad. I believe a careful study of our very rural areas would show that a surprising number of young married men go to the public works for a season, returning perhaps to put in a crop, but often only to live on their parents for a few months while they spend lavishly what they have accumulated outside-and I do not need to suggest the things for whicl untrained, uneducated young people are likely to spend their savings. When money or welcome is exhausted or the restless city calls, they drift back again, a part of the floating unsettled labor which is such a problem to the economist, the social worker, the police, and the state in general. I am not, of course, discussing the successful individual or family that finds its place outside, as many do. I am speaking from the angle of the effect on our rural sections, which inevitably grow more impoverished. I am asking you to think of education in these terms. Can our mountain country offer a full life to the energetic and ambitious? I cannot answer that question-though I have my own convictions-at least not as to large sections. While I am weary of the survey that piles up laboriously accumulated material which is not utilized, we do need a careful, practical economic survey of the mountain country to guide us in our thinking and planning. All I can say here is, that no rigid or blanket or state program will help the mountains. The topography (Continued on Page Fifteen) October, 1929 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Page PLAYING THE GAME OF SELF-SUPPORT By E. A. SUTHERLAND, M.D. Nashville Agricultural Normal Institute, Madison, Tennessee. When I was asked to give a little sketch of methods pursued and problems solved in a rural community work that operates on a selfsupporting basis, my mind traveled over the list of men and women who at some time have been associated with Madison in one way or another, who have caught the inspiration of service, and who have launched an enterprise to help humanity. Madison, a training center for teachers, agricultural men, nurses, and other community workers, is now about a quarter of a century old. Twenty-five ,years seems some time in a man's life, but it is just the beginning of existence of an institution, just time enough to get bearings and settle into a strong and permanent program. In the earlier days of this institution there was among the students a young man who had been a grocery clerk in the state of Nebraska. Attracted hither by the type of training offered, he entered heart and soul into the program of the new school. He worked and he studied, and before many months accompanied an older man, a teacher and county superintendent from Pennsylvania, who likewise had the spirit of do and dare, in the establishment of a rural community school. Those days were spent in a little old log cabin on a farm, and as the initial steps were taken by these pioneers to establish a farm and set up a school with meager facilities, this young man learned some lessons in roughing it that gave him courage to launch an enterprise for himself. He had friends who, he thought, needed the experiences afforded by such work and who, his faith led him to believe, would ,join him in an undertaking similar to the one he was then in. The grocery clerk had an inspiration and he followed the lead. First, he married a teacher whose experience was broader than the ordina, y teacher's, because she had been instructor in a college near Cape Town, South Africa, Foreign mis sion work was her preparation for a highland school. Then the proposition was put to friends living in Wisconsin. He has always felt that the Master had something 'to do with touching the hearts of those friends with the needs of the people for whom he spoke. The result was that a company of eight was formed, with a bit of money that made possible the purchase of a farm on the Highland Rim. It is well to stop a moment with that farm. It was "discovered," not through some real estate agent, but as the result of treking through the woods and over the hills and beyond the gulches, visiting in homes of the dwellers, and personally learning their needs of a school. Though they stumbled upon this particular farm, they have always felt that it was a divinely directed trip which they made, with religious literature in hand as an excuse for asking admission to one home after another. They were seeking a place of need, not a home for comfort. And that is what they found. In all this educational work that is carried forward on a self-supporting basis, farming is the fundamental occupation. It is the real basis of all manual activities. For the layman, it is the simplest occupation which will bring a remuneration when using ordinary untrained help such as we find in a group of students. The farm our seekers found was on a beautiful site, a plateau between two creeks, with an abundance of fine old trees-poplars, chestnuts, oaks, walnuts, gums, and dogwoods whose spreading tent of white adorns the hillside each spring. There was beauty all around, but the land was worn thin. A neighbor, when asked his opinion of the farm and what it would raise, volunteered the answer, "I reckon about all that can be raised on that land is an umbrella." A smile of incredulity passed across the face of the wise men of the community when any prediction was made concerning the future of the place. But as God Page 4 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK October, 1929 takes the poor excuses of men and makes of them a power in His cause, so men with vision, with faith in divine principles, and with the patience to work out those principles, may see wonders in land transformed. That is the story of this hillside farm. There was but little money to put into any sort of a farm, but the promoter had faith to believe that the community would be benefited by a school and a health center. He had in mind a school of broader range than the ordinary country school. The soil was worn and gullied. The buildings were almost negligible. To do anything, there must be associates with the vision of the promoter; so he made a visit to the home of friends and told them of his purchase and of his vision of a school. His desire to establish a rural community center met with unexpected enthusiasm as he told of his plan for a school that would put within the hearts of boys and girls a love for the farm that would keep them from drifting into the cities, there often to be swallowed up in a maelstrom of vice. He told them that in time he hoped to see on that hill a modest health center capable not only of caring for the sick of the community but also of reaching the sick and afflicted at greater distances. The interest deepened as plans were discussed. As friends saw his willingness to devote his time and ability to the building of an enterprise without thought of remuneration, they volunteered to help with means. Their hearts were touched. Several men and women living in the North moved to the South and threw in their lot with this original family. They came with their household goods and their stock, and before six months had rolled over their heads, the little Tennessee community had the nucleus of a school well under way. The money was in hand to complete payment on the farm. The old house was remodeled and for years has served as a center for all sorts of activities. To begin with, the company opened a modest little school for children of the neighbors. The grade subjects were taught; but more, the Bible, which was the rule of life for the teachers, found its way into the school. The children learned to cherish their lessons from the sacred Word more highly than other lessons, and many were the truths that they, carried home to mother and father. Then there was a broadening of mind as the children mingled with the teachers in their family life, assisted in the kitchen, in GROUP OF STUDENTS OF FOUNTAIN HEAD SCHOOL the laundry, in the cannery. Life was touching life, and the horizon of .each little one way broadening. New foods were introduced to the home tables. Health and hygiene were common topics of conversation. Houses long weather-beaten took on a coat of pain. Outhouses were built. Not suddenly did these changes come, but they becaMe evident as the months rolled by. The leaders in the enterprise approached their work and their neighbors with open minds. They were learners as well as teachers. The farm was a wonderful means of common interest. Over agricultural problems they became acquainted and developed a common sympathy. The new-comers had much to learn as well as some things to give. Give and take was the rule of the group. As neighbors were consulted concerning some of the school problems, the way opened for counsel to be given without offense on other intimate subjects. Most of the farms had been devoted to tobacco raising, the men filling out the year with logging. On the school farm there appeared a diversity of crops, and this led to farmers' meetings, bringing together the school people, their neighbors, and the county `)ctober, 1929 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK demonstration agent or some state agricultural leader. And so the interest grew, and so methods broadened and crops became diversified. In place of tobacco came the strawberry. The story of the community transformation is a marvel, for today thousands of cases of strawberries go from that community to Eastern markets. In fact, two large organizations, the Strawberry Association and the Peach Growers' Association, FOUNTAIN HEAD INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL DISPLAY AT THE COMMUNITY FAIR are largely the result of these agricultural activities. For years the big red silo attached to the modern-looking barn on the school farm stood as a monument of industry, a silent witness to improved methods of handling the dairy problem. The school took a leading part in road building. Where once vehicles went hub-deep in mud during the wet season, there me to be well-graded roads which in time were transformed into State highways. It Page 5 was the school that made possible the first local telephone, linking the community to the outer world. And as the community showed signs of awakening in the way, of painted houses and neatly constructed bungalows, so the little school grew in size and strength till it handled the first ten grades and was equipped with wonderful laboratories in the form of gardens, orchards, shops, and the kitchens. These were all at the disposal of the students for their manual training classes and also as a means of support. Early in the history the saw-mill's hum could be heard, as timber was converted into lumber for their neighbors. It gave work to men who needed cash, and it served as a common meeting ground and developed community interests. There was sickness in the neighborhood, and it seemed natural to turn to the school for help. Some of the workers were nurses, and often they went by foot or on horse-back over the hills in answer to calls for help. Babies were ushered into the world, many a mother was taught how to feed and rear little ones, aches and pains were relieved by these ministers to the physical necessities of men. It was a difficult task to keep up the routine work of the little school, its farm interests and all, and still respond to the calls that came from the sick at any hour of the day or night. And so a little health home was started to provide facilities for the sick, where the environment might be more favorable to restoration, where needed rest might be obtained, and where health lessons might be given in a broader way. Thus there was built on the campus, and in the very edge of a splendid woods, a neat little sanitarium. It was almost too small to be dignified with such a name, but it was true to the title. Doctors from a distance found this little place and sent patients there. The nearby community contributl~:d its share of the sick and afflicted. Its work commanded such respect that when, in the spring of 1927, the building waa destroyed by fire, the neighbors as a mass egged that it he rebuilt. Business concerns in nearby towns and cities, realizing the ben Page 6 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK October, 1929 efit reaped by the community from such an instituteon, showed their willingness to cooperate in many ways, some donating material for the new building, such as brick and sand, tile, windows, and plumbing fixtures, Means were pledged for the erection on the site of the former building of a new sanitarium, well equipped with modern conveniences, and with capacity for thirty-five patients. The new sanitarium, known as The Fountain Head (Tennessee) Sanitarium and Hospital, has FOUNTAIN HEAD SANITARIUM a well-equipped operating room, treatment. rooms for hydrotherapy and physiotherapy, and other things belonging to an up-to-date medical institution. This stands today as a beautiful monument to the appreciation of a large community. Speaking of the item of self-support, this little place, like others of a similar character, had no thought to supply equipment from their earnings, for with the burdens of a school, with the problem of student labor, the income from school property and school industries is not large. It has been the plan to solicit from friends interested in the project means with which to equip the school and its industries, and then ask the teachers and their associates to keep up the equipment and maintain themselves without any outside help. Of necessity, the work must be maintained as a labor of love. Those seeking a position for remuneration will never be content in such an institution, But for those who are willing to work as did the Master with the promise only of the necessities of life, there is abundant reward meas ured out in the Master's own way. It is a life of sacrifice if one counts the things that some men count dear. It is a life of richness and wealth if viewed from another standpoint. It is worth something to see those worn fields renewed under the skillful hand of the school farmer. There are splendid fields of alfalfa, sweet clover and corn. The orchards and vineyards are a joy The garden vegetables are good to behold. The entire place is one of the picture spots of the community. It is in that atmosphere of peace that the sick find themselves coming back to health. It is in the busy atmosphere of industry that the young are educated while earning a part of their own keep working on the farm, in the shops, and at the sanitarium, or helping with the household duties. They are learning to raise their food, to cook their food, and by canning and drying fruits and vegetables, to lay up supplies for winter use. They are learning t, build simple houses and do simple iron work, such as blacksmithing and machine repairing. It is necessary under these circumstances to learn the lesson taught by the Savior when He bade the disCDles gather up the fragments after that abundant feeding of the multitude. It has been necessary in this work to resort to barrel clothing : and second-hand machinery is sometimes used when new would be better. It may seem necessary to purchase a run-down farm rather than land under a high state of cultivation, but there is a compensation in this, for the very necessity for economy and close counting of the pennies appeals to the people for whom they work. The ability to build up worn land by careful and skilful cultivation is in itself a great lesson to the agricultural men of the community. One of the most keenly felt needs in such a center is ability to do team work. This atmosphere must be all-pervading in teachers, nurses, farm men, all. The spirit of leadership must be there, the spirit that draws men (Continued On Page Twenty-three) October, 1929 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Page WORKING TOGETHER ON THE CUMBERLAND PLATEAU By EDWIN E. WHITE, Pleasant Hill, Tennessee What a story of many-sided life, of adventure and achievement, the work in even a small section of the mountains would reveal to one who really took time to get acquainted with it was suggested at a little gathering in Crossville, Tennessee, on April 25th last. Some fifty persons from six counties in the Cumberland plateau region, or from agencies interested in those counties, spent the day discussing what is actually being accomplished for the enrichment of life in this area. This Crossville gathering was the third session of what has come to be called Rural Community Conference. The conference had its birth early in 1928 when a committee of business and professional men of Harriman, Tennessee, sent out a call for those interested in the needs, problems, and challenges of the leveloping Cumberland region to meet in their .!ity. There an interested group spent a day in earnest discussion of the questions 1. What are the outstanding needs we are facing in this area? 2. What are the things that baffle us as we face these problems? 3. What next steps must be taken? A second session of the conference brought together a similar group in Crossville in November, 1928. Problems and needs were again discussed. When the time to plan the third session appproached it was decided to make it an effort to discover the most hopeful things that are actually being done in the region concerned. No formal program was prepared. Delegates were asked to be ready to share with the rest their successful experiences. Churches and ministers interested in the whole life of their communities, increasing efforts for the promotion of health and the stamping out of disease, the development of agriculture, the making of better homes, the improvement of education, the all-round development of young people"hese were some of the encouraging things the aay brought to light. A long discussion of community work inspired and carried out by churches showed that in a number of centers there is a Christian enterprise that contemplates providing a "whole program of life," as one of the men phrased it. At Allardt, in Fentress County, the Rev. Henry C. Rogers has visioned better schools, better health, better recreation and social life, and better religious life. Teaching plays a large part, with study groups for children, young people, and adults trying to learn more of what Christianity means. Play and social life form an important element in the meeting of these groups, and active projects of service are undertaken. Clinics have been held; an old building, once a band and dance hall, has been made into a gymnasium; and an outdoor swimming pool has been constructed. The minister taught the district school for a time and has worked for better educational standards. A parent-teacher association is actively at work. The Rev. A. Nightingale of Crossville, Cumberland County, feels deeply the need of better living conditions and better health. He has been a leading spirit in county Red Cross work and has promoted clinics. He has actively helped in the growing 4-H Club camp for this region, and has encouraged home demonstration work. The conference took notice of Mr. Nightingale's wide and varied service to the whole life of his community. Dr. Breeding of the State Health Department spoke especially of the large part he had played in securing a sanitation officer for the county. At Robbins, in Scott County, a beautiful and churchly edifice, the new Barton Chapel, bears its testimony, The copastors, the Rev. and Mrs. George L. Day, include in their program addresses in schools on patriotism and character, clinics and the effort to secure help for tuberculosis sufferers, sales of clothes that make possible the clothing of many families, recreation for children, dramatics. Mrs. Day's interests and activities extend from teaching women to sew and make over garments to Page 8 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK October, 1929 helping train public school children in music. A library attracts a growing number of readers, some borrowers of books coming as far as twenty miles. Field work in religion and education extending over wide areas was described by the Rev. S. A. D. Smith of Livingston, Overton County. Mr. Smith is a Sunday school field worker in seven counties with a total population of 80,000. He organizes Sunday Schools in needy communities and promotes daily vacation Bible schools and other religious education plans. A hurried count revealed that those pre3ent knew of at least forty-two vacation Bible schools in this area the previous summer, with at least two training classes studying that kind of work. How a church with a real program and real religious power can transform a rural community was seen through the story of the Rev. Paul Doran's work at Blue Springs and neighboring centers in White County. Years of work have resulted in a community in which people love to live; some who had moved off to town have returned to the old neighborhood as a better place in which to live. Pure-bred hogs, poultry, and Jersey cattle have been introduced. A home-owners club encourages renters to buy their own homes and helps them save to that end. The members of the farm club plan to have something to sell every week in the year -every man has at least four or five things he can depend on for cash. Lambs have increased the cash income; so have sweet potatoes and Irish potatoes. The man in charge of the cream station reports that the selling of cream has increased 1100 per cent in two years. On this pressing problem of economic improvement Mr. Paul Ervin, Smith-Hughes teacher of agriculture at Pleasant Hill Academy, Cumberland County, related what fourteen men had accomplished in a potato club. Before the club began its work, these men averaged 65 bushels per acre, the county average being less than 40 bushels. Last summer the club members averaged 1441/) bushels, with two men getting 176 bushels. In addition they now have a grader bought cooperatively. Their cooperative buying totaled $2300, and their saving on this buying reached $280. The conference listened with interest to Dr. Breeding's account of how the State Health Department goes to work in an emergency, and particularly how it met the crisis of the recent flood conditions, dividing the flooded area into districts, getting a team of doctors and nurses into each district within a few hours, performing thousands of inoculations for typhoid, chlorinating every well that had been overflowed, and in one place meeting the extra threat of smallpox epidemic by vaccinating twenty-three hundred persons. Several of the richer and more populous counties of the state now have full county health units consisting of at least a doctor who puts all his time on preventive medicine, a trained nurse, a sanitary officer, and a clerk. In some cases two or three counties unite in maintaining such a unit. The state will now provide two-thirds of the expense to enable the poorer counties to maintain such a service. Dr. Breeding spoke of the new emphasis on tuberculosis prevention inaugurated in the clinics recently held in an attempt to discover something about the prevalence of the disease. In Cumberland County 232 persons were examined; 46, or a little more than 19 per cent showed positive symptoms; 55, a little more than 23 per cent showed suspicious symptoms. These were referred to local physicians and given written orders for treatment. The work in the county has also included 413 full treatments of the diphtheria toxin-antitoxin. This area is one of the bad ones in the state for hookworm, and the health department plans to attack this soon. (At the present writing a state laboratory for the examination of specimens from those suspected of having hookworm is in operation in Crossville and has been for several months.) In answer to questions, Dr. Breeding told of the help voluntary organizations can give, especially along the lines of health education, which is badly needed, and in preparing for clinics. The work being done by sanitary officers was well illustrated by Mr. Fred Johnson, sanitary officer of Cumberland County, who reported that since his coming more than eleven hundred homes had been sanitated, this being -)ctober, 1929 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Page 9 something like 60 per cent of the homes in the county. Nine hundred specimens had been sent in for hookworm examination, of which 70 to 80 per cent were found positive. One hundred sixty-eight persons had been treated. About eight hundred persons had been inoculated for typhoid fever. Many sanitary toilets had been built, drinking water had been analyzed, and wells had been treated. Miss Alice Adshead, R.N., of Cumberland Mountain Sanitarium at Pleasant Hill, told of the nursing classes in the Academy and in communities in the county that were raising up a company of women with a working knowledge of home-nursing, first aid, and care of the sick. There has been a special emphasis in Cumberland County recently on better homes. Mrs. J. C.. Bowden of Crossville, county chairman of this work, and Mrs. Paul Ervin of Pleasant Hill, told of the eager cooperation of rural women in the better homes efforts and their frequent desire to organize community clubs for .he purpose. Among the subjects stressed are: screens, home gardens, living-rooms free from use as bed-rooms, bright and cheerful kitchens. The cooperation of school children is secured, often by means of contests, Fine bulletins, posters, slides, and films are available, and the State University gladly furnishes speakers. A piece of work of large promise that is lately coming into importance in our region is that of the Hi-Y, the Y.M.C.A. organization for high schools. Several clubs have been formed in these counties, and a number of the boys, together with some of the adult leaders, told of the plans and hopes of these groups that are enlisting the energies of youth in tackling the problems just ahead and helping bring larger life to this area. A number of persons have felt that there is a peculiar promise of helpfulness in this little conference. It is bringing into contact and cooperation the workers in many lines in an area more or less homogeneous and not too large for immediate cooperative effort. One of the most striking features of the gatherings has been the wide range of interests represented. The delegates have included teachers, business men, a banker or two, lawyers, farm ers, agriculture teachers, county agents, University extension workers, foresters, Y.M.C.A. secretaries, Boy Scout workers, women interested in every phase of the life of their communities, physicians, students, county superintendents of schools, members of school boards, ministers, and others. The conference plans to meet again in October or early November, at Jamestown, Tennessee. Some one phase of the work on the Plateau will be considered more fully at that time. Programs suggested for use in celebrating Armistice Day, Goodwill Day and Memorial Day, which have the focus of attention placed on heroes of Peace and avenues for world cooperation, rather than military achievements, have been compiled by the Education Committee of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and are available upon application to the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Pennsylvania Branch 192! Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Songs, poems, plays, pageants, folk dances, selections from the writings of famous men, and topics for short talks and essays, are included, classified according to the age of the pupil. SOUTHERN MOUNTAIN SCHOOLS All the readers of Mountain Life and Work will welcome the announcement that Russell Sage Foundation has just published "Southern Mountain Schools," an up-to-date list of the schools maintained primarily for the mountaineers by denominational and independent agencies. This valuable directory has classified the schools both according to denominations and states and gives such important data as type of institution, how maintained, and enrollment. It can be purchased for thirty cents at Russell Sage Foundation, 130 East 22nd Street, New York City, N. Y. Page 10 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK October, 192f OLD SPECKLES JAMES D. BURTON Down in the Tennessee Mountains is a Kentucky-bred horse of Arabian stock known to hundreds of mountain people as "Speckles". His owner is the Rev. Paul E. Doran, home missionary of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. The two names are inseparable in this territory. They were visiting mountain homes long before the advent of good roads in the highlands, and the use of the automobile. Until he was four years old the horse was cared for by two girls who had ridden and driven him since he was two. When the girls left home, one to go into business and the other to school, Speckles was sold to a man who was none too kind in disposition. One day, when the man had been drinking, he started to get into his buggy, and then remembered that he wanted to light his pipe. With one foot on the step between the wheels, he started to light the pipe. The horse, thinking he had gotten into the buggy, started and knocked the man down. Drunk, and angered at his fall, he got into the buggy and began beating and swearing at the horse. The horse ran away and never stopped until he had torn the buggy to pieces and extricated himself from the remains. Subsequent attempts of this cruel owner to drive or ride the horse were futile. He would not let the owner hitch him to the buggy or mount him. Finally, Speckles fell into the hands of a trader. Mr. Doran, passing by this trader's horse lot one day, spied Speckles. He admired him, and being in need of a missionary horse to carry him over a large parish in the mountains, offered to buy him. The trader demurred about selling this horse to the minister, saying that he would not suit him, that he had made a bad reputation for himself and was considered dangerous. Finally however, the man was induced to let the minister have the horse on thirty days' trial. The horse trader and the minister were neighbors, and the trader wanted to remain a friend to the minister. The minister began talking to Speckles, and petting him. To the trader's amazement, the horse became gentle and easy to handle. That was the beginning of Speckle's missionary career. For ten years he has carried this minister more than five thousand miles a year, on an average, over all kinds of roads and through all kinds of weather. The minister has trusted him as a faithful friend, which he has proved to be. Many dark nights, on dangerous paths, this minister has dropped the reins and told Speckles to take him home, and he has always arrived safely. And now the interesting part is Speckles' education. The minister vouches for the statements. He was constantly talking to the horse on their long, lonesome journeys, and teaching him to understand. The horse learned the names of families in the mountains. He would go alone to these homes, when directed to do so, witl. many miles intervening. He developed some curious traits. No one except members of the Doran family handle him, unless in the presence of his owner and with the owner's approval. When the minister tells him to go with a stranger everything is all right, and there is no further trouble. Mr. Doran's three little boys ride Speckles at pleasure. It is comical to see him stretch out his front legs and then his hind legs, and bow his back down for the boys to get on or off him. The horse is never hitched, but is allowed to stand unhitched even at the county seat of Sparta. He will not leave until his owner returns. Once the minister had an engagement to speak in a nearby town. He rode the horse part of the way and took a bus for the remainder of the trip. Now when Speckles is at the county seat and feels that his owner has been in town long enough, he comes up on the public square looking for him. That day the minister did not return as soon as he had expected. According to custom, Speckles had gone up to the town square in search of his owner. In (Continued on Page Nineteen) October, 1929 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Page 11 PIONEER NIGHT SCHOOL R7/ HANNAH JEWETT POWELL Pigeon Ricer, Haywood County, North Carolina As in its industrial development, although not yet keeping pace with it, North Carolina is pushing the advantages of good public school education farther and farther into the mountains and by-ways. During eight years of life in the mountains the writer has seen much pr ogr ess. In our western section, especially in Haywood County, consolidated school are multiplying rapidly. Indeed, Cecil Township has ,just built of river rock the last one of the Haywood County chain. These things rejoice the heart and make one glad of the share of a worker or a voter, or sometimes a "fighter", in them. But the defects of the years gone by are still to be remedied. The walls of the mountains, both real and fancied, are still to be overcome. Awakened desire has still to be met otherwise than by a "grade" school or by a curriculum which is often too inelastic for the end in view. All agencies which really serve are needed in the march toward the great goal of a citizenship to match our broad plains, our noble rivers, and our incomparable mountains. The Pioneer Night School came in answer to a "call." Two ,young men were putting the chapel in order after the exhibition of the 1928 Summer School. As they lugged settees with right good will, all of a sudden one spoke: "Miss Powell, when are you all going to have something like summer school for fellows like Jim and me, who didn't get to go to school when we oughter?" "Next winter, Calvin," was the instant reply. And it was so. Only sixteen sessions, two nights per week, but how much was accomplished in those nights! The first school of the kind in the the neighborhood, it was named "Pioneer," and was true to its name. A preliminary meeting of those most interested talked over the general idea. The first session voted on the curriculum. It was mostly "readin' and 'ritin' and 'rithmetic," but such glorified reading, writing and arithmetic as it was -a real course in writing by an expert; individual instruction in practical arithmetic, just what one wished; silent reading, for the most part under sympathetic supervision; spelling and current events for variety. Through the courtesies of Buncombe County, the University of North Carolina press, and the BEN DUNCAN, BUGLER OF THE PIONEER NIGHT SCHOOL interest of Mrs. Elizabeth Morriss, we used to some extent Mrs. Morriss' books for the night schools of Buncombe County. These were used mostly at home, as a supplement to the school sessions, and they are today the precious possessions, still in use, of those who bought and paid for them. There was music at beginning and close-a Page 12 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK October, 1929 very special closing service at which we always sang "Taps." We had an official bugler, too, who called us in and played us out. We still hear the echoes of that bugle dying away in the dark of the mountains as the bugler, once in the navy, pursued his homeward way. "All is well, Safely rest, God is nigh." We began and closed exactly on the dot. Two hours intensive work, a bit of a recess, a half hour's recreation and play. The make-up of the nineteen registeredsixteen average-was most interesting and significant. There were the Holiness preacher and wife, and perforce, because they could not be left alone, Effie and Clyde also. These tads sat at first in a corner with "play pretties," but were soon drawn into the circle as busily at work as anyone else. There were three brothers from one family; two from another; two sets of father and son; a brother and two sisters from another family; two sisters from still another. There were some who could neither read nor write; many who had "quit" ; school too soon to earn the bread and butter; several behind in school, seeking to "catch up"; and fathers of children in the schools who were already technically far ahead of them; but all had the thirst to know which is all-important. We did not encourage visitors in "gangs," since time was precious and space limited. At least three families of wives and babies deserve stars in their crowns for doing an unusual thing in the mountains-staying at home alone for two evenings a week so that Wes or Bill or James or George might "go to school." More than once a man loaded "acid wood" after school until midnight, that his seat might not be vacant. Our preacher is the head of the railroad station crew. He and his crew kept us well supplied with old railroad ties for wood, which Loverne of Friendly House, aided by other boys, cut up and put into fires to warm and cheer. The teachers were the Friendly House staff of three. We had abominable weather-hardly a fair night-but undauntedly we toiled up the steep hill in rain or slush, oftener without than with either rubbers or umbrella. In fact we began in snow and ended in rain, but on we went, undeterred by any obstacle which arose. Two teachers were caught away one afternoon by a car break-down. There was a real blizzard abroad. The taxi hired that they might be there on the dot of seven was mired a mile and a half away. What was happening at Inman's Chapel to the Pioneer Night School? A gaunt old horse who has since received a largesse of oats finally pulled us out of the mudhole. An hour later, in the blinding snow and howling wind, we came within sight of home. Light in the Chapel? Surely not. A second look. Surely. We toiled on up the hill to find all going straight on, warm, cozy, and happy. The one teacher left and "each by each" were serenely "carrying on." A shout greeted our entrance, but heads were hardly lifted from arithmetic or reading book. Our "current events" that night were a recital of our adventures to keep our appointment and to be "in at the death" if no more. Away back in consciousness, worked out in adaption to the need in hand, were the "Denmark" idea of Br asstown and memories of Opportunity School. Still further back was and still is a genuine desire to meet a real need which has been voiced in a petition from the people themselves. We believe that the Pioneer Night School will go "marching on," in the spirit of our motto, "Without halting, without rest, lifting better up to best." No one can adequately measure the real results of this venture. But what a joy to be able to make out one's own checks; to write one's first letter to "kin" in Virginia; to dig a bit into the mysteries of fractions in relation to a lumber yard; to improve steadily in penmanship; to think "Now I am going on again, even if I had to stop when I was a kid." We also truly believe that the comradeship of this most diverse group means even more than anything else. On the last night, we worked "like mad" for two hours, as usual. Then we adjourned to Friendly House for a pan cake "flip" at which the men came out strong at the frying pans. The women for the most part assisted with syrup and butter and "eatin." We (Continued, On Page Fifteen) October, 1929 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Page 13 "THE LIVING TRADITION" DJ BONNIE T. WILLIS Penland, North Carolina It is Wednesday at the little weaving-cabin located at Penland, North Carolina, in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The atmosphere of the spacious room inside is one of coziness and comfort. A fire has been lighted in the big stone fireplace, for it is October and the days have become chilly. In one corner of the room, stands a large loom for the double-harness linen to build, to learn new designs and to prepare materials for their next week's weaving at home. It is a day which is looked forward to by these "weaver-mothers" because it is a day when they can leave their own homes and meet their friends and neighbors for a common day of work and comradeship. It is a saving element in the lives of some who are apt to become THE WEAVING CABI weave; in another corner are smaller looms and an "old-timey" flax wheel. Shelves, display cabinets, and cedar chests filled with beautiful woven things of every design, give an impression of prosperity to the visitor. A grandfather clock adds a touch of color and picturesqueness. On this particular day the chairs of Colonial design have been arranged in a large seminircle around the fireplace. It is "weavin day" -a day on which fifty weavers meet at this attractive cabin, which they have helped N AT PENLAND irritated and tired of the "sameness" of the days' work at home. It is an inspiration to see these women sitting around the fire at their work-sharing each other's joys and sorrows in a wonderfully sympathetic and understanding way. They tell of the latest improvements in their homes, they speak of the success of their sons and daughters who may be away at work or in school, and they express to each other their hopes for the future. They promulgate plans for a graded Page 14 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK October, 1929 road which will make it easier for them to reach the "cabin," and they actually send representatives to the county road commissioners to find out what can be done about it. If there are families in need, they talk of ways of helping them. But most frequent and most interesting of all are the discussions about the weaving itself. These women who ten years ago had no money which they could call their own, and who today are economically independent of their husbands, are unceasing in their praise of what weaving has done for them. It is not unusual to hear a conversation such as this school, besides doin' a heap o'things I'd wanted done around the house." Mrs. Adams: "Well, ten years ago I was out of heart of ever bein' able to send John to college. We was doin' the best we could, but Bob's wages in the spar mines was low, and there was a big family to provide .for. It just seemed like this weavin' was sent by the Lord. I got a loom and with what I could make and what he could earn, he went to college. I'm sure proud of him." Or in another section of the room, this might be heard INTERIOR OF THE between two grateful women who, a quilt across their laps, are appliqueing designs and sharing with each other their common benefits: Mrs. Adams: "My, I certainly am glad this weavin' started up. It sure has been a sight of help." Mrs. Brown: "Law, yes. Why, Jane, do you know that's where the money for Helen's clothes comes from? I never in this world could o' kept clothes on her and sent her to school if it hadn't been for my weavin'. In the time it's been a'goin' on it's got her nearly through WEAVING CABIN Mrs. Combs: "The last check I got was for one hundred dollars. I was so tickled, because that's more than Jim's wages for a month. I never had so much money before." Mrs. Davis: "Why, you don't say! What are you grin' to do with it?" Mrs. Combs: "I banked it. I am goin' to add to it a long as I can to buy a washin' machine. Bring your clothes over and wash them when I get it." Mrs. Davis: "Well, that's mighty good of you. I got linoleum for the kitchen with my October, 1929 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Page 15 last check, and helped Tom pay our last installment on the victrola." Thus the day goes, in work and in beautiful helpful fellowship. Women who otherwise would not see each other once in a year, meet here every week on a common basis of working and living. Very often there is a social period in the afternoon during which hymns of the mountains are sung, a new community project discussed, or an outside visitor furnishes entertainment. Every year has its outstanding Wednesdays. Perhaps Aunt Cindy and Aunt Cumi, who are now too feeble to walk, have been brought in an automobile to see the "kivvers," which they find are so much like the ones they used to make "way back before the war." No one could be more appreciative of the weaving than these sweet old women, who will die just a little happier because they have seen their old arts revived. They sit and tell of how they used to "kyard" and spin and dye and weave all the bed "kivvers" and all the clothes of the family. knd then Aunt Cindy chuckles to Aunt Cumi "Well, Cumi, I never thought I'd see this a-goin' on again. I was afeared the young gineration was a-gittin' too proud to use ho'made things with all the fetched-on fact'ry truck. But this is a good sign-it does my ole heart good." On other days, Mr. Coggin, State Supervisor of Domestic Arts, from Raleigh, or Mr. Worst of Chicago, will be there to partake of the bountiful picnic dinner which the weavers prepare for these occasions. Last January, a weaving conference was held, which was attended by many persons of note throughout the country. The weavers took turns in preparing the meals during the days of the conference. And so the beautiful old art which yesterday was only a tradition, today gives new life, new hope, to a people who are innately progressive and intelligent, but who, because of mountain barriers, have not been able to enjoy their share of happiness and economic independence. And how? The answer may be found by learning of the work of one woman, Lucy C. Morgan, Director, who seven years ago started the industry and who, with dauntless en thusiasm and the aid of sacrificial friends, has developed it into a veritable means of salvation for the women of the community. Modest and unassuming, she has revived the old arts which ten years ago were only a living tradition to be talked about by Aunt Cindy and Aunt Cumi ; and in so doing she has revived the hearts of the women of Penland, and won a warm place for herself in each one. Miss Morgan has very aptly been called "a living tradition," by an admirer. May we not also apply the epithet to her work? Adjustment to Rural Industrial Changes (Continued From Pace Two) is exceedingly varied and so are the resources. Doubtless it would be most unwise to encourage the sub-marginal farming of certain areas. We need large forest reservations, more small de-centralized industries. But equally unreason able does it seem to me to hope to work out such a serious and fundamental problem with a standardized form of education. We must be open in mind, flexible in method, if we are to contribute any real help to the development of a fuller and better rural life in the moun tains. -Olive D. Campbell PIONEER NIGHT SCHOOL (Continued Froirz Page Twelve) had coffee, too, made by the minister. The Pigeon River Orchestra of "banj er," guitar, and fiddle was present. We were merry and gay and happy, too, because we had well finished in Inmans Chapel what was begun in wonder, if with prayer-the Pioneer Night School in the beautiful Pigeon River valley. Again we sang "Taps" around the rock fireplace, and after the lingering "goodbyes" once More we listened for the call of the bugle "down the trail." "Day is done, Gone the sun From the fields From the hills, From the sky, All is well Safely rest God is nigh." Page 16 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK October, 1929 SCARLET FEVER SURRENDERS In this day when everyone is eager to read stories of "Microbe. Hunters" and "Hunger Fighters", it is a privilege, to read something written by one of them. Doctor Glades Dick has written for us this review of scarlet fever, that disease which has taken so many lives and which has handicapped many others. The story of the struggle of Doctors George and Gladys Dick to find the cause of seas=let fever, a test for susceptibility, and finally a preventive treatment, is a fascinating story. With infinite care the work was carried through the experimental stages and presented to the world. Untold numbers of lives have been and will be saved as a result of their work. When an epidemic of scarlet fever visited Be)-ea College„ Dodo), Gladys Dick came and personally directed the successful fight, an account of which follows this scientific but highly readable treatment of the disease itself. SCARLET FEVER By GLADYs DICK The onset of an attack of scarlet fever usually begins within a week after exposure to the disease. Exposure may occur through contact with a person suffering from scarlet fever at the time, through contact with a person who has recently had the disease and, though recovered, still carries the germs in his nose or throat, or through association with some one who has had such contacts. The attacks begin with sore throat, headache, backache, fever, and nausea. Of these symptoms, nausea is one of the most important, as it is not common in other forms of sore throat. The eruption usually appears on the second day of illness. It begins as a faint blush on the abdomen and chest. When it is fully developed, it covers the body with thickly scattered bright red points; so that at a little distance the skin appears scarlet. This rash does not come out on the face, but the cheeks are flushed and the skin around the mouth appears pale in contrast to the red cheeks. The various diseases accompanied by eruptions were confused in the beginning of medical science. The confusion between rashes of measles and scarlet fever persisted up to the seventeenth century, when Sydenham, an English physician, differentiated scarlet fever from measles and wrote a complete description of the former which enabled other physicians to distinguish them. Sydenham also pointed out the tendency of scarlet fever to cause complications involving the heart, ears, and kidneys. Soon after his work was published, the different types of scarlet fever were recognized. It was learned that some attacks are mild and others severe, the latter sometimes resulting in death within a week after the onset of the first symptom. Other forms of scarlet fever run an apparently mild course, but at the time convalescence should begin, complications set in and, after weeks of suffering, the patient succumbs, or recovers with impairment of some vital organ of his body which handicaps him in after years. The deaths which occur during the attack of scarlet fever are few as compared with the deaths indirectly caused by the disease. It frequently happens that organs such as the heart or kidneys injured during an attack of scarlet fever in childhood are able to carry on their work with decreasing efficiency into adult life. Thus many of the deaths attributable to scarlet fever occur in persons who are at the age of their greatest usefulness to society. It is never possible to predict in any given case whether an attack of scarlet fever is going to be mild or severe, or whether or not it will be followed by complications. It is evident that the only way to prevent the damage wrought by scarlet fever is to prevent the disease. Since Sydenham's description of scarlet fever in the seventeenth century, many physicians have devoted their lives to searching for the means of curing or preventing scarlet fever. Jenner's discovery of a method of vaccinating against small pox stimulated October, 1929 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Page 17 physicians in England, Germany, and this country to attempt vaccination against scarlet fever, but their efforts were not rewarded by success, and the knowledge of scarlet fever was at a standstill for over two hundred years. With the development of the science of bacteriology, research on scarlet fever was stimulated. Many investigators turned to the study of the bacteria, or germs, found in scarlet fever, in the hope that through discovering the germ which caused the disease some method for preventing or curing it might be evolved. But it was not until 1923, about three hundred years after scarlet fever had been recognized as a distinct disease, that its cause was established. This was accomplished by the apparently simple method of cultivating from the throats of scarlet fever patients as many different kinds of bacteria as possible; observing the frequency with which each different kind occurred, and inoculating human volunteers in the throat with the germ which was most constantly present in the throats of scarlet fever patients. Some of these volunteers developed typical, mild attacks of scarlet fever from which they recovered without any complications. The cause of scarlet fever was thus established as a certain kind of hemolytic streptococcus. A streptococcus is a minute spherical germ which grows in chains; so that under the microscope it resembles a minute chain of round beads. There are different kinds of streptococci. Some dissolve the red coloring matter out of the blood cells. These are known as hemolytic streptococci. Scarlet fever streptococci differ from other hemolytic streptococci in their ability to manufacture a potent poison or toxin. This toxin is responsible for the characteristic symptoms of scarlet fever, including the rash. The air in the immediate vicinity of a scarlet fever patient contains minute droplets of moisture from his breath. These droplets carry the scarlet fever streptococci. If they are breathed in by a person susceptible to scarlet fever and lodge in the throat or nose, they multiply there, causing the first symptoms of the disease-sore throat. As the streptococci grow in the thoat, they manufacture their poi son, which is absorbed into the blood and carried to all parts of the body. If the scarlet fever patient recovers, he does so because his body manufactures an antidote for this poison. If for any reason he fails promptly to produce an adequate amount of the antidote, his body is overwhelmed by the poison and death results. The antidote produced by the body is known as scarlet fever antitoxin. After one attack of scarlet fever, there is usually lasting immunity from other attacks. This immunity is due to the fact that once the body has learned how to make scarlet fever antitoxin, it usually continues to manufacture the antitoxin indefinitely, thus providing protection against a second attack of the disease. Some individuals do not continue the manufacture of scarlet fever antitoxin, and these persons may have more than one attack of the disease. It is now possible to supply the scarlet fever patient with artificially prepared antitoxin. Injection of the artificially prepared antitoxin furnishes the scarlet fever patient with the means of combating the toxin in his body. If the antitoxin is injected early in the disease and in adequate amounts, it shortens the course, reduces the severity of the attack and diminishes the chances of complications. With every hour of delay in giving the antitoxin, the benefit derived from it is decreased, and if administration of antitoxin is delayed too long the tissues of the body may be already damaged past repair. While the early administration of scarlet fever antitoxin usually effects a prompt cure and reduces the incidence of complications, the only sure way to avoid risk of complications is to prevent the disease. This may be accomplished through preventive immunization. In order to learn which persons are susceptible to scarlet fever so that they might contract the disease on exposure, skin tests are made. This test consists of injecting ,just beneath the upper layer of the skin on the forearm one and one half drops of a highly diluted and carefully standardized solution of scarlet fever toxin. The result is observed the next day. If there is no pink spot about the point of injection, the person tested is immune to scarlet Page 18 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK October, 1929 fever so that he would not contract the disease on exposure. If there is any pink spot, no matter how faint the color may be, the person is susceptible to scarlet fever and should be immunized. Some people are more highly susceptible than others because they have not had any contact with scarlet fever streptococci. Others have acquired immunity to the disease through having had repeated attacks of scarlet fever sore throats without ever having had a rash on the skin. The immunization of susceptible persons is accomplished by injections of carefully graduated doses of the toxin. Because the toxin used in the skin test and immunization contains no germs and is employed in small doses, it can not cause an attack of scarlet fever or any complications. Immunity to scarlet fever is acquired without the dangers attendant on an attack of the disease and with comparatively little inconvenience. These new methods for the control of scarlet fever have been employed on a large sale and have been demonstrated to be safe, reliable, and practicable. THE BEREA SCARLET FEVER EPIDEMIC Py DR. J. WILBUR ARMSTRONG Assistant College Physician, Berea College, Berea, Kentneky An unusual epidemic of scarlet fever occurred at Berea College in March, 1929. Here the research of the Doctors Dick in the prevention and treatment of scarlet fever was given a demonstration. The story of the Berea epidemic may be of help to others in understanding and combating the disease elsewhere. We had been having a few scattered cases of scarlet fever, but complacently said to ourselves there was little danger of an epidemic, as we had scattered cases every year. But within two days 174 cases were admitted to the College Hospital with severe sore throats and nausea and headache. We did not think it could be more than just an epidemic of sore throat until rashes began to appear. We believe the epidemic was started by someone who carried the germs of scarlet fever in his throat, contaminating the milk in one of the boarding halls, as all the first cases came from one hall. With such a start it spread rapidly until we had 400 cases in bed. There were large numbers on the campus with sore throat and tonsilitis who did not go to the hospital. Most of these cases had been advised to have their tonsils out in the fall. Few cases of tonsilitis developed in those without tonsils. Cultures taken from the throats of these sore-throat cases showed all to be infected with ,the germ of scarlet fever although they had no rash and were only slightly sick. We found, too, that many were carrying the germs who were not sick at all. Dr. Gladys Dick came to us from Chicago, and the representative of the State Board of Health came from Louisville to direct and help in the fight. Every person on the campus or working at the College was skin-tested with the Dick test to see if he was susceptible to scarlet fever. Every person also had a culture taken of his nose and throat, to see if he was a carrier of the germ. No carrier was allowed to leave the Campus, and in as far as was possible no carrier was allowed to come in contact with susceptible cases on the campus. Active immunization, or the building up of protection against the disease by the use of the scarlet fever toxin discovered by Doctor Dick was started at once. We could have saved time and prevented some additional cases of scarlet fever that developed if we had given a prophylactic dose of scarlet fever antitoxin to protect for three weeks while we were developing lasting immunity by use of toxin. However, we wished to avoid the possibility of a serum sickness, which may occur with any antitoxin, and under the existing circumstances we decided to go ahead with the toxin alone. Five graduated doses of toxin were given to each susceptible person, and two weeks after the last dose, all were retested. Ninety-five percent were found to be immune or protected. The other five percent required an additional dose. We read of epidemics hanging on week after week in various institutions. Our epidemic was at once under control. Within the next few October, 1929 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Page 19 days after the first dose of toxin, 59 cases developed, but after the second there were but 4. No new cases developed after a week had elapsed from the time of the first dose. No case of scarlet fever developed in a person found negative by the skin test, showing that the skin-test can be depended upon to tell who is immune and who susceptible. The question is asked, "How long will the immunization protect an individual?" A small percent of individuals do not hold immunity well to any disease. Aside from that group we expect lasting immunity. We know that scarlet fever itself usually confers immunity for life. This work with the toxin has not been used for a "lifetime," so we cannot for certain tell about the duration. There were :two children in one group who had received the toxin three years previous and were found to be still immune. The lesson the Berea epidemic presents is that, 1. An epidemic may occur in any susceptible group, providing the infection is disseminated. 2. Only a small percent of the infected people are sick enough to undergo treatment, and, not considering themselves to be a menace, carry the disease to their associates. 3. The Dick Test will indicate who is susceptible to scarlet fever. 4. An epidemic can be quickly controlled by the institution of an immunization program with scarlet fever toxin. 5. Scarlet fever toxin in standard five dose treatment will fully protect 95 percent of those treated and partially protect the other 5 percent. 6. It is no longer necessary for anyone to have scarlet fever. "OLD SPECKLES" (Continued From Page Ten) trying to get out of the way of a car he ran up an alley, and in some way fastened himself to a fence. The minister returned and could not find him. Thinking the horse for once had left him, he walked home. Speckles was not there and did not show up the next morning. A friend in town telephoned that the night before he had seen Speckles hitched and begging piteously to be turned loose, and that he had loosed him, thinking he would come home. When the minister came to the county seat, a distance of about five miles from his home, he found his faithful horse looking for him. On one of the long journeys into the mountains, the trail led over a huge flat rock. Speckles slipped and fell, throwing the minister violently to the ground and stunning him by the fall. When he came to, the horse was standing over him, trembling in every muscle and presenting a pitiful sight. The horse evidently thought he had killed his owner. Ever since that experience when reaching dangerous places on the mountain paths, he will stop, look back and groan until the minister dismounts, slaps him on the hip, and tells him to go on and wait for him; meanwhile the minister makes his way on foot up or down the path as the case may be, to find Speckles waiting for him where the way becomes smooth. The history of mountain missions in Tennessee will never be complete without the story of the faithful service of "Old Speckles" and the Rev. Paul E. Doran. Together they have ministered to the sick, the dying, the hungry and povertystricken ones in neglected and forgotten places in the mountains. They have been ministering angels of mercy to hundreds of people in the Tennessee Mountains, and the only compensation either has asked or expected has been the mere necessities of life. As I have traveled out into the heart of these hills from my headquarters at Harriman, Tennessee, on the border of the Cumberland Range, I have often met "Old Speckles" and the minister not far from the divide or the water-shed, east and west, and have come away with profound impressions of the great service they are rendering. Speckles is nearing another "great divide" where he shall rest forever from his arduous labors. He is now practically on pension at the country home of this minister of the gospel. Not being such a bad horse as was once reported, but responding to kind treatment, he has rendered a right noble service to humanity in the out-of-the way places of the earth. Page 20 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK October, 1929 THE HALF-AND-HALF NURSE B1t HELEN ORTH, Mt. Vc),7zon, Kcntuckky Remembering training days, when the Superintendent of Nurses told her students that a graduate nurse was a servant of the people and that there was no room for half rate nurses in the country, the writer feels the need of explaining the title to this article. The Half-and-Half Nurse is rather an unusual combination in this section of the country. She is a resident nurse in Langdon Home, maintained by the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A.-a home for girls coming into the county high school from mountain counties whose high schools are not accessible to them. Through our well balanced diet (the work of our dietitian), save for a few colds and a case or two of contagious disease, the main nursing task at the Home is tying up cuts and bruises, and teaching classes in Sex Hygiene and Home Nursing. The teaching of a Sunday School class in the Presbyterian Sunday School and at Union Chapel out on the edge of town, and the Superintendency of the Junior High Intermediate Christian Endeavorers are also part of this nurse. That is half of her. The other half is county nurse engaged in a work with many phases, chief of which is health edu,-ation. Summer, whether with its deluge of last year or its drouth of this year, seems in this limestone-bound county to mean many cases of typhoid fever. So, through the cooperation of the Fiscal Court, County Judge, County School Board, County Superintendent of Schools, the local graded school board and State Board of Health, funds are raised to support the nursing service, which is combined in the Health and Welfare League. Then, the State Board of Health furnishes free the typhoid vaccine used in an effort to clear this county of that disease. The giving of typhoid shots to 1,047 persons in twenty-six sections of the county means not only a saving of life but also an economic saving in that the actual cost of a case of typhoid is saved. At times several schools meet for the "shots," and the visit of the nurse to the school becomes a social occasion, with much good natured rivalry in games, spelling matches, and other tests of skill and knowledge. Of course many patrons come and lend thei.r support, and as the expression goes, a "good time is had by all," even though a tear or so may be shed. Much fun is occasioned by the man who remarks, "This is like going to the dentist's; it hurts worse to see him getting ready than it does when he pulls the tooth, and it hurts me a heap worse to see you get ready than the `shot' does." One small boy ran away into the woods by the school house but, as his guardian was there and wanted him to have the protection these inoculations give, he `vas unceremoniously caught and brought in, and held while the shot was given. "Why shucks," he said, "that didn't hurt no more'n a sweat bee" -and was rather ashamed that he had been such a coward about it. It has been the usual thing that those in the school who do not take the shots are excused from the room, for it isn't fair for them to enjoy the fun or "circus" if they are not going to contribute to it. As these various communities aye visite?, the nurse has a chance to teach many other things. The mother with the "puny" baby, coming for shots, is advised as to feeding or, if it seems to be a case of disease, is urged to seek medical advice. Lack of cleanliness both of body and mouth are noticed, and the suggestions as to brushing teeth are of help if they do not fall upon deaf ears. It is a surprise to most of the children to learn that the old excuse of no toothbrush won't get by the nurse. Even though no five-and-ten cent store is available, and twentyfive and seventy-five cents spent on a toothbrush seems impossible to the children, and possibly foolish to some parents, a really nice tasting and fairly satisfactory one can be made by chewing a sassafras stick and using the chewed end as a brush. Talks to the parents on the correction of the defects found are also made possible. School inspection of buildings, and sugges October, 1929 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Page 21 tions for better things where necessary also come under the visits of the nurse to a school. In most schools a lack of seats is to be found, and even if there are enough to go round, they are usually not the right height for the smallest ones; so the posture suggestions and the use of a block of wood to help a better sitting position are welcome. The community visits give the nurse another chance to be of help, for there she has a chance to ask about crippled children of the section, and it is surprising to find many children who have some defect that comes under the care of the Kentucky Crippled Children's Commission. Generally the parents of such children have never availed themselves of the care offered, and simply have need of a few words of encouragement from some of their own folks in the community or the personal interest of the nurse. Since the last clinic held for this county, just through visits of the nurse to several sections of the county, four children with remedial defects which come under the care of the Kentucky Crippled Children's Commission have been found. Of the many crippled children whose defects were caused by an epidemic of Infantile Paralysis, five have been admitted to the hospital and are at the present time in various stages of recovery. Possibly, those of Lis who have been in nursing work fail to see things as they appear to others; so we will quote from the first impressions of one of the workers who came from outside the mountains as she went with the nurse to visit a home in which awful conditions existed. *"Our nurse here at Langdon, Peter (her Ford), and I had an extremely interesting time yesterday. We drove sixteen miles through wooded hills over winding roads-beauty that takes one's breath-to the other corner of the county, left the main road and drove as far as we could over rocks and rills. Then we left Peter and walked `up the holler' al)out four miles, past several log cabins, some inhabited, others standing deserted or serving as storage places for fodderCI thought we never would get there. You see our. destination was one of the story The following story should not be taken as typical of mountain conditions. There are rural slums as w_°11 as city slums.-Editor. book mountain homes of the worst kind. We passed one of their little coal mines in the side of a hill. They have little low cars in them that they push along on two rails. We saw handhewn picket fences and primitive cast-off sleds made with log runners. Part of the time the path was difficult to define because of the overgrown weeds. The grass was wet so the nurse went ahead and brushed most of the water off, for she was wearing a slicker and `high-tops'. "Finally we came to a cabin. A woman came out the door wearing an old black dress which came almost to her ankles, with a white string tied around her waist. She wore high shoes, heavy and much too big, with strings tied around the tops. She had an old red and black woolen stocking cap on her head. Her arm was tied up-she had fallen two days before and `liked to killed herself' on some rocks. She had put turpentine on it and bandaged it up. The nurse asked her, `If we follow this path will we get to Mr . . . . . . . . .'s?' She said yes, that she was going up there herself, so she had a little half-starved boy that was with her padlock the door, and they led the way. She was chewing tobacco-or rather there was a wad of it in her mouth-and she interspersed her conversation with expectorations which revealed its identity. "We `clumb and clumb' and finally reached our destination. We turned our backs on the beauty of a thickly wooded mountain side and entered a low one room cabin-a different world. Was it real? A fireplace at one end with eight children huddled around it on the floor. One little child was sitting on the floor with his head against the little rusty stove, sound asleep. The baby was lying on a mass of dirty quilts in the corner behind the door, with flies crawling all over its face. This baby belonged to the woman who had come with us. Two of the others were hers too. She was Mr.. . . . . .'s niece and the nurse thought she was probably not more than twenty-two. In a way she looked older. One boy about fourteen was a cripple and sat on a gunny sack cushion with his legs crossed, having sat in that position so long that he could not straighten them; and now his arms were (Continued on Page Twenty-Four) Page 22 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK October, 1929 VIRGINIA'S PLAN FOR MENTAL HYGIENE By FRANK BANE Commissioner of Public Welfare, Piclamond, Va. Virginia has not been unmindful of her duty to her unfortunate citizens. This article deals with the mentally ill, defectives, epileptics, and with juvenile delinquents. There are three hospitals for the insane and one colony for the epileptics and feeble-minded of the white race, and one hospital for the colored insane, with a colony for the feebleminded in addition. With such funds as the State could provide, everything possible has been done to give proper and effective treatment and humane care to these wards of the Commonwealth. Virginia was the first state to provide public care for the insane, when, in 1769, it established the Eastern State Hospital at Williamsburg. The Western State Hospital, at Staunton, Virginia, celebrated its hundredth anniversary last year. In 1869, the first state hospital exclusively for the colored insane was established in Virginia. Additional hospitals and colonies have been provided from time to time, as necessity developed and as funds were available. All institutions in the mental hygiene field are embraced in the State Department of Public Welfare. The census of these institutions and the annual cost of maintenance indicates the magnitude of the State's hygiene program. At the end of the last fiscal year the patient population in these hospitals aggregated 7,271, and in addition there were 1,720 patients at home, on visits, or on parole, making a total of 8,991 patients carried on the registers of these institutions. During the past fiscal year, 2,009 insane, feeble-minded, and epileptic persons were admitted to state institutions, an increase of about 250 over the past year. There are almost twice as many patients in these institutions as there are beds in all of the other hospitals in the state. The total amount expended for maintenance and permanent improvement in hospitals during the past year reached the large sum of $1,754,339.50, the largest for any similar period in the history of state care. The liberal attitude of the Governor of Virginia toward the mentally diseased of the State has been most gratifying. In his message to the General Assembly of 1928, he said that proper care and treatment of the State's unfortunates would be his first consideration, and in his budget bill of that year he recommended the appropriation of three-quarters of a million dollars for the construction of additional fireproof buildings and for better equipment, to the end that Virginia should provide every means within its financial ability for their comfort and welfare, with a special effort to restore as many of them as possible. The administration has realized, however, that the construction and efficient operation of the State's institutions is not enough; that a program of prevention and correction must be put into operation if Virginia is to keep pace with other states in its efforts to reduce to an appreciable extent the everincreasing burden of human suffering and economic loss caused by mental disorder, defect, and delinquency. The culmination of prolonged efforts in the state was the establishment last year of a bureau of mental hygiene as a division of the Department of Public Welfare. This bureau will concern itself primarily with the development of an educational, preventive and corrective program throughout the state. The bureau further coordinates all mental hygiene work and directs the operation of all institutions and agencies in this field. Working through the established agencies, it enables the medical and social organizations, the school authorities, the judiciary, and other agencies to act with insight and intelligence in dealing with mentally defective, psychiatric, and otherwise abnormal or difficult persons. The mental hygiene program which is being developed will foster the establishment of out-clinics in connection with the state hopsital service, of additional special classes and vocational guidance in public schools for abnormal and subnormal children, development of after October, 1929 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK care and supervision of persons paroled from state hospitals. It will encourage the teaching of psychiatry and mental hygiene in the medical colleges and in training schools for nurses, and the establishment of psychopathic hospitals in connection with such medical schools. The State Mental Hygiene Clinic, consisting of a psychiatrist, two psychologists and two psychiatric social workers, with necessary stenographic and clerical assistance, is the mainspring of the preventive program of the bureau of mental hygiene. This clinic not only examines physically and mentally all children committed to the State-over 600 last yearbut it holds clinics in the various cities and counties of Virginia, to which abnormal, difficult children, suffering from conduct disorders, are brought. Suitable educational programs are developed in private child-caring institutions. Expert service is rendered to the juvenile and circuit courts of the State, and the services of the clinics are also at the disposal of the local medical societies in the various localities. The clinic, in operation approximately a year, has developed a state-wide interest in mental hygiene as a medical problem, has stimulated proper care and special training for certain types of children in the public schools and elsewhere. It is cooperating with the University of Virginia in the set-up of teaching clinics for medical students, in the establishment of a department of psychiatry in the medical schools there; and what is more important, it has to some extent convinced the people of this state that the problem of mental disturbances and mental deficiency is a problem to be solved and not a curse to be borne. As the mental hygiene program further develops, it should enable the State within the coming years to give its unfortunate and maladjusted population far better treatment, to conduct at our hospitals further study and research into the causes of mental disease and the treatment therefor, and to develop a state-wide knowledge of this most important of human problems, to the end that we may prevent to some extent this ever-increasing drain upon our human and economic resources. PLAYING THE GAME OF SELF-SUPPORT (Continued From Page Six) together and that holds them there. There must be great faith in the principles of Christian education and the method of self-maintenance. There must be unbounded love for humanity and a keen desire to serve. The man who is selfcentered, who loves not the other better than himself, will not long find a place in such a community center. Jesus of Nazareth was an ideal self-supporting worker, and the Apostle Paul another. With them lay the ability to inspire the people to make sacrifice easily, cheerfully, joyfully. For a little self-supporting center to be a success, the workers must get more joy out of their work than the rich man gets from his indulgences. In the case of this dreamer, the dream was more than a dream. It came true. The steady purpose to develop something worth while has brought together a group of happy workers, a permanent group, who receive nothing to boast of in salary, but who have a modest living, with the satisfaction that comes from helping others to a broader, stronger, better life. The successful community center will radiate light on many sides of life. It is full of helpful ideas on farming, on food preparation, on community hygiene, on homemaking. It cultivates a love for good literature and educates the ear to appreciate good music. Fountain Head has been a haven for boys and girls who would have been deprived of an education had it not been for the facilities offered there. Boys have been growing to manhood with a developing ability to do for others what has been done for them. They have been lead away from tobacco and strong drink. The school has had a decided effect on the customary early marriages in the rural districts. Young girls have something to look forward to other than the hum-drum life of a mountain mother in a cabin home. With some, inspiration for an education has gone further and has led to advanced courses for teachers, and physicians or nurses. When I visited the place a few days ago I found a Page 24 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK October, 1929 splendid group of boarding students, both boys and girls. The enrollment has reached seventy, with promises of others when the fall crops are laid by. These are being taught by three Madison trained teachers. It is such results that appeal to friends, and unloose the purse strings when equipment is needed better to carry forward the program of self-support and practical education for boys and girls of the rural community and the highlands. THE HALF AND HALF NURSE (Continued From Page Twenty-one) helpless and they had to feed him. He wouldn't say a word to us. The mother had just died about a week ago, leaving all these children, the youngest six months old. The father held that one all the time we were there, and fed it milk out of a glass. There was one bed piled with dirty quilts-and that was all in the way of sleeping accommodations, not even a loft. There was a table in one corner, with the few family dishes and pans piled on it, being well covered with flies. All the miscellaneous articles of the household were piled on the mantel over the fireplace and a few ears of corn were hanging from the rafters. There were two chairs in the room, one of them looking like the one that gave way with Goldy Locks-that was the one I occupied. The woman sat on an old rusty carbide can, holding her baby. Three little girls all looked about the same with their hair straggling down around their shoulders. Two of them were sitting under the table. The boys all had their caps on and I guess they all wore their one `change' of clothes. The reason we went there was because the county wants to put this crippled boy in a hospital in Louisville. The County Nurse and a nurse from Kentucky Crippled Children's Commission were there about a year ago, but the mother wouldn't hear to his going, and now the father says he promised .the boy's mammy that he wouldn't leave him as long as he lived. We got him to promise he would bring the child four miles to the road if the nurse could get a doctor from a nearby town to come and see the boy. That's all she could get him to do, however. He was willing to take him to this doctor only because he knew him. "As we left this little cabin nestled amidst all the grandeur of a Kentucky mountain side, the nurse remarked, `That seems almost animal existence, and truly one half the world doesn't know how the other half lives.' " SOUTHERN MILL HILLS It is a surprising bit of information to most people when they are told that the South was industrial as well as agricultural in its early youth; that the present activity of building new mills, together with the increasing number of people engaged in industry, is a revival rather than an entirely new departure. In a book published last fall-SOUTHERN MILL HILLS, (Alexander Hillman Company) -Lois MacDonald points out in the first chapter that in the early years of the nineteenth century there were more cotton manufactures in the southern states than in the thirteen other states and territories combined. However, the Industrial Revolution in England with its increased demand for raw cotton, the invention of the cotton gin, and the widespread use of slaves, made the cultivation of cotton more profitable for the South. The land and the people were more easily available than was manufacturing on a large scale. The inevitable development of large plantations pushed back the small farmers into the poor land areas, and into the foothills. This was responsible for the class that came to be known as the "poor whites." Unable to compete, either with the large plantation owners as producers, or with slaves as laborers, they retired farther into the hills, to eke out a precarious living from the soil. Since 1880, the growth of cotton manufacturing has been phenomenal. Southerners interested in the development of the resources of their own region, and northerners seeking fields for larger profits away from foreign labor and organization troubles, have added mill after mill, until the words of the author, "A traveller who follows the main line of the Southern Railroad from, Lynchburg, Virginia, to Atlanta, Georgia, is hardly out of sight of (Continued on Page 31) October, 1929 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WOR9 Page 25 POOR RELIEF IN KENTUCKY By ARTHUR H. ESTABROOK, Carnegie Institution of Washington The Kentucky Statutes state that "it shall be the duty of the court to provide for the support of the paupers of their respective counties." The county court is composed of the county judge, who presides over the court, ex officio, but who votes only when a tie vote has taken place, and the magistrates or squires of the county, one from each magisterial district, which are usually seven or eight in number. These officials are elected by popular vote every four years. The county court meets at least three or four times a year, and more frequently than this in the counties with the larger populations. It decides routine matters of the county's business, such as road building and repairing, approval of salary vouchers for county officials, bills against the county for supplies for the ,jail, etc., and during each term apportions time for the consideration of "pauper claims." The county court is usually in session from several days to a week. About two of these days are informally allocated to the hearing of poor claims. The greater part of the official assistance to the poor is given directly to people in their own homes, as practically none of the counties in southeastern Kentucky maintains poor asylums or almshouses. This outdoor relief is usually given directly in cash, i.e., in orders on the county treasurer; but in some instances instructions are given to merchants to supply given amounts in groceries or goods, the bills for which are later presented to the county court and approved. Besides, the county court pays for medical care, "waiting" on people as in cases requiring midwifery and nursing help, and for burial clothes and funeral expenses, the bills for such services being presented and approved after the charge has been incurred. The specific procedure on poor-relief claim days is generally as follows. After routine * Excerpted by permission of author from article in THE SOCIAL SERVICE REVIEW, Vol. III, No. 2, June 1929. business is finished the county attorney announces that the fiscal court is ready to hear the "poor claims." One by one, the people who have already gathered, or the representatives they have sent, are heard by the magistrates, who then vote on the amount of relief to be given. The claimant or representative is first sworn by the county judge. He is then seated in the regular witness chair of the courtroom where he states his "case," giving grounds for requesting "help," available resources, and the amount of money desired from the county, after which he is questioned by the county attorney and sometimes by the judge and other magistrates. Sometimes the district magistrate has visited the home of the claimant previous to the opening of the court and, if so, a statement is made by him of the conditions found with respect to food, sickness, or any other situation pertaining to the application. There is often much heated discussion between the claimant and the officials. These discussions generally end with a statement by the magistrate most directly concerned as to whether or not the applicant "ought to have it." Following, the amount of relief to be given is voted upon. The judge usually names a high figure at first, as $30 or $25. If this is not carried, he reduces the amounts, in jumps of $5.00-$3.00, until a sum is agreed upon. Sometimes even at this point no money is allotted. If any amount is voted, the county clerk, always present in court, issues at once the claim on the county treasurer for payment. The claimant is obliged, however, first to pay the county clerk a 25 cent fee for a claim of $5.00 or less and 30 cents for over that amount. Practically all the counties in eastern Kentucky are unable to pay their claims promptly. These orders on the county 'treasurer are for the moment, therefore, valueless, although ostensibly the poor claimant needs his money at once. Thus there has developed the business of "claim buying." The men carrying on this business frequent the courts and "buy up" the ,jury, Page 26 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK October, 1929 witness, poor relief, and other county claims at a ten per cent discount, for ready cash. The recipient of the poor claim takes his order to one of these buyers, several of whom are usually standing about the courtroom. A personal check of the buyer on the local bank for °0 per cent of the face value of the claim is issued him at once. Through the deal, the claimant receives but $8.70 on a $10 claim, since 30 cents has already gone to the county clerk for issuing the claim and $1.00 to the claim buyer. The claim buyer in turn takes the voucher to the local bank, has it indorsed "interest bearing," and thus receives about a 16 per cent return on his money, which usually is returned to him in less than six months' time. Most of the claimants apply for aid in person. Some claimants sent representatives to ask aid for them. Sometimes a father applies for aid for a "crippled child," and often a man asks help for his own parents. There are still others who "keep paupers" and come to court for the regular amounts allowed them for this service. A few sample cases in a day's hearing in the Leslie County Court, in 1925, are here cited. They are reported in the order in which they applied to the court, and the data here presented are the information upon which the court based its judgment as to the needs in each case. The statements in parentheses contain information commonly known to the community but which was not presented formally to the court. They are added here to assist in understanding the court's decisions Woman, about forty-five years old: from the head )f the river, twenty-five miles from the county seat; husband in jail in a neighboring county on a liquor and a murder charge; one daughter "out on the road" (domestic away from home); two children; no home. Allowed $15. Single woman, about thirty: lived below the county seat with her father; epileptic; granted $10 last term of court. Allowed $15. Woman about fifty-five: asked help for a son who had "worms", "sort of a granny woman" (midwife). Allowed $10. Woman, about fifty: tools children of a neighbor who was killed four years previously and whose mother deserted them. Asked aid by saying, "I been entangled with them for six years." First request for help. Allowed $12. Man, seventy-six years old: a minister for thirty one years; asked help for "his old lady," stating "she needs it and I'm not able to work-been sick six years -got a naga good mare.' (Self-appointed preacher; no charge with any income. A recipient of relief at various times for many years.) No relief granted. Woman, about sixty: from a branch in the hills near Hyden, the county seat; recently broke her arm "all in pieces"; several children of her daughter, Sarah Jane, all of whom were illegitimate and whose fath--r lived but a few miles away, for whom she was caring; Sarah Jane unable to work because of the "big trembles" one son "working in Hamilton, Ohio, or in the army"; one in the county "all shot to pieces"; one son off at "public works" but soiretime at home. No relief granted on the ground the father of the woman's grandchildr=n, who also had a legitimate family, should be made to care for them. Woman, about forty-fiv--; two sons, one aged fourteen, :rippled; two daughters; no support. No relief granted. Man, about seventy: claimed he had nothing to live on nor anyone to help him-"just me and the old woman." (Known as a moonshiner and about thirty years previous had served time in penitentiary for stealing.) Allow,-d $20. School-teacher,about fifty: applied for aid for his wife's uncle who lived with him; dependent practically blind for many years but able-bodied (worked about home, chopping wood, etc.). Allowed $20. Woman, about seventy: a,,plied in person for aid; according to statement had been "an old granny but now cannot work." Also applies' for aid for neighbor woman with ten children whose husband was sick with tuberculosis; this man had a mule, a cow, and one heifer. No help given. Woman, about fifty: asked pay for caring for sick neighbor. No help granted. Man, aged fifty-five: able-bodied, owned sixtyeight acr:s of land; asked money for caring for mother. Allowed $10. The foregoing cases were taken in the order in which they appeared. The following cases were selected from the 1927 list of claimants on one day Woman, about fifty years old: partially paralyzed on one side of body; asked aid for self; married and living with husband. Allowed $10. Man, seventy-eight years old; preacher claimant noted in 1925. When a_ plying for assistance in 1927, stated that he had given all his land to his seven children who had agreed to support him but had failed to do so; claimed both he and his wife were sick. Relief denied on the ground that he should not have given his land away. Man, about fifty-five: applied for aid for crippled October, 1929 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK son. (A year by application for help for this child, usually a little granted. Family, low grade mentally.) Allowed $5. Woman, about sixty: claimed aid because of daughter "crippled with rheumatism," who had broken leg four months previous, daughter unable to work. Allowec: $15. Man, well-to-do farmer: asked county to refund him $6.00 paid for patent-medicine cure for epil:ptic neighbor. Allowed $10. Woman, about forty (same case as noted in 1925, "Woman, about seventy, applied for self and also neighbor woman"): husband, sick with tuberculosis, carried mail, had to be placed on horse, stopped working two weeks and two days before he died; had seven children, two cows, "one pet pig"; asked $,`0, with which to make crop; given $40 previous year. Allow-d $30. Woman, about fifty: (husband dead five years; family consisted of herself and one son, away most of the time; small piece of land. No relief granted be-ausa of ownership of land. Man, about thirty: one leg, otherwise able-bodied only two months' residence in county; had received two poor claims at last residence; wife and small children. Allowed $20. Man, about fifty: moved into county two years previously bringing with him, as a member of the family a blind woman, aged about fifty-five, unable to work, and a recipient of relief in the county where the man formerly lived; man admitt;d on witness stand that he knew her to have been a pauper in the other county but brought her to Leslie County "for services rendered"; stated "she haf no property except a dul°imore"; had been given $30 in the Leslie Court the year before. Granted nothing at this session of court but the following day allowed $10. Man, about forty-five: able-bodied farmer; asked $20 a month to keep his bed-ridden father-in-law. (This man had a fair average income for farmers of his region.) Granted $20 a month. The preceding is a fair sampling of the type of cases applying to the Leslie Court for aid, and the brief summary presented of each case contains all the facts upon which the members of the court have based their decisions and votes. As a general rule no one with property is granted relief although the property may be absolutely worthless and the owner may be bedridden with no one to care for him. Yet in the one case an able-bodied man owning sixty-eight acres of land was given help in caring for his own mother. The man in this instance, however, had been politically active. During one year, 1926, one farmer was allowed $141.50 for the care of his bedridden father-inlaw, who was also his uncle. This farmer owned over a hundred acres of land and is considered above the average in the county. The sum of money received by him represented about onethird of his total cash income that year. In still another case in 1926, $458 was given to one family for the care of an aged invalid man. This amount was at least three times the cash income that family had ever received previously in any one year. The claims allowed in 1925 for medical services contain one for $200 to two physicians for an operation on a man and one of $150 for an operation on a woman. Both these sums were paid to physicians outside of the county, and nothing is known of the circumstances of the two cases. Claims for medical services rendered to 'the poor, for burial clothes and funeral expenses, etc., are presented by the various p'_,iysicians and merchants involved. Sometimes these services are authorized by the county ,judge, when the county court is not in session; at other times the services are rendered previous to authorization. The county ,judge may issue claims and order services up to a given amount when the court is not in session. This given the judge much leeway in this matter. The four mountain counties studied were Leslie, Clay, Owsley, and Breathitt. The main income of these counties is from agricultural products; logs floated down the rivers in rafts; the making of barrel staves; limited amounts of garden truck, poultry, and cattle shipments. One of these counties, Leslie, has neither railroad nor connection by improved roads; one, Clay, has a railroad to its county seat; whip the third, Owsley, has an improved road from its county seat to a main highway system and the railroad. Breathitt County has two railroads and a graded road in process of construction through the county. Clay and Breathitt counties have small bituminous coal developments. LESLIE COUNTY The poor relief for two complete years, 1922 and 1926, and seven months of another Page 28 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK October, 1929 year, 1927, were studied in Leslie County. The relief for the whole year of 1927 can be estimated very accurately as relief in this county is given quite regularly throughout 'the year. In 1922, eighty-eight different applicants for relief were granted claims. Thirty of these received aid again in 1926, and twenty-one of the same in turn received relief in 1927. In 1926, eighty-eight individuals were granted relief in the home, and forty-four of these were recipients again in 1927. It is evident that there is a distinct group in this county which regularly seeks and secures county aid. Inasmuch as it is common for one member of a family to apply one year and another member of the same family to tell a similar or different story the next year, it is probable that a larger number of families are regular recipients than appears from the records. The amount of these claims varies from $3.00, the lowest amount usually given, to $40. The average is about $10. In the year 1922, three individuals received relief three times during the year; twenty-seven twice; while fifty-eight received relief but once, making one hundred and twenty-one claims granted by the court involving an expenditure of $1,513.05. Eighty-eight different individuals received $1,361.85 in 1926, while in seven months of 1927 seventy-seven different people received a total of $1,188.50. This is an aver age of ahout $15 per year for each claimant Yeceiving outdoor relief. Little money was given in the year of 1922 for pauper-idiot relief as the state law in effect for many years providing for it had been repealed. The pauper-idiot law was re-enacted in 1924 with the change, however, that the county paid $37.50 a year to each pauper idiot, the same being matched by the state. In 1926, seven pauper idiots in Leslie County received $203.25 from 'the county, while in the first seven months of 1927 three of these seven had been granted $75.75. This number was increased to nine by the end of the year. The claims paid to physicians in this county for the care of the poor do not always indicate the number of individuals treated. These claims are therefore difficult of analysis. Nursing care and midwifery help has also been furnished. Aid is also give in the shape of burial clothes and funeral expenses. The amounts paid for "keeping people" has varied, and it is difficult to analyze, as nothing on the record indicates how long the individual is kept. "Keeping" is 'the term used when individuals are boarded by another, sometimes in their own homes, sometimes in the homes of another. Often it is the immediate relatives who are paid to care for one of their own family; sometimes a neighbor is paid to care for sick or helpless person in his own home. This is classed as a form of outdoor relief although this care takes the place of the poor asylum, not found in many mountain counties. Some of the irdivduals who were "kept" part of the year received poor aid themselves in their own home, at other times. Ten children were "boar0ed out," i.e., kept by others than their parents, at county expense, in 1923. One hundred and twenty-four different claimants in Leslie County received $2,758.91 from the county as aid to the poor in 1922. It is probably conservative to estimate that at least three persons received benefits from each claimant's allowance. In 1922, the average amount of relief received by each "case" or claimant was $22.50 ; in 1926, was $27.71; while for seven months of 1927, the average was $24.24. Based on the population of the county, the average cost was 27 cents per capita in 1922 ; in 1926 it was 33 cents; while in 1927 the yearly cost was 40 cents (this figure secured by prorating the seven months' cost to a year,). As no figures are available for earlier years, it is impossible to tell whether this increase in merely flutuation or a distinct increase year by year. CLAY COUNTY The poor-relief statistics for Clay County are presented for the year 1926 as the vouchers of the general fund for previous years are not now available. These have been tabulated in the same way as those of Leslie County. Seventyfour different individuals received $1,528.06, or an average of about $20 each as poor relief in their own homes during the year. Nine pauper idiots were granted the county relief of $37.50 per year at a total cost to the county of $337.50. Eight of these pauper idiots October, 1929 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Page 29 had received idiot relief in 1921 when the law providing a grant of $75 a year from the state treasury was in effect. Since that time, another individual had been adjudged a pauper idiot by the court. The county paid $786 in claims to physicians for medical aid for the poor and also $135 for medical care for poor cases during a smallpox epidemic. The number aided medically is unknown. Eighteen people, three of whom had also received outdoor poor relief during the year were "kept" at a total of $789, or an average cost to the county of about $45 per person. The records do not indicate what part of the year these various individuals were kept. Clay County spent in 1926 a total of $3,718.66 in outdoor relief to the poor, an average of $33.20 per "case" or a cost per capita of the population of 19 cents. The population of Clay County was 19,795 in 1920 and has not materially changed since then. This amount is very similar to that granted in Leslie County, althought the average cost per capita of the population is somewhat lower. The county maintains an almshouse where a number of paupers are kept. The total cost for the year was $1,720.40. As payment is made to the caretaker on the basis of approximately $3.00 per week for each inmate, this represents an average population of ten persons throughout the year. The money is paid directly to the keeper of the almshouse on his statement of the number present, the county having no further voice or interest in the matter of the institution. OWSLEY COUNTY A tabulation of the poor relief in this county (population 7,820 in 1920), for three years 1922, 1926, and 1927, under two different county judges shows the changes in amount and type of relief during the two administrations. Thirty-two claimants received $612.70 in outdoor relief in 1922. The only other large amount of relief given that year was $200 to eight feeble-minded individuals who had previously received "pauper-idiot relief" under the old state law which had just been repealed. This is classed here as "pauper-idiot" relief for the reason that the relief was given to them because these had previously been pauper idiots and this was not considered outdoor relief in any way. The total expense in 1922 was $1,116.46 for over fifty-one claimants. A new county judge took office in 1926-a young lawyer. The county was behind in its finances, and many unpaid warrants were outstanding. He supervised the county's expenditures very carefully. In the first year of his administration the ordinary outdoor relief was given to but six claimants at a total expense of $67.85. The cost of medical care and attention to the poor was reduced over a half, and $48 of the $64 expended in 1926 for medical care was paid as fees for examining eight feebleminded individuals for pauper-idiot inquests before the circuit court. A new law providing for increased allowance to the blind under certain conditions called for an allowance of $98.75 to four different blind persons, otherwise without support. One individual received aid both as a pauper idiot and as blind, but was classed under "pauper idiot." None of these had been trained in any institution of the blind. The reenacted pauperidiot act necessitated an expenditure of $356 that year. In 1926, $91 was spent for school-books a new note in relief in this county although the county ,judge is allowed by law $100 a year for such purpose. The total relief in 1926 was $697.91 as compared with $1,116 in 1922, four years previously. The change in population during this period had been negligible. The amount of outdoor relief in 1927 remained low, eleven individuals being given $98. The pauper-idiot relief was reduced from eight recipients in 1926 to five in 1927 with the cost lowered by $170. The blind relief, however, increased from $98 to $262. The number of blind persons aided really remains the same, as the one classed as a pauper idiot in 1926 received aid only as blind in 1927. The monthly allowance to the blind was increased this year. The cost in funeral expenses increased from $20 in 1926 to $81 in 1927. The total year's expenditures for poor relief in 1927 were $673.87, slightly less than in 1926 with a few more individuals aided during the year. Page 30 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK October, 1929 The cost per "case" in 1922 was $21.89, or a cost of 14 cents per capita of the population. In 1926 the "case" cost was $33.23, or approximately 9 cents per capita of the population; while in 1927 the cost per case was $24.07, or again about 9 cents per capita of the population. This is the lowest unit cost found in any of the areas studied in Kentucky. The county judge of this county demonstrated that the total amount of poor relief in a county could easily be reduced. It will be noticed that in 1927 the greater amount of relief given can be charged directly to the operation of state laws regarding the pauper idiot and the blind that are practically mandatory. Over $450 of the poor relief in 1927 can be charged directly to the operation of these two laws. BREATHITT COUNTY Breathitt County in eastern Kentucky is distinctly agricultural. It has the lowest average farm and building value per acre of any of the counties studied. The county seat, Jackson, is a division point on the railroad and has a high density of coal traffic. It also has some coal mining near by. One state road is now in process of construction through the county. One hundred individuals in the county were given relief in their home in 1927 to the extent of $2,097. Fifteen pauper idiots were granted $562.50 by the county, each receiving, of course, an additional $37.50 from the state treasury. The largest amount of relief granted to blind persons in any of the counties studied was found in Breathitt County, $880 being given to twenty-five different cases or an average of $35 per case. In this county, as in Owsley County, a grant was made for schoolbooks for children unable to buy them otherwise. This amounte l to $200. The medical aid to the poor totaled $168, a comparatively low amount as was the allowance for burial expenses, which was $53.10. The total number of different individuals aided during the year was over one hundred and fifty at a total cost of $3,988.60, or an average of $26.59 per case. The population of Breathitt County in 1920 was 20,614, hence the per capita cost of poor relief was 19 cents, similar to Clay County. There is no poor asylum in Breathitt County; all relief is given directly in the home. GENERAL DISCUSSION Kentucky has no law providing for 'the supervision of the amount of relief which may be granted by any fiscal court. Whenever the county judge has interested himself in the matter, there has been a check on expenditures and better administration of the poor funds. This is true of Owsley County. The granting of poor relief in the other counties was a matter of personal ,judgment or feeling on the part of the magistrates, who usually acted without trained advice, and the aid often granted purely in the interests of the political activities of these same magistrates. Kentucky, then, has a poor-relief problem, at least in the eastern section of the state. It probably is the same over the whole state. County funds are expended freely for the care of the poor with usually little study of the actual needs of the applicant. No follow-up is made in most of the counties to see that the public grants are of the greatest benefit to the recipient. Money is given with no regard to the available resource of the applicant or the community. No attention is paid to the mental or social fitness of the recipient to use the grant properly. The facts presented here merely indicate that there is little system or regularity in the present administration of the poor-laws of the state. The State Department of Charities and Corrections in Kentucky should be authorized by the legislature to study the administration of the state laws with regard to the real needs of the poor. Such a study would concern itself with the amounts given, the extent the recipients are benefited by the grants, and whether or not there is a definite pauper class in the state. Data gathered by such a study should then be presented to the public in order to form a public consciousness of the problem which would result in the formation and passage and administration of more effective laws regarding the poor. October, 1929 SOUTHERN MILL HILLS (Continued from Page 24) one mill until he is in sight of another." This growth of industry with its need of laborers has drawn the white people who had generations before retired into the hills, once more into the economic life of the South. These are now the mainstay of the cotton industry. The book just mentioned is not a history of the growth of industry in the South, but a detailed study of three mill villages which are considered by the author, a native of the region, to be typical. The first reaction of which the reader is conscious on reading this study is one of depression. The apathy and apparent lack of any taking root in the soil of the community on the part of the workers, is the greatest problem that emerges. Workers are in one village a few months, and move on to another in search of the ever beckoning better mill, or more wages. The preachers complain of the lack of interest in the church. People may be emotionally excitable at the revivals, but they assume no responsibility for the support, or for carrying on the organization. Teachers complain that parents have no interest in school-affairs, and a very negligible number come to the parentteacher meetings, or to any civic gathering. Social workers say there is little interest in organizations or facilities for group expression or action. The studies show also that people live in company-owned houses, go to churches largely built and maintained often even to the payment of a large part of the ministers' salaries by the mill owners. They buy their commodities in stores owned and operated by the companies. Practically all the villages are unincorporated; hence there is little chance for participation or interest in municipal affairs. Sanitation, safety, public utilities-everything pertaining to the community life is cared for by the owners. In one of the villages studied, even the schools were controlled by the company. The people cannot be intelligent, responsible participants in community life, but are unhealthy and abnormal economic groups in society with no obligations and no claims. MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK Page '31 "In two of the villages the percentage of illiteracy was lower than that reported for the native-born adult population of the state in which these villages were located, as reported by the census of 1920." The one shining ray is in the fact that while the adults were nearly all from the mountain or rural districts, and had little or no educational chance, the children born in mill villages are getting some school advantages. It is true that most of them leave school for the mills as soon as they are fourteen, but it is a tremendous advance over illiteracy. The great hope will be in legislation to raise the age at which children may leave school. The workers are class conscious as a social group, taking no share in community enterprises or social meetings where the village is a mixture of mill, and non-mill population. There is a marked feeling of inferiority in such situations. They are not yet class conscious as a workers group. Attempts to sustain labor organizations in the mill villages have failed. The change from isolated farm life to this nomadic industrial existence has done little to develop sense of solidarity or determination for collective action. Further studies by Miss MacDonald should hold a great deal of interest for all who are interested in the economic and social development of the South.-Blanche M. Nicola. A DISCOVERY A beautiful evening, the sunset filling the earth with an everchanging panorama of light and shade, color and mistiness! Four happy people wending their way in a car off the mountain, winding down and down into the valley, through the county-seat, out into one of the fertile little coves nestling at the foot of the hills! Such was the experience of a party of friends not long ago. There are roads and "roads" in the mountains! All went well, however, until they reached the semi-private "road" used by some five families whose valuable farms lie in this cove. Without hesitation the car bounded serenely on its way over stones and rocks, around blind curves, down hills and up. For stretch after Page 32 MOUNTAIN LIFE AND WORK October, 1929 stretch it would have been utterly impossible to turn around or to meet another car. Indeed the abutters seemed to be so much afraid of losing some of their precious land that corner posts and fences were fastened and propped up to prevent them from falling into the wheel tracks! One could but wonder what methods the neighbors used, whether it was telepathy or what, so to arrange their affairs as to have cars going over the road in only one direction at one time! Had it been otherwise, travel would have been impossible! But the marvel of the trip awaited the visitors at the end of the journey. One's imagination could hardly have pictured the quiet, the beauty, and the comfort of the home that they found. The house was roomy and comfortable, furnished almost lavishly and completely screened. Soft and sensible rugs, heavy and serviceable furniture, a good piano, a commodious and well-equipped kitchen, attractive draperies, a wide and comfortable porch-all combined to make one feel that here was a place where might be found comfort, rest, satisfaction, a spot for real recreation for the responsibilities of life. How could all this have arrived at the end of that perfectly impossible road! Put perhaps the beauty and comfort of the house was almost second to the wealth of beauty on the outside. A lawn of velvety grass, a pretty white fence, an encircling group of shade trees only served to form the setting for the wealth of beautiful flowers that might be seen on every side. Bright yellow cannas were rivalled by the luxuriant beauty of the nasturtiums. The zinnas sturdily raised their many-hued faces not far away and the petunias lavished their bloom and their beauty. The house ferns, enjoying their summer on the porch, seemed vying with one another in wealth of foliage. The vegetable garden, across the .fence at only a little distance, bespoke the thrift and good sense of the family. A happy mother hen was watchfully caring for her tiny little guineas within sight of the porch. From this bit of domestic life to the stretches of the hills visible in every direction, was one entrancing vista of beauty and comfort, of earth and sun and sky used happily and successfully for the delight and in the service of man. The use of a litle money, the lavish expenditure of time, thought, and labor, the overflowing generosity of Mother Nature-the result, a veritable Garden of Beauty! LIBRARIES You may still secure for your files earlier issues of Mountain Life and Work at 30 cents per copy. Some of the available numbers are October, 1927-Rural Public Education Editorial __ __ _____________ Fupils That Drop Out _ _ __ ._________________ Private Schools and Public Education _ _________________Guiding Children's Reading in Rural Schools _______________ Music in the Rural Schools _________________________________. January, 1928-Western North Carolina The Spinning Wheel __ __. Industrial Development in North Carolina . Mountain Mothers _ _____. A Medical Romance of the Blue Ridge The F'arm~ers' Federation _______________ _ ________ _ John J. Tigert ______ Warren H. Wilson _ Charles D. Lewis _ Florence H. Ridgway __ Ralph G. Rigby ________________ Helen H. Dingman __________________ Harold W. Stoke _________ _ __ _ Emeth Tuttle Douglas P. Murphy, M.D. ________________________ Zeb Green April, 1928-Biographical Number. In Memory of John C. Campbell Also other stories of the achievements of mountain men and women, such as "Doe" Stewart, Uncle Solombn Everidge, Rowena Roberts, and "A Mountain Mother" October, 1928-The Geology of the Mountains A Geographer's Idea of Mountaineers Ancient Men of the Mountains _ Geology of Eastern Kentucky Soils Mineral Resources of the Kentucky __________________ Ellsworth Ha~ntington _ _______________ Willard Rouse Jillson Mountains _ ________ Wilbur G. Burroughs Topography and Geology of the Southern Appalachains ______________ Arthur Keith January, 1929 Mountaineers in Mill Villages _____________________________ The Plight of the Small Farmer ___________________________ Progressive Peasantry _ _______________________________ The Shepherd of Red Bird ________________________________ Coal Camps and Character _ __ _ ____________ Industrial Development in the Southern Mountains __________ April, 1929 The Population of the Ozarks ______________________________ Kingston-in-the-Ozarks _ __ _ _____----___ Some Church Problems in the Southern Mountains ________ A Cooperating Community _ __________________ The Retardation of the Appalachian Region ______________ July 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929 Reports of the Conference of Southern Mountain Workers. Know the Mountains-Read Mountain Life and Work One Dollar Per Year Published Quarterly Berea, Ky. _ ------ Lois MacDonald _ Thomas Nixon Carver _ ____ Jakob Lange Florence Elton Singer ________ E. V. Tadlock __________ T. Russ Hill __ Arthur H. Estabrook _ Otto Ernest Rayburn ____ Paul E. Doran ____ Olive D. Campbell ____ John P. McConnell

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