The Seaforth News, 1928-12-06, Page 3"We.LJns Has Come—Larn Vs".
'"Tile Pathetic Plea of Georgia Mountain Children to the Berry
Schools, Martha Berry, Founder of These Unique
Institutions, Has Just Been Awarded the
Pictorial Review Prize for Out-
standing Achievement
I3y MARX FIELD PAI;TON came mountain been, walking barefoot
"Back Beyond" In en Ontario "for- op and Own. the stony trails. Their
!gotten aoction"—Idaliburton, parts of number grew.
Muskoka sections of Victoria, Hast: "learn as, Miss Berry," they said.
dugs and Renfrew counties, we had a "Earn us what you -all know:"
very similar coltditlon to that told in Old Aa Well As Yining
the story of tine Georgia "Poor White But for each child who came, tuna
Trude," The Department of Educe- areas there were who could not make
tion, tine Rod Cross and, several mfs- the; long journey or wlloso Parente
•siouary ministers have improved the thought "larnin"' a waste of time or
sad conditions in theee backward whose lebor was needed on the farm,
parts of our fair province. Tbework 114artha Berry discovered hundreds of
is not yet completed --much is yet to such children when she rode on horse
be done. Possibly the ,story in the back through the highways and 'hY•
New York Tribune of Martha Berry ways of the mountains, coining upon
and her work may be an inspiration weather-beaten shacks Ailed to ,the
to our Government to apply the same door and window sills with ragged
children.
I7verywhero on these journeys she
found dirt, illiteracy, illness. Eery
and luminous over a little log cabin where she found weary, worked -out
in the mountains of Georgia, Hero, mon unintelligently endeavoring to
1n obscurity, a dream was born to a wrest a bare existence out of the poor
,gentle Southern girl. Few ware wise soil of the mountain side with the
meet primitive tools; everywhere
enough toforesee the elgnifleance of tired women, bent over wash barrels
:her vision in the lives of thousands of o{• cracking corn between fiat stones
poor and lowly folk. or doing the work of the beasts of the
To -day, however, that dream has be- field. And everywhere, too, she found
,come the brick and stone reality of a tall, gaunt, blue-eyed men and women
great training school for the boys and of her own proud Nordic stock who
.girls of the Appalachian Mountains; a. fiercely rejected even the "larnin"!
nebulous dream has become the Berry they craved 'because they were too
Schools for the "poor whites" who Poor to pay for it.
live- their starved, • proud Hues on re- "Thy people shall be my people,
said Martha Berry as she consecrated
principles for the betterment of our
0Wn under -privileged children.
Twenty-six years ago, on a Sunday
:afternoon, a star: must have hung low
mote upland farms in ignorance and
'Poverty. her young life to the "poor whites!' of
Moreover; to -day, Martha Berry, the the mountains,
'founder of the schools, is the recipient i
The Pro cot Started
•of the annual achievement award of
$5,000 given by "Tlie, Pictorial Re-
view" to that American woman who
within the last ten years has made
the most distinguished 'contribution to.
'our national life in letters, art, science
or social 'welfare.
During these many years lanky boys
.and girls in ever-increasing numbers
.have been coming down from the up
lands, trudging weary miles, hungry soap and combs? It wasn't Sunday
'for "laruiu'." Ragged, dirty, barefoot- schools, it wssn't week -day schools,
•ed they come, all, all they possess on that those children needed. It was a
their backs and in a shoulder bundle. board.ug : camel, a complete change
"I come 'to git me. larnin' hyar," of environment that was essential.
they say simply, dropping their bine 30 r,Iartha Berry deeded her share
-den at the entrance to the grounds of cr her father's estate to the fleet of
the school, whose wide gates sluing the Berry Schools, a dormitory which
•open onto the paved -elm -arched "Road she built with her own money. From
-of .Opportunity." { the inception of the school it was de-
"Wo-uns has come, ma'am, Larn tided that in return for an education,
us, they say with the dignity of old for food and lodging, the boys could'
little children,_ a tragic dignity which work, They were too poor to pay; too
,offsets their rags, their untutored proud to accept charity. A dozen boys
speech. came.
Martha Berry, the founder of the "You aim to larn us?" they asked.
unique Berry Schools at Rome, "Yes, I aim to."
"Well, we-uns has come, ma -am."
lured associations than those of the So in return for the opportunity to
.simple mountain folk of her country. learn there was wood to cut, land to
'For her was planned a more romantic clear, a cow to milk, crops to sow and
:future than that which' sheelected. harvest. Gradually the plan and type
Behind her lay all the gracious South- of school most needed: for the moue-
'ern traditions of story and picture: a tain children took form in the mind of
greatplantatiou, a white pillared house Martha Berry; education, she decided,
'with Broad balconies and overhanging must beelike the mystic Trinity, three -
wistaria; servants to fetch and carry; fold yet one; of the hand,,of the mind
the polished education given to the and of the heart. Education must
,girls of wealthy families. Her. days ! teach these raw minds and untrained'
were to be those of the aristocratic hands to think, .to do and to feel.
Southern belle ... a laughing, joyous Essentially it must be agricultural,
:girlhood; a brilliant marriage; an as- fitting lads to return to the soil from
.sured social poisti-'n. Then came the which they sprang. • I
Sunday adventure and out of it a
•dream which eut athwart social con-
ventions.'
It is an old story now in the moun-
Her next step was to open at her .p
own eense schools nearer to the
remote settlements of the people, but
it was not long before she realized
that her efforts on behalf of the chil-
dren were defeated by the home .en-
vironment. Of what use to talk about
cleanliness and godliuess to children
whose parents were too poor to buy
Georgia, was born to far more cul -
With the coming of spring, six
more boys came, one of them walking
forty miles, driving a yoke of oxen.
"'Tis the. fee for larnin' me, ma'am,"
tains, worn old as a folk tale by twen- he said proudly. "They're broke ter
ty-six years of telling and retell, ate- plowin':"
the story Of: the humble beginnings of From a distant valley, leading his
the Berry Schools. . A summer "fee" by a rope, came a lad with a
Sunday afternoon when Martha Berry, sow, starved and dirty as the lad him
-
a young girl just home from finishing -self. Others came, bringing chickens,
school, told Bible stories in the cabin ducks to exchange for ars education.
on her father's estate to three dusty More often they brought nothing but
mountain lads she chanced upon as strong, willing hands. Tall, lanky
she drove home from church. Perch- boys cams who, at the age of fifteen
ed on a soap box, with the children or sixteen, • could not read or write
squatting on . shuck mate at her feet but who in three years showed as
listening breathlessly, Martha Berry great progress as the average senior
realized the poignant hunger of these in a northern college.
starved children for knowledge. So the school grew. Martha Berry's t
"Pa ez got him a Bible, on'y he resources were exhausted. Still, not
°ain't read it," sighed a lad. until she had literally sold or deeded'
The next Sunday -"There's white all that she' had given to the poor did'
trash chil'uns waitiu' to see you," an -
•
Perpetuating in Picture the Balaelay.
Charge
Ansassaa
INTO THE VALLEY OF: DEATH- RODE THE GALLANT SIX HUNDRED
The charge of the Light Brigade at the battle of Balaclava, re-enacted by British cavalrymen at Aldershot for
a film of the battle in 1852.
she turn to outelders for help, did site
go beyond the disapproving circle of
her friends with the story of .the
mountain boys begging for an educa-
tion, willing to work long hours with
plow and axe and scythe that they
might know something of the world
of books, might learn bow to live more
intelligently.
Money Secured
Money began coming in from her
"begging tours," as she called them
and ever more children kept com-
ing, making more and more money
necessary. From all over the country
tiny streams of contributions began
slowing over the Appalachians into
Georgia to the Berry Schools. Yet
never, never sufficient, never commen-
surate with the need of the children
of the uplands. An unending file of
boys kept trickling down the moun-
tain trails, their packs on their backs,
their overcoats patched, their hats
battered. Footsore, shy, they stood
gazing through the open grates down
the "Road of Opportunity."
Gradually the story of the Berry
Schools and the sublime devotion of
its founder spread.beyond the state'
of Georgia. Men like Andrew Can
negie heard and heeded the story and
started an endowment which assured
a small annual sum. Women's clubs
heard. Churches heard. Theodore
Roosevelt exclaimed: "This is the
real thing!" when he listened to
Martha Berry tell the' story of her
school. "There should be a school for
girls, too," he announced,
Through, his influence it became
possible to build the first girls' dormi-
tory, "Sunshine Shanty." With the
opening of this dormitory, slim, sun -
browned girls in sunbonnets, calico
aprons tied about their waists in the
manner of little old grandmother's,
walked down the trails their brothers
had walked to enter the Berry School,
to work with their hands for the privi-
lege of an education.
"We-uns has conte," they said:
"Wimmin-folks wants larnin' same's
men -folks."
So the school grew and grew; grew
from its dozen into the hundreds.
from its dozen into • the hundreds.
Buildings multiplied. More teachers
cause. More acres were cultivated.
There were additions to herds and
flocks. And with the growth of the
school its undaunted founder faced
continually the problem of money for
is maintenauee, for equipment, for
eachers.
It is now twenty-six years'since the
three little dusty boys listened to
Martha Berry tell magic stories in a
-flounced the old' family cools.
"We brans us some sisters," said
the boys.
Cleanliness and Godliness.
Martha Berry looked at their hands
and faces, caked with grime and soil;
at their matted, unkept hair; at the
rage they wore. She saw with quick
sympathy that their neglected bodies
needed training and care as well as
their darkened little souls. To the.
telling of Bible stories wore added
lessons in washing,
Every Sunday that summer brought
more children, walking miles to hear
the wonderful things the "Sunday
Lady" told them; stories about Adam
and Eve, about germs, about George
Washington. But it was not until. fall
that Martha Berry discovered that she
bad begun a life work, started a career
that she could not stop; that she had
lighted the Candle of hopein' darken-
ed lives around whose flickering flame
she must cup soft, white hands lest it
blow out. Parente began to come.
.down Froin themountains begging for
"larnin."' along with their children.
Against the oppositfon`:of friends
and shocked relatives, Martha Berry
•opened her first day school in the fol-
lowing spring; a one -room cabin with
;planks laid across soapboxes for the
children's benches, a large packing
box for the teacher's dock. Reading,
writing, ciphering, Bible stories—this
was the currl'cktitnu, Prom miles away
tiny shack. They are grown men crusaders to their kinfolk, eager to
now. And Martha Berry, white -hair- battle against ignorance and poverty,
ed, gentle, with eyes both brilliant There are no servants at Berry.
and tender, looks down from the All must work. All want to. It was
House 0' Dreams," which the boys a new and difficult idea to spread in
and girls themselves built for her on the mountains that hand labor is
the summit of Lavender Mountain, dignified and honorable. Martha
upon the spreading realization of her Berry taught lads that lesson, work -
girlhood's dream. ing a profound psychologic change in
Nearly all the buildings have been the male point of view Many other
constructed by the boys themselves. subtle things are taught—an apprecf-
In' the warm meadows beyond the ation for the beauty that lies all
campus sturaY'boys in the uniform about them, of the power of character,
• of the school—overalls—are plowing.! Martha Berry counts 2,500 boys who
Girls in blue dresses and pink sun -have gone out from her school skill -
bonnets bend, like flowers themsel-� ed farmers. 373. who have become
yes, over flower gardens and VG
bonnets
teactors and principals in rural
table rows, "Blue ribbon" cattle schools. 3a;. housewives, 25 nurses
graze in the meadows. Fruit ripens and 6 l:rcaehers. ethers fill eecre-
iu the orchard, tarsal and ofltco jobs. She saes her
The Harvest
;school and it methods copied by
From the very first the Berry+other backward sections. The her -
Schools were essentially agricultural. west is in.
The five courses that are given -1
agriculture, home economics, me-
chanics, literature and science and a
normal course—train boys and girls
for a practical, work -a -day life. To-
day,, when a mountain boy graduates
from Berry lie not only has an
academic education, but he is an ef-
ficient farmer, who has leered farm-
ing by doing It. He knows the care
of herds and flocks. He can build
with wood and brick or the stones
of his mountains. He is ready to
take up life on the soil intelligently.
He has been taught scientific meth-
ods of cultivation and fertilization;
how to put nitrogenous cover crops '2TOC H" PADRE HOME
back into the , to ' Rev. "Tubby" Clayton arrived fn
seed, how to rotateearthcropshow, stowselectto' England after a tour of three months
carry on the daily refine of farm spent In South America in the inter -
an ddairy A generation separates eats of the "Tec H", of which he is
him from his father. Two hundred
years separate him from his father's; the founder.
understanding.
When a girl leaves Berry she is an
A Mystic
efficient homemaker, a good mate for By deep self -probing he aspired to
her farmer husband. She can cools! gnd
and preserve and sew. She can keep 'The key to knowledge in his own
house, barnyard and daily tidily. She ( deep mind;
can weave and spin—ancient arts. Until, nerve -racked and with tor -
She can work out a . family budget] mented soul,
and a balanced diet as well as an; He lost his mind when he had neared
algebra problem, iSbe is prepared ' the goal.
for wifehood and motherhood, for the —Stanton A. Coblentz In the New
physical caro of herself and those de- York Sun.
Pendent upon her. •
She is but a generation separated Little GirI (to her playmate) :
from her mother. Two hundred "When I was born I was so s'prised
years separate her from het mother's I couldn't speak for a whole year and
understanding of Iife. She may be- a half!"
come a teacher to little mountain November is the month of the axe.
children, but in all events, both boys First the politician gets is, then the
and girls leave Berry- to become turkey.
"A Hunting We Will Go"
WHEN THE BUGLE OF THE HUNTSMEN IS SOUNDED
This fine stunting picture was taken while chilly a'itumn winds blew at the start of the Essex Fox limit at Brady's Gate, Gladstone.
British E npa ' d �a�ke e s
Called Big Factor d gontributart "iX net neo z>!;a
• please assign !he' article to y
111 World . Peace e waste•papor baH1et"'
♦ ! •
Sir Austere Chamberlain Saya Tim ,who Id gtiu ling his frlpri
drink) t What Il you have- Scotch
Canadas'Counsel W11 Be Zxishl'" aWaitori "Gatch forst:"'
Highly Valued
Ottawa,
ttawa Qnt,-•-Oanada'a part In In. e° El Tishman (4ftoar wary
terilnperial and international affairs egstaye lunvh) t oot: l4 how dq
was th subject of two ins icing ad, atop'?" The Ecol; "Ooh, din
{
dreseesegiven by Sir. Austen Cham ken. It's luist a meeraciel"
berlain, British Foreign Secretary, as Burglar (as he is arrested)$ "3
the guest of the Canadlat Qovorn- Iike my luck. After six months
ment. ' making friends with the dog, 1
While Canada's increasing Indu' t.nd puts nay foot on this bloomin' Pa+
epee contained elements oT danger, , ,
Sb' Austen had a profound faith that Mrs. De Neurich: ""I wish to 80
"always our cerumens sense will doctor, that the prescribing of a my
solve these difficulties as they arise," tar+d plaster fora woman of WI sees
He considered that the British Dm- position Is nothing'short of (inner
Aire was •a factor of immense, im- nencei"
portauce for ,the peace of the world,
• 5 a
and "we will welcome any counsel Engineer predicts a' fool -proof pia.
and criticism you may contribute to in another five yeare, however, tri
the foreign policy of the IOmpire" whole history et mechanics is ti -
Sir Austen said it was geographi- nothing is.fool-proof as long as there
°ally impossible for'Great Britain to a fool:
be indifferent to the peace of Europe; 1 • • +
but he looked for the dominions, Several shots were fired . at 1,..
from their more detached positions, to Trotsky the other day, according
be ready with their counsel and ad- cable despatches, Mr. Trotzky will
vies, He designated the British an-
be
as the fellow who w
pare ad a constant puzzle to the rest killed four or five times last 'saxs
of the world, but as a puzzle that was Although a woman is a natural ba
being solved with amazing success, gain hunter, she does not carp
"guarding peace among ourselves and marry a man isi reduced circ ,
workin for peace throughout the stances
world." • a •
W. L. Mackenzie Ring, Prime Min- A meeting of the 2 s ulc
later of Canada, spoke of Sir Austen w111 be held on Thursday night in t
as being as distinguished as his great Rau, (Nev- Zealand paper). Unfo
father, Sir Joseph; el bus having tunately, most wives are up to
filled nearly ail the portfolios In the Masonic Dodge. (Punch).
Cabinet,
nod of being the "Locarno • • •
peace pact itself." Out where the handclasp's sp a Litt
Sir Robert Borden, former Pre-, stronger, out where rho furrow's
mier of Canada, referred to • their blamed sight longer, and politic:
guest as the eaponent of a rare and seers are usually wronger; that
sane idealism, and grater in Peace where the West begins.
even than during war..
--� "I'm going
m change my doctor,.
Th Laci Tears stoke up with a splitting- eadache t.
other morning and when 'e came an
I told 'im I was at death's door,
Merle Feodorovna is dead—the said 'e'd pull me through."
"lady of tears," moat ic fig • • •
bre among the crowthened headtrags. Not' •
"I'm so sorry I spoke aha
eveu the Empress Eugenie's chronl^ sharply
that boy. I must have --ant him to
t:
ole n¢ misery and grief exceeds here, quick," "Oh, it's all right; he has
Both were as if created to convince gnicic," "Has no quick?" "'No, he
the world that the path of glory leads a messenger boyl"
but to the grave as surely among • •
queens as among peasants; that roy-, Mabel --"At the pictures the th
alty wears no talisman against ser- night we were shown that in Moroc
row. Born the Princess Dagmar of men bid for their wives. Just thi'
Denmark, fate affianced her to tbo of being put on the auction block an
Czarevitch Nicholas of Russia, and having men bid for you. It must b
fate stole him away from her through terrible." •Milder—"It must be; b
his death from lung trouble a few just suppose there were no bids!"
weeks before the date for their mar
riage.. In accordance with his dying To numerous correspondents—ye:
request, she married his brother on yes, wo-ve heard it. The letter "H
October 26, 2666. Fifteen years rat- is the most important in the alPhab,
er, the Czar Alexander II, her rather- because it is the beginning of Hoovfl
in-law, was assassinated by Nihilists and the ending of Smith. America
as he was driving thorough the streets paper.
of St. Petersburg. Her own husband, . • •
Alexander III died in 1894, at the age, A accepts the invitation of thre
of 49. It was her son who was the strangers at his hotel to make
last of the Romanov czars. It was fourth at bridge. C (A's partner) do
her son to whom she once said, not bid. D goes Seven No Trump
"Nicholas, be Czar"; he who called The stakes are 45 a hundred. Wit
the first Hague Conference for peace, should A bid? Answer—A. should bi
whose statesmen Iater insured the them good night as quickly as po
World War by mobilizing after their sible,
feeble Czar had ordered them to re -1 • e w
(rain. It was he who with his whole Two loud knocks heralded the arc
family, was murdered in that hor-'val of the rent -collector, A little gi
sable cellar at Ekaterinburg. But answered the door, and said; blus,
not in her belief. To her end she ingly; "PIease, sir, mother's out." "1
was persuaded that he lived in hid- she?" queried the collector, peerin
ing. Before her collapsed the whole down the passage. "Then tell mot
great Russian fabric, the great em- the next time she goes out to take h
Pire built of blood and tears and hu- shadow with her ,°
man misery that the Romanovs might • • •
rule and the aristocrats play in the! Police Inspector—"I say, this is n.
gplendor of their riches created by'a very comfortable place to pass
by the backs of the milks. Only` night, my man." 'Vagrant -"It's
Denmark was left to her, and Maria crying shame than an observant, f
Feodorovna returned to her antes- telligent man like you has not bee
tral home, if not to her ancestral made chief of police long ago, f .
faith, but not until the war had end- spector."
ed and the revoluation had plainly•'
come to stay. And there she died. --
The Nation, New York,
Dome Lights Restrain
a • t •
A Scotsman, undergoing a naval e
amination, was asked to describe d
ferent electric batteries, among the
one named the Daniel cell. Jock's
"Petters" in Japan's Cars Ply was—"About Daniel's cel'1 ver
Seattle.—Automobile makers it Am- little is known, but it is generally b
erica have been advised of the "anti- sieved to have been a bare den f
necking Iamp law"' in Japan, one of ishod with lions. As Daniel is de:
the most peculiar of many governing and the lions are dead, what on eart
the operation of motor vehicles in the is the good of raking up an old story?
empire. The recent statute requires
that all motor cars must be equipped �111Ch Was It?
with dome lights which must be light
ed when driving after dark. While Michael, having spent a tiring da
he law was designated to protect at the local fair, was driving hom
assengers, it has since been called when a great drowsiness come ove
he "anti -necking lamp law," 'Unless hint and he lay down in the cart an
cars are so lighted at night the Jap- vent off to sleep.
00080 police confiscate them. {.. T l:e horse, finding that he could d
•
as he liked, kicked himself free of th
traces and ran away. When the Irish
man awoke he found the horse
missing.
While he was pondering the sftua
tion a stranger appeared en the scan
"Oh," said Michael, "am I" Mike o.
aren't I?"
"Oi'm sure I dunno," said th
stranger.
"Well," declared the other, "if Of'.,
Mike, Oi've lost a horse, but if 'Oi'n
not, oi've found a cart!"—Answers,
t
p
It Was a Thing of the Past
More than once the head of the
household had had to rebuke ten-year.
old Joan for her excessive eagerness
M begin her dinner before grace had
been said.
Finally he determined to teach her
a lesson in the presence of visitors.
So, in his usual formula, he included
this:
"For what we are about to receive
and for what Joan has already eaten,
make us truly thankful."
1-
Second son of the former kaiser is
to marry a womn who has been twice
widowed and once divorced. Iie7k
learn all about husbands from herr—
Border Cities Star,
"Dd your grandfather live to a
'green old ago?" "I should say sol Ile
was swindled throe time% after he Was
'seventy."
"That man is a phrenologist, Pat.
i "A phat7" asked Pat, puzzled,
phrenologist, phat's that?" "Why,
man that eat tell by feeling the buntp
on . your head what kind of a ma
you ere." "Bumps ou mo head, is lel
exclaimed Pat. "13egorrs, then,
Should think it would give Kira mo
of an Mee wk'at lkind of a woman in
(wolf, la"