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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1928-12-06, Page 3ditiu:ntiMklt�; " ' We-tinsiias Come—Lark Us" The 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 By MARY FIELD PARTOl1' came mountain boys, walking barefoott "Back Beyond" in an Ontario "for- gotten •section"—Haliburtoxi, parts of Muskoka sections of Victoria, Hast- ings and Renfrew counties, we had a very similar condition to that told in the story of the Georgia "Poor White Trash." The ' Department of Educa- tion, the Red Cross and several mss- the long journey or whose parents sionary ministers have improved the thought "larnin' " a waste of time or sad conditions • in these backward whose labor was needed on the farm. parts of our fair province. The work Martha 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 by New York Tribune a Martha Berry ways of the mountains, coming upon and her work may be an inspiration weather-beaten shacks filled to the to our Government to apply the same door and window sills with ragged up and dowu the stony' trails. Their cumber grew,' "Lain us, Miss Berry" they said, "Larn us what you -all know." Old As Well As Young But for' each child who caste, hun- dreds .there were who could not make principles for the betterment of our own under -privileged children. Twenty-six years ago, on a Sunday afternoon, a star must have hung low and luminous over a little log cabin men unintelligently endeavoring to in the mountains of Georgia. Here, wrest a bare existence out of thepoor in obscurity, a dream' was born to a soil of the mountain side with the gentle Southern, girl. Few were wise most primitive tools; everywhere enough: to foresee the significance of tired women, bent over wash barrels her vision in the lives of thousands of or 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 stoat 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 lives on re- mote upland farms, in ignorance and poverty ' children. Everywhere on these journeys she found dirt, illiteracy, illness. Every- where she found weary, worked -out 'Moreover, to -day, Martha Berry, the founder of the schools, is the recipient of the annual achievement award of $5,000 given by "`The 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 anti girls in ever-increasing numbers cleanliness and godliness to children have been coming down from the up- whose parents were too poor to buy lands, trudging weary miles, hungry soap and combs? It wasn't Sunday for "larnin'." Ragged, dirty, barefoot -schools, it .wasn't week -clay schools >cl they route, all, all they possess ou that these children needed. It was a their hacks and Ili a shoulder bundle. boarding school, a complete change ties, ores g _ i me larnin' llyar,ww of environment that was essential. Georgia to the Berry Schools. Yet table rows. "Blue ribbon" cattle .,r,+�oo, 807 housewives, 25 nurses Bout were as it create i to convince I come to git= : r - taiicient, never cowmen, and d preachers. Others fin ecce- the world that the path or glory Ieads they say sentry, dropping their bur- So herV2fathe Beery deeded her share sures Its graze hi the meadows. Fruit ripens :ten at the entrance to the grounds of of father's estate to the first of surate wine the need of the children in the orchard. tatial anti office jobs. She sees her but to the grave as "surely ammo the school, whose wide Schools, 1 mito which of the uplands.An unending file of scl o.,. and it methods rapt Perpetuating in Picture the Balaclava Charge ante zeseeetese- -a" J INTO THE VALLEY OP DEATH RO)E 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. ' British Empire Calle Ar.: i Factor inWorld Peace Bair Austen Chamberlain Says Canada's Counsel Will Be Highly Valued Ottawa, Ont.—Canada's )tart. in in• terintperial and international affairs was the subject of two inspiring ad- dresses given by Sir Austen Choate 'berlaln, British Foreign Secretary, as the guest of the Canadian, Govern- ment, While Canada's increasing in11a.- ence Contained elements of danger, Sir Austen had a profound faith. that "always our commons sense will solve these difficulties as they arise. He considered that the British Em- pire was a factor of immense im- portance for the peace of the world, and "we will welcome any ,counsel and criticism you may contribute to tt,e foreign policy of the Empire." Sir Austen said it was geographi- cally impossible for Great Britain to be indifferent to the peace of Europe; but he looked for the dominions, from their more detached positions, to be ready with their counsel and ad- vice. He designated the British Em- pire as a constant puzzle to the rest of the world, but as a puzzle that was being solved with amazing success, "guarding peace among ourselves and `vorkin for peace throughout the world. " W, L". Mackenzie fling, Prime Min ister of Canada, spoke of Sir Austen "Thy people shall be my people," as being as distinguished as his great said. Martha Berry as she consecrated father, Sir Joseph; ' of l s hav3rt@ she turn to outsiders for help,edid.she tiny shack. They are grown men crusaders to their kinfolk, eager to filled nearly all the portfolios in the .her young life to the "poor whites" of go beyond the disapproving circle of now- And Martha Berry, white -hair- battle against ignorance and poverty. Cabinet, and of being the "I,ocarnt the mountains. her friends with the story of • the ed, gentle, with eyes both brilliant , There are no servants at Berra. peace pact Itself." ' The Projectytarted mountain boys begging for an educa- Her next step was to open at her tion, willing to work long. hours with own expense schools nearer to the plow and axe and scythe that they remote settlements of the pebple, but might know something of the world it was not long before she realized of books, might learn how to live more that her efforts on behalf of the chil- dren were defeated by the home en- vironment. Of what use to talk about and •tender, looks down from the All must work. it want to. It was Sir Robert Bordeu, former }'re- "I-lou$e 0' Dreams," which the bo_e'a nev, and difficult idea to spread in mier of Canada. referred to their and girls titem•:tee bait fur her on ti'a nttt?Ili a1ns teat hand labor is guest as the exponent of a rare and the summit f Laeendar Iountain. • eignifie:l ;std honorable. Martha sane idealism, and greater in peace upon the spreading reclizt'tio.t of her Berry taught lads that lesson, work- even than during war. .. girlhood's dream. i ing a profeend psychologic change in---ea-- Money ----•- . - Money Secured Nearly all the builhluge have been ,the stale point of view Many other Th Money began coming in from her constt•uetea by the boys themselves, subtle things are taught an apprecs e Lady or Tears "begging tours," as she called them in the warm meadows beyond the at:o:t for ire beauty that lies all and ever more Children Rept tom campns sturdy boys in the uniform about. them.. of •thc power of character.. Marie Feodorovna is dead—the ing, malting More and more mousy of the sclool.-cveratts-••-are Wowing,- �ifa:titu Berry counts 2.500 boys who "lady of teal•.," the most tragic fig. necessary. From all over the country Girls in blue dresses and pink sun• have gone ant from her school skill- are among tte crowned heads. Not tiny streams cf contributeons began bonnets bend, like flowers tltemset• ec3 isrtners, rw1 who Iia've become even the ; n!Irr^"e EtzgeIlie's c1rroni• flowing over the, Appalachians into • flower ardens and veie- tea+:: ere teal principals to rural cle on misery au' tree e:lcoeds hers. gates awing the Berry a dormitory =3 ed byqueens. pe among peasants; that roy she built with her own money. From boys kept trickling down the moun-, The Harvest other bctekward sections. The .Lary alty wears no talisman against sor row. Born the Princess Dagmar o'. Denmark, fate affianced her to th+ Czarevitch Nicholas of Russia, ant fate stole him away from her throng/ his death from lung trouble a fev weeks before the date for their mar riage. In accordance with his dying request, she married his brother or October 26, 2866. Fifteen years lat er, the Czar Alexander II, her father in-Iaw, was assassinated by Nihilists as he was driving through the streets of St. Petersburg. Her own husband, .Alexander III died in 1894, at the age of 49. It was her son who was the last of the Romanov czars. It was her son to whom she once said• "Nicholas, be Czar"; he who called the first Hague Conference for peace, whose statesmen later insured the World War by mobilizing after their feeble Czar had ordered them to re. train. It was he who with his whole family, was murdered in that hor- rible cellar at Ekaterinburg. Bug not in her belief. To her end she was persuaded that he lived in hid- ing. Before her collapsed the whole great Russian fabric, the great em - The key to knowledge in his own , pire built of blood and tears and ha- deep udeep mind; man misery that the Romanovs might Until, nerve -racked and with tor- rule and the aristocrats play in the mented soul, splendor of their riches created by He lost his mind when he had neared by the backs of the mujiks. Only epee onto the paved -elm -arched• Roa of Opportttnity.w . the inception of the school it was de- • taro trails, their packs on their backs, "We-uns has conte, ma'am- Larn tided that in return for an education, their overcoats patched; their hats ns, they say 'with the dignity of old for food and lodging, the boys could battered. Footsore, shy, they stood little children, a tragic dignity which work. They were too poor to pay; too gazing through the open grates down offsets their rags, their untutored proud to accept charity, A dozen boys the "Road of Opportuuity.' Gradually the story of the Berry Schools and the 'sublime devotion of speech. Martha Berry, the founder of the unique Berry Schools at Rome,.. Georgia, was born to far -more cul- tured associations than those of the simple mountain folk of her -country,. came. "You aim to Tarn us?" they asked. "Yes, I aim to."its founder spread beyond the state day, when a mountain boy graduates "Well, we-uns has come, ma -am." of Georgia. Men like Andrew Car- from Berry he not only has an So in return for the opportunity to negie heard and heeded the .story and I academic education, but he is au ef-' learn there was wood to cut, laud to started an endowment which assured 'Relent farmer, who has leered farm, For her was planned a . more romantic clear, a cow to milk, crops to sow and a small annual sum. Women's clubs. ing by doing it. He knows the care fature than that which she elec e . Behind her lay all the 'gracious South- of school most needed for the mown; Roosevelt exclaimed: "This is the • ern traditions of story and picture: a taro children took form in the mind ofreal thing!" when he listened to • •11 d h Martha Berry; education, she decided, , Martha Berry tell the story of her From the very first the Berry vest is in - Schools were essentially agricultural The 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- t harvest, Gradually the plau and type heard: Churches heard. ,Theodore 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, great plantation, a white pr are gine must be like the mystic Trinity, three-; sehool. "There should be a school for He has been taught scientific meth - wistaria; broad balconies and overhanging wistaria• servants to fetch and carry;influence with ro w fold yet one; of tits hand, of the mind - girls, too," he announced. ods of and fertilization; i the polished education given to the and of the heart. Education must I Through his n uence it became i how f put cultivation nitrogenous cover crops "TOO H" PADRE HOME 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. Shanty." With h months - Southern belle , .. a laughing, joyous Essentially 4t must be agricultural, girlhood; a brilliant marriage; an as- fitting lads to return to the soil from cured social poistien. Then came the which they sprang. Sunday adventure and out of it a dream which cut athwart social con- ventions,It is an old story now in the moun- tains, worn old as a folk tale by twen- ty-six years of telling and retelling— the story of the humble beginnings of BerrySchools. A summer possible to build the first girls' dorms- back into the earth, how to select tory, "Sunshine the seed, how to rotate crops, )bow to opening of this dormitory, slim, sun - browned girls in sunbonnets, calico aprons tied about their waists in the manner of little old grandmothers, Rev, "Tubby" Clayton arrived in' England after a tour oftree on spent In South America in the inter- ests of the "Toc H", of which he is the founder, • 'With the coming of spring, six more boys came, one of them walking walked down the trails their brothers - forty miles, driving a yoke of oxen. had walked to enter the Berry School, "'Tis the fee for larnin' me, ma'am,' to work with their hands for the privi- he said proudly. "They're broke ter lege of an education. plowin'.' "We-uns has come," they said. From a distant valley, leading his "Wimmin-folks wants larnin' same's the "fee" • by a rope, came a lad with a men -folks." Sunday afternoon when Martha Berry, sow, starved and dirty as the lad him- So the school grew and grew; grew a young girl just home from finishing self. Others came, bringing chickens, from its dozen into the hundreds. school, told, Bible stories in the cabin ducks to exchange for an education. from • its dozen into the hundreds, on her father's estate to three dusty , More often they brought nothing but Buildings multiplied. More teachers mountain lads she chanced upon as strong, willing hands. Tall, lanky came. More acres were cultivated. site drove home from church. Perch boys came who, at the age of fifteen There were additions to herds and 1 ed on a soap box, with the children, or sixteen, could not read or w squatting ou shuck mats at her feet! but who in three years showed as listening breathlessly, Martha Berry' great progress as the average senior realized tilts poignant hunger of these in a northern college. starred. children for knowledge. So the school grew. Martha Berry's "Pa ez got him a Bible, on'y he resources were exhausted. Still, not cain't read it," sighed a lad. The next Sunday—"There's white trash cltii'uns waitin' to see you," an- nou,nced the old family cook. "We brang 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, uukept hair; at the lags tircy wore. She saw with quick sympathy that their neglected bodies peedecl trainin • and care as well as their darkened little souls. To the telling of Bible stories were added tenons in washing. Every Sunray 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 had begun a life work, started a career that site could not stop; that she had lighted the candle of hope in datkezi edlives aroundwliose flickering flltmme sh.e lutist Cup soft, "white hands lest it bloW out, Parents ,began to come ,down from the mountains begging for "tuella" along with their children. .Against •the opposition of friends and shocked relatives, . Martha Berry opened her first day school in the fol- lowing spring; a one -room cabin •tiyith planks laid across soap boxes for the children's benches, a large packing boxfor the teachees desk. Reading, writing, ciphering, Bible stories ---this was the curricnYtim, prom miler away! This fine hunting picture was taken until she had literally sold or deeded flocks. And with the growth of the school its undaunted founder faced continually the problem of money for its mainteltauce, for equipment, for teachers. It is now twenty-six years siuce the three little dusty boys listened to all that she had given to the poor did Martha Berry tell magic stories. in a carry on the daily routine of farm an ddairy A generation separates him from his father. Two hundred. years separate him from his father's 1 understanding. When a girl leaves Berry she is an efficient homemaker, a good mate for her farmer husband. She 'can cook and preserve and sew. She can keep house, barnyard and dairy tidily. She can 'weave and spin—ancient arts. She can work out a family budget and a balanced diet as well as an algebra problem. iShe is prepatted for wifehood and motherhood, for the physical care of herself and those de- pendent upon her. She is but a generation separated from her mother. Two hundred years separate her from her mother's understanding of life. She may be- come a teacher to little mountain children, .but in all events, both boys and girls leave Berry to become i A Mystic By deep self -probing he aspired to find the goal, --Stanton A. Cobientz in the New York Sun,. Little Girl. (to her playmate) : "When I was born I was so -s'prised I couldn't speak for a whole year and a half!" November is the mouth of the axe. First the politician gets is, then the turkey. "A Hunting We Will Go" WHEN THE BUGLE while Wily autumn winds OP THE 'HUNTSMEN is SOUNDED brew at the start of the Essex Vox Hunt at Brady's tate, ladstotte, Denmark was left to her, and Maria Feodorovna returned to her antes tral home, if not to her ancestral faith, but not until tbe war had end- ed and the revoluation had plainly come to stay. And there she died.— The Nation, New York. Doane Lights Restrain "Petters" in Japan's Cars Seattle.—Automobile makers in Am- erica have been advised of the "anti- necking lamp law" in Japan, one of the most peculiar of many governing the operation of motor vehicles in the empire, The recent statute requires that all motor cars must be equipped with donne lights which must be light- ed when driving after dark. While the law was designated to protect passengers, it has' since been Called the "anti -necking lamp law." Unless cars are so lighted at night tho Jap- anese police confiscate them. It Was a Thing of the Past Mare than once the head of the household had had to rebuke ten -year- old Joan for her excessive eagerness to 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." Second son of the former kaiser is to marry a womn who has been twlco widowed and once divorced, Ido'li learn all about husbands from her.— Border Cities Start.*. "Did tar.- "lMd your grandfather live to a 'green old age?" "I should say so! Ito was swindlad three tinges after he was Seventy,"