Show L I SILENT TRAQBSY HEROISM OF A MOTHEF IN THE CUMBERLAND MOUNTAINS A Longing For the Outside World Crushed Back In Her Heart Because She Did Not Want Her Daughters to Learn of Brighter Bright-er Things Beyond Their Reach There are tragedies in nearly all peoples peo-ples lives though some may never know them by that name We find them too In most unexpected places which reminds re-minds me that one day I stopped for dinner at a house in the Cumberland mountains so deep in the fastnesses that I had to employ a guide to show me the way to the first road that would take me out to the county road The family consisted con-sisted of a man and wife with six daughters daugh-ters and a more ignorant lot of people I think I never saw After the dinner of bacon beans aid corn bread the Aan and girls went back to the field and I talked awhile to the woman before resuming re-suming my journey She was a typical mountaineeress tall angular and sallow but there was a gleam of intelligence in her face quite unlike the lack lusterness of th usual woman of the mountains Dont you get very lonely away off here to yourself I asked her as she busied about the table I reckon I mought ef I had time she replied but I dont give myself no time to think about things like that And what about your girls Dont they wantto get out among people Not ez I everheerd em say Do they go to school in winter JNO Have they never been Not yit this half apologetically Do they have anything to read They cant read Cant read I repeated surprise for even though the older mountaineers cannot read and Vrite as a rule the younger ones under amore modern civilization civ-ilization can No they cant she said as if irritated irri-tated by my tone Are you so far from the schoolhouse that you cant send them was my next venture Its two miles and they could go but I wont let em This was a new phase and the matter became more interesting Why not I asked with a persistence persist-ence that was risky She stopped her work and turned her face to me Them gals she said dont know uothin but these here mountains and that thar river down thar they dont know what is goin on in the world outside out-side they never seen no steam cars ner boats ner telegrafts ner telephones ner fine houses ner beautiful dos ner gentlemen gen-tlemen ner ladies they dont hardly know thars such but I do fer Ive saw people ez hez seen em and theyve toLl me Manys the night rye gone to bed and cried myself to sleep in the loft that wuz my bedroom thinkin about what thar vaz in the world that I couldnt even hope to git a look at I got so I could read and then I read about email em-ail and that made it wuss Thar wu nothin but mountains and loneliness and silence fer me and I couldnt help myself my-self nohow Then I married Jim and we come here Jim cant read ncr write and the pore feller is satisfied fer he dont know no more than the gals does and theyre company fer each other The gals might git like I wuz ef they larnt readln and writin and how could they ever git away frum this place and go among sicn different things They couldnt jist th same ez I couldnt and ef I kin keep em frum knowin whuts away off whar the mountains aint ner the lonesomeness I er the silence Im goin ter do it and let em live und die right here whar they air a heap better satisfied than ther I mother has ever been though they never I heered her ss nothin about it one way ner tother and they never will I The hard lines of determination had ome into her face when she began I speaking and I could see they were I pressing back the tears of disappointment disappoint-ment as she talked to me and when she turned to her work again she brushed her eyes hastily while I sat there thinking think-ing of the silent heroism ant uncomplaining uncomplain-ing sacrifice of this woman longing in the solitude of the mountains for the hraadth and the beauty of the world beIJ 15 t yond them SeE never voicing ncr wisnj walking straight through the darkness of ignorance knowing of the light above it standing fast with her family about her as the millions rushed on toward the higher attainments ot life crushing her soul down into its narrow confines and keeping it there because she realized that for her and for hers this was the I eartb and the fullness thereofDetroit Free Press |