Produced by Al Haines
1914
Contents
The illustrations reproduced in the Introduction to this volumehave been selected from those in Miss Furman's "Mothering onPerilous."
Introduction Ida M. Tarbell
Introduction
A more illuminating interpretation of the settlement idea than MissFurman's stories "Sight to the Blind" and "Mothering on Perilous"does not exist. Spreading what one has learned of cheerful,courageous, lawful living among those that need it has always beenrecognized as part of a man's work in the world. It is anobligation which has generally been discharged with more zeal thanhumanity. To convert at the point of a sword is hateful business.To convert by promises of rewards, present or future, is hardlyless hateful. And yet much of the altruistic work of the world hasbeen done by one or a union of these methods.
That to which we have converted men has not always been moresatisfactory than our way of going at it. It has often failed tomake radical changes in thought or conduct. Our reliance has beenon doctrines, conventions, the three R's. They are easilysterile—almost sure to be if the teacher's spirit is one ofcock-sure pride in the superiority of his religion and hiscultivation.
The settlement in part at least is the outgrowth of a desire tofind a place in which certain new notions of enlightening men andwomen could be freely tested and applied. The heart of the idealies in its name. The modern bearers of good tidings instead ofhanding down principles and instructions at intervals from pulpitor desk settle among those who need them. They keep open housethe year around for all, and to all who will, give whatever theyhave learned of the art of life. They are neighbors and comrades,learners as well as teachers.
It would be hard to find on the globe a group of people who needmore this sort of democratic hand-to-hand contact than those MissFurman describes, or a group with whom it is a greater satisfactionto establish it. Tucked away on the tops and slopes of themountains of Eastern Kentucky and Tennessee are thousands offamilies, many of them descendants of the best of English stock.Centuries of direful poverty combined with almost completeisolation from the life of the world has not been able to take fromthem their look of race, or corrupt their brave, loyal, proudhearts. Encircled as they are by the richest and most highlycultivated parts of this country, near as they are to us in blood,we have done less for their enlightenment than for that of theOrient, vastly less than we do for every new-come immigrant. Onthe religious side all that they have had is the occasionalitinerant preacher, thundering at them of the wrath of God; and onthe cultural what Aunt Dalmanutha calls the "pindling" districtschool. In the teachings of both is an over-weight of sternnessand superstition, little "plain human kindness," almost nothingthat points the way to decent, happy, healthy living.
The results are both grotesque and pitiful. Is it strange that thefeud should flourish in a land ruled by a "God of wrath?" Isanything bu