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Show A CHRISTIAN WOMAN. 7 invariably large, and it is exceedingly common to find idiots and deformed children among them, so common that in most counties a tax is levied for the support of idiots, and any family having one can draw a small sum for that purpose. The girls marry while very young, and at the age of thirty-five are dejected old women; many of them do not know how to read or write, and one girl of seventeen was found who had never seen a book. A favorite theme with the mountain preachers is the subjection of women, and the sin and foolishness of giving them too much education. Many of the better families send their sons to Berea, but their daughters never. To give you an idea of the elevating influences by which they are surrounded I will give you a picture of a mountain preacher as it was given to me, A lank man clad in homespun shirt and trousers, feet bare, pants and sleeves rolled up, shirt open at the neck, hair long and matted, suspenders of pawpaw bark, and mouth filled with tobacco. In contrast with thi hideous picture, think for one moment of the gentleman whom you call "our pastor," and thank God that your lot was not cast with the women of '' The Great Smoky Mountains." You wilf please not to imagine that the S. S. convention we attended bore any resemblance to the assembly of the same name in the North. It was simply an effort on our part to get the people interested in S. S. work. |
