A feature of the work that deserves special mention is the nursing
and hospital department, the ministrations of our trained nurse.
Miss Butler, having done more, possibly, than any other one thing,
not only to spread a knowledge of sanitation and preventive hygiene,
but also to establish confidential and friendly relations with the
people.
The foregoing story, "Sight to the Blind," gives some idea of this
branch of the work, the scope of which has been much extended,
however, during the three years since the story was written for _The
Century Magazine_. In that period the half-dozen clinics held in
the school hospital by Dr. Stucky of Lexington, and his co-workers,
have brought direct surgical and other relief to the afflicted of
four counties. To be present at one of these clinics is to live
Bible days over again, and to see "the lame walk, the deaf hear, the
blind receive their sight, and the poor have the good news preached
to them."
And not only this,--these clinics have demonstrated that nearly
one-half the people examined have trachoma or other serious eye
diseases, and have been the means of awakening the Government to its
responsibility in the matter, so that three government hospitals
have already been started in the mountains for the treatment of
trachoma.
So valuable, in many directions, has been the influence of the
Settlement School, that tracts of land have been offered in a number
of other mountain counties for similar schools; but so far only one,
that at Pine Mountain in Harlan County, has been begun.
An intimate account of life within the Hindman School is given in a
recently published book, "Mothering on Perilous," in which are set
forth the joys--and some of the shocks--experienced by the writer in
mothering the dozen little mountaineers who, in the early days,
shared with her the small boys' cottage. The real name of the
school creek is of course Troublesome, not Perilous.
Alas, nearly a thousand eager, lovable children are turned away
yearly for lack of room and scholarships. The school is supported
by outside contributions, one hundred dollars taking a child through
the year. What better use of money could possibly be made by
patriotic persons and organizations than to open the doors of
opportunity to these little Sons and Daughters of the Revolution?
LUCY FURMAN
HINDMAN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL,
October, 1914.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Mothering on Perilous
Decorated cloth, illustrated, 12mo. $1.50 net: postage extra,
This book tells in lively fashion of the experiences of a young
woman who, to escape from grief and loneliness, goes to work in a
settlement school in the heart of the Kentucky mountains.
There she instantaneously "acquires a family" of a dozen small boys
and henceforth finds her life "crammed with human interest." The
ludicrously funny and sometimes pathetic doings of the little,
untamed feudists, moonshiners, and hero worshippers, form the
subject-matter of the tale.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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