Page 48 - 1930 October - To Dragma

OCTOBER, 1930 47

committees were organized, and a house-to-house campaign conducted.
Not the least of the things attained, we believe, was a knowledge and
an insight that these leaders gained into the lives of the people of their
own communities.

School transfers brought the people who had no other means of
getting there. The drivers lent their busses and gave their services.
We paid for the gas and oil. One bus came forty-five miles. I t was
midnight when this driver got to bed—a shocking hour for a weary
farmer.

As for financing this project, I may say it was accomplished on
a very meager amount, which testified to a spirit of service that actuated
so many and made the Folk School possible. The small amount that
was raised was prorated among the communities. These communities
raised their portion by donation, dramatic activities, and so forth. A
Folk School edition of our paper was published, and advertisements were
secured, which not only paid for the edition, but accrued a little for
our fund.

Do not imagine that we did not have some discouragements. Had
we not been dubbed idealists, impracticable to the nth degree? We
had been given to understand by "those who knew," that the country-
man was so deeply rooted in his backwoods environment that never could
we uproot him sufficiently to come to town and mix with the "city
guys" and attend "School." Now the day had arrived! I t was a
breath-taking moment! What would the program avail i f the folk
just didn't come? But we need not have worried! Two-thirty o'clock
was the stated time, and by noon they began to arrive, walking, in
wagons, on mule back, loaded in school busses, crowded in cars, some
of which were a little the worse for wear, others washed shiny for the
occasion. Here the people came, great ones, small ones, lean ones,
brawny ones, grave old plodders, gay young friskers, fathers, mothers,
husbands, wives—nearly two thousand strong. We had aimed at 1,000,
but there were one thousand children! Do you wonder that we were
utterly oblivious to the July sun, but flew around, hither and thither
on feet made light by happy hearts? When I tell you that five days

•nr' **?e losing day the crowd topped the three thousand mark, you
will believe with us that there must have been some other motive than
idle curiosity back of it all!

The costumes may have been of interest to a collector of odd bits
0 apparel, but the eager, hungry, expectant faces made it impossible
o see anything else. Some of these women had not left their homes
o r a number of years. One woman said she did not take a paper nor

magazine. She didn't have a car to go anywhere. She did not have
i n ^ V e s t 0 wear; somehow she'd lost the desire. Such stagnation
k^tnis hurlyburly day of speed; such hopelessness in this day of thrills

ings a pang. When we realize that this woman is no gloomy, isolated
ception—that she is almost typical of a certain class, that pang re-
i n " . 5 * , She had had her day of youth and romance. I t was then she

led the country boy who became a farmer, not because he had a