The pioneer's task of settlement has been completed. West- 
 ward the course of empire has taken its way until one broad 
 line of population extends from ocean to ocean with no con- 
 siderable extent into which man has not entered and estab- 
 lished his home. Where fifty years ago "the rank thistle 
 nodded in the wind and the wild fox dug his hole unscared," 
 to-day are the busy habitation of men where man is adding 
 to his own dignity. The deserts have been made to blossom 
 as the rose and peaceful farms have been built out of the 
 howling wilderness. The conflict with the forces of nature has 
 been short and decisive; the pioneers have finished their work ; 
 they are silently crossing the Great Divide. The West will 
 soon be a replica of the East. The time-honored advice of 
 Horace Greeley has fallen into abeyance, for the country has 
 already grown up and the young men are turning to other points 
 of the compass — some to the gold fields of the far North ; some 
 are turning with longing eyes to the commercial openings in 
 the East. It is folly to disparage the great world movements 
 in the Orient that are destined to change the geography of the 
 nations, but with the task of settlement practically completed 
 there are greater problems confronting this nation at home 
 than those that are under solution in far countries. It is a 
 greater task to cultivate the minds of men than it is to culti- 
 vate the face of the earth. Inward development is of more 
 importance than territorial expansion. 
 
 In the rapid march of civilization to the West the work of 
 development naturally has been neglected, but if the first 
 great era in our history has been that of settlement and ex- 
 pansion, we are now entering into a greater era of develop- 
 ment and consolidation. Hitherto so engrossed have we been 
 over our advancing frontier line that the needs of neglected 
 
2 
 
 fields have been overlooked^ In the interval between the com- 
 pletion of the first great task aud the beginning of a second, 
 a few thoughtful men and women have realized that unselfish 
 charity must begin at home. Hence the submerged tenth in 
 our cities is being lifted up; the negro is beginning to receive 
 his due; the long neglected field of Appalachian America is 
 being opened up and work in the mountains has begun. 
 
 H^re is a work that appeals peculiarly to the imagination. 
 There is no iconocliism about it, and it is tinged with senti- 
 ment. Fnr from the breaking of old creeds and the suppres- 
 sion of old customs, there is the discovery of simple faith and 
 quaint ways. In the work nmong our foreign population it is 
 necessary to shake the confidence of the people in their former 
 habits and the worker must contend against the pnjudice of 
 tradition. The work among the negroes is hampered by the 
 evil rt'sults of a lengthy servitu<le, and the worker must allay 
 passion and stifle the throb of resentment in the negro's breast. 
 Els-where the worker, by tacit consent, is assigned the position 
 of sU()friority, and the problem is largely a moral one, to ele- 
 vate the people morally. It is not so with the mountaineers. 
 One raiy find case after case of the teacher taught. Many 
 learn the very lessons that they came to teach. The mountain 
 people are as free as their native hills and as moral as the 
 patriarchs There are no prevailing vices to correct and no 
 offensive customs to be banished. There need be no breasting 
 of the current of mountain life, but the worker enters into the 
 very flow of life and his task is to direct it into new and larger 
 clunnels. 
 
 Ri le up and down the endless ridges of the towering hills, 
 notice the little clearings where the mountaineers have built 
 their humble homes, enter and accept the hospitality of the 
 quiet and reticent people, and your mind is carried back to 
 the Colonial period and you see before you your own country 
 in its infancy. It is the home of an Anglo-Saxon race inured 
 to hardship and privation. Men of the Lincoln type, tall and 
 angui ir, with ke^n eyes, firm hands and vigorous minds. Here 
 and there a soul of such piety and spiritual culture as to sug- 
 gest the words of Bryant: 
 
 " There have been holy men who hid themselves 
 Deep in the woody wilderness, and gave 
 Their lives to thought and prayer." 
 
3 
 
 " Here is continual worship. In the wood, amidst the cool 
 and silence, the people still kneel down and offer to the Might- 
 iest solemn thanks and snpplic ition " 
 
 Here is a region extending from Pennsylvania to Georgia, 
 comprising parts of nine States, containing nearly three mil- 
 lion inhabitants, that is an unreckoned factor in our national 
 problems. Here are twenty contiguous counties without a 
 printing press. Here is a land where every horse is a saddler 
 and the bed of every stream a road. A land in which the 
 strong, heroic element in life is everywhere conspicuous; a 
 land from which the rugged manliness of the past has not de- 
 parted. Our city life may be becoming too monotonous and 
 luxurious, and farm life may be growing too mechanical and 
 easy, but such is not the case in the mountains. Strong, rug- 
 ged conditions obtain, and a vigorous mas iulinity is the re- 
 sult. If it is possible for a Lincoln to come only from a log 
 cabin and a life of hardship, then in the Appalachian moun- 
 tains are the log cabins and the life of hardship. 
 
 The question may be asked: Is it advisable to disturb exist- 
 ing circumstances ? If the mountain people are happy and 
 prosperous, what is the use of disturbing such Arcadian sim- 
 plicity? There is cause for these questions. The mountain- 
 eers could live on in the future in happiness and contentment 
 scornful of others and mistrustful of advances. Accustomed 
 to ''getting along without things," and ignorant of our comforts 
 and luxuries, they do not miss the blessings that others enjoy. 
 If left to themselves their happiness will not be impaired nor 
 will they be altogether miserable. They will live on a perfect 
 equality, knowing nothing of either the aristocracy of brains 
 or of dollars, and they will die in the firm faith of their fath- 
 ers. But a change is bound to come over the hill country, and 
 the question is, "Of what nature is the change to be?" Already 
 railroads are entering, coal fields are being opened up and the 
 hills are being stripped of valuable timber. Thespirit of com- 
 mercialism is abroad in the land. The country is being de- 
 veloped from one standpoint; it is bfing demoralized from 
 another. Trade is far ahead of any other developer and the 
 agents of trade are not the proper pioneers. 
 
 If we enter into this field merely to denude the hills of tim- 
 ber and to penetrate them for coal, our work degenerates into 
 
a selfish enterprise, and the mountain people may become a 
 positive menace to our country. If the mountaineers are to 
 be given up entirely to thd tender mercies of commercialism, 
 we might as well give up all hope of ever recruiting our 
 strength from theirs. They must be given financial aid in 
 their educational struggle, so that they can reach a knowledge 
 of themselves and thrir capabilities. They need to become 
 acquainted with the best elements of modern civilization, and 
 they need to be left in profound ignorance of all else. Their 
 individuality must not be merged into the monotonous life of 
 our own communities. The vigorous traits of charncter must 
 be preserved intnct. The native shrewdness that is shown in 
 escaping the vigilance of revenue officers, and the courage <iis- 
 played in the management of lends, should be turned to higher 
 uses. Their contempt of physical harm and their devotion to 
 principle may be of inestimable value in the maintenance and 
 propagation of spiritual truth. Their only need of others is 
 aid in helping them to know themselves, and after that aid 
 has been given "let us lift up our eyes unto the mountains 
 from whence shall come our help." 
 
 A great deal of woeful ignorance exists concerning the 
 mountain people. They are pi(!tured as rufiians, eager to kill, 
 when, as President Frost says, "The mountaineers' very homi- 
 cides are an honest survival of Saxon temper." They are not 
 ignorant if the "end of education is training in wisdom, virtue 
 and piety," for their wisdom is the wisiiom of Solomon and 
 Chaucer; their braverv has been exhibited in the Revolution- 
 ary and in the Civil War, when 150,000 mountaineers fought 
 for the Union, and their religion is natural and fervent. As 
 far as the polish and culture of modern civilization are con- 
 cerned, they are ignorant, but they know what it is to live and 
 to think, and there are great thinkers among them, whose re- 
 flections never appear in print. 
 
 Again, it is a mistake to suppose that mission work in the 
 mountains is a work of charity, or a one sided philanthropy, 
 where much is given and nothing is rereived in return. The 
 returns are immediate, and of far greater valuf than the in- 
 vestment. As it is, the whole country might with profit take 
 lessons from these hardv mountaineers in love of home and 
 country, in hospitality, in unwavering friendship, in adher- 
 ence to conviction and in reverence of God. They need no 
 
5 
 
 master come from abroad to teach them patience under diffi- 
 culties or endurance under adversities. In the homely virtues 
 they are our peers, and in the matter of strength and courage 
 they are the masters of all. For every lesson one bestows there 
 are lessons one may learn. 
 
 It is a mistake to suppose that the problem is to make the 
 mountain people like those who have enjoyed greater ad- 
 vantages. The problem is not to make this people like us, for 
 that indeed would be a calamity. It will not do to dump all 
 the advantages of civilization into the mountains and spread 
 a thin veneer of culture over the entire population. The 
 problem is not how to modernize them, but it is the greater 
 problem of adaptation; not to change the environment but to 
 make the most of it. Not to do away with the log cabin but 
 to beautify it. Not propound lectures on Ibsen and Emerson, 
 but practical talks on house-keeping and the true chivalry. 
 
 I plead then for aid to this people because they are our 
 people, our own flesh and blood, and because aiding them is a 
 direct service to all America. I plead for aid to them not 
 only because they have need of us but also because we have 
 need of them. For what does America need so much as true 
 Americans of unwearied bodies and vigorous minds; men who 
 shall inject new vigor into our body politic, and who shall 
 help in the management of our gre it republic. Not by a for- 
 tuitous fate have they been stranded away from the ebb and 
 flow of civilization, but it has been by the providence of an 
 All-Wise Ruler. No leaders have as yet come from among 
 these humble mountain folk. Content to live in obscurity, yet 
 their lives have exhibited in a marked degree the ancient 
 virtues of truth, devotion and hospitality. I firmly believe 
 that many will arise in the mountains with supreme qualities 
 for leadership. There are powerful currents of energy and 
 strength yet to flow into American life, and one of these is to 
 come from the mountains. 
 
 Development is the great need of the mountaineers, and the 
 supreme task before us as Americans is the conservation of 
 present moral power and the development of latent forces. The 
 mountain problem can not be left to the Southern States, for 
 the nine States are poor and inexperienced. It is a problem 
 for the nation and for the individual philanthropist. There 
 
6 
 
 are splendid opportunities to build on no man's foundation 
 and to develop individual theories of the community. No 
 part of this country can afford to have any other part neg- 
 lected. No man can afford to have illiterate neighbors. No 
 one can afford to neglect opportunities of pouring forth upon 
 men inspirations of love and hope. No one can afford not to 
 do good. A.S the mountaineers are illiterate, they need edu- 
 cation. As they are impetuous, they need the lesson of self- 
 control and discipline. As they are unambitious, they need 
 to be aroused and inspired with hope. In short, the problem 
 is one of education, adaptation, inspiration. 
 
 I believe in the splendid optimism which maintains that 
 the time is rapidly approaching when men will hustle to do 
 good as they now hustle to make money ; when the only com- 
 petition will be the competition of service, and the only ex- 
 change the exchange of courtesy. Out of the present social 
 crisis is to come a new society, in which the glorious prophe- 
 cies of the past shall become the abiding facts of the present. 
 The wisdom of the world will pass away, but the life that is 
 lost in service will increase with the passing of the years, till 
 the work of God is perfected on the earth. It is not so impor- 
 tant that this work be done as it is for each one of us to have 
 a part in it. It is good to live at a time when opportunities 
 for service are so abundant ; it is better to make the most of 
 them. As Bacon says, "Men must know that in this theater of 
 man's life it remaineth only to God and the angels to be look- 
 ers-on." All have a "work, a life purpose." It maybe in the 
 Appalachian mountains. Would that all might find their 
 work and have the will to do it, remembering that "he only is 
 great of will who does something to shape the world to a great 
 career." 
 
 The mountains are before you. They are open fields for 
 philanthropy. The compensation of the work is that one may 
 hope 
 
 " The Christ of God to And 
 In the humblest of- thy kind." 
 Morehead, Ky. E. W. McDiarmid. 
 
 Published by the Christian Woman's Board of Missions, 152 East 
 Market St., Indianapolis, Ind., November, 1900. One cent each, ten 
 cents per dozen.