FIRST PROFESSIONAL WORK 63 



migration they had come westward from Indiana 

 and Kentucky. 



There was little to attract an eastern visitor in 

 the appearance of the place : all live-stock ran at 

 large ; the pig, genuine razor-back variety, with 

 its numerous progeny, possessed the land; the 

 jimson-weed ran riot. The streets when wet were 

 deep in mud, when dry deep in dust ; the board 

 sidewalk, laid loosely, and often graded far above 

 the roadway with projecting nails at frequent in- 

 tervals, afforded a precarious footpath. Half-clad 

 negroes and poor whites idly lounged on the busi- 

 ness corners, their only occupation chewing and 

 spitting ; the cuspidor adorned the houses of rich 

 and poor alike. 



There were a few pleasant and well-kept homes, 

 each in the midst of groves of trees and flowering 

 vines, but they only served to emphasize the pre- 

 vailing squalor and wretchedness of the rest of 

 the village. 



The normal school was the oasis in this intel- 

 lectual and material desert. To this school, in 

 the reconstruction period following the war, came 

 a host of bright and interesting pupils from all 

 parts of the state, eager for the opportunities 

 offered. They were for the most part far more 

 appreciative and zealous than those found at the 

 seats of learning in the East. 



A stranger was amazed to find this small village 



