C.C. Mills was the Big Sandy Mountaineer Editor back in 1921
August 18, 1921 Mountaineer
C.C. Miles Editor and Publisher
Researched by Zoe Merrill
(I thought this was a really good article which was found while reading older Mountaineer papers. An interesting fact I found was also the Mountaineer cost $2.00 a year; unless you lived overseas then it cost $2.50)
"There are very few people who have not heard the old saying that the grass in the other mule's pasture is the greenest. The caricature of this shows a mule standing knee deep in clover and stretching his neck through the fence to get a nibble of short grass on the other side.
Human nature is not greatly different from that of this mule. Thinking of one's hard times, especially in the present stress, one is apt to look in the distance with covetous eyes and long for that which is not there-better conditions.
The traveler from distant lands who comes to your own town will tell you that wherever you travel these day's conditions are bad. In states far famed for their plenty, reports come that the financial stress is as hard or even harder than here. None but a fool would say else than that we are passing through a stressful time. But to give up to that feeling that, it's no use, is suicide.
It is not an uncommon thing to hear on the streets of any town the knocker knock everything that is mentioned that makes for success. And what did the knocker ever do that ever helped himself or anybody else? A knocker never made a bright spot in anybodys life, not even his own.
If you have lived on a farm no doubt you have seen a wagon stuck in the mud and the horses hitched to it would first one pull, then the other, huck and fort;), until they would finally balk and the wagon remain in the mud.
What a contrast is the good steady team that starts together, settles down into the collar, and heaves the wagon out on dry ground. And this might well illustrate everything that could help in the activities intended to help your town and community.
One may not at first see the benefit to be derived from some effort that may help the community, but if it's intended for some good, give it a chance, help it along if you can. Boost your town and community. Your opportunity is at home. Nearly everything that has made for progress has had to make good on the upgrade.
It is common chatter that this country is not a farming country and never will be. Grant that recent efforts have not fulfilled hopes. But paste this where you won't forget it:
This community not many years hence will be one of the best farming districts in the Great Northwest. Other kinds of developments too are sure to come. Are you one who is on the bright side of the future with a boost, or are you one whom the future will force to reluctantly acknowledge, that everything made good despite your adverse efforts.
If you have been a pessimist about your own hometown, it's a good time to change and become an optimist. Somewhere it is written, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."
