Alice Cobb<\/a>, a worker for the Pine Mountain Settlement School, traveled the northeast United States to acquaint prospective donors\u00a0with the mission, needs, and accomplishments of\u00a0the\u00a0School, and\u00a0to\u00a0gather names for the School’s mailing list.<\/span><\/p>\nIn meticulous\u00a0detail and with keen insight and humor, she describes\u00a0in a conversational style her experiences, recording\u00a0each step of her busy schedule, her observations of members of the New England upper middle class, and\u00a0her successes and failures in dealing with them. She carefully describes the people\u00a0she met, including their clothing, manners, family, background and the subjects they discussed, the homes they lived in and the food they served. She does so with tact, compassion, tolerance, and compassion, sprinkling her narrative with a bit of humor or irony.<\/p>\n
I am always interested to see how much people along this line love to talk to me about their travels and interests, after I have been invited presumably to talk about Pine Mountain. But perhaps it is just as well. One half of my purpose is to find out all about them, and that half is very easy to accomplish. [Alice Cobb Travelogue 1941, page 08]<\/em><\/p>\nOn the few occasions when\u00a0she was treated rudely or disagreed with a person’s statements, she\u00a0kept a\u00a0polite facade before the offending person\u00a0but didn’t mince words\u00a0in her\u00a0recording of the event.<\/p>\n
Miss Cobb’s explains her methods of engaging people in conversation so that the subjects led gently to Pine Mountain.<\/p>\n
\u00a0“[She] was ready to write me a check, but did not encourage it. I feel that I must not let myself be in position of solicitor. It will hurt my own morale and won’t help Pine Mountain enough in the long run. I want to be able to say honestly that I do not take money — that is not my purpose.” [Alice Cobb Travelogue 1941, page 04.]<\/em><\/p>\nRather than asking directly for money for the School, she tells them of the School’s positive aspects, such as its beauty and solitude and the ways in which it is helping the mountain people.<\/p>\n
In her reports, she reveals as much about herself as those she meets, such as her views on the value of education:<\/p>\n
We agreed that education should be life itself, not merely preparation for life — an experience vital because it was necessary. No action is really significant unless it is action which fulfills a real need outside the individual who acts.\u00a0<\/em>[Alice Cobb Travelogue 1941, page 04.]<\/em><\/p>\n…her views on religious cults and women:<\/p>\n
[I] said it seemed to me that women who did not marry and had too much time on their hands were likely to turn their thoughts too much in upon themselves.\u00a0[Alice Cobb Travelogue 1941, page 04.]<\/em><\/p>\n…and in her longing for her college days:<\/p>\n
They were the sweetest days of all. Sometimes I wish I could be young again, and do it all over — all the grief I have had has come because I was not always true to the best dreams I had then, and much of the happiness has grown somehow out of the idealism which began to crystallize there.<\/em>\u00a0[Alice Cobb Travelogue 1941, page 04.]<\/em><\/p>\nIn the following 1941 travelogue, Miss Cobb travels to the Boston area (“Dr. Withington<\/a>‘s territory”) and follows a schedule of meetings and speaking engagements suggested by Mrs. Cate, her hostess and mentor. Mrs. Cate\u00a0had many connections due to her place in society and the fact that she was\u00a0already\u00a0experienced in fundraising for the Pine Mountain Settlement School.<\/p>\nMrs. C[ate] gave me many good hints about publicity, since she did speaking for the school. Emphasize new days, and new problems — the old is worn out, she says. Advises still — don’t ask directly for money. Just tell the story, and make it good.\u00a0[Alice Cobb Travelogue 1941, page 09.]<\/em><\/p>\n
\nGALLERY: Alice Cobb – Travelogue 1941<\/h3>\n\n\t\t