Shadrack Malraux Mason

Gunmaker 38 Shadrack Malraux Mason by J. Mace Crandall Mace Crandall is familiar to those who remember earlier years of Mountain Life and Work and The Council of the Southern Mountains. He lives in Berea, Kentucky. Shad Mason sat on the doorsill of the feed house, leaning back against the frame. "No, they ain't much to do with here," he said, scanning the swept and beaten span of his dooryard. "But onless a man does what he can with what he's got, why should anyone give him more to do withP' Following his gaze, I noticed the wellstacked firewood, pigs in good condition and in a tight pen. The chickens that roamed the yard did not have to forage for all their living; behind Shad were bags of feed, most of which he had raised himself, mixing in what "store bought" stuff he could afford. Fortunately, for him and for his neighbors , Shad is a good workman. His father taught him early to grind edge took, sharpen saws, set axe-helves and fork stales, and generally repair or replace hand tools and farm implements. There is considerable demand for his crafts because few men—and none of the younger ones —command such pain-staking skills. What pay he gets is small since no one in the valley has much to pay with. Shad suddenly brightened. "I saw a picture show once," he said. "My nephew over in Newport took me. It was some colored folks telling things out of the Bible and they was one thing I'll never forget. It was where "de Lawd', as they called God, was askin' Noah how he figgered to do all he had to before the Flood would come. And Noah says, 'Well, Lawd, they ain't much of me, but I'se all they is!" He chuckled. "Sounds kinda funny hut, you know . . . hit's dead right. About all of us. Only I think they's more to most of us than we know, or like to admit. No use in a man bein' only a handful when he can be a whole peck." Shad Mason never heard of Andre Malraux —Yet here in a cove of the Cumberlands he had put into laconic speech the same idea that the famous Frenchman had launched on sophisticated ears a generation before. Through a character in one of his tales Malraux said, "What man can best do in life is to translate into consciousness the largest possible experience ." This mountain man has no security beyond what his hands and mind can achieve and the time may come when circumstances will make him a ward of the state, unable to do all that he does so well now. But for the present he has at least his integrity and if he were so inclined he could feel proud. His small farm is well run, his children wear whole, clean clothes and stout, oft-mended shoes. They carry plain and nourishing lunches to school. They are healthy and eager. In contrast to most of his neighbors, Shad takes no stock in hearsay or rumor. "Trouble with folks," he says, "is they go around talkin' to themselves when they all know they don't have the answers. Now, if I want to know something I go to the folks who know and will tell it to you straight. I had my girl write a letter to Nashville—that s our state capital, you know. And they answered me! My girl, she's smart; she reads good. I have ner notice things in the paper that we need to know about . . . what the County Agent is doing, or what there is a man can get for free 'thout crawlin' fer it." Mason was the only father in the valley who took his children to the free dental 39 clinic last spring. Other parents heard about it but decided "there weren't anything to it" and let it go at that. Talking to themselves. Learning no more than they already knew. "Oh. some folks do a little better," added Shad. "Now, the Zobeski children, up over the ridge and down yan side They walk two miles every...