Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-01-16
IndustrinI Drawing.

sion OF tne utility Oh uIuWlng, WneIueT COISlutI
cd as a necessity or as an accomplishments II
any one has doubts on this point, he should at
once consult the report Of the Paris exposition,
and observe that drawing is as much part OF
| the training of the excellent French or German
| artisan as the use of his tools. He may also
| note, with great profit to himself the present
dependence of American manufacturers upon
foreign models, and the fact that only small
| number OF our journeymen mechanics can read
| a Notwithstanding, to say nothing of making
| it; and the fact conceded by all intelligent mas.
| ter mechanics that If every iourneyman in the
shop could read drawing so as to i've trusted to
work from it, the productive capacity of the
| shop would be vastly increased. 1t concerns us
now especially to inquire how more ample fl-
Cilites can be provided for iourneymen, appren-
tees, and all other persons, in this most impor-
| tant branch of knowledge. The inquiry natu-
rally resolves itself into three parts: /. Who
shall provide this instruction? 2. For woOm
shall it be provlded2 and Cd. What are, on the
whole, the most practical methods and apparatus
o. Instruction.
In discussing these points | shall only give
| the results of the experiment at Worcester. We
| took the law in good faith and have done our
best to give t all possible efficacy; but no
| general principles can be deduced from so mar
row a field. What | wish is to contribute
| such facts as we have to the general fund.- in the
hope tnat by repeating this experiment in every
| considerable town in the state some systematic
scheme may be at length devised.
| First then, who shall provide this instruc-
| tion2 The law says (Acts and Resolves, 1870,
chap. 24Sl: Any town having ten thousand in
habitants shall, and any town having half that
number may, maintain schools for free indus
trial drawing. The law In its present phase
means something or nothing, according as the
towns accept their duty and discharge it with
fidelity.
The right of any town to maintain school
for drawing is as clear as its right to maintain
4, ,~I, ~ lfn 10 at
OF these institutions any citizen is welcome,
under certain salutary restrictions, but to
neither of them do more than a small minority
| ever actually come, as statistics show. But
| those who do not personally participate in the
| blessings of the school or the library feel the
benefcent contagiOn Of larger intelligence and
broader benevoence which flows from those
| fountains through those who drink from them.
| The drawing-class meets a want which neither
the school nor the library provides for (and can
not provide for under the existing torms), and
at all centres of business is as much demanded
as either.
The Worcester school board, acting under the
authority conferred by the statute, at once said:
| We will open this class for thirty evenings, il
| twenty persons shall apply within specified
| time. The superintendent issued his notice TO
all persons over fifteen years Of age. More than
two hundred applied before the opening night.
Excluding all of these who were members Of the
public schools, on the ground of previous pro.
vision, there were one hundred and iorty-hye
persons to be organized into classes for instruc-
ton in drawing. This brings us TO the inquiry,
Who shall receive this instruction?
Evidently a class of persons quite distinct
from scholars in our public schools is contem-
plated in the statute. For them ample pro-
vision is, or ought to be, made in the schools.
Almost all the large towns in New England have
seen their long neglected duty in this matter,
and have made drawing part of the course of
studV Rut there q Thousands of men
and children who have passed through their
school life without this instruction, who still
need it. They are apprentices, artisans OF all
sorts, who need this knowledge in their busl-
ness, and men and women generally who have
undeveloped talent for drawing as an art.
At this point it is unfortunately necessary to
discriminate between drawing as a necessity and
| drawing as an accomplishment. For first class
| workman to be able to express his ideas of form
| correctly and to read a drawing made by an
other is just as necessary as TO know straight
| line from a crooked one. On the other hand a
| good drawing is very creditable performance
in itself, and apart from its practical uses In
| the latter sense it is an accomplishment. To
| Illustrate. About one man in ten can be called
| a good penman, but almost every man can write
intelligibly. So of artizans; all can learn to
draw well enough to express their ideas of form
and proportion intelligibly, and about one in ten
can learn to draw with elegance, A single fact
may hep us. In SaXony the boys spend but
little more time in writing and drawing than
ours in lUritSng alone, and excel ours in writing,
at that.
Now some say we must not undertake to edu-
cate men at the public expense. Children are
the only proper objects OF public instruction.
But we have from time immemOrial helped to
educate men In colleges for the professions, and,
| more recently, for agriculture and the mechanic
arts, and the expenditure is justifable on every
ground. Why should we deny to the mechanic
| who can only be taught in the evening what we
accord so literally to the more careless studentp
| When the man whom we have undertaken and
promised to educate finds at the outset Of his
| active life that he is deficient in an important
part OF his education, n we in justice refuse
him his only remaining chance of remedying
| that detect2
Two facts will show us some of the bearings
of this subject on two of the important questions
of the hour, labor and woman's rights.
In all the leading French and German work.
| shops, every regular mechanic can make an off
| hand sketch of any part or of the whole of any
| machine he is working on, or of any one he in
vents. Suppose every American workman could
| do this, and the thousands of improvements,
small and great, that are constantly caught up
by master workmen from their employees and so
passed into patent rights, would be saved to the
rightful owner.
In London more than a thousand girls earn
handsome living by making designs for illus
trated books, prints, etc. Probably as many
the kingdom. II every girl at school and out of
school were properly taught drawing, some, at
least, here as in England, would become prof.
cient enough TO retire from the frightful list OF
unemployed women"
1t is not necessary TO suggest the immense ad-
vantage which the ability 10 draw would give
every master workman, both in saving time and
securing accuracy. There is one such man in
the Worcester class, sixty three years old, learn
ing what the schools ought to have taught him
| fifty years ago.
Whether our duty will be done when all the
| graduates of our schools have been provided for
remains to be seen. Years must elapse before
that is done, and by that time we shall see clear
ly, hope, that our ouly hope Of eminence in the
| mechanic arts lies in providing ample and eX-
| tensive facilities for educating the workman in
| the line of his labor.
These considerations are weighty, but the
movement for evening instruction in drawing
would be justiiable were the only object in view
to put it in the power of every citizen to dis
| eliminate between what is ugly and what is
beautiful, in material forms.
Our third and most important inquiry is
what are, on the whole, the most practicable
methods and apparatus of instruction?
The statistics of the Worcester class will be of
some interest, as furnishing data for some COM
| putations.
As has been stated, the class numbered at the
| outset 1876 men and 8 women. They were
| organized alphabetically, in two divisions of 70
and y. In respect Of age, there were one over
so, two between so and so, four between 40 and
80, twenty eight between 80 and 49, sixty-one be-
tween 20 and 30, and forty-nine under 90.
In respect Of occupation, there were of ma
| chinists, AZ; carpenters, 26; pattern-makers,
| I; teachers, 81; masons, 8; farmers, boot and
shoe makers, clerks and architects, 4 each; or
| gan builders bookkeepers, painters, armorers,
aud engravers, each; insurance agents, civil
engineers, reed makers, engineers, uphosterers,
moulders, wire drawers, blacksmiths, 1 each
miscellaneous, "a.
Since the class started, two weeks ago, five
have given their places TO others, and six have
| dropped out. More than half the class walk
two miles TO get the lessons, and more than
two-thirds of them airs usually in their seats
half an honr before the time for beginning.
Only five of them have ever been in a drawing
class before, though voluntary classes have been
held in the city for many years.
1t is pretty clear that drawing Is something
more than mere accomplishment, and that
there sie a good many men among our most
valuable citizens who crave, but cannot afford
| TO pay for instruction in it.
Each lesson is an hour and a half long, and
they may be conveniently and effectively given
semi weekly during the early winter months. A
Al. ~.