The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-06-11
The Hampton Industrial School.

Speaking of bad boy who had been
sent to the state reform school, and who
had returned much improved morally,
and able to make living by the trade he
had learned there, farmer once mourn
fully said to us: at seems pity that a
boy in Vermont has to be bad boy
before he can have schooling like that +"
And isn't it pity? 1t would be, if it
were not shame and disgrace; for
Vermont has fund given to it for just
such SCHOOL, fund which common
honesty and decency requires should be
so used, or returned to the giver. That
was a most admirable article in the
Chronicle for May 80 upon the Hampton
Institute of Virginia, where Negroes and
Indians are msgnifcently trained for the
duties Of life under the industrial system.
We hope everybody read it who sees the
Chronicle, and if they did we feel sure
many of them felt sad to think that boys
and girls must be black or red before they
can have such training.
The writer of that article, G. B. ST."
is man that we should like to take by
the hand-no, cold Yankee as we are, we
should like to hug him. He is man who
understands with his heart as well as his
head-a whole man. When man has an
understanding of that sort he is ready to
be inspired with the wisdom that cometh
down from above. In evidence of what
we mean, take the following ex tract:
"Here are many spacious and substan-
tial edifices for household, school and re-
ligious purposes. Here is noble build
ing where were sawed this last year more
than two million feet of logs, and where the
lumber is worked into doors, sashes, blinds,
church pews and turnings of every kind.
Here is a shoe-shop which has produced
twenty-five hundred pairs of shoes and
repaired sixteen hundred; printing.
house, from which are issued two papers
and much other work carpenters shop
tinsmith's, painters, harness-mak-
er's; knitting-room, a tailor's and dress
makers establishment; wheelwright's and
blacksmith's shops; household and cook
ing departments; large stock barn, filled
with the best specimens of their kind; gas
and water-works complete throughout !;
large brickyards; and two fertile farms,
with nearly six hundred acres under thor.
ough, scientific cultivation. The idea of
,oork--hard practical tuork-meets one
everywhere in house, school-room, shop
and church, and on every foot of the yard
and farm. There is no one of these six
hundred and more students who has not
his or her allotted task to perform in some
one or other of these industrial depart
ments. 1t is the underlying principle in
General Armstrong; theory of education
and civilization for both the Indian and
the negro that life for them, as we'll as for
most of the human family, means drudg
cry; that while intelligence and skill are
necessary, yet the power and patience and
self discipline which go with persistent
unremitting labor in all departments Of
life, are indispensable. The distinctive
feature in this great school is that Of
work. Ten hours of hard work in the
burrows of the farm, or ten hours of hare
work on the shoe or tailor's ben CHI, or ter
hours of hard work in the saw-mill Of
brick-yard-and then two hours of hare
work in the evening at the blackboard il
the school-room. That is the STUDENT
life to which the entering class is intro
duced at Hampton, and which follow
him remorselessly, with some modifica
tions, until he graduates. General Arm
strong well says in his statesman-like re
port for the year, labor is perhaps tn
greatest moral force in civilization Tn
marks of this primal idea are seen every
wherein the character of these students
their esrnestness and eagerness of spirit
their purity of life, their hard.hesde
common sense, their practical intelligence
, their entire fitness to meet their ow
everyday wants and those of their rac'
There is no Greek and Latin in thi
school, but plenty of the essentials
There is singular absence of pomposit
, and that personal conoeit that we too ofte
have witnessed in collegebred negroes.
have seen these boys and girls, India
and colored, during my full weeks visi
' on walk and lawn, in sohooLroom and @
|, prayer-meeting, on the public platforr