The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-03-18

tune, as well as to the colossal evils which
etc.,
DEATH of President Thompson, of Terre Haute.
Prof. Charles O. Thompson president of Rose
Polytechnic Institute, Terre Haute, died. yester
day morning, of rheumatism Of the heart, after
a short illness.
Professor Thompson was native of Vermont,
and about forty-two years old. He was elected
president of Rose Poly some months be-
fore its opening, and spent the intervening time
in examining the industrial schools of Europe,
especially those Of Russia. Before his removal
to Indiana Professor Thompson was for several
years president of the free industrial schools at
Worcester, Mass. The Rose Polytechnic Insti
tyte was founded, as is well known, in 1874 by
the late Chauncey Rose, of Terre Haute, and
was opened March 7, 1888 The founder made
the institute his residuary legatee, and it is inn
possible to determine the exact amount
to be derived from the estate. The
aggregate. however considerably exceeded $780,
900. This institute is devoted to tho higher
education of young men in engineering, includ-
ing IN this term all those productive and con-
structiye arts by which the forces of nature are
made subservient to tine needs of man, and the
principles which underlie those arts. The idea
of combining manual training in a manufacture
ing shop with the study of principles was first
brought out in this country by President Thomp-
son at the Worcester County Free Institute,
Worcester, Mass. 1t is the constructive method
applied instructively," speaking technically, as
opposed to the system in vogue
at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, under President Ruckle,
where only the principles which underlie the in
dustrial arts are taught, and nothing is made to
sell. Curiously enough, both these excellent
methods have been implanted with the highest
success in our State; the former THAT con-
struction must utilize and guide all instruction
in practical mechanism, every piece Of work be-
ing mado by boy in shop having refer
ence to some whole of which it is to form part)
by President Thompson, and the latter THAT
young men are to be taught the general princi
pies, applying them as occasion requires) by
Prof. Goss of Purdue University, who is a grad
uate Of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech
nology, and has established OH this basis the
leading department of the State Agricultural
School.
Prof. Thompson recognized the academy for
theory and the machine shops for practice.
The academy he says ''inspires its intelli-
gence into the shop, and the shop, with eyes
open to the improvement of productive indus
tries, prevents the monastic dreams and short.
ness Of vision that sometimes paralyze the pro-
found learning of the college, He evidently
| stood abreast of and even ahead of the demands
of this age which deals with things rather than
with notions-not how MANY angels can dance ON
the point of pin; or pin'sn in all dead and
living tongues, but how to make it by machinery,
so that pins are as plenty as straws and pin
money an exploded metaphor. He said:
"The important fact which underlies any
sound scheme for school-shops is that machinery
is to have constantly increasing share in the
conversion of matter into useful form. The ed
ucated mechanic must understand the practical
limits Of mechanical production and all the pos
slble ways in which those limits can be extended.
lie must know by practice how to design, con-
struct and assemble the parts of machine, as
we'll as howto finish its product by skilifu handi
craft, and he should also know hew to make his
tools Tho power of an engineer to decide upon
general grounds. the best form and material for
a machine and to calculate its parts, is vastly
increased by blending with it the skill of the
craftsman in manipulating the material"
President Thompson was liberal educator
He had no cranky notions He even believed
there was no better discipline for the ends to
which his school should put young men than a
study of Latin as well as mathematics. Both
the systems we have above discussed have their
advocates. Both are successful and both are
combined in the Imperial Technical School, of
Moscow, Russia-the father of all modern tech
nical schools-and with a course Of seven years,
first learning principles and then applying them
aofio ;,, +Ia 30
attached to this school, Indiana may
congratulate itself that these two systems
! are successfully and practically applied within
its area, and 1t is lamehtable that one so
highly endowed by nature, training and expe-
rience as was President Thompson should be
cut down III the prime of his manhood, just
when his work was firmly established, and his
views, his methods, his earnestness of purpose
and conviction, and his eminent success be-
coming power universally conceded by college
men, common school teachers and by citizens of
the State at large. His death is a severe loss to
Indiana, and will be a stunning blow to those
VINO enjoyed the pleasure and profit of his per-
sonal friendship
PITTsBURG pastor preached an eloquent SER
mon last Sunday on the duty Of wives to accept
ably fill the place God has appointed for them
by being subordinate to their husbands and sub
missively obeying them in all things. Whether
the preacher justified the conduct of the strange
man who walked into the sanctuary the same
day and knocked his wife down in the presence
of the congregation for having behaved contrary
to his wishes = not known; probably he would
have admitted that this was carrying authority
little too far.
BOSTON women have laid aside their specs"
and are knocking advanced reform into smither-
Gems, so far as woman suffrage is concerned A
numerously signed remonstrance has been