The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1886-04-29
INDUSTRIAL DEPARTMENT
ESTABLISHED AT THE LIE MOYNE
INSTITUTE,
Formal Opening Last Night-Ad.
dress by Mr.. ]. N. Keatlng-Re-
marks by Rabbi Samfleld.

I
of colored youth within the limits OF
the Union. 1t has an average attend
ance OF nearly 800 pupils, who are not
only instructed in the learning con-
tanned in books, but are also taught
such useful and practical arts as will
be oil service to them in making their
way in the world. The girls are taught
sewing and cooking, an hour each day
being devoted to zach Of these branches
OF education; an hour each day is alec
set apart for the instruction OF class
in nursing. A few months ago Prof.
A. j. Steele, the accomplished princi-
pal Of the institute, began TO put into
operation plan that he has cherished
for years, the foundation of an indus-
trisl department in the school, where
young men may receive instruction in
the mechanical arts. A class was
started in February that now numbers
! twenty-five pupils, who receive daily
lessons in woodwork aud car
pentering. The pupils range in
age from seventeen to twenty-five,
and are expected, as a prerequisite
to admission in the class 10 be thor
oughly grounded in the rudiments Of
a common school education. Mr.. S.
S. Steele, practical mechanic and an
efficient instructor, has charge Of the
class, and speaks with confidence of
the satisfactory results already
achieved. There are ten carpenter
benches in the classroom with twenty
FIVE tools to each bench. Three classes
are daily instructed, and some OF the
students are already developing spe-
cisl aptness for their tasks and justi-
flying the wisdom of the founders OF
the class by the progress they have
made. 1t is contemplated to make
each coure embrace three years, to be
spent as follows: First year, wood.
working; second year, forging and
iron-work, and the third year ma
Ch'nery.
Last night the formal opening OF the
Manual Training Department of the
Institute took place in the large reci-
tation.room OF the school, and there
were present, by invitation, large
number of prominent citiz Ems who are
known friends OF the Institute, in ad-
dition to this regular pupils and their
relatives aud friends. On the plat
form sat Rabbi Sam6eld, Capt. J.
Harvey Mataes, Judge ]. NJ. Greer
aud the Rev. Mr.. Jones.
After prayer by the latter gentleman
Prof Steele introduced Mr.. j. N.
Heating, of the APPEAL, who adj
dressed the audience as follows.
MIR. ]. m. KeatInR's Address.
My FRIENDS We have come to-
gether tonight to celebrate with
grateful hearts the opening of this
school for manual training-for the
education of young men and women
in useful and remunerative trades and
occupations. Humble as a beginning,
let us hope that its ultimate results
are to be the fruits Of right-living, of
truth, of firmness in right ways, OF
manly and womsnly independence in
industry, in thrift, in decency of man
ner, OF speech and Of life, of justice
and honesty, of rect.tude of purpose
and constant gratitude to those whose
dream for the betterment Of mankind
thus finds realization.
THE QUESTION
will occur TO many, why the necessity
|
young men and women of to-day to
be taught in schools what those who
preceded them have been taught in
workshops? The answer is that in
many workshops of many trades there
is no longer the opportunity offered
for special training, and that in schools
established for that purpose pupils are
sure Of learning thoroughly under the
direction OF accomplished masters Of
handicraft, so that they may 20 out
into the contending world measurably
prepared for the battle OF life. Here
the use Of tools in daily recurring
lessons is to be explained-the expert
and proper use that distinguishes the
master from the "jack.leg" or pre-
tender. Here the pupil is to learn
the true measure Of square and COM
pass, the value OF proportion in de-
sign and purpose, and how invention
may be prompted by the study OF
ways and means to the accomplish
ment Of better results in useful
things.
TIE PROGRESS OF NATIONS
is easily traced by the tools in use by
mechanics. Indeed, If l was asked to
bridge the distance between savsgery
and civilization, l should do it with
box of tools. The civilized man owes
all that he is to the tools in the hands
Of progressive mechanics. The savage
seldom originates anything. He does
not work. He produces nothing that
is not compelled by his necessities. He
buuts and fishes when he is not at war.
He makes nothing that involves handi-
craft employmeDts. Our own Indians
are proof in point. The savage man
in the early ages Of the world made
aud used stone hammers and flint
arIow-heads, advancing step beyond
that, and into barbarism, he made
bronze arrow and spear heads and
swords, hammers and hstchets. How
he came to make bronze, to know
the value OF metals so as to fuse them
with accuracy we shall probably never
know. That fact, like many others, is
lost to US, perhaps forever. 1t is sup
posed 10 have been an accidental dis
covery, but whether By accident or
design 1t made the way easy to re-
sultant civilization. From bronze
the transition to iron was slow, but
once effected there followed with re-
markable celebrity the uplifting OF the
tribes OF men 30 blessed. The nation
in barbaric days that had mines and
made iron implements was dominat-
ing and overmastering power. The
nation in our day is greatest that
counts the most tools. For that req
son
AMERICA Is PRE- EMINENT.
In the number and variety Of tools
!. in daily use to make good work easy
of accomplishment, ours surpasses all
other nations, Great Britain not ex-
cepted. Here the jsck.screw was first
employed to raise houses from their
foundations and for their removal to
distant sites. Possessed of the funda-
/. mental principles Of mechanics, the
= adventurous American moves like q
god to the accomplishment Of great
works, to successful contention with
, nature, to the bridging OF space and
the annihilation Of time. But attaining
to this expertness he must have gone