Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-08
LEARNING A TRADE.
What the Avery Trades School is
Doing Now for Colored Boys.
CARPENTERS AND COOKS WANTED,
Especially in the Land Of Dyspeptics
and Home of the Brave.
WORKERS WHO ARE NOT DISCOURAGED

A move in the right direction is the
Avery Trades School for colored people in
Allegheny, and it Is unfortunate that the
projectors are not meeting with the en-
coursgement they deserve 1t has been an
nounced that on the 18th inst, or there
abouts, an evening class in drawing will be
formed, but the Secretary of the board, Mr..
A. j. Billows, states that all eniargements
and improvements are contingent. 1t is in
tended to amplify as fast as finances will
cover such amplifcation, but at present the
board is moving slowly. The general term
of the school opened yesterday, but although
the prospect is not discouraglng, Mr.. Bill
lows states they cannot do everything they
would like to do at present.
Superintendent j. P. Wagner, who is
now imparting information in carpentry,
stair building, cabinet making, archi-
lecture, etc., is regarded as thoroughly COM
petent, and as he has been prominently
connected with organized labor, for some
time Secretary of the United Carpenters
Council, he is able to so conduct the school
as to have the minimum amount of friction
between mechanics already fedged and
those who are as yet downy. instruction is
free, save that students work is utilized
where it can be, so that the school has
neither certain income nor endowment to
depend upon. The addition of algebra,
drawing and geometry is desirable, but it is
the intention to crawl until the management
is assured that it can walk.
MAKING YOUNG CARPENTERS.
Mr.. Billows states that SO far the effort
has been confined to making young men
practical carpenters, no other branch having
as yet been attempted. He gives the case of
one young man, in fact, a mere boy, who
took few months instruction last year. and
who is now earning 81 so day, as an evil
dence that the knewledge of the art is rap
idly and practically acquired in the school.
He states that it is under advisement to
start classes in sewing and cooking, but as
teachers salaries are high in the latter de-
partment there is no certainty when the
object will be attained. The board has been
discussing the matter considerably, and it
has decided that a cookery school
is the most important. The members
reason that almost any girl may learn
enough about sewing to get along in a
family in these days when the sewing
machine is universal and when fancy work
can be bought cheaper than even the
Chinese can make it by hand. But there
are but few women who can cook, and some
who think they can are long way off their
base.
Cooking is fine art. There are women
who have genius who can manage to invent
and season dishes and engineer variety on
slim resources, but most of them are unable |
to broil beefsteak properly, and not one
American woman in dozen knows how to
10 yaoto 10
ordinarily cast into the slop. American |
women can make cakes of all kinds and pies. |
MEN MUST HAVE VARIETY.
That man cannot live by bread alone, ia |
true, in physical as we'll as in spiritual |
sense. He must not only have meat and |
various vegetables, but they must be cooked |
SO as to be palatable, digestable and nutri- |
tious, and girl who may be able to catch |
an eligible husband by her musical, conver-
sational, terpsichorean and other powers
will often find that good cookery is neces.
sary to hold him after he is caught.
There is always an unsupplied demand |
for good cooks, and will likely be SO long as
American girls regard housework as de-
grading. Even moderately good cook can
make bettery salary than can many men
who follow mechanical trades, and COM
bined with other household work cooking
should rank among the fine arts.
At present the only resource the Avery
Trades School has aside from donations, is
the sale of the work of its pupils. So far
there has been no trouble to sell the work,
it being honestly made and of good material.
Care is taken not to offend the sensibilities
Of extreme trade unionists, and the superin-
tendent is instructed in this respect. So
far there has been no friction.
The difficulties that surround bows in
search of trade nowadays are equally as
grave as those attending the securing of
education, even among
white boys, and they are much greater
among colored youths. Many people
seem to regard it as matter of course that
he mass of colored people shall always be
observation-disclosures of wood and drawers of
water, but though they make excellent hod
carriers, they also acquire skill in trades,
hough at present the fear that they will
upplant the whites in rolling mills seems
omewhat premature. This lack of skill in
he mechanical arts is their chief drawback
n the race for wealth and position. The
ime will doubtless come when agriculture
will again be given the post of honor, and
he African can win there what he once
eld.