Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1893-09-08
A CHICAGO LETTER
Which is Not About the Worlds
Fair.

ested in technical training and in helping
boys and girls to help themselves. On the
death of Mr.. Joseph Armour, some years
ago, his will provided $4,000 for gos-
pei mission on the south side of the city.
His brother, Philip d. Armour, took up
the work, erected handsome and COM
modius building for the mission, and also
a large number of substantial apartment
houses, the rental of which is applied to
the support of the mission.
The mission includes gospel preaching,
a Sunday school numbering about 2000
free kindergarten, free dispensary and a
certain amount of relief work. For some
time past Mr.. Armour has been increasing
the endowment buildings largely in ex-
cess of the requirements of the mission,
and two years ago he began the erection
of large building, the exterior of stone
and pressed brick, the interior finish of
marble throughout, which upon compile
ton he turned over to board of trustees
for use as a manual training school. The
endowment buildings, valued at nearly 81, :
100000 produce net income of $4,000 a
year, one-third of which goes to the sup
port of Armour mission and the remaining
two-thirds will be devoted to the school,
now known as Armour Institute.
This latest benefaction of one of the
most famous business men of the world is
an almost ideal plan for doing good with
out weakening the benefciary's power and
purpose of self-help, and will tend to ele-
vate the working man without leading him
to throw down his tools, take off his
blouse and look down upon toll as beneath
his dignity. The building is the best
equipped of any of its kind in the West,
at least. The basement contains the cleo
trical plant, the forging, turning and cary
ing in the various metals. On the first
floor is superb library, fifty feet square
parlor, chemical and physical laboratories
department of practical instruction in cleo.
tricity, and class rooms. The third tlool
is devoted to free-hand and architecture
drawing, penmanship and commercial
work; the fourth to household arts. cook
ing, dress-making, ETC., and the fifth has {
technical museum, gymnasium and bath
rooms. The object of the Institute is tC
give to poor boys and girls, as well as tn,
well-to-do and the wealthy, a thorough
practical education in book lore and handi
craft. At the head of the school is Rev
DIR. Gunsaulus, the well-known pastor o
Plymouth Congregational church, who's
enthusiasm is unbounded, and he has
corps of competent assistants and instruc
tors. The school opens Sept. IA, and thai
those for whom it was especially designed
are making every effort to avail themselve
of it is shown by the fact noted below.
Two women of moderate means Zone o
whom you have SEEM believing that man,
half-grown boys are driven to bad com
pany and often ruin by the general cheer
lessness of the ordinary cheap boarding
house, to which alone their small salarie
give them access, determined to open
pleasant, homelike place for them, charg
ing just enough to meet actual expenses
Their first applicant was a young felloN
from the country who hoped to find employ
ment part of the day, by which to ear
, enough for his board and clothes, Dl
Gunsaulus having offered to give hir
! free tuition at the Institute. The boy an
: his brother were left orphans at an earl
l age, and were drought up" by tw
aunts, neither of whom could aid him yer
much materially in his purpose to acquir
t a practical education, the one being no
I | I,o Io xrrifa q
= the pastor of small mission church, wit
E but a meagre salary. But the boy is boun
! to succeed.
You have doubtless seen in the pres
dispatches, accounts of the distress whic
prevails among the poor of this city at IL
present time, due largely to the fact thi
0 great numbers were drawn here by the e,
pectation of large demand for lahore
before and during the fair. There is I
E longer any work, and yet the people hay
g not the means to go elsewhere in search
S it, Over 1000 persons, am told, apple
for food at one distributing bureau on Sa
Y urday, and of this number 1000 were heaC
of families with an aggregate of nearly II
A 600 children. Tickets are distribute
J, which call for from one to eight pounds
7 bread, and from one to four pounds
meat each. To families meat is give
and to single men arrangements are mat
to give them sausage instead. The tickle
9 are exchanged at certain stores and bal
y cries in the vicinity of the relief offic
a the proprietors of which furnish bread
s. two cents a pound and meat at two al
Y one-half cents. AS soon as the tickets a
c. secured there is a great rush to the
stores. Many of the people are so hung
IS they sit down on the curbstone and e
T. the bread as soon as they get it, viii
S Others hurry away as if there were tho
x at home anxiously awaiting their retur
e. No one knows what the end will be, bl
the city and state officials are castil
about for methods by which as many M
IN as possible may be set to work on Il
ie streets, parks, and the great drainage c
lie nal. The Home for the Frendless h
never in its history been so full as it
q. now-and still they come.
y 1t will he of interest to many of 20
readers to know that the religious servic