The age-herald., 1901-07-28

The farm is a very nice place. l like 1t out here and the boys. The boys are very nice and obedien..
 OTIS B. ATKINS
 I like out here This Is a good place. Mir Griffin is very kind to us all
 ALBERT BLOUNT. From a class of fourty-four bright faced boys at Alabama Industrial School the past week four little incorrigibles put into writing their candid views of the school These opinions may be said to express tho rtsSaninous sentiment on the part Of every boy at the farm. They should carry far more weight than columns in the newspapers expressing the views of phil aBthropic and reformers These boys are ahiel to speak from experience. They hs.ve investigated the methods employed on Alabama's farm and are familiar with all tho theories advocated byNreformers. These little incorrigibles have put their own interpretation upon the theories they pronounce them to be practical ant as they have been testing them fo- year. they are very good authorities.
 The Age-Herald and the Alabama In dustriai School have anniversaries very near together The latter does not wait for anniversary days, however, to ceie- brate It has a quiet little celebration  That means that within year there have been forty-three celebrations.
 There would have been hundred if the state had made adequate provision. The forty-three boys at present at the farm however, demonstrate sufficiently the need of such an institution and furnish sufficient proof of it's successful opera ton. With only a year in which to dem onstrate it's practical workings, the result has been far ahead of what was expected. A little over q year ago the only house in the beautiful valley was log cabin in state of dilapidation. Today there is a handsome school building furnished throughout and a family of forty-three Alabama boys who under the care and training of MT. c. D. Griffin, the super fntcndent, and Mrs. Griffin and MT. J. R.. Embree, the assistant superintendent. are being rescued from a life of crime The boys at Alabama's farm have been expensive little fellows to the state, They have actually cost 1t dollarR and cents and gave unlimited promise of developing into expensive criminals. They were problems to be considered economically, and upon this basis the philanthropist won over the business, practical person. The philanthropist can show that the rescuing of boy from crime saves the state more than his rescue has cost in dollars and cents. This is the financial side To those who consider the moral side the philanthropist need not suggest the business proposition. But it goes to show that the philanthropist has every thing on his side; that no argument can be brought against these child-saving in stitutions and homes for the boy who deprived of safe environments steals be- cause he is starving. A theory and boy are not so wide apart after all It Is only discipline. proper training, care. a knowledge of his little nature, the bent of his inclination. It is not always the idealist or the economist who understands the child's nature. To be able to deal sat- isfactorily with dozens of little fellows with police records, requires person who is versed in many other things be- sides discipline. It is not only one boy whom the theory must fit but hundreds of them who have shivered beneath the cit, bridges at night and starved by day. At Alabamas farm there are all classes and conditions of boys. many of them with various little records that 1t seems a crime to now recall. Away from former environments and temptations they are wholly dissArent boys They have been given the first chance of their lives and they realize it. Life within a short year has unfodea to them Farm life Is so conducive to wholesome life. Acres of beauttful fertile valleys would make a changed man of hardened riminal. What must be the effect of such envir onment upon the life Of little fellow rescued from criminal associations? And the summer on the Alabama farm has been an ideal existence to the boys. They have made hay while the sun shone and visitors to the farm this summer have been surprised to see the work that has been done.
 The work and time that it haa required to get the farm to approach anything like the condition determined upon by MT. Griffin can only be fully realized by those who saw the farm Before the work was begun The grounds surrounding the school building have been laid OF for q private park, and the beds of flowers ai- ready. beautify the grounds. The summer houses are attractive walks leading to