The age-herald., 1902-02-02

The report of the superintendent of the Alabama Boys Industrial School has just been given out and is as follows:
 Ladies and Gentlemen of the Board of Control: June 1, 19O0 your superintendent and his assistant, having been residents of Alabama only about two weeks. de- cided that 1t would be much cheaper to keep house than to board. The building which we now occupy was just raised. and the only available building for house. keeping was the original old log cabin, which was filthy and about to tumble down from old age.
 We cleaned it up the best we could white washed the walls, and scrubbed the floors. We bought a few dishes and household supplies and with superan- uated range that had been given to us commenced house keeping We purchased a tent for use as a sleeping apartment
 The 14th of the month a colored man was hired to do the cooking and on the Fist we took our first boys. Mrs Cole ana Mrs. Johnston had coralled three poys and when I asked the Chief of Police about them. he said they were notorious ly bad boys, and fit subjects for our att tention.
 With boxes for chairs, tent for bed room, some cots and blankets for bed room furnishings and very small bank account we began. Our growth has been steady. I give the average daily belong ingsnce the 1st of June. 1900:
 June 4.3; July, 5.9; August, 149; Sep tember 19.3; October. 21; November, 21; December, 25.7; January, 292; February, s5.5; March. 34s; April, 359; May, SIT; June, Ar; July Al; August, AT; Sep tember 51.9; October, 51.3; November. 53.2; December, 56.2.
 The first day of January, 1902 there were 59 persons belonging to our family 52 boys and adults. To date 72 boys have shared our hospitality. Of these run away and have never been returned. We have had five boys transferred to us frora the mines One Edgar Thom- son ran away and we have never heard from him. Another, w. H. Lynch, was paroled at the expiration of his sentence, and three we have with us.
 We have been obliged to give up sev- eral boys on account of the unstable character of the papers committing them to us.
 Parents have an idea that boy placed with us for few months can make an entire change in his character, and if he has been a fairly good boy with us. they think the cure permanent and begin to urge the paroling of the boy, and have made themselves nuisance to members of the board and the superintendent and have succeeded in making the boy rest less and uneasy, so that after visiting day we have very much harder work to enforce the proper discipline of the school.
 In this connection I must read an article published in the Advance, the paper pub lished in the New Jersey Industrial School Of course we have had a hard years work. It is hard to do the nec- essary work in the unsettled state in which we have lived since the taking of the first boys. There was nothing belong ing to the school, therefore we have had to commence at the bottom, and have been obliged to put tip with num- berless inconveniences and ''makeshifts. We have tried to get as many industries started possible.
 Printing Department.
 We have tried to equip the Printing De- partment with frst-class up to date ap- plances for printing. Ten boys have been employed at various times in that office and they are doing excellent work. Let ter heads, envelopes, circulars and pro- grammes have been printed, and we have paper started. which we had hoped to issue regularly from the start, but unforeseen difficulties and hinder ances have constantly presented them selves, so that it has been sent out spas medically. With a force of boys who begin to know how to manage the type ers1 press. we hope to be more regular in the future The Boys Banner" as we call our paper, has been cordially received by institution papers throughout the United States, and we have quite large exchange list. We have had a great many complimentary notices from su- perintendents of various schools, for it is rare thing to start paper within the first year of the schools existence.
 Mrs. Griffin has made photographs of thu school and vicinity, from which we have had "cuts'' made and have printed a souvenir of the school which we hope to sell to visitors and use the money to keep our printing office running. We have 55 actual subscribers to the Banner. We issued a souvenir number of the Banner for a holiday number.
 Shoe Shop.
 We have a poorly equipped shop, but the boys have learned to do some very nice work in this department. We had hoped to be able to furnish this depart ment with tools for cutting and making our own shoes, but have not had the time or the funds to carry out that pro- ject. We hope during the summer to get th:s started that by another' fall we may have a supply of home made shoes on hand. We keep our shoes well repaired, which saves us much expense. Of course most of our boys are bare foot during the summer Since we commenced wearing shoes last fall our shoe shop boys have put on 237 half soles. 37 heels, and have sewed rips to aggregate about 40 feet. We have also commenced making har- ness with our limited facilities. We have repaired our harness, and have made several bridles. We hope to make a harness complete during the summer. Considering that these boys have never done any work before to amount to any, thing and now are able to do this work. it shows we are doing something towards making industrious citizens out of raw material. Give us proper tools and we can turn out work that all friends of the school | will be proud of. and turn out skilled | workmen, who will be able to go into the | world and do good honest work towards | supporting themselves honorably.
 Carpenter Shop. We have a few cheap tools and with | these some of our boys have made ex- | cellent progress in the art of carpentry. |