New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-05-24
ON THE FAR EAST SIDE.
WiLs0n Industrial Schools Fifty
Years of Good Works.

please m he's never went to Sunday school.
| an he hasn't got clothes only those what's on
| him. Is he poor be let IMP was the question
lately of a small scholar in the mission connected
with the Wilson Industrial School for Girls Avenue
A and St Marks Place The questioner evidently
considered himself of irreproachabIe attire with
neatly patched and shirt and new scarlet
neckte. The candidate presented for Sunday
school, however, was patchless, buttoness, hatless
and shoestringless. and not promising specimen
face
He amt got mother offered the diminutiVe
missionary In extenuation. the teachers glance
took in the newcomer. To-day he Is a Sunday
schooIer for sure as his introducer puts it,
having found in the friendliness and sympathy
there given him answer 20 the many needs or
his half-starved little nature. 1t is only in the
mission, however, that the small boy is feature
This mission is a non-sectarian chapel directly adj
joining the school, called the Woods Memorial
which was erected in 1886 bv James H. Woods in
memory of his daughter. Miss Harriet Woods, an
active member of the board of managers until her
death.
The industrial school proper is for girls alone, and
is the Oldest of its kind in the city having just
celebrated the close of half-century of work.
Situated is in the city's Far East and sup
ported and carried quietly. untiringly year after
year by a handful of devoted women and men. this
pioneer mission school, landmark in the
Tompkins Square neghborhood, does not. perhaps.
attract its full quota of interest among the many
uplifting agencies of the great city.
Walking through its spOtless halls, listening to
the scores of sweet, childish voices within it's
walls. watching the various classes Of kitchen gar
dening. cooking and sewing. the gentle faces Of
the teachers the pervading atmosphere of loving
interest and self-sacrifce the genuineness of the
great work is realized TO a degree, "a well as the
increasing need of just such work in just that
overcrowded vicinity.
OUTGROWs IT'S QUARTERS.
Where twenty years ago the present home of
the school could in comfort the demands the
neighborhood made upon 1t. it IS taxed to its
utmost in every capacity and its work limited in
many departments for lack of TO meet the
increasing numbers IN its vicinity. Since its found
ing. in 1852 by a band of earnest
nected with the old Mercer Street Church, it has
lived from year to year from hand to mouth"
might say. the question of support annually pre-
senting its serioIs side to the devoted few who
have made continual sacrifices to keep the good
work going. Now. with fifty years of positive
practical achievements behind it, the friends of
the school feel that Ii has unquestoued claim
on the interest of public spirited citizens. and
are making earnest efforts to secure endowment
fund of 100000. This, with the small invested
funds already in the treasury, and the regular sub
scrptions, will the annual expenses only
something in the neighborhood of $4,000 for the
hundreds of little waits that yearly teneht by its
bounty. For bounty ii is. though for each thing
received the daily meal at noon, each garment or
gift or privilege an equivalent is required in ser
vice of some good behavior thereby OBJ
Waiting any IDEA of charity
The school is called the Wilson Industrial In