The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-18
AN APPEAL FOR AID
HELP ASKED FOR THE STATE
 NORMAL SCHOOL.
Professor Paterson Explains the Con- dition of the School and Asks Assistance From Its ..t Friends.

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 Professor W. B. Paterson. of the State Normal School, has issued an ap- peal for help from the people of Mont gomery and of Alabama in rebuilding that portion of the school recently de- stroyed by fire, and In widening the sphere of the schools usfeluness.
 The appeal of Professor Paterson is as follows:
 The Advertiser.
 Please allow me to reach the good people of this community through your columns.
 Since the morning of the fire, car- penters and bricklayers have been at work, and school work has been car- ried on as best we could. Only the kindergarten was dismissed till after the holidays, when that department will open again in the Sunday School room of the Chruch of the Good Shep- perd, which was kindly offered to us by Rev. E. E. Cobbs. and the Rector. Rev J. R. Brooks.
 The burned building contained my office. and our assembly room. It &C., commodated between five and six hundred students. Outside of this | building we have three smaller build. ings with about four hundred stu. dents, a manual training building, car. penter shop combined. The carpenter shop has been fitted up for two reel. tation rooms, the manual training building Is our assembly room, but it is imperatively necessary to have still more room.
 The industrial departments of the school have been growing yearly more and more valuable and they needed more room instead of less. It was our intention as soon as possible to make an addition 16x54 to the carpen- In lxc, [ . shop. Till this time, with the limited funds at our disposal we have not been able to do this.
 If we make this addition to the car- penter shop now it will give us two more class rooms. and .the extension of the blacksmith shop can be used by the carpentry department for the pre- sent. While these additions will be the result of the present emergency, yet they will be prmeanent improve ments. The work on these has com | menced and will be completed by the teachers and students. by the 1st of January.
 It will require about $1.O00 to meet l these extra and unforeseen expenses. We want to put every dollar of our tn- | surance back into new building, and we do not want to shorten the usual length of our session. While we have never done so before, the present emergency Justtfies us in asking for the friends of the institution.
 The faculty has unanimously and l cheerfully given s340. The students themselves will contribute something.
 The sympathy and good wishes ex- tended to us during the past week have been very gratifying. and as was stated in The Advertiser before. we hoped to pull through without asking TOT public help. Now we want to say ed. We need lumber, bricks, stoves, hardware, paint. etc, or money to pur- chase. these. Collections have been churches, but those eoIored citizens S wSo prefer to give individually can do so. We have always claimed/ and that justly, that the eolored people them more to the support of this school than Is done in anWother institution nf the kind in the South. We have all ways taught. and they have practiced, the doctrine of self-help. When they consider now the great benefits they get from the presence of this school in the community, and the number of young men and women it has lifted up and trained for usefulness and more profitable service, they will not let pass this opportunity of showing their ap- preciation.
 To the business men of the commu- nifty we would say that this institution is worth at least S50,000 to the business of the city. From the higher stand. point of morality and humanity, 1t IS worth more.
 All contributions may be made to the 1 undersigned, but checks should be made payable to William B. Jones, Treasurer. Due acknowledgement wlli be made through The Advertiser. Representatives of the different in- surance companies are now here. and they are treating us with spirit of fairness and desire to facilitate an early settlement that is commendable. settlement will be reached tomorrow or next day. and then we will take up the planning of new building. When we consider the sympathy and encouraging words extended to us the past week, we are forced to the conclu- sion that sorrow and trouble can al- ways strike a responsive chord in the great heart of the people
 Respectfully,
 w B. Paterson,
 Principal, s. N. S.