The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1906-10-18

It was really o tough job to organize
that conglomerate mass. 1t was bring
ing order out of chaos. Miss Darden
am experienced teacher, coming out OF
an old and well-established school, and
Professor Briggs. just passed through
Wake Forest College as q student, be
came quite nervous and wrung their
hands i'm horror during the remarkable
process of untangling and arranging
them into any sort of order. But in a
surprisingly short time Professor Briggs
found himself with q class quietly dig
cling at Greek roots. And Professor
Brown found himselv reVeling in q large
room with large classes in arithmetic
and algebra. And Miss Darden was
amazed to find that such a tangled mass
of confusion could be reduced to order
and furnish her classes SO orderly and
a~ppreciable.
We were intensely crowded and seri-
ously inconvenience by the public
school; but in q few months that was
numbered among the things that were
not.
The Indians were an interesting Curl
osity. And it is still interesting to learn
that very many of them were greatly
lifted up by their training here.
After all, the most difficult problem
was one that the public knew little or
nothing about. That was the real fnan-
cial difficulty. Two of the directors had
assumed the responsibility of finish
ing the building so that it could be used
for school purposes; and they were
allowed to collect a rental for a fixed
number of years to reimburse them for
the outlay. And there was remaining
three years of time in which to raise
5000, which made q rental of $500 a
year. And one of those brethren had at
his own expense furnished the building;
so the only way to get control of it was
to pay the rental and buy the furniture,
which cost about $1,000 or $l,4OO. At
the end of the three years it was reported
to the board of directors as an oppres-
siVe rent; and they very generously
agreed to let the rental extend oVer an
other three years, which amounted to
500 per annum.
We were under the necessity of run
ming a clearinghouse in the college
building in order to come out with the
finances. That was exceedingly hard on
those who had to manage the boarding
uCP04 44C4&6 04OC4 &AV 4@@ASA~ VA S~A~
years work. And some years the profits
were small. The range of the net profits
wa from $500 to $500 per season. But
with that, the wind-up at the end of the
sixth year, by reason of having to sell
the furniture in the college at a sacri-
fee, landed US in debt several hundred
dollars. Indeed, it took all that I
could spare out Of a salary ranging from
$l,O4O to $500 a year for three years to
pay out
And in the end the point of separa-
ton between me and the board was that
of staying on a salary, or continuing a
I had done, assuming all the financial
responsibility.
The work was very encouraging, and
one could not fail to realize that it was
a great opportunity to accomplish a
great deal of good to humanity, and es-
pecially to this immediate section. In
deed, it is really more apparent now as
you can see the result than it then
appeared.
I herewith submit my last report to
the board of directors and my address
to the graduating class.
The report mentions four graduates: