Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1906-12-29
CHANGES open TO THE HELPLESS :,
Many Schools Whose Purpose is to Put Men and
Women and Children in the Way of Earning a
Living

SKID ana 30 may the JdulLOT5 Wnll'
the shop girl must graduate from The
school of instruction especially pro
vided for her,
This trend toward special training
is seen at its largest development IL
the various trade schools maintained
by the Board of Education, but inter
esting phases are found IN the small
schools and classes organized ant
managed by associations and by the
efforts of individuals
More interesting, too, than the
classes in which fees are exacted and
the applicant must have some rudl
mentary knowledge of the subject
are those in which people are taken
In all their crudeness and ignorance
and converted into skilled workmeI
with no cost to themselves other than
the effort of learning. Hopeless
helpless dependents are made into eff.
fcient lRundresses, men whose great
est ability has been In running an ele-
Vator are instructed in the care OF
delicate electrical machinery, and
crippled women are taught to make
the finest lace and embroidery,
The school for washerwomen es-
tabllshed by the Charity Organization
Society, although less than four years
old, is almost the oldest Of these
training schools for adults. Here
women 80 shiftless as to make even
this work almost beyond them are
taught old fashioned, domestic wash
ing.
In the whole three floors of the
old residence on West Twenty-eighth
street that the school occupies there
is not single piece of machinery
with the exception of the humble
wringer. There are tubs and soap
and water, and the women are taught
only to use the things found In the
ordinary home.
The course of instruction varies
according to the ability of the woman
employed. The greenest hand is
started with the tubs at daily wage
of eighty cents. She spends perhaps
a month or six weeks there before
sne Is put on plain ironing and her
wages raised to 81, Later, as she
progresses upward, her wages ad-
vance also, and when she attains the
dignity of shirt ironeT she receives
$3.50 day
Then she graduates. At least she
graduates II she can be persuaded to
do SO.
Our greatest difficulty is in get
ting rid of the women after they have
learned all that we can teach them,
said Mrs. M. A, Williams, the super
intendent, "Of course, some of the
women we keep right on to act as
working instructors to the new COM
ers.
"One woman who has been with us
almost from the first is now practi-
cally the head of the ironing corps,
She has only one arm, but In spite
Of this she Is our best ironer.
"Of course many women are sent
here for instruction and have places
waiting for them when they finish,
In fact, many of our patrons begin
by sending us their laundry to do and
end by taking one of our graduates
and continuing our system in their
own homes.
THE women are of all ages, but
most Of them are mothers whose
children are put in day nurseries
while they are work. We have one
woman of sixty-fve in the school Just
now, and she Is Going good work, too,
and there are any number past fifty.
I'VE average about forty pupils In
the school, and have had as many as
sixty. The majority are foreigners.
Last year we had 498 Irish, 100 Ger
mans, 1853 negroes-and two white
Americans"
Another school closely allied to the
Charity Organization Society is the
school for bead workers maintained
at the Home for the Aged and Infirm
on Blackwell's Island. Miss Emma
Fowler goes over to the Island every
day and teaches the crippled, par
alyzed men and women to make their
hands useful.
The work that these forlorn people
do, once their clumsy fingers have
been trained a bit, is remarkable,
Elaborate bead embroideries, chains.
belts and trimmings are made, while
really beautiful baskets are turned
out.
Beginning with the bead work,
other things have been added, wood
carving, crocheting and knitting,
until the collected exhibition of their
work looks like booth at a village
fair. One old man who had been
spending his life sitting beside his
bed in hopeless idleness, last year
knitted twenty-five shawls and thirty
seven pairs of wristlets.
With the proceeds from the sale of
these things he bought delicacies for
a son dying OF tuberculosis at the
Metropolitan Hospital, and later paid
his sons burial expenses. Nearly
$1,000 was earned last year by these
old people, to whom, up to the es-
Establishment of this school, even the
blessing of occupation was denied.
The effort of department store
managers to get more efficient clerks
has resulted in the establishment of
a school for shop girls, where classes
are held and teachers are employed
for the sole purpose Of instructing
the girls in the duties that will be
theirs behind the counters,
mot even the special clerks taken
on for the holiday trade are per-
mitted to come In contact with Gus
toners until they have had instruc-
tion," said the manager of Sixth
avenue store. I'VE have from TWEEN
ty-fve to thirty young men and
women in our classes all the time and
two men do nothing else but teach
them the routine of checks, G. o. d. 8,
transfer cards, etc, and give them
talks ON salesmanship, conduct and
attitude to customers.
From three to six days are given
Ill NaI