Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-05
The Institution TODAY.


good water supply. The school is open to
boys and girls Of all ages on equal terms.
The girls are taught cooking. sewing,
dressmaking, laundering and nursing; The
blacksmithing, shoemaking, and both are
given the rudiments of an education-read-
ing. writing and arithmetic. One hundred
and twenty-six acres of the farm are un-
der cultivation in wheat, corn and garden
truck. with dairy, pigpen and a poultry
house.
including everything. The earnings and
fees Of the students amount to about
$1,000, but a balance of IS 600 must be
raised every year by the subscriptions OF
generous contributors, and 1t takes large
part Of Jennie Deans time and costs q
considerable amount for travel II solicit
ing the fund AS she says:
An Endowment Desired.
I'VE have to depend on Providence. and
while He has never failed us. 1t is neces-
sary, nevertheless, to do a great deal of
walking and a great deal of talking every
year to raise the money when my time
should be employed down at the school
among my young people. We are anxious
to raise a sum that will produce fixed rev.
endowment of $3.50, 900, or even $125. ZOO, we
would be safe and sure for all time. and 1t
would enable US to take care of one hundred
boys and girls and teach them to be good
.,
and good citizens. We now have ninety
pupils, about equally divided between the
sexes, and the majority OF them are be-
tween sixteen and twenty years OF age
They all come from the five counties around
Manassas mostly from the families OF we'll
to-do colored farmers and some Of them
have had a little schooling before they
came to US. Every pupil pays 20 q month
assas Industrial School, as we call 1t, Is not
a charitable institution, and we teach our
young people that whatever Is worth having
Is worth working for. 1t is sometimes q Sc
we're tax upon their parents to pay the IS a
month, but 1t Is better that they should do
SO. Each student is expected to do four dol
lars worth OF work a month. They are cred
tied with everything they do. The work Is
turn in all the different labor that Is to be
performed. A girl who works In this kitchen
this week will work in the laundry next
week. and then, in turn, she will be sent
to the sewing room. They spend half a day
with their books and half day with their
work.
Aim Of. the School.
"Our school is not intended to make ladies
and gentlemen" continued Jennie Dean,
''but useful, honest farmers and house serv-
ants. We try to train them morally and
physically as well as mentally. We teach
them manners and self-respect and the dig
nifty of labor. developing their manhood and
liant citizens. competent to not only better
their own condition. but to better the con-
dition of others also Since the school was
started ten years ago 1t has exercised a
powerful influence upon the lives and char
acters of more than LOCO young colored men
and women, and not one OF them has ever
been guilty of a crime against society or of
violating the laws of the community in
which they live. Several of them, although
taught merely to be farmers and carpenters,
have been able to pass the examinations for
United States postal clerks on the Southern
railroad. A large number are employed as
and. although they were not educated for
teachers, they have been very successful
Others are doing well as dressmakers.
household servants, farmers, carpenters
respective communities. But We can only do
q trifle of what needs to be DONE There are
hundreds of thousands of young colored
men and women IN the south eager to learn
the domestic sciences, and might be made
excellent servants and mechanics II they
only had the opportunity. If there were a
school Of this kind TN every county or in
every congressional district of the south the
negro problem would soon be solved.
I'VE could solve the servant-girl problem
that perplexes every housekeeper. If we
only had the room and the facilities to take
care of more pupils. We could furnish
Washington with well-trained servants. but
we can accommodate very few. Last year
we supplied twelve wel,-trained house serv-
ANTS u w dSHlHSl IdLuiuSS, anu we HdQ
applications for hundreds. But we have
neither the money nor the room to take care
of any more"
~ am here now" said Miss Dean. ito try
to raise the 1900 which We must have to
carry US through the present year and Incl
dentally to see II cannot get something
In the way Of an endowment. We have
many warm friends and generous contrfou-
tors all over the country and shall be ever
grateful to them. But tf any new friends.