The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-07-06
THE EVOLUTION OF A SUNDAY SCHOOL
How Poor White Boys of the Georgia Mountains Are Being Given an Opportunity for Useful Livelihood Through the Berry Industrial School

and is considered one of the best county school teachers
 From such a small beginning we
 have grown steadily We now have 150 boys, fifteen teachers, 1,200 acres of land, three dormitories and a good recreation hall. Our plant is valued at | $50, ,0OO. This does not mean that we have had any large donations, but it | stantly both summer and winter and
 that the student labor in helping to erect the buildings has counted for
 much, not only helping the school but | also the boys themselves. The boys have titled the land, and our campus
 which was once an old cotton field, | has been transformed into a place of | beauty and usefulness. We are ex- l tremely poor. Year by year, or month
 by month, the necessary expenses have | to be raised. The small amount we
 charge the boys Is only enough to pay
 for the actual food they eat. The
 and every incidental expense I have | to raise by my own personal efforts, | which means continual anxiety and hard work, backed by fervent prayer. Our Recitation hall cost SIG, 900. $500 of | this amount was given in one dollar | bills. l A practical school like this is doing | more to teach these poor boys things they ought to know to help make of them useful citizens and good pract1- l cal men, than any other school in this | part of the country. The school is i'm corporated under the laws of Georgia. | We have a board of trustees and we l feel that money invested in these div l lidend-paying boys will bring great re- | turns, as they have so much latent | talent and ability. It is a great in spiration to the teachers to have an opportunity of awakening the great possibilities that are within the boys. One of our teachers who has had
 great experience in northern schools; told me that she never really enjoyed teaching until she came here, as she finds the students so eager to learn and so easy to control. It is an in centtve to any one to lead them to the paths of knowledge.
 These boys come from very needy
 homes where their labor is necessary
 to help support the family, and it
 means a great sacrifice on the part of
 their parents to spare them to come
 to school One poor woman was so
 anxious for her boy to attend this
 school, that she parted with her only
 milch cow. denying herself and fam
 fly, milk and butter in order to help
 her son obtain an education. Nothing
 in this school is given free. These American boys are too proud to accept
 gifts. Old clothes given to the school
 are sold to them. They make the mon-
 ey to pay for them by working at the rate of six cents an hour on their, ho1-
 idays a suit of old clothes being sold for twenty-five or fifty cents. The boys understand that we have very lit
 tie outside help in our work and that 1t is of the utmost importance to
 work with economy, frugality, neat ness, promptness and thoroughness. As an example of how such discip- line is needed and carried out, we had a boy who complained of his assist ant in the kitchen being too wastefuI saying: "He would peel the potatoes too thick'-a things which to his mind and teaching meant a loss to him per sonally and to every boy in the school. These are only a few examples of the schools work. The real accom-
 plishment lies ahead-an accomplish ment which must be foretold only by the generous cooperation of public
 spirited phi1anthropists' who will as- sist in the upbuilding of this southern school for these American hoYs