News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1911-04-05

tendant hit on the idea of the collectiy,
shower, Two long brass pipes wer,
punched full of holes and put up owe,
a cement floor. The warm water wa,
piped for the laundry. Your bows ar,
directed to peel down to the buff anC
start in line under the pipes. They begir
at the upper end of the column will
scruODing their heads, and, as they work
along, they end with scrubbing their toes
Boys are fed into this shower at the rate
OF one hundred in an hour and twent,
minutes, and 1t does very well until the
schOoi mas money enough for Better
Mott DC unprepared when the money
comes, IL 1t does, the boys dug out eel
lar under the Buliinch front last wear
carrying down the foundations six feet
farther "a mason did the actual building
but they did excavation and concreting)
Now they have a locker-room with a CO.
men hoor, which they built themselves,
without lockers and without showers, to
be sure, put they have such faith in the
Ultimate arrival of the showers that next
summer they are going to eXcavate an.
other cellar under the east wing to ac-
commodate these. In the new power
house the boys built practically every
thing except the chimney and the brick
walls.
There is double point to all this.
| While 1t shows the thrift practiced every
where on Thompson's Island, it also
shows how every bit OF practical training
given the boys is turned to pratical ac-
count. Their work is their own profit,
coming and going. They are getting ex.
perience; they are helping pay for their
own privileges; they are extending those
privileges; they are benetiting their little
community, and leaving behind them
something OF permanent value. Small
wonder, then, that manager of huge
industrial plant told Mr.. Bradley: "Send
me your boys whenever you like. can
use any number of them. They know
how to keep their mouths shut and do as
they are told"
MORE OF THE ISLANDS ENTERPRISE
Twice in recent years Thompson's Is
land has scored an educational SCOOP on
the rest of the country; it was the first
to introduce the teaching of scientific
weather observation into the grammar
grades. and the first place in America
where sloyd was taught. More recently
educators have been having their doubts
about sloyd. 1t seems to them that
children are not greatly benefited by
''playing around" with tools at school.
But their doubts are not shared by Mr..
Bradley. The point is that his boys do
not play around with tools. As soon as
they have learned how to use them, they
work. City schools cannot carry QUE the
application of sloyd as can this island
school. The Thompson's Island weather
bureau, run by the boys, has been made
United States cooperative station, and
reports are made to the Government
Bureau. The pupils make the observa-
lions; the instructor the forecasts, and
in his absence, the boy chief observer.
On Monday the instructor was away, and
the forecast came up in boys hand
writing. He said it would "probably
rain IN the afternoon" and it did. On
the other hand, boy-fashion, he wound
up the clock work of the barometric
record so hard that it stopped for three
hours, which did no harm, but chagrined
the boy. Like the rowing party: he
won't do that again. So the farmers on
ThOmpson's Island know what the
weather is going to do as soon as Mr.. |
S NTH in the tower of the Federal Build |
or twice they have known it little bet
terAAls9 Mr.. Frederick Winslow, up at
School in Concord, is teaching
from Mr.. Bradley's blanks. |
Each season the State House begins to
talk of reforesting the harbor islands and |
of the expense of it. Mr.. Bradley smiles. |
Ten years ago he received 1000 seedlings |
which came through the mails for six
teen cents. Today, on the northeast |
of the island, he has a pic !
lnresque grove of young Scotch pines
and white birches, which give the effect |
Of happy bit of landscape ga denIng. !
In sum, how many phllanthropies are !
here to which people can doudte money |
iud be sure that it will be hu> banded !
Ike this? Without a faint of nipgAIdli.
IS, this Vermont man will make a dol /
al do more work than a Scotsman, and !
{ viii go hard if he does not find way
% make his dollar earn or save another,
This is what we CALL plain, old-fashioned
hrtt, and supposed it had almost disap-
'eared from the country. 1t is still do
ne busidess in certain spot of Boston
lar Dor.
A word about the boys, They are a
'ood lot and there is an equally good
eason for it, The school feels, and
ightly, that if it is to educate boys who
you'd otherwise have had less of
nance, 1t is only fair that it should be-
IN with the best raw material it can find.
therefore reserves the right to pick
nd choose, and the collective result of
ms system is the conviction of even a
asual visitor that it has, as a matter of
ACT, found about the best material. They
re healthy and husky and mischievous
llttle imps, and keen both on work
No play. One of them, who has nearly
nished the shop course, chatted conf
entlally of his hopes when he lett
,hool. What L want" said he, sis to
INTO machine shop where can work
p-where they will let me learn all the
arts, and all the machines, so | can
ork up" His Imagination was as pos
'ssed with the splendor of learning all
re parts and working up, as anOther's
QUO be OF getting into the diplomatic
'rVice. And it is exactly as important
lat me- and such as he, should have
lelr chance at the machines as that
)ung diplomats should have their "go"
statecraft. But this wholesome single
lnuedness at sixteen is long lead, and
pleasant thing to see in a bov.
IL is not likely that the teachers lots
e altogether happy ones, but it looks
II the post of even subordinate ring
aster TO this l00-ring circus might not
Oad tun, even if hard work.
Enough has been said to define the {
THU WIN which the Farm and Trade |