Charlevoix county herald., 1920-06-11

The rapidly vanishing domestic serv-
ant is being slightly retarded In her
race toward extinction by a unique
school In Washington. 1t is a national
training school for women and girls,
where many colored girls are being
taught how to cook and keep house.
The school is a scattered group of
white farm buildings, surrounded by
| lawns and gardens and set on top Of
a steep hill. The principal, Mamie
Burroughs, met us and offered to
show us the plant"
as It true that you are training
girls to supply the nationwide demand
for domestic service?" she was asked.
Mamie Burroughs smiled. "Well,
we have 12O girls here, and good many
Of them are studying domestic SCI
ence. Few will go into private homes,
but most of the students who gradu-
ate here In domestic science 20 out
to teach other girls all over the coun-
try, and this summer we are going to
raise $125,O00, so that we can teach
$50 girls instead Of 100"
This is the story. as Mamie Bur-
roughs told it, of remarkable school,
the only one of its kind In the world.
Science Of Needle and Thread.
Ten years ago she happened to stop
in little red school house in Missis-
sippi A dozen cOlored girls of four
teen years weer struggling with exam
pies of longitude and time One girl,
with not button on her dress safety
pins and beauty pins clutching at the
gaps, shoes half laced, was at the
blackboard. She glibly explained
that New York was at IA degrees
longitude, and when II was o'clock
In New York it was o'clock some
where else. She sat down victorious
and breathless, and the teacher asked
the visitor to talk to the class.
II am going to speak to one bright
little girl" began Miss Burroughs
automatically. 81 want her to go
home and find tie longitude of a
needle, and the latitude of some thread
and work out a problem with some
buttons on the back Of her dress and
bring In the answer tomorrow"
The others giggled, fingered their
untidy apparel and promised. The WIS.,
should fit them for life, and that
neatness and knowledge of domestic
problems were as necessary to their
future welfare as ability to battle with
higher mathematics.
THAT day. she tells you, II saw
plainly that the people of this race
were not getting anywhere the right
training in practical things, and de-
cided to open my own institution"
Mamie Burroughs had no money,
but she found an old farm for sale
cheap, on the edge of the District Of
Columbia, and she went out to ask her
people for funds. Nickels, dimes, pen
MES, she accepted any sum grateful
ly. In two months she had $1,000,
which paid the necessary cash deposit,
and In eighteen months she owned the
place.
Modest Start, Tackled on.
"We have been growing and tack
Ing on ever SINCE" she explains. AT
first we had just the one farmhouse.
We taught music, cooking and hair
dressing in one room, and drew chalk
lines on the floor to show where the
kitchen ended and the dining room be-
gan.
But the girls of those pioneer days
were the strongest we ever turned
out. They learned to do with almost
nothing, and every one of them has
gone out to help the colored people
Of her community" From that old
farmhouse the national training school
for women and girls has grown until
now IL has ten teachers and pupils
from 20 states and even from Haiti
and Africa.
They call II the school of the three
B's-Bible, bath and broom. Music
millinery, typewriting, manicuring,
English, algebra and other subjects are
taught. They are the things the
pupils ostensibly come to learn, but
the school sometimes disagrees on this
subject One girl enrolled with the
announcement that she would take
music this year, and next year, II
there was time, she'd try cooking.
NO." said the principal, firmly, you
will take scrubbing and neatness and
dishwashing, and your regular studies
this year. and next year. II you have
any time, you can add some ac-
complishments."
b, The length of time spent I'm the Bur-
roughs school is measured by the
pupils foundation when she enters,
the work she wants to prepare for and
the state of her finances. Each pupil
pays $3.50 month for tuition and
board.