Part 4 (1/2)
If the day is to be spent with the whole agricultural force of girls picking strawberries for the tables of the Boarding Department and the local market, the stage takes the group out to the patch two miles back on the farm--and that is happiness unalloyed for the schoolgirl. When she correlates her outing with her school work on the day following, there is seen nature at first-hand in the cla.s.s-room.
If other cla.s.smates have been working in the Plain-Sewing Division turning out cotton underwear and plain articles of clothing to supply the demand of the Salesroom of the inst.i.tution, the lesson in English has a natural, practical bearing, arising from the fact that one hour has been spent with the theory cla.s.s of the workroom studying the warp and woof of the materials used, perhaps the sixth or seventh lesson in a series on cotton, introduced to the cla.s.s first in its native heath.
Correlation comes in wherever it may, and the a.s.sociation of ideas obtained in cla.s.s-room and workroom is closely joined.
The large cla.s.s of the Dressmaking Division, spending the day from seven until half past five making the blue uniform dresses, filling orders for tailor-made dresses in silk and cloth, measuring, drafting, cutting, and fitting, has many a representative in the schoolroom the succeeding day; and still more is the lesson varied by the practical ill.u.s.trations in Mathematics or the recital of the experiences of the day in the English cla.s.ses.
The girl in the millinery work, shaping forms, tr.i.m.m.i.n.g hats, blending colors, drawing designs, studying textiles and fabrics for a.n.a.lysis in her theory cla.s.ses twice during her three days of work, finds added inspiration for her three days of cla.s.s-room study. If she is in the Senior cla.s.s, she specializes in geometry on her school-days and mechanical drawing on her work-days. When our girl has finished her course in drawing and begins one of the uniform hats worn by the hundreds of girls, she ranks among the first milliners of the land in the estimation of the beginners. She completes hat after hat, drapes them until the number meets the requirement, and then comes her own creation, a pattern hat, undersized of course, but a real dress hat and a thing of beauty. It usually finds its way to the old home for her mother and neighbors to admire. The commendation that comes back to the school is worth its weight in gold.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A CLa.s.s IN MILLINERY.]
But there are backward learners. Some there are who excel in embroidery, crocheting, making ties and other fancy articles, but who have no apt.i.tude for shaping and tr.i.m.m.i.n.g hats. They plod on, and win at last.
Then there is the girl whose parents wish her to open a millinery establishment in their town. She tries, but finally agrees with her long-suffering instructor that she would succeed at mattress-making and upholstering instead.
The work in the Mattress Division begins with sheet, pillow-case, table-linen, and comforter-making for the endless demands of the lodging division of the boys and girls. Pulling shucks for the mattress is the next step in advance, and when shucks are covered by the cotton layers in the making, they prove an excellent subst.i.tute for the hair filling of a more expensive manufacture, and they have an advantage in the matter of cleanliness. Covering screen frames made in the Carpentry Division for the numerous rooms, caning couches, rockers, and stools, help add to the variety of work in the division. The girl is not awarded her certificate until she has completed the round of work, including the fas.h.i.+oning of a bedroom suite from barrels finally covered with neat-figured denim. The semiweekly theory cla.s.ses are not unlike those of the plain-sewing division, and the girl is as proud of her achievement with needle, hammer, and saw as if she were an adept in lighter work.
When the machinery was introduced for Broom-making, the girls looked askance at the appliances. But when the broom-corn was delivered from the farm, and the pioneer girl broom-maker began thres.h.i.+ng of the seed in the cleaner, an interest was evinced that has increased with the knowledge that the work, study, or manufacture (call it what you will) is very productive, especially in the confines of the girls'
broom-factory at Tuskegee Inst.i.tute. The poultry-yard bought the seeds threshed off the broom-stalks; the hundreds of old handles collected cost nothing, and when the wiring, st.i.tching, and clipping were finished and the girl saw the first broom turned out, there was triumph in the fact that the industry was the most inexpensive and still the most productive of credit of all the girls' industries under the roof of Dorothy Hall. The evolution from the flag-straw broom used in cabins of the South to the ones now completed and labeled, creates the sensation of the girl-world in the trades school. The wonders brought out in the theory cla.s.s in connection with broom-making were marvelous.
Broom-making has come to remain with our other girls' industries.
Work in the Laundry presents another aspect to the onlooker, and he doubtless decides on the spur of the moment that all is drudgery here.
Girls are then a.s.sorting countless pieces received on Mondays from students and teachers. They are placing the a.s.sorted articles in cages in the bas.e.m.e.nt. Two boys are filling three washers with bed-linen, and in another apartment two girls are weighing and measuring materials to make more soap to add to the boxes standing in the soap-room. Girls up-stairs in the wash-room are busy rubbing at the tubs. Some girls are starching, and others are sending baskets down on the elevator for girls below to hang in the drying-room. Others are in the a.s.sorting-room putting away clothes-bags into numerous boxes. The ironing-room farther on is filled with busy workers. Days come during every week when time is spent in the study of laundry chemistry. Rust and mildew stains and scorching are some of the problems of the Laundry, and they find solution. Soap, starch, water, and bluing have their composite qualities and are a.n.a.lyzed, and no more interesting correlation is there than that of the laundry with the cla.s.s-room.
Although each Tuskegee girl is expected to become proficient in one trade at least, all are required to attend the cooking cla.s.ses. Girls belonging to certain cla.s.ses are scattered in the various divisions, each busily engaged at her chosen trade. At the ringing of the bells in each division at stated hours, cla.s.ses form and pa.s.s to the training-kitchen for their lesson in cooking. Both night-school and day-school girls report every day until every girl has received her lesson weekly. The normal cla.s.ses have theory and practise one hour each, the preparatory girls one hour weekly for their trades.
This is true also of girls in the normal cla.s.ses. They spend one hour in basketry study, making in all three hours away from their individual trades each week. Theory is combined with practise, and many a fanciful thought is woven in with the reed and raffia of the Indian baskets, African purses, belts, and pine-needle work-baskets. The shuck hats and foot-mats are so foreign in design that one often wonders how it were possible to utilize the same material in so widely different purposes.
But our girl is progressive, and not a few instances have occurred when one has been informed of the presence of a Tuskegee student in a remote country district, by the inevitable shuck hat prettily designed and worn by an utter stranger. So remunerative has been the work that many have earned money enough from the sales of these hats to purchase books for the school year and pay their entrance fees.
Few girls work at typesetting. Those learning the trade are in the Boys'
Trades Building. The same is true of the girl tailors, who are as capable workers in the trade as the boys. The majority of these girls are in night-school, and of late years have not earned much for their work. In former years the greater body of the students were working their way through school, and by their labor would earn enough to complete their education in the Academic Department and the Industrial as well. Last year the pay schedule was reduced, and many appeals for a.s.sistance came from those battling their way through. A young girl whose monthly statement warned her that she owed the school $15, at the end of the school year wrote the following:
”DEAR MRS. WAs.h.i.+NGTON: I write to inform you of the enormous sum that I owe on my board bill. I am not satisfied, because I want to earn something in life, but it seems that means and opportunity will not permit me. I can't help from crying when I think how anxious and willing my people are to help me to be something, and yet they are unable to help me.
”My mother has struggled to bring up eight of us, and now is to the point where she can give me no more help, and that leaves me alone to be something by myself. I am anxious to enter day-school so I may finish my course of study and my trade, and at last let my mother see me a good, n.o.ble woman, who will take care of her.
”I will thank you very much for your kindness, if you will look into my board bill and help me as soon, and as much, as possible.
Yours gratefully.”
As the day girls have put in so many hours of work recently under the new system, it eliminates the necessity of so many night-school girls being paid for their work. It is to the interest of the school and its day-students that fewer work their way through school, and the time has come to teach this fact. The boy or girl for a time will stagger in the attempt to gain education, but will be all the more able, later, to reach the desired goal.
All girls are taught housekeeping incidentally in the care of their rooms; but the number a.s.signed to the regular division yearly are instructed in all branches of home industry. The course covering two years is mapped out thoroughly, and when the girls reach the Senior cla.s.s, all have their turn at housekeeping in the Practise Cottage of four rooms. No girl is graduated from the school without the finis.h.i.+ng touch of the little home. Marketing, the planning of meals, table-setting, the care of table- and bed-linen, dusting, sweeping, and everything else pertaining to a well-kept house, are taught by the teacher in domestic science who is in charge of the training-kitchen where the senior girls received their first lessons in cookery. The young housekeepers have reached the stage of efficiency when they may prepare a meal for a distinguished guest.
A red-letter day in the history of the cottage came when a warm-hearted and much-beloved trustee of the inst.i.tution expressed a wish to dine with the girls during one of his visits to the inst.i.tution. The flowers that graced the small table on this day were brought by the distinguished visitor, who came from a stroll in the ”piney” woods. The girls, apprehensive of their success in preparing the dinner for one with so cultured a palate, felt visibly relieved on the disappearance of the roast, the vegetables, and the dessert. The corn bread was voted the best ever eaten, and the dinner, as a whole, a delicious preparation. If ever, in the years to come, any of the four forgets the kindly heart that made all forget station or condition, ”the right hand will forget its cunning.”