The Birmingham age-herald. [volume], August 29, 1915, Page 4, Image 4

About The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950

Image provided by: University of Alabama Libraries, Tuscaloosa, AL

                
SOCIAL SERVICE DEPARTMENT
By MRS. SIDNEY M. I'LLMAN
Manual training class at East Lake Boys’ Industrial school and specimens of their work
Many years ago a woman visiting the
jails In Alabama saw young boys, im
mature and undeveloped, awaiting sen
tence or already committed in the Jails ■
and penitentiaries, these boys having as
daily companions the criminals of the
state, men of the lowest and most vicious
character, all idle, all subjected to tho
most unwholesome surroundings and re
duced to the horror of long unoccupied
days in which to breed crime and dis
ease, to wreck lives capable of being
saved.
Like Miss Julia Tutwiler, Mrs. Robert
I>. Johnston, too, believed that “one and
God made a jpajority.” especially when
that one wa.va small boy, so she de
rided to get the boys of Alabama out
of the jails and save them for some use
fulness in the future. It took several
years of hard work and much discour
agement to make an impression on the
people, and bring them to the realization
of what they were doing, or what they
were not doing, for the boys of Ala
bama. After awhile she finally got one
trt)y, in a little log cabin, and with this
one boy the Alabama Boys’ Industrial
school was started.
Now this institution ranks as one of
the finest of the kind in the south, prob
ably. for that matter in some respects,
as fine as any institution of its kind
anywhere, and when it has gottten tho
asked for appropriations for improve
ments. its value to the community will
be unlimited.
Boys Do the Work of the School
The Alabama Boys* Industrial school is
beautifully situated at East Lake, on 135
acres of land, 80 acres of which are in
full cultivation. The school consists of
three large main buildings, the Birming
ham building, the Alabama building and
the Johnston building, besides the model
barn, and the building containing the1
machine shop, the shoe shop, the barber
shop, tailor, printing, forge, manual
training, laundry and mending room.
Every bit of this work is done by the
boys. Some of the work is compulsory, j
but the majority is classified, according!
to the boy’s ability and desire. Each boy
is required to learn some trade, equipping
himself for the future.
All the work around the school outside
of the shops is done also by the school
children; walks have been laid, walls
have been made and much of the building
has been done by tho boys. Several yea' s
ago, when the school became very crowd
ed, for this Institution is used by the
entire state for white boys, it became
necessary to have a new dining room.
The Alabama building had no basement,
and this was considered a fine place for
a “mess hall,” so the boys were put
to work and now tho school boasts of
up-to-date dining room, with splendid
concrete floors, pleasantly tinted walls,
neat tables and stools, all the work done
by these little boys. Even the furniture
was made in the manual training classes.
This work would have cost the state
$3000 or more. As it was done, it cost
nothing but the actual material.
Superintendent’s Report
From the superintendent’s report of 1915
we print the following;
January 1, number of boys In the
school . 344
Received new boys, year . 183
Number left over from 1914 . 147
Number received since school began
In 1900 . 1392
Returned from parole since school
began . 81
“More than 1000 pupils have left the
doors of the institution, yet, during its
early history it was freely stated that
there was no need for such a school.
The need has been demonstrated beyond
NtHUflOft ^SAE4TOnm
■ <i.— ■■ ■ ■ ■ ■■ -■ -■one or tw» ■■ 1 — *
OLDEST. LAMEST. VEST APPOINTED. EOVTPPTD AND MOST HOME LIKE SANA
TMOVKS IN THE VNITED STATES DEVOTED TO THE TREATMENT OF
iALC^GUSM-DRVfi-ADDTCTiaNS-TaBACSG-HABlTS—
AND MERVGVS PISE-ASES1
only SANA.TORi\/M in tfva. vbrlcl uein^tne/ original—
^ JamesTreatment d
CKAS.B. JAMES wacuenfrafred ip this special )ine~for,oVe.r 20 /ears
~-rO\rt<pSra-- havlnirijnljer ",s - CBFe war 26000 patients.
; METRICA1-. is in «iarB« ofpGyfticians Sa/'anH. nii|ht. Competent
9E7ARTMCNT nurae* cm5 duty art hours. +/+ -*• ^ ^ «*■ *(* + ■** +
( a AT W nrCTKIC.Mmi. STRAY.MINERAL,SHOWER.VIBRATORY IttSSAfiE and
(DEPARTMENT other IUCTKK treatments in charge of experienced attendants
MOTEL in cliarbe gCccsmpetent matron. Table supp lied from the best
|DEPARTMENT Market? afford.[Diet Y dtchens on main [Moons.
COMFORTS Defikhtful parlors,reading and {ounfeiiifc roornsjarbe verandas
yOOXVENlENCES ard'tatVn swi ribs Screens qnd aWninfed Efectnc tana on main floors.
AMVSTMENTS Build intis fieatdd throughout b/imArovfed hot waiter systems.
r> Billiards.pool. croauet^and other amusements free to patients
mu£>?b5i5SKwrn^rtSna.rr CK»\SAJAMES SANATORIVM (CO.
nm rmmnimvt rAHTtat^ «■- Sn.iIWI loVLTVJUIP.
fj—Bp" JgJSg^MEMPMlS. TETnIN. «SS-AtgS&fiS%
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Auto shop at Boys Industrial school
Printing department at the East Lake Boys’ Industrial school
cavil or question, and the wisdom dis
played In its establishment, if judged by
results accomplished, has been amply
justified.
“To estimate the amount of good dis
seminated In their native state by these
hundreds of children would indeed bc
difficult, but this we know; put It on Its
lowest plane—this institution has proven
a great economy if weighed in the scale
of social economics, balanced by the dol
lars and cents, and are not manhood,
character, citizenship cheap at any price?
Nearly every trade, every line of indus
trial endeavor, has our pupils enlisted
in its ranks. We have fn our files num
bers of appreciative or grateful letters
from former pupils as well as parents,
testifying to the good work that has been
done.”
Health
This Institution has been comparatively
free from serious Illness, a great deal of
attention has been given to congenital
physical defects of the children and se
rious cases of eye, nose and throat have
been looked after by specialists. There
have been several broken arms, resulting
usually from too active play. No very
serious accidents have occurred. On a
death was registered last year. Even
with this health record a suitable hos
pital Is necessary and would prove a
blessing and relief, and lessen needless
anxiety. Besides the hospital would save
the institution a great deal of money.
Literary and Elementary Department
This department carries a course of
study practically the same as the Bir
mingham public schools .and embrace's
all the work required for entrance into
any college in the south.
The principal, John H. Carr, in speak
ing of the school work, says: “The gen
eral average in attendance, class work
and deportment has been fairly good. For
the past year the average attendance was
j 85 per cent, that of class work was
per cent and that of deportment 90 per
cent.
The Printing Shop
Special mention must be given the
printing shop. Here, with the use of
type that is set by hand entirely, comes
forth semi-monthly the school paper,
called the “Boys’ Banner.” This inter
esting little sheet has all the make-up
of an up-to-date magazine, containing
stories, essays, pictures, quotatis, poetry,
an honor roll, department notes and com
pany notes from the military department.
A little sheet called "The Devil” is the
| free lance of the printing shop. This is
! gotten out without supervision and is
| Interesting and clever. Local notes, ads
j and jokes make up most of the sheet.
The originality is unique.
“The Devil” is printed and published
by six of the printing class, distributed
to the boys of the school and entered at
the A. B. 1. S. office as second class
mall matter. j
How Is this from The Devil:
“Swicegood—What have you in your
I hand?
Sims—Ply paper.
Swicegood—Quit your kidding. I know
they can't read.
“It did Jack no good to marry his
stenographer, for she continues the habit
of the office at home. When he starts
to dictate, she takes him down.”
One small boy, the chief "compo." on
this little sheet, came to the school not
knowing his letters. Now he is getting
ready for a literary course at the uni
versity. Sixteen boys are at the Ala
bama polytecnic. Boys that play in the
band are especially in demand in military
colleges. If the printing shop is popular,
the machine shop goes them one better
Over the entire school from 80 to 90 per
cent of the boys want to work in the
shop. Somebody presented the school
with several old autos, decidedly the
worse for wear. One ill particular, how
ever, had been made presentable and also
made to run. Its rather a chance on©
takes to go into it, but it does work, if
we believe the taxi ad. of the A. B. I. S.,
which reads: “We guarantee to get
where we start.”
Few Foreign Boys
The majority of the boys in the A. B.
I. 8. are native Americans und 80 per
cent native Alabamians. A very small
number of foreign boys are sent. A few
Poles. Russians and Slavs are now at
the school.
Crowded Condition
Every large institution in Alabama is
now complaining of the overcrowded con
dition and urging more space and more
commodious accommodations. Why does
this condition exist? The economic stress
of our civilization forces such conditions
to arise and with the daiwn of a civic
conscience we see that it is essential to
consider the conservation of the child,
and with this awakening we realize the
necessity of taking the child from un
satisfactory surrounding© and environ
ment. Such a school as the Boys’ In
dustrial school becomes the solution and
boys are sent to the s-eh l for a number
of reasons. Delinquent dependent, in
Ui*- - <■*.-., *
•V ;...
Insurance Co j
HOME OFFICE
BIRMINGHAM. ALA, ^ —
An Invitation I
The Protective Life Insurance Company is just now located in \ I.
its newly purchased and fitted up home office at No. 2112 First
Avenue, Birmingham, where it invites its friends and the pub- j.
lie to make it a call. ‘
The Company has put out for September several new and at
tractive policies and has made radical changes in the rates and ' J
values on all policies. It considers it has now, perhaps, the most
attractive insurance selling proposition on this market.
j j • * ^
The Company can give reputable gentlemen, who can sell in
surance, profitable contracts.
This Birmingham HOME Company asks the Birmingham ^ I
people to look it over. It does not offer its policies because they
are put out by a home Company, but on their merits. The Com
pany distinctly offers its policies on their merits.
DIRECTORS:
WM. D. JELKS, President CABANISS & BOWIE, Attorneys ROBERT JEM'ISON
RICHARD W. MASSEY, Vlce-Pres. J. C. MABEN G' R- HARSH
CLARENCE J. PALMER, Secretary CHAS. HENDERSON nfhftWIN
W. W. CRAWFORD, Treasurer JOHN L. KAUL j 'H 'W|LSON
W. G. HARRISON, M.D., Med. Director R. A. MITCHELL FRANK NELSON
o-- J)
corrible and feeble-minded boys are here
from 6 to 18 years of age .and every
county in the state is represented.
There are 1151 boys in the school at pres
ent, over 150 more than the capacity.
Here, as an absolute necessity, comes
the proper housing of the children. To
put the institutldn on as model a basis as
possible is the hope and desire of the
superintendent, Mr. D. M. Weakley. This
is by no means a hopeless idea, as the
school, so rich already in fine standards,
will soon have accomplished all the ne
cessities to make it model in all wayc.
For many years the cottage system has
been the desire of this superintendent
Today it has advanced in many state*,
and is recognized as the best method ol
dealing with the unfortunate child.
The cottage system means segregation
and selection and the housing of the
children in the most scientific manner.
As regards their mental capacity, their
age and their crime would indicate.
Honor System
“There are no fences around the Boys’
Industrial school.” was the proud boast
of the superintendent, and a real boast he
could make of it, for this is something
to be truly proud of. Nothing at the |
school is locked and the boys are trusted i
absolutely. Of all the things the school
does for the boys this trust in them is
the very finest of all and has the greatest
ethical value.
When the probate court of each county,
according to law, becomes also a juvenile
court, with an appointed advisory board
and a social worker to direct the court s
endeavors, a great deal of the work of
this school will be relieved, for the com
munity can he helped without commit
t'ns tho child. There Is no limit to the
good work such a trained worker In thfr
field can accomplish. , , ...
It Is to be hoped the legislature wl 1
see fit to make the appropriation askel
for by this Institution, so that it will be
able to make headway In all the new
work proposed and so direct the unfortu
nate youth of the state to become a
metter citizen and an honored man.
Democracy Is Growing
London, August 8.—(Special.)—Wo
are growing every day more and more
democratic. The other afternoon the
writer was sitting at a cinema beside
Princess Victoria, the Kings sister.
When It was time to go home she and
some friend who was with her wer*
to be seen fighting like the rest of us
for a taxi, If you please. Princess Ar
thur of Connaught has become, since
her marriage, an out and out radical
and walks from her own house In
Mount street to a cinema close by as It
It was the most natural thing In the
world to do. She Is lohglng passionately
for the return of her sister-in-law,
Princess “Pat.” There never was a more
adaptable wife than Princess Arthur,
who has fallen In completely with all
the Connaught family ways, an extra
ordinary thing when you come to think
In what a very severe atmosphere she
was brought up. She looks very pretty
In her nursing costume and went to
Buckingham palace to visit the King
and Queen In It the other afternoon and
also called at Marlborough house to
show herself.
Forerunner of Hull House to Move
London, August 8.—(Special Correspon
dence.)—Famous Toynbee hall, the univer
sity settlement which, for 30 years, has
been a wonderful work among the poor of
Whitechapel, London, Is soon to be moved
to Poplar, close by the Blackwell tunnel
through which most American visitors to
the English metropolis have walked.
Toynbee hall, founded by the late Canon
Barnett, was the -forerunner of numeroua
similar settlements all over the world,
notably Hull House, Chicago, and Univer
sity Settlement, New York. For years
the Inmates labored among the wretched
ly poor men and women who lived at Its
door, teaching them civic and personal
pride as well as training a fine band of
social workers who went forth to the.
four corners of the earth to do a similar
work. Of late years the character of
Whitechapel h/s undergone a complete
change. It has become the Jewish Ghetto
of London and the social and educational
needs of its inhabitants are now amply
looked after by the various Jewish organ
izations and churches. For this reason
those in control of Toynbee hall feel that
they can do a more needed work In Pop
lar, a typically English slum.
Louis Conard Gets Author’s
Works for Five Years
After the War
Xiondon, August 15.—(Special.)—Every
American who has traveled on the con
tinent knows the straw colored, paper
bound Tauchnitz editions in English of
popular English and American authors—
50-cent books that are not supposed to
be carried out of the continent, but that
few travelers can resist smuggling. You
could find them in every railway book
shop from Calais to Moscow. Many at
tempts had been made to rival them, but
Tauchnitz, the, f^eipsiz publisher, beat
them all. and made a fortune out of it
and became a baron.
Now the war has apparently dished
him, for a French publisher, Louis Con
ard, who has been known chiefly hitherto
for his choice editions of the French
classics, and whose cosy offices in the
Rue Madeleine in Paris have been a
favorite haunt of cabinet ministers and
literary lions, has seized the chance and
quietly captured practically all of the
Tauchnitz authors and made a contract
with them to give him first choice of
all their novels for five years from the
end of the war.
It is probably the biggest publishing
deal that has been made since the flood,
i. e., since the war began. It •was en
gineered for M. Conard chiefly by M. de
Valcourt-Vermont, a live and charming
Frenchman who lived in the United
States for some 10 years and was con
nected with the publishing business there.
He had retired comfortably to his es
tate in Touraine and expected to spend
the rest of his days among his beloved
roses; but the war changed all that. Ap
parently it was he who suggested the
scheme to Conard, and who conducted the
negotiations in London with an Ameri
can agent, who represented most of the
authors. Among the American novelists
who will be included in what Conard
calls "The Standard Collection of Eng
lish and American Authors" are Booth
Tarkington, Gertrude Atherton, Kate
Douglas Wiggin, Mary Roberts Rinehart,
Frincess Troubetzkey and Winston
Churchill. Most of the big English au
— * 1
thors have come into the scheme, and
the first volume, H. G. Wells’ ‘‘Bealby,”
Is to be issued in a few days, to be fol- 11
lowed by Mrs. Humphry Ward’s "Delia
Blanchfiower," and new novels by Maur
ice Hewlett. Sir Arthur Quiller-Couoh,
and Horace Annesley Vachell, although It
was Conard’s first intention not to beg^i
publishing until the end of the war. ^
Unreasonable
From the Chicago Herald.
Hotels are very much on degrees of
comfort as the haughty hotel clerks do j
in degrees of flippancy and efforts 1
to please the guests. It was midnight' |
in a hostelry In an Arizona town, when. 1
a guest called up and, In an angry
\oice, said:
“There a couple of mice fighting up
here.”
"What room have you?" inquired the
sleepy clerk. He was told, and then
inquired:
"What are you paying for it?”
"Two dollars,” was the reply.
"Well, what do you expect for |2-^
a bull fight?”
Looking Backward
From Judge.
Crawford—What's that perpetual
motion crank working on now?
Crabshaw—A machine that will ena
ble a woman to lace her own shoes.
A
JOE H. EAGLE. PRESIDENT JOHN 3,TAK I n70 *N CR At MANAGER
' -0
VitatiM < Vitality Sah'
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-QtlfCMlMKrMI* ^°M;t .E*TTV BW.Ld.NG
Birmingham, Ala., Aug. 21at, 1915
American Laundry Company,
City.
Gentlemen:
I am sure you would appreciate a word from the writer,
especially when it comes unsolicited, in regard to the high
class work which your Laundry turns out.
Your records will show that I have been a customer for
the past twelve months and during this time I have not had to
register the slightest kick. Instead of your tearing up my y
linens you seem to give them life. It is remarkable hOw long
a silk shirt will last by your method of handling.
I am the biggest crank in the world in regard to my
laundry. I have had work done from coast to coast and have neyer* v
found a Laundry that could come up to yours for satisfaction.
You are privileged to publish this if you see fit.
Wishing you continued success and assuring you of my future
patronage, I beg to remain,
^ Yours truly
** 1
V V
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it? Phone 3715. Vital Remedies Cotnpany
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