2h 



GLEANINGS IN EEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1 



question. His teacher was inclined to hvtsh 

 him up; but I begg-ed her to let him tell 

 what he had to say. He said, "Mr. Root, 

 can you tell us all about how to make mac- 

 aroni and cheese?" At this there was a 

 shout all over the room. When the uproar 

 had subsided a little I said, "I am sorry 

 to say, my young friend, I can not tell 

 about these things. I know something 

 about strawberries — in fact, I have written 

 a book about how to grow them, and I know 

 quite a little about bees; but I do not know 

 about these other things you mention." 

 ' Now, if you wish to know more about the 

 Remington Gospel Settlement, write to 150 

 Erie St., Buffalo, and Miss Remington will 

 send you a report of their work. In con- 

 clusion I wish to make some extracts from 

 that report. I have selected the branches 

 that appeal most to my S3-mpathies. 



Keeping the girls from the street, or worse places, 

 and teaching them things which will be of use all 

 through life, we consider a very important part of the 

 work. They thoroughly enjoy sewing, and most of 

 them would like to begin on dresses. We do not won- 

 der at this desire, after seeing some of the dresses they 

 have to wear They are expected to work on aprons 

 or under-clothes until they can do fairly good work. 

 Among the teachers are three dres-makers, and they 

 have had their hands full teaching the girls to cut and 

 fit their own dresses. Often a girl supplies her own 

 material, which she brings to the class, nud cuts it out, 

 takes it home to sew, and brings it again the next 

 week for a little more help The girls try to learn all 

 they can, for they are anxious to be able to make their 

 own clothes at home, and some of them have done ex- 

 ceedinglj- well at it this winter. 



W hen we supply the material, the girls pay four- 

 fifths of the cost, and are required to finish the gar- 

 ments in the club. We have 72 nimes on the roll- 

 book, and the girls have all been very faithful in at- 

 tendance. 



There has also been a cla.ss in knitting, in which 

 several of the girls have learned to knit the mittens 

 that will keep their hands warm next winter 



At o* e time, Mrs. H. H. Boyce very kindly gave the 

 older gills a course of lessons in cooking, which proved 

 very delightful and beneficial They practiced at 

 home what they w re taught in the class, as the recipes 

 selected were for articles not expensive, yet very pal- 

 atable and wholesome. 



I his year the work closed with a sewing-contest, 

 which lasted two nights, and caused great interest 

 among the girls. Each member of the class made a 

 model apron, showing the best she could do in button- 

 hole.s, gathering, hemming, etc. Prizes were awaided 

 for the best work, and those who were not so fortunate 

 as to receive one made themselves happy bv represent- 

 ing books at the " I,ibrary Party," which followed 



KITC«KN GARDEN. 



The usual work, dish-washing, bed-making, etc., is 

 carried on ; but the little ones love best to .set the table 

 and play "The Smith F.imily.'' 



"Teacher, what a lot of things you put on your ta- 

 ble," remarked one little maid, who enjoyed the ap- 

 pearance of the clean cloth and dishes. Another child 

 marvels at what she calls •' the little towels," and nev- 

 er fails to report any unfortunate member of the 

 Smith family who fails to use her napkin in the right 

 way. A great delight for the children has been the 

 stories told by the teachers. One little girl gives her 

 own version of what was told at the previous meeting, 

 and then the class is rewarded by a new t;ile Besides 

 the pleasure which thty give, the stories have helped 

 in another way, for they are sometimes used, as the 

 teachers have learned to keep the baby quiet and 

 amused for a while at home, and .so relieve some tired 

 mother. 



Baby, who has not yet joined the class, sometimes 

 has a stoic sister of six or seven, who saves, for the lit- 

 tle one at home, her bit of candy or c oky, or perhaps 

 shares it with a teacher unlucky enough to have been 

 skipped when the evening's treat was passed around. 



The children manage to spend a happy evening in 

 work and play, and are as easily governed as seventy- 

 five or one hundred small, live creatures put into one 

 room could be expected to be. 



MANtTAL TRAINING. 



April 1. 1901, closed our third year of work in the 

 manual-training department. During the three vears 

 we have endeavored to make a careful study of the 

 conditions and problems confronting us. and "by judi- 

 cious experiments to discover the method best suited 

 to our needs 



Our lesson-periods have been ninety minutes, one 

 evening each week, from October to April ; our equip- 

 ment provides for twelve boys, using the Rochester 

 desk top. designed by Prof Murray. Our cla,sses have 

 been made up of boys from about nine to fourteen 

 yeais of age. including American, English, Irish, He- 

 ijrew, Italian, French. German, and Polish nationali- 

 ties ; and the subject-matter has consisted of exercises 

 in wood-working, ranging from knife-whittling in 

 thin wood to the con.-truction of objects involving the 

 simpler joint-;, elementary geometrical drawing, and 

 some A'enetian bent iron work. 



We have endeavored, as far as possible, to introduce 

 no abstract exercises, but to make the work interesting 

 to the boys by selecting for each model a finished arti- 

 cle. 



Our work, under the conditions that obtain here in 

 the -ettlement, differs in almost every way froin the 

 work carried on in public schools. Many of these 

 boys, living as they do in tow-path shanties, house- 

 boats, or ill-kept tenements exhibit evidences of ar- 

 rested development. Many things intelligible and in- 

 teresting to the averaae schoolboy do not seem to ap- 

 peal in the same way to these children ; consequently 

 our public-school courses and methods could not be 

 used except by extensive modification, and in some 

 cases not at all. 



Working under the conviction that the first thing 

 nee ssary is to secure and retain the interest of the 

 boy, we have from time to time been led to discard an 

 idea or model or method that did not seem to work to- 

 ward that end The chief aim at all times has been to 

 produce results in character-building, while the specif- 

 ic results in models and in hand skill have been of 

 distinctly secondary importance. 



SHOE-REPAIRING. 



r Knowing that many of the men in our neighborhood 

 repair their own shoes in a rude way, we asked the 

 boys if any of them would like to learn to do it proper- 

 ly. So many applied for admission to the class that 

 we had to select tho.se who behaved the best, as only 

 twelve could be taught at one time. As all the bo s in 

 this class were Italian, and many could not speak 

 much English, we engaged a first-cla.ss Italian shoe- 

 maker. Mr Louis Barone, and the class has done re- 

 markably good work. They have not only mended 

 their own shoes but have brought shoes from home to 

 repair, and have mended for some of the other children 

 who attend the different classes. .Shoes that are sent 

 in, very often need mending, so they are put in the re- 

 pair shop, mended, and then sold in the sales which 

 we usually have each month. The boys have done 

 very nice work. 



THE MOTHERS' MEETING. 



The meeting is scheduled to open at two o'clock, but 

 nearly every week many of the women are at the door 

 at half-past twelve or one o'clock, and hardly ever a 

 woman is later than half-past one. Thej' all .seem to 

 think this is the pleasantast time in the whole week 

 to them. A gr at many of them work out by the day, 

 but they wi 1 not work on Wednesday if they can pos- 

 sibly avoid it. 



During the first three months of the present j^ear 

 Mrs. Boyce gave cooking-lessons, and they all enjoyed 

 them very much The lessons were all such that the 

 women could go home and make practical use of what 

 thej' had been taught, and the next week the}' would 

 tell of their difficulties, if they had any, and get point- 

 ers as to what was the trouble. 



If Mrs. Boyce could see the improvement in some of 

 the meals that are served in the fifty homes that she 

 came in con act with in giving the lessons, she would 

 feel fully paid for her labors. 



All the material used in connection with these les- 

 sons was donated, which was a great help. 



After the cooking-lessons were discontinued the wo- 

 men returned to their usual occ pation of sewing. 

 They make up garments for themselves and their chil- 

 dren, and pay for them, when finished, four-fifths of . 

 the original price. The little sales, as referred to in 

 another place, supply the other fifth, so that this 

 branch of the work is practically self-supporting. 



Each gathering is closed with a short devotional ser- 

 vice, prayer, .short Bible-reading and singing, and all 

 the women stay to this service. These meetings are 



