THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



81 



How 



it 

 Grew. 



STACKING ALFALFA. 



''Self help" was the doctrine he 

 preached. "That boy is helped who is 

 taught to help himself," he said. 



And the school continued to 

 grow. From the barn to a 

 tumble down house of four rooms, then to 

 a deserted church building, then to a ten 

 room house, then one twice as large (which 

 was destroyed "by fire, the boys barely 

 escaping with their lives) and then to the 

 building it occupies at present, the school 

 was forced to move. And now it goes to 

 the country to Fern Farm. This last move 

 being made possible by the handsome do- 

 nation of $5,000 by William Church, vice- 

 president of the Golden Pressed Brick 

 Company, of Denver. And the school 

 needs 150,000 more. It deserves it and 

 it ought to have it. Think of this earnest 

 Christian man, noble and self-sacrificing, 

 out of nothing but the good will of a few 

 devoted friends, and his individual efforts, 

 housing, feeding, clothing and teaching 

 over seventy boys (the number enrolled at 

 present) keeping the latch string always 

 hanging on the outside for more. 



Brightside is not a "Home'' 

 as the word is used when re- 

 ferring to charitable institutions. It is an 

 "Industrial School for Boys." Ralph 

 Field works in a way to which people of 

 large means, who support philanthropic 

 institutions are not accustomed. About 



Ralph 

 Field a 

 Qenius. 



Brightside there are none of the evidences 

 of rules and regulations and restrictions 

 that so predominate at institutions where 

 wardens and boards of managers and visit- 

 ing committees control matters. After a 

 boy has beaten his way about the country 

 a little and acquired a taste for the Arab 

 life, he will not submit to the restrictions 

 of the ordinary institution; he will run 

 away. But after these boys have been at 

 Brightside awhile they lose their roving 

 tendencies along with other bad habits 

 and they come to love the atmosphere of 

 home which surrounds them all, for they 

 are like one great family. When a person 

 is a genius in any line he can do things in 

 that line better than other people, and no 

 one can explain why. Ralph Field is a gen- 

 ius in his particular line. His genius lies 

 in an unfailing devotion to his work, in a 

 love for the boys which no weariness can 

 blunt, and the personal service for them 

 and their welfare which is expected only 

 from the missionary who is a martyr to his 

 cause. 



Brightside is a school where 

 boys of all kinds can get a 

 home, an education and an industrial 

 training without money. No tuition and 

 no fees are asked. If a boy can work and 

 earn money he is expected to contribute 



What 



it 

 Aims at. 



A KANSAS WINDMILL PLANT. 



