Suggestions Concerning Schools — Ways and Means. 5 3 



customs which have prevailed among many nations from time immemorial. 

 Sensual white men adopted the custom to abuse it. Our Mission School was 

 brought into direct collision with it. Girls begged for protection, and ou 

 missionaries interposed. But there was no longer safety or shelter for them 

 in their fathers' houses. The largest garrison building was obtained rent-free 

 for a year, and the GirPs Home began. The inmates, however, are not confined 

 to the class of girls above described. Others who have no guardians, and little 

 girls given to the mission are also admitted. For all these, it is an Asylum. 



This institution required a much larger outlay than was contemplated for 

 schools at Fort Wrangel. The matron, Mrs. McFarland, is supported by the 

 Board of Home Missions ; but all that belongs to the housekeeping, the cloth- 

 ing of inmates, and their daily sustenance, has been met in a great measure by 

 contributions, chiefly from societies of ladies in the states. The irregularity of 

 these supplies has been keenly felt already; and some provision must be made, 

 like the steady flow of a perennial spring. The method of scholarships at one 

 hundred dollars per annum is meeting only a limited success. There are now 

 seventeen girls in the Home, and more will be provided for in the new build- 

 ing. It is the intention, however, to teach the inmates as fast as possible, and 

 as far as consistent with the time necessarily consumed in school, to do the 

 work of the house, and to make their own garments ; and in short, to conduct 

 the Home on the most economical basis. Its removal to the building which is 

 now being erected for it, will give it room for development into an Inditstrinl 

 ami Training School. In it will be taught, in addition to the rudiments of 

 mental education, 



THE ARTS OF HOUSEHOLD THRIFT AND SELF-SUPPORT. 



The native women are familiar with some of these, but their tools and uten- 

 sils are clumsy, and their methods slow and laboiious. They evince, however, 

 both capacity to acquire new arts and eagerness to adopt improved ways. Their 

 houses are large, durable, and comparatively comfortable ; and what is most 

 needed now, is the modern house-keeper to transform them into homes, and the 

 christian mother to train the family into purity, usefulness and intelligence. 



It will thus assume the character of an Industrial School. For this purpose, 

 it will require an outfit and furnishing that should be supplied without delay, 

 to facilitate this species of education, which is now indispensable to the civili- 

 zation of these people. And it can be taught in this school. We shall therein 

 gain in thoroughness and efficiency, wjiat our self-denying missionaries will not 

 fail to inculcate in social intercourse. Out of this department of the school 

 must grow the other, as a tree unfolds its branches from the trunk. Its roots 

 are spread in the soil of our nature, but the tree must grow under the fostering 

 care of Christianity, and expand in its vigor and utility in the open air of daily 

 life, to bear fruit for all who seek its shelter. 



THE TRAINING SCHOOL FOR FEMALE TEACHERS 



must be engrafted upon this stock. This department, therefore, needs not to 

 be dwelt upon in detail. Its advantages, like the fruit of a well grown tree, 



