1898.] ESSAYS. 137 



he started out to make his fortune. He learned the ship-carpen- 

 ter's trade, then he built a ship for himself and started out as a 

 merchant and mariner on the high sens. He would go to one 

 section of the world to load up, and then go to another i)lace to 

 sell. At one time in his life he had many ships afloat on the 

 high seas. He prospered and accumulated a large fortune, and 

 when old age overtook him he sold out and came to Philadelphia 

 to si)end the remainder of his life. About the first thing he did 

 was to make a will ; he gave to his help who had grown old in 

 his service an annuity to be paid quarterly during their lifetime, 

 and he gave large sums to benevolent objects. He made all of 

 his relatives well off so far as this vvorld's goods were concerned, 

 and then he gave to the State of Pennsylvania $300,000, and to 

 the city of Philadelphia $500,000. The remainder of his prop- 

 erty he gave to the city of Philadelphia to found a college for the 

 training and educating of the orphan poor boys of the city of 

 Philadelphia and of the State of Pennsylvania. The grounds 

 consist of forty-five acres of land enclosed in a nice cemented wall 

 ten feet high. The gatehouse is on the east, and everyone has 

 to go through it to get into the college grounds. A stranger has 

 to get a permit to go in. 



This forty-five acres is about five times as long as it is wide. 

 An avenue goes through the centre of the lot. The college is on 

 the east end and buildings are on both sides of the avenue, in- 

 cluding a very large power house. Here is where the boys learn 

 the trades. They get not only an education but a trade as well. 

 The college is a marble building with a marble roof, from which 

 a fine view of the city and country can be obtained. There are 

 thirty-seven marble pillars that hold up the roof that covers the 

 piazza on both sides and at one end. The playground is in the 

 rear of the college. The chapel is near the centre of the grounds. 

 The boys march from the college to the chapel every day at nine 

 o'clock and four o'clock for religious instruction. ' The chaplain 

 reads the prayer and scriptures and the boys do the singing. It 

 would surprise you to see one thousand boys between the ages 

 of ten and eighteen marching from the college under military 

 discipline. They enter the chapel in companies, every boy gets 



