CHURCH AND SCHOOL 231 
interesting as a story. The school was designed to 
meet the needs of the people connected with the 
Biltmore estate, and the enthusiastic founders 
started with four boys, the first one of whom had 
to be paid to come ! To-day some of those who first 
entered are carving chairs for the great establish- 
ment of Tiffany of New York, and more than one 
hundred of the pupils are earning a livelihood by 
their woodcarving craft. One young man, upon be- 
coming engaged to be married, made for his future 
home a whole set of beautiful Chippendale furniture. 
The v/orkers are paid from the moment they begin, 
and the older ones are not only self-supporting, but 
they are technically and artistically educated to the 
enjoyment of a kind of life which otherwise they 
could neither have attained nor appreciated. 
Woodcarving is not the only work done at the 
Biltmore Industries, as witness the rolls of cloth 
lying on the table of the industrial rooms, cloth 
woven by the women in their own looms and colored 
by natural plant dyes. There is also embroidery, 
beautiful in color, design, and workmanship, and 
the girls, after some diplomatic manoeuvres to over- 
come the opposition of the militant sex, now also 
carve. Thus In the embroidery, carving, and weaving 
the women, like the men, are getting far more than 
pay for their work. One of the pleasures of going to 
Biltmore is a visit to the rooms of the Industries 
where the work of the people Is shown and ex- 
plained. 
