The American Missionary | Page 9

daily work has found its way to the dining-tables of the boarding hall.

The Laundry.
The building in which the laundry work is done was erected by student-labor under the supervision of the Mechanical Superintendent. The washing and ironing are performed in the main by our night-school girls, who are looking forward to attendance upon the day school from current earnings. Here also the day-school occupants of the girls' dormitory do their own laundering, or assist after their daily recitations in the general work of the college.

Nursing.
Miss A.B. Chalfant, Teacher.
The course of instruction is designed to extend through two years, the first being devoted to the sick room--care of the bed; moving and bathing the patient; different kinds of food for the invalid, with its preparation; making and application of poultices; rubbing, and the administration of simple remedies.
In the second year more attention is given to the symptoms and the diagnosis of disease, with something of its treatment; and the proper course in emergencies, as in cases of burns, wounds, loss of blood, sun-strokes, drowning, and poisoning.
The pupils have been chiefly from the Normal grade, though some who are outside of the college family have been glad to avail themselves of the opportunity to enter the class, and they have proved apt and faithful students. Early in the beginning of this school year the instructor offered to organize a class among the young men, and to meet them at an hour not to conflict with other studies. Six persons responded and a high degree of interest has been manifested.
The value of this department is increasingly manifest, not only in the varied service rendered by the nurse teacher, but in the assistance given by pupils of both dormitories at the bedside of the sick, by mothers in the neighborhood who have been in the classes, and by the prophecy of better things for many homes where the influence of this work is felt.

Printing.
The college has maintained a printing office with but few interruptions since 1877.
A number of the young men were put through a course of training by one of the officers of the institution, and for some time the printing has been in the hands of those thus instructed, and with but little supervision. The department has done a large share of our job work, and during the school year has issued a monthly paper called the Talladega College Record.

Sewing.
Miss A.B. Chalfant, Teacher.
While it is believed that all industrial training develops both mind and body, yet special attention is given to the work among the girls, that it shall be in the line of improving their future homes. With this object in view, sewing is by no means an unimportant factor. It holds an important place in the curriculum of this school. Beginning in the third grade it extends through the seventh. Over two hundred pupils have received instruction this year.
In the lower classes, felling, hemming, and making of button holes are taught; in the intermediate, cutting and making plain garments; in the higher grade the girls cut and make dresses. Instruction is given in making garments from old clothes and also in mending--two important accomplishments in most homes.
Some of the girls are able during the school year, but especially in vacation, to earn enough by their sewing to materially aid themselves in meeting their school expenses. Considerable sewing is done for the institution, such as making bedding and work aprons, hemming towels and table linen. Custom work is attempted to some extent also, and by this means sufficient income has been derived not only to keep the Department stocked with material, but also to supply it with appropriate furniture for preserving the work of the pupils and displaying the finished product.

Woodworking and Drafting.
George Williamson, Instructor.
The best method of Industrial Education is to keep the technical idea pre?minently in view, and to teach, first, those principles which will be of real and practical use in an industrial life or profession. It is evident that the great mass of the people must be industrial workers in some form; and to teach them those principles of construction and drawing which govern all the mechanical trades is to give them preparation for a useful and successful life.
We want to teach them how to express intelligently by means of drawing their own ideas or the ideas of others, and then to embody them in permanent and useful construction; so that at least they may have the start and impetus toward something better than a life of blind mechanical drudgery.
The extent to which we can do this is limited by our time and opportunity. At present our instruction in the Slater shop is confined to woodworking and mechanical drafting. We have a course of lessons in woodworking for the boys, of the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth