Adjoining the sewing-room is a kitchen, furnished with a range, a sink, a table and such other articles as are needed by the young ladies who are being initiated into the mysteries of cooking. This class meets four days of the week, two of which are used by the teachers in familiar talks on various subjects, such as the nature of the different foods, their adaptation to the wants of the body, the choice of meats, vegetables, etc. The other two days are used by the girls in actual experiments in the preparation of foods, of course under the supervision of the teachers. They learn how to prepare soups, to cook meats and vegetables, and to make bread, cakes and pies. Better still, they learn how to do this work neatly and economically. Whenever any cooking has to be done, the two girls who have had that in charge are expected to wash the dishes, sweep, dust and air the rooms, and have everything in order for the next day. Sometimes the class gives lunches at noon to their schoolmates or supper in the evening, inviting in their friends. In this way they have raised money enough to pay for all materials used. At one of these entertainments they gave us sandwiches, coffee, chicken salad, cake and strawberries. The bread made by one of the girls was as light and sweet as any I ever ate. To make such bread is an accomplishment of which any one might be proud. Besides the cooking and sewing, we teach our girls how to care for the sick. They have books, and prepare their lessons in this subject as in any other. They learn how to care for the room, and person of their patient, how to prepare such light foods as may be used without harm, the simple home remedies to be administered for ordinary diseases, and the preventatives for such diseases. About all this industrial work the girls themselves are very enthusiastic, seeming to enjoy it quite as well as any other school work. The mothers, too, are very glad that their daughters are having an opportunity to learn how to do these necessary things which they have not the time, or ability, to teach them. In the homes of their parents the girls try to put into practice that which they learn in the school, and as they come to have homes of their own we are sure that they will be better in many ways than they could have been, but for the work they are doing now.
No people can be made very much better except as we reach that center of power and influence, the home. The schools can do something in this direction, and we believe that out from the homes, touched by our A. M. A. schools, will go an influence which will elevate and purify to some extent this whole mass of society.
THE SOUTH.
Rev. Joseph E. Roy, Field Superintendent.
Prof. Albert Salisbury, Superintendent of Education.
AVERY NORMAL INSTITUTE, CHARLESTON, S.C.
BY A. W. FARNHAM, PRINCIPAL.
With us the second of October dawned warm and bright. Before the last tardy risers were awakened, our school flag was hoisted over the building to beckon children and youth Averyward. And how they responded! Soon after the first stroke of the bell which announced that the gates were to be opened, more than three hundred children either walked, ran, or crowded, into the school yards. How they talked! Four months of vacation had dissipated all regard for established rules and usages. And who could scold the first day? It is true that many had been in summer schools during the greater part of vacation, but in many instances they were sent “just to keep them off the street, you know, sir.” Then the private houses in which these schools are “kept” have not school dignity nor school atmosphere, because they are not school buildings; hence they lack molding influence.