Chapter IV: Part 4

The six hundred rooms of the building, great and small, on the four floors, are exquisitely finished and furnished, all made as attractive as possible, that those of both sexes who are weary and broken in mind may have much to interest them in their long days of absence from home and friends. Students of the National Art Training School, under Mr. Poynter, did much of the art work. There are no blank walls.

The Holloway Sanatorium, which is five hundred feet by two hundred feet in extent, has a model laundry in a separate building, pretty red brick houses for the staff and those who are not obliged to sleep in the building, a pleasure-house for rest and recreation for the inmates, and a handsome chapel.

Four hundred or more patients can be accommodated. A moderate charge is made for those who can afford to pay, and only those persons thought to be curable are received. As much freedom is allowed as possible, that the inmates may not unnecessarily feel the surveillance under which they are obliged to live.

The Sanatorium was opened June 15, 1885, by the Prince of Wales, accompanied by the Princess, their three daughters, and the Duke of Cambridge. Mr. Martin Holloway, the brother-in-law of Mr. Thomas Holloway, spoke of the uses of the Sanatorium, and the Prince of Wales replied in a happy manner.

Many inmates were received at once, and the institution has proved a great blessing.

To what other uses should Mr. Holloway put his large fortune? He and Mrs. Holloway had long thought of a college for women, and after her death he determined to build one as a memorial to her who had helped him through all those days of poverty and self-sacrifice.

In 1875 Mr. Holloway held a conference with the blind Professor Henry Fawcett, Member of Parliament, and his able wife, Mrs. Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Mr. Samuel Morley, M.P., Sir James Kay-Shuttleworth, Bart., Mr. David Chadwick, M.P., Dr. Hague of New York, and others interested in the higher education of women. Mr. Holloway foresaw, with these educators, that in the future women would seek a university education like their brothers. "For many years," says Mr. Martin Holloway, "his mind was dominated by the idea that if a higher form of education would ennoble women, the sons of such mothers would be nobler men."

On May 8, 1876, Mr. Holloway purchased, and conveyed in trust to Mr. Henry Driver Holloway and Mr. George Martin Holloway, his brother-in-law, and Mr. David Chadwick, M.P., ninety-five acres on the southern slope of Egham Hill, Surrey, for his college for women. It is in the midst of most picturesque and beautiful scenery, rich in historical associations. Egham is five miles from Windsor, near the Thames, and on the borders of Runnymede, so called from the Saxon Runemede, or Council Meadow, where the barons, June 15, 1215, compelled King John to sign the Magna Charta. A building was erected to commemorate this important event, and the table on which the charter was signed is still preserved.

Near by is Windsor Great Park, with seven thousand fallow deer in its eighteen hundred acres, and its noted long walk, an avenue of elms three miles in length, extending from the gateway of George IV., the principal entrance to Windsor Castle, to Snow Hill, crowned by a statue of George III., by Westmacott. Not far away from Egham are lovely Virginia Water and Staines, from Stana, the Saxon for stone, where one sees the city boundary stone, on which is inscribed, "God preserve the city of London, A.D. 1280." This marks the limit of jurisdiction of the Lord Mayor of London over the Thames.

After Mr. Holloway had decided to build his college, he visited the chief cities of Europe with Mr. Martin Holloway to ascertain what was possible about the best institutions of learning, and the latter made a personal inspection of colleges in the United States. Mr. Holloway was seventy-six, and too old for a long journey to America.

Plans were prepared by Mr. W. H. Crossland of London, who spent much time in France studying the old French châteaux before he began his work on the college. The first brick was laid Sept. 12, 1879. Mr. Holloway wished this structure to be the best of its kind in England, if not in the world. The _Annual Register_ says in regard to Mr. Holloway's two great gifts, "When their efficiency or adornment was concerned, his customary principle of economy failed to restrain him."

The college is a magnificent building in the style of the French Renaissance, reminding one of the Louvre in Paris, of red brick with Portland stone dressings, with much artistic sculpture.

"It covers," says a report prepared by the college authorities, "more ground than any other college in the world, and forms a double quadrangle, measuring 550 feet by 376 feet. The general design is that of two long, lofty blocks running parallel to each other, and connected in the middle and at either end by lower cross buildings.... The quadrangles each measure about 256 feet by 182 feet. Cloisters run from east to west on two sides of each quadrangle, with roofs whose upper sides are constructed as terraces, the capitals being arranged as triplets."

No pains or expense have been spared to finish and furnish this college with every comfort, even luxury. There are over 1,000 rooms, and accommodations for about 300 students. Each person has two rooms, one for sleeping and one for study; and there is a sitting-room for every six persons. The dining-hall is 100 feet long, 30 wide, and 30 high. The semi-circular ceiling is richly ornamented. The recreation-hall, which is in reality a picture-gallery, is 100 feet long, 30 wide, and 50 high, with beautiful ceiling and floor of polished marquetry. The pictures here were collected by Mr. Martin Holloway, and cost about £100,000, or half a million dollars. Sir Edwin Landseer's famous picture, "Man proposes, God disposes," was purchased for £6,000. It was painted in 1864 by Landseer, who received £2,500 for it. It represents an arctic incident suggested by the finding of the relics of Sir John Franklin.

Here are "The Princes in the Tower" and "Princess Elizabeth in Prison at St. James," by Sir John Millais; "The Babylonian Marriage Market" and "The Suppliants," by Edwin Long; "The Railway Station," by W. P. Frith; and other noted works. The gallery is open to the public every Thursday afternoon, and in the summer months on Saturdays also. There are several thousand visitors each year.

The college has twelve rooms with deadened walls for practising music, a gymnasium, six tennis-courts (three of asphalt and three of grass), a large swimming-bath, a lecture theatre, museum, a library with carved oak bookcases reaching nearly to the ceiling, and an immense kitchen which serves for a school for cookery. Electric lights and steam heat are used throughout the buildings, and there are open fireplaces for the students' rooms.

The chapel, 130 feet long by 30 feet wide, says the London _Graphic_ for July 10, 1886, "is a singularly elaborate building in the Renaissance style.... In its decoration a strong tendency to the Italian school of the latter part of the sixteenth century is apparent. This is especially the case with the roof, which bears a kind of resemblance to that of the Sistine Chapel at Rome, though it cannot in any way be said to be a copy of that magnificent work.... The choir, or nave, is seated with oak benches arranged stall-ways, as is usual in the college chapels of Oxford and Cambridge.... The roof is formed of an elliptic barrel-vault, the lower portions of which are adorned with statues and candelabra in high relief, and the upper portion by painted enrichments. The former are a very remarkable series of works by the Italian sculpture Fucigna, who had learned his art in the studios of Tenerani and Rauch at Rome. These were his last works, and he did not live to complete them. The figures represent the prophets and other personages from the Old Testament on the left side, and apostles, evangelists, and saints from the New Testament on the right. The baldachino is constructed of walnut and oak, richly carved; and the organ front, at the opposite end of the chapel, is a beautiful example of wood-carving."

The building and furnishing of the college cost £600,000, the endowment £300,000, the pictures £100,000, making in all about one million sterling, or five million dollars. The deed of foundation states that "the college is founded by the advice and counsel of the founder's dear wife." When Mrs. Holloway was toiling with her husband over the shop in the Strand, with no recreation during the week except a walk, as he said, in that crowded thoroughfare, how little she could have realized that this beautiful monument would be built to her memory!

Mr. Holloway did not live to see his college completed; as he died, after a brief illness of bronchitis, at Tittenhurst, Wednesday, Dec. 26, 1883, aged eighty-three, and was buried in St. Michael's Churchyard, Sunninghill, Jan. 4, 1884.

Mr. Martin Holloway faithfully carried out his relative's wishes; and when the college was ready for occupancy, it was opened by Queen Victoria in person, on Wednesday, June 30, 1886. The day was fine; and Egham was gayly decorated for the event with flowers, banners, and arches. The Queen, with Princess Beatrice and her husband, the late Prince Henry of Battenberg, the Duke of Connaught, and other members of the royal family, drove over from Windsor through Frogmore, where Prince Albert is buried, and Runnymede to Egham, in open carriages, each carriage drawn by four gray horses ridden by postilions. Outriders in scarlet preceded the procession, which was accompanied by an escort of Life Guards.

Reaching the college at 5.30 P.M., the Queen and Princess Beatrice were each presented with a bouquet by Miss Driver Holloway, and were conducted to the chapel, where a throne had been prepared for her Majesty. Princess Beatrice, Prince Henry of Battenberg, and the Duke of Cambridge stood on her left, with the Duke of Connaught, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and others on her right. The choir sang an ode composed by Mr. Martin Holloway, and the Archbishop of Canterbury offered prayer.

The Queen then admired the decorations of the chapel, and proceeded to the picture gallery, where the architect presented to her an album with illustrations of the college, and the contractor, Mr. J. Thompson, offered her a beautiful key of gold. The top of the stem is encircled by two rows of diamonds; and the bow at the top is an elegant piece of gold, enamel, and diamonds. A laurel wreath of diamonds surrounds the words, "Opened by H. M. the Queen, June 30, 1886."

The Queen was then conducted to the upper quadrangle, where she seated herself in a chair of state on a dais, under a canopy of crimson velvet. A great concourse of people were gathered to witness the formal opening of the college. The lawn was also crowded, six hundred children being among the people. After the band of the Royal Artillery played to the singing of the national anthem, "God save the Queen," Mr. Martin Holloway presented an address to her Majesty in a beautiful casket of gold. "The casket rests on four pediments, on each of which is seated a female figure," says the London _Times_, "which are emblematical of education, science, music, and painting. On the front panel is a view of Royal Holloway College, on either side of which is a medallion containing the royal and imperial monogram, V.R.I., executed in colored enamel. Underneath the view is the monogram of the founder, Mr. Thomas Holloway, in enamel."

At one end of the casket are the royal arms, and at the opposite end the Holloway arms and motto, "Nil Desperandum," richly emblazoned in enamel. The casket is surmounted by a portrait model of Mr. Holloway, seated in a classic chair, being a reduction from the model from life taken by Signor Fucigna.

After the address in the casket was presented to Queen Victoria, the Earl of Kimberley, the minister in attendance, stepped forward, and said, "I am commanded by her Majesty to declare the college open." Trumpets were blown by the Royal Scots' Greys, cheers were given, the archbishop pronounced the benediction, and the choir sang "Rule Britannia." The Queen before her departure expressed her pleasure and satisfaction in the arrangement of the institution, and commanded that it be styled, "The Royal Holloway College."

More than a year later, on Friday, Dec. 16, 1887, a statue of the Queen was unveiled in the upper quadrangle of the college by Prince Christian. A group of the founder and his wife in the lower quadrangle was also unveiled. Both statues are of Tyrolese marble, and are the work of Prince Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg. The Rt. Hon. Earl Granville, K.G., made a very interesting address.

The college has done admirable work during the ten years since its opening. The founder desired that ultimately the college should confer degrees, but at present the students qualify for degrees at existing universities. In the report for 1895 of Miss Bishop, the principal, she says, "We have now among our students, past and present, fifty-one graduates of the University of London (twenty-one in honors), and twenty-one students who have obtained Oxford University honors.... This is the second year that a Holloway student has won the Gilchrist medal, which is awarded to the first woman on the London B.A. list, provided she obtains two-thirds of the possible marks." In 1891 a Holloway student was graduated from the Royal University of Ireland with honors.

Students are received who do not wish to work for a university examination, "provided they are _bona fide_ students, with a definite course of work in view," says the college report for 1895. They must be over seventeen, pass an entrance examination, and remain not less than one year. There are twelve entrance scholarships of the value of £50 to £75 a year, and twelve founder's scholarships of £30 a year, besides bursaries of the same value. The charge for board, lodging, and instruction is £90 or $450 a year.

Courses of practical instruction are given in cookery, ambulance-work, sick-nursing, wood-carving, and dressmaking. Mr. Holloway states in his deed: "The curriculum of the college shall not be such as to discourage students who desire a liberal education apart from the Greek and Latin languages; and proficiency in classics shall not entitle students to rewards of merit over others equally proficient in other branches of knowledge." While the governors, some of whom rightly must always be women, may provide instruction in subjects which seem most suitable, Mr. Holloway expresses his sensible belief that "the education of women should not be exclusively regulated by the traditions and methods of former ages."

The students at Holloway, according to an article in Harper's _Bazar_, March 10, 1894, by Miss Elizabeth C. Barney, have a happy as well as busy life. She says, "The girls have a running-club, which requires an entrance examination of each candidate for election, the test being a rousing sprint around the college--one-third of a mile--within three minutes, or fail. After this has been successfully passed, the condition of continued membership is a repetition of this performance eight times every two weeks, on pain of a penny fine for every run neglected. On stormy days the interior corridors are not a bad course, inasmuch as each one measures one-tenth of a mile in length."

"Nor are in-door amusements less in vogue than out-door sports. There are the 'Shakespeare Evenings' and the 'French Evenings,' the 'Fire Brigade' and the 'Debating Society,' and a host of other more or less social events.... The Debating Society is an august body, which holds its sittings in the lecture theatre, and deals with all the questions of the United Kingdom in the most irreproachable Parliamentary style. They divide into Government and Opposition, and pass and reject bills in a way which would do credit to the nation in Parliament assembled."

The girls also, she says, "have a string orchestra of violins and 'celli, numbering about fifteen performers. The girls meet one evening a week in the library for practice, and enter into it more as recreation before study than as serious work. They play very well indeed together, and sometimes give concerts for the rest of the college."

A writer in the Atlanta _Constitution_ for April 3, 1892, thus describes the drill of the fair fire brigade: "'The Holloway Volunteer Brigade' formed in three sections of ten students each, representing the occupants of different floors. They were drawn up in line at 'Right turn! Quick march! Position!' Then each section went quite through with two full drills.

"A fire in sitting-room No. 10 was supposed. At command 'Get to work!' the engine was run down to the doorway, a 'chain' of recruits was formed to the nearest source of water-supply, and the buckets were handed in line that the engine might be kept in full play. The pump was vigorously applied by two girls, while another worked the small hose quickly and ingeniously, so that the engine was at full speed in less than a minute. When the drill was concluded with the orders 'Knock off!' and 'Make up!' everything had been put in its own place.

"Then came the 'Hydrant Drill,' which was conducted at the hydrant nearest the point of a supposed outbreak of fire. In this six students from each section took part. Directly the alarm was given one hundred feet of canvas hose was run out, and an additional length (regulated, of course, by the distance) was joined to it. At the words 'Turn on!' by the officer known as 'branch hoseman,' the hose was directed so that, had there been water in it, it must have streamed onto the supposed fire. This drill was also accomplished in only a minute; and at the commands 'Knock off!' and 'Make up!' the hose-pipes were promptly disconnected, the pipe that is always kept attached to the hydrant was 'flaked down,' and an extra one hundred feet 'coiled up' on the bight with astonishing rapidity. The drills are genuine realities, and the students thoroughly enjoy them."

There is also a way of escape for the students in case of fire. The "Merryweather Chute," a large tube of specially woven fire-proof canvas, is attached to a wrought-iron frame that fits the window opening. There is also a drill with this chute. When the word is given, "Make ready to go down chute," the young woman draws her dress around her, steps feet foremost into the tube, and regulates her speed by means of a rope made fast to the frame, and running through the chute to the ground. Fifty students can descend from a window in five minutes with no fear after they have practised.

Mr. Holloway and his wife worked hard to accumulate their fortune, but they placed it where it will do great good for centuries to come. In so doing they made for themselves an honored name and lasting remembrance.

CHARLES PRATT

AND HIS INSTITUTE.

"It is a good thing to be famous, provided that the fame has been honestly won. It is a good thing to be rich when the image and superscription of God is recognized on every coin. But the sweetest thing in the world is to be _loved_. The tears that were shed over the coffin of Charles Pratt welled up out of loving hearts.... I count his death to have been the sorest bereavement Brooklyn has ever suffered; for he was yet in his vigorous prime, with large plans and possibilities yet to be accomplished.

"Charles Pratt belonged to the only true nobility in America,--the men who do not inherit a great name, but make one for themselves." Thus wrote the Rev. Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler of Brooklyn, after Mr. Pratt's death in 1891.

Charles Pratt, the founder of Pratt Institute, was born at Watertown, Mass., Oct. 2, 1830. His father, Asa Pratt, a cabinet-maker, had ten children to support, so that it became necessary for each child to earn for himself whenever that was possible.

When Charles was ten years old, he left home, and found a place to labor on a neighboring farm. For three years the lad, slight in physique, but ambitious to earn, worked faithfully, and was allowed to attend school three months in each winter. At thirteen he was eager for a broader field, and, going to Boston, was employed for a year in a grocery store. Soon after he went to Newton, and there learned the machinist's trade, saving every cent carefully, because he had a plan in his mind; and that plan was to get an education, even if a meagre one, that he might do something in the world.

Finally he had saved enough for a year's schooling, and going to Wilbraham Academy, at Wilbraham, Mass., "managed," as he afterwards said, "to live on one dollar a week while I studied." Fifty dollars helped to lay the foundation for a remarkably useful and noble life.

When the year was over and the money spent, having learned already the value of depending upon himself rather than upon outside help, the youth became a clerk in a paint-and-oil store in Boston. Here the thirst for knowledge, stimulated but only partially satisfied by the short year at the academy, led him to the poor man's blessing,--the library. Here he could read and think, and be far removed from evil associations.

When he was twenty-one, in 1851, Charles Pratt went to New York as a clerk for Messrs. Schanck & Downing, 108 Fulton Street, in the oil, paint, and glass business. The work was constant; but he was happy in it, because he believed that work should be the duty and pleasure of all. He never changed in this love for labor. He said years afterwards, when he was worth millions, "I am convinced that the great problem which we are trying to solve is very much wrapped up in the thought of educating the people to find happiness in a busy, active life, and that the occupation of the hour is of more importance than the wages received." He found "happiness in a busy, active life," when he was earning fifty dollars a year as well as when he was a man of great wealth.

Years later Mr. Pratt's son Charles relates the following incident, which occurred when his father came to visit him at Amherst College: "He was present at a lecture to the Senior class in mental science. The subject incidentally discussed was 'Work,' its necessary drain upon the vital forces, and its natural and universal distastefulness. On being asked to address the class, my father assumed to present the matter from a point of view entirely different from that of the text-book, and maintained that there was no inherent reason why man should consider his daily labor, of whatever nature, as necessarily disagreeable and burdensome, but that the right view was the one which made of work a delight, a source of real satisfaction, and even pleasure. Such, indeed, it was to him; he believed it might prove to be such to all others."

After Mr. Pratt had worked three years for his New York firm, in connection with two other gentlemen he bought the paint-and-oil business of his employers, and the new firm became Raynolds, Devoe, & Pratt. For thirteen years he worked untiringly at his business; and in 1867 the firm was divided, the oil portion of the business being carried on by Charles Pratt & Co. In the midst of this busy life the influence of the Mercantile Library of Boston was not lost. He had become associated with the Mercantile Library of New York, and both this and the one in Boston had a marked influence on his life and his great gifts.

When the immense oil-fields of Pennsylvania began to be developed, about 1860, Mr. Pratt was one of the first to see the possibilities of the petroleum trade. He began to refine the crude oil, and succeeded in producing probably the best upon the market, called "Pratt's Astral Oil." Mr. Pratt took a just pride in its wide use, and was pleased, says a friend, "when the Rev. Dr. Buckley told him that he had found that the Russian convent on Mount Tabor was lighted with Pratt's Astral Oil. He meant that the stamp 'Pratt' should be like the stamp of the mint,--an assurance of quality and quantity."

For years he was one of the officers of the Standard Oil Company, and of course a sharer in its enormous wealth. Nothing seemed more improbable when he was spending a year at Wilbraham Academy, living on a dollar a week, than this ownership of millions. Now, as then, he was saving of time as well as money.

Says Mr. James McGee of New York, "He brought to business a hatred of waste. He disliked waste of every kind. He was not willing that the smallest material should be lost. He did not believe in letting time go to waste. He was punctual at his engagements, or gave good excuse for his tardiness. Speaking of an evening spent in congratulations, he said that it was time lost; it would have been better spent in reviewing mistakes, that they might be corrected. It is said that a youth who had hurried into business applied to Mr. Pratt for advice as to whether he should go West. He questioned the young man as to how he occupied his time; what he did before business hours, and what after; what he was reading or doing to improve his mind. Finding that the young man was taking no pains to educate himself, he said emphatically, 'No; don't go West. They don't want you.'"

Active as Mr. Pratt was in the details of a great business, he found time for other work. Desiring an education, which he in his early days could not obtain, he provided the best for his children. He became deeply interested in Adelphi Academy, Brooklyn, was a trustee, and later president of the Board. In 1881 he erected the wing of the main building; and six years later, in 1887, he gave $160,000 for the erection of a new building.

He gave generously to the Baptist Church in Brooklyn in which he worshipped, and from the pews of which he was seldom absent on the Sabbath. He bestowed thousands upon struggling churches. He generously aided Rochester Theological Seminary. He gave to Amherst College, through his son Charles M. Pratt, about $40,000 for a gymnasium, and through his son Frederick B. Pratt thirteen acres for athletic grounds. He helped foreign missions and missions at home with an open hand.

"There were," says Dr. Cuyler, "innumerable little rills of benevolence that trickled into the homes of the needy and the hearts of the straitened and suffering. I never loved Charles Pratt more than when he was dealing with the needs of a bright orphan girl, whose case appealed strongly to his sympathies. After inquiring into it carefully, he said to me, 'We must be careful when trying to aid this young lady, not to cripple her energies, or lower her sense of independence.'

"The last time his hand ever touched paper was to sign a generous check for the benefit of our Brooklyn Bureau of Charities. Almost the last words that he ever wrote was this characteristic sentence: 'I feel that life is so short that I am not satisfied unless I do each day the best I can.'"

Mr. Pratt was not willing to spend his life in accumulating millions except for a purpose. He once told Dr. Cuyler, "The greatest humbug in this world is the idea that the mere possession of money can make any man happy. I never got any satisfaction out of mine until I began to do good with it."

He did not wish his wealth to build fine mansions for himself, for he preferred to live simply. He had no pleasure in display. "He needed," says his minister, Dr. Humpstone, "neither club nor playhouse to afford him rest; his home sufficed. For those who use such diversions he had no criticism. In these matters he was neither narrow nor ascetic. He was the brother of his own children. His home was to him the fairest spot on earth. He filled it with sunshine. Outside of his business, his church, and his philanthropy, it was his only sphere."

He was a man of few words and much self-control. Dr. Humpstone relates this incident, told him by a friend: "Some one made upon Mr. Pratt, openly, a bitter personal attack. The future revealed that this charge was entirely unmerited, and the man who made it lived to regret his act; but the moment revealed the greatness of our dead friend's love. He said no word; only a face pale with pain revealed how determined was his effort at self-control, and how keen was his suffering. When his accuser turned to go, he bade him good-morning, as though he had left a blessing and not a bane behind him. As I recall the past at this moment, I think of no word he ever spoke in my hearing that was proof of an unloving spirit in him."

For years Mr. Pratt had been thinking about industrial education; "such education as enables men and women to earn their own living by applied knowledge and the skilful use of their hands in the various productive industries." He knew that the majority of young men and women are born poor, and must struggle for a livelihood, and, whether poor or rich, ought to know how to be self-supporting, and not helpless members of the community. The study of algebra and English literature might be a delight, but not all can be teachers or clerks in stores; some must be machinists, carpenters, and skilled workmen in various trades.

Mr. Pratt never forgot that he had been a poor boy. He never grew cold in manner and selfish in life. "He presented," says Mr. James MacAlister, President of the Drexel Institute, Philadelphia, "the rare spectacle of a rich man in strong sympathy with the industrial revolution that was progressing around him. His ardent desire was to recognize labor, to improve it, to elevate it; and his own experience taught him that the best way to do this was to put education into the handiwork of the laborer."

Mr. Pratt gained information from all possible sources about the kind of an institution which should be built to provide the knowledge of books and the knowledge of earning a living. He travelled widely in his own country, corresponded with the heads of various schools, such as The Rose Polytechnic Institute at Terre Haute, Ind., the Institute of Technology in Boston, and with Dr. John Eaton, then Commissioner of Education, Dr. Felix Adler of New York, and others. Then Mr. Pratt took his son, Mr. F. B. Pratt, and his private secretary, Mr. Heffley, to twenty of the leading cities in England, France, Austria, Switzerland, and Germany, to see what the Old World was doing to educate her people in self-help.

He found great industrial schools on the Continent supported by the city or state, where every boy or girl could learn the theory or practice, or both, of the trade to be followed for a livelihood. On leaving the schools the pupils could earn a dollar or more a day. Our own country was sadly backward in such matters. The public schools had introduced manual training only to a very limited extent. Mr. Pratt determined to build an institute where any who wished to engage in "mechanical, commercial, and artistic pursuits" should have a thorough "theoretic and practical knowledge." It should dignify labor, because he believed there should be no idlers among rich or poor. It should teach "that personal character is of greater consequence than material productions."

Mr. Pratt, on Sept. 11, 1885, bought a large piece of land on Ryerson Street, Brooklyn, a total of 32,000 square feet, and began to carry out in brick and stone his noble thought for the people. He not only gave his millions, but he gave his time and thought in the midst of his busy life. He said, "_The giving which counts, is the giving of one's self_. The faithful teacher who gives his strength and life without stint or hope of reward, other than the sense of fidelity to duty, gives most; and so the record will stand when our books are closed at the day of final accounting."

Mr. Pratt at first erected the main building six stories high, 100 feet by 86, brick with terra-cotta and stone trimmings, and the machine-shop buildings, consisting of metal-working and wood-working shops, forge and foundry rooms, and a building 103 feet by 95 for bricklaying, stone-carving, plumbing, and the like. Later the high-school building was added; and a library building has recently been erected, the library having outgrown its rooms. In the main building, occupying the whole fourth floor as well as parts of several other floors, is the art department of the Institute. Here, in morning, afternoon, and evening classes, under the best instructors, a three years' course in art may be taken, in drawing, painting, and clay-modelling; also courses in architectural and mechanical drawing, where in the adjacent shops the properties of materials and their power to bear strain can be learned. Many students take a course in design, and are thus enabled to win good positions as designers of book-covers, tiles, wall-papers, carpets, etc. The normal art course of two years fits for teaching. Of those who left the Institute between 1890 and 1893, having finished the course, seventy-six became supervisors of drawing in public schools, or teach art elsewhere, with salaries aggregating $47,620. Courses are also given in wood-carving and art needlework. Though there were but twelve in the class in the art department at the opening of the Institute in 1887, in three years the number of pupils had increased to about seven hundred.

Mr. Pratt instituted another department in the main building,--that of domestic science. There are morning, afternoon, and evening classes in sewing, cooking, and other household matters. A year's course, two lessons a week, is given in dressmaking, cutting, fitting, and draping, or the course may be taken in six months if time is limited; a course in millinery with five lessons a week, and the full course in three months if the person has little time to give; lectures in hygiene and home nursing, that women in their homes may know what to do in cases of sickness; classes in laundry work, in plain and fancy cooking, and preparing food for invalids. There are Normal courses to fit teachers for schools and colleges to give instruction in house sanitation, ventilation, heating, cooking, etc.

This department of domestic science has been most useful and popular. As many as 2,800 pupils have been enrolled in a single year. A club of men came to take lessons in cooking preparatory to camp-life. Nurses come from the training-schools in hospitals to learn how to cook for invalids. Many teachers have gone out from this department. The Institute has not been able to supply the demand for sewing-women and dressmakers during the busy season.

Mr. Pratt rightly thought "that a knowledge of household employments is thoroughly consistent with the grace and dignity and true womanliness of every American girl.... The housewife who knows how to manage the details of her home has more courage than one who is dependent upon servants, no matter how faithful they may be. She is a better mistress; for she can sympathize with them, and appreciate their work when well done."

Mr. Pratt had another object in view, as he said, "To help those families who must live on small incomes,--say, not over $400 or $500 per year,--teaching the best disposition of this money in wise purchase, economical use of material, and little waste. One aim of this department is to make the home of the workingman more attractive."

Mr. Pratt said in the last address which he ever made to his Institute: "Home is the centre from which the life of the nation emanates; and the highest product of modern civilization is a contented, happy home. How can we help to secure such homes? By teaching the people that happiness, to some extent at least, consists in having something to occupy the head and hand, and in doing some useful work."

In the department of commerce, there are day and evening classes in phonography, typewriting, bookkeeping, commercial law, German, and Spanish, as the latter language, it is believed, will be used more in our commercial relations in the future.

There is a department of music to encourage singing among the people, with courses in vocal music, and in the art of teaching music; this has over four hundred students. In the department of kindergartens in the Institute Mr. Pratt took a deep interest. A model kindergarten is conducted with training-classes, and classes for mothers, who may thus be able to introduce it into their homes. The high-school department, a four years' course, combining the academic and the manual training, has proved very valuable. It was originally intended to make the Institute purely manual, but later it was felt to be wise to give an opportunity for a completer education by combining head-work and hand-work. The school day is from nine o'clock till three. Of the seven periods into which this time is divided, three are devoted to recitations, one to study,--the lessons are prepared at home,--one to drawing, and two to the workshop, in wood, forging, tinsmithing, machine-tool work, etc. When the high school was opened, Mr. Pratt said, "We believe in the value of co-education, and are pleased to note the addition of more than twenty young women to this entering class."

The high school has some excellent methods. "For making the machinery of National and State elections clear," says Mr. F. B. Pratt, the secretary of the Institute and son of the founder, "the school has conducted a campaign and election in close imitation of the actual process.... Every morning the important news of the preceding day has been announced and explained by selected pupils." The Institute annually awards ten scholarships to ten graduates of the Brooklyn grammar schools, five boys and five girls, who pass the best entrance examinations for the high school of Pratt Institute. The pupils after leaving the high school are fitted to enter any scientific institution of college grade.

Mr. Pratt was "so much impressed with the far-reaching influence of good books as distributed through a free library," that he established a library in the Institute for the use of the pupils, and for the public as well. It now has fifty thousand volumes, with a circulation of over two hundred thousand volumes. In connection with it, there are library training-classes, graduates of which have found good positions in various libraries.

A museum was begun by Mr. Pratt in 1887, as an aid to the students in their work. The finest specimens of glass, earthenware, bronzes, iron-work, and minerals were obtained from the Old World, specimens of iron and steel from our own country to illustrate their manufacture in the various articles of use; much attention will be given to artistic work in iron after the manner of Quentin Matsys; lace, ancient and modern; all common cloth, with kind of weave and price; various wools and woollen goods from many countries.

In the basement of the main building Mr. Pratt opened a lunch-room, a most sensible department, especially for those who live at some distance from the Institute. Dinners at a reasonable price are served from twelve to two o'clock, and suppers three nights a week from six to seven P.M. Over forty thousand meals are served yearly. Soups, cold meats, salads, sandwiches, tea, coffee, milk, and fruit are usually offered.

Another thought of Mr. Pratt, who seemed not to overlook anything, was the establishing of an association known as "The Thrift." Mr. Pratt said, "Pupils are taught some useful work by which they can earn money. It seems a natural thing that the next step should be to endeavor to teach them how to save this money; or, in other words, how to make a wise use of it. It is not enough that one be trained so that he can join the bands of the world's workers and become a producer; he needs quite as much to learn habits of economy and thrift in order to make his life a success."

"The Thrift" was divided into the investment branch and the loan branch. The investment shares were $150, payable at the rate of one dollar a month for ten years. The investor would then have $160. Any person could loan money to purchase a home, and make small monthly payments instead of rent. As many persons were unable to save a dollar a month, stamps were sold as in Europe; and a person could buy them at any time, and these could be redeemed for cash. In less than four years, the Thrift had 650 depositors, with a total investment of over $90,000. Twenty-four loans had been made, aggregating over $100,000. The total deposits up to 1895 were $260,000.

Most interesting to me of all the departments of Pratt Institute are the machine-shops and the Trade School Building, where boys can learn a trade. "The aim of these trade classes," says Mr. F. B. Pratt, in the _Independent_ for April 30, 1891, "is to afford a thorough grounding in the principles of a mechanical trade, and sufficient practice in its different operations to produce a fair amount of hand skill." The old apprenticeship system has been abandoned, and our boys must learn to earn a living in some other way. The trades taught at Pratt Institute are carpentry, forging, machine-work, plastering, plumbing, blacksmithing, bricklaying, house and fresco painting, etc. There is an evening class of sheet-metal workers, who study patterns for cornices, elbows, and other designs in sheet-metal. Much attention is given to electrical construction and to electricity in general. The day and evening classes are always full. Some of the master-mechanics' associations are cordial in their co-operation and examination of students through their committees. After leaving the Institute, work seems to be readily obtained at good wages.

Mr. Pratt wished the instruction here to be of the best. He said, "The demand is for a better and better quality of work, and our American artisans must learn that to claim first place in any trade they must be intelligent.... They must learn to have pride in their work, and to love it, and believe in our motto, 'Be true to your work, and your work will be true to you.'"

The sons of the founder are alive to the necessities of the young in this direction. If it is true that out of the 52,894 white male prisoners in the prisons and reformatory institutions of the United States in 1890 nearly three-fourths were native born, and 31,426 had learned no trade whatever, it is evident that one of the most pressing needs of our time is the teaching of trades to boys and young men.

Mr. Charles M. Pratt, the president of the Institute, says in his Founder's Day Address in 1893 concerning technical instruction: "Our possible service here seems almost limitless. The President of the Board of Education of Boston in a recent address congratulated his fellow-citizens upon the fact that Boston has her system of public schools and kindergartens, and now, and but lately, her public school of manual training; but what is needed, he said, 'is a school of _technical training in the trades_, such as Pratt Institute and other similar institutions furnish. I sincerely trust that the next five years of life and growth here will develop much in this direction.... We are willing to enlarge our present special facilities, or provide new ones for new trade-class requirements, as long as the demand for such opportunities truly exists.'"

One rejoices in such institutions as the New York Trade Schools on First Avenue, between Sixty-seventh and Sixty-eighth Streets, with their day and evening classes in plumbing, gasfitting, bricklaying, plastering, stone-cutting, fresco-painting, wood-carving, carpentry, and the like. A printing department has also been added. This work owes its inception and success to the brain and devotion of the late lamented Richard Tylden Auchmuty, who died in New York, July 18, 1893. Mrs. Auchmuty, the wife of the founder, has given the land and buildings to the school, valued at $220,000, and a building-fund of $100,000. Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan has endowed the school with a gift of $500,000.

Mr. Pratt did not cease working when his great Institute was fairly started. He built in Greenpoint, Long Island, a large apartment building called the "Astral," five stories high, of brick and stone, with 116 suites of rooms, each suite capable of accommodating from three to six persons. The building cost $300,000, and is rented to workingmen and their families, the income to be used in helping to maintain the Institute. A public library was opened in the Astral, with the thought at first of using it only for the people in the building; but it was soon opened to all the inhabitants of Greenpoint, and has been most heartily appreciated and used. Cut in stone over the fireplace in the reading-room of the Astral are the words, "Waste neither time nor money."

When Mr. Pratt made his first address to the students of Pratt Institute on Founder's Day, Oct. 2, 1888, his birthday, taking the Bible from the desk, he said, before reading it and offering prayer, "Whatever I have done, whatever I hope to do, I have done trusting in the Power from above."

Before he built the Institute many persons asked him to use his wealth in other ways; some urged a Theological School, others a Medical School, but his interest in the workingman and the home led him to found the Institute. He rejoiced in the work and its outlook for the future. He said, "I am so grateful, so grateful that the Almighty has inclined my heart to do this thing."

On the second and third Founder's Days, Mr. Pratt spoke with hope and the deepest interest in the work of the Institute. He had been asked often what he had spent for the work, and had prepared a statement at considerable cost of time, but with characteristic modesty he could never bring himself to make it public. "I have asked myself over and over again what good could result from any statement we could make of the amount of money we have spent. The quality and amount of service rendered by the Institute is the only fair estimate of its real value."

In closing his address Mr. Pratt said, "To my sons and co-trustees, who will have this work to carry on when I am gone, I wish to say, 'The world will overestimate your ability, and will underestimate the value of your work; will be exacting of every promise made or implied; will be critical of your failings; will often misjudge your motives, and hold you to strict account for all your doings. Many pupils will make demands, and be forgetful of your service to them. Ingratitude will often be your reward. When the day is dark, and full of discouragement and difficulty, you will need to look on the other side of the picture, which you will find full of hope and gladness.'"

When the next Founder's Day came, Mr. Pratt was gone, and the Institute was in the hands of others. At the close of a day of work and thought in his New York office, Mr. Pratt fell at his post, May 4, 1891, and was carried to his home in Clinton Avenue, Brooklyn. After the funeral, May 7, memorial services were held in the Emmanuel Baptist Church on Sunday afternoon, May 17, with addresses by distinguished men who loved and honored him.

A beautiful memorial chapel was erected by his family on his estate at Dosoris, Glen Cove, Long Island; and there the body of Mr. Pratt was buried, July 31, 1894. The chapel is of granite, in the Romanesque style, with exquisite stained glass windows. The main room is wainscoted with polished red granite, the arching ceiling lined with glass mosaic in blue, gold, and green. At the farther end, in a semi-circular apse reached by two steps through an imposing arch, stands the sarcophagus of Siena marble, with the name, Charles Pratt, and dates of birth and death. The campanile contains the chime of bells so admired by everybody who visited the Columbian Exposition at Chicago, and heard it ring out from the central clock tower in the Building of Manufactures and Liberal Arts. Few, comparatively, will ever see this monument erected by a devoted family to a husband and father; but thousands upon thousands will see the monument which Mr. Pratt built for himself in his noble Institute. Every year thousands come to learn its methods and to copy some of its features, even from Africa and South America. The Earl of Meath, who has done so much for the improvement of his race, said to Dr. Cuyler, "Of all the good things I have seen in America, there is none that I would so like to carry back to London as this splendid establishment."

One may read in Baedeker's "Guide Book of the United States" instructions how to find "the extensive buildings of Pratt Institute, one of the best-equipped technical institutions in the world. None interested in technical education should fail to visit this institution."

During his life, Mr. Pratt gave to the Institute about $3,700,000, and thus had the pleasure of seeing it bear fruit. Of this, $2,000,000 is the endowment fund. Small charges are made to the pupils, but not nearly enough to pay the running expenses. Mr. Pratt's sons are nobly carrying forward the work left to their care by their father, who died in the midst of his labors. Playgrounds have been laid out, a gymnasium provided, new buildings erected, and other measures adopted which they feel that their father would approve were he alive.

Courses of free lectures are given at Pratt Institute to the public as well as the students; a summer school is provided at Glen Cove, Long Island, for such as wish to learn about agriculture, with instruction given in botany, chemistry, physiology, raising and harvesting crops, and the care of animals; nurses are trained in the care and development of children; a bright monthly magazine is published by the Institute; a Neighborship Association has been formed of alumni, teachers, and pupils, which meets for the discussion of such topics as "The relation of the rich to the poor," "The ethics of giving," "Citizenship," etc., and to carry out the work and spirit of the Institute wherever opportunity offers.

Already the influence of Pratt Institute has been very great. Public schools all over the country are adopting some form of manual training whereby the pupils shall be better fitted to earn their living. Mr. Chas. M. Pratt, in one of his Founder's Day addresses, quotes the words of a successful teacher and merchant: "There is nothing under God's heaven so important to the individual as to acquire the power to earn his own living; to be able to stand alone if necessary; to be dependent upon no one; to be indispensable to some one."

About four thousand students receive instruction each year at the Institute. Many go out as teachers to other schools all over the country. As the founder said in his last address, "The world goes on, and Pratt Institute, if it fulfils the hopes and expectations of its founder, must go on, and as the years pass, the field of its influence should grow wider and wider."

On the day that he died, Mr. Herbert S. Adams, the sculptor, had finished a bust of Mr. Pratt in clay. It was put into bronze by the teachers and pupils, and now stands in the Institute, with these words of the founder cut in the bronze: "_The giving which counts is the giving of one's self_."

THOMAS GUY

AND HIS HOSPITAL.

One day the rich Matthew Vassar stood before the great London hospital founded by Thomas Guy, and read these words on the pedestal of the bronze statue:--

THOMAS GUY,
SOLE FOUNDER OF THIS HOSPITAL IN HIS LIFETIME
A.D. MDCCXXI.

The last three words made a deep impression. Matthew Vassar had no children. He wished to leave his fortune where it would be of permanent value; and lest something might happen to thwart his plan, he had to do it _in his lifetime_.

Sir Isaac Newton said, "They who give nothing till they die, never give at all." Several years before his death, Matthew Vassar built Vassar College near Poughkeepsie, N.Y.; for he said, "There is not in our country, there is not in the world so far as known, a single fully endowed institution for the education of women. It is my hope to be the instrument, in the hands of Providence, of founding and perpetuating an institution _which shall accomplish for young women what our colleges are accomplishing for young men_."