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.
[Illustration: CHARLES PRATT.]
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.