Eyewitness Report on the Artisans Institute – Unitarian Universalist Digital Archives

TRAINING THE HAND.
AN INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL IN FULL BLAST IN ATLANTA.

What a Constitution Man Found on the Second Floor of a Marietta Street Building —

Twenty-Five Boys and Young Men Perfecting Themselves in the Use of Tools, Etc.

“Come out to see me to-night,” said Mr. Frank Lederle to a Constitution Man, Friday.
“I hunt news o’nights,” said the scribe.
“That’s why I want you to come out,” was the reply. “You’ll see something worth writing about.”
“I muff your meaning,” said the scribe.
“Well, here’s what you do,” said Mr. Lederle.
“You come out Marietta street to the saw works building, turn down the side street, pass two doors enter the third, go up one flight of steps, and I’ll show you the only industrial school in the southern states!”
“What?”
“Yes!”
“Do you mean to tell me that there is an industrial school in this place?”
“I do. We have the pioneer.”
“You’ve been very quiet about it. How did it originate?”
“Five big hearted men put up the money and started the school.”

A GRAND SPECTACLE.

At eight o’clock Friday night The Constitution man, who received the invitation noted above, stepped off a car at the place indicated. The saw works building was dark on the first floor, except in the engine roam, where, by a modest coal oil lamp, lighted the way for the grim looking engineer, who ever and anon shoveled coal into the firebox. A big fly wheel revolved with steady strokes and the band flapped and crackled as It disappeared in the darkness. From overhead came a low, buzzing sound as of many wheels in motion. The reporter ascended a flight of stairs, passed through a door and stood in a room that was a perfect blaze of light – a wonderful contrast to the dark and deserted quarters below. The room was about thirty feet by forty. It was packed with machinery and twenty-five men and boys had their coats off and were working like beavers..

Clatter; clatter went the shafting. Bz-z z-z z z went the lathes.

A steady snoring sound and a bright bed of fire beside which stood two perspiring boys, betrayed the locality of the forge. Several boys were industriously filing cast iron tubes. Another was drawing at a draftman’s table. Still others were cutting screws at iron lathes. Three older gentlemen were passing to and fro among the workers, showing first one how to hold a file, then the other how to do something else, another how to draw and so on. A busier shop, a brighter place or a more earnest crowd of workers was never seen.

Beside a youth stood Mr. Lederle giving instructions in drawing. The boy was patiently applying himself to making a picture of a circular saw. “Come here,” said Mr. Lederle, motioning to the reporter as he entered. The news-ite walked over. The boy proceeded with his drawing with the precision of a mature man. The reporter asked him his name.

“My name is Emile Ranschenberg!” was the reply.

“Tell me something about yourself and your ideas in coming to this school?”

“I am sixteen years old,” said the boy. “My father is a pattern maker and I have served three years at that trade. When this school was organized six weeks ago I came here and I have missed only one night. I am now going to school in the day time and attending this school at night. I am devoting my attention almost exclusively to drawing.'”

“Do you find any benefit?”

“A very decided benefit, so much so that I will stick to the school as long as it lasts ores long as the teachers can teach me anything.”

TALKING WITH AN APPRENTICE.

The CONSTITUTION man dropped into conversation with Elbert S. Broadus, a very earnest looking young man! who was running a lathe and cutting threads on a screw. Said he:

“I have been working at Winship’s for fourteen months and am learning the machinist trade. I have nearly four years yet to serve. I have been attending this school ever since it started, and intend to stick it out. It takes a good machinist to get good pay and I want to pick up all the knowledge of the business that I can get.”

“What does a good machinist get?”

“They get from a dollar and a half to three dollars a day. The better the machinist the higher the pay. A poor machinist gets only a dollar and a half a day, and I’m sorry to say the good ones are in the minority.”

“What does an apprentice get?”

“The first year fifty cents a day. The six months following they get seventy five cents a day and the third year they get a dollar a day. I’ve done some very hard work as an apprentice, but I don’t regret it,’

SOME INTERESTING CASES.

“It takes pluck to do this,” said Mr. Lederle, pointing to the busy crowd in the schoolroom. “Most of these young men work hard all day. Three nights in the week they come here and work two hours – from seven to nine. This is work to them. There is no novelty in it. You see a young man there filling a block of cast iron down to a perfect cube. He is training his hand in the use of the file. It is not new to him. It is very monotonous. It takes a man who is very much in earnest to stick it out and come here where a bed and sleep would be so much pleasanter. There is a little boy here who carries THE CONSTITUTION every morning at four o’clock, goes to school all day and works here at night. He brings water and sweeps out the room to pay his way. Is there a business man who would not be glad to have a boy of such pluck? There are two young men who come in from Edgewood, and another who comes in from Grant park. We have pupils from most of the shops in the city. All are working boys except three or four, who go to school.”

“What do you teach the boys?”

“They are taught the use of tools. Mr. H. T. Roffe, superintendent of the Georgia machinery company, is principal of the school. He teaches the use of the machinists’ tools, lathe work, vise work and general setting up. Mr. William Ott teaches pattern making and general carpentering and wood turning. I teach drawing. The school is intended merely as a move in the right direction, and as a nucleus for a great technical school. We call it the artisan’s institute, and hope, in time, it may grow into something great and more useful than at present.”

HOW IT WAS ORGANIZED

“How did the institution get started?”

“Dr. Chaney has a great fancy for this sort of education. He was president of the institution in Boston that started the schools there. He conversed with Mr. Elias Haiman on the subject, and at last it was known that Mr. Roffe could conduct the school. A meeting was called and Messrs. S. M. Inman, W. C. Morrill, W. A. Moore, F. P. Rice and J. W. English gave $1,000 to be spent in buying the tools. The teachers agreed to work three months free. We fitted up the place here as you see it. The first night there were 23 applicants and that was nearly as many as we could attend to. The boys pay a dollar a month each which about pays for rent, power and gas,”

“What about the future?”

“The experiment is a success and I have no doubt there will be means provided for continuing the school. The boys hang on well and there are many on the outside anxious to get in.”

WHO THE PRINCIPAL IS.

The principal of the school, Mr. H. T. Roffe, is one of the finest machinists in this country. He served a regular apprenticeship in England and attended a course at a technical school. He sees the great need for practical education for boys learning trades and has his heart in this work. Said he:

“In England an apprentice has to serve a term. Here he picks up what he can and quits when he pleases, consequently nobody teaches him anything. Boys should be taught many little things that are necessary to make them skilled mechanics. How to file even, how to hold a file and a thousand other little things that make them perfect are never taught in this country nowadays. This school is intended to help boys to perfect themselves while serving their trades and prepare boys for entrance into the higher schools.

The institution certainly deserves the hearty support and encouragement of every Georgian. No man who sees the earnest workers who attend the school can doubt that it fills a long felt want.

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