Pratt Institute

“ Pratt Institute, in Brooklyn, in which an admirable course in domestic science is offered to those intending to teach—all these in their different lines are excellent, and all tend toward the same thing, namely, better ways of living. ”

“ As a rule, the student with a little practical experience gets far more from a library course than one not so equipped. Directors of schools often advise work in advance, but, as far as I know, few schools require it. Pratt Institute begins with practical work in the Pratt library. The difficulties in the way of requiring this work are many. It would bear heavily upon the libraries; it would be an added expense to students living at a distance from good libraries ”

“ Great institutions for vocational training, such as Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and Simmons College in Boston, have a dignity and a usefulness which no one disputes. Undoubtedly America needs more of their kind. But to impair the dignity and usefulness of the colleges dedicated to the higher education of women by diluting their academic programs with courses on business or domesticity will not meet that need. ”

“ Near by stood a cabinet full of home-made apparatus sent from various institutions, but a large part of which came from the physical laboratories of Pratt Institute, Brooklyn. The exhibit contained much of interest to a science teacher.
On the exterior of the facade was a huge educational map of the State, upon which was shown the location, grade, construction and normal capacity of every institution of learning within its borders. The superiority of New York's schoolhouses was shown by the large number constructed of brick and stone. ”

“ For a number of our most promising boys and girls we had raised the money for them to get outside the country what they could never get in it, namely, the technical training which is so much needed on a coast where we have to do everything for ourselves, and the breadth of view which contact with a more progressive civilization alone can give them. The faculty of Pratt Institute gave us a scholarship, and later two of them ”

“ Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York, has been conducting 8 evening classes in machine-shop practice, 6 classes in machine-drafting design, 1 evening class in elementary ship drafting, and day courses for a large body of enlisted men from the navy electrical school and from the signal reserve corps. Those who come from the signal reserve corps are being trained for active service in telegraphy, the 108 institute furnishing the technical instruction in elementary and applied electricity, and army officers furnishing the military and field-service instruction. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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." ”

“ Richards, of the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, writes me that not only are they substituting simple finished pieces for the abstract exercises, but also that they are giving the preference to small individual projects over larger ones requiring group work, and that they are making these changes because they believe that in this way they develop greater individuality and arouse a keener interest. ”

“ It is expected that graduates will be able to earn good wages at once after leaving the school, and the teachers endeavor to find suitable situations for their pupils.
Miss Caroline Willard Baldwin, at the head of the science department, who is herself a Bachelor of Science from the University of California, and a Doctor of Science from Cornell University, writes me: "The grade of work is much the same as that given in the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and the entire equipment of the school is excellent." ”

“ The faculty is composed partly of the regular Columbia staff and partly of special professors, among whom are a number of women. The seniors attend certain courses in philosophy and science in the regular university classes, and all of these are open to post graduates. The University of New York, situated in and near the city, is co-educational in its post-graduate courses and in its Departments of Law, Pedagogy and Commerce. Its Law Department is celebrated for the prominent women it has graduated. Pratt Institute of Brooklyn is open to both sexes alike. ”

“ 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.'"
[Pg 125]
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. ”

“ Science, art, technical, commercial and preparatory classes are conducted at the Institute in connection with the Board of Education, London, and the instruction given includes a continuous course of study designed to enable engineering students to make the best use of classes of direct service to them. ”

“ 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 ”

“ As they were loading the banker in the car for the return trip a thought struck Murray. “By the way, Ben,” he remarked, “didn't he nick you with that gun?” “That's right,” said Ben, “he did.” And gazed down at the long bright scratch in the heavy metal that covered his shoulder joint. It was uninjured.
Chapter IV: Flight! But when Tholfsen and Murray returned with the coal, Vanderschoof was missing as well as Stevens, and that evening when the car in which Marta Lami had accompanied Roberts on the exploration of the Brooklyn Heights district drew up at the Institute, it had only one occupant. ”

“ Such is Bill Pratt, honest, cheerful, and industrious, the maligner of no man. His sturdy figure long holds a place in the memory of every student; his photograph decorates every student's album. Without him our college would be incomplete. Esteemed by all for his unfailing integrity and industry, laughed at by all for his oddities, he remains ever the same. We trust that the day is far distant when he will be among us no more, and when the college walls shall cease to echo his chaotic and ungovernable eloquence.
Quarterly, 1869. ”

“ Yes, we have had a great many things in name, but mere name is not what is wanted. We have had a University in name, and that is greater than a college, for it is expected that in a University all sciences will be taught, but as yet we have had no such University. ”

“ It is a marvel to me that we have been able to build school houses and educate our children in any degree, especially when considering the vast labor that has been required of them, for as they began to grow up and ought to have been at school, they have had to be in the mountains herding sheep, or at work irrigating the soil ”

“ Sir William nodded. "It is your turn, Cavanagh," he said quietly. "You will hold office for the current month."
"Very well," replied Mr. Cavanagh, tugging fiercely at his moustache as he spoke. "You fellows can forward your subs, direct to my studio, without waiting for notices. I never write letters."
Sir William arose, holding the cheque above his head. "Whose shall it be this time, friends?" he demanded. "Remember that I have won three times running. Will any give me odds?"
"I," cried Dr. Fulton sharply. "I'll lay you seven to one in hundreds, Dagmar, that you do not win to-night." ”

“ 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. ”

“ Mallathorpe!—it's no good. I've got my own schemes, and my own ideas—and I'm going to carry 'em out. I want you to appoint me steward to your property, your affairs, for life."
"Life!" she exclaimed. "Life!"
"My life," answered Pratt. "And let me tell you—you'll find me a first-class man—a good, faithful, honest servant. I'll do well by you and yours. You'll never regret it as long as you live. It'll be the best day's work you've ever done. I'll look after your son's interests—everybody's interests—as if they were my own. As indeed," he added, with a sly glance, "they will be." ”

“ I do not confine my hopes to the volumes of works on science, with which I may come in contact here in this world; I do not confine my hopes to the slow process of advancing in knowledge and intelligence that the children of this world have; but I look forward to that higher school—that great university which will scope in boundless and eternal space, that will scope in the most distant creations that we can imagine in the vast field of eternity, in which we will be able to comprehend those laws by which the various creations are governed ”

“ I shall call you Brown."
"Very good, sir."
I backed out of the room, and as I half expected found the footman in the passage. His air of defiant indifference informed me that he had been listening through the keyhole. He was an owlish looking creature, but there were garrulous wrinkles about his eyes and lips which determined me to treat him civilly.
"Sir William has engaged me, Mr. Butts," I said in a low voice. "Will you be good enough to show me to my room. I am to start work at once."
"You won't stay here long," he mumbled as he tip-toed off. "They never do." ”

“ His voice was as hoarse as a raven's croak.
"Cavanagh!" said I, "what are you intending to do with the money given you by the dice to-night?"
To my astonishment he covered his face with his hands and his body began to heave with sobs. Without stirring a muscle I waited for his explanation. I divined that to be my cue. He grew calmer by degrees, and at length with a sheer muscular effort he forced himself to look at me. He shivered as he met my eyes and groaned aloud.
"Woman!" I muttered cuttingly. ”

“ I wore an evening suit of my master's, which on Butts' advice I had borrowed beforehand without the formality of asking permission, having none of my own. Sir William was not an observant man, grace au Dieu! I entered the room noiselessly, and slipped behind my master's chair. The table had been previously spread with oysters. No one spoke, until the shells were emptied; meanwhile I studied the six attentively. They were intelligent, but cold-faced men. Sir Charles Venner had an enormous nose, and very small grey eyes. Dr. Fulton possessed a hare-lip. Mr. Humphreys rejoiced in a squint. ”

“ The group of young people in the schoolhouse worked together, subdued and solemnized by the memories the day recalled, and when the work was done they quietly dispersed, carrying their flowers with them to be kept fresh till morning. On the way home Hattie Pratt remembered that she had left her scissors behind her. She slipped away from the others, and, burdened with flowers as she was, she ran back alone to the schoolhouse. About her neck was a garland of daisies, a wreath of buttercups hung from her wrist, while other wreaths and garlands filled her arms. ”

“ Sefton Dagmar entered the room when she had almost finished.
"Ah, Brown!" said he, "I'm late as usual. Good morning, Miss Le Mar; you are looking rather pale. Did the old buck give you a bad night?"
The vacuous puppy! Marion blushed and her eyes glittered.
"Do you refer to your uncle?" she asked in freezing tones.
"Well, now," he replied with a leer of admiration, "who else would you suppose? Much better have taken my tip and gone with me to a music-hall, my dear. You are too doocid pretty a girl to be tied up by a sick bed. ”