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and the cannery now in use prepared about 3,000
cans of fruits and vegetables this past season. It
is designed to extend this industry in order to
take outside orders for canning.
Printing, too, is taught, and a very readable
and clever paper is printed on the place. This
is called “The Right Arm,” and its staff of “re
porters” consists of members of the Home whose
English work makes it possible for their contribu
tions to be acceptable.
Again, the handicrafts are taught through the
medium of a lately established wood working
plant and the boys are busily and happily engaged
in making tables, swings and wagons. The latter
■article is given special attention as the wagons
made by the boys are serviceable and marketable.
This branch of the work and the printery are both
designed to eventually bring in a revenue to the
Home as it is also hoped may be the case with
the electrical work which the boys are to be trained
to do. There is a fine stream on the grounds of
the Home which can easily be made available for
electrical purposes and it is hoped that this may
soon be utilized to produce lights not only for the
Home but for the adjacent farms as well.
A poultry department is one of the most recent
acquisitions and a dairy plant on a very small
scale as yet, would about complete the line of in
dustries from which the young male inmates of the
Home may choose their life work!
What the Girls Do.
While it is not the idea of the Industrial Home
to train girls for domestic servants, yet the girls
there are taught every domestic art which would
make their services of value in any home, their
own or another’s, in which their future may be
cast. Cooking, sewing in all its branches, laundry
work, sanitary care of a home as well as some
stenography and a full school course are offered to
the girls and right nobly do they avail themselves
of these advantages. One of their most en
joyed pieces of work is the manufacture of neck
ties which are sold in many stores in Macon and
elsewhere and so well is this work done that the
Georgia Industrial Home ties are winning a
place in the regular trade centers of the South.
The Future of These Children.
While these destitute children are taken and
oared for during the tender and formative years
of their lives it is neither the design nor intention
of this valuable Institution to set the young peo
ple adrift at any given time. While it becomes
necessary for homes and positions to be secured
for them from time to time, these homes are se
lected with the utmost care, and quarterly reports
are required from families having in their care
a boy or girl from the Georgia Industrial Home.
These reports are made on printed blanks fur
nished by the Horae and the questions to be ans
swered cover every possible exigency which might
arise. Thus it will be seen that a child once enter
ing the Georgia Industrial Home can never again
be friendless or unoared for and that the benign
influence once entering his life must combat all
difficulties and remove, as far as human will may,
the dangers which surround us all!
Financial Plan.
We have told thus far as much of the purpose
of this institution and of its practical fulfilment
as an article of this length will pennit, and we
hope that we have at least aroused some interest
in the work actually being accomplished from day
to day. But we have purposely reserved for a final
word some detailed account of the financial sup
port of the Home.
As has already been said, Mr. Mumford began
the work without any fund whatever. The State,
under its present legal conditions, does not do
nate any fund to its maintenance and it has no
other organized source of support. Therefore, it
is dependent on freewill offering alone for its con
tinuance! These conditions have supported it
from its birth and on this source alone does it now
rely.
First Donation.
The first donation received for the Home in re
sponse to Mr. Mumford’s appeal, was that given by
Miss Eula Felton Willingham, a little girl at the
The Golden Age for December 20, 1906.
time, who handed to Mr. Mumford five dollars as
her contribution to the work. In honor of this do
nation one of the dormitories is called “Eula Fel
ton Hall.”
Following the example of Miss Willingham, do
nations have been made from individuals in every
part of the state and even from other states. Os
the latter we may mention a recent gift of SSOO
from Mr. George Spencer Peabody, of New York,
The only endowment donation ever made was a
sum of $1,200 recently left to the Home by Mr. J.
0. Baskin, of Pulaski County. This amount is at
present conservatively invested and brings but a
small revenue. Despite the fact that all the work
of the institution is done by the inmates, it is nec
essary to employ a Superintendent for the manual
work and the farm work; also matrons for the care
of the girls and young children, until it is now
estimated that the cost of maintenance per year for
a single child is about SOO, or $5 a month. It will
readily be seen that a generous and steady stream
of contributions from the people must be kept
flowing in order that this most worthy institution
shall be continued and its usefulness be increased.
Vt the present time there is an urgent appeal be
fore the public for a Dollar Donation as a Christ
mas Gift Fund, the plan being to reach 100,000
persons with this appeal.
Urgent Need for This Amount.
While there is need for more funds in every
branch of the work the specially urgent need is for
the completion of the large new building to be
called Mumford Memorial Hall, and which is at
present the only brick building on the place. It
is to be used for a General Administration Build
ing containing the office, reception room, chapel,
teaching and music rooms, dining room, pantry,
bakery and kitchen. To complete it $20,000 is de
manded and the need for this building is most
pressing, each one of the buildings now used for the
purposes mentioned being entirely inadequate.
Rev. J. R. Gunn.
The management of the Home is a wise one in
many ways, the chief one being in its system of
appointing a General Manager, with full powers to
act as he deems best on all occasions. The complex
nature of this work makes this system almost im
perative, while it also complicates the work of the
Board of Trustees in selecting the best man for
the place. This Board consists of Mr. E. J. Wil
lingham, president, and Messrs. C. M. Wiley, W.
A. Davis, A. W. Lane and A. F. Holt.
At the death of Mr. Mumford some two years
ago the choice for his successor fell upon Mr J.
R. Gunn. While the wisdom of this choice is be
yond question, the numerous responsibilities of the
position and the urgency of fully carrying out the
plans laid down by Mr. Mumford were enough to
daunt the bravest spirit. But, after taking the
matter under careful advisement for some time,
Mr. Gunn decided to accept the position, and his
conduct of the Institution cannot be too highly
commended. He has given himself to the work
with an enthusiasm which is almost an inspiration,
and has so identified himself with it that it has be
come a part of his very life. The success which is
shown in the present and which is approaching in
even fuller measure in the future is evidence of the
ability, wisdom and intelligence with which Mr.
Gunn has worked. His acumen as a man of bus
iness is remarkable in a scholar and a student, but
above all else is his sympathy, his tenderness and
his genuine love for little children, and his thor
ough understanding of their needs and their rights.
He has written most scholarly articles on the sub
ject, both in the Institution paper, of which he is
editor, and in other publications. A work of this
sort requires a powerful hand at the helm of its
affairs and its usefulness as a spiritual and social
force is determined by this same hand. Knowing
this and after a careful personal inspection of the
work done it is safe to declare that the Georgia In
dustrial Home has already won for itself a promi
nent place in the endless struggle for the better
ment of the race; a struggle to be won only through
the medium of intelligent care and helpful guid
ance of the neglected and unwelcome children of
the commonwealth.
The Editor Abroad.
(Greensboro, N. C., Correspondent in Charlotte
Observer.)
The reception at the Normal and Industrial Col
lege tendered to the Convention was a social event
which will live long in the memory of the dele
gates as an event that added much to the pleasure
of the Convention. At the close of the delicious
repast served in the dining room, a number of
“after-dinner” speeches were made, notable among
these being made by Hon. J. C. Scarborough and
Mr. W. D. Upshaw, the latter gentleman being a
visitor to the Convention from Atlanta. These
two gentlemen, for the purpose of entertainment,
carried on for a little while a friendly tilt on the
subject of “Woman’s Voting,” Mr. Scarborough
championing and Mr. Upshaw arguing against the
same. The climax was reached when the Georgian
successfully met every argument of his opponent
by repeating the following lines:
“She comes around the corner,
I hear her manly tread,
The air is filled with quaking's,
My heart is filled with dread.
My, my, behold the pictjire!
That now my eyes do scan,
If she’s the ‘coming’ woman,
Then I’m the going man.”
The applause which followed the lines was deaf
ening, being entered into heartily by the Normal
students as well as their guests.
Mr. Upshaw replied to the same by saying, with
a smile, that he judged this expression of appre
ciation from his hearerls was to be taken by him
as an encore. He then, changed the scene entirely
by paying a beautiful tribute to the life and work
of the lamented Chas. D. Mclver, late president of
the Normal, whom he had known and loved. In
a few minutes tears were starting from the eyes
of many of his hearers as Mr. Upshaw pleaded for
the continual upholding of the high ideal of Dr.
Mclver for woman which was that of practical,
useful Christian womanhood.
About Mr. Upshaw.
Mr. Upshaw is editor of the attractive publica
tion, “The Golden Age,” which is issued from At
lanta each week. It is a high-grade periodical
which has been in existence only a few months,
but which has already received recognition that
many older publications would prize. Among its
regular contributors are Rev. G. Campbell Morgan,
of London, and Rev. Len G. Bsroughton, of At
lanta, these two with the talented editor giving
the paper enough, exclusive of others who write
for its columns, to make it well worth its price.
Mr. Upshaw is an alumnus of Mercer University,
and is a Baptist layman, who devotes much of his
time to evangelistic work, having for some weeks
past been engaged in holding meetings in this state.
An Incident at Wake Forest.
The young Georgia editor has also received many
congratulations from the members of the conven
tion on account of his recent- conquest of the Wake
Forest forces at their own celebration of victory
in debate with Mercer University. The story goes
that the Georgian was invited by President Poteat
to come up from Raleigh, where he was engaged
in a meeting at the Tabernacle church, and take
part in celebrating the defeat of Mercer. The
Georgian went to “attend his own funeral,” he
said, but he proved to be the liveliest corpse that
was ever “laid out” at Wake Forest. When it
came his time to offer congratulations he laid aside
the shroud in which his victorious friends had
wrapped him and startled his hearers with a “spun
ky” speech right in the enemy’s camp that cap
tured them with wit and electrified them with at
spontaneous flow of native and magnetic eloquence!.
He mercilessly removed the cuticle of every Wake
Forest speaker that had preceded him, but he
did it with such skill .and good humor that the op
eration was hugely enjoyed, and in the ovation ac
corded the Mercer man he was hauled to the train
in the “chariot of victory” which had carried the
Wake Forest champions over the campus.