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    336 THE ABERDEEN INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS.

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    . -« Bess ¦»- - Duein G A Late Visit To ...

    four miss hours dinner 7 * lessons or supper five . hours The ' wor gen k eral and arra three ngement good of meals the . day is

    The boys are emp , loyed in _weaving , salmon and herring nets , tearing horse-hair for upholsterersand oakum picking for general

    , sale ; but the net work has been hitherto the most profitable . We believe Sheriff Watson is now engaged in forming plans for

    extending these employments to tailoring and shoemaking . The produce of the work , as well as helping to defray the expenses

    of the school , answers another important end . Jt teaches the children not only the value of industrybut fosters a spirit of

    , independence , for they feel that they are giving in return for their food and training as much work as they are capable of performing .

    The work done in the first six months realised £ 25 19 s . or nearly £ 1 per week . The expenditure was £ 149 15 s . 4 jd ., of which

    £ 81 18 s . 9 d . was for food alone , at the rate of £ 4 8 s . lOd . each scholar ; a cost , as was to be expectedconsiderably greater than in

    , after years . In April , 1843 , the admissions were one hundred and three , and the work realised £ 58 19 s . 4 d . The total expense for each

    scholar , deducting Ms earnings , was £ 5 5 s . 4 d . The success which attended the boys' school soon called into existence one for girls ,

    which opened with three scholars , and gradually increased to sixty . We are told that the change in the girls' appearance was even more

    striking than in that of the boys : the clothes kindly supplied by the ladies who undertook the management of the school , the clean

    pinafores and faces , and the short tidy hair , so completely altered the appearance of these childrenwho now for the first time knew

    , what it was to be cared for , that it was difficult to recognise them . An element of discord which sprung up respecting * the form of

    religious worship , produced an unexpected result . Instead of one school with about sixty scholars , there are two schools , each attended

    by larger numbers , and accomplishing an equal amount of valuable work . The original school is very properly called after its founder ,

    " Sheriff Watson ' s Female Industrial School , " the other is known as ' the u Girls' School of Industry . " Sewing and knitting in every

    branch are the industrial occupations for the girls , but no plan has yet been formed for making their work as profitable as that of the

    boys . But even the establishment of these schools was not sufficient for

    the outcast children , or the energy and benevolence of those who devised them . The local Police Act for the city of Aberdeen gives

    power to put an end to begging in the streets . A school was proposed in which to place all such offenders , and to provide them with

    food and instruction . The manager of the Soup Kitchen gave the use of that building gratis , and the experiment was commenced

    with only £ 4 sterling collected ! On the 19 th of May , 1845 , the police were instructed to bring every child found begging to the

    Soup Kitchen . In the course of the day seventy-seven were collected ,

    of whom only four could read . The fighting , language , and rebel-

    336 The Aberdeen Industrial Schools.

    336 THE ABERDEEN _INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Jan. 1, 1860, page 336, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01011860/page/48/