Art and Handcraft in the Woman's Building
of the World's Columbian Exposition

136 ART AND HANDICRAFT both sexes. This work has proved admirably adapted to the colored schools of the South, which have been such an important feature in American education for the last thirty years. It has enabled the students to pay in part for their tuition, as well as to undertake varied occupation on leaving school. Its excellent moral effect has also been noted. The branches taught are very numerous, from iron and wood work, brick-making, etc., to cooking, sewing, and fancy carving. The Le Moyne Institute has adopted the sensible plan of teaching the boys cooking and sewing and the girls carpentry work in addition to their other lessons. One other general feature must be named—the advance in supplementing by education the deficiency in the usual five senses. The fame of Laura Bridgman’s development is far-spread, and from that wonderful experiment a course of training has been established by which the blind almost see, and the deaf and dumb speak and hear, at least so much as secures the development of their intelligence and the ability to lead happy and useful lives. Women, have taken, a large share in this work. It is a trite saying that “ a republic must be based on general education.” This slight survey will show how much has been and is doing to lay this foundation broad and deep, and how essential it is that women, to whom education is so largely intrusted, not only in schools but in the far more important training of the home and every-day life, should have every opportunity freely opened to them. Thus clearly has the evolution of education been progressing from the earliest settlement of the country until the present moment. A few gaps remain to be filled before women can go on with equal pace with men. The great law of the survival of the fittest will insure that— “ What is excellent, As God lives, is permanent.” Edna D. Cheney.