The Word Carrier (Santee, Nebraska), 1902-06 - 1902-08

              The Word Carrier.
VOLUME   XXXI.
HELPING    THK    RIGHT.    EXl>l>S[X(j     CHE    WRONG.
vi'Mni::t 5.
SANTEE, NEBRASKA.
JUNE-JULY-AUGUST. 1902.
FIFTY CENTS PER YEAR.
OUR PLATFORM.
For Indians ive want American Education! We icant American Homes!
We want American Rights! The result of whicli is American Citizenship!
And the gospel is the Power of God for
their Salvation!
Rev. Francis Frazier was on June
29 elected pastor of Pilgrim Congregational Church, Santee, Nebraska.
Mr. Frazier was unanimously nominated by the committee and elected
by three-fourths of the votes cast at
the church election. A council for
his intallation has been called to
meet September 10, the day before
"mission meeting." Mr. Frazier
will begin his new pastorate however about the middle of August, in
order to help organize the church
for its work of entertaining this
year's session of the "Mission Meeting."       	
CLOSING EXERCISES AT  SANTEE.
The closing exercises of Santee
Normal Training School occurred
on the evening of June 8th. The
evening before, the members and
friends of the school gathered as
usual in the dining room of Davis
Hall for the president's reception.
During a part of the evening the
guests were entertained by some
classes from the school. The second
and third grades preformed some
interesting exercises in gymnastics
and marching, and two singing
classes furnished some bright and
varied songs, by which they gave
much pleasure and did credit to
themselves  and their teacher.
On the evening of the graduation,
the program consisted of an opening
chorus, followed by declamation and
recitations from the boys and girls
who were to receive special recognition of what they had done,-—then
a class song, and last, the presenta;
tion of diplomas.
Three girls and one boy received
certificates of completion of the lower seven grades, and one young woman and two young men graduated
from the high school course. Of the
three who received diplomas, two,
Fredrick Frazier and JennieConger,
had passed through all the grades
of this school fl om the beginning;
the third, David Flyinghawk, received his first schooling in the
Episcopal Mission school at Yankton Agency, but has been at Santee
five years.
In his remarks to the graduates,
Dr. Riggs commended them not
only for their work in the class room
and the industrial departments of
the school, but also for their general faithfulness and good behavior
which have given us ground to hope
that they will prove to have become
persons who can be trusted. It is
the highest aim of the Santee school
to train its pupils to a worthy character ; and Dr. Riggs' words at this
time impressed the thought that no
amount of natural ability or occasional excellence in any direction
can make up for the lack of a steady
purpose to be right. E. L.
WHAT WE   HAVE   BEEN   DOING IIS
THE  MUSIC DEPARTMENT
THE PAST YEAR.
Twenty of our young people have
had lessons on the organ, and all
the pupils have had daily lessons in
class singing. Our organ work was,
as far as possible ,from the interesting studies of Schumann, Schubert,
Handel, Mozart, etc., and in the
classes we studied the biographies
of each; thus giving a little knowledge of tbe great masters and some ,
history of the time in which they I
lived.
This work was supplemented also I
with songs from the above writers.
In the singing classes most of our
work was from "The Natural Music
Course." All the pupils from the
second grade up to the High Sehool
had the note reading work. Charts
and books were used to suit the advancement of each grade. This was
supplemented by vocal exercises,
ear training, and chord formation.
Our first grade work was devoted
entirely to note siDging, The little
action songs of Mrs. Gaynor have
given our little ones many happy
times at the Bird's Nest and Cottage
as well as in the school room.
 H. C. R.
EXHIBITS.
The exhibit of school work at
commencment time was interesting
in that it showed the grade of work
done in the different branches and
also something of the progress during the last year.
In the primary rooms, a good
.deal of hand work was shown —-an
Esquimaux village in clay, an Indian village in sand, and a log
house inhabited by clothes-pin pil-
pilgrims. There was construction
work in cardboard and in paper.
Drawing which the children had
made in connection with their work
in history and geography, decorated the blackboards. The weather
charts on the walls showed the
beginning of their number study.
In the library was some of the
work of the intermediate and
higher grades. This was chiefiy
language work done in connection with all of their studies. We
were interested, too, to see that
a number of good books have
been added to the Library the
past year.
The exhibit of the cooking and
sewing schools was of great interest
to the visitors. It is described more
in detail in another item.
The carpenter shop was particularly interesting because a class
of the littlest boys was at work
there. One of these had made
and adjusted a water whpel. During the year we have been able
to make a little use of some of
the immense water power afforded by the new artesian well. It
has been employed to turn the
lathe at the the shop. Tue work
shows systematic training and the
| steady progress during tne year was
encouraging to see.
The Laboratory was also open to
visitors. The work done there was
shown at the Exhibit Room but
people enjoy seeing the room with
its apparatus and interesting collections.
In the Exhibit Room is gathered
and kept representative work from
the several departments of the
school. Each year new work is
added, and the old exchanged for
new. This is always an interesting
place to yisit. J- M. M.
COOKING AND   SEWING  REVIEW.
"Come over to the cooking school
rooms this afternoon at half past
four" was the word we all received at the table, one day toward the
close of school. Of course, since
it was to the cooking school, we all
went, expecting something good for
the satisfying of the inner man (and
woman) and we were in no wise
disappointed. We were received by
Mrs. Riggs and escorted to the dining room, where a well-laden table
met our view. The guests were seated in chairs about the room, and
served by the white-capped-and-
aproned girls of the class.
The bread was good enough to
make any house-wife's heart swell
with pride, and they had made it, as
the other things, alone. We were
told of the hopes and fears with
which it had been set the night before, and of the many anxious peeps
at the browning loaves. It must
have been no small satisfaction to
teacher as well as pupil that it turned out so well. Then there were
rusks which some declared . were
better than the bread, and bread-
cake, said to be better than either,
and pressed meat, cakes and cookies
(some of them cut from animal-
shaped moulds, which enhanced
their goodness to the young cooks,
at least), floating island and other
things less easily remembered, and
all were so good that it would have
been hard to decide in favor of
any one.
We could readily understand with
what pleasure the families antici-
pate-the home-coming of our cooking
school girls. We know, too, that
bodies will be healthier and stronger,
minds more alert, and tempers more
amiable because of the cooking
school and the work Mrs. Riggs has
been enabled to do through it; the
work has been as valuable, andpre-
haps more so, than that of' other
departments, for homes have been
bettered in this way that might
not have been reached from another side.
The girls learn to cook plain,wholesome food, food for the sick and a
few plain desserts. The recipe for
each thing cooked is written in notebooks, and by the end of the term
these form quite valuable cookbooks, which the gLvls take home
with tbem. It is needless to say
that the work of these classes is enjoyed by the girls more than any
other work they do in school.
The sewing school is another in-
dispensible department of the Santee work. It is also conducted by
Mrs. Riggs and a most interesting
exhibit was given at the close of
school.
There was first, the plain running, hemming, over and over sewing and back-stitching, done by the
little ones; at first with bright colored threads to add interest to the
work, if that were possible. It was
interesting and pleasing to notice
how the crooked stitches straightened and the long ones grew shorter
and neater as the work progressed.
Each girl also had a little bag, of
which she was very proud, and
which she was allowed to keep. They
were very enthusiastic over the
thought of taking their work home,
and some of their joy bubbled over
into the school-room. The little boys
beard of the girls work. The teacher
told tiiem that the girls had worked
hard and they were to have a "review." The boy's knew what that
meant, for they had worked in the
carpenter shop, but like many boys
they were rather skeptical about
what girls were able to do, and
Joshua very contemptuously said:
"Huh, I bet their work ain't strong !
I bet I could break it!"
The work of this first class was
all cut and basted or marked by the
teacher, but a more advanced class
did these things for them-selves. In
addition to doing the kind of work
done by the younger girls, they had
overcasting, felling, French seams,
knitting, gathering, patching, darning, cat stitching amd hem-stitching The improvement in work from
the lower class to this one was very
marked, while the most advanced
class, who applied their previously
obtained knowledge to garments,
made such beautiful button-holes,
hemming and patching that we
teachers were envious, and ashamed
of ourselves. Words cannot tell of
the splendid work our Indian girls
are able to do It must be seen to
be appreciated.
Some dainty white ties, hemstitched and tucked, were on exhibition, also some white pique
stocks with lawn ties. Each girl
in the highest class had made one
of these for herself. A child's pink
dress, ornamented on box-plaits and
round yoke and sleeves with feather-
stitching in white, was also shown
and admired; likewise some crocheted handkerchief bags and some
knitted wristlets, the last of which,
I believe, were made by the middle
class.
The girls are in these cooking and
sewing classes only four weeks in the
year; but the interest does not stop
then. Some of the older girls are
busy nearly all the year, making
their own clothes and helping the
younger girls with their sewing.
One girl did a great deal of sewing
for the teachers, last year. They
are continually gaining in neatness,
and we are sure the interest in such
work does not stop at the close of
the school year. M. M. S.
The last afternoon of our school
year all the teachers, pupils, parents and friends met together in a
social way,—the older pupils on the
lawn of the Dakota Home, and the
small boys and girls on tbe Bird's
Nest lawn.
Several see-saws, a swing and
some grace-hoops kept the children happy. The younger boys
and girls do not often have a
chance to play together, and when
the opportunity comes it is much
appreciated.
Battledore and shuttlecock, tennis and bean bags were the chief
amusements at the Dakota Home.
It was a pleasure to all to have these
few hours with each other before
separating for the vacation. An
educating factor was that no refreshments were served, and the
omission was apparently unfelt.
Summer repairs have caused tbe
usual moving from house to house
, to avoid  paint  and plaster.    The
I Bird's Nest will be the only home
to receive an outside coat of paint.