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Show 14 REPORT OF THE DOMMISSIONER OF INDIAN AFFAIRS. The larger training schools elaborate these industries, and the iron and wood work of the average Indian boy will bear favorable comparison with that turned out of the white schools. Statistics of returned pupils indicate that there are hundreds of graduates of the training schools who are earning their own living as shoemakers or cobblers, blacksmiths, carpenters, bricklayers, painters, farmers, etc. The ratio of skilled workmen among these may not be so great as among the whites, but it is su5cient to illustrate the prmticability of their becom-ing self-supporting. As laborers, where freed from the debasing influ-ence of rations and annuities, they are as good as the average of the country. Many miles of irrigation ditches have. been constructed on various reservations by this labor, and their faithfulness and e5ciency are fully attested when under kindly and intelligent supervision. The Indian girl, as well as her white sisters, is handicapped in the eternal struggle of life. Her opportunities for earning her own live-lihood are more restricted than theirs; bnt as time rolls on these restrictions must disappear, as they have for t,he white woman. Samples of garments cut, fitted, and made by the brighter girls in the training schools would not be out of place in first-class white shops. The capacity is inherent in the Indian, and its development is only a question of time. These pupils are taught the care of home, the production of simple household articles, mending, and the mani-fold duties of the housewife. Cooking is theoretically and practically tslught. The demand for Indian cooks from those institutions which make a specialty of this training evidences the opening of new avenues by means of which they make escape from the iron barriers of the reservation. As nurses they are sympathetic, eBcient, and faithful. Every opportunity which can be afforded is presented, that they may Lecome independent. Many who go back to their homes marry edu-cated Indians, and seem anxious to put into practice the lessons learned in the ~chools. i The day in Indian schools is divided into two parts of three hours each, one of which is devoted to the study of books and the other to \ industries taught in the schools. The object of education is civiliza- '\ tion, and the object of civilization is to make the Indian self-reliant, i self-supporting, and independent of further bounties on the part of i . the General Government. The present system of industrial training is for this purpose, and results seem to indicate that it is successful so far as it goes. The denlands upon the generous appropriations of Congress are so great for the construction and repair of buildings that frequently the equipment of schools for industrial training is not always adequate to the necessities, but no matter how small and mea-ger the,eqnipment may be, the school officials are required to utilize all means at their command for carrying out the general plan. At |