There was no brickyard in the town,
and in addition to our own needs there was a demand for bricks in the
general market.
I had always sympathized with the "Children of Israel," in their
task of "making bricks without straw," but ours was the task of making
bricks with no money and no experience.
In the first place, the work was hard and dirty, and it was
difficult to get the students to help. When it came to brickmaking,
their distaste for manual labour in connection with book education
became especially manifest. It was not a pleasant task for one to
stand in the mud-pit for hours, with the mud up to his knees. More
than one man became disgusted and left the school.
We tried several locations before we opened up a pit that
furnished brick clay. I had always supposed that brickmaking was very
simple, but I soon found out by bitter experience that it required
special skill and knowledge, particularly in the burning of the
bricks. After a good deal of effort we moulded about twenty-five
thousand bricks, and put them into a kiln to be burned. This kiln
turned out to be a failure, because it was not properly constructed or
properly burned. We began at once, however, on a second kiln. This,
four some reason, also proved a failure. The failure of this kiln
made it still more difficult to get the students to take part in the
work.
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