The Two Towers: Main

capable ones of the younger man. There had been frequent opportunities before Mr. Washburn's death for the two men to talk long and deeply. Dreams had become so fused that all during his later life Milton Higgins was obsessed with one wish--his own and Ichabod Washburn's--to teach young men to study and work at the same time.

In 1870 the first class of apprentices had arrived at the Shops in the prescribed calico jackets and overalls. The boys reported first to Mr. Higgins' brother, Orlando, in the "wood room." Later they progressed to the "iron room," where Mr. Higgins himself presided. Sooner or later they spent several weeks in the blacksmith shop and then in the engine room, where there were two boilers--one for heating the buildings, the other for running a steam engine. On the first floor of the building, near the entrance, Mr. Higgins had his office.

As time went on, the Higgins children could be seen almost anywhere and everywhere in the Washburn Shops--Aldus (the oldest son) perhaps in the wood room mending or painting a sled, John (named in deference for Professor John Woodman) more likely in the iron room or at the forge. Katharine often helped her father with letters in the office, while Olive wandered at will upstairs and down, sharp eyes all the while taking pictures for the stories she would write in later years. Sometimes she hailed a ride on one of the big lathes in the iron room. Almost always she dropped by the engine room for a visit with good-natured George Humphrey and his big black cat.

Even Mrs. Higgins was involved in the activity of the Washburn Shops, for at her big desk in the home across the street, she did much of the bookkeeping for the business. It was because of her insistence on a middle initial in her husband's signature that Mr. Higgins added the name Prince. (There had been a Prince Higgins among his ancestors). In later years this middle name became so much a part of his identity that many persons spoke of him in a friendly way as "M.P.", while his biographers invariably used the full name--Milton Prince Higgins.

Mr. Higgins and his venture of the Shops became so well known that he was invited to establish similar operations for the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Miller Manual Training School in Virginia. For the venture in Georgia his inseparable friend, George Alden, accompanied him, and there Worcester's future had one of its narrowest escapes when the two men were invited to stay in the south. Fortunately for the City, they both declined.

Mr. Higgins and Professor Alden worked very closely together. From their first time of meeting, they had been good friends, boarding together near the school and establishing a life-long habit of partnership. Both had been bachelors for a few years after coming to Worcester, but in 1870 Milton had married his capable Kitty and George had married Mary Lincoln. The young Mrs. Alden had died in 1876, and now Mr. Alden lived on Boynton

Many look upon this experiment as not very promising. I think I looked upon it so for a good while but, as I say, my hopes predominate. I want it to succeed.
      --Seth Sweetser, in letter to Milton Higgins, 1869