The Two Towers: Main

gines and lathes, the boys who took architecture worked with architects of the City on actual building projects. The civil engineers surveyed the campus or laid out imaginary railroad tracks. The chemists had their own small laboratory and the designers their drawing room; that is, when they weren't out on sketching expeditions in the City. Usually the drawing excursions ended at the Oread Institute. It was so picturesque, the boys argued, and even Professor Gladwin had to agree.

Professor Gladwin, who had become a full-time teacher, was a fine artist and had the temperament to match the talent. "Converge! Converge! Make those lines converge!" he would insist when the boys became restless. When he found the tongue of his class bell missing or his blackboard sketches altered, he would withdraw into hurt dignity and declare: "There is a boy in the class." Of sudden noises he was terrified. This the boys knew, and sooner or later one of them would deliberately drop something at his feet. He would mutter between his teeth: "I want you to know that I am on my edge." Finally a loud crash would come from a corner of the room, his eyes would blaze, his hair fly, and he would scream: "An attempt on my life. An attempt on my life!"

It was all very harrowing, but somehow the professor always recovered and the boys learned to draw exceedingly well.

Drawing became so famous as a course of instruction that educators came from far and near to see the class in session. Its success coincided with the Legislation of 1869, which required any town of more than ten thousand persons to teach art to its citizens. Professor Thompson had been instrumental in the wording of this Legislation, and it was at the Institute that the first experiments were made. It soon became apparent, the law notwithstanding, that few art teachers were available. To help solve this problem, the Institute announced that with the cooperation of the Worcester School Board thirty evening lessons would be offered in art "if twenty shall apply."

More than two hundred persons immediately asked for the course. The applicants surprisingly included only a few teachers but many blacksmiths, manufacturers, bootmakers, and machinists. Most of them had to walk at least two miles to class and at least two-thirds of them were always in their seats a half-hour early. All agreed they were learning what they should have known years before. The course was so popular for several years that Mr. Alden and Mr. Higgins helped Mr. Gladwin with the teaching and a branch course was also conducted in Fitchburg.

In addition to drawing, the school offered in 1882 four courses in all of which a student could earn a degree--mechanical engineering, civil engineering, chemistry, and physics. Language and mathematics were considered auxiliary departments. The teachers shifted the load from one to another, periodically hiring part-time instructors, and constantly endeavoring to keep a motley brood of subjects under their protective wing. Architecture had been