Pratt Institute - Prattonia Yearbook (Brooklyn, NY)

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Extract from a letter written in 1890 to her family by a student in what is now the School of Fine and Applied Arts, after having spent a day at Mr. Pratt's country home in Glen Cove, N. Y.: “And what did I do yesterday? Mr. Pratt on Friday invited on a picnic all those students whose homes are out of town. There were about seventy of us. Yesterday morning I got up soon after five, breakfasted at six, at half past walked with two of the girls to the Bedford-Franklin station. Among the teachers are Mr. Perry, Miss Fitch, Miss Shattuck, Mr. Adams, and Mr. Edminster. Mr. Pratt himself, of course, is along and shakes hands with everyone of us, having something pleasant to say. At Glen Cove are cabooses to meet us. Mr. Pratt has a sort of dog cart and wonders out loud which girl he shall take with him. Miss Cunningham, the woodcarving teacher, is chosen = Mr. James McGee, New York, in speaking of Mr. Pratt as a man of business, says: “It was an interesting coincidence that, on inquiring of several business friends as to the elements of Mr. Pratt’s success, they agreed that there were two which largely predominated. The first of these was called by one ‘intuition’—better, perhaps, ‘faith.’ He had faith in God, in himself, in his fellows. He was unsuspicious, optimistic. He had a vision of great things as attainable. It was the faith that removes mountains, that bridges chasms. He believed that there was work for him to do, and he went at it. Some things which others doubted seemed to him practicable. The results justified his faith. This suggests the second element—'perseverance. His faith was of the Columbus order, that sees a continent and embarks to find it. He was not easily turned aside when he saw the end. His was not adventure for conquest; it was for liberation. Facilities were put in his way, and he seized upon them to project magnificent enter- prises for the uplifting of men.” The Reverend John Humpstone, former pastor of the Emmanuel Baptist Church, Brooklyn, of which church Mr. Pratt was a trustee and large benefactor, said: “Intelli- gence, in him, was ever tending to work itself out as wisdom. He was shrewd, far- sighted, prudent. ‘The spirit of the Hebrew wisdom pervaded his thoughts. The book of Proverbs was his delight. In other than sacred literature it was the homely, practical, everyday philosophy, that embodies itself in maxims, upon which he liked to linger. His own style of expression was often pithy, pointed and proverbial. He could pack a pound of meaning into an inch of space, if the subject was one upon which he had thought much. Honesty was not his policy; it was his principle.” Mr. Henry C. Folger, Jr., who is now President of the Standard Oil Company of New York, was a young man in Mr. Pratt’s employ in 1890: “By temperament he was irresolute. This hampered him greatly. He did not reach conclusions quickly. Most of us procrastinate. This was not true of Mr. Pratt. But his mind came to its decisions slowly. He was more than conscious of this; he struggled vigorously against it. For example, soon after his death I found myself placed by business duties at a desk which had seen better days. Young men in business do not often have new desks. Among its many scars was a jagged hole in the top, where your hand and eye could not miss it. The desk had been used for a time by Mr. Pratt, and a broker told me the story of the jagged hole. He was trying one day to get Mr. Pratt to name a definite price for a cargo of oil. “Why are you so irresolute,’ he exclaimed, sharply; ‘how can a broker ever trade with you?’ “You are right,” Mr. Pratt replied; ‘my worst fault. Perhaps this will help me to correct it,’ and, taking a nail that happened to lie near, he ha mmered it into the top of his costly desk. “The man I would show you was one who made himself great by consecration and earnestness. He gave not only his means—he gave himself. Emerson puts it, ‘Rings and other jewels are not gifts but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a por- tion of thyself.’ And Mr. Pratt, never having read Emerson, thought out his own motto, even more terse and eloquent, “The giving which counts is the giving of one’s self.’ Concentration made acquisition possible; consecration made giving natural.” Mr. John B. Thatcher, a building contractor who worked with Mr. Pratt in erect- ing the first Institute buildings, gives this simple, beautiful tribute: “He was a very busy, hard working man and he worked all day. He used to send for me to come to the Institute at eight o'clock in the morning. He would start talking, and if he had not finished when it was time for him to go to New York he would take me along, all the way to his office or to a directors’ meeting, and I'd have to go to the very door with 11 ne et aie See ea NN GURU EN ae I I 6 I I GPA Ce 7 ” SS. SR IOC one 8 = “we eevee - ‘ we OS S$?

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A A AY RUE PRI I ELIE ICID: CHARLES PRATT honored alike in our country and beyond the seas. It is the incontestable merit of Mr. Pratt that he gave an organized form to the various ideas and experiments that were afloat concerning the necessity of adjusting the methods of education to the new con- ditions which recent economic and social progress had brought about in the life of the people.” Mr. Norman P. Heffley, who was private secretary to Mr. Pratt and who is now head of the Heffley Institute, Brooklyn: “He was ever a just man in all his business relations, and I have never known or heard of his taking advantage of anyone in a business transaction. He despised a poor, mean article, and it was his practice of always furnishing goods equal to or better than previously represented that laid the foundation of success in all his vast enterprises. This spirit which characterized him in business matters was preéminent in all his relations in life. He feared not adverse criticism of any of his actions because he was conscious of being just to his convictions.” Dr. Truman J. Backus, of Brooklyn: “Charles Pratt pursued his purpose without false display, a trait as rare as it is noble in a man who works for his fellow men.” 10

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Ce ee - TRIBUTES him before he would dismiss me. It was his motto to waste neither time nor money, and never did he waste either. He was very direct and plain spoken and what he said meant something, and it made you think before you talked. I never gave Charles Pratt my opinion until I could give a reason for it, too. “A man like Charles Pratt has a great influence over a man like me. He seemed so near to me and was so human. There was some encouragement to me to try to be better for him. The ministers tell me I must look to Christ for an ideal, but somehow He has always seemed so far away, so perfect and so different from men like me, and I sometimes think that a fine man like Charles Pratt, who comes nearer to plain human experience like mine, is the real power and influence in my life.’ The late Reverend Theodore L. Cuyler, of Brooklyn, said: “It is a good thing to be famous, provided that the fame has been honestly won. It is a good thing to be rich, when the image and superscription of God is recognized on every coin. But the sweetest thing in the world is to be loved. The tears that were shed over the coffin of Charles Pratt welled up out of loving hearts. At that funeral there was no hypocrisy. I count his death to have been the sorest bereavement Brooklyn has ever suffered: for he was in his vigorous prime, with large plans and possibilities yet to be accomplished. Charles Pratt belonged to the only true nobility in America—the men who do not inherit a great name, but make one for themselves.” With few exceptions, these associates and friends of the Founder have responded one by one to the Divine summons which came to Charles Pratt in the midst of his greatest activities, and which, soon or late, is the common destiny of all. To successive generations of young men and women, Pratt Institute stands as a sacred heritage and a monument to the imperishable name of its Founder, Charles Pratt. Its administrators, instructors, students, all who serve or are the recipients of its service in whatever capacity, are in a sense dedicated through the Founder to the ideals of industry, service, and character of which his life was the embodiment. BY THE EDITORS As in Across. Everything else AND There've been Whose names Lots of folks Won't appear Who have In bold type. Willingly given And it's to Their time These people Toward putting That we say This book Simply and sincerely We Thank You.