Chronicles of Notre Dame du Lac
Edward Sorin, CSC -- Translated by John M. Toohey, CSC, 1895

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1844

pg 67                            3.  Orphans or Apprentices

                  Although orphans were received into the house already the 
             previous year, still it was only from 1844 that they can be 
             considered as forming a distinct class in the institution, having 
             their own teachers and their special rules.  However important 
             this establishment of apprentices may seem at the present day, it 
             must be confessed that is was not the result of long reflections.
             When Providence sent the first of those little abandoned ones, 
             pity caused them to be received.  Once they had become inmates of 
             the house, it was necessary to think of giving them something to 
             do.  They were therefore successively placed in the shops that 
             were already opened and run by the Brothers.  Soon the idea 
             occurred to teach them a trade which would enable them one day to 
             secure for themselves an honorable place in society.
                  A certain number having been thus in the start as it were 
             imposed on the house, their future, as well as the responsibility 
             assumed, called for the serious attention of the Council of 
             Administration.  It was believed that in this act of charity so