From the May 30, 1905 edition of the Sun:
Trade School for Newsboys.
Brace Memorial Fund to Be Devoted to That Purpose.
The Brace Memorial Fund of $62,000, contributed by the people of New York in memory of the late Charles L. Brace, founder of the Children’s Aid Society, has been transferred to the treasurer of the society to be used for the establishment of trade classes in the Newsboys’ Lodging House.
Mr. Brace opened the Newsboys’ Lodging House, the first home for homeless boys, in 1874 in the loft of the old Sun building, Fulton and Nassau streets, and it was felt by the committee that enlargement of this home would be more fitting than any other monument as a remembrance of the man who conceived it, successfully inaugurated it and managed it in a manner most beneficial to thousands of homeless boys. The plan is to establish at once elementary classes in electric wiring, plumbing and forge work. These courses will be amplified and others added as additional funds are secured.
Applications for admission to the classes are already in excess of the number permitted by the income of the fund. Most of the boys grasp with eagerness the chance to improve their conditions. As one of them expressed it:
“A newsie wot’s sold poipies till he got his growth ain’t no good fur nothin’ but th’ road. But plumber’s helper! Say, he’d be the main guy here and own the joint.”