CHAPTER XIV
THE SALESIAN SCHOOLS. DON BOSCO PERSECUTED. TESTIMONIALS OF GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
In 1858 Don Bosco had visited Rome and laid all his projects for his Oratory of St. Francis of Sales before Pope Pius IX, who held him in the highest esteem and willingly conferred upon him many privileges. The progress of the Salesian Institutions of Turin had now become assured, and Don Bosco was constantly in receipt of applications from bishops near and far. His great industrial schools, comprising all the trades and some of the arts, had obtained a national repute. There were to be found among his artisans, shoemakers, tailors, joiners, blacksmiths, plumbers and printers. "The Salesian Professional Schools are veritable training-grounds of conscience and character, and at the same time excellent schools supplied with all that is best in modern inventions of tools and machinery, so that nothing may be wanting to the pupils in that progress of which modern industry is so justly proud."
We have already described, although very imperfectly, Don Bosco's comprehensive system of education and its noble results. Artists, too, and architects were discovered among these waifs,
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