New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-11-14
ALe-sou of Winter.

Ter III the Autuiilli, was o"'ASO1 " viz
ant to dance all Winter read lesson to
many more than have yet needed it. Els
pecially to those unwise and improvident
parents who spend hundreds if not thou
sands on the education of their children, vet
fail to qualify them for any independent, un-
failing mode of earning a livelihood, this
apologize addresses itself with great force.
To qualify youth for the profession OF
lawyer, clergyman or doctor, may be very
well but no man IS thus qualified until he
has been taught how to earn his livelihood
outside of such vocation. He is not fitted
for unbending and invincible integrity in
profession who has not been armed with the
consciousness that he can earn decent
living outside of that profession, for which
he will not stand indebted to any mans
good opinion.
-" Can't YOU give me something to
do?" is now the anxious inquiry of thou
sands in our CITY Winter is just upon
us Business is contracting on all hands;
hundreds, who have for months found employ
ment elsewhere, are weekly fiocklhg into
the CITY. while thousands who have been
at work here, but are thrown out by the
contactions of Trade and Industry, unite
with them in swelling the mourniul chorus
PRAY, give US something to do
Unfortunate fellow-beings noe can give
you no employment, nor can we give you
hope of obtaining it here. For one or two,
something might be found or done but you
are thousands, and every day adds to your
number The labor you know how to per-
form is not now in demand anywhere :;
there is no demand for service Of any kind
here. Our Labor market is glutted, and
cannot be otherwise until Spring, If false
Education and false pride had no existence
if every one who wants work were capa-
BILE of doing good work, and precisely that
kind of it which is most needed-there
would still be much distress here every
Winter from lack of employment. Europe
hours her surplus millions in armies upon
our shores and their first cry is for Work
Work Our own country meets this host BY
another as needy and as willing for every
one who can't get a satisfactory living else
where, feels sure that fortune awaits him in
the City. So here are not less than fifty
thousand human beings, many of them ex
pensively educated for professions some
skillful and ready workers if work were to
be had but all destitute, unemployed, desper-
ate and threatened with starvation, eagerly
pressing the inquiry" Can't you find me
something to do "
Abhorred be that system of Education
which trains our soung men for dependence
instead of independence which educates
them for Teachers, Doctors, Lawyers, Cler
gymen, &c, before educating them for Farm
ers or Mechanics, so that they could live by
their hands if denied opportunity to live by
their brains. We know more of the horrors,
the agonies thence resulting than most
others but any one who does not refuse TO
see and hear must know enough to make
him shudder The rudest laborer in our
City is in better circumstances than many
hundreds of college-bred men who daily pace
our streets in anxious, desperate, heart
broken quest of Something to do
Sorowing brothers learned and un-
learned, we cannot aid you to find the EN-.
plOyment you seek and need. 1t does not
exlst--at any rate, not to the extent which
your necessities demand. There is but
limited number of clerks or other seryitors
of Trade, Professional Men and Instructors
required while there are at least twice as
many trained to seek and expect livelihood
in such capacities. If I'VE knew how to set
five thousand of these at work to-day, there
would be ten thousand more entreating EN-
ployment at our hands tomorrow. Your
ranks must be thinned BY the drawing OF of
large portion OF your number into other
pursuits-but alas what pursuits If it
were April instead Of November, and Won
were all qualified to succeed as farmers. the
earth around us belongs to those of whom
you are not able to buy it and the unap-
propriated lands in the Far West are held
by the Government for sale, and not for
unpurchased allotment to the needy and
willing, like you. These lands ought 10 so.
hcit your free location and settlement-that
would do great good in time, by drawing Off
from the cities class who row stand he
tween you and the work you need but
what can be done for your present relief.
we do not know and cannot suggest. We