Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1857-08-29
NUMBER 4.
Education Of Boys.

| A merchant lately had occasion for
II young lad as clerk. He advertised,
and several presented themselves, a.
/ mong them well>dressed, handsome
youth, who favorabIy impressed him,
and whom he thought Of taking Oh
trial. But when he asked the lad to
write, the awkward chirography con-
vlnced him that, however else the boy
might suit, his penmanship would not
answer. He then called up another,
whose appearance likewise betokened
comparatively wealthy parentage, and
gave HIM calculation to make. But
the fractions were too much for this
asprant. AT last, he picked ont a neat,
but economically dressed lad, who said
he had been educated at the High
School, and who was evidently the
child Of parents in but moderate cir>
cumstances. This boypromptly passed
the ordeal. The merchant has now
had the youth in his employment for
considerable period, and says, in COM
mentlng on the occurrence, she will
probably, in ten years, be on the high
road to fortune, while those two other
lads, with their originally superior adj
vantages, will be getting poorer and
poorer continually"
Now, whose is the fault To some
extent, doubtless, it is that of the lads;
buttheir parents are notentirely blame
less either. Man is naturally vagrant
animal. Not one out of five loves
work, in the first place, for works sake
merely. tits necessary to akethe child,
almost as soon as he ceases to be an in~
fant, and begin to educate him for the
part he has to play in life Parents
cannot lnculate on their offspring too
early, that, fthey would be prosperous
and happy, they must learn to depend
on their own exertions for making or
even retaining fortune. The boy,
who grows up petted and indulged;
who thinks that his father is so rich
that he need not work like other lads;
who is not disciplined 10 study, to la~
Dor, to Self,deniaL generally; such a
boy, no matter what his advantages of
capital, or connexlon, will run the
greatest risk Of final bankruptcy, ifhe
does not, as too many do, turn out ut>
terly worthless, even before he is old
enough to begin business. There is an
ancient proverb that, to make gentle
man, you must begin in the cradle.--
The adage would be truer and more
useful, fit was that, to make a man q
business man, you must begin with the
boy. a..
Ofthe three candidates for the clerk
ship, whom the merchant examined,
two had started life with every advan>
tage. They had been sent to choice
schools, they had been furnished liz
berally with books, they had been able
to give their undivided attention TO
study; but not feeling the necessity of
exertion, and not having it impressed
on them by their parents, they trifed
away their privileges. The other lad,
from childhood, had to struggle. 1t
was only by greatself-denial, probably,
that his father had been able to clothe
him decently enough to go to school,
From the first, he had realized the
worth of education, the value of time,
and the necessity ofrelying on himself.
He had hardened the muscles of his
character, if we may use such meta
phor, by the necessary training which
his circumstances imposed upon him.
1t depends altogether upon the man.
ner in which children are educated,
whether they become useful, prosper
Gus and happy members of society, or
whether they 60 down, foundered in
character and fortune, on the boister>
Gus sea of life. .-Phila. Ledger.