Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1857-09-05
Education of Boys:

A merchant lately had occasion for d
young lad as q clerk, He advertised, and
several presented themselves, among them Il
well-drt ssed, handsome youth, who favora
bly, impressed him, and whom he thought of
taking on trial. But when he asked the lad
to write, the awkward chirography convinc.
ed him that, however else the boy mi ght
suit, hts penmanship would not answ err,
pearance likewise betokened comparatively
wealthy parentage, and gave him calcula:
ton to make. But tbs fractions were too
out 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 circumstances. This
boy promptly passed the ordeal. The mer-
chant has now had the youth in his employs
ment for a considerable period-and says in
commenting on the occurrence, " He will
probably, IT. ten years, lie on the high road
to fortune, while those TWO other lad, with
their originally superior advantages, will be-
getting poorer and POORER continually"
Now whose is the fault? To some ex-
tent, doubtless, it Is that of the lads; but
their parents are not entirely blaineless,
either. Man is naturally vagraht animal:
Not one out of five loves Work III the first
place, for works sake merely. 1t is teces=
sary to take the child, almost as soon as lie
ceases to be an infant, and begin TO eddcats
him for the part he has to play in lite: Pa:
rents cannot inculcats 10 their offspring too
early, that, if they Would be prosperous and
happy, they must learn to depend on their
own exertions for making .r even retaining
a fortune. The boy Who grows up petted
and indnlged who thinks that his father is
so fich that he need not Work like her lads;
who is not disciplined to study, to labor to
self=denial generally such boy, no maiterj
what his advantages of capital or connection,
will run the greatest risk Of final bankrupt
cy, if he does not, rs too MANY 40, turn out
utterly worthless, even before he is old
enstgh to begin business: There is m an
cient proverb, that, to- make gentl man,
yUii must begin in the cradle. The adage
would be truer and more useful, if it WAS
that, to make business flsan, you must be-
gin with the boy. 'a ,"f
OF the three candidates for the clerkship
whom the merchant exarriihed, two had
started life with every advantage. They
had been sent to choice Schools they bad
been furnished library with books, they had
been able to- give their undivided attention
to study: Bit not feeling the necessity of
exerton, ard not having it impressed on
them by their parents, they triled away their
privileges. The other lad, from childhood,
mad to struggle. It was only by great self
denial, probably, that his father had been able
to- closhe him decently enough to gU to
school, From the first, he hsd realized the
worth Of education, the valae ut time, and
the necessity Of relying upon himself. Lilo
had hardened the muscles of his character,
if We may use such . .netaphor; by the ne-
cessary training which his circumstances ir-
posed upon him. 1t depends altogether mp
on the manner in which children are edu-
Gated, whether they become useful, prosper
Gus and happy members of society, or
whether they go down, foundered in chafac-
ter and fortune, on the boisterons sea Of life.
-Philodelphia Lejger.