Warren telegraph. [volume] (Warren, R.I.) 1857-1861, 1857-10-03
EpUCATION OF BOYS.

mercha had occasion for young lad as
clerk. He dvertised, and several presented
thsinselves mong them well-dressed, hand
some you'll, srho favorably impressed him. and
whom he thought of taking on trial. But when
he asked tAclad to write, the awkward chirog-
raphy conviDced him that however else the boy
might suit, bis penmanship would not answer
he tn, n cafcd up another, whose appearance
bke-wise bdtokened comparatively wealthy par
qntage, and gave him a calculation to make.
8nt the fractonswere to much for his aspirant
fAt last, he pics6A out neat, but economically
dressed lad, who said he had been educated al
the High School, and who was evidently the
i Child OF parents in but moderate circumstances
This boy premptly passed heordsaL 4 The mer-
chant has now had the boy in his employment
for considerable period, and says, in comment
ing on the occurrence, "he will probably, in ten
! years, be on the high road to fortune, while
those two other lads, with their originally supe-
rior advantages, will be getting poorer and poor
er continually"
Now whose is the fault? To some extent,
doubtless, it is that of the lads; but their pa
rents are not entHely blameless either Man is
naturally a vagrabt animal. Not ono out of five
loves work, in the first place, for works sake
merely. 1t is necessary to take the child almost
ashe ceases toAe an infant and begin TO edu-
rents cannotinculcate on their offspring too ear
lXthat, if they would be prosperous aud hap
~, they must learn to depend on their own ex-
eftions for making or even retaining fortune.
.Ihe boz, who. grows up petted and ndulged !;
who thinks that his father is so rich that he
need not work like other lads who is not dis
cipincd to study, TO labor, to sclfdenial gener-
ally ) suchsa boy, no matter what his advan-
tages ofcapital or connexion, will run the great.
est risk of final bankruptcy, if ne does not, as
tdo many do, turn out utterly worthless, even
before he is old enough to begin business. There
is-an ancientproverb, that, to make gcntl man,
you must begin in the cradle The adage would
b$ truer and more useful, if it was that to make
afnan b1siness man, you must begin with tho
bly,
lOf the.4hJee candidates for the clerkship,
whom the Merchant examined, two had started
life, with every advantage. They had been sent
tochoce schools, they had been furnished lib
ernly with books, they had been able to give
their undivided attention to study; but not feel
Ing the necessity of exerlion, and not having it
impressed upon them by their parents, they til
fed away their privileges. The other lad, from
childhood, had to struggle. 1t WAS only by
great .self-denial, probably, that Lis father had
bcYn able to clotho him decently enough to go
70 9hoel. From the FIRST he had realized Uie
fworth Of education, the value of time, and the
Necessity of relying on himself He had har-
dened the muscles of his character, if we may
us. such a metaphor, by the necessary training
which his circumstances imposed upon him.
1t depends altogeth upon the manner in which
children are educated, whether they become use
ful, prosperous and happy members of society,
or whether they 60 down, foundered in charac-
ter and fortune, on the boisterous sea of life.-
PHILADELPHIA Ledger