Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1858-08-05
Our Social Circle.
Education Of Boys.

A merchant lately had occasion fora young
lad as clerk. He advertised. and several
presented thcmselves--among them we'll
dressed, handsome youth, who favorably i'm
pressed him, and whom he thought of taking
on trial But when he asked the lad to write
the awkward chirogruphy convinced him that
however else the boy might suit, his penman-
ship would not answer. He then called up
another, whose appearance likewise betokened
omparatvely wealthy parentage, and gave
him calculation to make. But the fractions
were too much for this aspirant. At last
he picked out neat but economically dress
ed lad, who said he had been educated at the
High School, and who was evidently the
child of parents in but moderate circumsran-
ces. This boy promptly passed the ordeal
The merchant has now had the youth in his
employ for considerable period, and says,
in commenting on the occurrence, 9" he will
probably, in ten years, be on the high road
to fortune, while those two other lads, with
their originally superior advantages, will be
getting poorer and poorer continually"
Now whose is the fault? To some extent,
doubtless, it is that of the lads but their
parents are not entirely blameless either.
Man is naturally a vagrant animal. Not one
out of FIVE loves work, in the first place, for
works sake merely. 1t is necessary to take
the child almost as soon as he ceases to be
an infant, and begin TO educate him for the
part he has to play in life, Parents cannot
inculcate on their offspring too early that, if
they 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 disci-
plined to study, to labor, to selfdenial gen.
orally such boy no matter what his advan-
tages of capital, or connection, will run the
greatest risk of final bankruptcy, if he does
not, as too many do, turn out utterly worth
less, even before he is old enough to begin
business. There is an ancient proverb, that,
to make gentlemen, you must begin in the
cradle. The adage would be truer and
more useful, if it was that, to make BUSH
ness man, you must begin with the boy.
Of the three candidates for the cerkship,
whom the merchant examined, two had star
ted life with every advantage. They hat
been sent to choice schools, they had been
furnished literally with books, they had beer
able to give their undivided attention to study
But not feeling the necessity Of exertion, anc
not having it impressed on them by their pa
rents, they trifed away their privileges. Til
other lad, from childhood had had to strug
gle. 1t was only by great self-denial, proba
bly,, that his father had been able to cloth
him decently enough to go to school. Fror
the first he had realized the worth of educa
ton, the value of time, and the necessity {
relying on himself. He had hardened tn
muscles of his character, if we may use sue
metaphor, by the necessary training whic
his circumstances imposed upon him. It'd
ponds altogether upon the manner in whic
children are educated, whether they becom
useful, prosperous and happy members of 81
ciety, or whether they 60 down, founderod
character and fortune, on the boisterous Sc
of life.--Phila. Ledger.