Baton Rouge tri-weekly gazette & comet. [volume] (Baton Rouge, La.) 1865-18??, 1866-11-08

P~0 sooSa'0A sAS
long as they live. Take an intelli-
gent, Industrious young man, put
him in an iron mandatory, for in
stance, and let him learn the business
thoroughly, and then start him in
life with q licensed lawyer Or medi-
cal graduate, and ten to one, he will,
in fifteen years, be rich, or in fair
way to make fortune, when the
lawyer or the doctor will be without
any considerable practice, or at best
with only income enough to supply
his commonest wants. The same
result will follow if, instead of the
iron business, any of the great
branches of practical industry are
selected. The fortunes are not made
by the professional men, apd the
great influence that propels the
business of life, and controls society
and the destinies of communities and
countries, does not emanate from
them. The influence Of the CONNER
cial, mathematical, and agricultural
classes is every year growing more
potential. Formerly they were, as
compared with professional men, ig-
norant and uncultivated /; but at this
epoch they are men Of expansive
views, and the projectors of those
great enterprises that build up cities
and confer wealth, power and
grandeur upon nations. The men of
ideas, of real intellect, and of su-
preme influence are, in this age, Of
these classes. They are the men
who WELD the mighty influences Of
steam, the telegraph, and all those
practical agencies that control the
affairs of life--the destinies of men
and nations. If called upon to define |
this power, we would describe it as
educated labor. 1t is that which has
built up the wealth and prosperity of
England, and that has placed the
Northern States SO far in advance of
the States OF the South.
We rejoice to see SO many schools
and colleges, and to know that such
large numbers Of our young men and
boys-much larger than we had yen-
tured to hope tor-are attending them.
One chief object of education is to in
stall correct ideas into the minds of
youth, and to eradicate false ideas and
opinions. We hope that our profess
ors and teachers will not forget to
combat that pernicious and too pre-
valent error that labor is not honor
able, and that the mechanical occupa.
tions Of life are unworthy of educated
young men. We know many instances
of boys who have manifested remark
able mechanical genius, and who, if
put in the workshop, would have
made their mark in the world, but
who, under the fatal influence of this
delusion, have been made cyphers and
ponentities for life in consequence of
the attempt, against their natural bent,
to make lawyers or doctors of them.
Every parent should give his children
as thorough an education as he can
afford. The more thoroughly they are
educated the better they are fitted for
the pursuits and business of life, no
matter what those pursuits or that
business may be. The educated me-
cbanic or artisan diguifes labor and
removes the reproach of ignorance
which has SO long existed. Education
should embrace the whole range Of
physical science, for 10 the new era
which will ere long dawn upon Vir-
GINA { we speak for her especially
the hitherto undeveloped resources of
the State in mines, minerals, and
water power will be brought into re.
QUESTION. Our young men should be
to take the lead in this great
work and profit by its rewards. The
lime is not distant when Virginia will
% filed with workshops and manufac-
ories of every kind, and if our own
people are not qualified to take charge
If them, strangers will come in and
cap the harvest of fame and profit
which they will surely yield.