The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-11-20
COLUMBIA.
Tueday Morning, Nov. 20, 1856.
The Rising Generation.

proportion of shiftless, good-for-no-
thing young men has largely increased
within the past few years, and very
forcibly accounts for such a condi-
ton of things by attributing it to II
spirit of false pride, which induces
parents to put their boys in stores
and Offices rather than apprentice
them to good trades.
Another New York paper-the
Times, we think-somc time ago
called attention to the same subject,
and said that many employers, in
various branches of mechanical and
manufacturing industry, complained
of the great difficulty of getting Ame-
rican lads as apprentices to learn such
crafts and pursuits Us require time.
patience, application and laborious
activity. This exchange cited the
cases of two employers in their efforts
to hire boys. One wanted lad to
attend to an Office or store and be-
fore the day closed had scores of
applications, and suited himself. The
other.needed dozen apprentices to
learn light mechanical trade, which
required time and application to be-
come proficient in. Some three or
four applicants made their appear
ance, but after learning the remune-
ration-which was necessarily small at
first-and learning the nature Of the
employment, and the time it would
take olearn the business, they turned
on their heels and went off to find
easier, and what, doubtless, they con
sidered more genteel, employment.
This is all wrong-wrong in theory
and wrong in practice. The man who
makes the best citizen and proves to
be the most useful to himself and
society, is not generally found to be
youth who was afraid of manual
labor, or who had fancy for selling
dry goods, and also prided himself on
his white, soft hands. These are not
the young men who roll on the
wheels of progress, who occupy a
nigh place IN developing the resources
of their country. But this is not all;
rOI u
Wear fine clothes and are often
tempted to do wrong, to maintain
their style; they have more leisure
tlme-time generally frittered away
or spent IN a worse way-than the
youths who are engaged in learning
good trades, and who in few years
step out into society with the con
sciousness that they have q right to
enter it, prepared as they are to con.
tribute to its interests and prosperity,
and to take their places among the
workers of the land.
But if this change, which has come
over parents within the past few years,
(for 1t was not SO fifty years ago, is
to be deprecated at the North or else
where, how much more is it to be de-
plored, should it prevail at the South.
With her workshops, her manufac-
torres, her agricultural implements
all destroyed; her manufacturers, me
chanlcs and contractors pretty gene
rally ruined, pecuniarily; her cities
and towns nearly all more or less in
jured, and needing rebuilding; many
OF the mechanics and artizans for
merly among us, gone to other see
tions-what are we to do, if the youth
of the South grow up without the
practical knowledge so necessary for
the work of recuperation? Our sec
ton will require, for many years to
come, mechanics and artizans in everv
branch OF the trades, and it will be
more difficult than ever to get them
from abroad. Money and capital are
scarce here; our political matters are
far from being settled, and there is a
want Of tranquility and confidence
everywhere throughout this country.
Underthese circumstances, the South,
especially, left to her own resources
shut out in the cold, as we might