Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1866-11-22
Learn a Trade.

Why is it that the proportion of young
| men in this country, who turn out badly,
| is so much larger than it used to be ?
Every moralist and in fact every close
observer, knows that the proportion OF
shiitless, good-for-nothing young men has
largely increased within the last few
years, particularly in this and other
large cities, but those who discuss the
subject seem to be at loss for the true
explanation In our judgment the ques-
ton is one of very easy solution. We
attribute it to the spirit of false pride
which induces parents to put their boys
into stores and offices, rather than to ap-
prentice them to good trades.
e In this city, at the present time, mer-
chants, bankers, insurance men and 9TH
ers of this class are overrun with appli-
cations from parents who want situations
for their boys, but manufacturers find 1t
almost impossible to get apprentices. 1t
was not so in former times Fifty years
ago-much later, in fact-parents gene.
rally regarded trade as something es-
sential in the preparation of their boys for
the battle of life. Even men whose cir
cumstances did not require them to do
manual work, made it a point to have
their boys learn trades, in order to give
them practical ideas about business, to
make them industrious, and also to fur
nish them something to fall back upon
in case of adversely. How is it now
Mechanics and laboring men, even, have
too generally imbibed the idea that they
ought to place their boys peg above the
drudgery of manual labor. They seem
to think that they are not deing justice
to them unless they place them in posi-
tions where they can wear nobby ="
clothes and keep their hands white,
There never was greater mistake.
Look at the leading men in our coun-
try, from the President down, and you
will see that as rule it is the men who
learned trades in their youth who have
become foremost IN every branch of pro-
gress and enterprise. The boy who is
placed in store or office usually gets
his head full OF vanity and self-conceit
before he has been long in his position.
He acquires an inordinate love Of dress,
and soon becomes so puffed up in his
own estimation that practical common
sense can find no lodgment in his brain.
His aim is to dress as well and live as
high as those with whom he comes in
contact, and he is quito likely tn go from
habits of extravaganza to habits of dis
sipation.
We do not wish to be understood as
saying that this is the road which all
boys travel who do not learn trades.
We simply say that such is the tendency,
and it requires a boy of good mind, for.
tilted by good early training, to resist
the temptation. The boy who is put to
a trade, on the other hard, gives vanity
but little chance to get hold Of him. He
acquires practical IDEAS about business;
his habits are ptoglasa w lrngality sud
economy, and he lays the foundation Of
good, useful and industrious citizen.
The idea that manual labor is not re-
spectacle is one of the absurdest things
in this age of absurdi,ies No person
with thimbleful of brains wil'say any
thing sf The kind, aud those silly crea-
lures who do say SO, age ssneFally the
degenerate scions of bard Working me-
cLanics. Boys, whether rich or poor,
high OF low, ought to learn a trade-not
that they should always work ai IT, but
that they may have it az reserve caRllai,
together with its influence in forming
their character. r.-New Fork Sur