The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-12-13


lands advanced I'd. per pound closing at
fully I43d.
LONDON, December 12-Noon -Consols
are unchanged, at 9S{, for money.
LEARN i, Trade.
The New York San talks wisely
upon q subject to which we have
frequently referred in the Phoniv:
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 lnoralist, and, in
fact, every close observer, knows that
the proportion Of shiftless, good-for-
nothing young men has largely in
creased within the last few Years.
particularly in this and other large
cities, but those who discuss the sub
ject seem to be ut u loss for the true
explantiop. In our judgment the
question is one of very easy solution.
We attribute it to the spirit of false
pride which induces sparents to put
their boys in stores and Offices rather
than apprentice them to good trades
In this city at the present time, mer-
chants, bankers, insurance men, and
others of this class, are over-run with
applications from parents vino want
situations for their boys; but manu-
facturers find it almost impossible to
get apprentices. It was not so in
former times. Fifty years ago
much later, in fact-parents gene
rally regarded trade as something
essential in the preparation of their
boys for the battle Of life Even men
whose circumstances did not require
them to do manual work, made it q
point to have their boys learn trades,
III order to give them practical ideas
about business, to make them in
dustrious, and also to furnish them
something to fall back upon in case
of adversity. How isit now? Me
chanics and laboring men, even,
have too generally imbibed the idea
that they ought to place their boys
a peg above the drudgery of manual
labor. They seem TO think that they
are not doing justice to them unless
they place them in positions where
they can wear 'hobby" clothes and
keep their hands white. There never
was greater mistake. Look at the
leading men OF our country, from the
President down, and you will see
that, rs q rule, it is the men who
learn trades in their youth who have
become the foremost in every branch
# progress and enterprise. The boy
who is placed in q store or Office
usually gets his head full Of vanity
and self-conceit before he has been
long in his position. He acquires an
lnordinate love OF dress, and soon
becomes SO pufTed up ia his own esti-
nation that practical common sense
can find no lodgment in his brain.
His aim is to dress Us we'll and live as
high as those with whom he comes
in contact, and he is quite likely to
go from habits of extravaganza to
habits OF dissipation. We do not
wish to be understood as saying that
that this is the road which all bows
travel who do not learn trades. We
simply say that such is the tendency,
and it requires boy Of good mind,
fortified by good, early training, to
resist the temptation. The boy who
is put to @ trade, on the other hand,
gives vanity but little chance to get
hold of him. He acquires practical
ideas about business; his habits are
moulded by frugality and economy,
and he lays the foundation Of q good,
useful and industrious citizen. The
lea that manual labor is not "re-
spectable,' is one of the most absurd
things in this age Of absurdities. No
person with thimblc-full of brains
will say anything OF the kind, and
those silly creatures who do say so
are generally the degenerate sons of
hard working mechanics Every boy,
whether rich or poor, high or low,
ought to learn a trade-not that he
should always work at it, but that he
may have it as reserve capital, to-
gether with its influence in forming
his character.
SEVEN WOMEN TO ONE MAN. In
one of his recent sermons Brigham
Young invited tho attention of .his
hearers to the text which says : In
hat Il =