Tama County Republican. (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1867-1872, 1867-05-31
Something To Do

The New York Tribune recently contained
an article under the above caption, from which
we clip the following:
No boy should be allowed to grow up to man.
hood, no girl to womanhood, without having
become skilled in some department Of manual
labor No matter how rich or how poor, no
matter how learned or how ignorant, every
one should know how to earn subsistence by
bona .fde hard work Your lawyer, doctor,
clergyman, heiress, music teacher, actress,
school ma am, may live to see the day when
he or she will not be wanted in his or her cho-
sen vocation, yet be in urgent need Of board
and clothes. Thousands of such cases have
occurred this winter-occur every winter
Most of those who plead for Something to do
know not how to do any thing that others want.
IL am willing to do anything" they say; but
they really know how to do nothing. 1t is a
crime to rear a child TO such helplessness
though he were to inherit the wealth of CrG-
sus. Industrial training is--after daily bread
the most urgent need Of every human being.
To shun and shirk manual labor is the almost
universal desire. The sewing girl who starves
and shivers on her downward road to ruin,
reyolts at the suggestion of housework; the
young man who is so eager for clcrkship
will not pillow ner chop cord-wood. He won
ders why he can find nothing to do; when he
only seeks OF wishes to do what nobody wants.
If he only could, and would, do what is needed
he would find work enough.
Much Of the above will apply to the rural
districts with as much force as to cities. To
"shun and shirk manual labor,"-in a word,
laainess-is the characteristic Of the rising
generation, and the prolific source Of nine
fout he nf tho mi ~ pbo,,k
the country. There is an alarming prejudice
among the farmers sons even here in the West
to desert the plough and aspire to the forum
or the lancet, secure clerkship. or get n zeal. "
as an Insurance agent; something, anything,
that will relieve them from the necessity Of
earning their bread by the sweat of their brow
Parents too partake of the same desire, and
cndeavor to assist their sons in growing up
without knowledge Of manual labor. How
often do we hear farmers say, SWELL my son is
getting to be a young man now, and might
render me much assistance on the farm, but
he don't seem to take to farming, and don t
ba,n. him, for its dogs life, and don't want
him to have to work as laye.' So he SCI
cures for him cierkship or All agency. A
dogs life indeed! Such it may be, and such
you can make it andssuch too icany do make
it, as can life in g position be made the man
ual labor necessary to follow it be deemed
slavish and dishenorab bic. But admit that /.
is :dogs life, and that too OF the meanest
species of the Canine race, "a living dog is
better than a dead lion,' the latter Of which is
usually the result Of those who, to escape labor
aspire to position, falsely so.called and con-
sidered by the laboring classes. Tie same
principle will apply to any calling in which
manual labor is necessary. Here in the West
especially, no man or woman who will work
need be in want; bone and muscle is IN de-
mand and is as sure 10 bring remuneration
equivalent to the amount invested, Us are gov.
eminent securities or money at interest. The
saying that '"he world owes us living" is
not true; the world owes no man or woman q
living until they earn it, US he or she who gets
il without earning it, steals it from those who
have earned it. The man in this country who
complains Of want and distress, unless caus
ed by some affective dispensation of Provi
dence) and that lie can get nothing to do il
An imposter and unworthy of assistance
Here, there is a good living for all who will
work for il, and work for all who arc willing
&c ar Vniiey Itines