The Ebensburg Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1865-1871, 1868-09-10
learn a Trade.

| ESh PSAoOL1o nave IOOhSO IDCO INC lives
of so many remarkable men as [ have, yet
[ cannot call to mind one of the acknowl-
edged kings of business who did not in
early life serve long, rigorous appren-
ticeship to some occupation akin to that
which he afterward exercised, and in which
his great success was made.
Vanderbilt, for example, was boatman,
sloop captain, and steamboat captain for
nineteen years before he set up for him
self in the business of building and running
steamboats,, in which he gained more mon
ey than was ever before gained in single
lifetime, except by plumber. There is not
to-day in the whole world man who
| knows as much about steamboats, and
steamships as this same Cornelius Van
derbilt
Astor is another illustration. He
! learned the fur business from the very ru-
diments He used to beat furs from NOR
ming till night in his masters back shop,
and after doing this a while, he used to
! take a basket of trinkets and nicknacks
and 90 round among the sloops and mar
kets, driving hard bargains with boatmen,
Indians and marketmen for such skins as
they had brought to town. By and by he
shouldered his pack and tramped the
country for peltries, and extending his
tramps. at length he became familiar with
every place, every tribe, and every person
connected with the fur trade in North
America Then he went to Europe, and
learned all about the market for furs and
their prices in every part of the world
Few men have ever understood thing so
well as Mr.. Astor understood the business
of collecting, curing, and selling furs. He
knew it, not as clerk might have known
it; he knew it as a man knows the trade
to which he has served long apprentice
ship under watchful and exacting master.
Another case in point was the first
Rothschild, who, from his twelfth to his
twenty year, laboriously acquireda a
knowledge of money, first as errand-boy
and money-counter to his father, and at
terward as bankers clerk.
Girard, too, was a thorough sailor before
he ever owned a ship, and was personally
familiar with most of the commercial ports
long before he ever consigned cargo to
one of them.
John Gorham, of Providence, the head
of the largest mandatory of silverware in
the world, did not go into his father
counting-room as clerk, but into his
fathers shop as an apprentice; and he
learned how to do with his own hands
whatever he has since had to direct others
in doing.
There is notable establishment on
Broadway, New York, where many go, oc-
casionally, for the rehabilitation of the
outer man. 1t was in the grand upper
room of this palace-like store, while [ was
being measured for a coat, that | conceived
LII e al, T.,
conducted establishments of every kind,
you viii notice the same faces year after
year for able men naturally gather able
men around them, and employers and en-
ployed, by reciprocal justice and courtesy,
become attached to one another, and have
neither motive nor desire to sever the
connection. And yet, on that occasion,
seeing around me the same skillful and
obliging persons that | had seen there ten
years before, 1 could not but reflect how
little chance they had to advance from
clerkship to mastership.
Suppose, thought I, lad of sixteen or
seventeen should propose to himself, as an
object in life, to become the proprietor of
an establishment like this-what would be
the shortest and ikeliest path for him to
strike into
| feel certain that the best thing he
could do would be to apprentice himself to
a good tailor, and learn all there is to be
known about the making Of clothes. Hav-
} ing acquired that Acknowledgement with
his head only, but with his fingers as well
: nothing would be easier than to set up
small shop. Now, what is the difference
between a small tailor shop, well placed
I and well conducted, and the overshadow-
ing clothing houses of Brooks or Devlin
Why, nothing but thirty years growth.
The knowledge which clerk acquires
is part of the indispensable equipment of
a man of business but it is far from be-
ing so vital to a grand success as that
which comes of true apprenticeship-
Gibbon says that going out with the mill
tia on training days was of material assis-
: tance to him in writing the history of the
: great Roman war Just giving the word
of command to few companies of country
militia let him into the secret Of complica-
ted battles and great campaigns.
Learn trade, then, lads, you who as
pire to do something creditable and sub
, stantial during your life Would you be
an architect, and build the new capitol
!, west Of the Mississippi? Well, then, &c
apprentice yourself to the best carpenter
or mason within your reach. Do you wish
to be a sculptor, and yet cannot pay q
!, masters fee? Instead of pining in your
. mothers chimney corner, go to the near
: est stone-cutter and cut tombstones
D The educating effect of learning a good
trade has never been sufficiently consid
cred
Why have We nowadays, so many sim