The union Democrat., 1869-03-20
why Donr Boy. learn Trades,

The present generation of young men seen
to have strong aversion to every kind o.
trade. business, calling or occupation that re
quires manual labor, and an equally strong
tendency towards some so-called "yentesl'
employment or profession. The result il
seen IN the superabundance Of elegant reu-
men, bookkeepers and clerks of every kind
who can get no employment, and are wasting
their lives in the vain pursuit Of what is not
te be bad and a terrible overstock of law
yers without practice and doctors without pa
tlents. The passion on the part of the bows
and young men to be clerks, Office attendants.
messengers, anything, so that it is not work
OF the kind that will make them mechanics or
tradesmen, is deplorabe sight to those who
have full opportunities to see the distressing
effects of it in the struggle for such employ
ments. by those unfortunates who have nut i,
out OF their power to do anything else, by ne
glecting to learn some permanent trade or
business in which trained skill! can always be
turned to account. The applications for clerk.
ships and similar positions in large establish
ments, are numerous beyond anything that
would De thought of by those who have no
chance to witness it. Parents and relatives
as we'll as the boys and young men themselves,
seem to be afflicted with the same infstuation.
To all such we say, thatthe most unwise ad-
vice you can give to your bov is to encourage
HIM to be clerk or a bookkeeper. At the
best, it is not a we!l-paid occupation. Very
frequently it is among the very poorest. This
is the case when the clerk is fortunate enough
to be employed; but if he should be out of
place, then comes the weary search, the fear
tul struggle with the thousands of others
looking for places, the never-ending disap-
pointments, the hons deferred that makes the
heart sick, the strife with poverty, the hu-
Mutations that take all the manhood out of
the poor souls. the privations and suffering of
those who depend upon his earnings, and who
have no resource when he is earning nothing
No father, no mother, no relative should wish
to see their boy or kindred wasting their lives
in striving after the genteel positions that
bring such trial and privations upon them in
after life.
How do these deplorably false notions as to
choice of occupation get into the heads of
boys? Why do they or their parents consider
it more "genteel' or desirable to run errands.
sweep out Offices, make fires, copy letters.
etc., than to make hats or shoes, or Law bricks,
or WELD the saw or iack-plane, or handle the
file. or the blacksmith's . hammer +?
We have heard that some of them get these
notions at school. If this be true, it is a cad
perverson Of the means of education proyid-
them useful, as we'll as intelligent members
Of society, and not useless drags and drones.
Should it be 50, that the present generation
of boys get it into their heads that, because
they have more school learning and book ac-
than their fathers had, they
must look down upon the trades that require
skill and handicraft, and whose productions
make up the vast mass of the wealth of every
then it is time for the controllers
and the directors to have the interior walls
Of our school-houses covered with maxims and
notices warning them against the fatal error.
- Philadelphia Ledger.