Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1869-04-21
Why Won't Boys Learn Farming 2
BY HORACE GREELEY.

BY HORACE GREELEY.
Every pursuit or calling that min
listers to the sustenance, comfort. OF
enlightenment of mankindis honora.
bic and laudable. That Is narrow
and essentially false conception
which regards the farmer as more a
benefactor than a beneficiary, and
stIgmatizes as drones and cormor-
ants all who do not directly contri-
butte to the production and increase
or material wealth. The upright,
able lawyer, the studious skilfu1
physician, the pious, loving clergy
man, are workingmen, as truly and
quite as nobly as though they were
Wood-choppers or bricklayers. He
who by whatever means, helps to di-
mlnlsh the fearful aggregate of ig-
norance, sin, and suffering in the
world and diffuse Observation-Disclosures.
virtue, and happiness, is worthy of
all honor, and far from me be the
wish to discourage and degrade him.
ana yet hold it the duty of every
father to look well to the physical
and industrial trainingof his sons and
daughters-tO see that each of them
Is early Injured to some form of man.
ual labor, and thoroughly trained to
e.nclency in some pursuit which
ministers directly to the material or
PHYSICAL needs of mankind. NV
reasons for this conviction are sum-
med up as follows:
L. The demand for intellectual la
bor or its products, and even for mer-
cantlle capacity, is exceedingly ca
pllclous. In season of commercia.
prosperity, great city affords en-
ployment to thousands as clerks,
book-keepers, teachers of music, Ian
g1ages, etc, ETC., who will nearly
an De left high and dry by the ebb OF
tie tide. War, pest1lence,a a bad har-
vest, business revulsion, throws
them suddenly out of employment,
and no merit or excellence on their
part can avert the catastrophe.
would have every one so armed and
equipped for the battle of life that, il
suddenly unhorsed, he can fight on
efficiently and undismayedly on
foot.
2. The professions are fearfully
overcrowded. A western village il
half peopled by doctors, lawyers and
clergymen, who have rushed in
ahead of the expected flood of imnii.
grafton. Like miners in the Sierra
Nevada or rocky mountains, they
have severally staked out their
claims and are waiting for others to
come in and help develop and work
them to mutual profit. But "while
the grass grows, the steed star vesH u
Whatever may be their fortune ten
OF twenty years hence-and events
are constantly interposing to blast
their sanguine hepes-doctor, law.
yer, minister, are often winning but
meagre, precarious support tor the
present. 81 cannot dig; to beg
am ashamed is the plant which
many would utter if they could af-
ford to be frank and Outspoken
Thousand suffer and stagger on, op-
pressed by want and ever-increasing
debt, who would gladly take refuge
in productive industry, if they had
beer trained to familiarity with
pitch-forks andpIough-handles. They
would outgrow their present embar-
rasments X it were not for the neu
doctors, lawyers and clergymen an.
nually ground out to compete with
them for practice or parishes, and
whose training is as helplessly one.
sided as their own. l would qualify
the professional men who shall
henceforth be trained for n broader
anu IHOTe assured USEFULNESS l1lal
that of their elder brethren.
3. New York city swarms with
hungry, needy, shivering, covering,
cringing fellow-mortals, all in eager,
implering, hopeless quest of "some-
thing to do" To the reproach OF
what passes for education, L must
say that a majority of these have had
considerable money spent in school
ing them for lives of usefulness.
They are qualified Il presume) to
keep books or copy manuscripts, or
teach languages, or act as governess-
es, or follow some other of the fright
fully over-stocked vocations. But
when / say to one of them, 1.-THE
work you seek is positively not to be
had, since ten want to do it where
one wants it done you must strike
off into the broad, free country, and
ask farmer after farmer to give you
work till you find it, the general re-
sponse, II know nothing of farm
ing," strikes on my ear like a knell.
Even at seasons when the farmers
were intensely hurried by their sum-
mer harvest, and ready to pay large
ly for any help that was not hind
rance, / have known our city to be
thronged with weary, sad petition
ers for something to do.o If our
current education were not plum
der or a fraud, this could not be-
Hearth & Home.