The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1869-03-06
Why I Want the Boys to Learn
Farming

The following excellent article we clip
from the columns of the Hearth and Home
it was written by one of the best writer's in
America and richly deserves a careful
reading
! Every pursuit or calling that ministers to
tho sustenance, comfort or enligte enment of
mankind is honorable and laudable That
is a narrow and essentially false conception
which regards the farmer as more bene-
factor than beneficiary, and stigmatizes as
drOnes and cormorants all who do not di-
rectly contribute to the production and
increase of material wealth. The upright,
able lawyer, the studious skillful physician,
the pious, loving clergyman, are working
men, as truly AMI quite as nobly as though
they were wOodchoppers or bricklayers.
| lie who, by whatever means, he lp5 to dl-
minish the fearful aggregate of ignorace,
sin and suffering In the world, and diffuse,
instead, knowledge, virtue and happiness, ia
worthy of all honor, and far from me be
the wish to discourage and degrade him /;
and yet hold it the duty of every father to
| look we'll to the physical and Industrial
training of his sons and daughters-to see
that each OF them is early Injured to some
form of manual labor, and thoroughly
trained to efficiency in some pursuit which
ministers directly to the material or physical
needs of mankind My reasons for this
conviction are summed up as follows:
l. The demand for intellectual labor or
its products, and even for N ercantile capacity,
is exceedingly capricious. In q season of
commercial prosperity, graet city affords
employment to thousands as clerks, book
keepers; teachers of music, languages, ETC.,
etc. who will nearly all be left high and dry
by the ebb of the tide. War, pestilence,
had harvest, 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
shat, if suddenly unhorsed, he can fight on
efficiently and undismayedly on foot
| H. The professions are fearfuliy over
crowded A Western village is half peo-
pied by doctors, lawyers and clergymen,
who have rushed In ahead of the expected
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 thsm to mutual profit
/ But while the grass grows, the steed
starves. Whatever way be their fortune
ten or twenty years hence-and events are
constantly interpreting TO blast their hopes
doctor, lawyer, minister, are often winning
| but meagre, precarious support for the
present. =" cannot dig, to beg l am
ashamed, - is the plaint which many would
utter if they could afford to be frank and
OutspOken. Thousands suffer and stag
ger on, oppressed by want and ever increas-
| ing debt, who would gladly take refuge in
productive industry, if they had been
trained to familiarity with pitchforks and
pillow handles They would outgrow their
present embarrassments if it were not for
the nese doctors, lawyers and elcrgymen an
nuaIiy ground out to compete with tkem for
practice. or parishes, and whose training is
as heIplessly one sided az their own. l
would qualify the professional men who
shall hencefoFth be trained for broader
and more assured usefulness than that of
their elder brethren
III. New York city swarms with hunrgy,
needy, shivering, covering, eringing fellow
mortaIs, all in eager, inploring, hopeless