Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1870-05-05
Learn q Trade.
BY HENRY WARD BKRoHEg.

BY HENRY WARD BKEoHER.
A friend from Philadelphia writes
As one Of the visitors at the Eastern
Stat Q Penitentiary, have ascertained that
out Of six hundred prisoners, only six ever
learned trade, namely; two shoemakers,
one blacksmith, one cabinet maker, one tin
smith, one st0ne-cutter. Several began to
Learn trades, but ran away, after short
time"
Here is text i One cannot but remember
the lines of DIR. Watts:
lAnd satan fnds some mischief still
For idle hands 10 do"
There are good reasons for learning q
wholesome trade, aside from the direct ques-
tion of good morals. Even If one is placed
beyond the need Of manual labor for his
own support, mechanical trade will afford
amusement. A shop in the house, with all
mechanical tools, wculd give exercise to
scholars, professional men, and gentlemen
retired upon competence from business.
We have known men who made most of the
repairs on their property who took care of
their own clocks who could manufacture
very excellent pieces of furniture, and found
pleasure and exercise in doing so.
But trade will ALWAYS be resource on
which to fall back in case of pecuniary mis-
fortune. And it is 10 this view, especially,
that we consider it important that boys who
are expcctant heirs of property, young men
who are to enter upon commercial pursuits,
and literary and professional men, should
learn enough how to work with their hands
to enable them, in case of reverses, to earn
their bread. We never heard more bitter
curses than those which young man once
poured upon the head of his father. He was
the child of very rich father. He was sent
to school all his youth long, but was taught
to do absolutely nothing. lie could not
harness horse, milk cow, hold plow,
manage spade, use tool of any kind. He
had never been taught to provide for himself
a single article. He was as ignorant how to
get along in the world as a baby. And when
he was about eff age his father utterly failed,
and his son was launched upon the world 10
to seek livelihood, with no idea of money
except how prOfusely to spend it, and with
no tact for business of any kind, and with a
disposition which had been educated to ex-
pect men to look up to him. With sensitive
pride, with but little knowledge of men,
with faculties decidedly above the average,
he managed to get along in poor way, for
ever in debt, perpetually changing his occu-
patton, and always with the result of leav-
ing him, if possible, a little worse off than
before. He never spoke of his father with
out iuBC. w Hdb DuslHCbS uuu uc W lohNG
my whole life open to misery by neglecting
his duty to me? If he had cut off my hands
and my feet he would not have been more
cruel than to have left me helpless as am.
Every child has right to be taught how
to work with his hands. Every boy should
be taught not only all common work on a
farm or in garden, but should be taught
some simple elements of mechanical trades.
II would be especially. well that the young
of boxes, baskets, and the hundred little
conveniences of daily life not only tend to
create an occupation Of amusement, but,
should fortune be reversed, it will enable one
to gather up slender support.
1t ought not to be supposed that trade
will preserve a mans integrity and honor
There are many rogues who follow trades
There are, in New York and elsewhere, many
men who make their trade cloak under
which they carry on knaveries. But it is
still true that an honest trade will deliver a
man from many of these temptations under
which weak men fall into ruin that it will
save him from suffering and disgraceful meu-
delaney. Every man should have trade,
even il he does not expect to live by it. No
man can tell what will happen to him. A
trade may now be your amusement, but by
and by it may be your support. The Jews
had proverb in old times: ''He that does
not teach his child trade teaches him to
steal" The letter with which we began is
the best commentary that we can offer on
this prOverb.-M y Ledger.