Smyrna times., 1870-05-04
MiSceIIUW e us.
The Result Of Idleness or False Teach
ing--Which?

1t is stated in a recent report of the Prison
Association, that of fourteen thousand five
hundred and nnety-six prisoners confined in
the penitentlaries OF thirty States, in 1867,
seventy-seven per cent, or over ten thousand
Of the number, had never learned trade
This fact may, in some measure, be verified by
inquiry at the employment and aid associations,
where only very small percentage Of those
who apply for positions are skilled in any trade
or business. An advertisement for skilled la
Dor will call out but few responses, while one
tor light, unskillcd emplOyments will call hund-
dreds OF needy applicants for situations. The
point with the rising generation is to avoid
manual labor The aversion to manual labor
! has been, III great measure, brought about
by the false ideas on education that pervade all
! classes of society. 1t is supposed by these
mistaken people that "school learning" will
somehow furnish their sons and daughters
sure passport to success, which is always
understood by them to mean getting living
without work. Such Of them as can muster
means to do so, send their children to the best
schools, furnish them opportunities for learn
ing music, painting and the other accomplish
ments, not forgetting to give them the benefit
; of foreign polish when it is possible They
thus 60 over an amazing area of educational
. territory and a bare list of the studies they
have gone through would appal the Admira-
| bic Crchton himself 1t might be supposed
that these young ladies and gentlemen would
be qualified to earn an honest penny, in case of
necessity, by some one or all of these varied
attanments; but unfortunately, such is not
e commonly the fact. We say leave out of the
I consideration the common branches of educa-
ton, such as arithmetic, grammar, and geog-
r raphy. which are the elementary branches Of a
+ general education but of the higher branch
= es' of an English or linguistic education, how
{, 2 many of these sons and daughters Of ambitious
n, parents learn enough to enable them to earn
=. dinner in case the paternal funds fail to come
b to hand? They have made no one of them
= special study, and have studied them all super
ig ficially. And one may judge of how they stud!
ID them by watching them as they go trudginj
ry and painting to school, under the weight of tn
IN small library, which seems to be necessary fo
a day study in that temple of knowledge-th
public school In due time, they graduate
eT with great ectdt, and are considered ready 70
rs the battle of life. 1t is all right with them 81
.r long as the 'governOr," the "Old man." o
ed whatever they may call him, can shell Ou
er the rocks, " down with the stamps" or, i
ed Old fashioned language, furnish them the mean
M to live on. When thrown upon their own re
es y sources they drift about for while, and find
-, for a certainty, that they are babes in tn
ry, wood, in the important matter of providin
ris. for themselves. Some of these Incompetent
~; after years of failure and want, drift into en-
pioyment. But the great mass of them al
~ the young men who are standing on our stree
40 corners, or wandering about looking TOR a stu
t, ten tiOn where they can do genteel work-and an
Sss thing is considered genteelf it does not invol
xty what they term manual labor" Peddlir
-. little patented articles that are indispensab
,un- in every family" cerking in any capacity, a
iredd agency, though it be only patent rat-trap-
ce all these are genteel, and young Amerc,
wen graduate Of public school or of a commerci
;saw college" will call to see the proprietor
was the patent rat-trap two hundred and fiGty tim
Arti, before he will even think of learning usef
trade 1t is customary with some persons
he blame these helpless young men very severel
elds but they are not so much to blame as are tho
and and parents aud their teachers Their fathers
lays lays mothers probably tOiled many weary years
ghty gain a competence, which was most like
os to gained only by the labor of their hands WI
dol more natural than to express the wish. wi
, OF honest, though mistaken kindness, that tn
sons and daughters might escape so hard
dent, lot2 What wonder that their children ha
and and grown up with a thorough contempt for wor
RS. When the children went to school, the teaC
r,d sand ers impressed upon them the importance of
.u,. ucation for elevating" them, which they
vine. ways understood to mean, avoiding the la
pre-, pro, rious tolls of their parents lives We co,
6est point to a certain class of institutions VIII
liars have, in these false teachings, done inca
Penn liable injury to the cause of honest indust
NTH Before the evil can be remedied, a differ
b0ns %is class of ideas must prevail in families and
-. schools 1t must come to be understood t
same parents do only part of their duty to tn
enter cnuuTeu uh. 'HSJ S:O ~ " Vhau Cncy arc III
liars. good trades, all the nlCetleg OF the
1Ga1d snd and practice When this view of parental
d and comes to prevail, the click of skilled, prod
pro. tive industry will be mure respected than
pe~A' countless make-shilt expedients for liv
which now disgrace SO many a6le-bodied
year year helpless young men. We would dscoural
& q and and multiplicity Of studies, and insist upon
most perfect mastery Of few judicously {
eenth sen branches Ol kho"leuso' IL Siou'u w