New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-07-05

n higher rung on the social ladder. The lad
leaves college at eighteen or twenty, goes into
his fathers shop, or contingencies, LOOKS
about him for a wife, and, as soon as his salary
will bear it, is married man, the father OF
family, and full-nedged citizen. Now when
did he master his trade businessf The
precious four years were given to Nlrgll ana
Thucydides, and he goes hating through life IN
n material world of which he knows nothing
scratching meagcr knowledge OF his business
from day to day. The high truths OF Greek
and Roman poets are buried and forgotten
with their bones, so far as he is concerned.
Commerce, Science, Mechanism, and Ag1cul-
ture have each their laws and literature
which will strengthen and ennoble boys
mind and fit him to play mans part; but
who studies them? AS a rule, our mechanics
are content to be mere handicraftsmen, ana
our commercial world is filled with men who
have pulled themselves up from the lowest
grade step by step, and know nothing outside
of the narrow path they have conquered; while
educated sons of tradesmcn, who would nave
been skillful carpenters or machnsts, mtoxl-
Gated by their first sip of the classic spring,
become weak preachers and brieiiess lawyers
The IrOnmonger n practical English journal,
offers, in its last issue, some useful suggestions
regarding this matter:
TIere exists i'm the vast majority Of healthy children
something which call "a natural turn for this
that or the other and which Ia often very early man
Tested Its this possession which is really the mental
level in It's rough state all there'bu requiring cut
ting and polishing before is fitted for its proper office
So with mechanics Tie original material Of the teohn
cal and the untechncal workman may be OF the same
quality but in the Of the former training ana prao
tice give him an immense advantage. Technical edoca-
ton gives the mechanic the keys to all craft mysteries
and dill gent observer of current scientific events In all
countries may often find, were hand TO reach him
out Of the viewess air TO set him right his inventive
path or TO warn him Of the desert places strewed with
the wreck of Over-hasty or infatuated Adventures
What greater disappointment can befal man thah 10
spend years in celebrating machine Get us SUPPOSE
only to discover that il has already been accomplished
or never succeeding make it work correctly to find
that he has running counter all the while To some
eternal law of nature' And why but because too much
absorbed in mere handcraf. he has neglected to keepa
vcilant eye on all that shall have ranspired around
hmi"
We urge this question not only upon me-
chanics, but farmers and commercial men. Tom
and Joe are boys to-day, but in a few years
will be standing side by side with us, with a
mans work waiting for them to do. How
shall we fit them for it BY giving them
smattering of branches of knowledge of which
their after-life will not require the use, and
which they will never have leisure or oppor-
tunity to pursue, or by placing in their hands
the key to the inner mysteries of whatever
science or art is to be the occupation of their
lives? When our polytechnic equal our CLASH
cal schools in number, we shall have what the
country VIGOROUSLY lacks-thorough men; and
the emnently constructive mind of America
will be developed as it never has been nor can
be under the present system. English and Ger
man literature offers to the student as en-
nobling and pure teachings as the dead lam
guages, and it, with the material sciences, will
make not only refined and liberal thinker
of the young mechanic or farmer, but that
which the country sOrcy needs at the present
time-strong, live men of live day.