The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1874-12-18
Give Your Children Trades.
From the Lansing State Republican.

dentures - to the service of masters for
q given length of time has ceased to be
the custom, we seldom hear of servi-
tude without compensation. The idea
of becoming an apprentice has lost the
terrors, to the boy, that it formerly
possessed. It is well it is so for in
many cases, under the former regime,
the privileges of the master and mis-
tress gave rise to serious abuses. It
was generally stipulated that the boy
should receive a certain amount of
schooling. and at 81 years of age two
suits of clothes, and sometimes a small
fun of money was added. This was in
most cases the sole compensation for
the unremitting toll of eight or ten
years, with only meager food and scant
clothing during the time; and, unless
the master taught the boy specific
trade by which he could make his work
an immediate source of income, he was
set adrift at that age with his hands
only, with which to carve his fortune.
No education that could help him; no
knowledge of the world outside of the
neighborhood in which he had lived
no home training, except the stern
discipline of his masters family, in
which he was too often a servant in
stead of companion of the children !;
yet we could name many Of our most
respected and successful men that were
subjected to just such training, showing
that the right kind of material viii
eventually come to the surface and make
itself felt.
This course of treatment was much
the same with gir1s-oftener with ex-
ceptions than in the case of boys.
Within the recollection of the writer, to
IS bind out" girl was to take her out
~. l. LII
and unless she fell into good hands"
and became an adopted child, her life
was one but little removed from slavery.
Happily, the progress of events has
developed ways and means whereby
man who wishes to have his children
taught any of the industrial arts can
place them in situations where they will
not be subjected to abject servitude.
We would urge all parents TO bring
up their children in such way thai
they can maintain themselves by re-
munerative labor. The time has ar
rived when it is just as necessary for
girls to learn some regular employment
as it is for boys. Marriage has ceased
to be the i" chief end and aim in the
minds of sensible girls. Matrimony is
not haven where rest from labor is
found, but a condition where every
faculty of mind and energy of character
| are necessary to build up happy and
successful household.
To marry ''to be supported" as the
phrase goes, is a very unworthy motive.
Every woman should learn some bust
ness by which she can earn support
independent of her husband, should cir
cumstances require it. The avenues to
remunerative work for women are con-
stantly widening, and the approach to
the same wages for the same services
rendered by men is slow but sure, and
blamable are those parents who do not
give their girls the means of controlling
in measure their circumstances by a
well-defned occupation. We have at
this moment, in our minds eye, a young
woman, graduate of popular semi
nary, who was LETT few years ago, by
the death of her husband, with fine
farm, with but little money, few miles
from large city With occasional ad-
vice from her father, she has carried on
her farming operations successfully,
laying up a small surplus every year,
hiring a foreman, to whom she gives
good wages and share of the respon-
sibility. During this time she has pur-
sued her musical studies, that were laid
aside at her marriage, and is educating
her three children till they are old
enough to go away from home. An
other striking example of the superior
ity of intelligent power over the merely
| physical
Where a number of boys cluster
around the farmers fireside, it becomes
a question of some import, What calling
| is best for them to pursue ? It is sell
dom that more than one out of three
boys are content to stay on the farm.
| It should first be ascertained what each
one is apparently best fitted for. A
child that early develops a tact of
handling and taste for using tools
should be taught some trade. The me-
chanic arts are never crowded. And if
boy decide to be a farmer, the value
of years time spent in learning to use
various tools Will come come back to
| him with profit. It is better for chill
dren to have money expended on pre-
pairing them to earn their own living,
than to keep them hampered and igno-
rant in youth, that you may lay up
money to leave them at your death
| One hundred dollars judiciously ex-
pended for boy at Is will do him more
| good than $500 left him at 21.
In Germany, according to the report
of the Commissioner of Education, in
1870 there were IA local societies
which maintained IA industrial schools
and 13 infant schools. In these indus
| trial schools D, ,766 children were taught.
There are two winter industrial schools
in which 72 boys and 218 girls are in
structed in various employments.
In 1872 there was appropriated to
these industrial schools in Saxony
$4,000 thalers. They have schools
where the manufacture of toys is
taught, weaving schools, schools OF
embroidering, straw-platting, spinning,
navigation, drawing, etc.
In Berlin school has been started
for the instruction of girls for chill
dren's nurses. If such instruction
could be given in some of our own in
stitutions, it would be step towards
supplying one of the imperative needs
of the times.
In Germany, we are told that, when
a young man wants to marry, he must
show to the proper authorities that he
has been educated to certain point,
and must produce certificate that he
has some trade or calling whereby he
can support family. Gould we Dor.
row hint and make somewhat sim.
liar provision, the numbers of our mis-
erabIy poor might be materially les