The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1875-10-11
WHAT TO DO WITH HIM.


When Tom reaches the age at which it
is necessary for him to do something to-
wards his future in life, and to start out
into the world for better or worse, as the
sequel. may show, both father and mother
are at their wits end TO decide what he
shall do. Perhaps the worthy progeni-
tor Of the male side, of the innocent
cause of all this commotion has, by dint
of hard work, accumulated snug little
fortune Perhaps he is "up in the world
and does not want his son to begin where
he begun. lie has no notion that Tom
shall sweep out offices, dust shelves, or
perform the thousand-and-one useful,
though decidedly humble, duties that he
himself did forty years ago. Times have
changed. Oh, no! paterfamilias, the TIM
es are very much ike the old tines 1t Is
YOU that have changed. 1t Is you that
have dropped the humility and the senti-
ments Of Your younger days, and You see
the world around you with different
spcctacles, that is all. 80 the Sood
wife and motheris consulted as
to what shall we do with him.
him" The pride of her heart is abeve
mechanical pursuits; they are vulgar.
They dirty ones fingers so, tear clothes
and soil linen, and are not respectable.
Good wOmanl
"Whcn Adam delved and Eve span,
Where was then your gentleman
4 mechanic not respectable? He is n
hundred times more needtul to the world
at large than all the so-called professions
put together. 1t would bother you some
if after hard days work making mon
ev. YOU had to come home to roast like II
chicken, because nobody could build
house to cover you, or put up bedstcad
on which TO rest your weary head. 1t
would dcpreciate your bank account con-
siderably if somebody did not build ships
or lay railroads or raise grain for your
benefit. Besides all this. dear friends,
would YOU like to see all your family
clad, if clad at all, after the manner of
Eden, or even Ike EsQuimauX, because
there were no weavcrs to make silks, no
trades people 20 see them, or no mantua-
makers to fashion them.
Badinagc aside. The professions are
overcrowdcd There are more lawyers
than clients, barely ten patients TO every
doctor, and as to clcrgymen, there are
too many half-suppocted churches al
ready. What the country needs is cdu-
Gated mechanics, skilltul workmcn who
do not feel above their cloth, and who
can bring into action the inventive gem
luz that render all things easy. IL wants
producers, not consumers. II wants men
to engineer railroads, construct locomO-
tiyes. cultivate the millions of unused
acres that lie between the Atlantic and
the Sierra Navada. 1t wants men to
build ships and men To guide them. 1t
wants hard listed, energetic, go-ahcad
tradcsmcn to give impetus to commerce
and less dclicatehNnded professional men,
less curbStunc brokers, less do-no goods
who only eat up the food better men
need.
We admit. says the Brooklyn Union,
that there is no task requiring more judy
ment than that of deciding what shall
we do with him? 1t is no easy thing 10
note the beat Of the mind OF him we want
much to benefit, because on our decision
nav rest the welfare or ruinHtion of his
lie. But ifyour>ou shows an inclination
FOR trade or mechanism DO not let pride
or the tlimsy pretcXt Of responsibility
stand in the way. The man who per-
forms lis duty according TO the light that
i, in him does rs much in his way n the
greatest intellectual giant that the world
looks on with awe and admiration. "Act
well your part, there all the honor lies