Connecticut western news., 1875-01-15
A WORD TO YOUNG MEN.
A Hint to Those who would Live by Some thing Else thnn Hard WOrk---A Trade the Best Thing Il Boy can have,

Hint to Those who would Live by sOme-
 thing Else than Hard Work---A Trade the
 Best Thing Boy can have.
 The following letter, bearing the name and address of the writer, was received at the office of this paper, says the New York Commercial AKUertiser:
 "A few months ago, myself and brother were induced to leave home, nearly one thousand miles away, to at tend commercial college that represent ed in it's circular that young men with the college diploma could always obtain situations in this city as bookkeepers and clerks. We have spent several hundred dollars in attending the college and get ting the diploma, and on arriving here we find many thousands of clerks out of employment With such state of affairs, of course it is impossible for us to obtain any situation. We are here destitute, and with no place to go to. Will you not caution the young men of the country not to be induced to leave their homes as we have done on such misguiding circulars"
 The same experience has befallen many young man who has left his country home in the belief that New York was an El Dorado, in whose streets 1t was the easiest thing in the world to pick up fortune. We do not know the name of the institution that Is referred to, nor is it worth while to inquire it. It may be that it's conductors honestly be- lieved that they could find some sort of Q situation for the young men who had come under their tutelage, but, if so, Q little inquiry would have shown them the impossibility of carrying out their promises. There is no royal road to suc- cess in business. A boy cannot be taken from the blow and made man fit to take his place in the arena of commerce through six months study at school, Theories are necessary to be acquired, but it is experience that does the work. Usually the first question asked of an ap- plicant for position ill store or count ing g-house is as to his previous expert ence.
 Men prefer, as rule, to take up those who have already had some hard knocks in life. The dip ploma of business col lege is comparatively small security that practice of trade. Even if it were not so, both the instructor and pupil ought to be aware that bookkeepers and clerks are almost as plentiful here as the flags of the sidewalk. They can be hired by A gentleman who advertised for book keeper at, $7 week, had more than three hundred applications before ten o'clock in the morning, and many of the candidates were married men with families. As to clerks, they are so nu- merous as to be nuisance. Parents fool c1, int n1o lyc1,I cause they imagine that it requires no preparation, and is certain road to wealth. But it were far better if they gave them the sure foundation of ap- prenticeship to trade. The lad who can shoe horse or drive 0 plane, has a competent support in his hands, and one that is nearly always available. If, how ever, the clerk loses his position, he must go into the market to compete with the great throng of those who can do nothing but stand behind the counter. It is the same in all parts of the country. On the other hand, the skilled mechanic who Is sober, industrious, and intelligent, can generally find in one place the work that has failed him in another.
 This is not the first time we have had occasion to "caution the young men of the country not to be induced to leave their homes," as our correspondent has done. Ambition is laudable, but it must have something to back it up. If boy starts in life with trade at his finger ends, he need not fear failure, wherever he may make his venture. When the time comes, he will find his chance to drop his tools and take up the pen or the bank book. When he leaves the blow, to take few months of training at com mercial college, in the belief that he will graduate full-hedged merchant, he is sure to find himself the victim of Q de- fusion which will leave him to the mercies of public charity or the tread mill life of an under-paid clerk. It is time young men in the country knew that the city has as much as it can do to give employment to its own. In younger States, agriculture, mining interests, manufactures, and n rapidly growing traffic call loudly for the bone and sinew of the land to develop them. There is work enough for all, but not in the old and settled States, whose cities are over run with an army of clerks without em- ployment Lucky is the youth to whom his country home to-day affords work and shelter. Let him stay there and abide his time Or, if he must venture from the parent fold, let him start, as did Columbus, for q new land, which his right arm shall make tributary to his fame and fortune.