New-York tribune., 1876-01-05
APPRENTICESHIP.

doctors are manufactured 10y the medical col
leges at the rate Of thousands per annm,
turned out to prey upon society, with neither
knowledge, experience, nor even honest pur-
pose We might have enlarged the statement
to include young men and women who have
not even been ma:nfactured by any such
training mill for any useful purpose whatever,
but who rush into the professions, the arts,
the trades, resolved to win not only living
ont of them, but distinction, success, and pub
lIc respect. New-York and Philadelphia swarm
with half grown boys from the country and
inland towns, each of whom means to die as
rich a man rs Astor or Girard and whose sole
skill or knowledge appears to be an aptitude
in copying the dress and manner OF the BOwery
"gent,n while the Bar here and elsewhere Is
crowded with young men shuHed through
examination by the grace of an influential
friend, and who mean to Use their profession
to push them as ward politicians.
The gate to success and money making
which is the most popular and attacked with
the most sanguIne ambition, however, Is that
of Iiterature. The editor of a magazine or
newspaper must have nerves of steel if he be
not wearied out with the importantly Of
GOlltRc GRADUATES VI IlltIdli tdStty WIN
feel themselves competent TO I'll any position
in his office at moments warning, from that
of pr0Of-reade to his own. Back of these
come pressing crowd of women, widows who
must feed their children or see them starve,
young girls, wives with invalid or drunken
husbands, downright adventurers, none of
whom can earn money by teaching, sewing,
or any other head or hand-craft, and there
fore take to the pen as "the one business
(which requires no training" Nothing can
be more pitable than the appeals of
these people, nothing more sanglline than their
hopes. Their need is desperate; their talent,
they have been assured by friends, il indis-
putable. Nobody uncOnnected with the pub
fishing business in some way can know how
deplorably large this class is in the cities.
They write, write flood the tables of editors
with poems tales essays, which come back to
them or disappear in the waste-paper basket
We have known a young woman come to one
of the seaboard cities from village in
Southern State, and for three years struggle
against hunger need of every sort, writing
steadily without one CLEAN OF success Such
pluck and endurance would have told in any
other pursuit but the woman was ignorant
of grammar, English literature, everything III
fact but belief in her own genius" Nor Is
the case an extreme one. In art the case Is
almost as bad Pictures, studies III oil and
crayon, are offered in the market by men and
women who apparently do not know the first
rules of art. Just as one :" career" alter an
other il opened by which money can be made.
there will follow the same crowd OF needy
aspirants who mean to conquer success with
out knowledge, skill, OF any kind of training
They have their side of the story too. They
are hungry and ill-clothed they have rs much
natural ability as men who sit Snugly inside
the gates at which they knock and it may be
as much information. What then is lacking 7
Apprenticeship and hard work The fable OF
the winged horse who flew to the dizzy nights
of fame was long ago exploded nobody be-
licycs in it but schoolboys. The horse who
wins the race, whatever his strain OF blood
has been long and carefully trained ana haS
worked hard in every muscle. NO iad' "i''
ever his ability, can come to New L oIh anu
earn distinction or money without Worh' anu
that hard, steady work in the line ne cnoo'oS,
No lad is such fool as to undertake 10 p"nu
a house who had never handled 'ro"cl vi
hammer and Il woman knows thaC Silc Hi"S'
learn TO boil and bake before she can prepare
thc SIMPLEST dinner. Art, literature, music, Jour
noIism. are not more easily conquered than
carpcntery or cookery.
These sentences, we know, are pialltudes 10
every Intelligent reader But for lack OF
lrnowipc lust these patitudes thousands OF
men and women are wasting their lives and
small means in utterly hopeless effort. They
answer that they have no time for prentice
sbips. They must have money or starye.
After year OF two of disappointment they
clutch eagerly at the lowest of bastard success,
paint daubs for auctions, write unsayory Ill
paid matter for flash publications. Easy as Is
the descent into that hell, to come out OF 1t Is
impossible
There is but one remedy for this miserable
condition of affairs. Let boys and girls
especially gills--be thoroughly taught one
means of earning their bread while they are
at home. When they are turned out on the
world is no time to begin TO learn to handle
their tools No matter what their social rank
or expectations, give them this one weapon
whose use they thoroughly understand with