The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1877-12-27
The Value Of Training.

u, 1t is great thing to be born poet
, lawyer, merchant, musician and finan
cier; but training has done as much a
Nature to make men great in the vari
GUS avocatiQns Of life. All who ar,
familiar with the biographies of grea
men and great women know perfectl,
| well that unless Nature had been large
| ly aided and supplemented by diligen
training, their names might have re
manned forever unknown. Training
may begin with the i,st lay of a child's
life. 1t is certain to continue in one
form or another to the last, and doubt
less ceases not then, for life here and
hereafter is but a school, and we are
advanced, as we are prepared, from
one class to a higher class. Obedience
to law is the first lesson child should
learn. Is it not also the lastP
We call it the forming of the right
habits in him, right habits of sleeping,
of washing, of eating; afterward Of sub
mitting his will to the will of his nurse
or mother; afterward of the use of his
limbs, his senses, his. power of speech.
At this point, culture on the part of the
parent tells perhaps as much as at any
other point; for. in proportion as the
parent understands and appreciates the
force and beauty Of language, will she
take pains to form in her child the in
variable habit of purity of speech in
every sense in which the word purity
can apply to speech. Cicero says that
those among the Romans who became
renowned for eloquence, learned the
Latin language in its perfection from
their mothers lips, and never knew
how to talk incorrectly.
Early in childhood, habits of self-re-
lance and self-help may be formed.
The child should be taught to amuse it.
self, to wait upon itself, and to perform
services, according to its strength and
ability, for others. 1t is no kindness to
healthful child to wait upon it contin-
ually, when it is cid enough to wait
upon itself. The very birds know that.
Until their younglings can fly, they
bring food and put it into their mouths,
but no sooner are they fedged than they
are pushed from the nest by the sensi.
Bile, God-taught parent, and compelled
to exercise their own powers in taking
care of themselves.
1t is surprising what mere training
will do in developing talent in children
There are those who have no aptitude
for music, but persistent cultivation of
the voice and the ear does often make
very passable musicians of those who
seemingly had no talent in that direc-
ton. The same is true of drawing and
painting. No child in the Boston
schools is excused from drawing be-
cause he has no liking for the task.
Of course, if one loves music, or
or geography, he will
make easy and rapid advancement in
those studies; but the fact that he does
not like them constitutesn no reason why
he should not become more or less pro-
ficient in them
There is no training that can take the
place OF good home training. Those
boys and girls who are so fortunate as
to have fathers and mothers capable of
them in the performance of
whatever accomplishments make home
q place to be longed for and enjoyed,
are indeed fortunate. Their equip
ment for life is complete.
Special trainings are of great value.
A lawyer of several years standing at
ihe bar in New York, in recent CON
Eersation, remarked; Il studied law
vent through the law school, and he
has so much the advantage of me in
of that training, in the
studious habits he has formed, in being |
brought into immediate contact with
the best legal minds, in being held to
the highest standards, that this fall
shall enter the law school and take the
entire course"
"Self-made men," so-called, subject
to the severest training and
discipline, and do not avail themselves
of collegiate and technical training,
simply because the force of circum-
stances prevents them from doing so.
There was never an hour in their youth
when Henry Wilson and Horace Greeley
would not have availed themselves of
all the facilities offered by academies
and colleges if they could have done so.
How carefully they trained themselves!
Skilled labor is wanted everywhere;
in the composing room, in the editorial
room, in the shop, at the piano, at the
forge, in the kitchen. Skilled labor
good wages, even in these
hard times, but skilled labor comes and
can come only by long training.-N Y.