The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1877-06-06

These dull times are trying to men
Sho have no trade, profession, or voca-
ton. A manufacturing firm in a neig-
boring city advertised, the other day, for
/ skilled workman in a specified line of
labor. They received ever one hundred
applications: two or three were from com
petent men; the rest were from men who
thought they could doit," though they
| had never attempted any such. work.
Probably these unsuccessful searchers
after employment believed that they
could turn their hands to almost any
| thing, If they only had chance. \
church lately advertised tor an organist.
| In response, there came a man who was
actually engaged and provided with
boarding place in the town At the first
| rehearsal with the choir he declined a
written piece Of music as ''toO difficult to
| read, and when the printed page was
given him, he fed in despair He could
| not play, but attracted by the offer OF
| fixed salary, he thought that he Knight
| manage it somehow" 1t was the des-
| perate venture of a man without vOca-
ton. The newspapers are filled with adj
vertisements Of men who "can make
themselves generally useful" This
| vague term includes more ignorance and
| incompetency than any other in the En-
5ish language. 4 man who espires to
nothing better than to make himself
generally useful, though he may be wIl-
ling and anxious to please, Is making a
failure of life And it is discouraging
to see how many Of our young men have
40 more definite idea Of Il career than
this-to fill spare corner somewhere.
Do American boys learn trades any
more? One would suppose not, if the
| multitude Of purposeless, aimless young
men out Of employment Is any indIca-
| ton. There was time when the mas
ter mechanic had his house filled with
hearty young apprentices. and when his
journevmen went from under his roof 10
set up in life for themselves. To men in
middle life the recollections Of those far
! off times when the MASTER his men and
boys, formed a strong productive indus
! trial group, seem like the memory of
primitive age. Sons of rich and educa-
| led men did not think it beneath them to
swing the broad-aXe in the shipyard, or
| the sledge-hammer at the anvil. Or
| they went to sea before the mast, and
climbed to the quarterback from the
forecastle. In large family Of boys
one would be sent to college, one might
possibly 20 into mercantile pursuits, and
the others would choose their trades, af-
ter many anxious but CHEEKY family
councils Nowadays the young lads
shrink from the irksome confinement of
the mechanics shop. If they cannot go
to college, and 50 while away their
YOUTH they must ego into store'-any
thing but work. We do not belittle~the
vocation of a clerk or salesman when we
say that to be ia either one or the other
Of these callings appears to most young
men the most comfortable thing. Of all
the pursuits which men follow this seems
to require the least preparation. At
any rate, the men who are willing to
make themselves generally useful more
naturally turn to the shop Of the retail
dealer than to any other source Of EN-
pioyment They have never learned a
trade They like to wear good clothes
and keep their hands soft and white. If
they cannot stand behind a counter
or desk, or secure political influence suf-
ficient TO push themselves into an office
Of some sort, they drift aimlessly about,
looking fos employment which never
comes.
False ideas of living and extraVagant
notions are responsible for great deal of
this hopeless misery. Young lads are
brought UP to consider manual labor de
grading, and fond, foolish parents some
times seem to prefer that their children
should go out into the world helpless
rather than they should learn a trade. 1t
may be said, for the encouragement of
young men seekinga beginning in life,
that an industrious, faithful, and sober |
American mechanic is certain to sue
coed. 1t is too late to reclaim the vast
coneourse Of youths who have gone
wrong from the beginning. As drones,
idlers, or enemies of society, they have
gone beyond the hope of recovery. But
every good citizen is bound to do what
he can to save the boys now coming for
ward.