The Manitowoc tribune. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1866-1878, 1877-10-04
METROPOLITAN ATTRACTION AND
ADVANTAGES.

We are freqently in receipt of letters
from our younger readers in the country
asking for information relating to the
advantages which this city possesses
over smaller places; if we should advise
them to come to the city and what would
be their prospects of obtaining profitable
employment. Our reply in nearly every
instance is, in substance, that Chicago
like most large cities is crowded with
people vainly seeking employment; that
the fancied advantages of the city are,
save in exceptional instances, purely
fictitious; that their chance to obtain
employment would be exceedingly slen-
der unless they had influential friends
who would interest themselves in their
behalf. An advertisement for a book
keeper inserted in one of our morning
dailies by certain firm recently elected
nearly three hundred replies, not few
of the applicants pleading they would
work for any price that would serve to
While the chances for employment are
very, very meager, the wages paid are
equally limited. We give it our honest
opinion that bookkeepers, clerks and
people engaged i'll the lighter order of
vocations generally in the country are
much better paid than are the same
classes in the city. The majority of
retail dry goods clerks in Chicago, we
CUuvrICeu, receive noU Uver IL Or
dollars per week salary. The same is
true of many other lines of trade. An
average salesman in any of our interior
towns earns fifty per cent. more than
The sum stated, while their necessary
expenses are very much less. Where
one young man gains by coming to the
city, hundred lose. True there are
men in Chicago holding subordinate
positions who command princely salar-
les, but these men are usually possessed
of extraordinary business ability, and
would be successful anywhere. Average
talent, where the supply of a superior
article as in all cities is so abundant, is
not even recognized at its true worth.
The 'sbig gum of a country cross-road
becomes a comparatively insignificant
parsonage when transported to the city;
there are likely to be many others there
much more formidable than he, battling
his efforts and drowning his prominence.
An able and valuable clerk in a country
store for the same reason would lose
much by comparison, should he locate
in large metropolitan establishment.
It would seem that the long list of
'twant'' from the class of young men
referred to, published in our daily pa
pers, would tend to deter others from
encountering like disappointments and
sufferings, but their con inued steady
influx is proof that they will learn only
from expensive personal experience. To
our young friends who are inclined to
magnify the attractions and opportuni-
ties of city life, We say, do not give up
a paying situation in the country for
prospective one in the city unless you
are favored with unusual advantages.
If you are convinced that you have su-
perior abilities as an accountant or
salesman, in any Or several of the walks
of business life; if you can well afford
to speculate upon the possib ility of sue
cess, the attempt might not be entirely
rash; but unless confident of such
abilities, unless you can afford to meet
with defeat, do not make the venture
Chicago paper.