Louisiana capitolian., 1880-03-06
"THE DISADVANTAGES OF CITY
BOYS.

| DV1N.
Some months ago. Rev. Washington
GLADDEN., ofSpringfeld, Mass, believ-
ing that II he could only find out how
the active and prominent men Of his
own city spent their boyhood, It
would help to solve the problem Of
what is the best training for boys,
prepared the following circular; which
was sent to the one hundred men who
could fairly be said to stand ut the head
of the financial, commercial, profess
sional and educational interests Of the
city:
"My dear sir | desire to find out,
for the benefit Of tho boys, how the
leading men of this city spent their
boyhood. Will you be kind enough
to tell me:
81. Whether your homo during the
first fifteen years of your life was on
n farm, in village, or in city, and.
~. Whether you were accustomed,
during any part OF that period, to
engage in any kind of business when
you were not In school I
81 should be glad, Of course, to
have you go into particulars as fully
as you arc disposed to do but l do
not wish to tax your patience, and |
shall be greatly obliged for IN answer
to these two questions"
No less that eighty eight ofthe busy
gentlemenwho received these circulars
were kind enough to answer tho
qucstions--some Of them briefly and
most of them quite fully--and it
turned out thatfew had been brought
up like most Of the boys who crowd
the ball grounds and at the streets
of our cities in these days. Here is q
briet summary Of the returns:
| Of these eighty eight men, twelve
spent the first fifteen ycarsof their life
in the city, twelve in villages, and
sixty.four were farmers boys.
But Of the twenty -four who lived
in villages and cities, six were practi-
cally farmers'boys, for they lived in
small villages, or on tho outskirts Of
cities, and had the same kind Of
work to do that farmers boys have.
One Of these village boys said:
81 learned to hoe, dig and NOW /;
in fact, wasobliged to work, whether
] liked it or not. In winter went to
school, and worked night and morn
ing for my board"
Another snid !; '1 used to work
away from home some on farm in
the summer and fall. IN winter, whep
going to school, we three boys used
to work up the wood for winter use.'
Four others told substantially the
same story. As these were about the
same Us farmers, boys, We may add
them to that list, SO that seventy ont
Of eighty cight-almost four-tfths of
all these mcn-had tho training OF
farm life.
Now, how was it with the eighteen
city and village boys on the list 7 Did
they have an easy time Of it9 Five of
them did, as they testify; five of them
had no work in particular to do, but
one OF the five says that ho studied
law when out of school, and that was
not exactly play. Tho rest Of the
eighteen were poor boys-not paupers
by any means, but children Of the
humber classes, many Of them in
narrow and needy circumstances--an
though they lived in cities and vii
lases, they were accustomed from
their earlier years to hard work.
"Was generally cmploycd," says
one, "during the summer months, and
in vacations, in doing any kind oI
}5Work that offered"
Four of The city boys were news,
boys. One OF them says: "The last
year was connected with the press,
earned one hundred dollars before
breakfast"
Another: " have paid my own way
since eight years ofagc, without any
assistance except my board from my
eighth to my eleventh year"
OF all these eighty -cig ght boys, five
only had nothing to do.
While these boys were growing and
working, Il great many Others SONS OF
merchants and lawyers-were grow.
ing up in Springfield, going to school
and amusing themselves, as boys OF
their class are apt to do. Where are
taey? Only five of this class arc
heard from among the eighty-eigh)
solid men of chat city. Some Of them
perhaps, are prosperous men in Other
cities, but the number can not bt
larger, fpr in Sprinfield only five men
out Of eighty eight came from tins
class. Ninety -four and half per CEN
were either farmers boys or poor and