The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1880-04-08
time the city boy spends playing i,
tho StraatS.


to school, and worked nights and mornings for M
Another says: 1 used to work away from hom
sol some, on farm in the summer and fall In the win
up the wood for winter use.
to o Chores o 6G g house, HR HHRr nG rT
cows to pasture, the wood. ETC., which occupied
n6ther Ny father Kept and no
% c6F fnd oo oaf Of e hSf %
lions lend hand at taking care of horses and team
Others wrote that they went tc
school three months in summer and
three in winter. At the age of seven
or eight they were one aud all put to
work and kept at it, outside of school
hours. They weeded vegetable gardens,
fed pigs and chickens, carried wood,
moved away hay, and did hundred
things the city boy never heard of. AT
ten years they stopped going to school
in summer. They were needed to
help along with the farm-work. They
rose before the sun, and several of
them mention expressly that even at
the early age named they worked all
day long in the field, with grown men,
only stopping for meals. Most of
them had no more than two holidays
In the whole year, these being Thanks
giving and Fourth of July. Even
when they went to school, part of
their business was to keep the family
in frewood, which they were obliged
to chop nights and mornings. One of
them mentions that shelling corn on
the edge of an iron shovel was his
regular employment of half-days when
there was no school. They often
walked to school distance of from
one to two miles.
A few mention that once in a great
while they went fishing or berrying or
hunting for day or half day. After
dark of winter nights they spent an
hour or two skating and coasting.
Sometimes, too, there was a 'husking
bee" or spelling school. That was ab-
solutely all the play these seventy sue
childhood. Life with them meant.
hard and steady work from the Begin
ming to the end of the year."
Eighteen city and village boys were
in Mr.. Gladden's list of successful
men. 1t sounds remarkable almost,
but thirteen Of these were the sons of
hard-working parents of the humber
classes. Like tie country youths,
their time out of school was spent in
work. Their families were mostly in
needy circumstances, and their mite
had early to be added to the
common support. Several Of them
did "odd jobs in vacation at what
ever they could find to do. One
labored in his fathers woodwork
ing shop. Another, after twelve
years of age, attended school only in
winter, and worked in wooden fac
tory the rest of the time. Four of |
the city youths were newsboys. One
writes:
"The last year | was connected |
with the press | earned S10o before
This wasn't much fun, certainly.
It meant tumbling out of bed at 4
o'clock in the morning, or earlier, in
a New England winter, and walking
-ong distances in the snow, sometimes.
Of the newsboys began to
pay his own way at eight years old,
and continued to do so, without any
assistance except board till he was
eleven. A worthy lesson is afforded
IN a chapter in the early life of an
other city boy. When he was four
5een years old he left home to work
out of summers. In winter he went
20 school, and paid his tuition by act
ng as janitor Most city young fell
ows would esteem such life sad
He did whatever work he
could find, at any price, never refusing
It because the pay was small, think
ng half loaf better than no bread"
"The morning | was to go to take
my first lesson in the business that
was to be my occupation for eighteen
years." he writes, Il drove to pasture
the cows which | had engaged to
lrive for ten cents week, and then,
lonning my best clothes, reported for
duty"
One prosperous gentlemen first ex-
perienced the. ineffable satisfaction of
earning ones own money by working
six months for farmer at two dollars
a month. The days were very long
and hot in summer, and he confessed
he was sometimes nearly ready to give
up, but still he did not do it. He was
worth many thousands in after years,
but he declared that no money ever
seemed quite equal to the first twelve
dollars he earned when he was boy.
The list narrews till we find that
only four of the eighty-eight success
full men had nothing particular to
do" when they were boys. All the
rest entered early into the grand her.
itage of work. Their hand, their eye,
the will and the judgment were stead
lily trained during the first twenty
years of life. Then they came to the
front ready to enter the world with |
rich mems sons They stood up with
clear, practiced eye, iron muscles,
skilled fingers and brains full of COM
mon sense. The nonsense had been
taken out of them. The hardships of |
life were practically all behind them,
for they had overcome them already. |
1t would be the idlest repetition to
name here the great men of the world
who started in life with the hardest,
humblest surroundings. From John
Bunyan to Abraham Lincoln they
have been sons of poor working men.
1t is not the fathers riches exactly, |
either, that stand in the way of the
sons success. 1t is not being trained |
in childhood to work. Some philoso-
pliers go so far as to say that it is. i'm
possible for a man to break himself |
into steady labor after he is thirty. |
However that may be, the discipline
of work in youth is worth more than
the work itself. Half the battle>of |
life has been won for a boy when his
will and his muscles have been nsed TO |