The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1880-03-24
Miseella'teons. g
s.TFEE DISADVANTAGES OF
CITY BOYS.s'

The following is from an article
in st. Nicholas for March.
Some months ago, Rev. Wash
ington GLADDEN., Of Springfield,
Mass, believing that if he could
find out how the active and prom
ineut 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 at
the head of the financial, CONNER
cial, professional and educational
interests of the city:
MY DEAR SIR: I desire to find
out, for the benefit Of the boys,
how the leading men Of this city
spent their boyhood. Will you be
kind enough to tell me.
l. Whether your home during
the first fifteen years Of your life
was on farm, in a village, or in
a city, and,
2, Whether you were accustoin-
ed, during any part Of that Pc
riod, to engage in any kind Of
work when you were not in.
school7
l should be glad, Of course, to
have you 60 into pa, ticulars rs
fully as you are disposed to do;
but | do not wish to tax your pa
tience, and l shall be greatly OBJ
liged for simple answer to these
two questions.'
No less than eighty-eight of
the busy gentlemen who received
this circular were kind enough to
answer the questions-some Of
then, briefly, most Of thom quite
fully, and it turned out that few
had been brought up like most OF
the boys who crowd the ball
grounds and fill the streets Of our
cities in these later days. Here is
brief summary Of the returns:
Of these eighty-eight men,
twelve spent the first fifteen years
of their life in the city, twelve in
villages, and sixty-four were far
mers' boys.
But of the twenty-four who
lived in villages and cities, six
we're practically farmers boys, tor
they lived in small villages, or on
the outskirts Of cities, and had the
same kind Of work to do that far
mers boys have. One Of these
village boys said:
4 learned to hoe, dig and NOW
in fact, l was Obliged to do work,
whether liked it or no. In win
ter | went to school, and worked
nights and mornings for my
board
Another said: i used to work
away from home some on a farm
in the summer ard fall. In the
winter, when 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 as farmers boys,
we may add them to that list, 50
that seventy out of eighty-e eight
almost four-ffths Of al these men
had the training Of farm life.
Now how was it with the eigh-
teen city and village boys on the
list? Did they have an easy time
of it? Five Of them did, as they
testify; five of them bad no work
iu particular to do, but one OF the
five says that he studied Ia" when
out of school, and that was not
exactly play. The rest OF the
eighteen were poor boys-not
paupers by any means, but Chill
dren of the humber classes, many
of them in narrow and seedy cir
cumstances - and though they
lived in cities or villages, they
were accustomed from their ear
liest years to hard work.
Was generally employed says
one, during the summer months
and in vacations in dong any
kind Of work that offered
Four of the city boys were
newsboys. One Of them says:
The last year | was connected
with the press l earned 500 be-
fore breakfast
Another: Il have paid my own
way since eight years Of age,
without any assistance except my
hoard from nv eighth to my ele7-