The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1880-04-22
THE DISA OF CITY
Rows.

Some months ago Rev. Washington
GLADDEN., of Springfield, Mass, believ-
ing that if he could 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 who could fairly
be said to stand at the head Of the fl
nancial, commercial, professional and
educational interests of the city:
"My Dear Sir Il 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,
81. Whether your home, during the
first fifteen years of your life, was on
a farm, in village, or in a city and,
2. Whether you were accustomed,
during any part of that period, to en-
gage in any kind of work when you
were not in schoOl?"
Eighty-eight of the busy gentlemen
who received this circular were kind
enough to answer the questions
some of them briefly, most of them
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
latter days. Here is brief summary
of the returns:
l nffhoc 90 khn
fifteen years of their Lille i'm the city, II
in Villages, and GA were farmers boys.
But of the "a who lived in villages and
cities, 10 were practically farmers boys,
for they lived IN small villages, or on
the outskirts of the cities, and had the
same kind of work to do that farmers
boys have. AS these were about the
same as farmers boys, we may add
them 10 that list, so that 70 cut of the
SS-almost four-fifths of these men-
had the training of farm life. Of the
Is city and village boys on the list,
five of them had no work in particular
to DO, but one OF the five says he stud
led law when out of school, and that
was not exactly play. The rest of the
Is were poor boys-not paupers by
any means, but children of the humber
classes, many of them in narrow and
needy circumstances-andth though they
lived in cities or villages, they were
accustomed, from their earliest years.
to hard work. Of all these SO boys
five only had nothing to do.
While these boys were growing and
working, a great many others-sonso Of
merchants and lawyers-were grow.
ing up in Springfield, going to schoo
and amusing themselves, as boys o.
their class are apt to do. Where are
they? Only five of this class are heard
from among the SS solid men of tha
city. Some of them, perhaps, are pros
porous men in other cities, but the
number can not be large, for in Spring
field only five men out of SS came
from this class. Ninety-four and 6
halfper cent. were either farmers boy.
or poor and hard.working town boys
1t has been asserted that over three
fourths of the wealthy manufacturers
of New England had been reared on s
farm, ,andlthat notone-tenth had b I'd the
advantages given by competency on
the part of the parents. There is 8
deep meaning in the old saw thai
Wealth blesses the parent, but curses
the child;" otherwise, it would seem
that children of wealthy parents
should lead in everything. To the
contrary, however, they are almost in
variably left in the rear by those whom
the spur of poverty has quickened in
to successful action.