The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1880-02-12
The Disadvantages Of City Boys.

Some months ago, Rev. Washington
GLADDEN. Of Springfield, Mass, believing
that il he could find out how the active
and prominent men Of his own city spent
their boyhood, 1t would help to solve the
problem Of what IL 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, commercial. pro-
fessional and educational interests Of the
city:
"MY DEAR sm:-I desire to find out, for
the benefit of the boys, how the leading men
of this city spent their boyhood. VIII you
be kind enough to tell me
81. Whether your home during the arst
fifteen years Of your life was on farm, In
q village, or In q city, andO
"2. Whether you were accustomed, dur
ing any part of that period, to engage in
schoolf .....
"I should be glad. of course, to have you
go into particulars as fully you are dis
posed to do; but do not wish to tax your
simple answer to these two questions"
Not less than eighty eight of the bus
mess gentlemen who received this cir
cular were kind enough to answer the
auestions,-some of them briefly, most
OI tutul QuItS ouo ~ suIuCo Ous
that few had been brought up like most
Of the boys who crowd the ball grounds
and ELL the streets of our cities in these
latter 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 farmers boys.
R,,t IF he rhn livad n
villages and cities, six were practically
farmers boys, for they lived in small
villages, or on the outskirts Of cities,
and had the same kind of work to do that
farmers boys have. One Of these viii
lage boys said:
F. Il learned to hoe, dig and mow; in
fact, was Obliged to worE, whether l
liked il or not. In winter ] went to
for my board" .t-
Another said: Il used to work away
from home some on q farm In the sum-
mer and fall In the winter, when 60
ing to. school, we three boys used to
work up the VIC cd 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. so that seventy out Of eighty y-eight
Almost four.fifths of all these men
had th. training of farm.life.
Now how was il with the eighteen city
and village boys on the lists Did they
have an essv ,,me Of n, Five Of them
ala "a ,bev .estifv. Ave of them had no
wo,k in nsr,;cnlsI 70 do hut one of the
i've saws that he studied law when out of
school. and that was not exactly play.
The rest of the eighteen we're poor BOYS
mo, paupers by sny means. but chill.
dren of the humber classes. MANY of
them in marrow and needy -ircnmstances.
and thouob thew lived in citiea or vii.
laoes thew were sccustomed from their
| esII;est vesrs "A hard work.
ewes generally EMPLOYED" saws one.
| "durino the summer months. and in va.
cst;.,n. in do;n0 anv Find of vork tha,
| offered -
| Fonr of the citv bova were newsbovs
One of ,hem savs. ..The last wear was
| Connected rim the nress. earned one
hundred dollara before breat fast.n
Ano,her. 81 have maid INV own wa1
aimee eigbt vears of ACE. without anv as.
,;stance eScent INV hoard from nv
eiohth tn INV eleventh YEAR,
OF all these lightweight bows. five
onlv had moth ino in particular to do.
while these bovs we're cruising and
working a great many others.-sons of
ne,cha1ts and lavyers-vere orov;no
m In Snrino,eld 1oin1 IN school .n6
smuain9 themselves a bows of thei,