Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-04-16
City BOys-SOme of the Disadvan-
tages They Labor Under.

Some months ago. Rev. Washington
GLADDEN., of Springfield, Mass , believ-
ing that il 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 follow
ing circular, which was sent to the
one hundred men who could fairly be
said to stand at the head of the tinan-
cial. commercial. professional AMI edu.
cational interests of the city:
my DEAR SIR desire to find out.
for the benefit OF tie boys, how the
leading men of this city spent their
beynood. Will you be kind enough to
tell me-
l. Whether your homo during the
first fifteen years of your life was On
farm, IN village, or In 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?
l should be glad, of course, to have
You go into particulars as fully as you
are disposed to do; but l do not wish
to tax your patience, and shall be
greatly obliged for simple answer to
these two questions"
No less than lightweight of the
busy gentlemen who received this Cir
cular were kind enough to answer these
questions-some of them briefly, most
of them quite fully, AMI 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
III 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 aud sixty
four farmers boys.
But OF the twenty-four who lived in
villages and cities, six were practical
farmers boys, for they lived in villages
on the outskirts Of cities, and had the
same kind of work to do that farmers
boys have. One Of these village boys
said:
:" 1 learned to hoe, dig and NOW; in
fact, was obliged TO work, whether
liked it or no. In winter went to
school and worked nights and morn
ings for my board
Another said: ~ used to work away
from home some on farm in the sum-
merand fall. In the winter, when 60
ing 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, 80 that seventy out of
eighty -eight-almost four-ffths of all
these men-had the training of farm
life.
Now how was it with the eighteen
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
had no work in particular to do, but
one of the five says that he studied law
when out of school, and that was not
exactly play. The rest of the eighteen
we're poor boys-not paupers, Ly any
means, but children of the humber
classes, many of them in narrow and
needy circumstances-and though they
lived in cities or villages, they were ac-
customed from their earliest years to
hard work.
"Was generally employed" says one.
/" during the summer months, and in
vacations, in doing any kind of work
that offered"
Four of the city boys were newsboys.
One of them says: 1.-The last year I
was connected with the press. earned
one hundred dollars before breakfast"
Another: I" have paid my own way
since eight years of age, without any
assistance except my board from my
eighth to my eleventh year."
OF all these eighty eight boys, five
only had nothing particular to do.
While these boys were growing and
working, great many others-sons of
merchants and lawyers-wsre growing
up in Springfield, going to school and
amusing themselves, as boys of their
class are apt to do. Where are they ?
Only five of this class are heard from
among the Lightweight solid men of
that city. Some of them, perhaps, are
prosperous men in other cities, but the
number cannot be large, for in Spring
field only five men out Of eighty-e
came from this class. Ninety-four and
half per cent were either farmers
boys or poor and hard-working town
boys.