Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1880-06-01

Can anything be done TO give boys in
the city better chance:
Yes; there are some things that can be
done, and that must be done. Our sys-
TEN of education must be modified so as
to provide industrial as well as mental
training. The education OF the hands,
the education of the eye, the education of
the Judgment, the education of the will.
that boy gets by learning to work, are
of more consequence 10 MIN in future life
than arithmetic, and geography and
grammar. These last are Of great I'M
portance: but those first are of greater
Importance, and it is poor system of
education that makes no provision for
them.
1t is habits rather than methods Of in
dustry, however, that you need to learn;
and many of you will find some opportu-
mites of learning these about your own
homes, if YOU will look for them. There
is considerable work of one kind or anoth-
er that boys can do-that some boys do
in connection with the house, or the gar
den, or the grounds; and if you will
shoulder this, and do it well and faithful
", the exercise and the training will be
very profitable to you, and it may be very
helpful to your parents.
Furthermore, there is plenty Of chance
for YOU to do faithful, mental work.
To begin with-there is your every day.
! school work, to which some of YOU might
give a great deal more time, with great
profit. If you will take the studies that
you like least, and 60 at them with the
determination TO master them-if you
will put yourself righ, down to the disa-
greeable parts Of your school work with
steady patience, and hold yourselves to
them till they are thoroughly done, you
will get in such victories as these dlsci-
pline Of will that is almost as good as
you would get in hoeing stony potato
field. Besides, there are lines of reading
or of study that YOU could take up in
connection with your school work in
which YOU would find the best kind Of
discipline. If the boy who now spends
almost all his afternoons in the park, or
visiting boy-friends, and spends almost
all his evenings at his club, or at the mu-
sic hall, and who fills in the intervals of
leisure with Fireside Library stories, will
make up his mind to give at least two
solid hours of every day to the reading OF
some instructive book-doing it of his
own accord, doing it thoroughly, not fool
ing around two hours with the book in
his hand, but holding his attention right
to it, whether he is specially interested in
it or not, till he comprehends it, and fix
es it in his mind-that will prove TO him a
most valuable training. The boy who
can do thing like this, can make man
Of himself. He is not the chap to be
elbowed off the track by country boys, nor
BY any body else.
Of course you ought to have chance
to play. A boy likes to play, and
school-boy needs to play. l wish my
bows to have at least two hours every day
of good. wholesome, vigorous, outdoor
sport; so much as that would not hurt
them, | am sure-though that is great
deal more than had. But / am equal
ly sure that all those city boys who real
ly expect to hold their own in the great
competitions of the world, must give less
time to idleness, and play and foolish
reading, and put their minds and their
wills in training for the serious work Of
lfe.-St. Nicholas.