Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-12-06
Hard, Praetleal Things.

n well AuOWu american educator
bas lately found cause for complaint
in the fact that young people are more
DESTROYS Of obtaining "genteel" EN-
ployment than their fathers and moth.
ers were in the days of their youth
and are much less cOnversant with the
hard, practical things OF life than theil
elders we're at their age. To express
regret at a state of affairs which IS an.
parently an improvement upon past
conditions is to imply that what seem.
10 be improvement Is not so in fact,
aud in the present case il is to
imply that some evil threatens
young people through their
natural desire 10 live WIN as ht.le
labor as possible, and to enjoy lie as
much as they can. For il is not said
tn At they earn less money in the So
called "genteel' employments which
they prefer than their fathers and
aud mothers earned through long
hours OF drudgery among the hard
aud practical Times OF life By a
gen.eel employment is probably meant
one that IS not sOrdid; one in which
the person and clothes may be kept
clean, the form upright as nature 10
tended it to be, and the hands soft
and supple, not oallous aud cramped
and misshapen. In general it is an
employment 10 which one may feel
thai he bears a closer resemblance to
human being that he would like to
be than to a m~aehine-a mere con.
trivsuce for taking a thing IRON one
place and deposidng it in another, or
for making one sort Of tool out of
another. II one has to engage in any
money making occupation at ali,
certainly one Of these ''genteel'' EN-
pigments is preferable, BY itself
considered, to others Of which the
opposite Ofthe advantages mentioned
above is true. There is nothing par
ticularly ennobling in the drudgery OF
manual LABOR. All labor unions are
formed for the purpose Of getting rid
Of work 30 far as it is possible to do.
and Tor getting more money for less
work. The talk about the nobil
ity of labor is mainly gas, and
the whole movement Of civil
i%zation especially since the invention
Of the steam engine, has been to
force the inorganic world to do the
work which men are PREVIOUSLY obliged
to do with their legs aud arms. The
time IS OF course coming when ma
chinery will do about all that is to be
done. Everybody looks forward to
that time some with hope others with
dread, but all know that it is sure to
come. To men who look at everything
from the point Of view of evolution il
must be evident that the present dis
like OF manual labor and hard, practi.
cal things among all people to whom
the habit Of working has not become a
second nature, is q forecast OF the
time when all such labor shall be done
away with. 1t is odd, therefore. TO
hear a sensible man cry out that the
present generation is 10 danger from
forsaking the old ways aad having ;
marked dislike for them.
And as to the "hard, practical
things OF life-the disagreeable
things that must be done for the sake
Of making mODey-ths rising ner
ton can do them If they must be done.
and the very fact that the generation
does not want TO do them. and is get
ting out Of doing them, shows that
there is no. absolute necessity that
they should be done at all, except By
that unhappy portion OF the said gen
GRAFTON which cannot escape doing
them. Those who escape are to be
congratulated, not to be lectured for
doing 80
The ideal of life here and here.
after is pleasure-high it may
be, or it may be low. but
1t is still pleasure. Next below il
are com 'ort and a lite free from harass
and grind. The rising generation
knows that, in order 10 obtain any
purehasable thing which makes
pleasure for even for comfort, q
must have money. and IL he has not
money through gift or inheritance, he
must make it in tie easiest way
possible, and be is right in taking this
course, when the easiest way Is an
honest one, and Of course dishonest,
Is as common among people who moil
and toll aud drudge with their hands
as among others who get their none
10 other ways. Sensible young men
see this, and no educator be he ever
so deep read il books and theories.
can make them believe that they ars