Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-05-26
THE CHOICE OF OCCUPATION.
Good Advice to the High School Stu
dents.

Good Advice to the High School Stu
dents.
At the Wednesday exercises General Birney,
being called upon for remarks, said among
other things
need not remind YOU that the public school
Is not substitute for the family. the church
and social surroundings. 1t is to these broader
and more constant influences you must owe
your habits OF strict truthfulness, your sense Of
justice, your considerate kindness to the feeble,
your unseldshness and courtesy. While the
school promotes all these, its more especial
function Is to enable you to achieve a mental
training. which shall fit you to master diff
culties and to be useful to the community in
which you may live.
This mental training does not come merely
from reading many books or learning many
facts. 1t implies habits OF observation, &C
curacy Of perception and statement, the power
of thinking closely and without bias. think
the youth gets 1t most easily who has strong
purpose in the pursuit Of his studies. have
noticed that when boy intends and desires
strongly to be chemist or builder, or q
farmer, or girl to be teacher, the eyes are
open to see and the ears to hear, and all facts
learned fall into their proper places and are
CLASSIFIED for use Without purpose reading is
des1ltory and the person sees carelessly, hears
confusedly and remembers poorly. There are
many who think youth should be passed in
utter th0ughtlessness OF future duties, and that
twenty-on is early enough to decide what the
occupation for lite shall be. For my part,
think the sooner after fourteen young person
chooses the life pursuit, the Notwithstanding
Of course the right to change as time, better
knowledge and opportunity may dictate.
WHAT NOT TO CHOOSE.
"But what" you ask me, "shall choose?"
1 can easily tell you what not to choose. Ger
tainly 1t is folly to look forward to occupations
which are already crowded. In most OF the
states year or two's study or pretended stud y
course OF lectures entities young man to O
sional equipment Of a preacher is quite as su-
perflcial lin most Of the sects The result is
that these occupations are crowded. Thousands
fall by the roadside for ten who press on 70 sue
cess The man who should go around in WASH
ington and gather up the signboards of lawyers
who have been forced into other business by
starvation, would get enough to single the
high school building. There are in the United
States four times as many lawyers, In proper
ton to the population, as in England, and, as
well as can Judge, at least four times as many
as are needed for the business to be done. 1t ls
not likely that medicine and theology are less
crowded than law.
Nor Is 1t wise to choose occupations which
will probably be abolished by labor-savlng in
ventions. The manufacturer Of stage coaches
lost his business when railroads were intro
duced; the hand-weaver lost his when the
power-loom was lnyented Jacquard's loom
threw 10, 900 silk weavers oct Of employment in
the city Of Lyons alone. Many products Of
industry, now slowly and extensively wrought
out out 1 BY hand will soon be turned
and cutting blades moved by steam power
Within the last fifty years the field OF manual
labor has been greatly narrowed. Our gar
ments, shoes and furniture have been mostly
taken from the operative. Most heavy labor Is
done by machinery. We dig reservoirs, dredge
river channels reclaim flats, transport merchan-
die, convey news and print newspapers by ma
chinery. There is no telling how far labor-sav-
Ing inventions will 60. Keen and able men are
looking closely into all forms of rude labor with
machinery, with view to substituting better.
1t even appears probable that the cheap motive
power OF electricity will take the place, for light
traction at least, Of steam power. which is de-
vastatng our forests and eXhausting our coal
fields. 1t Is but prudent, then, when you choose
a pursuit to consider whether 1t may not be
superseded by some labor saving invention.
You will always be safe If you choose some
thing which requires dett. skilfu hand and
well-trained faculties; for the machine cannot
Compete with you in that.
ONE GREAT WANT
OF the world at present Is men to invent machines
to make them and run them. If you have brains
to invent, skill to manufacture or judgment to
operate, there is need Of you. The foundries
machine shops, iron and steel works are every
where Manufactures haye 80 multiplied the
traveller cannot get out Of sight Of their Chin
neys. These centers Of industry develop into
towns, alive with the hum Of splndles, the clang
of the trip-hammer and the scream of the steam
IA hnu onof 10 of obi 10 Ia
the roll Of the ocean. Smiles tells u.s. in his
biography OF ::'JOhn Nasmith. Engineer" that
by his skill, science and tact he built up town
OF able. ingenious and prosperous engine-makers.
Such man reminds us of that olden-time cum
ming worker In metals to whom king gave up
his throne as more worthy to sit in it than he.
1t would be an honor to enroll yourselves
WOrthily In that grand army Of inventors, me-
chanical engineers, machinists and operators.
ANOTHER WANT OF OUR COUNTRY
Is man to develop its mineral resources. The
mining Industry Is in it's Infancy. The copper
mines OF the upper lakes the coal regions of
Pennsylvania and West Virginia; the iron noun
tain OF Missouri, and the lead veins Of Colorado
are but few OF the great sources of national
wealth. In few years, the population Deepen
dent upon the mines will be numbered by hun
dreds OF thousands The demand for competent
mining engineers Will Increase. To respond to
1t, hundreds Of young men are now busi,y pur-
suing study at the technical schools of the cOun-
try And with them are many who devote them
selves to the chemistry OF the metals.
We want, too. large numbers to preserve ex-
tend and improve our railroad system. This
binds together the nation. 1t covers the United
States. is branching into Mexico, and will soon
push its shoots through South America. Can
you count all the different employees and depen-
dents of the railroad system? They live on the
knowledge OF civil engineering possessed bv
somebody; on the knowledge of that class which
surveys our coasts and the wildernesses of the
west, dykes our rivers, builds our harbors. and
devises protection for our large seaport cities.
MEN OF SCIENCE WANTED.
But why should l go into detail? The want
of the age is tor men Of science; not only those
have mentioned. but for chemists, microscop-
lists, electricians, botanists for men who under
stand how to care for forests or produce fruits;
In word, for all men Of accurate knowledge
and close thinking power.
Fifty years ago there were only three pursuits
in this country recognized as professions; now
there are more than dozen, and some OF them
specialized into branches: The engineer, civil.
mining. electrical or mechanical; the chemist.
the physicist, the geologist the astronomer. the
bOtanist and the architect-each is recognized
as belonging to a liberal profession one reoulr-
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