Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1883-09-13
TO SCHOOL OR TO BUSINESS.
Timely Advice to Young Men who
are Considering an Important
Question.

EDIT. CHRONICLE-Dear Sir: l re-
sprrtfully request that the following ar
ticle from the New York Independent
he republished ia the CHRONICLE. 1t is
an article of rare merit and on q sub
ject On which there is ageneral misap-
prehension on the part of young men to
whom 1t is especially addressed. In re-
questing you to republish this article
bespeak for it careful perusal on the
part of your readers:
Respectfully,
G. c. VINCENT.
just now thousands Of young men are
deciding one of the most important
questions of their lives, whether they
shall go To school or 60 into business,
whether they shall begin their career
of money making and self-support, or
shall continue their term of education
and of preparation for active life sea-
son longer. Shall we go to school, to
college, or shall we 20 TO work that Is
the question.
The greed for BUSINESS is outstripping
the e. eed for education. There are tens
of thousands of young men hurrying
into shops and stores who ought to be in
school. We may lay it down as gen.
eral rule, having few exceptions except
these where the support of a family de-
pends OH ones labor, that the young
man Of good fair abilities who does not
take the full Course to secure liberal
education makes most serious mistake.
To be sure he does not know it, and he
may never find it out; for he may never
set his eyes open; but he makes sad
mistake all the same. The greatest
blessing a young man can get is an edu-
cation, whether in college or in tech
nical school, or wherever or however
acquired.
What do need q college education
for to be sclerk or meIehant?" You
may make good clerk or good mer-
chant without an education. But is
that all you want to be? Probably it is,
but it is not all you ought to want to
hr. You can be mOrs than that. You
cdh be broad man, with An interest
rn"hing in many directions, in sympa-
Tia. With all the movements and under
st.i-i,Eg all the progress of the world.
For tuls You must get started in many
different directions; and this is what
yeur college is for. 1t opens to yeu a
hundred roads, leads you along each for
little Way, and proves to you that the
world Of thought is large. and tells you
it is much larger than you see. 1t opens
your eyes; it makes you alert to see
what you would else never see; It tells
you what men have done for men, and
in what lines the worlds movement
goes. 1t fills your mind with thousand
facts all new to you, and tells yO1 what
they are worth. Then it takes your
mind and trains it. 1t teaches you how
to work. where 20 look, what thinking
is, and. best, what wise thinking is, and
how to do your work intelligently. 1t
give you facts and facility and disci-
cipline.
is that all don't quite see the
profit of that" OF course you don't. 1t
does not give yOu money. You could
see that. 1t costs money. But take our
word for 1t that it is good for you. You
are young. We have heard many men
in successful business lament that in
their youth they had not got good edu-
cation. We have heard them blame
themselves or blame their parents fer it;
but we never heard one wish that he
had left study and begun business earli-
er. such men could tell you that for the
man .ho hopes to get beyond the SIM
plest IUutlne labor an education is in
every way profitable; that is a pretee
tion to him, that it opens new avenues,
that it gives h III friends and enables
him to hold his own with them. that II
1t delays him little at the start it gives
him speed on tha race. Even bust
ness can be better understood and car
ried on uOe succes sfully by q young
man who las a well trained mind than
by one who has turned earlier to mar
row line of work at the expense of the
of his best faculties. ls
may be that the Latin and the Greek
and the Astronomy will not be much
used in after life, but the training the
mind has received will help all through
life in any business or trade.
Poverty need be no bar to an educ4-
ton. lfa young man has energy and
he can get it. If he is
willing TO help himself he will GO to an,
academy or college and he will find ev- =
cry one ready to help him. Free educa-
ton will be provided him, i he is wor-
thy Of it, in almost all our colleges.
They have scholarships purposely for
him. All it wants is pluck.
Young man. don't GO West yet. Stay
East little while longer aud get An ed
ucatiOn. Then go West or East and
make it useful as farmer, or clerk, or
or professional man. 1t will
help yoQ everywhere.