Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1884-09-04

Here it is before you-trades which can
be followed in village or city in any part of
the world, but l do not encourage you to
pick out those paying the highest wages and
rush off to learn it. AS told you in a for
mer article, the boy who is not fitted for the
trade he attempts to learn is certain to make
botch workman. He may learn how to
shoe horse if he keeps at it long enough,
but he will be the poorest paid hand in the
shop. So it will be with shoemaking,
plumbing or whatever he undertakes with
out feeling at home with the tools in his
hand.
The father who says to his son: "Here,
Will, I've decided to make harness-mak-
er of you," and who insists on the boy
adopting that trade, is an idiot. He may
compel the boy to learn it, but he will, nine
teen times out of twenty, make workman
who can't earn his own bread and clothes.
The average boy has an instructive leaning
towards the trade he is fitted for, and he
should be left reasonably free in the matter:
It used to be quite the thing for some old
baId-head to pick up a baby and tell it's
mother in all seriousness that the size of
the head, set Of the eyes, height of the fore
head or width between the eyes was plain
indication that he would become great
judge, poet, inventor or mathematician.
There are plenty of instances where such
stuff has taken root and resulted in parents
forcing sons into trades or professions utter
ly unsuited to their physical constitution or
mental caliber. 1t is quite natural for a
father or mother to desire son to make the
selection of good trade or profession, but
this desire should not become an order or
even request. Said blacksmith the 9TH
er day as he flung down his hammer,
''If my father had been sensible man l
shouldn't have been here. had a natural
taste for drawing and engraving, and have
no doubt l would have made good one.
Nothing would do but l must become
blacksmith and here / am supporting
family on $11 per week. hate the work
l have no interest in what / do, but I've
got to pound away and hear myself called
botch because Pm too old to go to any
other trade"
I found q lawyer the other day in shah
by third-story room, furnished with an old
desk, two old chairs and spittoon. His
thing but cOntented look.
"Oh, thought it might be a client, he
said as / entered.
'Sorry it wasn't. You don't seem to be
rushed with business"
"Rushed! Why, I haven't had IS fee
in three WeekSn
"Too far up?"
"Perhaps, but l believe the real reason is
because l hate the profession. / was cut
out for something else. AS a boy l was
crazy to learn the printers trade. got a
chance and worked for three months, but at
the end of that time my widowed mother
prevailed on me to study for the law. 1
managed to graduate, passed an examina-
ton, and the result is that can't marry
because | can't half support myself"
Lfnr a To Lra n r
that their sons must follow the same pursuit.
1t is very convenient for them to come to
this decision, it saves the expense of educa-
ting a boy, and by keeping him at home it
saves paying hired man. They claim the
services Of a son until he is q years of age,
and if he then desires to start out with a
trade he is handicapped by his age: He
must either go farming or become labor
er. 1t seems not to occur to the close-fsted
old farmer that while he may save from Sc
to $12 per month by hanging to his boy on
could take up some trade or profession
which would pay $40 to 81.
What about the boy who does not take
up with a trade or profession?
Look around you and the question is
speedily answered. He must cast his hook
into any sort of pond and take such fish as
may be caught. He is a sort of tramp. He
may work on a brick-yard to-day and in the
harvest field tomorrow. He does the
drudgery and gets the pay of the drudge.
His wages are so small that he finds it i'm
possible to lay up dollar, and fortnight of
idleness will see him dead broke. The
other evening met a man dragging him
self wearily along and carryinga a pick on
his shoulder.
"Tired, John?"
more so than any horse in Detroit"
"What do you work at"