News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-02-12
TALKS WITH THE BOYS.
REPORTS COME IN FROM ALL ALONG
THE LINE.
And the Boys are Given Advice ON Nearly
all subjects.
From the Detroit Free Press. ]

| all subjects.
from the Detroit Free Press.l
Within the last week dozen letters
have been received from as many boys,
each asking different questions. One in
| Illinois writes
"It's all very fine to advise boys to be
| ambitious and energetic, but the Lext
thing is to get the chance. Now, what
would you do if you were boy OF Is,
lived in a town of l, 500 and had no
| money to help you into placer"
NV lad, you ask me hard question.
I've been right there and know what
gloomy outlook it was. A small town
too often offers boy little chance to
get along in the world, or if it furnishes
opportunities for half dozen to learn
trades, there will be twenty others who
can positively find nothing to do. In
this way the lad who is anxious to make
his way in the world must try larger
field. What small town won't afford
him large town will
know of an Ohio boy who had no
chance to learn tradein his own village.
He got hold of papers published in De-
troit, Toledo, Cincinnati and Cleveland,
and he wrote to the proprietors of every
irouworks advertised, stating his desire,
age, etc. He received favorable re-
plv from this city and is now hard at
work and advancing rapidly.
sc. E." of Bondora, Ireland writes:
81 am 16 years old and have great
taste for the profession of civil engineer.
| Have such engineers to- serve their time
and take out diploma, and if so, where
abouts in Ireland? I am not attending
school, but have four hours per day
which I can devote to study"
Civil engineering is a profession in
which one must graduate, the same as
! for law or medicine There must be
| several colleges in Ireland where the
science is taught. You can make use of
the spare hours you have by studying
mathematics, and it is likely you may
find some work on civil engineering to
give you many valuable hints. In
| America this is one of the professions
which is not crowded, but many of our
civil engineers are graduates of the
military institute.
A lad in Huntington county, Pa,
writes:
ST am young man twenty years of
age, and have practically earned my way
for the last six years. / have a fair ed
ucation, but no trade, while my health
will not bear any work that is combining.
Can you suggest any way for me to make
living ?"
There are many avocations paying fair
salaries which one not in robust health
can pursue. You can take an agency of
some sort; become a collector, or per-
haps secure situation as trainhand on
a railroad. If you have little money
and some one to back you why not fit
yourself out with a stock of notions or
tinware and turn peddler until your
health is improved. Unless you have
good health it is useless for you to study
for profession or apprentice yourself to
trade. Do something that will keep
you in the open air.
"Seth g." of Virginia, writes: 81
have determined to be sailor on the
lakes. I am fifteen years old, and I
want to ask you how much pay sailors
receive, and how / can get to be one ?"
Exactly, my boy. If you have deter
mined to be fresh or salt water sailor
the best thing that could happen you
would be to give you chance. Your
writing is terribly poor, and it is evident
that you have no desire for education.
1t is quite probable, too, that you intend
to run away from home. However,
come right along. Some dark night
about the first of April tie your clothes
up in red handkerchief, let yourself
down on the roof of the woodshed, and
drop to the ground with goodbye to
the old home. You can walk to Cleve-
land, Toledo or Detroit in about four
weeks, and by living on bones and crusts
and sleeping under straw stacks and in
fence corners you will get toughened up
to the sailor business quite a little.
When you reach one of the lake ports
named just walk down to the wharves
and say to the first captain you meet:
''Say, captain, I've run away from,
home to become a sailor. i want to
pillow the raging main on your schooner.
Will you take me ?"
The chances are that he will. You'll
sign articles for the voyage or for a
month, and in about three minutes after
you have put your name to them the
blowing will begin. You'll do more
hard work in day than you have ever
done in a week. 1t won't take you long
to discover that you have boss. He is
called the mate, and it won't make any
difference to him whether he hits you
with his fist or uses the end of rope to
tickle your back.
You will be the drudge and the dog
for the ship, and any hesitation about
obeying an order will bring you kick
or cuff. You probably imagine your
self wearing a sailors hat, silk necktie
and flowing pants, and you dream of
loafng around and listening to yarns
from old Bill, the pirate. Just wait, my
boy. Your pants will flow with holes
and patches, old Bill won't be on that
ship, and when the mate catches you
loafng around he'll stir you up until
you think of bumble-bees.
The fare may possibly be as good as
you get at home, while the pay of a
veteran sailor is about the same as a vet
eran ditch digger. It's all right to read
about the chewing sea" in poetry, but |
when the heaving sea heaves the ship a
boy about your age will wish for his bed |
in the chamber of the old Virginia home |
stead. You may see the sun rise out of |
or sink into the lake, but you'll have tar |
on your hands, an ache in your back |
and the mate close behind you. You'll |
see gulls; but the smells of the dark |
forecastle will make you forget the gull
question pretty suddenly. Maybe they |
will let you have a hammock, but after
you are called out of it at midnight to go |
aloft in a gale and hang on with toes
and eyslids the romance will disappear.
How do know? Didn't try it once
upon a time Yes, did. and it didn't
take two days to convince me that
blowing the raging main" was the
hardest blowing any human being ever
tried. If / hadn't sailed should want
to be sailor, Nothing will do for you
but to try it. Make your arrangements,
therefore, and if you are not drowned on
the first voyage, and can find your way
back to Virginia, you'll return home and
be willing to turn grindstone all day
long.
tA0t Their Traoc