The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1889-12-15
CITY VERSUS COUNTRY BOYS.

Have country boys. young business
men. mean, a conception of the advant
ages they possess over their city cousins:
| fear not. For the most part the idea
seems to prevail that the city boy has
all the opportunities. while the country
boy has only priyations and disappoInt-
ments And yet, when we come to
look the business of the city over. we
/ find that among the successful men
those Of city birth and training are in the
minority, while those who spent their
/ bovhood in the country. 5nd com.
meDced the race apparently handi-
capped. are in the majority. New York
city is striking instance of the fact.
The merchant princes. so called, and
the railway magnates, as they are com
monty termed. together with these
bankers, brokers, lawyers, doctors,
manufacturers. judges, editors, invent
ors and accountants, with hosts Ct
others too numerous to rame, who have
achieved the most distinguished success
in their special fields Of labor, are not, as
a rule, New Workers by birth and edu-
cation. The Leading men, with very
few exceptions, in all the walks Cf life
in the metropolis, were educated out
side Of the city, and not a small pro-
portion of them were country boys a
very few years ago. The reasons for
this are not hard to discover. In the
first place, the professions of events be-
fore the gaze of the city boy is so rapid
that he has no time TO seizs upon one
thing for himself. If It be only book
or a paper which comes in lis way, it
is not priced, because Of necessity it
must make way for its successor of the
morrow.
Again, business is conducted on SO
large a scale that as observer or APP
prentice he can only become acquainted
with a subordinate part. He seldom
has the opportunity to study a gwen
business in its entirety. Opportunities
for amusement are 50 many, and the
habit of indulgence formed IN child
hood is so hard to break that much val
liable time is lost in that direction.
And 50 we might go on enumerat-
ing many other things equally
unfortunate for the training of the
city boy for the active responsibilities
of a successful business. Last, but not
east, the average city boy has not the
physical stamina that hard work. the
only method Of attaining success in
the business world. 50 imperatiyely de.
mands. On the other hand the COM
try boy has leisure. He has few
amusements. and he prizes and there
fore studies the books and pa
pers that fall in his way. lie
finishes one thing before he takes
up another. If he learns any business
while in the country, it is one so small
in extent and of so few details that he
comprehends every feature Of it. II he
mas decided ability for management 1t
is not at all strange to find him in the
direction of affairs long before his city
cousin Of the same age has loft school.
He early learns self reliance. AS a
rule. he is of robust health, and, bav-
lug been thrown upon his own re
sources, he is not abashed when some
unexpected difficulty is encountered in
his business career. But, beyond all
else, he has been trained TO work con-
tinuousIy the year through. He has
fixed habits of industry. Accordingly
when he comes to the city 10 live. the
odds are largely in his favor. although
it is very possible that neither he nor
his city cousin appreciates the fact. The
very belief, however, that he is at a
disadvantage il the race causes him to
make a greater Cffort, and ere long he
finds himself away ahead of all COM
petitors. The OGce