The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1897-01-23
First of All, Give Him Character.


The Philadelphia Press says that
a great many parents are looking
around these days With q good deal
of misgivings as to what their boys
are to do in the future, because, as
it explains, industrial life is chang
ing rapidly. Trades and pursuits
which have been established for
generations, if not for centuries,
are being superseded by inventions.
Machinery is doing the work that
was once done by hand, and doing
it SO rapidly and we'll that little
skill is demanded in the operator.
It is probable that this revolution
has only just begun and that the
first half of the next century will
see it carried on to an extent even
now unexpected. Only last week
it was proved that the great water
power Of Niagara falls, which has
gone to waste for thousands OF
years, can be utilized and made to
turn wheels and run machinery
over twenty miles away and that 1t
can probably be conveyed still fur
Their. This and other new forces
must inevitably displace thousands
of workers, and those who have
learned only one trade and cannot
adapt themselves readily to chang
ing circumstances will find it dith-
cult to obtain employment. If this
revolution we're to stop now, parents
could forecast the future and fit
their boys for the new conditions.
But this is not possible. The revo-
luton is likely to continue and In
wade all departments of industrial
life. and the boy prepared to meet
the conditions of to-day may find
bis trade as useless twenty years
hence as many men now in middle
life find the trade they learned In
their youth. 1t is this uncertain
outlook which is troubling parents
and causing them to look ahead
with fear and trembling. They are
unable to forecast industrial condi-
tons and so make ready for them.
How" asks the Press, scan boy
be prepared for these changes?
First of all by giving him character.
Ground him well in moral princl-
pies. There is no such preparation
for a boys work in life as this.
With it he can meet and overcome
difficulties which to a man of weak
moral principle are insurmountable.
Does the home of to-day give this
training in character? Ii it did
there would be less fear for the fl.
ture of the boys" The Philadelphia
paper adds:
eff the boy has character he will be
able to meet changing circumstan-
ces with ease and facility. Character
gives a man confidence in himself
and wins him the confidence of 9TH
ers. These two resources will bridge
a man over almost any difficulty he
may meet in life. There are thous-
ands of parents to-day who are
and saving in order to give
their boys capital on which to start
them in life, but who are entirely
the building up of the
same boys character. They might
as we'll build a house without any
under it. The time given
to money-making to give the boy a
chance had much better be spent in
intoxicating sound principles. The
may be lost even in the safest
business venture, but the character
will endure. Give the boys a char.
acter and they can be confidently
left to meet the changing industrial
conditions. 1t is better than the
best trade, better than an old bust
ness, better than a trusted fund OF
which only the interest can be
reached. There need be no fear OF
the boy who is we'll grounded in
principle, who can look out on life
with a clear, strong vision and who
in this way is prepared to meet and
buffet the difficulties which every
successful man must overcome"
This is the fundamental and vital
requisite of all true education. With.
out it the requirements of schools Of
learning or training are only fraugh,
with vain conceits, morbid ambi
tions. hopeless failures, possibly
moral wreck and criminal catas.
trophe. Character is something
that will last; something that is in
herently prophetic of invincibility
and scathless integrity; something
that is invulnerable to the keenes1
shafts of adversely; something thai
can defyall sinister powers ofchanct
and change, and can even grasp the
iron hand of fate itself as of com
rade and friend, not of cruel master