The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-09-27
RGHFEMD or BOYS LACKING
COMPLAINTS ABOUT NEW FORKS
RISING GENERATION.
MOI Enough Good MESSENGER and once
Bo,s Good Opportunities Neglected
Mothers niainen In rart-Countyy
Lads Preferred tn city bred Boys.

Bo,s Good Opportunities Neglected
Mothers ulainefi In Part-CountYy
lads Preferred To city nred Boys.
Tho Scw York working boy thinks d
good deal Of himself. especially at this
season Of the year. New York employers
also think n good deal about tho working
hoy. nut in another way. The fact Is
that Of lato employers OF several eenera-
TONS ii boys have taken TO making cofn-
ta.i.uns not always 1atterine to the
latest grueraiion.
Ihe,0y Of froin'ti 10 10 was never more
IL demand. despite the fact that for some
years lhsrc has been n steady increase
in the number OF girls employed 10 stores
ami Offices. Authorities sayt that in some
lines Of work tho supply OF boys Is far
below the lumber needed.
For example. n man who has been on
no9.Oi with ono of the Oldest high class
dcpartment stores Of Now York for more
than thirty years predicted the other day
that sooner OF later the department stores
Of this city would be operated almost
solely by women. the higher admins
trative posts only being filed by men.
He based his prediction On the scarcity
OF lads who are willing to start in as cash
boys and tho fact that girls have taken
the place OF boys in several departments
simply because boys Of the right sort
would not do the same work.
The right sort Of boy. the man "
planned. is he who when applying for O
Job has a clean collar, hands and face.
brushed clothes and boots, who has n
fairly intelligent face and q reference.
There may be the making Of a good busi-
ness man in the unkempt. ragged appli-
can't minus a reference. but then no
manager Is willing to undertake mission
airy work. As m mann ger put IL:
There In DO sentiment In this business.
At first u boy Ia judged at his full value
and turned down or advanced accord
lngly, and II he doesn't mako good his
looks won't count one way or the other.
The discipline in department stores Is
strict, tSo strict altogether to suit the
constantly Increasing olass Of boys who
want q job where they are o under a
managers eye all the time and can ave
plenty Of time TO loaf s
This statement wal corroborated by q
woman who for the last FIVE years has
interested herself in a West Side mission
n grown gray. she says. In her struggles
to get work for boys just out Of school
or out OF a job. Year by year this woman
finds fewer and fewer boys who are willing
to begin their business careers In q depart
ment store. Work in q wholesale house or
Office building where the hours are shorter
is what they want, and only in a few cases
has she found that the boy fs equipped
to fil the sort Of job he wants or to earn
the salary he asks.
A manager in a retail Broadway dry
goois house whose duties include hiring
boy helpers and looking after them re-
mrrkei that business men all over the
city were beginning to realize that The
hoy of to-day wants to begin with q
mans wages aud bankers hours.
Those OF US who have grown up in
tho retail dry goods business said he.
who began to work almost as soon as
We were big enough to handle a parcel.
realize more than any N else the differ
enoe between the assortment Of boys now
in the labor market and that from which
employers could pick when the depart
msnt store business was young.
when I started out to earn a living I
worked In a store which opened at 2
A. II. and closed at 0 p. NJ. That was
long before the child labor law was
dreamed of. Little chaps OF 10 and IL
worked Alongside much older boys. I
myself was below the present age limit
and / thought nothing Of working four
teen hours a day.
Il can't remember that / ever thought
of myself as hard worked, and certainly
the work I did never hurt me. Let
me cay right here that 1t is idleness rather
than hard work which is, doing many q
New York boy a lot OF harm.
Il have known boys who quit work
at 4 or S p. NJ, and they didn't make any
thing like as good a show In the health
line as others who had to stick to business
till O. But. mind you. I'm not putting
for any one. Tn merely drawing atten-
ton to the attitude of the up to date
boy TO work.
THE main reason why the retail dry
goods business is not o~verpopular with
him is that he knows that for nine months
a. the ssa, "a be- ~. wiil have e work from
hour excluded. In the wholesale dis
triot and In many Office buildings and
large Industrial concerns, on the con-
trary. the hours he knows will be shorter,
say from 0 till 4 or l:30; therefore he
wants thar sort OF q 10D.
There hiss been a greet change Of
late in the type Of boy who is willing to
begin his business life in q department
store At one time II was not unusual
for persons Of to bring In q son
Of Is or 80 and ask us to make a place
for him 80 that he could learn the bust
ness and get a commercial training.
Wages was q secondary consideration,
"Fathers end mothers Of that olsss
seemed 10 eealize that a large retail
business house is the very best place
to develop individual bent. II a boy
has any iniividual bent to develop, for
him to begin at the very foot Is the best
and quickest way TO teach him In life.
With the parents I have referred to put
ting a boy at work was q means to an
end, and the boy generally came TO work
PREPARED to stick ami to learn.
To-day the same clsss OF mothers
AMI fathers oftener prefer 70 place their
boTs with 4 bank or some financial con-
Germ, Irrespective Of the hoy's tastes.
On the other hand most OF tho boys who
do come TO ts for q job have first In mind
the pay they will ret, what or how much
they will learn befns - secondary oon-
si'nr'tlon, and In the mo iority Of cases
they. being poor. are encouraged In this
S'-Ministers ard SUNDAY school teachers
arr all very we'll. hut Q boys mother has
moro influence with him as q rule than
a regiment Of teachers would have. It's
up TO the mother. I say. 20 determine