The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1910-12-16

l1AAA ACAC" wa AAA6 Al SA~ N~AN
X@nNX on some half-fnished build
%K ing, driving nails with
80 numbed fingers and han
ding frozen, rough boards,
and you heard that he was getting
only about 81 a day and was car
penter's helper, there was every evil
dence to you that there was little
more to carpentry than driving nails
and putting boards together, eh, what?
For you know that the plans of the
building were prepared by an archi-
tect, and therefore, supposed that all
the carpenter had to do was to follow
them, which anybody could do that
a saw" AS for brain work being re-
quired in carpentry, you never mag
1ned such a thing. It would be one
of the last occupations, possibly, that
you would choose for your boy.
But 1t is never safe to generalize, in
this instance particularly; for that
same carpenters helper, If he pos
sessed average intelligence and ambi-
ton would in all likelihood be fore
man of carpenters within very few
years, and would have big career in
front of him. 1t all would depend
upon his application. Given grit and
ambition, boy can work up through
the carpenters trade to comparative
eminence, as well as through most
better known lines Of work. 1t re-
quires hard work; but what occupa-
ton does not require hard work to
reach success?
After you have thought over it for
while and learned a few things
about it, you might do worse than
start your boy in this trade. How to
81 about it and the requirements?
Well, there are few preliminary re-
uuirements to speak of further than
that the applicant should be a reason
ably healthy boy Of about 16 or more,
and have had some rud1mentary
schooling Go to a boss carpenter at
| work somewhere and ask him for
! job. If you are successful, as you
| will be after seeing few bosses, your
boy will be put to work as helper at
somewhere round IS week. This
| work will not be carpentering. The
boy knows nothing about 1t yet, you
know, except that he can probably tell
a hammer from a square, and he has
to learn before he can become one.
And so, for the first year, he will be
nothing more than the crudest kind of
assistant to one Of the carpenters
carrying boards and running errands,
and after while, probably saving off
the ends Of rough lumber and mailing
on josts and scantling The work will
be generally the same if the boy goes
into factory and does what is gen.
orally known as inside work, and in
the latter he will be advanced at the
end of the first year to prabably 81
a week, and be set at bench work
mailing holdings, putting window
frames together, etc.
At the end of the second year there
will be another promotion to probably
$3.50 a day (pretty good pay for a
hoy of IS who is learning a trade)
when he will be a sort of first assist
ant to one of the master carpenters
and be doing pretty advanced things,
practically the same work, except the
most particular, that master does,
though, of course, under the latter's
direct supervision. His pay will go
up little, probably to SITS day.
Having served these three years he
will be obliged to go into the carpen-
ters' union The union will be hold
ing out persuasions before this; but,
generally speaking, in most cities 1t
is not necessary to join the union till
after three years preparatory work.
Your boys standing in the union will
be that Of apprentice, which will con-
tinue for two years. His pay will be
81 a day, and his work, if inside, viii!
be making doors. sash and blinds,
mantels, wainscoting, etc., and, out
side, the general work Of carpentry on
buildings.
After these five years Of prepare
ton, your boy will have finished his
course of training and be known as a
fullhedged master carpenter, able to
do any Of the work that any carpen.
ter Of that stage is capable of, and
his pay will be around 81 day of
eight hours for inside work, and 81
more when employed on the outside
And all this by the time he comes OF
age at 81. There are few occupations
that offer returns as large as this to
young men.
Advancement from here on to high
er positions depends as a rule, on
much more than has been learned in
the routine work your boy has fol
lowed during his apprenticeship. He
will have realized long before the end
of his first five years that he must de-
vote his time to outside study and
practice if he expected to get into
higher positions, and will have been
burning midnight oil for long while
There is wide difference between
mere carpenter and a carpenters
foreman-so great difference thai
one cannot become foreman, except
In most exceptional cases, without
having acquired fair working knowl
edge of mechanical drawing: and tt
be a regular building foreman, IL
charge of the workmen on large build