Year: 1867

There are, in the present history of the coun.
try, an abundance of young men who have been
reared to years of maturity in comparative iudo.
leuee and useessuesS, who seek professions or
the uncertain field of "luek" for something up.
on which to subsist from day to day, or upon
which to establish business for future comfort
and independence. Not one 10 ten of this class
OF young men can be found engaged in the me.
chanieAl arts or manufacture where intelligence
and application Is needed more than anywhere
in the industrial or professional pursuits of life.
This deposition 20 ignore labor or 10 exercise
lhe bEain funetions is not hereditary, for in the
majority Of cases their fathers had to work, and
these incompetent young men are indebted to hard
muscle and unceasiDg toll for the little they have
to boast of, upon which they propose to build a
fortune and reputation without capital or
labor. They are simply mistaken. Their ed,
ueation-instead of being at the pillow or the ans
vii, where they had opportunity to realize
the value of dollar earned, aud where they
were able to appreciate the benefits of advance,
ment in industrial or mechanical pursuits-was
given them in the superficial manner ofthe times,
which begets neither skill nor success, and they
are not prepared for any pursuit except that of
the professions long ago, overstocked, or some
thing in the mercantile line at which thousands
are every year falling. 1t does not seem to oc-
cur to these young men that ninety per cent. of
all the people who ever engaged in merchandise
ing ended their career in bankruptcy. Or that
sixty per cent of the persons who enter the pros
fessions fail to earn a subsistence for themselves,
and that but one third of the remaining forty
per cent. really succeed while a skillful mechan-
ic and artizan was never known to fail so badly
one day that he could not re.establish himself
the next. Yet they will devote weeks months
and years, TO an idle and uncertain life in the
vain hope of finally makinga "teu strike which
shall lead them to a fortune in the end. 1t is a
great mistake, a grevious error.


To be accomplished in anything, no matter
hoS humble even to the vocation of boot
black is far better than to fail a lawyer, doc.
tor, physician, a politician, merchant or a
speculator. Because one who is master ofhis busi-
ness never fails to find remunerative employment
or to command respect and credit. And the
prospect for wealth and position is to- day brigh
ter to any young man Of ability and ambition,
who will learn well and thoroughly good trade,
than for any one who will attempt to crowd into
the professions. The country is sadly 10 want
of mechanics who combine skill with intelli-
gence. Not workshop or mandatory can be
found to day where they are not needed. Not a
manufacturing or mechanical establishment ex>
lists in the country which is not deficient, some
way or other, in skilled assistance. 1t is the
skllful, intelligent mechanic who is most in
ueluhuus anu ueuCe none Ol lhtu are 10 De
found who are not prohtably employed. Wealth
is accumulated rapidly by such men, who work
iron. and cotton, and wood. and acids, metals
and metalods. The demand of the day is lot
for lawyers, doctors, or men of mere ornament,
even to capitalists, but for skilled artisans who
can make capital productive. To secure such
men salary is no object. Their labor pays the
employer two hundred per cent. more than the
labor of the hundreds of mere pretenders who
have been compelled, from force of circumstan-
ces, to adopt the first calling which presented
itself-Erie Dispdteh.