Year: 1869

One of the crying evils of the mining counties
is the aimless manner in which boys are brought
up. There is literally nothing for them to do but
run loose and sow their wild oats. Where min.
ing is the principal business there is but little
provision made to employ the leisure time of the
male juveniles and the consequence is that their
hands and minds principally occupied in
mischief. They go to school, perhaps portion
OF the year, andlearn something from books,
but when it comes to learning a trade or devo:-
ing reasonable portion of their time to some
useful industry, they are not there. We are
alluding to boys between the ages of twelve and
eighteen years. In school, as general thing,
they are intellectually inferior, as a class, to
girls OF similar age. The reason is not natu-
raj lnferiority, but because they have not ap-
Piled themselves as closely to study. There is
little too much Young America in their COM
position, and they are q faster" than girls The
latter are trained under the eye of their mother,
and have their hands and minds occupied more
or less in household affairs, and the result is
they are more methodical, direct more atten-
ton to their studies, and in school stand sew
eral pegs higher than the boys. The indus
trious boy at home is invariably better stu
dent at school than the whose time rusts
upon his hands and grows up loose and wild.
California boys will soon be California men,
whether they have trade, capital, or definite
ness of purpose. In the rural districts in other
States there is an abundance for boys to do on
the farm and in the workshop. Here in the
foothills of the Sierra Nevada where mining is
the all-absorbing industry, such facilities for
their active employment do not exist.


The reason why the Mexican male population
of California is shftless and worthless is on acA
count of boyhood idleness. They grow up like
wild Arabs and maintain their youthful cbarac-
teristics through life. A majority of the youth
that are sprnging up like mushrooms in these
mountain towns cannot follow in the footsteps
of their fathers and become miners. They will
be compelled to seek some other means of liv-
ing. The question is, what they do, or
rather, what should they do? We are frank to
say that if our population is increased, even
maintained as it now is, more attention must be
given to the soil. Every family should devote
more attention to the orchard and vineyard,
and wherever practicable, to the raising of veg
etables for family use, if not for market. Irri-
cation for all of these is absolutely essential,
and it is light labor well adapted for boys.


When they have other legitimate occupation,
let their attention be directed to such industry
have inst suggested, and instead of grow
ing up in idleaess, and being nonproducers,
they will do something for thepselves and their
parents-something for the present and the fu-
ture, and acquire habits of usefulness that will
these mining towns, in spite of fate or the Chi
namen, is destined to be the Coming Man" of
California. Teach him to work, to plant and
hoe, to weed and to prune, to bud and to graft,
to raise fruit trees, the mulberry and the grape.
1t is more difficult TO eradicate idle habits in a
boy than it is to exterminate q field of Canada
thistles. If you wish him to learn at school,
give him something to do at home.-Nevada Ga
zele.