Year: 1874

BETTER MECHANICS.


It is matter of serious consideration for
statesmen and others to consider, what is to
become of our boys. Every man who has
been compelled to work for a living, seeing
that he is classed grade below the clerk,
book-keeper, or genteel idler, seeks some other
occupation for his sons He saves money
from his hard earnings, to pay for the educa-
ton of his boys, and to train them for some
more supposed respectable calling than that
of mechanic. The result is that we have a
large surplus of clerks already, and they are
on the increase, while, as mechanics die, there
are none, comparatively speaking, to ill their
places. For this there must be remedy, or
we shall degenerate into weak, pale-faced
nation of effeminate males, or, as Professor
Fowler calls them, race of "female men, !"
instead Of strong, robust Farmers and Me-
chanics.


The man who will take pains to inquire, will
find that there are few young men now work
ing at the heavier mechanical avocations ;
and the smaller the number, the more young
people and their parents try to avoid contact
with hard work. This is great evil, and if
permitted to continue in a few generations we
should 90 back to educated barbarism for
we should have no one to manufacture the ar
ticles of civilization or stimulate progress in
scientific attainments We cannot force men
to change their opinions, or boys to resist the
will of their parents, for, under the circum.
stances, they will continue to agree as to the
,toolord &c roopoofoh;1itv


Employment for boys and young men must
be attractive, if we would have them excel ;
at least, their occupation must not be repul-
sive to them. To effect this we must not pull
others down to make the man who labors an
equal with the man who does not. Before we
attempt change we must understand the
cause of inequality, if it really exists. That
men do not associate with each other in famil-
lar everyday life, is not evidence Of difference
in respectability. Lawyers and doctorsl have
only passing acquaintance with each other.
Ministers of different denominations and the
members of the various churches are not fa-
mliar associates. The difference in occupa-
tion diminishes intercourse among men, though
their education be equal.


Virtue and vice are found among men of
equal educational attainments. The profes-
sional gambler and prudent business man may
have graduated at the same college; and the
gambler may have graduated higher than his
schoolmate; their unlike natural disposition
has made the difference; or training after the
diploma was issued, may have turned their
heads in different directions. Then it is not
education that always makes the difference
among men, but the method of obtaining it,
and the directing of the thoughts and aspira-
tions after the mind has been impressed with
the rules of grammar, or the lines and figures
necessary in geometry. But education is ne
cessary for all occupations. So is the plow
necessary in breaking the ground for the crop,
but if no seed is sown and narrowed in there
will be no harvest.


1t is not learning trade that fixes the sta
tus of responsibility, but it is being mechan-
ference in our social standing. If the trade
and learning are combined, the man is fit for
any society the one admits him to the shop
under favorable circumstances, while the 9th
er secures him admission to the parlor and to
the best society. If we can teach the boy and
make him as proud of his trade as man is
of his profession, there will be no difference in
the standing of the two. If educated alike in
branches of study necessary for the occupation
of each, trade and profession would be
sought with equal pride and pleasure, accord
ing to the instructive leanings of the mind or
chronological developments of the brain.


TO effect this object, it is high time we had
adopted Labor School System in the COM
mon school of our country. A trade learned
in this way would be the pride of parents,
and noble calling for the son. Such me-
chanics would astonish the world with their
inventive skill, by making labor-saving ma
chinery do the drudgery of toll and establish
the fact that our powers of improvement ex-
tend to tradesmen as we'll as to fruit trees and
other vegetation.-New Jersey Mechanic.


A DISMAL TRAGEDY-Miss Cross, girl
19 years of age, was teaching school in Stark,
N. H. Her classes fell into confusion and
disorder, and the teacher was summoned by
the committee, who gave her the alternative
Of improving the discipline or resigning The
girl committed suicide by drowning. She left
a note to her sister merely stating that the
curse was being fulfilled. A careful inquiry
into her history was made, and the riddle was
solved. Her father, Amos X. Cross, of Wa.
terford, Maine, was separated from his first
wife and married again. His own mother
was greatly incensed against him, and, in a
fit of rage, cursed his children, saying that
"his sons should die in infancy, and his
daughters in sorrow, if not in shame, before
they were twenty" The curse has been full
filled 50 far as the sons were concerned, and
this coincidence confirmed the belief of the
unfortunate girl in the curse. AS she neared
her twentieth birthday the gloom of approach
ing death untitled her for her work, and the
circumstances which followed urged her to the
dreadful step which developed the mystery.
She leaves one younger sister, whose future
will be watched with care and interest by all
awe.stricken community. With such histo-
ry to look back upon, it would require mind
Of no average strength to combat the melan-
choly and superstition which caused her Sis
ters death. But what could be the remorse
of the wretched woman who had wrought the
ruin !? Let us hope she is dead, and beyond
the knowledge of the veri6cation Of her fear
full curse.