Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1885 — Trades for American Boys. [ARTICLE]

Trades for American Boys.

The trades in our country, of late years, have been almost monopolized by foreigners. The American boy, however, when he does take a trade, goes straight on to the top of the ladder. It seems as if our boys would rather be fourth-rate lawyers, or physicians, than earn their living by working with their hands. Only the other day I read in a New York newspaper of a young lawyer in a distant city, whom 1 knew some yeai;s ago when I resided in that section of the country, who literally starved to death. He made scarcely any money, was too proud to tell of his want, lived as long as he could on crackers and water, and was found one day in his office, dead from lack of nourishment. He should never have entered the legal profession, for he had no ability in that direction. As a farmer or a mechanic he might have lived a long, useful, and successful life. No boy, of course, should enter a trade unless he feels himself fitted for it pbut. on the other hand, he should not, it seems to me, let the false pride against manual labor, which now prevails to such a wide extent in our country, prevent him from endeavoring to do better work with his hands than in his inmost thoughts he knows he can do with his head. George J. Manson, in St. Nicholas.