Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 March 1869 — Why Don’t Boys Learn Tracies? [ARTICLE]

Why Don’t Boys Learn Tracies?

The Philadelphia Ledger justly remarks that the present generation of young men seemd to have a strong aversion to every kind of trade* business, calling, or occupation that requires manual ldbor, and an equal strong tendency toward some so-called “genteel* 1 employment or profession. The result is seen in a; superabundance of elegant penmeji, bookkeepers, and clerks of every kind who <san get no employment, and are 'wasting . ■ .. ’ i \ . .i ►

tljfeir lives in the vain pursuit of •wTiat is not to be had; and a terrible overstock of lawyers without practice and dootors without patients. 1 The passion on the part of the boys and young men to be clcfks, office attendants, messengers, 'anything, so that it is not work of the kind that will make them mechanics or tradesmen, is a deplorable sight to those who have full opportunities to see the distressing ejects of it i'n the struggle for such employments by those unfortunates who have put it out of their *power to do anything else, by neglecting to learn some permanent trade or business in whidh trained skill can always bo turhed to account. The applications for clerksßfips and similar positions in large establishments are numerous beyond anything that would be thought of by thbse who have ho chance to witness it. Parents 1 and relatives, as well as the boys and young mep themselves, seem to be afflicted with the same infatuation. To all jtich we say, that the most unwise advice you can give to your boy is to encourage him to be a clerk or a bookkeeper. At the best, it is not a well-paid occupation! Very fre-

quently it is among the very poorest. This is the case when the clerk is fortunate enough to be employed; but if he should happen to be out of place, then comes the weary search, the fearful struggle with the thousands of others looking for places, the never-ending disappointments, the hope deferred that makes the heartsick, the strife with poverty, the humiliations that take all the manhood out of the poor souls, tj\e privations and Bnfterings of those who depend upon his earnings, and who'have no resource whep he is earning nothing. No father, no mother,' no relative should wish to see their boys or* kindred wasting their' young lives in striving after the genteel positions that bring such trials and privations upon thent'in after life: How <4O these deplorably falsi notions 'is to choice bf occupation get into the heads of boyst Why do they or their parents consider it more “genteel” or desirable to run errands, sweep out office's, make fires, copy letters, etc., than to make hats or shoes, or lay bricks, or wield the saw or jackplane, or handle the machinist’s file, or the blacksmith’s hariuner? We have heard that some of them get these 'Will aiisilinn], If this be true, .it .is a. sad-perversion- of the inCaneof education provided for our youth, which are intended to make them useful, as well as intelligent members of society, and not useless drags and drones. Should it be so that the present generation of boys get it into their heads that, because they have more school learning and book accomplishment than their fathers had, they must therefore look down upon the trades that require skill and handicraft, and whose make up the vast mass of the health* of every country,' then it is lime for the controllers and the directors to have the interior walls of our schrfdl houses Covered witn maxims and mottoes warning thfem against the fatal error. i . ■».- / ■ : • ■ ’ western engineer tells'the following story about himself:— “One night the train stopped to wood and water at a 4m‘a]l station in Indiana. While tHjs operation was going on i observed two green looking countrymen In homespun curiously inspecting tm locomotive and occasionally giving vtffit to expressions of astonishment. Finally one of them looked up at me and pid: ‘Stranger, are this a locomotive?’ ‘Certainly. Didn’t you ever'see one before?’ ‘No, h aven’t never saw one afore. Me’h Bill come down to the station to-night purpose to see one. .Them’s the biler, ain’t it?’ ‘Yes, certainly.’— ‘Whatyer call that you’re in?’ ‘We call this the cab.’ ‘And ttys big wheel?* ‘That’s the driving frhoel.* ‘That’s the driving wheel.’ * ■‘That big black thing on the top is the chimbly*} I suppose?’ ‘Precisely.’ ‘Be you the engineer y’ot runs the machine?’ ‘I am tfid engineer.’— ‘Bill,’ said the fellbw to his mate, after eyeing me'■closely for a few minutes, 'k don’t take much of a mart to be engineer, do it?’ (All <abo*tf’”” * .