Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 April 1875 — What Shall We Do With Our Boys! [ARTICLE]

What Shall We Do With Our Boys!

It is as impossible to “ make” a chemist, or an engineer, or a naturalist of a boy if he has no special taste or aptness for these studies as to make a poet out of a Digger Indian. It is no unusual circumstance for parents who have boys just entering upon manhood to come to us desiring counsel in regard to placing them in n chemical laboratory that they may “learn the trade,” as to their eyes the business appears remunerative. They have no special genius, no training in preparatory studies, no decided leaning toward chemical manipulation or research, but the desire is to have them •‘made" into chemists. There is a mistaken idea, common to many parents, that their children are as well adapted to one employment as another and that they only need opportunities to-learn regarding this pursuit or that to heroine proficients and rise to eminence. More than half the sad failures so commonly observed are due to being forced into the wrong road in earlylife. Young men are forced into pulpits when they should be following the plow; forced into courts of law when they should be driving the plane in a carpenter shop; forced into sick rooms as physicians when they should be driving a locomotive or heading an exploring party* in the Rocky Mountains; forced into indust rial laboratories when they should be in the counting-room or shop. It is a wise provision of Providence that nearly- every boy in the world has some peculiar distinctive tapability, some aptness for a particular tailing or pursuit; and if he is driven into channels contrary to his instincts and tastes he is in antagonism with nature, and the odds are against him. One of the earliest and most anxious inquiries of parents should be directed to the discoven- of the leanings of their children, and if they find that their boy, who they earnestly desire shall adorn the bar or the pulpit’, is persistently eng ged in constructing toyships and Wi.ding in every puddle of water to test t eir sailing qualities; if he reads books of voyages, and when in a seaport he steal- away to the wharves to visit ships and : Ik with sailors, it is certain he is born or the sea. Fit him out with a sailor's rig, put him in the best possible position for rising to the honorable post of ship master, and you have discharged your duty. If, on the other hand, he is logical, discriminating, keen, fond of argument, let him enter the law; if he is fond of whittling, planing, sawing, constructing, and neglects turn him over to a good carpenter to learn his trade. If he begins early to spend his pennies for sulphur, niter, oil of vitriol, aquafortis, etc., if he is such a persistent experimenter that you fear he will kill himself or set your buildings on fire; if his pockets are lull of abominable drugs, and his clothing so charged with the odor of stale eggs that you refuse to admit him to the table at meal times, why, tike chances are that he is a “ born” chemist, and it will be safe to start. him off to some technical school for instrucThe question is, not what we will make of our boys, but what position are they manifestly designed to fill; in what di* notion does nature point, as x respects avocations or pursuits in life, which will be in harmony with their capabilities and instincts* Ills no use for us to repine

and find fault with the supposed vulgar tastes of our boys. _ We must remember thdt no industrial calling is vulgar; every kind of labor is honorable; and it is far better to be distinguished as a first-class cobbler or peddler than to live the contemptible life of a fifth-rate lawyer or clergyman. There are thousands of boys born into the world possessing scarcely a trace of ambition. Such do not care for distinction or even for wealth; if tliey can procure the humblest fare by constant toil the aspirations of their boyhood, and subsequently of their manhood, are fully met. They are negative characters, happy with nothing, and suffer no elation or depression, whether in sunshine or under a cloud. These boys, whd often afford mortification to ambitious parents, fill a most important niche in the world; in fact, the world could not do without them* They constitute the great army of men who build our railroads, tunnel our mountains, toad and unload our ships, cut down our forests and manipulate the red-hot iron masses which come from our blast furnaces. Scold and fret as we may we cannot alter the temperament or proclivities of such boys. Nature is stronger than we are, and well is it for us that ’ this is so. If our boys are born to live in subordinate or humble positions we can hardly help it; we may hold them in a false position by the power of wealth, or strong controlling influences, but when these fail they fall at once to their place, in obedience to a law’ as irresistible as that which Newton discovered in the fall of the apple. What shall we do with our boys? Study to learn what they are c ipable of doing for themselves; and then encourage them to do well whatever work is suited to their natures. Regard every calling as honorable the labor of which is honorably performed, and thus insure happiness and prosperity to our offspring.— Journal of Chemistry.