Why Don't Boys Learn Trades.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 120, 27 February 1872, Page 7

Why Don't Boys Learn Trades.

(Philaddphki Ledpr.) | The present generation of young men have j Vstrong aversion to every kind of trade, business, calling, or occupation that requires ; manual labour, and an equally strong tendency towards some so-called " genteel em- j ptoymentor profession. The result is in the j superabundance of elegant penmen, bookkeepers, and clerks of every kind who can get no employment, and are wasting their lives in the vain pursuit of what is not to be had. The passion on the part of boys and young men to be clerks, 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 effect in 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 which trained skill can always be turned to account. The applications lor clerkships and similar positions in large establishments are numerous beyond anything that would be thought of by those who have no chance to witness it. Parents and relatives, as well as the boys and young men themselves, seem to be afflicted with the same infatuation. To all such we say, that the most unwise advice you can give your son is to encourage him to be a clerk or bookkeeper. At the best it is not a well-paid occupation. Very frequently it is among the poorest. This is the case when the clerk is fortunate enough to bo employed ; but if he should be out of place, then comes the weary search, the fearful struggle with the thousands of others looking for places, the neverending disappointments, the hope deferred that maketh the heart sick, the strife with poverty, the humiliations that take all the manhood out of the poor souls, the privations and sufferings of those who depend upon their earnings, and who have no resource when they are earning nothing. No father, no mother, would wish to see their boy or kindred wasting their lives in the strife after the genteel positions that bring such trials and privations upon them in after life. How do these deplorable false notions get into the heads of boys I Why do they or their parents consider it more " genteel" or desirable to run errands, sweep out offices, make fires, copy letters, ifcc., than to make hats or Bhoes, or lay bricks, or wield the saw and jackplane, or handle the mechanic's file, or I blacksmith's hammer ? We have heard t some of them get these notions at 001. If this be true, it is a sad perversion the means of education provided for our ith which are intended to make them use- , as well as intelligent members of society, I not useless drags and drones. Should "it so that the present generation of boys get into their heads that because they have re school learning and book accomplishes than their fathers had, they must look vn upon the trades that require skill and ulicraft, and those productions make up ■ vast mass of the wealth of every country, n it is time for the controllers and direcs to have the interior walls of our schoolises covered with maxims and mottos ruing them against the fatal error.