BOYS AND THEIR FATHERS.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 311, 11 January 1902, Page 1

BOYS AND THEIR FATHERS.

(From the Saturday Review.) From the moment that the little o-enius comes into the world the Father’s troubles never cease until the son at last settles down comfortably in some profession. The son has children in his turn and his troubles cease only whan his sons settle down comfortably in some profession. The question, the cause of all the trouble, is what profession ? In some cases the matter is easily settled. If the father is at the head of some big business c >ncern he takes it for granted that his son will join him and keep the affair “in the family.” Very often if the father rises to fame in some profession, if he is a celebrated doctor, painter, soldier, musician, at least one of his sons follows him. It is a somewhat remarkable fact that the sons of poets, far from being poets themselves, are usually very prosaic persons, but with regard to many other callings the rule holds. Bach’s sons were all musicians, the son of Mozart was a musician, and if the names of Handel and Beethoven did not persist in their art after their death this cannot even be said to form the exception that proves the rule, because they had no sons. Sir Henry Irving’s. son is often

described as an accomplished actor; the son of Lord Roberts was a soldier and was killed in South Africa. When the father ha 3 a great name it is inevitable that the son should find the line of least resistance ip his father’s occupation, where is influence and often a good deal of money in adj dition. And indeed wherever there is money the father’s and the son’s diffiis smoothed away in this age. Money is a sharp-edged tool that will enable any man of averago ability to out a road for himself in almost any trade.