k_- 
 
 I UR BOYS DO 
 FORALIVING 
 
 "^^iSS? 
 
 
 VINGATE
 
 THE GIFT OF 
 
 MAY TREAT MORRISON 
 
 IN MEMORY OF 
 
 ALEXANDER F MORRISON
 
 WHAT SHALL OUR BOYS DO 
 FOR A LIVING?
 
 iVHAT SHALL OUR BOYS 
 DO FOR A LiyiNG? 
 
 3 
 
 BY CHARLES F. WING ATE 
 
 3 " 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THE DOUBLED A Y &- McCLURE 
 
 COMPANY 
 
 1898
 
 Copyright, 1898. 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES F. WINQATE.
 
 Mr 
 
 TO MY MOTHER, 
 
 WHO ENDOWED ME WITH HEALTH, A CHEERFUL SPIRIT, COUR- 
 AGE TO FACE TRIALS AND PHILOSOPHY TO BEAR THEM, AND A 
 LOVE OF WHOLESOME READING ; AND WHO MADE THE HOME A 
 PLACE TO ENJOY AND A SAFEGUARD AGAINST TEMPTATION, I 
 DEDICATE THIS LITTLE BOOK. 
 
 "Of the Mother, I cannot think of anythkig to say. She is 
 just the Mother — our own dear, patient, loving little Mother — 
 unlike every one else in the world, and yet it seems as if there 
 was nothing to say about her by which one could make any one 
 understand what she is. " 
 
 Chronicles of t?ie Schonberg-Cotta Family. 

 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Thousands of fathers and mothers are anxiously 
 considering their son's careers, while hundreds of 
 thousands of boys all over the land are picturing 
 their future in glowing colors. In other countries 
 the parents usually decide such matters, but " Young 
 America" likes to act for himself. Next to selecting 
 a wife, the choice of a calling is the most important 
 act of a man's life. If he makes a mistake he ma.y 
 change later on, but it is better to start right and 
 avoid getting the square peg in the round hole. Mrs. 
 Browning says : 
 
 "The cygnet finds the water, but the man 
 Is born in ignorance of his element. " 
 
 Cromwell and Hampden had reached middle age 
 before they entered on their true vocation. Grant 
 tanned and Sherman taught school until the Civil 
 War brought them opportunit}-. Many other notable 
 men and women never "discovered themselves," as 
 the French say, until they had waited and struggled 
 for years. 
 
 Few persons possess either sufficient experience or 
 judgment to ad-sdse others what calling to follow. It 
 seems strange that no one has written a book on the 
 subject before. Plenty of advice is to be had about 
 the value of honesty, industry and thrift. But what
 
 Vlll 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 the young need most is plain facts about different 
 occui)ations, particularly the new ones, with their ad- 
 vantages and drawbacks; how to enter and how to 
 get on in them, with other practical and specific in- 
 formation. My chief aim has been to show the value 
 of thorough training, and that there is a demand for 
 capable men in every calling. I have laid special 
 stress on inclination and aptitude, and have tried to 
 tell young men how to find their special beut, if 
 they have any. Home training is fully discussed, and 
 also the influence of environment. Finally, I urge 
 the importance of health and good addi*ess, and the 
 value of the facility of writing and talking, as aids to 
 success. 
 
 I have tried my hand at several things, and can 
 speak with some familiarity of business, journalism, 
 engineering, and real-estate development. I know 
 the trials of beginning at the foot of the ladder, and 
 of entering a virgin field. I have had to learn some 
 things without a teacher, and appreciate the value of 
 expert knowledge. I have faced disaster without 
 flinching, and been disciplined by failure. I know 
 the emptiness of merely material success, and the 
 sustaining power of high ideals. I can therefore 
 sympathize with the struggling, and with those who 
 have failed to win the prizes of life. 
 
 I have been gathering material for the present vol- 
 ume for many years. In reading the biography of 
 any person, I have noted how he was educated ; how 
 he got his first start ; how long he had to wait for 
 recognition ; whether he had setbacks or disappoint- 
 ments, and what was their effect upon him. I have 
 questioned scores of men and women regarding how
 
 Introduction, ix 
 
 to form cliaracter, and how to give tlie young a start 
 in life. 
 
 It lias been no small task to boil down this infor- 
 mation. The result is far from satisfactory. I sus- 
 pect that there are more plums than pudding, but lit- 
 tle Jack won't mind. I have aimed to make a useful 
 rather than a brilliant book. If I had had more time, 
 it would be briefer and better. But life is short. 
 
 I have told my story in j^lain English, so that he 
 who runs may read; and have avoided fine writing, 
 padding, and exaggeration. There is no use in fill- 
 ing young people's minds with vain hopes. Not 
 every one can make a fortune or a national reputa- 
 tion, but he who possesses health, ordinary ability, 
 honesty and industry can at least earn a livelihood. 
 
 I don't particularly care for the "smart Alecks," 
 who will always make their way. My chief concern 
 is for the average boy, who distrusts himself, and who 
 needs to be shown that the race is not always to the 
 swift, that " slow and easy goes far in a day, " that bril- 
 liant men are wayward, and that there are plentj' of 
 opportunities for ordinary folks to win the comforts 
 of life, and perhaps more. 
 
 I hope by setting up a few guideposts on life's 
 j)athway to prevent the beginner from taking a leap 
 in the dark, and to save him from wasted effort. 
 
 C. F. W.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Inclination. 
 
 PAOE 
 
 What Do You Want to Do?— The Child is Father to the 
 Man — Early Traits of Children — Boys' Games and 
 Occupations, 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Qualifications. 
 
 Aptitude — Strong and Weak Points — Law of Compensation 
 — Sharpen Your Tools — Self-Investigation — Two Ex- 
 amination Papers, 6 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Physical Equipment. 
 
 Health a Boy's Chief Capital — Value of Staying-Powers — 
 Smoking and Drinking — Danger of Overstudy — Work 
 Performed by Semi-Invalids — Unwholesome Occupa- 
 tions — Outdoor Exercise — Cultivate a Love of Nature 
 — The Strain of Responsibility — Learn to " Go Slow, " . 12 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 How Are You Traenino Your Children? 
 
 Study Children's Traits — Home Training 8upi)lements the 
 School — Make Companions of Children — Table Talk —
 
 xii Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Vividness of Early Impressions — Cultivate Children's 
 Curiosity— Don't Coddle Them, 17 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Moral Tratning. 
 
 Cultivate Ideals in the Young — Develop Grace and Courtesy 
 — Influence of Example — Home Discipline — Physical 
 Courage — Excessive Indulgence — Prudery in Parents, 26 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Home Life of Famous Persons. 
 
 Miss Prances E. Willard — Charles Kingsley — Ruskin — Wen- 
 dell Phillips and Roundell Palmer, . . . .33 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Penalty op Prosperity. 
 
 How Rich Men's Sons are Spoiled — How to Counteract 
 Luxury — Practical Teaching Essential for Every One — 
 A Suggestive Advertisement, 37 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Don't Overw^ork the Children. 
 
 Spencer and Huxley on Precocious Children — Dangers from 
 Overstudy — Wholesome Play — Education Not a Por- 
 ous Plaster — Nature's Methods, 40 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 I*CRLic OR Private Schools? 
 
 Home Training Deficient — Boarding-Schools ; Advantages 
 and Drawbacks — Military Drill Helpful — Class Spirit — 
 Benefits of Public Schools — Need of Manual Training, 45
 
 Contents. xiii 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 What to Read. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Books that Shape Men's Lives — Libraries and Children- 
 How to Create a Taste for Reading — James Russell 
 Lowell's Views — A Boy's Library — E. E. Hale and O. 
 W. Holmes on Study — What Books to Choose — Learn to 
 Speak and Write — Letter-Writing Good Practice— Join 
 a Debating-Club, 51 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Value op Agreeable Manners. 
 Courtesy Oils the Machinery of Life — The Art of Making 
 Friends — Cultivate the Social Faculty — Men with a 
 Genius for Friendship — Franklin on Disputation — 
 Examples of Urbane Men and the Reverse — Shyness a 
 Fault — Army and Navy Officers Always Polite — 
 Every One Helps the Genial Man, . . . .62 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 The Country Boy. 
 Effects of Environment — The Country Boy — Opportuni- 
 ties in Small Communities — Try the Nearest Thing 
 First — Discussion at the Twilight Club— Climbing a 
 Long or a Short Ladder — Famous Men Born in Small 
 Places — Country Boys in Public Life, . . . .71 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 The City Boy. 
 
 Public-School Studies Superficial — "Clerk Factories" — In- 
 competent Applicants for Situations — "Genteel Occu- 
 pations" — Openings for City Boys, . . . .77 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Learning a Trade. 
 The Best Field for a Boy Who Likes Tools— Employers 
 Who Have Risen from the Ranks — Trades Becoming
 
 xiv Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Dignified — Manual Training-Schools — The Plumber's 
 Field — Value of Technical Training — What Workmen 
 Should Read, 82 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Shall I Go to College? 
 
 Sharpen Your Tools — Advantages of College Training — In- 
 creasing Attendance at Colleges — The Money Cost — Pay- 
 ing One's Way — Large or Small Colleges? — Temptations 
 and Dangers— Social Benefits — Classical Study — Both 
 Sides of the College Question, 99 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Journalism. 
 
 Editors verms Writers— Insight or Expression — Strong Con- 
 victions Essential to Good Writing — "A Nose for 
 News" — Schools of Journalism — Newspaper Training — 
 Reporting a Fine Art— City or Country Papers — The 
 Country Editor — Young Men Preferred — Newspaper 
 Salaries— Editors as Offlce-Holders 116 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 The Legal Profession. 
 
 Its Popularity — A Lawyer's Daily Duties — How to Study 
 Law — Breadth of Culture Indispensable — Where to 
 Start — Work, the Secret of Success — How to Deal with 
 Judges and Juries — Advice from Veterans — Rules of 
 Conduct — Fees — Law and Politics, .... 135 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 The Art of Public Speaking. 
 
 Practice Makes Perfect — Use of the Voice — Condensed Lan- 
 guage — Wendell Phillips — Skill in Debate — Webster's 
 Mode of Preparation — John Bright and Garabetta — 
 Gesture — Gladstone — Bismarck — Emerson — Matthew
 
 Contents. xv 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Arnold — Don't be Acrimonious — Reading Manuscript 
 — Persuasiveness, . . . ' 157 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Medicine. 
 
 Numbers in the Profession— Strain of Practice — Fees — 
 Preventive Medicine— Only Capable Men in Demand — 
 Dr. J. S. Billings on Study — Large or Small Colleges — 
 The Medical Student— The Country Doctor— Dr. Willard 
 Parker's Advice— Hard Workers — The Physician and 
 Society — Tact and Gravity — Hotel Doctors— Examples 
 of Success — Sir Andrew Clark a Model Physician, . 169 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 The Engineering Profession. 
 
 Its Antiquity and Honors — Control of Natural Forces — Pay 
 of Engineers— Blunders of Unskilled Men— Qualifica- 
 tions Required— Need of Culture and Literary Training 
 — How to Handle Men — Fitness for Responsibility — 
 School or Shop? 188 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Elements of Success. 
 
 What is Success — Men with a Grievance— Average Success 
 — Opinions of Notable Men— Model Americans— The 
 Lesson of Failure— Jowett's Opinion — Early Success a 
 Drawback — How Not to Succeed, 209 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Business. 
 
 Meaning of the Word— Training for Business— Boyish Ex- 
 periments — Andrew Carnegie on Business Success — 
 Folly of Speculating — High Salaries— Value of Prestige 
 — Methods of Making Money — Foresight — Mastery of 
 Details— Thrift— The Risks of Business— How to Win 
 Promotion— How to Fail in Business, . , . .319
 
 xvi Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 New Opportunities. 
 
 PAOE 
 
 Variety of Occupations Available— Hawthorne on Choos- 
 ing a Profession— Supply Something that People Want 
 —Practical Advice— Seek New Paths— Marvellous Ma- 
 terial Development of the Nation— The Producing Field 
 — Changes in Occupations — Census Statistics — Veter- 
 inary Science— Electrical Engineering— Telegraphy- 
 Mining — Real Estate — Architecture — Forestry — Farm- 
 ing — Chemistry — Dentistry — Pharmacy — Teaching — 
 Life Insurance — Railway Contracting 249 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Turning -Points in Life. 
 
 When do Men Come to Maturity? — Achievements of Youth- 
 ful Genius — Men who Mature Late— The Twenty-sixth 
 Year — Examples of Success Won at that Age, . . 280
 
 WHAT SHALL OUR BOYS DO 
 FOR A LIVING? 
 
 CHAPTEK I. 
 
 INCLINATION 
 
 What Do you Want to Do?— The Child Father of the Man- 
 Early Traits of Children — Boys' Games and Occupations. 
 
 If you ask, "What shall I do?" I answer, "What 
 do you want to do?" Do you delight in any one oc- 
 cupation? Are you inclined to study, or do you pre- 
 fer practical things? Do 3'ou like to handle tools? 
 Can you draw with any skill? Have 3'ou the bar- 
 gaining faculty? Or do you aspire above all things 
 to make money? 
 
 Again, what books interest you — history, travels, 
 biography, fiction, science, or mechanics? In the 
 lives of famous men what actions move you to emula- 
 tion, the exploits of heroes like Sherman and Farra- 
 gut; the struggles of inventors like Goodyear and 
 Howe; the explorations of Dr. Kane, Fremont, 
 Stanley, and Livingstone; the deeds of navigators;
 
 2 ' ' JFJiat' SiiaU Our Boys Do for a Livinrj? 
 
 iiie triiiiiipfis of 'olrators; the successes of lawyers and 
 editors; the surgeon's skill or the engineer's labors? 
 Most young folks long for a life of adventure like that 
 of Kit Carson and Buffalo Bill, but they soon outgrow 
 such fancies. 
 
 If you have any special desire, define it clearly. 
 Write it down thus : " I would be a lawyer or an edi- 
 tor, a merchant or an engineer." See how it looks in 
 plain English, and think it over. This simple act 
 may convince you that you are mistaken, or it may 
 decide your future. If you want to do anything very 
 much, "the way is apt to open," as the Quakers say. 
 " What you will, that you can do." "Thoughts are 
 acts." 
 
 "But suppose I have no choice?" I answer, 
 very few • }■ oung persons have, and their lives are 
 usually shaped by accident or chance. But there is 
 a decided advantage in having a definite and clear 
 purpose in life, to know what port your ship is bound 
 for, and not to drift at the mercy of every passing 
 breeze. 
 
 All pursuits have their good and bad sides, and 
 there is no royal road to -prosperity. The average 
 man is fitted quite a3 well for one occupation as for 
 another, and the same principles of action will bring 
 success in every line of effort. Aptitude comes as 
 much from special training as from native gifts. The 
 " all-round" man will make his way anywhere. 
 
 A boy of fifteen, near Philadelphia, fretted and 
 annoyed his friends by refusing to study, and was al- 
 ways hanging around the church and seizing chances 
 to play the organ. No one discerned the boy's latent 
 musical gifts, till the rector was consulted in the
 
 WJiat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 3 
 
 matter ; and now the boy is earning good pay as an 
 organist. Another boy in Chicago, whose father had 
 marked musical talent, which, however, was never 
 developed, has been paid as high as $75 a week as a 
 violinist, with prospects of a brilliant future. 
 
 Such parental blunders seem almost criminal, yet 
 it is difficult to prevent them. 
 
 As the new-born duck takes to the water, so Ben- 
 jamin West painted the baby asleep in the cradle, 
 Webster committed the Constitution of the United 
 States printed on a handkerchief to memory, and a 
 thousand other youth instinctivel}^ turned toward 
 the bourne of their desires. Little Tom Macaulay, 
 stretched on a rug at Hannah More's house with a 
 book in one hand and a slice of bread in the other, 
 was the precursor of Lord Macaulay, the historian, 
 just as James Watt, curiously watching his aunt's 
 tea-kettle, was the progenitor of the inventor of the 
 steam-engine. 
 
 Charles Kingsley, a clergyman's son, began to 
 preach to a congregation of chairs, when he was four ; 
 at seven he interrupted a Latin lesson to point to the 
 grate with the exclamation: "Papa, there's pyrites 
 in the coal" ; his poetic imagination found free devel- 
 opment among the Fens, while his earl}^ impressions 
 of life in a Devonshire port resulted in the poem of 
 the "Three Fishers." 
 
 Where a boy has strong and positive tendencies, it 
 is not wise to oppose them. The child is father to 
 the man. Observe what traits he inherits, and whom 
 among his relatives he most resembles; whether he 
 has mechanical or musical or mathematical gifts. 
 Notice what kind of playmates he selects, and what
 
 4 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 amusements give him most pleasure. Does he enjoy 
 whittling and handling tools? Is he forever poring 
 over books? Has he any fondness for drawing? 
 Does he like to swap marbles and jack-knives with 
 his friends? With boys of strong natures it is easy 
 to find some clew to their natural tendencies. Often 
 they choose their own pursuit in life and save their 
 friends the trouble. 
 
 It is more difficult with the youth who is wrong- 
 headed or fanciful; who wants to be a pirate, or to 
 fight Indians, or to go to sea. Such boys must 
 be handled like young colts, with tact and discre- 
 tion. 
 
 Then there are the "Miss Nancy" kind of youth, 
 who will not venture to do anything that is not gen- 
 teel, and who dislike to soil their delicate fingers. 
 With such finical fellows I have small concern. A 
 berth in a broker's or law office, where the hours are 
 short and the work easy, with the companionship of 
 other dudes, will satisfj" them. 
 
 Lastly, and most important, are the boys who 
 make up the great average, who have no special 
 capacity or tendency in any one direction, but who 
 are steady, honest, fairly intelligent, with moderate 
 energy; who will keep pegging away, and, if prop- 
 erl}^ started in life, will at least gain a decent living. 
 They are the sons of Lincoln's " plain people" ; and, 
 while they maj^ not set the Thames on fire, they will, 
 in most cases, get along in the world. 
 
 The future lot of most bo^s is usually the result of 
 circumstance. If they make a wise choice, and the 
 square peg gets into the square hole, happj^ are they. 
 But if the born machinist becomes a lawyer's clerk or
 
 fJliat Shall Our Boys Do /oi- a Living? 5 
 
 book-keeper, and the natural farmer takes to selling 
 dry-goods, thej- will surely regret it later on, and 
 will wish they had had some wise counsellor to set 
 them right at the start. Like Da\dd Crockett, " Be 
 sure you are right, and then go ahead." 
 
 Fifty-four pupils in the High School at Salina, 
 Kansas, were lately asked what calling they preferred. 
 Four chose law, six business, three wanted to be 
 book-keepers, one to study medicine, two preferred 
 the railroad service, —not a single boy wanted to be a 
 teacher, or a stenographer, or to learn a trade. One 
 wanted to be a musician and another to be a poli- 
 tician (!). More than half had changed their earlier 
 plans, because they had not enough means to carry 
 them out.
 
 CHAPTEE n. 
 
 QUALIFICATIONS. 
 
 Aptitude— Strong and Weak Points — Law of Compensation — 
 Sharpen your Tools — Self -Examination — Two Examination- 
 Papers. 
 
 Next to inclination comes the question of aptitude. 
 Youth is ambitious. It would scale the stars and 
 plan impossible deeds. It is wise, therefore, to gauge 
 your mental and physical powers, and by study and 
 comparison with others learn your strong and weak 
 points. 
 
 The soldier looks to his weapons before battle. 
 The jockey tightens his girths and examines every 
 buckle and strap in his harness. The mariner sounds 
 his pumps and overhauls his ship before sailing. 
 The locomotive engineer oils his cranks and sees that 
 the valves and gauges are in order. So also the youth 
 should carefully consider his equipment for life's 
 contest. Most men possess the same mental traits, 
 but in varying proportions. It is common to rate 
 every one by his best gifts, but a man, like a chain, is 
 no stronger than his weakest part. All have "the 
 faults of their qualities." The bright boy will be 
 rash, the slow youth over-cautious. If you can lift 
 great weights you cannot be a runner, and the agile 
 athlete is no Hercules. The bookworm will be dis- 
 tanced in practical affairs, while the rule-of-thumb 
 man cannot cope with the trained expert.
 
 What Shall Our Boys Bo for a Living ? 7 
 
 So, also, intellectual brilliancy is often neutralized 
 by moral weakness. Tlie highest genius may be 
 offset by a lazy or procrastinating habit. How many 
 gifted men have been destroyed by dissipation? The 
 Law of Compensation, so finely illustrated by Emer- 
 son, should encourage the young man of moderate 
 abilities, and warn his brilliant rival not to be over- 
 confident. Any moral taint infects the whole man. 
 "He that ruleth his spirit is greater than he that 
 taketh a citj'." Therefore fortify your weak points, 
 and thus strengthen youx resources. 
 
 The whole aim of education should be to develop 
 a man's higher nature; to teach him to understand 
 and master himself ; to supply a sword to cut his way, 
 and a shield to guard him from the enemy's assaults. 
 Mental development will not serve without moral 
 growth, any more than a ship can face a storm with- 
 out a rudder. 
 
 You can get some help in self-knowledge from 
 phrenology, though its analysis of the mind is em- 
 pirical and its practitioners are apt to flatter their 
 patrons. It will at least give you some idea of your 
 tendencies, and it may save you from attempting 
 things for which you are wholly unfitted. 
 
 In the old myth the good fairy's gifts to the infant 
 were always offset by some ill fortune. Like Achilles, 
 every one is vulnerable in some spot. Erastus Brooks 
 used to say, "Every man has some form of drunk." 
 Therefore do not boast of your strength, but humbly 
 pray not to be led into temptation, and be charitable 
 toward those who fail to resist it. 
 
 I would rather have the moral equipment of a 
 Sumner or Garrison, Horace Mann or "Chinese"
 
 8 Jf^hat Shall Oar Boys Do for a Living? 
 
 Gordon, than the most gigantic intellect bereft of 
 principle. The instant a public man shows moral 
 delinquency, whether he be a Webster, a Colfax, a 
 Parnell, Sir Charles Dilke or Boulanger, he loses the 
 esteem of the best people. Therefore do not envy or 
 be abashed because other men are brilliant, but wait 
 and see what are the compensating qualities in their 
 make-up. 
 
 Most young persons exclaim : " I want to do some- 
 thing!" But they must first he something, and to 
 this end thej^ must studj' and train themselves. To 
 get knowledge costs labor and time. Are you willing 
 to make the effort? 
 
 In every calling capacity is the chief element of 
 success. If you have something salable to dispose 
 of, you can usually command your price. Talent is 
 latent, but skill is due to training. The poet is born, 
 but practice makes perfect. 
 
 A man's brain, like any other tool, must have an 
 edge to it. Therefore, I say to young men : Shaiyen 
 your tools on any grindstone you can find — books, 
 school-teachers, lectures, conversation, or contact with 
 men or things. This is what we call education — de- 
 velopment from within, not a plaster placed without. 
 
 Ward's "Indian Hunter" in Central Park, New 
 York, shows the untutored savage, with no weapons 
 but his bow and no aid but his dog, but with everj^ 
 faculty trained to the utmost. He is " a v/hole man, " 
 and not, like so many civilized beings, a warped, in- 
 ert, incapable creature. Much of the mental equip- 
 ment furnished in our schools and colleges suggests 
 Saul's cumbersome armor, which Da\'id rejected in 
 favor of his sling; or it may be compared to the
 
 Wliai Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 9 
 
 firecrackers and gongs with which the Chinese 
 frighten their enemies. George Combe's admirable 
 simile of the sailor preparing for a voyage, 3'et igno- 
 rant of his destination; without a chart, not knowing 
 what cargo he carries or what to do with it, is still 
 applicable to the graduates of many schools. 
 
 It would be a good discipline for any one to honestly 
 set down his exact mental and moral traits, after the 
 manner of an application for life insurance, or of a 
 civil-service blank, thus : 
 
 Do you come of health}^ stock? 
 
 What are 3' our weak i^oints physically? 
 
 Do you inherit energy, industry, courage and 
 nerve? 
 
 Are you lazy, selfish, fond of display, extravagant, 
 vain, prone to any form of dissipation, or untruthful? 
 
 Do you like work? 
 
 Do you ever save? 
 
 Who are your heroes, and what are your ideals? 
 
 Do you wish merely to have money and enjoy life? 
 
 What are your favorite books and authors? 
 
 With whom do you associate, and are you made 
 better or worse by such associates ? 
 
 Are -yon at all interested in public affairs? 
 
 Suppose a young man should prepare an advertise- 
 ment or poster after the style of the Horse or Dog 
 Show, setting forth his qualifications and pedigree, 
 somewhat in this fashion : 
 
 CASE NO. 1. 
 
 Stock : Good English blood, with respectable sur- 
 roundings and cultivated associates. 
 Training: Not broken to harness. Has been
 
 10 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 through a public school aud college, but has never 
 been taught anything practical. 
 
 Habits : Don't like hard work, and shies at obstacles 
 and tough pulling. Temj^er, fair; doesn't bite or 
 kick, but has never been tested. 
 
 CASE NO. 2. 
 
 Capacit}' : Can work ten hours a day with relish. 
 Understands two languages. Can write and speak 
 English correctly. Has practised at a debating-club, 
 and knows how to talk on his feet. 
 
 Temper: Genial, sociable, makes friends easily, 
 yet is not given to dissipation. Ambitious, confident, 
 yet not conceited; has a vein of caution. Saves a 
 little money every year. 
 
 Training : Has had some drill in a business college, 
 and has travelled considerably. 
 
 Has no bad habits. 
 
 Suppose you also answer the following questions. 
 
 What do you know of the every-day things right 
 around you? 
 
 Could you explain the working of the telephone, 
 steam-engine, or electric light? 
 
 Can you distinguish one common forest-tree from 
 another hj its leaves or bark? 
 
 Do you know the points of a horse? 
 
 Can you tell a good painting or statue from a bad 
 one? 
 
 Have you heard the notable preachers or orators 
 of your time, or visited the famous institutions of 
 your home? 
 
 Do you read the best books aud periodicals or the 
 worst?
 
 What Shall Our Boi/s Do for a Living ? 11 
 
 Could you explain to an intelligent and curious for- 
 eigner liow an election for president or governor is 
 conducted, or why you believe in a democratic form 
 of government? 
 
 Have 3'ou ever been through a printing-establish- 
 ment, rolling-mill, ship-yard, grain-elevator, prison, 
 or fort? 
 
 Can you talk intelligently to a company of half a 
 dozen persons without diffidence or effrontery? 
 
 Can you sail a boat, swim, shoot, skate, chop a tree, 
 or plow a furrow? 
 
 If you were shipwrecked and cast on a desert island, 
 could you be of any real service? 
 
 Have you ever earned $10 at one time? 
 
 I fancy such a test would take the conceit out of 
 some youngsters.
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 PHYSICAL EQUIPMENT. 
 
 Health a Boy's Chief Capital— Value of Staying-Powers— 
 Smoking and Drinking — Danger of Overstudy — Work Per- 
 formed by Semi-Invalids — Unwholesome Occupations — Out- 
 door Exercise — Cultivate a Love of Nature — The Strain of Re- 
 sponsibility — Learn to " Go Slow. " 
 
 President Eliot says : " Professional success de- 
 pends largely upon the vigor of the body" ; and this 
 is true in every pursuit. A boy should be a good 
 animal. His best luck would be to have healthy 
 parents. Staying-power is a vital factor. The youth 
 who can study longest and work hardest is apt to win 
 first place. If he saps his constitution by cigarette- 
 smoking or dissipation, he simply throws away his 
 chance. Regarding tobacco, I told my son: "You 
 must not smoke until you have reached your growth; 
 then you can decide for yourself." Mr. Beecher 
 said to an audience of business men : " If you want 
 to use your brain to the best advantage, don't fuddle 
 it with liquor." A healthy man has no use for stimu- 
 lants. Every one knows their danger. 
 
 Good health insures cheerfulness as well as endur- 
 ance. It saves from crankiness, laziness and despon- 
 dency. How many men are made miserable and 
 become a nuisance to their associates because of dys- 
 pepsia? Every young man should read some book
 
 WJiat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 13 
 
 like Combe's or Huxley's "Physiology," and learn 
 how to preserve his health, which is his chief capi- 
 tal. 
 
 Edison, who can toil for forty-eight hours without 
 rest or food, knows no leisure and is prematurely old. 
 Napoleon defied fatigue, but he had fits of sleepi- 
 ness. He lost two battles from over-eating. Nature 
 will have her revenge for any excess. As Dr. Foth- 
 ergill illustrates in his "Law of Physiological Bank- 
 ruptcy," every hour of over-strain must be balanced 
 by an hour of rest, or the physical bank will stop 
 payment. 
 
 Young men should be warned against over-study. 
 Dr. Hammond mentions two brilliant 3'oung men who 
 were offered $10,000, if either graduated at the head 
 of his class. The younger stuck to his books sixteen 
 hours a da}^, and, failing (from exhaustion, doubt- 
 less) increased his study to eighteen hours. He 
 broke down, and died in wild delirium, shouting: 
 " Derby will get the valedictory !" 
 
 It is the pace that tells. Those who strain their 
 faculties in youth i^ay the penalty b}^ premature 
 death or breakdown. Americans must learn to work 
 rationally to accomplish great things. 
 
 To the eager beginner, and especially to the delicate 
 youth, I would point to the remarkable achievements 
 of semi-invalids in every walk of life. We have lately 
 seen extraordinary examples of mental vigor at an 
 advanced age in the cases of Gladstone, Von Moltke, 
 Pope Leo XIII., Emerson, Bryant, O. W. Holmes, 
 Commodore Vanderbilt, David Dudley Field, Bis- 
 marck, George Bancroft, Cardinal Manning, Dr. 
 Willard Parker, Judge Thurman, and Charles
 
 14 WJiat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 O' Conor. Yet maii}^ of these octogenarians were far 
 from strong in early life. 
 
 In choosing an occupation, the question of health 
 is all-important. An active life should always be 
 preferred to a sedentarj^ one. I would rather be a 
 car-driver or conductor than be penned up in a dingj^ 
 office at twice the pay. 
 
 Clergymen are specially long-lived, because their 
 habits are regular. They are not exposed to the ele- 
 ments, seldom miss their meals or their sleep, and 
 have not much worry. Lawyers come next, and lit- 
 erary men and scholars rank high for longevity. 
 Doctors lead irregular lives and die in their prime. 
 Farmers and sailors appear to be healthful, yet they 
 suffer from rheumatism and other effects of exposure. 
 Farmers' wives often become insane because of their 
 monotonous and arduous labor. Factory-hands, 
 printers, tailors, shoemakers, and other persons who 
 labor in ill-ventilated shops and workrooms, espe- 
 cially if exposed to grit or dust, suffer from lung 
 troubles and other disorders. In Great Britain the 
 shortest-lived classes are tavern-keepers and butchers, 
 who are tempted to drink. The ruddy faces of brake- 
 men, drivers, porters, and out-door workers of all 
 kinds show that their occupations are healthful. It 
 is the same with bricklayers and masons, in contrast 
 to miners and file-cutters. 
 
 Every youth should join a gymnasium or boat- 
 club, ride a bicycle, and take plenty of out-door exer- 
 cise. Many employers compel their clerks to take 
 vacations, as they work all the better for the rest and 
 change. Physical exercise is especially needed in 
 cities, to counteract the tendency to deterioration.
 
 JVJiat Shall Our Botjh Do for a Lluhnj ? 15 
 
 Cities are "tlie great maws which eat up the vital 
 force of the people." Good health is au aid to good 
 morals. The soft-fibred nations are most given to 
 immorality, and create "degenerates." Kational 
 recreation is a safeguard against vice. 
 
 Americans are lazy, and too fond of driving and of 
 billiards. They should cultivate the English habit 
 of pedestrianism, and not think that holding the reins 
 behind a trotter is the ideal enjoyment. They should 
 learn to love nature, and then they would take keen 
 delight in rambles amid the woods or by the sea- 
 shore, and in out-door study and observation. Read 
 John Burroughs' bracing books to acquire such 
 tastes. 
 
 Exercise should not aim merely to make muscle, but 
 to supply a good appetite, good digestion, and good 
 sleep. Julian Hawthorne points out that champion 
 athletes are mere shells of muscle, who grow stale, 
 pine away, and are old at forty-five; and an English 
 reviewer remarks : " Earl}' maturity means premature 
 decay." Moderation in all things, whether physical 
 or intellectual, is the secret of long life. 
 
 Physical strength is essential in many positions. 
 One reason why women cannot compete with men in 
 many occupations is because they cannot lift heavy 
 articles, like printers' forms, or work long hours, or 
 come and go late at night. 
 
 A number of men who have won fame and fortune 
 have recently died, while still in the prime of life, 
 notably Col. John Cockerell, formerly of the New 
 York World; H. C. Bunner, editor of Pack; and 
 Col. F. K. Hain, manager of the Manhattan Ele- 
 vated Railway. T. C. Potter, who was made general
 
 16 What Shall Our Boys Do for a TAving ? 
 
 manager of the Union Pacific, with a salary of $30,- 
 000, and a bonus of $10,000 annually, died in two 
 years from over-work. Men in i)ositions of respon- 
 sibility should refuse to do anything which can be 
 delegated to others, and thus save their strength for 
 really important matters. Corporations and business 
 firms should encourage their managers in so doing, so 
 as to maintain their highest efficiency. 
 
 Any one who observes the worn and wearied look on 
 so many men's faces can appreciate that, as Herbert 
 Spencer pointed out in 1882, Americans need to prac- 
 tise "The Gospel of Eelaxation." The increasing 
 devotion to wheeling and other forms of out-door ex- 
 ercise is therefore an encouraging sign. 
 
 The number of suicides from despondency and 
 nervous exhaustion is evidence of a lack of stamina 
 and pluck, due to our artificial and high-pressure 
 civilization. No man in health should seek self- 
 destruction, or give up the fight, when there are such 
 boundless opportunities to make a fresh start after 
 one or several failures. 
 
 Many men become weak and inert, just at the 
 period known to phj^sicians as "the forties," when 
 they should be able to do their best. Young men 
 who are ambitious to achieve great things must hus- 
 band their resources and recognize the importance of 
 the element of time in all undertakings. Therefore 
 don't be in a hurry, but make haste slowly, "like a 
 star, unhasting — unresting."
 
 CHAPTEll IV. 
 
 HOW ARE YOU TRAINING YOUR CHILDREN? 
 
 Study Children's Traits — Home Training Supplements the 
 School — Make Companions of Children — Table-Talk — Vividness 
 of Early Impressions — Cultivate Children's Curiosity — Don't 
 Coddle Them. 
 
 A WELL-KNOWN woman journalist wrote regarding 
 this question, which was the topic for discussion be- 
 fore a New York club : " I don't know how other 
 I)arents manage, but I am free to admit that my chil- 
 dren are training me. I started with some ideas, but 
 so did they, and it is theirs which are being carried 
 out. If any of your club can tell me how I can get 
 ahead a little, I shall be charmed to try the method." 
 
 The same confession would doubtless be made by 
 many other American parents. "Train up a boy 
 and away he goes," said Captain Cuttle, yet right 
 training, as a rule, makes good men and women. 
 
 We are slowly discovering that we must study our 
 children's mental and moral traits, and the wisest 
 men and women of the age are following Froebel and 
 Pestalozzi, and trying to comprehend just how chil- 
 dren observe and reason, and how they grow. It is 
 a hard task, but quite as interesting and perhaps as 
 important, as studying the nature and habits of bees 
 and ants. Kipling says only women understand chil- 
 dren, but that, if a mere man keeps very quiet and 
 2
 
 18 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Livuxj ? 
 
 humbles himself proi)erly, children will sometimes 
 let him see what they are thinking about. Few 
 fathers, alas ! are willing to take that trouble. 
 
 Most persons, without much reflection, send their 
 children to school because it is the custom to do it, 
 or because it is convenient to get them out of the 
 way. Few ever visit the school to see how the boy 
 or girl is progressing. All responsibility is thrown 
 on the teacher, and the parents don't bother them- 
 selves any further. They want their children to 
 learn to read, write and cipher, and obtain a smat- 
 tering of useful information and accomplishments; 
 as if that was the sole purpose of education. The 
 value of education as a means toward building char- 
 acter is ignored, and the I'esult is seen in the low 
 standard of achievement attained by the mass of the 
 pupils. 
 
 Home training should supply the deficiencies of 
 the school course, but what sort of training are ordi- 
 nary parents capable of giving? 
 
 Harriet Martineau held that home training had 
 advantages on the moral side, but that school train- 
 ing was better on the intellectual side. There is no 
 stimulus like rubbing shoulders with other students 
 who have like interests and aspirations. One also 
 gains knowledge of the world and of human nature at 
 school, which cannot be obtained at home. 
 
 Private schools are not, in my judgment, equal to 
 public schools, for the reason that the pupils in the 
 former belong to but one grade of society. I be- 
 lieve that a boy should mix freely with other boys, 
 and not be too restricted in his associations. The 
 public school represents the world in little, and it is
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a LiviiKj ? 19 
 
 the best traiiiing for the great world we all have to 
 live and work in. The pupils show a certain manly 
 vigor and democratic spirit which can only be ob- 
 tained by mixing with boys of all ages and degrees. 
 The subject of going to school will be dealt with later. 
 But, whatever the school, the system, discipline, 
 and stimulus have a beneficial effect. In the domestic 
 circle the child soon quotes his teacher as an oracle, 
 and marvels at his attainments. 
 
 — "And still the wonder grew. 
 That one small head could carry all he knew. " 
 
 But the parent can supplement the teachers' labors 
 if he cannot su^iersede them, and open the boy's mind 
 to things not supplied in the school course. I have 
 noticed that the very rarity of the father's presence 
 causes what he says or does to have greater influence 
 than the mother's constant urging. On the other 
 hand, improjjer home training may neutralize the 
 school instruction. If the child hears bad English 
 spoken at home, and sees its parents eat with their 
 knives, it will surely imitate them. 
 
 Fortunate is the boy or girl who is brought up in a 
 real "Home," with sisters and brothers and play- 
 mates of both sexes. Nothing tends more to breed 
 selfishness than to be an only child. The free inter- 
 course of girls and boys in the family, as in the school, 
 exerts a bracing effect on both sexes. Jean Paul 
 liichter said it is even better for girls than for boys. 
 In such a home there are healthful vents for animal 
 spirits and youthful excitement. Books and pictures 
 should abound, though the talk need not be too liter- 
 ary, so that young folks may absorb knowledge
 
 20 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 through their skins. James Russell Lowell, though 
 a careless student at college, lived in an atmosphere 
 of culture and " breathed it in. " 
 
 Experienced teachers can tell at once whether 
 pupils receive proper home training. Wliere books 
 and pictures and magazines abound, and the talk is 
 not all about petty trifles and gossip, children's 
 minds expand. Where the reverse is the case, they 
 become mentally and morally stunted. 
 
 Jean Paul Richter notes at what an early age chil- 
 dren can be treated as rational beings. Companion- 
 ship with adults has a wonderful ejffect upon them. 
 If a group of boys and girls start alone on a walk, 
 they are almost sure to squabble about something, 
 whereas they will be perfectly happy with their 
 elders. Where there is not too much difference of 
 age among the members of a family, children can be 
 made true companions. Yarietj- of taste can be cul- 
 tivated, and music, art, elocution and literature will 
 all have their votaries. 
 
 Talk freely to your children at table, and keep in 
 touch with their feelings and interests. Almost any 
 topic can be made interesting to the young, if it is 
 not dragged in by the neck and ears, like the tutor's 
 discourses in "Sandford and Merton," and made the 
 subject of a sermon or a lecture. In the street, on 
 the ferryboat or steam-car, or when walking through 
 woods or by the seashore, seize the moment of ex- 
 cited curiosity to supply food for thought and for in- 
 formation. It is enough to set children thinking; 
 you touch the imagination, and they do the rest. 
 Who can describe the vivid imi)ressions which the 
 panorama of life creates in the mind of the ordinary
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 21 
 
 child? The picturesque record of the daily journals — 
 earthquakes, shijjwrecks, conflagrations, and all the 
 " moving accidents b}' flood and field" — interest every 
 child, because they are new, but still more because 
 they are true. Every girl or boy prefers a story that 
 is " really so, " just as the Indian students at Hamp- 
 ton take a deep interest in history, but will not listen 
 to fiction; and such incidents as the sinking of the 
 Elbe or the Maine, the Johnstown flood, or the Colum- 
 bian Naval Parade, appeal to the youthful imagination 
 more than the greatest events of the past or the most 
 romantic tale. 
 
 When my children repeated the facts they had 
 learned in this way to their playmates, the latter ex- 
 pressed great surprise, and said : " Our papa never 
 reads the paper out loud or tells us anything. " Many 
 fathers are too inert or laz}" to do their duty; and 
 hence the triviality and flatness of the table-talk in 
 many homes. 
 
 A "New Woman" writes in defence of American 
 mothers, and with keen iron}' points out the deficien- 
 cies of modern fathers : 
 
 " One might wonder, should there be examples of 
 great paternal manliness perpetually before our boys, 
 if there might not be an elevation of their ideals ; if, 
 mayhap, they were not fed at table upon moral meat 
 that nourishes the importance of money-getting above 
 aught else, upon conversation that smacks of the 
 gains of base-ball teams, or upon the toothsome pros- 
 pect of i)Ossibly " licking" England. Oue wonders if 
 between meals and business hours fathers might not 
 plan something for the boys, so that their energies 
 could be harmlessly employed. Might not fathers
 
 22 IVhal Hhtll Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 select for and read with })C)\ s tliat 'good reading' so 
 much deplored when left undone? One almost won- 
 ders why boys cannot be refined into fathers, as a 
 short cut to a very desirable goal." 
 
 At Rugby, famous in "Tom Brown's Schooldays," 
 the Ijoys are required to read the newspapers, and a 
 recent examination pai)er contained (juestions about 
 the Armenian question, Cuba, the Congo, Madagas- 
 car, the race for the American Cup, and other mat- 
 ters of current interest. The Eev. E. E. Hale says 
 his mother read the whole of the Waverley novels to 
 each of his brothers and sisters after they reached a 
 certain age. 
 
 The most vivid impressions of my childhood were 
 created by the surging life of the city streets, the 
 awful dignity of the New York "cop," the shocking 
 scenes at nearby slaughter-houses open to every 
 passer-by, the walks to High Bridge, Greenwood 
 Cemetery and the Elysian Fields, the circus posters 
 on fence and wall, the excitement and thrill of great 
 conflagrations ; later the street parades to celebrate 
 the laying of the Atlantic cable and the visit of Kos- 
 suth, the arrival of the monster Great Eastern, the 
 great war-meetings at Union Square and Cooper In- 
 stitute where I heard Wendell Phillii:)S, Beecher, 
 Charles Sumner, Curtis, Fred Douglas and Garrison 
 speak ; and last, but not least, the regiments marching 
 do^Ti Broadway, and the anxious crowds around the 
 bulletins, the thrilling cry of "Extra!" after some 
 deadly battle, the rejoicing over the victories, the 
 terror and disgrace of the " draft riots," the tragedy of 
 Lincoln's assassination, and the painful spectacle of 
 the fragments of battalions, with their tattered flags,
 
 Whnf Shall Oar Bni/s Dn f,,r a Lii'lm/ ? 23 
 
 returning home. Such sights and scenes stamj^ed 
 themselves upon my mind in a manrwer never to be 
 effaced. 
 
 So, in my school experience, three incidents out- 
 weigh in vividness all the tedious six years' iustruc- 
 tion: the lectures upon Pompeii, by the late James 
 W. Gerard; an account of " bleeding Kansas," by an- 
 other trustee, who showed a gigantic ear of corn with 
 its many rows of grain, from that fruitful State; and 
 lastly, a glowing sketch of the inventor of the modern 
 locomotive, by our principal, David B. Scott, which 
 led scores of his hearers to read Smiles' admirable 
 "Life of Stephenson," and thus opened up a wide 
 field of interest. 
 
 Great use may be made of walks amid fine scenery, 
 or to famous places like West Point, Stony Point, 
 Fort Lafayette, Old Point Comfort, or the scene of 
 the Hamilton-Burr duel, or other local historic scenes 
 to be found everywhere if you take the trouble to 
 look for them. I never feel so much interest in his- 
 tory as when standing on some famous site. In- 
 struction and pleasure can be combined in such ex- 
 cursions. 
 
 Most educated persons seem to be half blind. How 
 few of them are keen observers of every-day things. 
 Sherlock Holmes has showed us all our lack of 
 I)erception. I believe in developing every child's 
 capacity to see straight and true. Practice in draw- 
 ing is a great aid to this. You never discover that 
 you don't see an object correctly till you try to sketch 
 it. Any one who can learn to write can l)e taught to 
 draw. 
 
 Richter says we should continually ask childi'en,
 
 24 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Lwiug ? 
 
 "Why?" The teacher's queries will find more open 
 ears than his answers. Dr. Arnold ever sought to 
 make his Eugby boys find out things for themselves, 
 and rarely told them what they wanted to know. 
 Make a channel for the child's vital force, which is 
 wasted in i:)ranks and mischief, and it will quickly fol- 
 low your lead. An active child will soon tire of 
 climbing stairs, but the steepest hill will not weary if 
 he is in search of some interesting object. 
 
 Most children have an insatiable curiosity, a hun- 
 ger to know about every-day things. It is said a 
 child learns more in the first five years of life than 
 ever afterward. I would rather take a party of chil- 
 dren to visit a place of interest than an average adult. 
 How fresh and lively their interest ! How quick and 
 accurate their observation, and how receptive their 
 minds, like wax to retain impressions ! In compari- 
 son, older folks seem to be "thickly padded with 
 stupidity," to use George Eliot's phrase. 
 
 Children are wayward, laz}-, and selfish, but they 
 have generous instincts and a keen sense of right. 
 They are the best companions and the warmest 
 friends. One can easily understand why Froebel and 
 Pestalozzi gave their lives to children. 
 
 John Stuart Mill, who was the subject of an educa- 
 tional experiment made by his father and Bentham, 
 the famous economist, said that his father's idea was 
 to make children understand one thing thoroughly, 
 and he himself believed this not only to be a good 
 exercise for the mind, but to create in them a stand- 
 ard by which to judge of their knowledge of other 
 subjects. He did not like things to be made too easy 
 or too agreeable to children. "The plums should
 
 What SMI Our Boys Do for a Living ? 25 
 
 not be picked out for them, or it is very doubtful 
 whether they will ever be at the trouble of learning 
 what is less pleasant." For childhood the art is to 
 apportion the diflSculties to the a^, but he pointed 
 out that in life there is no such adaptation. Life 
 must be a struggle, and children should learn to over- 
 come difficulties. 
 
 A striking example of the folly of attempting to 
 mould children's characters after a fixed and arbitrary 
 plan was shown in tlie case of Mr. Day, author of 
 " Sandford and Merton," who educated two girls from 
 infancy the same as boys, with most laughable re- 
 sults, as nature would out, and when forbidden the 
 pleasure of dolls they took to petting and nursing 
 rabbits.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 MORAL TRAINING. 
 
 Cultivate Ideals in the Young — Develop Grace and Courtesy 
 — Influence of Example — Home Discipline — Physical Courage — 
 Excessive Indulgence — Prudery in Parents. 
 
 What are your son's powers to resist evil? Has 
 his bark a rudder and an anchor? Under what flag 
 does he sail? The keenest intellect avails little with- 
 out principle to guide it. Have you left his moral 
 training to immature Sunday-school teachers and 
 domestic servants? ^Tiat have you done to counter- 
 act in his mind the spirit of speculation, gambling, 
 materialism and corruption that prevails every- 
 where? 
 
 Froude, the historian, says of his early training : 
 " We were told that our sole business in life is to work 
 and to make an honorable position for ourselves." 
 His spiritual instructions did not go beyond the 
 catechism. This, I fancy, is the rule in too many 
 families, and hence there is a lack of elevating ideals, 
 which is a detriment to the development of high char- 
 acter. To create a lofty spirit in a boy, keep him in 
 touch with noble thoughts and noble deeds. 
 
 Commodore Schley said that he was impelled to go to 
 the rescue of Lieutenant Greely in the Arctic regions 
 by the recollection of some verses of poeti'y which he 
 had read in childhood. Heroism is contagious, and
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Livhifj ? 27 
 
 the actions of brave men and women find imitators in 
 every age. 
 
 Again, teach a boy never to do anything mean, 
 cruel, or unmanly. T\Tieu I had a Mission School 
 class of young fellows, who mosth' worked at trades, 
 I used to sum up all my teaching by saying: "Don't 
 be a coward or a sneak." Trilhifs theory of life was 
 a very practical one : " To try to be good, always to 
 think of other people before one's self, and never to 
 tell lies or be afraid." 
 
 Some children are so repressed and "bottled up," 
 that when the cork is extracted there is an exf^losion, 
 or possibh' only lees will be found. The right con- 
 ception of training is made clear when I tend m}- 
 garden vines and observe how gratefully they climb 
 toward the light. All healthy minds naturally seek 
 truth. 
 
 Again, strive to develop the graces of the body, and 
 teach ease and self-command, which are the basis of 
 good manners. Athletics help to this end, and so 
 does dancing. Thej' carry the gawky boy or girl 
 quickly through the hobbledehoy age, and confer 
 social ease and freedom. Good address and the art 
 of putting one's best foot forward are invaluable 
 helps in every calling, and usually bring honor and 
 fortune to those who possess them. 
 
 We have much to learn from the Japanese and 
 other Orientals in deference and consideration, espe- 
 cially toward the old. In such matters exam]ile is 
 better than precept. In New York we are suffering 
 from "elevated railroad rush," and in the constant 
 hurrj" and scramble wo crowd the weak, and ignore 
 good manners.
 
 28 U'hdf. Shall (hir Jioi/s Do fw a Living ? 
 
 If children are allowed to answer back and say, " I 
 won't," and if weak parents give up everything to 
 them, both must suffer the consequence. A certain 
 boy of my acquaintance used to take the morning 
 paper and read it first. His father said : " If I allow 
 that, you will grow up selfish, but here is part of the 
 paper" ; which seemed a fair compromise. 
 
 If we would build up true manhood in others, we 
 must exemplify genuine manhood. If we would cor- 
 rect bad habits in others, we must be sure those habits 
 are not a part of our own make-up. " If we would 
 train up children in the way they should go, it is a 
 good idea to skirmish around a little in that direction 
 ourselves." 
 
 Robert Louis Stevenson, in " Weir of Hermiston," 
 well illustrates the contagion of example : " The at- 
 mosphere of his father's industry was the best of 
 Archie's education; even though it repelled, it stimu- 
 lated him." 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Parkhurst, in discussing "Child 
 Training," says many familiar things in a pointed 
 way. " The nursery means more than the coUege, be- 
 cause it is initiative. It is easier to make people bright 
 than it is to make them sound, yet a sound brain and 
 an unsound life are incompatible. To learn to obey is 
 the hardest, jei the most valuable lesson for a child. 
 Love cannot abrogate law, and if our homes cannot 
 teach children to respect authoritj' there will soon 
 be no authority in church or state worth respect- 
 ing." 
 
 Ex- Warden A. A. Brush, of Sing Sing, declares 
 that lack of family discipline, and parental indulgence 
 leading to insubordination and deception by chil-
 
 WJiat Sfiall Our Boys Do for a Livimj ? 29 
 
 dren, are the chief causes of crime. Famih- training 
 is the most important aid to virtue. We must instil 
 obedience in the young, and develop character to re- 
 sist temptation. Family training should be seconded 
 by school and church discipline. 
 
 Yet home discipline need not be severe. A New 
 York merchant remarked: "The most trustworthy 
 boys and men I have known have not been subject to 
 strict family discipline, but were those who had 
 learned self-control. When a father has taught his 
 boy to guide himself b}' his reason and his conscience, 
 he has accomplished a high result." 
 
 A prominent lawyer observes: "It is an egregious 
 error to suppose that education should be limited to 
 heads and hands. Teach children a proper appre- 
 ciation of sentiment, and you will find their principles 
 will take care of themselves." 
 
 While study should not be made so irksome as to 
 repel, neither should it be made too easy. The child 
 should be spurred on to overcome difficulties. A 
 healthy mind will prefer this. Rather than be cod- 
 dled and helped over every hedge and ditch, it will 
 scramble across in its own way. 
 
 The Bishop of Manchester, like Macaulay, ob- 
 jected to giving prizes in schools, because " the reward 
 is too immediate, and success in life does not come 
 so promptly. " The boy or girl should be led to study 
 and improve themselves, not for the rewards or praise, 
 but from a sense of duty. This will prepare them to 
 act rightly later on, when they meet with criticism 
 and neglect instead of appreciation. Freeman, the 
 historian, failed to win a i)rize in history while at 
 Oxford. But the disappointment only stimulated
 
 30 IF/iat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 him to deeper and more diligent investigation, and 
 thus, in after-life, he came to look ujjon this failure 
 as a piece of good fortune. In a sense we are in- 
 debted to Freeman's rejected essay for his great " His- 
 tory of the Norman Conquest." K. W. Gilder, 
 editor of The Century magazine, says that nursing 
 and coddling are bad for literary beginners, and that 
 early failure fosters self-reliance and ability to stand 
 alone. 
 
 A writer remarks : " We must assiduously improve 
 these early years for the child, so that it may learn 
 after nature's method, more as a series of pleasant 
 surprises than as tearful tasks. By this method 
 Mozart became a musician at seven, Giotto painted 
 sheep at six, Linnaeus was a botanist at eight, and 
 Agassiz a naturalist at nine. The best of all schools 
 is to be found in the best homes, while the teachers 
 whose work longest endures are the parents them- 
 selves." 
 
 The ideal teacher stimulates the pupil to think and 
 act for himself. Such a teacher strives ever to efface 
 himself and, to quote a French instructor, " to become 
 useless to his class." 
 
 Kobert Louis Stevenson says : " Curiosity and in- 
 terest are the things in the world that are most imme- 
 diately and certainly rewarded." Therefore cultivate 
 these faculties in the young. 
 
 Miss Caroline LeEow remarks that habits of neat- 
 ness should be taught at home. Littering the floor 
 with bits of paper or pencil-shavings; scattering 
 crumbs; leaving greasy traces upon walls, furniture, 
 and books; recklessly using ink, chalk, and black- 
 board dusters — in nothing does the home training of
 
 What Sliall Our Boys Do for a Liuuif/Y ol 
 
 the child show itself more plainly thau in tliese 
 things. 
 
 It is far better for a child to show high spirits and 
 a love of mischief than to be a i)rig or a weakling. 
 School principal Boyer says, a boy who never gets 
 into scrapes is a sick boy . Frederick Robertson C(juld 
 not bear to think that his sou was afraid of anything, 
 and so must every parent feel. The boy who cannot 
 defend himself when pushed to the wall lacks the 
 first elements of manliness. I once knew a mother 
 who kept her boy away from a i)ublic school for fear 
 he might fight with other boys. When he came 
 home with a bruised face she felt very badly. But 
 later on when he was the victor, she was as proud 
 and happy as any mother could be. 
 
 Admiration for physical courage is universal. The 
 heroine of a certain novel had a lover of fragile phy- 
 sique who failed to defend her against the insults 
 of a gang of roughs. He said he was overmatched 
 and that it was no use to attack them. But much 
 as she admired his mental traits, she felt that 
 he ought to have assailed the ruffians, even if 
 killed in her defense, and so her love for him 
 cooled. 
 
 "Tom Brown's School Days" shows how a boy 
 with many good qualities, but with strong animal 
 spirits and a love of mischief, can got into scrapes 
 and acquire bad habits which will spoil his whole fu- 
 ture. It also shows how such faults may be corrected 
 by inspiring the bo}' with higher ideals and giving 
 him tasks which require self-sacrifice and devotion to 
 duty. Charles Kingsley heard English officers at 
 Aldershot lament that they had not read "Tom
 
 32 What Shall Oar Boys Do for a Livimj ? 
 
 Brown" in early life, as they might have become quite 
 different men. Every boy should read it. 
 
 Daniel Webster was an example of a large, gener- 
 ous nature spoiled by lavish gifts, which in time he 
 grew to accept with a certain royal condescension. 
 Mr. Lodge, his latest biograi)her, ascribes his care- 
 lessness in relation to money-matters to his early 
 habit of being constantly in debt, and his accepting 
 as a matter of course the sacrifices of his father and 
 brother to help him get a start in life. If Webster 
 had retained more of the lofty Puritan spirit of his 
 ancestors, he would not later have sacrificed principle 
 to policy in the vain hope of winning the Presidency.
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 HOME LIFE OF FAMOUS PERSONS. 
 
 Miss Frances E. Willard— Charles Kingsley — Ruskin — "Wen- 
 dell Phillips and Roundell Palmer. 
 
 It is interesting to study the lives of famous men 
 and women, and observe liow they were brought uj), 
 or how they trained their own children. 
 
 Miss Frances E. Willard insists that " there is no 
 teacher and no school that can compare with the com- 
 panionshij) of large-minded and loving-hearted home- 
 folks. Forever and a day it will be delightful to me 
 to remember that my dear mother taught me A, B, 
 C. She was not in the least bit of a hurry about it 
 either. She let me run wild, playing the same games 
 that my brother did, and I was given over to the big 
 out-doors, until at last I fairl}- cried for my primer. " 
 
 Regarding her religious training, she says : " Father 
 and mother did not teach us creeds ; I never saw a 
 catechism until I was emerging from my teens. We 
 read the Gospels, and sang the dear old hymns hal- 
 lowed by generations of reverence and affection. I 
 think it w^as the hymns wliicli did the most for me, 
 for I had a hardy mind, and wondered how we knew 
 that a book had come to us from God, and used to 
 ask my mother if she could tell me who had seen it 
 handed down, and whether it was fastened to Heaven 
 by a gold chain? She never said that I was naughty, 
 3
 
 34 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Livinrf ? 
 
 but would take mo on lior kuee and talk to me about 
 the wonders of the world around us, and give charm- 
 ing little lectures on natural theology." 
 
 Charles Kingsley 's home life was an ideal one. He 
 played cards and other games with his children, 
 partly as a mental rest, i^artly to keep in touch with 
 them, and he was always their favorite companion, 
 and, as his sou described him, " Our best and truest 
 friend." He made the woods and fields their study 
 and inspired them with a love of nature. They 
 handled toads, frogs, snakes, and beetles, everything 
 except spiders, without fear or disgust. 
 
 An atmosphere of joyousness pervaded the house. 
 " I wonder if there is so much laughing in any other 
 house in England," he once said. Sunday in partic- 
 ular was the brightest day in the week. He never 
 scolded or treated his children harshl3^ Punishment 
 was scarcely known. "Lying," he said, "is half the 
 time caused by the fear of punishment." He never 
 chided a child hastily, so as to tempt him in his con- 
 fusion to prevaricate, or harbored mean suspicions 
 about any one. He taught his children to dread 
 wrong-doing, not its penalty. He laid down a few 
 broad and distinct rules of conduct, and tried to 
 create in his children a sense of personal freedom and 
 perfect confidence in their parents. His knowledge of 
 physiology taught him to ascribe weariness at lessons, 
 and sudden fits of temper or obstinacy, to physical 
 causes or to temporary depression, and not to treat 
 them as moral delinquencies. 
 
 In contrast with this beautiful domestic picture, 
 how sadly repressed and artificial was the home life 
 and early training of John Stuart Mill, a sensitive,
 
 What Shall Oiir Boys Do for a Living? 35 
 
 poetic nature, drilled like an automaton by his stern 
 father, and never enjoying any fun or frolic. He re- 
 marked rather plaintively in after-life : " I never was 
 a boy, never played at cricket. It is better to let na- 
 ture have her own way." 
 
 Lord Brougham was a grave, sad little boy, whose 
 chief pleasure at i)lay was to act scenes in law-courts 
 and be an imaginar}^ Lord Chancellor, but he made 
 up for it later b}' his college pranks. 
 
 Wendell Phillips' parents were rich and influential, 
 yet his father made this rule for his children : " Ask 
 no man to do for you anything that you are not able 
 and willing to do yourself." His son claimed in later 
 life that there was hardly any kind of ordinary trade 
 or manual labor used in New England at which he 
 had not done a day's work. 
 
 Roandell Palmer, the great jurist, was a fair sample 
 of English training. He and his brother began Latin 
 under their father at five, and Greek at six. At nine 
 they had made a good start in Virgil and Horace, in 
 prose and verse ti'anslation, and had begun the Greek 
 Testament. They also read Shakespeare, Milton, 
 and other English classics. They had the run of a 
 good library, and their faculty of observation was 
 strengthened by out-door study of birds and animals. 
 The plates of Harris's "British Lejudoptera" lured 
 them on to the stud}^ of entomology. As a result of 
 this drill and cultivation, the}" made rapid progress at 
 school and college. 
 
 John Buskin's child-life was a period of discipline 
 and torment. His parents regarded him as a sacred 
 trust. Their intense affection was never outwardly 
 expressed, and both treated him like an automaton.
 
 y() What S/icdl Our Boys Do for a Livhuj ? 
 
 He had no playthings. If he cried, disobeyed or fell, 
 he was punished. His food was the simplest. To 
 curb his " animal appetite" a single grajje or currant 
 was all that was allowed him." For a wonder books 
 were not denied him. Scott, Homer and Byron were 
 read to him on week-days, and on Sundays the Bible, 
 "Pilgrim's Progress" and "Robinson Crusoe" (!), 
 and he was rigidly examined in Bible lore. He 
 found his sole enjoyment in studying the carpet 
 pattern, a bunch of keys, and the filling of the water- 
 carts across the way. He early composed in prose 
 and verse, and at seven wrote a story modelled after 
 " Harry and Lucy . " 
 
 Thus restricted and suppressed by a narrow Evan- 
 gelicalism, the imaginative soul and great heart of 
 Euskin grew like a flower in a cave. What saved 
 him from rebellion or degeneration was the yearly 
 driving-tours his father made through England, 
 Scotland and Wales, where he revelled in the beauty 
 of the scenery, and in visits to many fine mansions 
 and old castles. He never went to school, but had 
 private tutors to prepare him for Oxford, where he 
 took high honors. Could anything be more ill-ad- 
 vised than such training, whose influence may be 
 readily traced both in Euskin' s life and writings?
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE PENALTY OF PROSPERITY. 
 
 How Rich Men's Sons are Spoiled — How to Counteract Lux- 
 ury—Practical Teaching Essential for Every One— A Suggestive 
 Advertisement. 
 
 William C. Ralston, the California millionaire, 
 recognizing that he had neither time nor capacity for 
 training his sons, gave them in charge of a Unitarian 
 clergyman, with the injunction that they should have 
 wholesome discipline, should be taught the value of 
 money, and to respect labor. He wanted to educate 
 his boys on business principles by a well-paid and 
 responsible agent, but he could not understand the 
 educational value of a quiet, unostentatious home, 
 where love dwells and is the great motive power. 
 How many rich men have found to their sorrow that 
 their sons and daughters must be sent away from 
 home to be properly trained? 
 
 Prosperity, as all history shows, ever tends to en- 
 ervate. A boy or girl is " spoiled," like fniit kept in 
 too warm a room. To make mental and moral muscle, 
 one must endure rigor and privation. Truly fortu- 
 nate are the children who are not choked by the silver 
 spoon in their mouths, or smothered in the luxury 
 which surrounds them. It is a curious indication of 
 the effect of luxury on children, that a modern board-
 
 88 irhat ^hall Our Boijs Do for a Living ? 
 
 ing-schoolrnastes urges rich men to send him their 
 sons at eight years of age. 
 
 An expert teacher once asked another how many 
 promising sons of wealthy men he knew. He an- 
 swered: "Not one." We must pay the price of pros- 
 perity. Self-made men boast of overcoming difficul- 
 ties, but a youth born to the purple, who succeeds in 
 spite of his surroundings, deserves ten times more 
 credit than one who has to work from necessity. 
 
 Next to moral and religious training, a broad, liberal 
 culture is the best antidote for the temptations and 
 weaknesses fostered by luxury. Contact with the 
 world, which compels a youth to stand on his own 
 feet and trust in himself, is also a splendid discipline 
 {vide Kipling's "Captains Courageous"). I have 
 asked mam- 3'oung men born to luxury how they es- 
 caped the sirens' spell, and they all answered that, like 
 Orpheus, they rose above temptation and did not mere- 
 ly ti'y to shun it. 
 
 W. T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Edu- 
 cation, in advocating kindergartens in the public 
 schools, says : " The children of the newly rich are 
 generally intrusted to governesses or servants. They 
 are precocious and not easily managed ; hence, at an 
 early age, they become wilful and self-indulgent. The 
 waste of this most precious element in our population 
 is something frightful. When old enough to enter the 
 primary school, they are beyond cure. They will 
 not submit themselves to the school rules, and hence 
 they are eliminated from well-regulated schools. In 
 early manhood, the boys of this class destroy them- 
 selves by fast living." 
 
 The kindergarten furnishes activity for these pre-
 
 iVhat Shall (hir Brnj!^ Dn for a FAciiKj ? 39 
 
 cocious minds, and trains tlicm gently into rational 
 habits. It is not so essential to the middle class of 
 people, who associate a great deal with their chil- 
 dren and throw about them a good home influence. 
 
 The children of luxury and wealth are not con- 
 cerned about making a living ; yet it would be better 
 if they were taught something that would make them 
 feel independent. Many rich men's sons and daugh- 
 ters have suffered heart-rending humiliation and 
 trials, because they never learned anything practical. 
 No spectacle is more pitiable than i)eople " in reduced 
 circumstances" who are incapable of self-support. 
 The following advertisement from a Montreal paper 
 tells the story of thousands of wasted lives : 
 
 "Wanted — By an Englishman, a light situation, night-work 
 preferred; delicate health; honest, reliable, total abstainer; no 
 education, speaks French ; he is the sou of the private secretary 
 of the Lord Chief Justice of England, and sadly in want of work ; 
 married. Apply . 
 
 What a pathetic appeal, and the gist of it all is in 
 the "No education"! Thousands of other "gentle- 
 men's sons" have been reduced to like straits for lack 
 of a little practical training, and the fault is usually 
 their own.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 DON'T OVERWORK THE CHILDREN. 
 
 Spencer and Huxley on Precocious Children — Dangers from 
 Overstudy— Wholesome Play — Education Not a Porous Plaster — 
 Nature's Methods. 
 
 Herbert Spencer says the brains of precocious 
 children cease to develop after a certain age, like a 
 plant that fails to flower ; and Professor Huxley adds : 
 " Those unhappy children who are forced to rise too 
 early in their classes are conceited all the forenoon of 
 their lives and stupid all the afternoon. The keen- 
 ness and vitalitj^ which should have been stored up 
 for the sharp struggle of practical existence have been 
 washed out of them by precocious mental debauch- 
 ery, by book-gluttony and lesson-bibbing. Their 
 faculties are worn out by the strain put upon their 
 callow brains, and they are demoralized by worthless 
 childish triumphs before the real tasks of life begin." 
 How many youthful lives have been sacrificed, or 
 their prospects ruined, by the insatiable desire of 
 parents and teachers to crowd childi'en beyond their 
 strength. I wish that some one, in the interest of 
 common sense and fair play, would ofl'er prizes to 
 backward children, instead of encouraging the bright 
 ones, and make better known the names of the 
 notable men and women who were stupid in their 
 childhood.
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living y 41 
 
 Remember Carlyle's words : " The richer a nature, 
 the harder and slower its development. Two boys 
 were once members of a class in the Edinburgh 
 Grammar School: John, ever trim, precise, and a 
 dux; Walter, ever slovenly, confused, and a dolt. lu 
 due time John became Baillie John, of Hunter Square, 
 and Walter became Sir Walter Scott, of the universe. 
 The quickest and completest of all vegetables is the 
 cabbage." 
 
 Heine remarked of his school education that he 
 had lived long enough to thank God he had forgotten 
 it. What remained is something far better than 
 mere knowledge of books or things. 
 
 Jowett was not so far wrong when he called educa- 
 tion "the grave of the mind." Happily, as The Na- 
 tion remarks, " the average boy and girl is tough, and 
 may defy the experts." Bagehot chuckled over the 
 way in which " that apple-eating animal which we call 
 a boy" would foil his educators, and bring awaj' from 
 long years of wrestling with the classics little more 
 than a firm conviction that there were such languages 
 as Latin and Greek. To apples we may now add 
 football and baseball and bicycles. The specialists 
 may crowd more and more of their subjects into the 
 curriculum of schools; the average boy simi)ly pro- 
 duces new varieties of humor in the way of examina- 
 tion-papers, and goes on his athletic waj- rejoicing. 
 It is upon the excejjtionally delicate and sensitive and 
 conscientious that high-pressure schools and bewil- 
 dering multiplicity of studies work their real evil. 
 How much of dulled interest, of nervous collapse, of 
 utter repulsion at the sight of books, of despairing 
 effort to keep up the pace, of vague sense of wrong
 
 42 IVhdi Slidll Our IjO]/s Do for a TAvinfj ? 
 
 and injustice liave they been resj)onsiblo for ! Those 
 whom no education can harm, as none can benefit, 
 emerge from the process uninjured, but the rush and 
 crowding and strain are cruel to the finer natures." 
 
 Let every boy enjoy himself as much as possible 
 and play hard in a wholesome way. Don't burden 
 his mind with too much care ; hard knocks and trials 
 will come later on. The man who has had no fun in 
 his youth is apt to be a prig. You can guide and 
 direct the child's growth, but you must not try to 
 " boost" him. When the mind is hungry, feed it, but 
 don't create mental dyspepsia by stuffing the boy or 
 girl like the Strasburg geese, to make intellectual 
 •pdte defoie gras. 
 
 If a boj^ dislikes some special study, and you are 
 convinced that it is not from mere whim, don't force 
 his inclination, but let him skip it; and later on, when 
 he finds that he is deficient in that direction, he will 
 take it up voluntarily and soon catch up with his fel- 
 lows. When will people learn that education is not 
 a porous plaster to be clapped on a pupil's back or 
 head, but the development of original attributes and 
 creative force from within? 
 
 Make study so attractive in the beginning that it 
 will seem like play, and not repel. The old method 
 of teaching the classics caused many boys to detest 
 Virgil and Homer all their lives. Outside of school 
 one may take up music or a modern language, or 
 follow some systematic course of reading ; but I would 
 not burden a child's mind with too much study. 
 First of all see that he has health and vigor, and 
 when he gains a taste for knowledge he will study 
 with energy and ardor.
 
 Whaf Shnll Our lloip Do /,»■ a Liviixj ? 43 
 
 Encourage individuality. Each child should have 
 his own room and a chance to cultivate personal lik- 
 ings and tastes. Let the boy have a snuggery to 
 which he can bring his friends; and where he can 
 work with a jig-saw, printing-press, magic lantern, or 
 miniature theatre. If a boy has a taste for tinkering, 
 supply him with tools and a place to work in. Man- 
 ual dexterity is always valuable, and training the hand 
 is the best of all training. A camera will teach a boy 
 to use his eyes and cultivate his taste, while it will 
 keep him out of mischief. Every boy would be better 
 for such advantages. 
 
 The activity and waywardness of youth will, if 
 properly directed, change into energy and force. 
 The steam which tilts the tea-kettle lid may drive the 
 locomotive or lift the trip-hammer. Do not be dis- 
 appointed or grieved if a boy is boisterous or over- 
 energetic. Anything is better than being a " molly 
 coddle." A natural boy should love physical exer- 
 cise and like to play hard, eat abundantly, sleep 
 soundly, enjoy lively books, and, in short, have a zest 
 for everything that is wholesome. 
 
 As the child gains in mental growth, teach him 
 self-reliance. Buy him an encyclopedia, and make 
 him look up things for himself. I once knew a boy 
 who had been read to so much in early life that it 
 seemed impossible to get him to study for himself. 
 Suddenly the desire was implanted by a gift of the 
 "Life of Robert Fulton," in which he became deeply 
 interested. Then his father gave him an encyclo- 
 pedia; and now he spends hours in studying all 
 sorts of topics. I have held in my hand the Latin 
 grammar which Theodore Parker bought with the
 
 44 IVhat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 earnings from picking berries, and I can fancy 
 his pleasure was greater in that achievement than in 
 the after possession of a library of twelve thousand 
 volumes.
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 PUBLIC OR PRIVATE SCHOOLS. 
 
 Home Training Deficient — Boarding -Schools, Advantages and 
 Drawbacks — Military Drill Helpful — Class Spirit — Benefits of 
 Public Schools — Need of Manual Training. 
 
 Baereet Martineau wrote: "No children, in any 
 rank of life, can acquire so much book-knowledge at 
 home as at a good school, or have their intellectual 
 faculties so well trained and roused. I have never 
 seen an instance of such high attainment in lan- 
 guages, mathematics, history or philosophy in young 
 people taught at home, even by the best masters, as 
 in those who have been in a good school." 
 
 Yet the very words " sent away to school" raise a 
 doubt in the mind. Boarding-schools are a poor sub- 
 stitute for a good home, but their existence proves 
 their necessitj^, and, while man^^ parents send their 
 children to such places to get rid of them, they serve 
 a good purpose for children who have no home ad- 
 vantages or who live far from good day-schools. 
 
 Mr. Siglar in his school circular presents very 
 adroitly and persuasively, the arguments in favor of 
 sending a boy early to boarding-school. " There isn't 
 a home in the world so good, or parents so faithful 
 and wise, that a healthy boy had better stay in it, or 
 with them, at eight. And the puny boy is probably 
 puny because he is at home. It lacks facilities;
 
 46 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Livuig ? 
 
 probably everything else but love; and the love is 
 never wise. . . . There is no other way for a boy to 
 be happy and comfortable perpetually, but to live 
 with other boys of his age, the object of skilful 
 and delicate care and judicious letting-alone. They 
 afford one another variety. Mirror-like, they reflect 
 one another. They teach one another. They weigh 
 themselves, a most useful facility. There is a public 
 opinion among them, a good one. They restrain one 
 another ; cure one another of faults that at home were 
 incurable. Boys among boys are ashamed to be un- 
 manly." 
 
 Horace D. Taft denies that boarding-schools are de- 
 signed solely for backward or wayward children, and 
 says they are becoming a necessity, especiallj' with 
 the sons of the well-to-do residents of large cities, to 
 counteract certain growing tendencies of modem life. 
 Among their advantages are the simple fare; the reg- 
 ular hours for sleep, study, and exercise; a sense of 
 responsibility for acts and commissions ; the habit of 
 prompt obedience ; freedom from social and petty dis- 
 tractions; and protection from undesirable com- 
 panionship. Then there is the discipline of athletics, 
 the moral benefit of contact with older and superior 
 boys, and the influence of school loyalty or patriot- 
 ism. A serious drawback in such schools is the class 
 spirit fostered by the absence of boys of moderate 
 means, who go to the public school. He thinks this 
 un-American and suggests that such schools should 
 provide free scholarships for boys of character and 
 talent to leaven the mass. 
 
 Boarding-schools of a denominational type are 
 open to objection from their narrowing influence and
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Liviufj ? 47 
 
 undue restraint, which makes hypocrites of some boys 
 and rebels of others. I shoukl send high-spirited or 
 turbulent boys to schools where the pupils are regu- 
 larly drilled by a competent instructor. Military 
 drill makes a boy stand straight and obey ijromptly. 
 He takes pride in his uniform, learns to respect his 
 superiors, and to be alert and (piick to respond. No 
 greater contrast could be found than that betw^een the 
 fine bearing of the jjupils under military rule, and the 
 slouchy, flabby boys in ordinary schools. It is in- 
 spiring to see a thousand public-school boys at their 
 morning exercises salute the Stars and Stripes and 
 vow allegiance to their country'. 
 
 At the Hampton, Va., Normal School, General 
 Armstrong found that the military discipline inspired 
 self-respect and esprit de corps among the students. 
 The graduates of West Point and Annapolis are 
 always gentlemen. 
 
 Kegarding public schools, Mr. Kobert Waters has 
 favored me with the following interesting communi- 
 cation: "I was for nearly twenty years a teacher in 
 private schools and used to look upon the i>ublic 
 schools as a sort of treadmill, where boys and girls 
 were crammed with facts and made to move like 
 machines. After twelve years in the public-school 
 service I regard them as our greatest American 
 institution. 
 
 "The public school is really democratic. Promo- 
 tions are made through merit. The banker's sou 
 and the laborer's boy sit side by side, and measure 
 their abilities. No questions are asked concerning the 
 status of the parents or of the scholars, and no regard 
 is paid to anything except their personal (lualities.
 
 48 What Shall Oar Boys Do for a Livinrj ? 
 
 " The joint education of tlie boys and girls is bene- 
 ficial, mentally and morally — for it is that of the 
 family. The boys look upon the girls as their sisters, 
 and the girls look upon the boys as their brothers. I 
 never knew a single instance of direct immorality.* 
 
 " I used to think that women were not equal to men 
 as teachers, but I was in error. In the higher mathe- 
 matics and in the classics men may be superior ; but 
 for children they are not. Women have exceptional 
 tact, skill and patience. Where men govern by force, 
 women succeed by gentleness. I would rather a hun- 
 dred times have a corps of women teachers than one 
 of men. 
 
 " The schools I taught in Germany were better than 
 those I knew at first in the United States ; but Ameri- 
 cans are prompt to appreciate a good thing when they 
 see it, and I have seen with admiration how quickly 
 our public-school teachers put into practice the best 
 German methods. The only drawback in our public- 
 school system is political influence in appointments. 
 Change that, and all will be well. 
 
 " A public-school boy is likely to be a better citizen 
 and a better man than one educated at a private 
 school, but the latter is likely to be better trained in 
 
 * At the Purity Congress at Baltimore, B. O. Flower, editor of 
 The Arena, condemned the guilty silence called modesty, which 
 withheld the proper knowledge from children, instead of warn- 
 ing them of the pitfalls and dangers ahead ; and Dr. Mary Wood 
 Allen, National Purity Superintendent, W. C. T. U., in advocat- 
 ing co-education said : " The girl in convents or girls' schools 
 is apt to invest young men with ideal virtues, but the glamour 
 vanishes when she comes to compete with them in practical school 
 life. This would be more completely the case were she per- 
 mitted to associate with them on terms of frank comradeship. "
 
 WJiat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 49 
 
 teclinical branches. The proper plan, I think, is for 
 the boy in ordinary circumstances to go to a com- 
 mercial or trade school after finishing the public 
 school."* 
 
 Mr. Boyer, one of the first New York principals to 
 introduce military drill, says : " The common schools 
 are the only agency for transforming our cosmopolitan 
 population into American citizens. Our churches 
 and other institutions tend to set people apart, but 
 the public school is like a great hopper, in which Jew 
 and Gentile, Celt and Saxon, Protestant and Catholic 
 Slav and Teuton, are Americanized, and 'Old Glory' 
 is the only flag that all alike will salute." 
 
 Of the public-school pupils, Prof. W. T. Harris 
 says : " One per cent enter college, three per cent the 
 high school and academies, and ninety-six per cent 
 never get beyond the elementary grade." It is im- 
 portant, therefore, that the course of studies should 
 be adjusted to the needs of the latter. Only eight per 
 cent of the population enter business or the profes- 
 sions, while ninety-two per cent labor with their hands. 
 As the former have schools of law, medicine, dentistry, 
 engineering, architecture, etc., so the hand-workers 
 should have facilities for manual training provided 
 for them. 
 
 Professor Agassiz wished to see a technological 
 
 * The Springfield Republican says: " There is a great deal of 
 ignorant criticism of what are termed the machine methods of 
 large public schools, overlooking the fact that the habit of act- 
 ing in concert and of quick obedience to the common rule is one 
 of the great disciplinary objects of schooling in masses, not to 
 be attained in private schools, where each pupil has individual 
 tending, like flowers in pots." 
 
 4
 
 50 What SImU Oar Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 museum in every primary school, as is common in 
 Switzerland. Parents naturally want their children 
 to gain all the instruction thoy can. If manual train- 
 ing were added to the course, they would make sacri- 
 fices to keep their children longer at school. Since 
 the introduction of industrial schools in England 
 crimes above the grade of felony have been reduced 
 one-third; this reduction is greatest where such 
 schools are most numerous and longest established.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 WHAT TO READ. 
 
 Books that Shape Men's Lives— Libraries and Children — How 
 to Create a Taste for Reading — James Russell Lowell's Views 
 — A Boy's Library — E. E. Hale and O. W. Holmes on Study — 
 "What Books to Choose — Learn to Speak and Write — Letter- 
 Writing Good Practice — Join a Debating-Club. 
 
 When a child I used to turn over volumes of the 
 English poets and read what struck my fancy. I 
 thus learned to know a good many authors by tast- 
 ing them. In college libraries, where students can 
 take the books down and handle them, they learn a 
 great deal more about authors than they could by 
 reading a few volumes. To have dipj^ed into Homer, 
 Plato, Dante, Darwin, or other great writers creates 
 an interest which may lead to careful reading later 
 on. This is one of the permanent delights of haunt- 
 ing second-hand book-stalls. 
 
 The value of this habit of familiarity is recog- 
 nized by the best librarians, and the books in most 
 demand are made accessible to readers, who make 
 their own selections from them. 
 
 In " Middlemarch" the boy Lydgate, standing on a 
 ladder to get at the top shelf in a library, opened by 
 chance a book on anatomy. His attention was aroused 
 by a picture of the valves of the heart ; from that mo- 
 ment his sole purpose was to study medicine.
 
 52 WJmt Shall Our Boys Do for a Livimj ? 
 
 Many other lives have been shaped by equally 
 trifling circumstances. 
 
 When my father was a student at Dartmouth he 
 bought a copy of Todd's "Student's Manual," for 
 thirty-seven cents, which impressed him very much. 
 Several of his chums also read it with interest. After- 
 ward, when a teacher, he loaned the book to many of 
 his pupils, whose names are set down in the back of 
 the book, to the number of some fifty. \\Tio can esti- 
 mate the money value of this little book? 
 
 Jean Paul Eichter shows in " Levana" how easily 
 children are impressed with lasting ideas and associ- 
 ations. It is therefore important to give them the 
 best books to read. 
 
 In an addi'ess to workingmen, James Russell 
 Lowell said : " So select your reading that it shall be 
 to you a ladder of ascent to a higher intellectual 
 plane. Once a man knows how to read, he may en- 
 joy the intellectual companionship of the choicest 
 spirits and the richest and wisest minds of all time. 
 If you were offered a letter of introduction which 
 would persuade Shakspeare and Milton to give you 
 their best time and attention, you would say it was 
 impossible. Yet that is precisely what the mere 
 ability to read gives a man." 
 
 Political economy is called the dismal science, but 
 it can be made of interest to every one. AMien peo- 
 ple are talking about the hard times, when tramps 
 multiply at the front door, when the farmer's wife 
 cannot get the new dress she needs because com and 
 wheat bring such low prices, or when every one is 
 talking about the government bond issue, then is the 
 time to set the young people to reading such books as
 
 What Shall Oar Boys Do for a Living ? 53 
 
 R. R. Bowker's "Economics for the People," or 
 Professor Ely's "Political Economy." 
 
 Charles Bradlaugh, the English radical, said: "I 
 ascribe to Emerson's essaj^ on ' Self-reliance' my 
 first step in the career I have adopted. When too 
 poor to buy a book, I copied parts of it, and now 
 stand an example at least of a self-reliant man." * 
 
 Valuable hints in regard to selecting books for the 
 young are given by public librarians. Dr. Poole 
 says children must acquire a love of books during 
 their formative period, from ten to fourteen, and they 
 should no more be shut out from a library than from 
 a church. They should be encouraged to take two 
 books at a time, so as to change off from a story to a 
 biography or book of travel or popular science. The 
 wise librarian tempts children with picture-books, and 
 leads them up to Mother Goose's fables, fairy lore, 
 myths, and simple poems. Eschew books written 
 down to the young and of too pronounced a moral, 
 and especially stupid books of all sorts. One class 
 of minds need wholesome, stirring, absorbing stories 
 of action; for another class inspiring books are re- 
 
 * A symposium in The British Weekly on " Books which Have 
 Influenced Me" illustrates the benefits of surrounding boys with 
 the classics of their own tongue and of the world. The editor 
 remarked: " Scott receives most gratitude ; the Bible is promi- 
 nent ; Montaigne, Shakespeare and Coleridge, Carlyle, Tenny- 
 son, Emerson, Kingsley, are well mentioned. Generally the 
 current classics and the acknowledged contemporaries hold the 
 field. One omission, Plutarch, is singular. Can it be that that 
 old reservoir of heroic impulse and brave example is past being 
 a formative book? Ilamerton suggested that he could not mark 
 the influence of books upon himself very well ; and that is some- 
 what the case with everybody. "
 
 54 Wliaf Shall Our Boys Do for a Livhuj ? 
 
 quired, for knowledge alone cannot make character, 
 and wliat children love and desire is far more vital 
 than what they learn. 
 
 The best librarians regard the young as their most 
 important patrons, treat them the same as their elders, 
 and strive to make them feel at home. In the Boston 
 Library one large room has thousands of volumes 
 wholly for the use of the young. The long hours 
 which I spent in the Mercantile Librarj^ were the 
 happiest of my youth. From the bound volumes of 
 the London Illustrated, I got my first impressions of 
 contemporary history, while Leech's and Tenniel's 
 cartoons in Punch gave the truest insight into Eng- 
 lish politics. The Shakespeare and Hogarth engrav- 
 ings were a revelation to my imagination, while I rev- 
 elled in the feast of fiction, travels, biography, and 
 history on the well-filled shelves. The librarian 
 grumbled that any one should want three books in 
 one day, but for the voracious reader, on a rainy Satur- 
 day, this was nothing. I count it a privilege also to 
 have had the opportunity to turn over the great foreign 
 and domestic reviews, which gave me a broad and cos- 
 mopolitan imj)ression of the world's best literature. 
 
 Some persons object to stories like " Jack the Giant 
 Killer," which they fancy inculcate ideas of cruelty. 
 But children are naturally "unmoral" and are rarely 
 influenced in that way. 
 
 It is desirable to implant in every child a taste for 
 reading; then turn him loose to browse in a library, 
 where he will make lifelong and unchanging friends, 
 and spend happj' hours, to be later recalled with 
 the same delight with which Thackeray tells in his 
 " Round-about Papers " of his boyish absorption in
 
 What SIkiU Old- Boys Do for a Living ? 55 
 
 Scott, Cooper and Dumas. Reading should not be 
 made a task, neither shoukl books be treated like 
 sweetmeats to gorge on till they cloy the appetite, 
 but rather like wholesome fruit to be eaten with relish 
 as a dessert after the day's work is over. 
 
 " We get no good of being ungenerous, even to a book 
 And calculating profits ; so much help by so much reading. 
 It is rather when we plunge soul-forward, headlong, into a 
 
 book profound. 
 Impassioned by its beauty and pure salt of truth ; 
 'Tis then we get the right good from a book. " 
 
 As I have said before, the youngest child can ap- 
 preciate the finest and most imaginative literature — 
 the narrative parts of the Bible ; the classic myths ; 
 "Arabian Nights' Entertainment"; Lamb's "Stories 
 from Shakespeare," and all that is best in Scott, 
 Cooper, Dickens, Stevenson, and Dumas. 
 
 There are books of information and books of in- 
 spiration. We get knowledge from one and stimulus 
 from the other. Any one can study history, science, 
 mathematics, geography, and art; but he must not 
 neglect the masters of thought who speak to the heart 
 and the soul. The Bible stands first of these; next 
 come Shakespeare and the poets, and lastly the seers 
 and prophets, Emerson, Carlyle, Buskin; George 
 Eliot, Victor Hugo, and Tolstoi in fiction; Marti- 
 neau, Newman, Channing, Frederick Robertson, and 
 Phillips Brooks in ethics. 
 
 The best gift to a bright boy would be a little 
 library of such books as Plutarch's "Lives," Ma- 
 caalay's "Essays," Franklin's "Autobiography," 
 Smiles' "Self-Help" and his other books, "Little 
 Masterpieces," issued by the Doubleday & McClure
 
 56 What, Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 Co., Green's " Shorter History of the English People" ; 
 some good work of travel, like Stanley's "Through 
 the Dark Continent" or Nansen's " Farthest North" ; 
 and some book on popular science, like Mace's "His- 
 tory of a Mouthful of Bread" or John Burroughs' 
 "Wake Robin." Urge him to add to this collection 
 exerj year. Let him hunt the stores for books to his 
 liking, and in a short time he will be a book-lover and 
 a student. 
 
 Most advice about reading is too vague or too pe- 
 dantic. I well recollect when a member of a boys' 
 literary society how we were advised hj a scholarly 
 clergyman to read the old English divines and " The 
 Correlation and Conservation of Forces," and how ab- 
 surd the suggestion seemed to us. I have tried to lead 
 my own son from one book to another as his curiosity 
 was excited, never forcing or giving him a stupid book, 
 but waiting for his mind to open and be ready to re- 
 ceive new impressions. 
 
 In a New York public school there is a collection 
 of United States Government reports presented by a 
 military friend. The pupils delight in studying in 
 these documents the events of the Eebellion, and thus 
 learn history at first hand. A boj' who has been con- 
 tent with Oliver Optic and Alger will suddenly be- 
 come absorbed in the official record of the Monitw or 
 Kearsarge contest, or in Sherman's march to the sea, 
 and will master their smallest details. Books of 
 reference are also in great demand, and the standard 
 text-books on mechanics and other branches of science 
 have had their covers worn off by hard usage. Among 
 the girl pupils, Buskin is much sought for. 
 
 It is a pleasant custom in some families to select a
 
 WJiat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 57 
 
 special topic every winter for reading, perhaps in 
 connection with a lecture course, or to follow the 
 Chautauqua home reading course.* 
 
 Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, one of the most fertile 
 and vivid authors, says he has been most influenced 
 by "tonic writers"; Henry Drummond was stimu- 
 lated by Emerson, Carlyle, Ruskin and Matthew 
 Arnold. Tyndall says it was Emerson's books that 
 got him out of bed and at work at 5 a.m. in his 
 laboratory. 
 
 Of the making of books there is no end, and any 
 one might be daunted by the vast array in libraries. 
 But the ordinary reader need read only the best books 
 in each department, which, Frederic Harrison says, 
 may be comprised in a couple of hundred volumes, 
 exclusive of fiction. Most books are of temporary 
 interest or mere comments on other works, and it is 
 surprising how little truly original and first-hand 
 writing there is. Sir John Lubbock " One Hundred 
 Best Books " could be read b}- an industrious student 
 in a twelvemonth, and any person of moderate leisure 
 might easily peruse them. 
 
 Rev. E. E. Hale says that a person who will take 
 up some topic, and study it in detail, may in a month 
 be in advance of any but the specialist. Books are 
 now so cheap that any one can collect them. For one 
 hundred and fifty dollars one may buy a library 
 
 * I should urge every earnest boy aud girl who is ambitious to 
 improve his or her mind to join the Chautauqua Home Reading 
 Circle. It will be easy to get some friend to unite with you in 
 forming a circle, and thus have the benefit of joint study and dis- 
 cussion. Write to Dr. J. H. Vincent, Buffalo, N. Y., for par- 
 ticulars.
 
 58 IVhai Shall Our Boys Do for a Livimj ? 
 
 sufficient for the average family. " Fifteen minutes a 
 day," says President Eliot, "given to reading, would 
 in thirty years make the difference between a culti- 
 vated and an uncultivated man or woman." 
 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes' advice about reading is 
 eminently practical : 
 
 " I believe in reading, in a large proportion, by sub- 
 jects rather than by authors. Some books must be 
 read tasting, as it were, every word. Tennyson will 
 bear that, as Milton would, as Gray would — for they 
 tasted every word themselves, as Ude or Careme 
 would taste a potage meant for a king or a queen. 
 But once become familiar with a subject, so as to 
 know what you wish to learn about it, and you can 
 read a page as a flash of lightning reads it. Take 
 a lesson from Houdin and his sons' practice of look- 
 ing in at a shop-window, remembering all they saw. 
 Learn to read a page in the shortest possible time, and 
 to stand a thorough examination on its contents." 
 
 In regard to fiction, he adds : 
 
 "All these young women who pass their days and 
 nights in reading endless storj'-books— novels, so- 
 called, doubtless from their want of novelty — what 
 are they doing but pouring water into buckets whose 
 bottoms are so full of holes as a colander, and which 
 would have nothing to show if Niagara had been 
 emptied into them !" 
 
 Here is a list of the great works in fiction which 
 every one ought to read if he can: Scott's "Ivanhoe" 
 and "Talisman"; Dickens' "David Copperfield" and 
 "Pickwick"; Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" and " Henry 
 Esmond"; George Eliot's "Adam Bede" and "Ro- 
 mola"; Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre"; Wilkie Col-
 
 WMt SJiaJl Our Boys Do for a TAvhifj ? 50 
 
 lins' "The Woman in White"; Charles Reade's "Peg 
 Woffiugton" and "Never Too Late to Mend"; Du- 
 mas' "Monte Cristo"; Mrs. Craik's "John Halifax"; 
 Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables"; Cooper's "Spy" 
 and " Deerslayer" series ; Howells' "Silas Lapham"; 
 Blackmore's "Lorna Doone"; Stevenson's "Kid- 
 napped" and "David Balfour"; Conan Doyle's "The 
 White Company" ; Barrie's " Little Minister. " " The 
 Princess of Tliule," "The Scarlet Letter," "Uncle 
 Tom's Cabin," "Don Quixote," "Gil Bias," "Debit 
 and Credit," "Quits," "Romance of a Poor Young 
 Man," and Tolstoi's "War and Peace." 
 
 When I was an office-boy, my employer, an old- 
 time merchant, had a large collection of orations and 
 speeches by Daniel Webster, John Quincy Adams, 
 and their contemporaries, which was a constant de- 
 light to me. Later on I read the Lincoln-Douglas 
 debate, and heard the great speeches of Wendell Phil- 
 lips, Charles Sumner, and the other Anti-Slaverj' ora- 
 tors. I would not exchange this experience for any 
 second-hand acquaintance with Demosthenes and 
 Cicero. which might have disciplined my mind, but 
 which could never fill VQ.y soul as these did with pa- 
 triotic fervor and enthusiasm for humanity. The 
 young American who is more moved by visiting the 
 site of Marathon or Waterloo than by "The rude 
 bridge that arched the flood, where once the em- 
 battled farmers stood and fired the shot heard round 
 the world," or by Gettysburg and Appomatox, ia 
 surely lacking in true manhood.
 
 GO What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 LEARN TO SPEAK AND TO WRITE. 
 
 Every boy should join a debating-club, as I liave 
 said before, to learn to think on his feet and express 
 himself clearly and forcibly. It is a good discipline 
 to listen to the discussion of public questions and to 
 weigh and consider opposing arguments. It is well 
 also to have to defend one's opinions and to show the 
 fallacy of opposing arguments. Most young people 
 inherit their opinions on religious, political, and so- 
 cial questions, and rarely hear them controverted. 
 They should be taught the reasons why their parents 
 hold certain views, and not take things for granted, 
 or be content with assuming that every one who 
 differs with them must be a fool. It was in the keen 
 debates in the Western country store, on long winter 
 nights, that Lincoln sharpened his mind and gathered 
 knowledge, and this was the training-school for scores 
 of other famous Americans. 
 
 It would be well for a boy to hear able lawyers ar- 
 gue some important case in court. He should also 
 attend public meetings and churches of other denomi- 
 nations than his own, so as to listen to the great ora- 
 tors and divines of his time. Almost any boy can 
 find opportunities to hear eloquent public speakers 
 discuss the issues of the day. 
 
 Many persons fancy that the oratorical art is a mere 
 accomplishment, unless one aims to be a lawyer or 
 clergyman. But in every occupation it is an advan- 
 tage to talk well. Not only is it the salesman's chief 
 resource, but in every walk in life it is an advantage 
 to be able to state one's views clearly and succinctly. 
 The chief end of speech is to persuade, and even the
 
 What S/mll Our Boys Do for a Livimj ? 61 
 
 greatest natural gifts should be cultivated to the high- 
 est degree. 
 
 Agaiu, to be able to write with precision, with clear- 
 ness, and with convincing power will always be an aid 
 in any pursuit. Every business man has to write let- 
 ters, draw contracts, and negotiate by letter, and if he 
 cannot express himself well he is at a disadvantage. 
 Therefore the time sj^ent in the study of the art of 
 expression, both with the voice and with the pen, will 
 be found to yield rich returns. 
 
 De Quince}' said the best writing of his day Avas to 
 be found in the familiar letters of cultivated English 
 women. Children should be encouraged to write 
 freel}' to their relatives and friends. No better prac- 
 tice, both in observation and expression, could be de- 
 vised. Such a correspondence, which I began at 
 thirteen, with a dear old Quaker aunt living in the 
 country, and which I kept up till manhood, was at 
 once a delight and an admirable training ; and a cor- 
 respondence which I maintained with a relative in 
 the Union army was also of inestimable advantage. 
 
 One of the refinements of civilization is the art of 
 writing a short note. Voltaire possessed this happy 
 faculty in the highest degree, and Parton remarks in 
 his biography that even his brief invitations to a 
 neighbor to call and sup with him were models of wit 
 and aptness of phrase.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 VALUE OF AGREEABLE MANNERS. 
 
 Courtesy Oils the Machinery of Life — The Art of Making 
 Friends — Cultivate the Social Faculty — Men with a Genius for 
 Friendship — Franklin on Disputation — Examples of Urbane Men 
 and the Reverse— Shyness a Fault— Army and Navy Officers 
 Always Polite — Every One Helps the Genial Man. 
 
 The elements of success are everywhere tlie same : 
 patience and persistency, exact knowledge, a trained 
 judgment, and agreeable manners. Tliis last posses- 
 sion is not sufficiently regarded. 
 
 Tlie artist Whistler, of "Trilby" fame, wrote an 
 essay on "The Pleasant Art of Making Enemies," an 
 art very popular with jiroud and irritable persons, 
 but which should be studiously neglected by all 
 others. Friction is an obstacle in life as in machin- 
 ery. Suavity and courtesy are proofs both of good 
 breeding and of worldly wisdom. The contentious 
 man is his own worst foe. I might cite scores of ex- 
 amples of the value of agreeable manners. Chauncey 
 Depew is always courteous and accessible. The late 
 Henry Monett, who rose from messenger-boy to be 
 General Passenger Agent of the New York Central, 
 won hosts of friends because he was never too busy 
 to be good-natured. It was said of Dr. Fordyce 
 Barker that whoever sat next him at dinner became 
 his admirer for life. Simon Cameron was ever con- 
 ciliatory and preferred going around an obstacle to
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Liv'imj ? 63 
 
 runniug against it. Mr. Kinsella, a famous Brooklyn 
 politician, said be could not afford the luxury of 
 hatred, and Sir John Macdonald, the Canadian 
 statesman, said : " A public man should have no resent- 
 ments." Col. Tom Scott never antagonized anyone 
 directly, and was noted for his cheerful, buoyant tem- 
 per and the grace with which he could say *'No." 
 Gen. C. H. Taylor, of the Boston Globe, says: "I 
 owe my success to being good-humored with every 
 one." Gambetta won men to his support by a smile, 
 a hon mot, or a good story. Lord Beaconsfield, when 
 asked why Queen Victoria showed him so much favor, 
 replied: "Well — er — the fact is, I — er — never con- 
 tradict, and— er — I sometimes — er — forget." 
 
 The art of making friends should therefore be sedu- 
 lously cultivated. Every one appreciates the value 
 of acquaintance. Men join clubs, lodges, and other 
 associations, purely for the sake of making valuable 
 connections. But one cannot expect to win confidence 
 and respect by merely hobnobbing with people. Even 
 dissipated men respect sobriety, and no one would pre- 
 fer a lawyer, doctor, architect or salesman who con- 
 stantly frequented billiard rooms or saloons. 
 
 A large circle of acquaintances is the best capital in 
 life. One never knows when a friend may do you a 
 service by a word of commendation or introduction, 
 and it ennobles the nature of man to be able to recip- 
 rocate it. Scores of men gained their first start 
 through the happy faculty of making friends. No 
 fairy gift is more valuable, excepting the faculty for 
 hard work. 
 
 Yet this talent need not imply offensive assur- 
 ance. A Chicago merchant, who did not pronounce
 
 64 JVhat SJmU Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 his words very clearly, remarked to a publisher : " A 
 man who has health and strength and God on his side 
 is sure to succeed." "These are my sentiments to a 
 T," said the other; "a man with health and strength 
 and gall on his side is sure to succeed every time." 
 But this interpretation of the maxim shortly after- 
 ward brought the enterprising publisher to prison. 
 The common impression that "cheek" is necessary 
 to success is a mistake. Quiet dignity and ease of 
 manner are far better. The man of pleasant ad- 
 dress, who thoroughly understands his business, 
 always makes the best impression. Therefore, cul- 
 tivate the social faculty. Don't live aloof from your 
 fellows, but by associating with them acquire ease 
 and tact. 
 
 It is never w^ise to associate with your inferiors, but 
 every one should try to meet superior men and women 
 and profit by their companionship. He should join 
 his trade organization or professional club, and thus 
 profit by contact with his rivals. Such associations 
 test a man's quality, rub off the angles and knotty 
 points, and take the conceit out of him. 
 
 Some men are born wdth such winning ways that 
 they bind others to them "with hooks of steel." A 
 striking instance of this happy gift was seen in Mac- 
 Gahan, the newspaper correspondent, who performed 
 such feats in the Eusso-Turkish War. Though quiet, 
 reserved, and undemonstrative, and in no sense a 
 "jolly fellow," he seemed at ease with everyone, from 
 the Grand Duke Nicholas dow^n to the private soldiers, 
 and he was idolized by Skobeleff, Ai-chibald Forbes, 
 Villers, and hundreds of other men. In short, he had 
 a genius for friendship. Mr. HoUey, the engineer
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do foi' a Living ? 65 
 
 and improver of the Bessemer steel industrj', had the 
 same happy gift, and his bust in Washington Square, 
 New York, is a proof of the love and esteem which he 
 inspired. Charles Lamb, Arnold Toynbee, Lincoln, 
 and General Armstrong, founder of the Hampton 
 School, all possessed this lovable quality to a high 
 degree. 
 
 Every young man should read Franklin's " Autobio- 
 graphy," and note how that astute philosopher and 
 diplomat gave up being positive and self-assertive. In 
 youth he was pert, aggressive, and conceited, but he 
 learned wisdom by observation and mastered these 
 defects. Listead of arguing aggressively, he studied 
 how to persuade and win men to his side, yet without 
 truckling to their prejudices or 3'ielding his own con- 
 victions. Thus he kept friends even with strong op- 
 ponents, and won their respect for his sturdy inde- 
 pendence. It is no wonder that his judgment was so 
 valued and that his services were sought by all classes, 
 and finally by the public in the most varied and re- 
 sponsible positions. He was a model American and 
 a citizen of the world. 
 
 Lord Dufferin ascribes his success to mastery of for- 
 eign languages, skill in public speaking, and to ca7-e- 
 ful attention to manner. Andrew Jackson, despite his 
 rough experience in early life, was remarkable for his 
 courtly bearing. William M. Evarts, when Secretary 
 of State, alv/ays tried to see everybody who called : 
 "I never make any appointments. If any one calls 
 and asks me to fix a time when he can see me for half 
 an hour, I say, 'Oh, take it now.' The result is that 
 I probably get through in five minutes." Mr. Evarts 
 seemed never to be worried by interrui)tions. In 
 6
 
 66 jyhal Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 England the making of appointments often consumes 
 more time than the business transacted. 
 
 Dr. Evans, the famous American dentist in Paris, 
 won his way to success largely through his social 
 qualities. Through friendship with Louis Napoleon 
 he gained most of the crowned heads of Europe as his 
 patients. Nelson had winning manners and an in- 
 imitable charm due to his enthusiasm and fresh per- 
 sonality, which reflected his generous and kindly 
 nature. Daniel Lamont, Secretary of War under 
 President Cleveland, and ex - Postmaster - General 
 James owed their rapid advancement largely to their 
 tact and pleasant bearing. On the other hand, Abram 
 S. Hewitt, when Mayor of New York, made every one 
 uncomfortable by his chronic irritability, and did not 
 accomplish half so much as Mayor Strong, who, 
 though a positive man, and subject to gout, had a 
 genial manner toward visitors. 
 
 President Adams, formerly of Cornell, in his first 
 annual address, laid stress, first, on the development 
 of the mind ; second, on the development of character ; 
 and third, on the development of manner. " I do not 
 mean here exactlj'- what would be meant by polite- 
 ness ; but I mean that indescribable something which 
 attaches itself to certain people, not so much because 
 of what they can do as because of what they seem to 
 be to you ; because of their manner toward jou and 
 toward those with whom they associate. I would 
 not attach so great importance to the development of 
 manner as to the development of strength of mind. 
 At the same time strength of mind is practically use- 
 less unless it is accompanied with such manners as to 
 make it effective upon those with whom we associate. "
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 67 
 
 A writer in Hie Outlook remarks that the graduates 
 of West Point and Annapolis are distinguished the 
 world over for politeness and consideration for the 
 feelings and rights of others. In club smoking- 
 rooms, in the field, or in the ball-room, they show at 
 its best what American manhood is capable of, when 
 regulated b}' discipline and polished by habit. 
 
 John Quincy Adams' lack of urbanity alienated 
 friends and created enemies. It greatly hampered 
 his influence, made him feel isolated, and caused him 
 to be neglected in his old age. His irascibility was 
 partly a matter of temperament, and partly caused 
 by his too precocious and isolated 3'outh. His early 
 letters and diarj' are solemnly mature and full of 
 moralizing. He seems never to have known fun or 
 frolic. Freeman, the historian, who was taught by 
 a tutor, ascribed his shyness, awkwardness, and im- 
 patience of views differing from his own to the lack 
 of intercourse with lads of his own age. He thought, 
 however, that the advantages of freedom and leisure 
 to follow studies of his own choice balanced these 
 drawbacks. Probably if he had associated more with 
 other students, he would not have been so arrogant 
 and unpopular in later years. 
 
 Tyndall and Huxley were both social beings. They 
 early joined the Red Lion Club, which gave feasts 
 of Spartan simplicity with extremel}' unconventional 
 orations and queer songs, and which were in direct 
 contrast to the official banquets of the British As- 
 sociation, with their high tables and "butterboat" 
 speeches. Prince Lobanoff-Ilostovosk}^ the great 
 Russian statesman, who was of i)ure Slav blood and 
 of great independence of character, owed his success
 
 68 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 largely to his extreme affability toward the Czar, his 
 colleagues, and his subordinates. Yet when, ambas- 
 sador at Vienna, he received a telegram from the Grand 
 Duke ordering him to prepare rooms at the embassy, 
 he promptly answered, " Your Highness must go to 
 a hotel." 
 
 Agreeable manners are especially helpful in the 
 professions. They are indispensable to the family 
 doctor. A great English physician when asked what 
 a young medical man should read replied, "Don 
 Quixote," thereby showing how important he re- 
 garded a knowledge of human nature to the prac- 
 titioner. A famous New York physician told his 
 class of students to be specially careful not to wear 
 creak}^ shoes. A doctor's visit and presence should 
 be a benison to his patient. 
 
 William E. Russell, who was nominated for Gov- 
 ernor of Massachusetts at thirtj^-one, and after two 
 failures was elected three times, owed his success 
 largely to his social qualities. His speeches were 
 logical, sober, and solid, but among the people he 
 was genial and warm. He not only attracted men 
 but made them his allies. The man ^\dth whom he 
 shook hands believed that Russell had come to town 
 especiall}^ to see him. T\Tiile Governor he gave time 
 to rowing, riding, shooting, and tennis, and thus kept 
 in touch with young men. He won the commenda- 
 tion of elder men by the excellence of his appoint- 
 ments and by his masterly discussion of public topics. 
 
 A young New York business man made himself 
 valuable to his employers in a peculiar way. His 
 firm had important social relations with manj^ out- 
 of-town customers who were frequent visitors at the
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do foo' a Living ? 69 
 
 office. One day the yoiing man was called upon to 
 attend to such a visitor. He did it with such tact 
 and ability that he was relieved from other work that 
 he might devote himself exclusively to the social end 
 of the firm's business. His salary has been raised 
 several times, and his services are now considered 
 indispensable. 
 
 Charles Lanier, in writing of "The Working of 
 a Bank," in Scrihner's Magazine, lays special stress 
 upon the value in business of personal and social 
 qualities. " We contract a habit of buying our paper 
 from some particular newsboy simply because his 
 cheery voice, red cheeks, and engaging quickness 
 have attracted us — maybe unconsciously on either 
 side. We find it far easier to withstand a book 
 agent or drummer or advertising solicitor if he be 
 bilious looking, diflident, or awkward, if he possess 
 no spark of intrinsic interest, and if we haven't 
 chatted wdth him in the casual smoking-car. In pro- 
 fessional ranks one notices the incomparable advan- 
 tage enjoyed by the physician, the lawyer, and the 
 clergyman who has a good physique, an imposing 
 presence, and a well-selected stock of stories. There 
 are minute gradations of the art of bringing the per- 
 sonal equation to bear on one's business success, and 
 while the banker uses only the higher and more sub- 
 limated branches, they are as necessary to him as, in 
 a more primary form, they are to the peripatetic in- 
 surance agent." 
 
 In recommending tact and agreeable manners I do 
 not for a moment advocate truckling to people. If 
 you would retain the world's respect, it won't do to 
 " eat dirt" or be " hail fellow well met" with every-
 
 70 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 body. Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Henry Clay, 
 Jackson, Lincoln, Grant and Gladstone, all main- 
 tained a certain reserve, and dared to run counter to 
 public opinion. Hamerton states that Garibaldi kept 
 close in his tent, and was hardly seen by his soldiers. 
 Stanley, the African explorer, held aloof not only from 
 his men but from his officers. Yet both of these 
 men were idolized by their followers. 
 
 Shyness is a fault, and should be overcome by as- 
 sociating freely with all sorts and conditions of men 
 and women. It is often due to morbid self-esteem, 
 and the fear of making one's self ridiculous. Easy 
 manners come from contact with men and affairs, 
 and must be studied, just as the young actor must 
 learn to walk naturally on and off the stage.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE COUNTRY BOY. 
 
 Effects of Environment — The Country Boy — Opportunities in 
 Small Communities — Try the Nearest Thing First — Discussion 
 at the Twilight Club— Climbing a Long or a Short Ladder — Fa- 
 mous Men Bom in Small Places — Country Boys in Public Life. 
 
 To be born in a stable does not make one a horse, 
 yet a boy's surroundings have much to do with his 
 future. Strong natures like Lincoln flourish in any 
 soil. Nevertheless, the boy who is to develop into a 
 true man must, in the majority of cases, have the 
 best nurture. Lacking this, many boys will degen- 
 erate and become failures. The world is full of dere- 
 licts drifting aimlessly about, and perhaps wrecking 
 other and stancher craft. 
 
 Children brought up in city tenements tend to be- 
 come vicious and sickly, but if transported to country 
 homes they grow up to be strong and self-respecting 
 men and women. 
 
 The inquiry is frequently made, Why do not boys 
 stay on the farm ? The reason is that in man}- places 
 farming does not pay, and, if there are several sons in 
 the family, there is seldom a chance for more than 
 one to earn a living at home. The country boy goes 
 to the district school and learns " the three R's" ; he 
 may attend a high school, but that is usually the ex- 
 tent of his book knowledge. If he seeks the nearest
 
 72 WJiaf SJudl Ovr Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 village or small town, there are few opportunities for 
 employment. The grocery-store will need a clerk and 
 driver, the dry-goods dealer a few salesmen. There 
 will be places on the railroad, in the express, insur- 
 ance, and telegraph offices, and with the local news- 
 paper, but they are ill paid and rarely lead to pro- 
 motion. If there are factories they wall give work to 
 a number. The lawyer, doctor, editor, surveyor, and 
 dentist earn a bare existence. In every community' a 
 carpenter, blacksmith, cobbler, tinsmith, and mason 
 will find occupation most of the time. If they are 
 intelligent and thrifty, they ought to gain a comfort- 
 able living. There are also chances for contractors 
 to do ditching and grading, teaming, and similar 
 work. 
 
 An eminent New York lawyer who came from a 
 Western village said to me: "My father was a car- 
 penter. Several of my brothers have followed trades. 
 I tried to be a machinist and often slept on the ash- 
 heap by the furnace. I then took up type-setting, but 
 I hadn't enough brains to be a mechanic ; so I studied 
 law. I think the country boy has an advantage over 
 the city boy. Most of the men in my native place 
 who have got on were sons of mechanics or laborers, 
 yet they went to college and are successful lawyers, 
 doctors, merchants, and clergj-men. One boy, whose 
 father was a track-walker, ran away to attend school, 
 and is now a leading Buffalo lawyer. Many such 
 boys have positions in oil refineries and factories, 
 where they earn good pay. They live in comfort, 
 own their own homes, and lay by money. A boy 
 who has the right stuff in him can usually get started 
 anywhere."
 
 WJmt Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 73 
 
 Yet it is often a mistake for a 3'oiing man to leave 
 home. Like a tree, be may take a long while to get 
 rooted in a new spot. If he has any chance near 
 home, he had better take advantage of it until he has 
 developed his powers and saved a little money. 
 Then if he chooses to prosi)ect a little, he will be 
 able to take advantage of any opportunity' that ofl'ers. 
 
 Take the first thing that offers, and, as Chauncey 
 Depew advised, " stick and hustle" till you have made 
 the place worth keeping or can find something better. 
 Be a big toad in a little puddle rather than the op- 
 posite, and avoid the overcrowded centres. 
 
 Henry Watterson, of the Louisnlle Courier-Journal, 
 commends the life of the country editor as giving far 
 more independence and quite as much comfort as 
 metropolitan journalism. Thousands of men in small 
 communities bring up their families in comfort who 
 would have been not a whit happier in a great city. 
 Such men grow slowly, but they have time to ripen. 
 
 Instead of seeking the great city with its throng of 
 struggling competitors, I would advise the ambitious 
 youth to \xj to get started in a town with a future be- 
 fore it. There are boundless opportunities for men 
 of ability and energy in the West and South. A lit- 
 tle capital, however, is needed, and the stranger with- 
 out means is as badly off in a new as in an old 
 country. 
 
 Many large business enterprises were founded by 
 men of small means in smaU places. The wide re- 
 nown of Douglas, the $3 shoe man, proves that with 
 the aid of advertising a man of energy may succeed 
 anywhere. Comfort, the paper with the largest cir- 
 culation in America, was started in Augusta, Me.
 
 74 What Slmll Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 Samuel Bowles and Henry Watterson both gained 
 national reputations by editing provincial journals. 
 The Detroit Free Press, Danhiir>/ JVeu's, and Biirlimj- 
 ton Haioheye were known all over the world. Emerson 
 and Bronson Alcott made Concord a Mecca for all 
 lovers of truth. Hawthorne brooded and wrote there 
 for years, waiting for the world to discover his gen- 
 ius. One of the greatest American surgeons prac- 
 tised in a Kentucky niral community. A man cannot 
 permanently hide his light under a bushel. 
 
 At one of the Twilight Club dinners a number of 
 the members gave their reasons for coming to New 
 York from the counti-y, and why they preferred liv- 
 ing in New York. It was maintained by some that 
 the metropolis is a great educator, and that in it a man 
 can keep abreast of the best thought and culture of 
 the time. The competition is severe, but the rewards 
 are proportionate. One speaker commended the edu- 
 cational advantages of the large city, and thought it 
 the best place for children to get a start in life. A 
 physician said he was in love with New Y^'ork, and 
 could not be persuaded to leave it, especially from 
 what he heard of doctor's incomes in smaller places. 
 A clergyman praised the countless opportunities and 
 privileges of the metropolis, and said he felt younger 
 every day. A school principal contended that the 
 moral tone of the big city is, in many respects, in- 
 finitely above that of the little town or village. The 
 city boy seldom enters a saloon, but in smaller places 
 it is the resort of young and old, and the conversation 
 is not improving. On the other hand, a distinguished 
 lawyer said he earned his bread and butter in New 
 York, but he did not call it "living," and as soon as
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 75 
 
 he had a clear iDcomo of $500 ( !) a year he meant to 
 return to the West, get a new jack-knife and a soft pine 
 stick, sit on the tavern-porch with his former cronies, 
 and whittle all day long. Another speaker said: 
 " Strong individualities stand out in the small com- 
 munity with almost indecent distinctness. New York 
 is a good place to enjoy freedom for one's idiosyn- 
 cracies. Yet I pity the child brought up in the city, 
 with no trees or brooks, no chance to go fishing, or 
 to play outdoors and make pets of domestic animals." 
 
 These are the opinions of men who have established 
 themselves in the metropolis ; but they do not enable 
 the boy who wants to go to the great city to decide 
 positively whether it is best to do so. " It is a ques- 
 tion whether you care to climb a long or a short lad- 
 der," said a friend. In the large city one can rise 
 higher, though there are greater chances of falling 
 lower. The greater the height the greater the fall. 
 
 Neither in the United States nor abroad have the 
 great men of thought and action been city born. 
 
 The early Presidents of this countiy and the mem- 
 bers of their cabinets were mostly residents of small 
 towns. Washington, Jefferson, and Adams were 
 farmers. Of President McKinley's cabinet Secre- 
 tary Sherman came from Lancaster, Ohio; Lyman 
 Gage was born in Madison County, N. Y. ; General 
 Alger was a farm boy in the Western Keserve ; Secre- 
 tary McKemia, though a native of Philadelphia, was 
 reared in Benicia, Cal. ; Secretary Gary came from a 
 Connecticut village; Secretary Long from Oxford 
 County, Me. ; Cornelius Bliss is a native of Fall 
 River. Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Jackson, Seward, 
 Grant, General Sherman, Chase, Lincoln, Colfax,
 
 76 JVJMt Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 Garfield, Hayes, Garrison, Beecher, Horatio Sey- 
 mour, and Gen. Joseph R. Hawley all came from 
 small communities. 
 
 Newbury port, Mass., produced a remarkable list 
 of notable persons, including Wbittier and Harriet 
 Prescott Spofford. Nantucket was the birthplace of 
 Lucretia Mott, Maria Mitchell, and Mrs. Child. 
 A little Maine village has produced a vice-president 
 (Hannibal Hamlin), a Postmaster-General, members 
 of Congress, Governors, and prominent lawyers, 
 judges, editors. 
 
 Chauncey Depew came to New York from Peek- 
 skill; Horace Greeley and Charles A. Dana from 
 New Hampshire ; Cyrus Field from the Berkshires ; 
 Grover Cleveland from Caldwell, N. J. ; ex-Mayor 
 W. L. Strong, W. D. Ho wells, the Rockefellers,^ S. 
 C. T. Dodd, and Whitelaw Reid from Ohio; Albert 
 Shaw from Minnesota ; R. W. Gilder from New Jer- 
 sey ; Roswell P. Flower from Watertown ; Russell 
 Sage from Troy ; Roscoe Conkling and Noah Davis 
 from Western New York; Jay Gould and H. K. 
 Thurber from the Catskills; Thomas C. Piatt from 
 Tioga County ; Levi P. Morton, Chester A. Arthur, 
 and William M. Evarts from Vermont; not to name 
 a hundred other countrybred boys who have made 
 their mark in the metropolis. 
 
 The three chief managers of 31c Chive's 3Jagazine 
 were country boys and "chums" at Knox College, 111. 
 
 But not all country boys who come to the city suc- 
 ceed. Many men lead obscure lives in the great cities 
 who might have won honors in the small towns. It 
 requires exceptional ability to win one's way against 
 cut-throat competition.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE CITY J30Y. 
 
 Public-School Studies Superficial — "Clerk Factories"— Incom- 
 petent Applicants for Situations— Genteel Occupations — Open- 
 ings for City Boj's. 
 
 The city boy, despite his airs, is neither so vigorous 
 nor so self-reliant as his country cousin. He finds 
 more opi^ortunities to earn a living, but he meets 
 with more rivals. There are hundreds of applicants 
 for every position, and competition forces the pay 
 down to the lowest point. Living expenses are also 
 heavier. The risks to health from sedentary- occupa- 
 tions, long hours in ill-ventilated offices, stores, and 
 workshops are serious. There are fewer inducements 
 to outdoor exercise. 
 
 George Tallman, writing in The Christian Union 
 years ago, shows how little the citj- boy has to look 
 forward to. Bootblacks and newsboys earn an un- 
 certain lix'ing, and are exposed to temptation and 
 hardship. Messenger boys earn $3.50 a week and 
 have to pay for their uniforms and many fines. Cash 
 boys get forty cents for a day of ten hours. Fifty 
 cents a day is a fair average for boys in factories. 
 Even if he lives at home, the boy who is forced to go 
 on the street or into a factory before he has the 
 strength or education to do good work remains an 
 unskilled worker all his life. Manufacturing is car-
 
 78 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 ried on upon a larger and larger scale. The division 
 of labor is greater and greater. Not only does the 
 gulf between capitalist and laborer widen, but with it 
 the gulf between skilled and unskilled labor. The 
 time was when a boy who went in at the bottom could 
 come out at the top. But this is scarcely possible 
 now, excepting in rare instances. 
 
 A prime cause of this state of things is the super- 
 ficial studies in the public schools. The poor man's 
 son leaves early with the merest rudiments of knowl- 
 edge, and is only fitted to begin in any calling at the 
 bottom of the ladder. The average city boy of fifteen 
 has learned to write, spell tolerably well, and cipher 
 a little. He has a smattering of geography and 
 American history. K of foreign parentage he may 
 speak some language besides English. His chief 
 source of information is the newspaper, with its 
 hodgepodge of crime, politics, and gossip. He has 
 also read some little fiction. 
 
 Many youths of sixteen can hardly write a receipt 
 or make out a bill. To compose an ordinary busi- 
 ness letter is quite beyond their powers. Seventy 
 applicants for a clerkship were rejected for sheer 
 ignorance. A business man remarked : " We have to 
 make boys over again and train them to suit our 
 needs." Thousands of foreigners are employed be- 
 cause native Americans of equal capacity are not to 
 be had. A New York merchant received one hundred 
 and fifty replies to an advertisement for an office boy 
 of sixteen; wages, $6 per week. Most of the writers 
 ignored the conditions entirely. They all showed 
 carelessness, want of neatness, and ignorance of 
 grammar. Manj^ wrote on scraps of paper; some on
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Lkinrj ? 79 
 
 postal cards; others with red ink. Their ages ranged 
 from fifteen to thirtj^ and the salary asked was from 
 $7 to $30. Only three applications were really cor- 
 rect. 
 
 Yet there is a steady demand in a variety of occu- 
 pations for really competent boys. The principal of 
 a New York school, famed for its thoroiigh instruc- 
 tion, says ever}' capable jmpil is apt to find a place 
 when he graduates. It is the same with the gradu- 
 ates of both sexes from Packard's Business College 
 and other institutions that train students thoroughly 
 and practicalh". 
 
 New York is a hive of industry. It attracts so 
 many strangers in search of work that the beginner 
 is shoved aside, partlj- because he is untrained and 
 partly because a full-grown man will take the place 
 at the same pay. A good many boys find employ- 
 ment as porters, drivers of wagons, and in similar 
 positions. Places on the police force are in great 
 demand, but Commissioner Koosevelt found it diffi- 
 cult to secure city men who could pass the examina- 
 tion, and had to invite applicants from the country. 
 Postmen and firemen get good pay, and such places 
 are much sought after. 
 
 It is rather curious to consider wh}' so few native 
 New Yorkers have become prominent. In a pub- 
 lished list of one hundred leading citizens of the 
 metropolis, over ninety were shown to be country 
 bred. Seth Low, Theodore Eoosevelt, George Gould, 
 Louis Tiffany, Charles W. Dayton, Stuyvesant Fish, 
 Perry Belmont, and Edward M. Shepard were " to the 
 manner born," but the leading divines, editors, doc- 
 tors, artists, and business men are immigrants from
 
 80 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 other States or otlier lands. Is it from lack of men- 
 tal or physical vigor that the city stock is distanced 
 by these competitors? The same conditions exist in 
 London, Paris, Berlin, and other European cities, 
 which are filled with strangers from the pro%ances, 
 who, because of their greater energy and capacity, 
 supplant the city-bred men ; even artists are not de- 
 veloped in the great centres of culture. They spring 
 up anywhere and everywhere, and finally drift to the 
 cities in search of teachers and patrons. 
 
 Horace Greeley justly complained that our public 
 schools are only "clerk-factories." Their desire to 
 follow a " respectable" calling and their unfitness for 
 any other pursuit, force many young men to accept 
 pitiful pay at the start, and even to pay premiums to 
 enter good establishments. After working for years 
 they may earn from $15 to $18 as entry-clerks or as- 
 sistant bookkeepers. Their duties are monotonous. 
 They see little of the world, make few acquaintances, 
 and are apt to sink into a rut. If they are with a large 
 concern, they are kept at one thing and learn nothing 
 else, while relatives and young men with " influence" 
 are promoted over their heads. They cannot think 
 of starting for themselves, because they have no capi- 
 tal. If they marry they must pinch and save to keep 
 up appearances, while if they have large families or 
 sickness comes, their trials are often tragic. 
 
 I am speaking of the mass of commercial clerks. 
 Of course, there are exceptional cases of men being 
 taken into partnership, or placed in charge of agen- 
 cies or in other confidential positions. But the ma- 
 jority of clerks and bookkeepers are not well paid, 
 and when they pass middle life they are apt to be
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 81 
 
 shelved. Recently a capable friend of mine was sum- 
 marily dismissed after being thirty years in one posi- 
 tion. Many business firms are merciless toward old 
 and tried employees. 
 6
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 LEARNING A TRADE. 
 
 The Best Field for a Boy Who Likes Tools— Employers Who 
 Have Risen from the Ranks — Trades Becoming Dignified — Man- 
 ual Training-Schools — The Plumber's Field— Value of Technical 
 Training — What Workmen Should Read. 
 
 A TEACHER once asked me with great earnestness, 
 " What can our smart boys and girls do besides being 
 lawyers' clerks, and milliners?" My answer was, 
 "Set the boys to learning trades." Yet the very 
 same day a mechanic complained that the average 
 young woman would sooner marrj^ a " counter-jump- 
 er" with $12 a week than a journeyman earning $3 
 a da3^ In Philadelphia an advertisement for a clerk 
 brought four hundred and eighteen answers, while 
 one for a wheelwright's apprentice received three. 
 It seems a sad perversion of our educational sys- 
 tem that so many boys consider it more " genteel" to 
 run errands, sweep out offices, build fires, and copy 
 letters, than to make hats or shoes, lay bricks, wield 
 the saw or jackplane, handle the machinist's file or 
 the blacksmith's hammer. A country which prides 
 itself upon its industrial supremacy and inventive- 
 ness, which has produced such men as Franklin, 
 Robert Fulton, George Steers, Goodyear, Bigelow, 
 Horace Greeley, the Hoe brothers, McCormick, Car- 
 negie, Edison, Ericsson, Herreshoff, and Fairbanks
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 83 
 
 should foster a sentiment that would lead the rising 
 generation to rival their achievements. 
 
 The great mass of the builders and contractors 
 whose work is seen in the monster hotels, apart- 
 ment-houses, office-buildings, theatres, and churches, 
 erected all over the countrj'-, have risen from the ranks. 
 Most of them have worked as mechanics and some 
 even as laborers. 
 
 Mr. See, the author of "Chordal's Letters," a prac- 
 tical mechanic and expert engineer, writes in the 
 American Machinist: "If you know of a bright six- 
 teen-year-old boy, smart and independent, with snap, 
 pride, poverty, good health, and a common-school 
 education, and with a hankering after the mechanical 
 arts, tell him to go into a machine-shop and learn the 
 trade." 
 
 " Is there no show for machinists? Turn to the last 
 pages of the American Machinist, and there read the 
 biography of the workingman. The advertising pages 
 tell the tale. Sixty men put their names on those 
 Images. They employ five thousand workmen and 
 over $6,000,000 of capital. Were these sixty men 
 born with these millions in their pockets? Did they 
 fall heir to the cash and the shops, at an early age? 
 Not a bit of it. At the ago of eighteen over forty of 
 these men were working in shops." 
 
 James Nasmith, the inventor of the trip-hammer, 
 was the son of an artist, who was also an amateur 
 mechanic. He was thoroughly trained, both as a 
 draughtsman and in the use of tools. When ho 
 visited Henry Maudsley in London and desired to be 
 taken as an apprentice, he was at first rejected, but 
 upon showing his drawings and specimens of his
 
 84 JVJuit Shall Our Boys Do for a Livimj ? 
 
 mechanical skill he obtained admission, not as an ap- 
 prentice but as Mr. Maudsley's personal assistant. 
 This was the foundation of his after-success. Thou- 
 sands of other mechanics who began with no help but 
 a stout heart, a clear head, and a dogged determina- 
 tion to win success, to-day are respected members of 
 society. 
 
 The Talmud says : " He who teaches not his son a 
 trade is to be regarded as if he had taught him how 
 to rob." In ancient times even kings were required 
 to learn trades, so as to be self-supporting in case 
 they lost their crowns. In 1894 Robert Louis Steven- 
 son wrote : " Were it not for my health, which made it 
 impossible, I could not find it in my heart to forgive 
 myself that I did not stick to an honest, commonplace 
 trade when I was still j^oung, which would have now 
 supported me during all these ill j-ears." 
 
 No calling should be avoided because it may not 
 seem genteel. Surgery, once a function of the medi- 
 aeval barber, is now a most dignified and highly paid 
 profession. So with dentistry, pharmac}', and veteri- 
 nary surgery, which rank far higher than any one 
 dreamed of a generation ago. Within that period 
 also the much-abused plumber has become a sanitary 
 engineer, and the tinker is now a man of standing. 
 The express-business and news-dealing have grown 
 from humble occupations to be great industries. The 
 family nurse is the graduate of a training-school. 
 Even New York street-sweepers, since they were uni- 
 formed, have gained dignity and public respect. 
 
 It is high time that our boys should be brought to 
 face the fact that the commercial world is overstocked, 
 and that it is foolish to enter into competition with
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 85 
 
 the throng of beginners, who all want to get rich with 
 the least effort, and rival the wealth of Gould or Vau- 
 derbilt. 
 
 An ordinary clerk is not so well paid as a first-class 
 mechanic. He has far less independence and not half 
 so good prospects. The mechanic's work is more 
 healthful; he is less likely to lose his place in dull 
 times, is only discharged from necessity, and has 
 equal chance of promotion. The average clerk does 
 not require special abilit}', but a mechanic must be 
 intelligent, and, if he is industrious and observing, he 
 improves daily. Machinery has often cut wages and 
 thrown workmen out of employment, but immigra- 
 tion has displaced thousands of clerks. A mechanic 
 with a kit of tools and enough money to hire a base- 
 ment or a loft may start on his own account, or he 
 may work at home. If he has energy and makes 
 friends, he will have little trouble to get along. I 
 believe that more mechanics than clerks own their 
 homes, the}' enjoy more comforts, and when they die 
 they leave their families better provided for. 
 
 Here are a few examples of boys who have suc- 
 ceeded in trades. A New England mother had a son 
 who threatened to become wild. A friend advised put- 
 ting him in a machine-shop. The boy in time became 
 superintendent and finally married his employer's 
 daughter. This is an exceptional case, yet, when I 
 see scores of young men with gifts for construc- 
 tion and for administration, slaving at office-work, 
 I feel that their lives have been failures. A Southern 
 editor had a son who shirked study, and was always 
 visiting workshops and factories and bringing home 
 sketches of machinery. His father, finding punish-
 
 86 JVhat Shall Our Boys Do fo) a Livinrj ? 
 
 meut useless, jjlacecl him at seventeen in a factory, 
 where he was paid twenty-five cents a day. Five 
 years later he was earning $80 a month as engineer 
 on a sugar-plantation. A second son studied short- 
 hand for two years, but failed to succeed. His father 
 then bought him a $20 printing-press and now he is 
 established as a printer. Neither of these boys would 
 have earned his salt in a profession or as a clerk. A 
 boy on a Jersey farm, the son of poor parents, stud- 
 ied surveying and mapped the farm. He then got a 
 place with Edison, and before he was twenty-one was 
 sent to Mexico to set up an electric-light plant. There 
 are scores of similar cases. 
 
 Of course a boy to succeed must have an aptitude 
 for mechanics. Gen. F. A. Walker said : " You can 
 no more make a first-class dyer or a first-class ma- 
 chinist in one generation than a Cossack horseman 
 or a Tartar herdsman. Artisans are born, not made." 
 
 But how shall the boy with a fondness for tools get 
 started? The old apprenticeship system has dis- 
 appeared. In certain trades a limited number of 
 boys are admitted, but it is nobody's concern to teach 
 them, and they make slow progress. Horace Greeley 
 said : " To make an editor you must catch him young 
 and feed him on printer's ink." Manual dexterity 
 can only be acquired in youth. Professor Adler 
 favors giving manual training in the kindergarten and 
 thus preparing the boy to enter at once on his trade. 
 Before long we may hope to see manual instruction, 
 instead of the many useless things now in the curricu- 
 lum, taught in the public schools. If a boy on enter- 
 ing a shop has some idea of the nature of the mate- 
 rials used and of the natural forces which operate in
 
 What Shall Our Boys; Do for a Living ? 87 
 
 treating these materials to convert tliem to practical 
 ends, he will get along faster than if he lacks such 
 knowledge. Hence the value of technical training. 
 
 The superintendent of a New York carriage-factory 
 has had unusual success in training beginners. He 
 arranged with the principal of a public school to send 
 promising boys to him. They were set at piece-work, 
 and in a surprisingly short time earned good pay and 
 became serviceable. Within a few years he trained 
 over sixty boys. One youth of eighteen could turn 
 out the best work in his line made in the United 
 States. Unfortunately, few superintendents possess 
 this talent. A man engaged in directing a large es- 
 tablishment has no time for anything else, and, be- 
 sides, teaching is a business in itself. In the Hoe 
 brothers' printing-press works the boys are taught 
 systematically in night classes. Addison B. Burk 
 states that in smaller towns and %dllages in Pennsyl- 
 vania the old-time relations of the apprentice and 
 master continue. The workshops of large cities are 
 largely supplied with skilled workmen from these 
 places. 
 
 Under the old system a beginner had to associate 
 with rough, ill-bred, and often vicious boys, who 
 were put to learn a trade because they were unfitted 
 for anything else. An apprentice had to clean his 
 master's boots, and, though he sat at the master's 
 table, he often did not have enough to eat. In many 
 trades boys used to do nothing but dirty work — 
 cleaning, sweeping, or hammering the rust from old 
 iron. Consequently they could not learn anything 
 for a year or more. Now that machinery has short- 
 ened so many mechanical processes, it seems unjust
 
 88 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 that beginners should waste time in needless drudgery. 
 Yet the natural desire of the beginner to avoid or has- 
 ten through the dirty-work period in a trade is op- 
 posed by masters and journeymen, who think that 
 every one should pass through the same ordeal as 
 themselves. 
 
 No sensible man would encourage squeamishness 
 or a fear of soiling one's fingers. The doctor, the 
 lawyer, and the clergyman perform disagreeable ser- 
 vice, but they do not comi3lain. So the trade-school 
 graduate should be willing to do everything needed 
 to qualifj-^ himself for his calling. Yet to say that a 
 youth should waste a single hour in mere drudgery 
 is a statement born only of prejudice or of ignorance. 
 
 Foreign workmen, especially Germans, have better 
 preparatory training than Americans, but the}' are 
 less versatile and are apt to run in ruts. John La- 
 farge considers that a first-class American mechanic 
 has no superior. 
 
 Complaint is made in most trades that boys will 
 not stay long enough to learn anything. A boy be- 
 gins with, say, $4 a week, and after a few months he 
 suddenly leiives to go into possibh^ an entirely differ- 
 ent trade for the sake of another dollar a week. As a 
 result the youth becomes a " half-baked" workman. 
 
 I once had as clerk a German-American boy of 
 eighteen. He left school at nine, tended a shoe- 
 dealer's stand, worked in a laundry, then in a cigar- 
 factory, later in an office, and then as assistant stew- 
 ard on an ocean steamer. He never earned more than 
 $5 a week and knew absolutely nothing. When set to 
 copy a type- written letter he wrote small i's instead of 
 capitals. In addressing wrappers to leading Ameri-
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 89 
 
 can cities he could not tell what States they were in. 
 It is melancholy to think of his future, as he was unfit 
 for any position requiring training or brains. 
 
 I would strongly advise young men to become 
 plumbers, in spite of the fact that most people dis- 
 parage the trade. This is because, until lately, it 
 has been monopolized by ignorant bosses, who have 
 brought it into disrepute. A first-class plumber must 
 understand both the theory and practice of sanitary 
 science. He ranks with a machinist or engineer. 
 Within a very few years the trade has been revo- 
 lutionized, and there is a growing demand in all parts 
 of the country for capable plumbers. A young man 
 who is master of the trade has a great advantage over 
 the ordinary, ignorant, unscrupulous plumber, and 
 should have no difficulty in getting plenty to do. 
 Not only is there a steady demand for new buildings 
 in all parts of the country, but repairs and alterations 
 are also going on continually, and the plumbers who 
 can give satisfaction to customers easily succeed. 
 One of them once told me he had not lost a week's 
 work in thirty years. He said there were four men 
 in his shop who received fifty cents a day extra be- 
 cause they could follow jjlans and specifications cor- 
 rectly, measure and order exactly what materials were 
 needed, were able to explain clearlj" to customers just 
 why certain things should be done, and could act with 
 discretion in emergencies. Such practical sagacity 
 and " gumption" count for much. The timid and in- 
 different workman who blindly follows orders when 
 he knows they are wrong or need to be modified is 
 the first to be laid off when work is slack. 
 
 An employer speaks of the difficulty of judging
 
 90 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living? 
 
 wLetlier a hoy is fitted to learn a trade. He describes 
 two apprentices who were under training. One was 
 a quiet, studious, good boj^, fond of reading, of a neat 
 appearance, could talk correctly about the business, 
 yet he was a poor workman. After his time was out 
 he never could keep a job. He finally went into an- 
 other business and is doing well at it. The other 
 was always in mischief, full of pranks, continually 
 being complained of, but when he received a kit of 
 tools and was set to work he was a success. He was 
 not a reader, but had the knack of seeing into things 
 or the cheek to ask about what he didn't know. To- 
 day he is a good, reliable workman, earning good 
 wages. 
 
 In "Chordal's Letters" a similar description is 
 given of the difference between a boy made of putty 
 and one with brains. " I was in the office of a certain 
 engineer the other day, and a mutton-headed boy, 
 about nineteen, came in. He was a machinist. His 
 father owned a shop and "he had served his time in it. 
 He wanted to learn to ' draft, ' he said. His father 
 wanted him to learn ; he wanted to learn himself, and 
 his father would pay all reasonable bills. Torrson, 
 the engineer, began to catechise him. ' What have 
 you ever drawn?' 'Nothing!' 'What have you 
 ever wanted to draw? ' ' Don't know as I ever wanted 
 to draw anything, and could not make a " draft" if I 
 wanted to, because I never learned how.' ' That's all 
 right, ' said Torrson, 'you will never draught anything, 
 and will never be wanted to. I'll see your father this 
 week.' Torrson turned to me and said he had a 
 dozen such fellows to deal with every month, and 
 treated them all the same. 'But,' said he, 'when
 
 JVhai SJki-U Our Boys Do for a Living ? 91 
 
 some greasy boy slips in here and pulls out some 
 horribly original drawing, and asks me why the ink 
 lines run when he puts color on, or how a fellow is to 
 judge good India ink, or how this thing is to be drawn 
 so another can understand it, then I quit work and 
 stay by that fellow, and place my time and library 
 and office at his disposal." 
 
 Law-schools were scouted at first, but no one now 
 disputes their utility. Some practical men entertain 
 the same prejudice against trade-schools and saj^: 
 " We got along without such help. Let the boys of 
 to-day follow in our footsteps." But they do not 
 allow for changed circumstances. They ridicule the 
 idea of being taught by "theorists," but fail to dis- 
 tinguish between the teaching of principles and of 
 practice. During the civil war men who had 
 commanded clipper ships around Cape Horn took 
 lessons in navigation from the daughter of an 
 old sea-captain in order to obtain a certificate that 
 would entitle them to command a government trans- 
 port. 
 
 Teaching is a specialty', and the foreman or super- 
 intendent usually has neither time nor aptitude for 
 it. He has learned to do many things in a rule- 
 of-thumb way, but he does not understand the scien- 
 tific principles which underlie and regulate his work, 
 and ho cannot give the reasons why things are done 
 in a certain way. 
 
 The trade-school does not pretend to teach more 
 than the rudiments ; therefore, if possible, it should 
 be attached to a business establishment, as at Wor- 
 cester, Mass., where the pupil can enter at once upon 
 practical work. At the Baldwin Locomotive Worka
 
 92 IVJiat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 in Philadelphia the pupils from the Spring Garden 
 Institute are placed under an older workman. A boy 
 with six months' training ranks as high as one who 
 has had a year's shop practice. 
 
 Manual training counteracts the narrowing effect 
 of the subdivision of labor, which confines a work- 
 man to one thing and tends to make him a mere ma- 
 chine. There need be no fear that it will spoil young 
 men. A smattering of book-learning breeds conceit, 
 but not skill with tools. As Professor Sweet saj-s : 
 " The workman is injured by scientific training when 
 he thinks more of what he knows than of how to ap- 
 ply it. It is the little knowledge that demoralizes." 
 Gen. Francis Walker says : " Manual training teaches 
 accurac3% thoroughness, and develops character. It 
 trains the eye, the hand, and the brain. There can 
 be no cramming in a trade-school. WTiat we read or 
 hear may be forgotten, but not what we rfo." 
 
 Every Jewish child was formerly taught some in- 
 dustry. Queen Victoria made each of her family 
 learn engraving, painting, or needlework. The first 
 Emperor William followed the same course. The 
 late Courtlandt Palmer, who sent two of his childi*en 
 to a trade-school and two others to a private school, 
 declared that the former made more rapid progress. 
 
 Manual skill breeds self-respect. In Great Britain 
 an artisan may sit in Parliament, but a man-servant 
 has no higher ambition than to keep a public house. 
 Thomas Carlyle spoke with reverence of the bridge 
 which his father, the stone-mason, erected at Cro- 
 marthy. Among the New Lebanon Shakers hand- 
 work is rated as high as head-work, and Elder Fred- 
 erick Evans took far more pride in a substantial wall
 
 TVhat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 93 
 
 and a well-pruned orchard than in his books and 
 addresses. 
 
 Carlvle says : " A man is a tool-using animal. " 
 Everj^ boy should be taught to do something with 
 nature's tools, his hands. "Any one who can learn 
 to write can be taught to di*aw," says Prof. Walter 
 Smith, and drawing is the basis of manual education. 
 Very young boys can be trained to use ordinary tools, 
 as has been shown at the Boston Whittling School. 
 
 The trade-schools in New York, Brooklyn, Phila- 
 delphia, Chicago, and other cities provide practical 
 training in carpentry, bricklaying, plumbing, plas- 
 tering, metal and sheet cornice-work, stone-cutting, 
 fresco-painting, decorating, and electrical work. Over 
 six thousand young men have attended the Xew York 
 trade-schools, an average of five hundred yearly. 
 They come from all parts of the United States and 
 Canada. Most of the graduates earn good wages. A 
 number are master-mechanics. Manj' of the pupils 
 have worked in shops and sought to improve them- 
 selves in some special line. They make rapid prog- 
 ress, because thej' know just what they want to learn. 
 The growth of the school is the best proof of its value. 
 
 Mr. Mundella says the graduates from the English 
 technical schools surprise their friends by the high 
 wages they get. One young man earned more than 
 his father and two brothers. Dr. Edward Jarvis 
 says : " Education increases the value of the common 
 laborer because of the saving in super-v-ision. The 
 ignorant man merely imitates some one else so long 
 as he is watched, but he makes blunders and is a 
 great tax upon capital." To set a $5 man to direct a 
 $2 man, is a waste of time and brains. The edu-
 
 94 What SJiall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 cated workman needs little supervision. On the other 
 hand capable men are kept from promotion by their 
 inability to keep accounts. An intelligent mill-hand 
 will produce more, and will keep his machine in bet- 
 ter condition, than an ignorant one. He is also less 
 inclined to intemperance. By the testimony of work- 
 men themselves increased skill and aptitude come 
 from education, and the superior workman performs 
 his work with less labor than his fellows." 
 
 It is not wise to tempt students by easy lessons. 
 If technical courses are to be useful they must be 
 thorough. Professor Baraflf says : " It is useless for 
 a person who knows a little chemistry or a little elec- 
 tricity or a little mathematics or mechanics to at- 
 tempt to apply his knowledge to practical purposes." 
 The youth who has worked in one shop only will ap- 
 preciate his ignorance when placed in a larger estab- 
 lishment, and still more when placed in the technical 
 school where all varieties of work are explained by 
 competent instructors. 
 
 Not every one has sufficient resolution to sit down 
 to his books after a hard day's work. Few persons 
 also can study alone. They need the stimulus which 
 comes from contact with other students and also the 
 guidance of a trained teacher. Many mechanics have 
 been greatly benefited by taking the course of the 
 Correspondence School at Scranton, which seems to 
 be an admirable institution. 
 
 Not every apprentice becomes a skilled workman. 
 No more does every clerk become an Astor or a 
 Stewart, or every law-student an Evarts or a Choate. 
 But that is no reason why manual labor should be 
 condemned.
 
 WJiat Shall Our Boys Do for a Livimj ? 95 
 
 Piece-work is often a drawback to a boy. His em- 
 ployer is benefited, but the boy learns little, and has 
 no hope of advancement. This leads many boys after 
 being a j-ear or so in a shop to seek work elsewhere. 
 
 In trades requiring artistic talent, like cabinet-mak- 
 ing, wood-carving, and lithograi)hy, foreign workmen 
 take the lead, while in railroading, the machinist's 
 trade, and plumbing, native Americans succeed. 
 
 What is especially wanted to promote our indus- 
 trial future is to multiply the number of trained fore- 
 men and superintendents. A good general can make 
 an arm}' out of almost any material. So with proper 
 superintendence a factory or a shop will turn out a 
 far higher quality of work than without it. 
 
 A young man aspiring to be a mechanic should 
 ask himself : Do I honesth' and sincerely want to be 
 a good workman and a credit to my trade and to my 
 friends, or am I seeking only to make a living iu the 
 easiest and shortest manner? As Caleb Garth says 
 in " Middlemarch" : " You must be sure of two things : 
 You must love your work, and not always be looking 
 over the edge of it, wanting your play to begin; and 
 the other is : You must not be ashamed of your work 
 and think it would be more honorable for you to be 
 doing something else." 
 
 The technical trade- journals supply a fund of in- 
 formation. They are found in every workshop and 
 in thousands of homes. Their efi'ect in stimulating 
 study and imparting new ideas is great and whole- 
 some. Such journals as The Scioitific America)), The 
 Ame)'ica)i Machhiist, The Metal Wor'ker, Ca)-penter 
 and Builder, The h'on Age, Tlie Raihcay Gazette, TJie 
 Shoe a))d Leather Bepo)'tcr, The Huh, Tlie A)))e)ican
 
 96 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 Builder, not to mention others, exert a potent and 
 widespread influence. It is difficult to bring to- 
 gether the members of a certain trade for mutual 
 intercourse and discussion, even in a metropolis like 
 Paris, London, or New York. The technical journal, 
 however, like the telegraph, annihilates space and 
 time, and joins the most distant individuals into a 
 cohesive whole. The isolated artisan in some factory 
 town or Aallage, who reads the trade-journals, feels 
 himself linked by sympathy and self-interest with his 
 fellow-craftsmen. The researches of investigators in 
 special lines are brought to the attention of those 
 most interested in them. The columns of these jour- 
 nals supply a vehicle for discussion and for advanc- 
 ing knowledge in every department of progress. 
 They have become the only substitute for the ancient 
 guilds. The same benefits which accrue from jour- 
 nals like Nature and Art have resulted from the tech- 
 nical and trade journals. The fact that they are so 
 widely read and quoted is a proof of their value. 
 
 In "Chordal's Letters" there are some sensible re- 
 marks for mechanics on the subject of reading. 
 "What books should machinists read? This ques- 
 tion is asked of some one supposed to know, about a 
 thousand times a year. Mechanics, as a general 
 thing, are pretty well advanced in years when they 
 want these books. They can't comprehend anything 
 fine or deep or analytical, and cannot spend time to 
 attain the necessary elementary book-knowledge. 
 They despise a book which treats them as childi'en. 
 Walker is a carpenter, and is patronizingly urged to 
 go to the library and read up his trade and rise in 
 the world. He knows nothing of books, and takes
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 97 
 
 the first one with carpentry on the back of it, say, 
 ' Constructive Carpentry Practically Considered. ' He 
 could not define the title to save his neck, but pro- 
 ceeds to look into it. He finds many demonstrations 
 and geometrical diagrams, but he can't get into sym- 
 Ijathy with the thing; says the author's a fool who 
 couldn't shove a saw, and he puts the book away. 
 He takes another, the 'Complete Carpenter.' On the 
 first page he sees a villanous cut of a saw, and he 
 reads : ' This is a hand-saw used by carpenters to cut 
 off boards. It has teeth upon one edge. These teeth 
 are about one-eighth of an inch apart, and are bent 
 alternately, slightly to the right and left. This bend- 
 ing is termed "set," ' etc. He puts this book away 
 in disgust, and says, 'The author thinks I am a fool 
 who can't file a saw.' Walker won't read one book 
 and can't read the other. The book for him must 
 be tailor-made, and must fit him exactly or he can't 
 get any good out of it. 
 
 "The thing is a problem, but there is one good 
 thing about it. A thirst for knowledge will find its 
 own means of satisfaction, and this thirst will never 
 come upon a man in middle life. There is no boy so 
 circumstanced in this whole land that a thirst for 
 technical knowledge will not in a wa}' develop and 
 gratify itself before he is twenty. If there is any- 
 thing in him, he will have formed an acquaintance- 
 ship with books in general, and need ask no questions 
 relating to general direction of study. If such an ac- 
 quaintanceship has not been formed, friends need 
 hardly regret being unable to suggest a proper path 
 of study. Of course, such reading is mostly done 
 and mostlv appreciated bv the young chappies who
 
 08 IVhat Shall Our Boya Do for a Liviufj ? 
 
 are priming for the future. If owners of shops will 
 keep one eye open for such tendencies, they will find 
 it an excellent index to character and a pointer toward 
 an excellent plan of encouragement which will repay 
 tenfold."
 
 CHAPTEK XV. 
 
 SHALL 1 GO TO COLLEGE? 
 
 Sharpen Your Tools— Advantages of College Training— In- 
 creasing Attendance at Colleges— The Money Cost — Paying 
 One's Way — Large or Small Colleges? — Temptations and Dan- 
 gers — Social Benefits — Classical Study — Both Sides of the Col- 
 lege Question. 
 
 To DO anything in this world one needs tools. 
 Providence has provided these in the shape of hands 
 and brains. A college is one of the places to sharpen 
 them. As knowledge is power, seek the place where 
 it is supplied. It is not the question whether they 
 do this at college as well as they might, but whether 
 the same results can be obtained elsewhere. A sol- 
 dier would not be content with a tomahawk or club, 
 if he could have a breech-loader. Why enter the bat- 
 tle of life half armed? 
 
 A college student may be lazy or extravagant, but 
 it is his own fault if he does not gain knowledge and 
 drill. Ask a farmer what sort of an orchard he would 
 have if he did not prune his trees? Half the failures 
 of life come from lack of early training. Discipline 
 has saved many a rich, luxuriant nature from ruin. 
 It is discipline that distinguishes an army from a 
 mob. A wooden wedge will split a log, but a dia- 
 mond-tipped drill will penetrate rock. Education 
 puts the diamond tip to the drill. 
 
 It will be asked : Why go through college and waste
 
 lUO lyiiat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living? 
 
 time on studies whicli may not be of direct utility? 
 Why not at once enter a law or medical school and 
 begin professional studies? General culture is the 
 basis of special study. It gives a broader founda- 
 tion to build on, and has a liberalizing effect on the 
 mind. John Stuart Mill in his famous address at 
 Edinburgh said : " Men are men before they are law- 
 yers or physicians or merchants or manufacturers, 
 and if jou make them cajjable men they will become 
 good lawyers and physicians." Again Mr. IVIill, in 
 discussing whether one should study the classics or 
 modern languages, asked, " Why not both?" And so 
 when the question is put to me, " Shall I go to college?" 
 I answer: TVTiy not take advantage of all available 
 opportunities for making a good start in life? 
 
 The mass of college graduates take high positions 
 in the business, social, and political world. Mr. 
 Goschen, when asked what becomes in after-life of 
 senior wranglers and first-class men, replied : " Eight 
 of them are at this moment in Her Majestj^'s Cabinet. " 
 Those who do not gain eminence fail not because of 
 their college course, but in spite of it. Most men who 
 have been deprived of such training en\y those who 
 have gone to college, and wish they had taken a uni- 
 versity course. It is a popular fallacy that self-made 
 men have taken the lead in this country. Of our 
 Presidents, Washington, Jackson, Yan Buren, Harri- 
 son, Taylor, Fillmore, Lincoln, Johnson, and Cleve- 
 land never went to college. On the other hand, Grant 
 was educated at West Point, the two Adamses at Har- 
 vard, Jefferson, Monroe, and Tyler at William and 
 Mary, Madison at Princeton, Polk at the University 
 of North Carolina, Pierce at Bowdoin, Buchanan at
 
 What SluiU Our Boys Do for a LiviiKj ? 101 
 
 Dickinson, Haves at Kenyon, Garfield at Williams, 
 and Ai'tbur at Columbia. The list of fifty -three fa- 
 mous Massachusetts men inscribed on the dome of 
 the Boston state-house contains seventy-two per cent 
 of college graduates. Among them is Morse, the 
 inventor of the telegraph. 
 
 It is claimed to be an advantage for the student to 
 be set apart from the world for a term of years which 
 is consecrated to a general and broadening educa- 
 tion. The college is a little world in itself, and 
 through the press and in other ways the student is 
 kept in touch with current affairs. T\Tiile his mind 
 is not distracted or wasted on trifles, and he can con- 
 centrate all his thought on attaining culture and use- 
 ful knowledge, he does not abide in cloistered seclu- 
 sion and learned ease. When he graduates he is not 
 expected to know much that is of immediate practi- 
 cal utility, but to have been taught how to learn and 
 to have had his mind strengthened and broadened by 
 a liberal course of study. Hence he is able to master 
 quickly the technical details of any profession or oc- 
 cupation, and in a short time to catch up with and 
 surpass the man who has not been taught how to study. 
 
 When so-called "practical" men criticise college 
 education they forget the purjjose of training. It is 
 as if they ranked the wood-cutter above the all-round 
 athlete who can outdo a trio of wood-choppers as soon 
 as he is given an axe. His mental capacity is like 
 the power of steam or electricity, which is not con- 
 fined to running one kind of engine but is applicable 
 to any mechanical appliance. The untrained man 
 makes one think of Niagara going to waste, or only 
 half utilized ; or of a toam of horses laboring through
 
 'M' ■Whcif^fiaUOHr Boijs Do for a Living? 
 
 mild and mire with a trifling load when they might 
 haul tons upon a Telford pavement. 
 
 Swami Vivikananda, in his thoughtful book, " Kar- 
 ma Yoga," "The Secret of Work," happily observes: 
 " What a man learns is really what he discovers. He 
 takes the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of 
 infinite knowledge. The external world supplies sug- 
 gestions, but the object of your stud}' is alwaj's your 
 own mind. Knowledge exists in the mind like fire 
 in a piece of flint. Experience is the friction that 
 brings it out." 
 
 Harvey E. Fisk, the banker, in an admirable ar- 
 ticle in TJie Outlook, on "The Value of a College 
 Education to a Business Man," remarks: 
 
 " I am a great believer in laying deep, broad, sub- 
 stantial foundations for all undertakings in life. . . . 
 If a boy intends to become something more than an 
 under-clerk or a small tradesman, he will need the 
 best preliminary education that his parents can afford 
 to give him. 
 
 "In the early stage of his career in business a 
 young man will not appreciate what he has missed 
 by not going to college. Assuming that he entered 
 an office or a store at seventeen, and that his friend 
 entered college at the same age, he will feel at twenty- 
 one greatly the superior of his friend in business abil- 
 ity. But five or ten years later the one who had the 
 college training will probably be found to be working 
 more easily, with greater confidence, and with exactly 
 as much success as the friend who had four years 
 the start — if not greater. A college education will 
 strengthen all your faculties, and, rightlj^ used, will 
 be a blessing all through life."
 
 What Shall Otrr Boys Do for a Living ? 103 
 
 The attendance at American colleges is steadily in- 
 creasing, notwithstanding that the standard of admis- 
 sion is continually rising. The intellectual equipment 
 of the colleges is enlarging ; there are more and higher- 
 paid professors and larger laboratories. Hundreds 
 of post-graduate students attend advanced courses of 
 study at Columbia and Johns Hopkins universities. 
 Thousands of students of both sexes attend the " fresh 
 water" colleges and State institutions which do not 
 attract much attention from the public, yet whose in- 
 fluence is wide-felt and growing. Young America is 
 evidently convinced that college training pays. The 
 Outlook remarks that a kind of enthusiasm for higher- 
 education seems to be spreading, especially in the 
 West. Never before has there been such a host of 
 young men and young women pursuing advanced 
 courses of study. 
 
 The craze for athletics is dying out, and, while cer- 
 tain students are attracted to colleges where athletics 
 are specially cultivated, yet most parents give a 
 preference to institutions where study receives chief 
 attention. 
 
 In America about twenty-five thousand high-school 
 pupils and twenty thousand from private schools, or 
 one in six of the total attendance, prepare for college. 
 In the ten years following the Franco-Prussian war 
 the students in German universities increased from 
 fifteen thousand to twentj^-four thousand. A similar 
 advance occurred in American colleges after the Civil 
 War. Very curiously the attendance increases in dull 
 times. Enforced idleness leads men to study to ac- 
 quire additional skill. This applies particularly to 
 the professional and technical schools which pre-
 
 104 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 pare men to enter at once upon a solf-suj)porting ex- 
 istence. 
 
 West of tlie Alleglianies a college education is ac- 
 cessible to all classes. In most of the State universi- 
 ties the tuition fees are practically nil. In Kansas, 
 for example, board and room can be had for $12 a 
 month ; the college fees are $5 a year, while the aver- 
 age expenditure of the students does not exceed $200 
 per annum. In Eastern colleges the expenses have 
 grown steadily. The fees at Yale have increased in 
 forty years from $60 to $155, and the " ordinary an- 
 nual expenditures" have risen in a like ratio. 
 
 At Harvard President Eliot thinks $499 the small- 
 est sum that could be expended, $615 is economical, 
 $830 moderate, and $1,365 ample. Most students 
 spend between $650 and $850. At Yale the average 
 expenses for the freshman year are $912 ; sophomore 
 year, $942; and senior year, $1,032. The lowest 
 amount mentioned was $100; tho highest, $5,000. 
 The Springfield Repuhlican remarks : " The cost of a 
 college course is getting to be something fearful, at 
 least to that class who have in former years sent the 
 best material, who know the value of an education for 
 their sons, and the value of a dollar." If the West 
 follows the example of Yale and Harvard the time is 
 quickly passing when we can say with Mr. Bryce that 
 " it is the glory of American universities, as of ihose 
 of Scotland and Germany, that they are freely acces- 
 sible to all classes of the people. " 
 
 Many students support themselves wholly or in 
 part by farm-work, the care of private grounds and 
 houses, waiting at table in summer hotels, getting sub- 
 scriptions to periodicals, managing boarding-clubs.
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 105 
 
 assisting in the scientific departments, teaching at odd 
 hours, writing shorthand, newspaper work, choir-sing- 
 ing, or organ-playing. Such opportunities are rare 
 and can only be picked up after a man has made 
 some friends. Every student should therefore have 
 enough funds to carry him through his fii'st term. 
 No one should try to work his way through college 
 unless he is forced to do it, has good health, and 
 great energy and perseverance. If he does attempt 
 to do so he should expect to take a longer time than 
 usual to complete his course. 
 
 Every large college offers free scholarships to stu- 
 dents of exceptional ability. At Cornell there are 
 eighteen scholarshij^s of $200, beside thirty-four 
 graduate scholarships, some of $300, some of $400; 
 and several $500 fellowships, in addition to the State 
 scholarships. 
 
 It is not wise to assist everj' young man to get an 
 education. Many an ambitious but incapable youth 
 has been tempted to study for a profession simply 
 because he was promised free tuition. Such help 
 should only be given to those manifesting exceptional 
 capacity. An able writer remarks: " The country is 
 full of incompetent and disappointed professional 
 men, who might have been excellent masons or team- 
 drivers, and nothing but rigid examinations for open 
 scholarshii)s will diminish the number. It is often 
 urged that this will compel some genius to hide his 
 talent in a napkin, but it is better to have a genius 
 now and then miss an opportunity than to hear the 
 wails and howls of the incompetent, in the market- 
 place, from day to day." 
 
 Tlie Churchman says the large college is more an
 
 106 JVhat Shall Our Boys Do fm- a Livimj ? 
 
 image of the v.'orld, but it asks, is the world the best 
 model for a university? Discipliue is more easily 
 evaded iu a large college, and iudividuality may be 
 lost. The large college ofteu imparts i)rematurity in 
 the experience of life, with immaturity in far more 
 essential elements of education. Dartmouth is a 
 small college, but it gave us Daniel Webster and 
 Eufus Choate. Little Bowdoin made for herself an 
 everlasting name with that memorable class of 1825 — 
 Longfellow, Hawthorne, John S. C. Abbott, and 
 George B. Cheever. President Smith of Trinity 
 cites the graduates of Kenyon College as showing 
 what a small institution can do. Among them were 
 President Hayes, Secretary Stanton, Judge David 
 Davis, Justice Stanley Matthews, Bishop Wilmer, 
 and Henry Winter Davis. 
 
 Li an article in the North American Review, Rossiter 
 Johnson remarks that the small colleges are breaking 
 down sectarian prejudice. Nearly every one of our 
 colleges is controlled by some religious denomina- 
 tion. If it drew its students mainly from that de- 
 nomination they might become bigotedly sectarian. 
 When it draws them from all denominations the ten- 
 dency is toward liberalism, and the students acquire 
 a breadth of mind which they would never otherwise 
 obtain. Mr. Johnson adds that while formerly the 
 mass of college men entered the learned professions, 
 now numbers of graduates follow business, manufac- 
 turing, or agriculture. This cannot but have the hap- 
 piest effect upon the community. As the intelligence 
 and scholarship of clients, parishioners, patients, and 
 readers are increased, the lawyers, clergymen, phy- 
 sicians, and writers are necessarilj' driven to a higher
 
 What Shall Oar Boys Do for a Living? 107 
 
 standard of culture. He therefore prefers the small 
 colleges because of the better opportunity for per- 
 sonal acquaintance and of direct contact with i)rofes- 
 sors who can exert an inspiring and shaping influence 
 upon young men at the most susceptible age. Yet, 
 on the other hand, the prestige which is gained from 
 being a Harvard or Yale graduate is worth a great 
 deal to any one, especially to a professional man. It 
 is like the hall-mark on sterling silver, a sort of 
 official stamp to show that a man is a scholar and a 
 gentleman, 
 
 A writer in The Nation divides college students into 
 three classes : First, those who love learning and seek 
 knowledge at any sacrifice ; second, those who simply 
 want to get a degree, with a respectable class stand- 
 ing, without annoyance or disappointment to their 
 parents, but who are not specially zealous or indus- 
 trious; last of all, there are the regular idlers and 
 dunces and scapegraces, who are the affliction of fam- 
 ilies and the despair of professors and deans. The 
 last two classes make up seventy per cent of the 
 undergraduates of every large college. 
 
 The Bavarian minister of piiblic instruction has 
 officially protested against the young men with no 
 taste for learning, who crowd the gymnasium for the 
 social advantages it gives, and for its aid in entering 
 the military or civil service, and who in consequence 
 (jf their failure to graduate become intellectually crip- 
 pled and a public calamity. 
 
 In the early days of Yale Professor Sillimau re- 
 proved " Chevalier" Wycoif for having a carpet and 
 paper-hangings in his room, remarking that " all this 
 love of externals argues indifference to the more neces-
 
 108 JVhaf Shall Our Boys Do for a Livimj ? 
 
 sary furniture of your brain, which is your spiritual 
 business here." Up to 1842 all students ate in com- 
 mons, drinking in turn from the cider-pitcher. The 
 poor students waited on the table. The fare was so 
 bad at times that on two occasions the students rose 
 in " bread-and-butter" rebellion. Such things would 
 not now be tolerated. College expenses have greatly 
 increased, and the accommodations are luxurious in 
 comparison with the jDast. Modern buildings have 
 replaced the damp and unwholesome dormitories, 
 and the poorest student now fares better than the 
 best in earlier days. 
 
 In regard to college morality, those best competent 
 to judge insist that there has been a steady improve- 
 ment. There is now very little vice and dissipation. 
 The students spend more money than formerly, but 
 in a more refined way. Their rooms are tastefully 
 furnished. They patronize clubs and athletics, and 
 pay liberally for social enjoyments, but drinking is 
 less common than in earlier days, and gambling is 
 confined to the fast set, always a minority. Never- 
 thelei3S, it is a serious problem to consider what must 
 be the effect on a weak or lax youth when di'opped 
 into a little world containing a thousand students. 
 The fact that translations of the classics known as 
 "ponies," though forbidden by the authorities, are 
 generally used in many colleges, is not creditable to 
 the sense of honor of the students. Therefore do not 
 send your hoj to college unless he can stand alone 
 and resist temptation. To be pushed out of the par- 
 ent nest and forced to fly before the wings are fully 
 fledged and strong, may result in disaster. 
 
 Walter Bagehot says: "In youth the real plastic
 
 JVhat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 109 
 
 energy is not in tutors or lectures or in books 'got 
 up, ' but in Homer and Plutarch ; in the books that 
 all read because all are interested ; in the argumen- 
 tative walk or disputatious lounge ; in the impact of 
 3'oung thought, of fresh thought on fresh thought, of 
 hot thought on hot thought; in mirth and refutation, 
 in ridicule and laughter, for these are the free play of 
 the natural mind." Carlyle called a library "a uni- 
 versity," but it is the close contact with fellow-stu- 
 dents in varied relations that exerts the strongest 
 influence on the mass of students. " Man made the 
 college, but God made the playground," said Bage- 
 hot, who usually hits the mark. Emerson sums up 
 the matter in his calm and lucid manner: "To a 
 brave soul it really seems indifferent whether its tui- 
 tion is in or out of college. And yet I confess to a 
 sti'ong bias in favor of college. I think we cannot 
 give ourselves too many advantages, and he that goes 
 to Cambridge has the best of that kind. WTieu he 
 has seen their little all, he will rate it very moder- 
 ately beside that which he brought thither. There 
 are many things much better than a college — an ex- 
 ploring expedition if one could join it, or the living 
 with any great master in one's proper art; but in the 
 common run of opportunities and with no more than 
 the common proportion of energy in ourselves, a col- 
 lege is safest from its literary tone and from the ac- 
 cess to books it gives ; mainly that it introduces you 
 to the best of your contemporaries." 
 
 N. P. Willis' experience at Yale "brought him 
 into the suashine and changed the homely school- 
 boy chrysalis into a butterfly of uncommon splendor 
 and spread of wing." This phrase well describes
 
 110 What Shall Our Boys Do for a, Living ? 
 
 what college training has done for thousands of 
 young men. Dr. Bushnell went to Yale a clumsy 
 lout and in two years was transformed into a gentle- 
 man. As the best polish for diamonds is their own 
 dust, and as clothespins make each other smooth, so 
 the friction of mind on mind transforms the youth 
 into a man. William Pitt had few college compan- 
 ions, took no pai*t in athletics, but studied hard under 
 a private tutor, kept aloof from society-, and was con- 
 sequently reserved, shy, and stiff. He thus missed 
 much good-fellowsliip and never had the conceit taken 
 out of him, as happens to most young men. But, as 
 Bagehot says, "Pitt was a genius and destined to 
 perform a task wliich required all possible self-confi- 
 dence and personal pride, and it would have been no 
 benefit to have curbed his great force of character." 
 
 While every student should strive to make a good 
 record, yet it is well not to place too much value 
 upon school honors. Eeal ability is not to be meas- 
 ured by such tests. Robert E. Lee was the only 
 great soldier of the rebellion who graduated from 
 West Point at the head of his class. 
 
 Charles Francis Adams complains that he wasted 
 a great deal of time trying to learn Greek. He thinks 
 the notion that it is mental discipline is a delusion, 
 and that modern languages furnish a better equip- 
 ment for the work of life and just as valuable intel- 
 lectual training. The ^^ation answered Mr. Adams' 
 arguments by stating that seven-tenths of the stu- 
 dents in the large colleges have no real love of learn- 
 ing, and the other fraction " get out of the classics all 
 that it would be possible for them to get out of any 
 study." The great difficulty of colleges is not the
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Liviufj ? Ill 
 
 difficult}^ of selectiug the right kind of knowledge to 
 offer, but the difficulty of getting the young men to 
 acquire it. It cannot be driven into them by main 
 force. 
 
 Most of the older American colleges were designed 
 to fit men for the ministry, and Greek was esteemed 
 of prime impoi-tance. Now that but few of the grad- 
 uates study theology, it is maintained that Greek 
 should be taught in special schools, and that the gen- 
 eral student should receive the best all-round training, 
 which wiU make him observe correctly, reason logi- 
 cally, and express himself with x^recision and elegance. 
 This can best be accomplished by the study of the 
 physical sciences, logic, and literature, with practice 
 in writing and debating. In short, Latin and Greek 
 should be treated like any other special course and 
 not be made compulsory. If, as it is claimed, the 
 study of the classics is such an aid to the master}^ of 
 English, it is strange that young men who enter col- 
 lege after several years' drill in Latin and Greek fail 
 to write correctly their native tongue. 
 
 A distinction must be made between scholars who 
 are masters of Greek and Latin and those who have a 
 superficial knowledge of the ancient tongues. It is 
 assuming too much to say that the slight knowledge 
 of the classics acquired by the average college gradu- 
 ate has been the chief influence in developing his 
 mind. 
 
 Herbert Spencer and Lincoln learned to think pro- 
 foundly and express themselves clearly without the 
 aid of Latin and Greek. John Bright, Beecher, and 
 Spurgeon did not learn eloquence from Demosthenes 
 or Cicero. Daniel Webster gained distinction as an
 
 112 WJuit Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 orator wheu lie bega.u to prune his speecli of Latin- 
 isms and to use his mother tongue. Dr. Johnson 
 talked terse Saxon; his written style was Johnsonese. 
 
 Let us free our minds from cant, and admit that, 
 while Latin and Greek are indispensable for the 
 scholar, yet for the average man they are not so. 
 The college student toiling with a lexicon cannot be 
 expected to master the beauties of an intricate lan- 
 guage. At best the amount of real knowledge that 
 he gets is very slight, and that is of a grammatical 
 cast, which repels rather than inspires delight in the 
 beauties of the thought expressed. The best of the 
 classic authors can be read in translations, and, as 
 Emerson said, " What is the use of swimming Charles 
 River when one can walk across the bridge?" Fur- 
 thermore, translations are used extensively in all col- 
 leges, though against the rules, and the great mass 
 of students rarely look into a classical author after 
 thej^ graduate. Henry George said that he could get 
 the spirit of the classic writers filtered through trans- 
 lations. The average man must be content to imbibe 
 the spirit of Plato and Homer through Jowett's and 
 Lord Derby's translations, to taste Virgil's quality 
 in Dryden's admirable version, and to picture the 
 mighty Cfesar by the help of Plutarch's and Fronde's 
 "Biographies" and Mommsen's "History." 
 
 A significant fact is that as the struggle for exis- 
 tence grows fiercer, men seek from the college what 
 will best help them to gain a livelihood. The gain in 
 attendance at colleges has been chiefly in the profes- 
 sional schools. Men will not devote as much time to 
 general studies as formerly. From 1880 to 1884 the 
 academic classes at Yale increased from 612 to 1,159,
 
 W/mt Shall Our Boys Do for a Living? 113 
 
 while the scientific classes grew from 190 to 655. At 
 Harvard the academic classes doubled during the 
 same period, while the scientific school increased 
 from 37 students to 320. 
 
 It may be well to shut one's eyes to the glamour 
 that surrounds college training and to ask bluntly : 
 Does it really accomplish what it claims to and is the 
 result always worth the effort and the cost? Possibly 
 the. men who have taken the college course assume that 
 it has done more for them than the facts will warrant. 
 As the conscientious physician cannot be sure that 
 quite opposite treatment from his own, or no treat- 
 ment whatever, might have relieved the patient, so we 
 cannot assert that a wholly different training might 
 not have accomplished better results than that which 
 a person has received. It is charged, for example, 
 that self-made men are conceited and " worshiiJ their 
 creator." But is not this the very fault popularly 
 ascribed to the college graduate? If one seeks for 
 marked exemplars of humility it is easy to find them 
 among self-taught men, such as Franklin, Herbert 
 Spencer, Mill, Darwin, Lincoln, and Washington, 
 while the arrogance of a Freeman or the omniscience 
 of a Macaulay prove that the severest intellectual dis- 
 cipline does not alter individual temperament. 
 
 It is a severe reflection upon college training that 
 our seato of learning are usually hotbeds of conser- 
 vatism. What can be thought of the effect of liberal 
 studios which make men intolerant of new ideas? A 
 true university should be a centre of free thought, 
 where advanced ideas on all topics will find warm 
 welcome. Is this true of Cambridge and Oxford, 
 Yale and Harvard? 
 8
 
 114 Wliat Sltall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 A third point iu the discussion is that, despite the 
 current arguments in favor of liberal studies, a great 
 many students take only the technical courses, and 
 are entering the professions without crossing the 
 classical bridge that has hitherto been held to be the 
 only way to reach the goal of knowledge. 
 
 To the youth who cannot go to college 1 would 
 therefore say : Do not be discouraged. There is no 
 royal road to knowledge, and all putha lead to the 
 temple of learning. While most men get along best 
 in the beaten track, others can carve their own way, 
 and, like Bishop Vincent, give themselves an all-round 
 culture and training, unaided by professors or recita- 
 tions. No one need remain ignorant if he chooses to 
 learn. 
 
 The Chautauqua course of home study is open to 
 the most isolated — to the youth on the farm, the bed- 
 ridden invalid in her chamber, the lone settler on the 
 prairie, or the colonist in far-distant lands. In every 
 American town of any size there are libraries and 
 lecture-courses, while the newspaper bears the latest 
 intelligence to the most distant and secluded parts of 
 the globe. Even if deprived of books you can study 
 human nature, and try to understand men and women 
 so as to deal ^vith them in all relations of life. You 
 can also make yourself familiar with the vast world 
 of nature which is within the ken of every open-eyed 
 person. If you gain these ends without going to col- 
 lege, be content. Do not repine because you have 
 missed other advantages. As every open field is a 
 practice-ground for the athlete, so the world is at 
 your service if you will but seize the chance. 
 
 I would say to the isolated student, read the great
 
 What Shall Our Boys Bo for a Living ? 115 
 
 writers of 3'our own and other ages — Homer, Plato, 
 Dante, Goethe, Shakespeare, Darwin, Emerson. 
 Don't waste your time on small books. Whatever 
 you study, master it down to the bottom. Learn to 
 tear out the heart of a book, as Theodore Parker used 
 to do, and get at its inner meaning. Finally, master 
 your mother-tongue, the language of Chaucer, Shakes- 
 peare, Swift, De Foe, Bunyan, Burns, Shelley, 
 Franklin, and Lincoln, and strive to speak and write 
 as they did.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 JOURNALISM. 
 
 Editors versus "Writers— Insight or Expression— Strong Convic- 
 tions Essential to Good ^Vritiug— " A Nose for News"— Schools of 
 Journalism— Newspaper Training— Reporting a Fine Art— City 
 or Country Papers?— The Country Editor— Young Men Preferred 
 —Newspaper Salaries— Editors as Office Holders. 
 
 Journalism lias become an established profession, 
 a veritable "fourth estate," as Windliam called it. 
 Hardly any calling has greater attractions, C. A. 
 Dana said it is "the most fascinating, if most la- 
 borious, profession." Scholars, lawyers, politicians, 
 and clergymen have all testified to its absorbing in- 
 terest. J. W. Forney mentions the pleasure which 
 Benton, Douglas, Buchanan, Caleb Cushing and At- 
 torney-General Black took in editorial work. It 
 would be hard to find a public man in America who 
 has not dabbled in journalism. Margaret Fuller, 
 Bichard Hildreth, Charles Sumner, Eichard A. Dana, 
 Edward Everett, Wendell Phillips, William Lloyd 
 Garrison, Whittier, Poe, Willis, Higginsou, Freder- 
 ick Law Olmstead, Mrs. Stowe, Beecher, Theodore 
 L. Cuyler, Parton, Whipple, Kirk, Archbishop 
 Hughes and " Fannie Fern" are a few among the many 
 Americans who have been regular contributors to the 
 press. 
 
 There is a marked difi'erence between the journalist 
 and the mere writer. The latter needs to be skilled 
 in expression, and to have a fund of general informa-
 
 What Slmll Our Bona Do for a Living? 117 
 
 tion. If to these possessions can be added wit, 
 fancy, satire and invention, so much the better. 
 Among the best examples of men of this type were 
 Richard T. Hikbeth, William H. Hurlbut, and I. B. 
 Chamberlin of the New York World, and Charles G. 
 Cougdon of the Tribune, who probably were without 
 superiors in their kind of editorial ^Titing. Mr. 
 Chamberlin, like Mr. Hildreth, whom C. A. Dana 
 considered the most valuable and accomplished news- 
 paper writer he had ever knowoi, possessed great 
 political knowledge, with a weighty, dispassionate, 
 and convincing style. Mr. Hurlbut was a highly 
 accomplished peisijleur, while Mr. Congdon, with 
 equal wit but less brilliancy', had decided convic- 
 tions, and hence had more influence as a writer. Yet 
 these men, though all remarkably able, cannot rank 
 with journalists like Raymond, Bennett, Greeley, 
 Dana, or Samuel Bowles, who combined the faculty 
 of writing with that of editing. This last function 
 requires an insight into public sentiment, a capacity 
 for originating and shaping a policy, and a knowledge 
 of the make-up and general conduct of a newspaper, 
 which are far rarer attributes than are needed to make 
 a good newspaper writer. The journalist must divine 
 and originate ; the writer has only to expound, to illus ■ 
 trate and defend. Insight and judgment are de- 
 manded of the one ; imagination and a good style of 
 the other. As Emerson remarked : " Of two men of 
 equal ability, the one who does not write, but keeps 
 his eye on the course of public aflfairs, will have the 
 higher judicial wisdom." 
 
 The qualities required to make a good editor are 
 breadth of mind, sympathy, intuition, system and exe-
 
 118 JFhat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 cutive ability. He should welcome new ideas, yet be 
 keen of vision, so as to detect the true from the false. 
 He should have an orderly mind, and preserve what 
 The Nation calls " editorial perspective. " Finally, he 
 should exercise perfect control over his staff, not by 
 unnecessary interference in small matters, but by wise 
 allowance for individual idiosyncrasies. Henry Wat- 
 terson says no one can succeed in journalism unless 
 he takes a deep interest in it. If he has genuine 
 talent, he can make a paj^er in a mud-heap or in the 
 smallest village. He must possess sti'ong sympathy 
 with popular feeling. This, he adds, was the secret 
 of Horace Greeley's strength, and the lack of it ex- 
 plains the failure of many editors. 
 
 The head of a great newspaper should not write at 
 all. He has enough to do to keep the run of events 
 and direct others what to say. Prentice Mulford 
 even declared that it was not necessary that an editor 
 should know how to write. He instanced one success- 
 ful editor who could not write ten lines of grammati- 
 cal English, yet writers were instruments in his hands. 
 " There are men in Wall Street," he said, " who could 
 successfully edit a paper, but it wouldn't pay them to 
 do it." Mr. Delane of the London Times seldom 
 wrote a line, yet his personality^ was so stamped upon 
 the paper that when he took a vacation the most 
 careless reader became aware of the fact. Every im- 
 portant news item had to have his approval. He 
 knew not only what to print but what to omit, a most 
 important qualification. 
 
 A really great editor is he who inspires his staff 
 to the most splendid achievement, spends money 
 lavishly for the earliest and most important news,
 
 What ShaU Our Boys Do for a Living ? 119 
 
 distances all rivals by his foresight, liberality and 
 strategy, and discusses public questions in a broad 
 and tolerant spirit. Such men are rare, and their re- 
 wards are proportionately great, 
 
 A journalist should not be a narrow partizan, but 
 should be open-minded and fair in treating public 
 questions. Henry J. Eaymond invented good man- 
 ners in newspaper discussion. He was noted for the 
 completeness with which he always stated his oppo- 
 nents' arguments before answering them. The ani- 
 mosities and personalities of opposing editors interest 
 the public but little, and ajBfect opinion not at all. 
 
 Henry Watterson says : " A paper's strength depends 
 upon the man who stays longest at night ; the last two 
 hours are worth all the rest." It was Mr. Delane's 
 habit in editing the London Times to remain until the 
 paper went to press. 
 
 C. A. Dana insisted that a good writer must have 
 convictions, and that no one can do his best when 
 writing counter to his own belief. WTiat tells in writ- 
 ing is the weight, force and intensity of a man's 
 ideas. It is not personality, but convictions. This, 
 he said, was the secret of Horace Greeley's power. 
 It also explained Eaymond's lack of influence. The 
 people believed that Mr. Greeley was sincere and 
 trusted him, while Raymond was a trimmer, who, 
 though ho was an admirable expositor, and a subtle 
 and persuasive advocate, saw both sides of a question 
 too clearly to believe strongly in either. In former 
 days such men as Henry George or Edward Bellamy 
 would have been connected with a journal like the 
 Tribune, but there is no place on the press for them 
 now.
 
 120 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Uvimj? 
 
 Henry Watterson says: "An editor should have 
 strong convictions and stick to them. It will not do 
 for a man to change about as Booth does in the cast 
 of "Julius Cresar," plaj-ing Bndus one night, Cassins 
 the next, and Antony a third. It is only conviction 
 that has dominant weight with the public." 
 
 In the past twenty years the American press has 
 hardly produced a single great editor who would rank 
 with Greeley or Bennett, Bowles or Kaymond, or an 
 editorial writer of force and convictions who has won 
 a national reputation. There have been brilliant cor- 
 respondents, like Stanley, MacGahan, G. W. Smalley, 
 Charles Nordhoff and Julian Ralph. But the recent 
 successes in journalism have been in the line of news- 
 gathering, and in achievements like Stanley's search 
 for Dr. Livingston, or the World's subscription for the 
 Bartholdi statue. 
 
 A journalist must have "a nose for news," which 
 Samuel Bowles defined as a sort of sixth sense. Most 
 persons' likes and dislikes are matters of whim or 
 prejudice, but an editor, apart from his own tastes or 
 inclinations, must feel instinctively what will interest 
 his readers. He must also be able to divine public 
 sentiment in advance of its expression, and by antici- 
 pating it be prepared to drift with it, or to stem it. 
 
 Whitelaw Eeid says : " The imperative demand of 
 modern journalism is that if a question be sprung 
 upon the sore-pressed writer at midnight, his paper 
 shall next morning give it fair and intelligent discus- 
 sion. It is not enough that you should know where 
 to find things, which is about what colleges generally 
 teach ; you must know things, and know them at once. 
 For the political writer on a great daily, nothing must
 
 What Shall Oar Boys Do for a Livhuj ? 121 
 
 be too sudden — no strategic combination of parties, no 
 specious platform that repudiates accepted dogmas, 
 no professed revival of ancient faitli that is really the 
 i:)romulgation of new and revolutiouarj^ heresy." 
 
 The editor cannot create opinion, but he can fore- 
 cast the sober second-thought of the community and 
 thus act wiselj^ during temporary bursts of excite- 
 ment. " No man is as wise as everybody," and public 
 opinion sometimes defies forecasting, as in the case 
 of the effect of Dewey's victory' at Manila in changing 
 American foreign policy. The editor must possess 
 the same intuitive perception of public feeling that a 
 great advocate like Rufus Choate manifested in deal- 
 ing with juries. 
 
 This facility cannot be gained from books alone; 
 but by mingling freely with all sorts and conditions 
 of men, in the mart and in the courts, in clubs, on 
 the train, and thus, by close personal contact, learn- 
 ing their ways and thoughts. 
 
 A clever writer in The Outlook speaks of the changed 
 editorial tone of the New York press, which causes 
 many readers to skip the leaders. The reason is that 
 newspaper editors move in too narrow a circle, become 
 self-sufficient, opinionated and theoretical. They 
 miss the corrective of rubbing up against practical 
 men whose views differ from their own. They should 
 mingle with the world. "Whenever I change my 
 point of view, and pass an evening at m}' club talking 
 things over with a banker, a lawj'er, or any man of 
 affairs, I do my most effective editorial writing," said 
 an editor. The country editor docs not need to make 
 this effort, but absorbs public sentiment through his 
 skin. Prentice Mulford favors the plan proposed by
 
 122 What Shall Our Boys Do fm- a Living ? 
 
 Henry J. Raymond, of an occasional turnabout in 
 every newspaper office. " The editorial writers ought 
 to go to reporting, and let the reporters write edi- 
 torials. The editors would then get out of the narrow 
 rut they live in and would learn something of life. 
 Living as they do among their exchanges, relying 
 upon reporters' work at second-hand, they are the 
 most imjjracticable men on earth. Who ever saw a 
 prominent editor in the police courts, or at the meet- 
 ings of the Farmers' Club, or in the places where the 
 fundamental and creditable things of life are actually 
 performed?" Emerson says, in "Society and Soli- 
 tude": "If you would learn to write, 'tis in the 
 street you must learn it." 
 
 A prime cause of Mr. Greeley's great intellectual 
 power was that, like Lincoln and Beecher, he mingled 
 constantly with all classes, and drew inspiration direct 
 from the popular mind and heart. He was an omniv- 
 orous reader, but he knew men as well as books. On 
 an average, he conversed every week with a hundred 
 persons from all parts of the country. At the same 
 time his correspondence was immense. During his 
 lecture trips, he visited every State in the Union. 
 Probably no one was more familiar with the United 
 States. The muscular vigor and freshness of Mr. 
 Greeley's style were largely due to this constant and 
 close contact with the plain people." He had a deep 
 sympathy with the feelings and condition of the 
 masses, a quick perception of their desires, and a 
 remarkable faculty for giving voice to them. Mr. 
 Dana said that Mr. Greeley's signed articles, and those 
 written in the third person, were the best of his 
 productions. Even his personal idiosyncrasies con-
 
 WJmt Shall Om- Boys Do for a Living ? 123 
 
 tributed to the liveliness of his style, and added to 
 the interest of the Tribune. 
 
 C. A. Dana, in his address on journalism at Cornell 
 University, laid special stress upon the value of his 
 six years' experience in Buffalo as a dry-goods clerk. 
 He said : " It is only by being put through the mill 
 that a man acquires the science of the world, and 
 knows how to consider business questions of every 
 kind." Regarding intellectual training, he said: "I 
 never saw a newspaper man who knew too much, ex- 
 cept those who knew too many things that were not 
 so. I am myself a partisan of the strict, old-fashioned, 
 classical education. The man who knows Greek and 
 Latin, and knows it — I don't mean who has read six 
 books of Virgil for a college examination, but the 
 man who can pick up Virgil or Tacitus and read them 
 without going to his dictionary ; and the man who 
 can read the ' Iliad ' in Greek without boggling, 
 and if he can read Aristotle and Plato, all the better, 
 — that man may be trusted to edit a newspaper. But 
 above all he should know his own language, the 
 English language. . . . The man who is going to 
 publisli a daily manual of news and facts and ideas and 
 truths, or even lies, in that language, should know 
 the language thoroughly. Otherwise he may some- 
 times say what he does not mean. . . . The young 
 newspaper man ought to know the practical sciences 
 above all, especially chemistry and electricity ; history 
 he should know, too, particularh' American history, 
 the American Constitution, and constitutional law." 
 
 Samuel Bowles laid great stress upon the value of 
 travel as training for a journalist. He thought a 
 man should see the world and mix freely with men,
 
 124 IVJiaf ShaU Our Boys Do for a Livhuj ? 
 
 in order to rub the moss off his mind and broaden 
 his views. 
 
 Every journalist should learn how to " dig for facts" 
 and how to store away his information, so as to use 
 it when required. Scrap-books, Index Kerums, and 
 note-books all have their uses. I have found a card- 
 index the most compact and convenient record of facts 
 and reference. It requires little labor, is easily 
 handled, occupies small space, and is always up to 
 date. 
 
 A knowledge of shorthand is helpful but not indis- 
 pensable. I would prefer French or German, owing 
 to their usefulness to a modern editor. A retentive 
 memory, trained to store and classify facts, is quite 
 as valuable as shorthand. A writer remarks that 
 " shorthand holds a two-edged sword. It gives the 
 practitioner a steady income, but frequently arrests 
 that development of mind caused by the alternative of 
 writing well or starving. Hence there are journalists 
 who rejoice in their faculty of stenography, and others 
 who hug themselves because they have never possessed 
 that sometimes fatal facility for making enough to 
 keep the wolf from the lazy man's door." 
 
 It is surprising that more young journalists do not 
 qualify themselves for editorial writing by the study 
 of political economy, history, finance and social 
 science. There is ample room in this direction for 
 men capable of writing ably on current themes. It 
 is easj' to find men who can edit and compile news, 
 but, as D. G. Croly once said, " The hardest place to 
 fill is that of a good editorial wi'iter who can be trusted 
 to discuss the multifarious topics which come up daily 
 for editorial judgment."
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Livimj ? 125 
 
 Schools of journalism Lave been opened in several 
 places. At Cornell and the University of Pennsyl- 
 vania there are courses of study, specially adai:)ted to 
 the requirements of those who propose to enter the 
 newspaper profession. These courses supply the 
 preliminary training which is needed by every be- 
 ginner, but all editors agree that the practical expe- 
 rience of a newspaper office is indispensable. The 
 standard of qualification for journalism is higher than 
 ever before, and a callable man alwa3S has an advan- 
 tage over the untrained applicant. But no one can 
 teach journalism theoretically. It must be learned 
 in the school of experience. Nevertheless, as a lead- 
 ing journalist remarks : " Wliile no school of journal- 
 ism could possiljly impart that tact, that intuitive 
 percejjtion and judgment, that quick-witted insight 
 into the very pith and core of a matter on which the 
 success of newspaper cooduct depends, it is a vast 
 mistake to suppose that a profession like journalism 
 has not its rationale, and that its facts and working 
 are not bottomed on intelligible laws, a knowledge of 
 which would be of great value to the practical news- 
 paper man." 
 
 Prentice Mulford, in a lecture on " Eighteen Years 
 in Journalism, " said he began by writing his first 
 article for the press under a pine-tree in California, 
 and maintained that the journalist's school was the 
 world. If he had to train a talented boy for journal- 
 ism he would send him to sea before the mast, into 
 the ranks of the army, into the l^ackwoods with the 
 pioneers, and among the hewers of wood and drawers 
 of water, so that he should learn society from the 
 foundations. In supi^ort of this opinion, he instanced
 
 126 WJmt Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Joaquin Miller, and also the 
 author of "Progress and Poverty," of whom he said: 
 " He never went to college. It would have spoiled 
 him. " " The country printing-ofl&ce, " says a writer in 
 The Forum, "is our only school of journalism, and 
 its graduates are found everywhere. There is no 
 other i)lace where a young man can learu to be an all- 
 rouud journalist," 
 
 Reporting is the corner-stone of journalism. Abil- 
 ity in that line should be rated above everything ex- 
 cept administrative talent. Henry J. Raymond held 
 that the reporter should be the best-paid member of a 
 newspaper sta£f. To be a good reporter requires 
 quick, keen and accurate observation, readiness in 
 making acquaintances and getting information, dis- 
 crimination in selecting the nub of a subject, a reten- 
 tive memory and a fresh, vivid style. Some of the 
 reports of the New York papers, notably those of the 
 Sun, are models of picturesque, condensed and bril- 
 liant narration, yet they are often written by very 
 young men. 
 
 A reporter who is painstaking and accurate, and 
 who does not abuse their confidence, will win the res- 
 pect of persons of prominence in politics and else- 
 where, who will gladly give him information when he 
 seeks it. 
 
 The prejudice against college men, which Horace 
 Greeley voiced in his famous phrase, " Of all horned 
 cattle deliver me from college graduates," is partly 
 because of their conceit, but still more because of their 
 lack of acquaintance with life. The easiest way to 
 supply this deficiency is to practise reporting in all 
 of its branches. The young reporter who is sent to
 
 WJiat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 127 
 
 lectures, political meetings and scientific discussions 
 cannot fail to gain valuable knowledge about men and 
 affairs. It is his own fault if lie is superficial. I re- 
 call with vividness my own experience as reporter and 
 correspondent. One day I was at the Tweed trial, 
 where leading lawyers contended before a famous 
 judge. On other occasions I was sitting for weeks 
 at a Methodist conference, or attending the meetings 
 of a social science association, or reporting a great 
 strike in the coal regions, where complex questions 
 of the relation of capital and labor, and of corpora- 
 tions to the State, had to be studied. The roving 
 correspondent is like the cultured young man of Ad- 
 dison's time, making the grand Continental tour. 
 All doors fly open at the magic name of the great 
 journal, while the stimulus of writing under pressure, 
 on fresh and timely subjects, brings out one's best 
 powers. 
 
 A reporter should have untiring energy and health. 
 He must work long hours and endure exposure, lack 
 of food, absence of sleep. He must be able to write 
 against time under the most trying circumstances. 
 Suavity and tact are indispensable aids to him in 
 making acquaintances, and keenness and persistency 
 in following up clews. A man should be as smooth 
 as oil and as sharp as a needle, with the scent and 
 tireless energy of a bloodhound. He must be able 
 to write on his knees, in a rocking train or tossing ship, 
 by the light of a smoking lantern or flickering candle, 
 and to tell a story in clear, comi)act language without 
 verbiage, so well penned that any compositor can 
 read it. Charles Dickens was an insi)ired reporter. 
 Henry M. Stanley and Archibald Forbes also showed
 
 128 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 the traits needed for success in this field. The pages 
 of the great papers are filled with descriptions of 
 events that happened within a few hours, which are 
 simi)ly wonderful for their freshness, vividness and 
 skill in narration. Stupidity and inaccuracy, as 
 Charles Dudley Warner says, are the unpardonable 
 sins in journalism. Above all things a newspaper 
 should be interesting and its reports truthful. There- 
 fore the young journalist should strive to be clear 
 and exact in his statements. " The public itself and 
 not the newspaper is the great factory of baseless 
 rumors and untruths." The newspaper is "the great 
 corrector of popular rumors." Accurate reporting 
 in every department is therefore the foundation of 
 every journalistic success. The sub-editors and the 
 executive men who suggest topics, get up sensations, 
 assign each reporter to the task he is best fitted for, 
 edit the copy and write headlines, do valuable work. 
 So do the writers who comment on the news and direct 
 the policy of a journal. But it is the news-gatherers 
 who make a neics paper. 
 
 The next question to consider is whether a large or 
 small establishment offers the best opportunity to 
 the beginner. In the former case there are advan- 
 tages in the way of discipline, wider experience, and 
 the stimulus which springs from competing with man}- 
 rivals. But on the other hand there is great division 
 of labor; each man is limited to a certain field and 
 tends to get in a rut; indi\dduality, which tells for 
 so much in journalism, is lost, and he becomes a part 
 of a great mechanism. In a small office a beginner 
 has to make himself generally useful. He gains a 
 more varied experience and with it confidence and
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 129 
 
 breadth. Samuel Bowles begau at sixteen, in his 
 father's ijrinting-office, reporting everything from a 
 cattle-show to a college commencement, and in time 
 he made the Springfield Be^Juhlican a power. Prentice 
 Mulford said : " A newspaper man's best opportunity 
 to-day is as editor of a country newspaper. New 
 York is swamped with clever men." Hardly a single 
 journalist of note has come out of the great meti'o- 
 politan dailies in recent years, yet scores have grad- 
 uated in the mean time from smaller papers. The 
 Springfield Repuhlican has been a model training- 
 school for newspaper men and women. Spontaneity, 
 which on the press tells more than drill, is more apt 
 to be developed in a small newspaper office than in a 
 large one. The extraordinary growth of newspaper 
 humorists, and their success in building up such 
 I)apers as the Danhury Neios, Detroit Free Press, and 
 Burlington Hawkeye, show what can be done in local 
 fields. 
 
 While the pay of metropolitan journalists is higher 
 than that of country editors, their expenses are far 
 greater, and they have neither the security nor the 
 indeiiendence of the latter. I should, therefore, say 
 to the youth who feels within his breast the undevel- 
 oped genius of a great editor : Avoid the great cities. 
 Be content to take an}^ position on a small paper 
 where you can test your skill, and just as soon as you 
 show your hand you will be appreciated. There are 
 watchful eyes in editorial sanctums to detect latent 
 talent and determination to utilize it. 
 
 Henry Watterson, editor of the Louisville Courier- 
 Jour)ial, in an address on "Country Journalism," 
 makes some judicious remarks upon the possibilities 
 9
 
 130 JVJiat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living.'' 
 
 open to the country editor who is honest, intelligent 
 and industrious, who believes in his profession and 
 himself. " The life of the country journalist may not — 
 surely does not — offer to an ambitious seeker after 
 fortune and fame the most splendid or even the most 
 promising career in the world. It must, in the be- 
 ginning, limit itself to the simple pleasures of the 
 village, to homely joys, to small, and if it be success- 
 ful, to good asi^irations. But, within this abridgment, 
 it presents a scheme of existence before which the 
 Titans of the world of action and of thought might 
 pause and question their destiny and themselves. 
 
 " Has the country doctor, the country preacher, each 
 of whom may fill his sphere as grandly as though he 
 stood in the place of what are called the greatest of 
 God's creatures, a better opportunity to lead a noble 
 life and leave a blessed memory behind him than the 
 country journalist? Neither has certainly a more 
 fruitful field of labor, because in addition to his pros- 
 pect of material and professional success, the country 
 editor may mingle in affairs without becoming a place- 
 man. He may unite to his character of citizen that 
 of a public instructor, in rather a small way I grant, 
 but still according to his condition and his statiu'e, 
 and within the boundary of perfect usefulness and 
 content. 
 
 " If I should be thrown out of business, and thus 
 should be given the occasion to look about for some 
 means of supporting my family and myself, I think 
 the most attractive employment which could be offered 
 me would be a tidy newspaper office in some respect- 
 able country town ; and am vain enough to believe that 
 I should not starve."
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Liuw<j? 131 
 
 This sketcli is uot exaggerated, and tlio youug 
 journalist might well consider the advantages of at 
 least trying this field before entering into competition 
 with newspaper men in great cities. Mr. Howells 
 and Mr. Howe have described in the Century and in 
 ScrUmers the varied fortunes of the country editor. 
 It is a splendid training-school, and it oifers far better 
 opportunities than the maelstrom of metropolitan 
 journalism. 
 
 An editor must adapt himself to his constituency. 
 Watterson is aj^preciated by his Kentucky readers 
 because they like his vigorous and breezy style. 
 He once said to me that the}' had accejjted views ex- 
 pressed in their own way which they would have re- 
 jected if put in what he called "the New England 
 lingo." 
 
 The young journalist should learn to investigate 
 facts and get at the truth ou all questions. As Matthew 
 Arnold says, " he should learn to see things steadily 
 and as they are." He should possess sufficient un- 
 derstanding of the general principles of political and 
 social science to be able to treat questions relating to 
 such subjects when they come up for discussion. To 
 be ignorant of the tariff, of the silver question, social- 
 ism, the evolution theory or the tendencies of relig- 
 ious philosophy would be unfortunate, to say the least. 
 
 I should say to the young journalist, as I have said 
 to the young lawyer, don't be a "fuuuy man," but 
 exercise your wit and humor in advocacy of some 
 great principle, or in attacking some groat wrong. 
 The writer who merely raises a laugh seldom exerts 
 much influence. 
 
 A journalist should study the art of putting things.
 
 132 What Shall Our Boyfi Do for a Living ? 
 
 Franklin's advice in reference to the best methods of 
 persuasion, which I have already cited, deserves at- 
 tention. The political writings of De Foe, Swift, 
 Cobbett, Sidney Smith, Tom Paine, and other famous 
 pami)hleteers should be carefully studied. W. O. 
 Bartlett, an exceptionally able writer, said that it is 
 the power to discern what is interesting that makes 
 a journalist. He thought the colloquial style best, 
 with short sentences, and but one thought in an edi- 
 torial. 
 
 Samuel Bowles wrote to a young journalist who 
 asked his counsel : " I can hardly give you, you hardly 
 need, advice as to 3^ our style. What it lacks essen- 
 tially is ease and fluency, and that can only come 
 from continued experience and culture. Sometimes 
 your long sentences are awkward, and would be better 
 if divided. That is about all I can say in the way of 
 criticism. You always have the meat of fact and 
 opinion, and you go direct to your subject. These 
 are the essentials after all." Mr. Dana told a young 
 reporter never to write for practice, but always, if 
 possible, for publication. 
 
 In journalism a preference is given to young men. 
 Any one can ivy his hand at reporting or sketch- 
 writing, and if he manifests energy and ability his 
 articles will be accepted. The pay will be moderate. 
 It may be hard to get ahead. Still, most successful 
 newspaper men have started in this way, and plenty 
 of bright men earn salaries far beyond what they could 
 obtain in business or in another profession. 
 
 Most of the leading American editors began at the 
 foot of the ladder. Bennett, Greeley, Dana, Eay- 
 mond, Bowles, Watterson, Halstead, Whitelaw Eeid,
 
 What Shall Oar Boys Do for a Livimj ? 183 
 
 Horace White, Gotlkiu, Medill, Johu Holmes, the 
 two Pulitzers, all wou their success b}' hard labor and 
 patient waiting. 
 
 After a man has passed his youth and is approach- 
 ing middle age, he finds the chances of advancement 
 small, and the pay inadequate for the needs of a 
 family. Newspaper work is exhausting; men get 
 into a rut and find themselves displaced by younger 
 rivals ; salaries are ruthlessly " cut." One's past per- 
 formance, however brilliant, is forgotten, and experi- 
 enced and able men are shoved aside, because their 
 places can be filled at less cost. The staff of the 
 great metropolitan journal is mostly made up of 
 young men. I have often said to editors, and they 
 have assented : " Twenty years' experience enables me 
 to charge full fees in my i^rofession as a sanitary en- 
 gineer, but if I should apply at a newspaper ofliee for 
 a place, with the same experience in newspaper work 
 that I have had in engineering, you would glance at 
 my gray hairs and say 'No. '" Furthermore, the press 
 to-day is simply an agency for making money. 
 Counting-room interests control. It thus appears 
 that while journalism is one of the easiest occupations 
 to get started in, and one of the most fascinating 
 pursuits, it is not attractive as a permanent calling. 
 Clergymen, lawyers, doctors and engineers stick to 
 their callings, but the list of men who have gone out 
 of journalism is long, and the profession is the worse 
 for this fact. 
 
 A writer in The Forum for April, 1898, gives the 
 average pay of newspai)er men throughout the United 
 States. It is surprisingly low. A New York reporter 
 earns from $12 to .*?25 a week, a sub-editor from 120
 
 134 What SJiall Our Boijs Do for a Living ? 
 
 to $40, editorial writers from $50 to $75. Special 
 correspondents, book-reviewers, art-critics and man- 
 aging editors may earn more than these sums, but the 
 latter positions are the plums of the jorofessiou, and 
 few in number. Brilliant and industrious space- 
 writers often make handsome incomes, but they drift 
 into magazine-work or story -writing. None of these 
 salaries compare with the earnings of men of equal 
 standing in law, medicine or engineering. News- 
 paper men usually work hard and die poor. 
 
 Should an editor enter public life? My answer 
 would be, No ! His usefulness in one occupation 
 will be hindered by adopting the other. Henry 
 Watterson's views on this subject, expressed when he 
 refused to accept the nomination to the United States 
 Senate, may be quoted : " The example of two eminent 
 members of our profession, whose contentions in the 
 field of practical politics embittered their lives, 
 dwarfed their usefulness, and tarnished their fame, 
 and the tragic fate which each in his death encoun- 
 tered, made an early and deep impression upon my 
 mind. My experience in Congress was a verification of 
 my pre-conceptions and predilections. For all the 
 good I was able to do I might as well have stayed 
 at home. I think with Philip Van Artevelde, that 
 'men in their places are the men who stand.' 
 
 "I never knew what pure selfishness means and 
 squalid dependence is, until I found myself an atom 
 of that class in which, more than any other on earth, 
 it is every man for himself and the devil take the hind- 
 most."
 
 CHAPTER X^T:I. 
 
 THE LEGAL PROFESSION, 
 
 Its Popularity — A Lawyer's Daily Duties — How to Study 
 Law — Breadth of Culture Indispensable — Where to Start — 
 Work, the Secret of Success — How to Deal with Judges and 
 Juries — Advice from Veterans — Rules of Conduct— Fees — Law 
 and Politics. 
 
 No calling is more popular than the practice of the 
 law. By it many attain fame and fortune. It was 
 the gatewa}' through which Webster, Clay, Seward, 
 Lincoln, Chase, Tilden, Evarts and other famous 
 Americans entered public life. Hence the profes- 
 sion is overcrowded, and the competition is intense. 
 One-fourth of the graduates of Yale and Hansard 
 select the legal profession. Everj^ where the law- 
 schools are filled. The study of law fascinates. As 
 Charles Sumner said : " It is profitable as a men- 
 tal discipline, even if one does not intend to practise 
 it." Yet few lawyers attain lasting fame. A writer 
 in the Chicago Tribune challenges any one to name 
 six eminent lawyers whose reputation has lasted a 
 century. Those who gain somewhat of immortalit}' do 
 so by virtue of being judges, statesmen, or authors. 
 Eldon is an example of the first class; Webster of 
 the second ; Coke, Blackstouo, Kent and Story of the 
 third; while Bacon belongs to all three. Erskino is 
 the only example of an enduring fame won b}- an advo- 
 cate, unless Rufus Choate may be coupled witli him.
 
 136 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Livinfj ? 
 
 After a man begius tlie purauit of law he finds, as 
 W. H. Seward linmorously said, " She is coy and 
 difficult to overtake." A briefless barrister is a type 
 of forlorn failure ; a successful one max be the slave of 
 toil, but the excitement and the fees balance the labor. 
 Lawyers do not require any capital but their skill 
 and industry, they earn sufficient to live as well as 
 business men, and they do not run the risk of losses 
 which the latter do, while they have far less worry — 
 and care. 
 
 While the legal profession is conservative, yet its 
 great lights have always led the van of progress. 
 Our history would be a poor tale without the great 
 advocates. A great lawyer is a great man. Theodore 
 Parker, and in no voice of flattery, called Daniel 
 Webster "my king." 
 
 The daily routine of a lawyer's office is concerned 
 with many things beside litigation. All sorts of ser- 
 vices besides going to court have to be performed for 
 clients ; for example, searching real-estate titles, draw- 
 ing contracts, leases and other papers, carrying on ne- 
 gotiations to avoid future trouble. Then there are 
 corjiorations to be formed, syndicates to be planned 
 and advised, wills and mortgages to be drawn, assign- 
 ments by bankrupt firms. One set of clerks will be 
 occupied in preparing and serving papers, and will 
 attend to motions in the courts ; others will manage 
 the real-estate business of the office ; one clerk will 
 search authorities after the principal has indicated the 
 general lines that he wishes investigated. Thus all 
 work together, so that a large law-office is quite a 
 business machine. Something more than mere book- 
 knowledge is therefore requisite in the beginner, and
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Livimj ? 137 
 
 the more adaptability lie has, the more useful he can 
 make himself. As great artists iu the past allotted 
 minor details to their assistants, to one a part of a 
 figure, to another a tree or drapery, and to a third a 
 background ; or as a great architect makes a general 
 design and leaves it to his draughtsmen to work out the 
 details, so in an important lawsuit the jimior clerk 
 can make himself useful and gain valuable experience 
 b}^ attending to the preparation of the case. 
 
 The public imagine that court practice is the chief 
 occupation of lawyers. This is a mistake. Many 
 lawyers consider the time spent iu court as of least 
 importance. They dei)lore the great waste of time 
 caused by delays. The most lucrative work is that 
 of counselling clients and drawing papers in one's 
 office. Large firms and corporations frequently en- 
 gage a lawyer's whole time, and his most valuable 
 service is trying to avoid litigation. 
 
 A veteran lawyer describes the old-time methods 
 of study in the old-fashioned office. The lawyer sat 
 iu the same room with his 30ung men, or at farthest 
 iu the next; all studied hard when he was by, and en- 
 gaged in a good deal of desultory talk when he was 
 out. The copying by hand of the various legal pa- 
 pers which impressed their forms upon the mind ; the 
 knowing all about their master's cases and going to 
 court punctually to hoar him speak; the firm convic- 
 tion that he was a head and shoulders taller than 
 anybody else ; the friendly but informal examination, 
 for which, as no one knew when it would liapi)eu, 
 there could be no cramming — all these, as Thackeray 
 says, are "pleasant memories and no mistake." 
 
 Charles O'Couor is an example of a groat lawyer
 
 138 JVhat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 who was taught in such a school. In 1820 he began 
 to study with a West Indian who was intemi^erate. 
 O'Conor soon left him to enter an office with one Fay, 
 who knew little law but who had some law-books, 
 which O'Conor studied assiduously. He was ad- 
 mitted to the bar in 1824. Five years later he made 
 an argument in the Diver vs. McLaughlin case, which 
 is copied in Kent's "Commentaries" and in other 
 authorities. 
 
 Ex-President Woolsey says: "When Koman law 
 was reaching its mature form, distinguished lawyers 
 received students into their houses, not for pay, but 
 to train those who had no law-books." Cicero was 
 thus placed by his father with Q. Muncius Scaevola. 
 When Eoman law under the emperors became a com- 
 plicated 83stem, schools were established for its study. 
 In Justinian's time, there was one law-school at Rome 
 and two at Constantinople. The modern university 
 system began with the revised study of law at Bo- 
 logna, in the twelfth century. In the seventeenth 
 century, the English Inns of Court provided societies 
 into which young men desiring to become lawyers 
 could be admitted for study. In the United States, 
 as with theology and medicine, law-students had re- 
 course to private instructors. A law-school was 
 founded at Litchfield, Conn., in 1784, from which 
 many prominent lawyers graduated. 
 
 A writer in The Nation asserts : " In the opportuni- 
 ties of obtaining a good legal education we long ago 
 took the lead, and American lawyers in the Harvard 
 and Yale and Columbia law-schools have a set of 
 institutions M^iich are fair subjects for boasting." 
 
 Of late there has been a stead v advance in the re-
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 139 
 
 quirementa for admission to law-schools. Students 
 were formerly received at Columbia Law-School who 
 could not have entered the freshman class in any first- 
 class college. In consequence of the greater require- 
 ments the attendance declined from 625 in 1890-91 
 to 270 in 1893. This change was in the interest both 
 of the i^ublic and of the legal profession. The require- 
 ments are still not high, and any graduate of a high 
 school can easih' meet them. On the other hand, 
 after Professor Langdell introduced the scientific 
 study of law at Harvard the attendance rose from 154 
 students in 1870 to 404 in 1893, showing that there 
 is a demand ff)r the best obtainable training. 
 
 In New York State a candidate for admission to the 
 bar must serve for three years in a practising attor- 
 ney 's office. A deduction of one year is made if the 
 student is a college graduate, while another year may 
 be spent at a law-school instead of in an office. 
 
 Professor Dicey insists that without some instruc- 
 tion in legal principles the law is rarely more than 
 half learned, even in the course of the most active 
 practice. Chief Justice Waite declared that " the time 
 has gone by when an eminent lawj-er in full practice 
 could take a class of students into his office and become 
 their teacher. Law-schools are now a necessity." 
 
 The Columbia College Law-School may be taken 
 as a type. The course of study occupies two 3^ ears. 
 The first year is occupied in the study of general 
 commentaries upon municipal law, law of contracts 
 and of real estate. The curriculum of the second 
 year includes the study of eiiuity, jurisprudence, 
 commercial and admiralty law, criminal law, endence, 
 pleading and practice. The students are required to
 
 140 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 draw pleadings and contracts, while courts are held 
 every week. There are three students' clubs, at which 
 cases are argued and legal dissertations read. Any 
 l^ersou of good moral character is admitted. The 
 tuition fees are $100 per annum, and diploma fees S5. 
 A student who attends for eighteen months is ad- 
 mitted to the bar without further examination. 
 
 A lawyer asserts that " the ordinary work of the 
 profession makes very slender demands on either intel- 
 lectual capacity or learning. There are few really 
 good lawyers who know the law, and still fewer good 
 speakers. The great run of lawyers are content to 
 scramble on with mouthfuls of law picked up from 
 day to daj^ as occasion requires, trusting to text- 
 books and luck for getting up the necessary informa- 
 tion when a call for advice happens to be made." 
 
 This, however, can be said of every calling. But few 
 are thorough ; the many are superficial and shiftless. 
 
 Formerly it required seven years' study to gain 
 admission to the New York bar, unless one had grad- 
 uated from a law-school. Gradually greater laxity 
 crept in, and hundreds of clerks and copyists were ad- 
 mitted to practice. In 1871 the official examiners 
 rejected twenty-one out of thirty-one applicants, and 
 were impressed with the utter incompetency of those 
 rejected. Since then a higher standard has been en- 
 forced. 
 
 Legal studies, if not supplemented by broad cul- 
 ture, have a narrowing effect. To be merely a law- 
 yer is not enough. The law student should ever 
 bear in mind the noble words of Boliugbroke : " A 
 lawyer now is nothing more; I speak of ninety -nine 
 in a hundred at least. But there have been lawyers
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 141 
 
 that were orators, philosophers, historians; there 
 have been Bacons and Clarendons. There will be 
 none such any more, till, in some better age, true am- 
 bition or the love of fame prevails over avarice ; and 
 till men find leisure and encouragement to prepare 
 themselves for the exercise of this profession by 
 climbing up the vantage-ground, so my Lord Bacon 
 calls it, of science, instead of grovelling all their lives 
 below, in a mean but gainful application to all the 
 little arts of chicane." 
 
 It is well to have a hobby, and take an interest in 
 some avocation which will rest and refresh the mind. 
 
 Provost S. T. Wallis, in an address to the law-class 
 of the University of Maryland, showed the folly of 
 the opinion that a lawyer should read nothing but 
 law. " History has no record of a great advocate whose 
 genius and culture were not above his office." While 
 he favored the mixed system of academical and office 
 instruction, he preferred the latter. He dissented 
 from Sir Koundell Palmer, as to "All lecture," and 
 concurred with Sir John Coleridge, that " to teach 
 English law by lectures alone is a pure delusion. 
 The tendency of the office," he says, "to sharpen and 
 render men technical must bo met and counteracted 
 by that larger exercise of thought which expands the 
 intellect." 
 
 Chief Justice Kussell considers a university train- 
 ing indispensable for a lawyer. This is the English 
 view. On the other hand. Judge O. W. Holmes of 
 Massachusetts thinks that for a " fighting success" a 
 university education is not essential. He even hints 
 that it may be an impediment. "If a young man," 
 he says, " can afford two or even three years in a law-
 
 142 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 school, be will not regret a month of it when ho comes 
 to practise." Of the 289 lawyers in Congress in 1897, 
 131 were college graduates, 48 had spent some time 
 at a college or a professional school, while 110 had 
 received only a common-school education. 
 
 A prominent New York lawyer says : " One needs 
 a broad foundation of general knowledge nowadays to 
 succeed at the bar. The men who enter college and 
 the law-school usually surpass those who do not enjoy 
 such advantages. The latter become justices of the 
 I)eace or small conveyancers. They are content with 
 petty fees because they are not fitted for anything 
 better." 
 
 The career of Warrington in "Pendennis" de- 
 scribes the experience of hundreds of budding at- 
 torneys who earn a livelihood by literary work while 
 waiting for clients. 
 
 A prominent New Yorker advised his son, when ad- 
 mitted to the bar, not to take a position offered him 
 by a law-firm, but to start for himself. He said : " I 
 was afraid that he would depend upon other people. 
 I thought he would gain more self-reliance if on his 
 own hook." In the same spirit Edward Everett Hale 
 said : " When my son comes out of Harvard, he must 
 go a thousand miles from Boston, to escape from his 
 father's shadow." 
 
 If it is a matter of choice, it is better for a beginner 
 to enter a medium-sized office than a large one. In 
 one case the student can obtain an insight into de- 
 tails, while in the other he must be ignorant of much 
 that is going on around him and will gain far less in- 
 formation and experience. 
 
 The country lawyer studies hard, works slower but
 
 What Shall Our Boys Bo for a Living ? 143 
 
 mucli longer hours than his city brother, aud earns 
 smaller fees. He is filled with envy and astonishment 
 at the incomes reported of the great "legal lights," 
 but he forgets how large a share of these incomes 
 goes for office expenses. Country practice sharpens 
 the wits, but often makes men narrow. Such a 
 lawyer as Judge Noah Davis comes to New York and 
 finds himself at once the peer of other lawyers, but 
 not every man can meet metropolitan demands. 
 Petty S(iuabbles about fence lines and trespassing 
 are hardly fit to make a great legal luminary. Yet 
 there are " princes of pettifoggers" in New York as 
 well as in smaller places. It was the country that 
 developed Lincoln, Seward, Clay and Chase, and it 
 would be hard to match them in any court in the 
 land. 
 
 A well-known lawyer, discussing the prospects of 
 young attorneys, said the first choice of work was 
 often what interfered with their success. " In their 
 anxiety to make a start they take up collection and 
 similar lines of business, and never become anything 
 more. If a man is compelled to do whatever offers, 
 there is no help for him. I would advise any young 
 lawyer to wait as long as possible before he engages 
 in work of this kind." 
 
 Mr. Lincoln, when asked as to the best mode of 
 studying law, answered sententiously : " Get the 
 books and read them carefully. Begin with Black- 
 stone, and after reading it carefully through, say 
 twice, take up Chitty's ' Pleading,' Greenleaf's ' EW- 
 dence,' and Story's ' Ecpiity' in succession. Work, 
 work, work is the main thing." A. J. Vanderpoel 
 considered that hard work was the main essential.
 
 144 What Slwdl Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 The secret of his own career lay simply in learning 
 all that was to be learned of each case before it came 
 to trial. The following description shows with what 
 vast toil Rufus Clioate won his great honors at the 
 bar. "He died daily, retiring to bed exhausted, 
 under groat nervous prostration, with headache. Yet 
 he would rise early, often long before daylight, and 
 take a light breakfast before his family or busi- 
 ness claimed his attention. His clients, the courts 
 and classics compelled long days and short nights. I 
 called upon him once in the afternoon, and asked him 
 how early the next morning I could confer with him 
 ux)on a matter I wished to investigate during the 
 evening. 'As early as you please, sir; I shall be 
 up.' ' Do you mean before breakfast, Mr. Choate? ' 
 'Before light, if you wish.' I called at the earliest 
 dawn, and found him at his standing table, with a 
 shade over his eyes, under a brilliant light, pressing 
 forward some treatise upon Greek literature, which 
 he said he hoped to live long enough to give to the 
 public. The night had restored his wearied powers ; 
 he was elastic, as cheery and brilliant as the stars I 
 had left shining above us." 
 
 A Boston lawyer who entered more cases for trial 
 in that city than any of his rivals, invariably reached 
 his office at 7:30 a.m. He was once called upon at 
 that hour by A. T. Stewart, who had come to Bos- 
 ton to transact some law business, and had brought 
 an introduction to three Boston lawyers. As the 
 other two were not to be found, and as the mat- 
 ter needed immediate attention, Mr. Stewart called 
 
 upon him and said he would be pleased if Mr. 
 
 would take the case. This was done, and Mr. Stew-
 
 What SIkiU Our Boys Do for a Living ? 145 
 
 art remained this lawyer's client until his own 
 death. 
 
 I have watched the early career of a number of New 
 York lawyers. Manj- of them while acting as clerks 
 made the acquaintance of clients who either gave them 
 small cases which were not worth the attention of the 
 firm, or retained them out of personal liking. Half 
 a dozen students in one office have succeeded on their 
 own account, while one of them has since become a 
 partner of his former employer. Often a young man 
 wins his professional spurs by his zeal and energy 
 in some si)ecial case. Walter S. Logan worked up 
 the details of the Madame Jumel case for Charles 
 O' Conor. Albert Stickney was John T. Parsons' 
 chief aid in the Barnard and Cardoza impeachment 
 cases. Horace E. Deming gained reputation by his 
 valuable work for municipal reform in Brooklyn. 
 A. B. Whitney, through his active share in the tariff- 
 reform movement, was made Assistant Attorney -Gen- 
 eral of the United States. I well remember Wil- 
 liam C. Whitney when he began practice. He showed 
 the same courtesy, kindness and ability then which 
 have since made him popular. Twenty years after 
 these early days I happened to meet him in the 
 Lawyers' Club. He instantly called me by name, 
 showing his extraordinary memory for faces and 
 names. 
 
 A curious anecdote is worth citing as illustrating 
 the effect of painstaking effort in preparing a case. 
 When Senator Morton was a young lawyer, ho had 
 a case the success of which depended upon a single 
 authority, which he could not find, even after the most 
 earnest search. The case was set for the next morn- 
 10
 
 146 What Sliall Our Boys Do for a Livvicj ? 
 
 ing. That night in a dream the volume, the number 
 "of the page, and even the opening sentence came to 
 him. He hurriedly dressed and walked to his office, 
 where he found the decision just as presented in his 
 dream. Before noon he had won his case. This 
 I^henomeuon is not an uncommon one and may be 
 explained psychologically. Had the future great 
 war governor not striven so hard in search of his 
 authorities, his brain would not have been stimulated 
 to such activity that his memory acted in his sleep. 
 
 Sir Alexander Cockburn used to tell how, while he 
 was Solicitor-General, he brought home the famous 
 Kugely murder to the guilty party. Palmer, the 
 murderer, was an expert chemist, and had, as he 
 thought, completely covered up the traces of his poi- 
 sonings. Sir Alexander was convinced of his guilt, 
 and for weeks studied, day and night, the effects of 
 various poisons on the human system. He then 
 called together a council of medical friends and made 
 them examine him as to his knowledge of toxicology, 
 and it was the knowledge of this subject that enabled 
 him to bring the murderer to the gallows. Palmer 
 remarked shortly before his execution that nothing 
 but the skill of the Solicitor-General could have 
 proved him guilty. 
 
 Eloquence alone will not make a successful advo- 
 cate, and the most brilliant debater may fail at the 
 law. In every step of advancement, from copyist to 
 leading counsel, untiring and constant labor is de- 
 manded. Look at Evarts, O' Conor and Choate. See 
 how they toiled over cases, working over the midnight 
 lamp, and then sitting all day in ill-ventilated court- 
 rooms trying cases. Nothing but its long summer
 
 JVJiat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 147 
 
 vacation and Saturday' holidays saves the profession 
 from physical break-down. 
 
 Erskine thus describes the requisites of success at 
 the bar: "Be steady in your exertions, read 3- our 
 briefs thoroughly, let jowr arguments be learned, and 
 your speech to juries be animated. " A famous lawyer 
 says that his success has been largely due to cultivat- 
 ing a knowledge of ethical principles, which is the 
 basis of all law. A man of this {juality seldom errs 
 in his judgment. 
 
 Self-possession and readiness are invaluable in deal- 
 ing with judges and juries. While Theoi^hilus Par- 
 sons was arguing a case, an opponent took a piece of 
 chalk and wrote upon Parsons' hat: "This is the hat 
 of a damned rascal." Parsons, turning to the bench, 
 said : " I crave the protection of the court. Brother 
 Sullivan has been stealing my hat and writing his 
 own name upon it." 
 
 Sir Alexander Cockburn, when an unknown barris- 
 ter, defended a man charged with the killing of a noted 
 duelist who had forced a quarrel on him. Cockburn 
 addressed the jury brie% and to the point. In clos- 
 ing he said : " Gentlemen, my learned friend has told 
 you that this is murder. I know that it is no murder, 
 and you know that it is no murder." The jury found 
 the prisoner not guilty. 
 
 Sir Samuel Mai-tin bore in mind the golden rule 
 not to perplex the jury with too many details, but to 
 put his best point to them, and to put it strongly. 
 As a judge he likewise sought to reduce matters to a 
 small compass. After a mass of contradictory evi- 
 dence and long speeches in a case, he summed up as 
 follows: "Gentlemen of the jury, you have heard the
 
 148 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 evidence and the speeches of the learned counsel. If 
 you believe the old woman in red, you will find the 
 prisoner guilty ; if you do not believe her, you will 
 find the prisoner not guilty." 
 
 Of Sergeant Parry, a famous English advocate, Mr, 
 Smalley writes : " If he did not know something per- 
 sonally of each one of the twelve men he set himself 
 to convince or cajole, he worked on a set of general 
 principles, the result of vast experience, and he was 
 seldom at fault. Tact he had in a large measure : 
 the tact which consisted in not pressing a point where 
 he saw the judge or \m:y were against him ; in not 
 bullying witnesses ; in not wrangling with the bench 
 or with his ' friend ' on the other side ; above all, in 
 not running counter to any sympathies or antipathies 
 of the Jury, and in never risking a verdict for the sake 
 of display. The first time you saw him you thought 
 you had at last found a lawyer who really had equally 
 at heart the interests of his client and the interests of 
 justice. By the time you had seen him go through 
 the same performance in half a dozen cases, good and 
 bad, you had to relinquish this pleasing delusion, for 
 in every case he identified himseK in just the same 
 way with the merits or demerits of the side he repre- 
 sented." 
 
 A lawj' er was once retained as associate counsel in 
 an important case. He sat in court for nearly two 
 daj^s perfectly silent, until his client impatiently asked 
 
 the other lawyer : " What in thunder is D doing 
 
 to earn his $2,000 fee?" Presently, when certain evi- 
 dence was submitted, the associate counsel rose and 
 objected. " On what grounds ?" asked the judge. The 
 associate counsel briefl}^ stated them. The judge dis-
 
 What Slmll Our Bm/s Do for a Living ? 149 
 
 missed the case, which eiitirel}' hiuged ou tlie prin- 
 cii)le of law which he had laid down. When the client 
 paid the 82,000 fee he said : " I now see the value of 
 patience." 
 
 Mr. Speed says of Lincoln's earlj- law career: 
 "After his first year he was acknowledged to be 
 among the best lawj-ers in the State. His analytical 
 powers were marvellous. He always resolved every 
 question into its primar}- elements, and gave up every 
 point on his own side that did not seem in\nilnerable. 
 One would think to hear him argue a case in court he 
 was giving his case away. He would concede point 
 after point to his adversary UDtil it would seem his 
 case was conceded entirely away. But he always re- 
 served a point upon which he claimed a decision in 
 his favor, and his concessions magnified the strength 
 of his claim. He rarely failed to gain his cases in 
 court. " 
 
 Sergeant Ballantine, who had an extensive criminal 
 practice, and whose forte was cross-examination, sel- 
 dom Ijullied a hostile witness, but insinuatingly in- 
 duced him to believe that ho was in the hands of a 
 friend, and then gradually led him into a trap. 
 
 In collecting, sifting and i)reparing evidence there 
 is room for the exercise of peculiar (xualities. In 
 cross-examining witnesses one should be alert, shrewd 
 and persistent, but not too pressing. Knowledge of 
 human nature is invaluable in this work. In address- 
 ing a jury much depends upon personal manner; 
 therefore cultivate a graceful, easy bearing, unfailiug 
 courtesy and an insinuating address. By simply as- 
 suming a tone that implies that certain disputed facts 
 are absolutely true, one can exert great influence.
 
 150 What Shall Our Boijfi Do for a Living ? 
 
 The day has gone by for the old-fashioned oratori- 
 cal displays. Neither judges nor juries, in the large 
 cities at least, care to listen to them. The best law- 
 yers cultivate a conversational tone in addressing a 
 jiiry, and aim simply to be clear and exact in present- 
 ing a point of law to a judge. 
 
 Judges are often prejudiced and pragmatical, and 
 a law3'er needs to exercise patience and self-control 
 before them. A scientific expert whom I once chal- 
 lenged to write a book on electricity which a child 
 could understand said : " If I have been able to make 
 a judge on the bench comprehend a scientific prin- 
 ciple, I think I can make it clear to children." 
 
 I have been interested in gathering the suggestions 
 made by leaders of the bar to graduating classes at 
 the law-schools. Professor Dwight urged his stu- 
 dents to secure mental discipline, together with wide 
 and deep learning. They should, he said, cultivate 
 vivacity of spirit, and endeavor to gain the power of 
 simple and clear exposition, so that the most unlet- 
 tered juryman might understand them. The art of 
 making useful acquaintances and holding them was 
 not always understood by young practitioners. 
 
 Charles O' Conor laid special stress on the impor- 
 tance of securing a perfect knowledge of all the facts 
 in every case. He said : " A knowledge of received 
 principles is indeed necessary; but if a distinction 
 can be imagined between two things, a precise knowl- 
 edge of the facts is still more needful. The acquisi- 
 tion of science demands only common attention and 
 common sense, and may be the harmonious result of 
 years of pure study along consistent lines of thought. 
 But the readiness of the swordsman, and the acuteness
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 151 
 
 of the practical detective, are tasked in the efforts 
 sometimes needed to acquire a perfect knowledge of 
 the numerous and complicated facts of a particular 
 case." 
 
 James W. Gerard, in addressing the law-students 
 of New York University, said : " The profession re- 
 quires all the student's time and attention. Solid 
 reading develops the mind, but light literature dulls, 
 and amusements lead to a life of ease and inactivity. 
 There is plenty of room for beginners who are ambi- 
 tious, self-reliant and pushing. Two-thirds of New 
 York lawyers are dilettanti. The best lawyers come 
 from out of town. Great lawyers seldom have had 
 great lawyers as their sons. Necessity makes the 
 lawyer in almost every case." He advised young 
 men to be courteous to clients, witnesses, judge and 
 jury, to make all the acquaintances they could, and 
 cultivate self-reliance and ease in speaking. 
 
 Justice Miller of the United States Supreme Court, 
 in addressing the Iowa Bar Association, laid great 
 stress ui)on the labor needed to gain success at the bar. 
 "The practice of law," he says, "is an art, and be- 
 sides possessing a sound judgment, a clear head and 
 well-developed reasoning powers, these faculties must 
 be cultivated by the severest training. It is a very 
 common error, when a lawyer has adroitly made an 
 unwilling witness tell the truth, or, more frequeuth% 
 when he has made a tolling argument to court or jury, 
 delivered with a captivating ease and grace, for the 
 ordinary listener to imagine that it cost no labor or 
 trouble. But the experienced opponent, or the ob- 
 serving judge, could see without difficulty that the 
 apparently artless impromptu address was the perfec-
 
 152 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 tiou of art itself, concealing the long and laborious 
 stud}^ previously given to the case and careful sys- 
 tematic mode of i^resenting it, determined on before 
 the orator had opened his mouth. All this is the 
 result of training, of constant and thoughtful criticism 
 on your own style, of careful preparation for every 
 occasion, of a review, after the effort is over, of the 
 manner in which it has been made, and a considerate 
 resolution to profit in future by any failure or defects 
 that may be discovered. 
 
 When Chancellor Kent, then a young country law- 
 yer, applied to Alexander Hamilton and John Jay 
 for advice about his future, he was told : " Go to the 
 civil law. Eead deeper than we have had the time 
 to do. There is a great daj^ coming in America for 
 lawyers." 
 
 Webster had a wonderful instinct for grasping the 
 heart of a question, and a native cajjacity for close 
 logical reasoning and for telling retort. These facul- 
 ties were developed h\ arduous labor and careful study 
 of his opponents. While a law-student in Boston he 
 laboriously made abstracts from the Latin and Nor- 
 man-French pleadings in Saunders' Reports, and 
 spent laborious nights and days over Bacon, Puffen- 
 dorf, and Eaceus, thus lajdng the foundation of the 
 legal lore which he afterward displayed. He said to 
 Senator Morrill: "I don't pretend to be inspired. I 
 bring nothing without labor." 
 
 Appearances count for much in every calling. A 
 well-furnished office, like a neatly engrossed document 
 or tasteful letter-head, gives a client or customer an 
 impression of prosperity. General Foster once drew 
 up a contract for an Indiana railroad on an ordinary
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 153 
 
 letter-sheet, for which he charged S250. As the com- 
 pany growled, ho told them to try a certain high-priced 
 lawyer next time. They did so. The other lawyer 
 borrowed from Foster the copy of the old contract. 
 He had it neatly engrossed and charged $2,500. The 
 company felt satisfied that they had a contract that 
 would hold water, and paid his bill without a murmur. 
 
 A lawyer should be deliberate and not give hast}' 
 opinions. Let him say to his client : " If you will 
 call to-morrow, I will state my conclusions in the 
 matter." 
 
 A well-trained lawyer should know as if by instinct 
 what is the law in a given case. He decides first in 
 his own mind what is right; in the main the law 
 should agree with this. He then finds decisions to 
 confirm his first opinion. This was the method of 
 Chief Justice Marshall, who could write out his 
 opinion in a case and hand it to Story, with the 
 remark : " That is the law ; now find the decisions to 
 sustain it." 
 
 To every bright young lawyer I would say, with 
 Tom Corwin, "Don't be funnj-." Never yield to the 
 temptation to be a wit, or to become a brilliant after- 
 dinner speaker. Great roi^utations are not made in 
 that way. The world may laugh at the jester, but it 
 does not " tie to him" as it does to serious-minded 
 men. Lincoln's little stories were admired not 
 merely for their humor, but for their profound wis- 
 dom. They did not detract from his reputation for 
 seriousness. Garfield once in early life was tempted 
 to make humorous speeches. He quickly saw it 
 wouldn't do, and avoided the pit into which so many 
 brilliant men have fallen.
 
 154 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 Every professional man sliould cultivate common 
 sense and avoid technical views. S. J. Tilden, having 
 boon consulted by Martin Van Buren in relation to 
 liis will, said : " It is not well to be wiser than events, 
 and it would be foolish to trust grandchildren we 
 do not know and distrust the children whom we do 
 know." The following week he received a message 
 from Mr. Van Buren, saying that he had stricken out 
 all the elaborate provisions of the will, and had de- 
 termined to rely on the laws of the country and the 
 laws of nature. Yet Mr. Tilden' s own will, like that 
 of many other famous lawyers, was successfully con- 
 tested after Lis death. 
 
 It is never wise to make low charges. Sometimes 
 a client may object to a large fee, but usually the 
 worth of your service will bo rated by the value you 
 put upon it. Above all things never give free advice 
 to any one. 
 
 Samuel J. Tilden, who had an immense practice, 
 as a rule charged very moderately. He also was 
 strongly opposed to contingent fees. Henry L. Clin- 
 ton received $75,000 in the Vanderbilt will case, and 
 Scott Lord $100,000. Judge Comstock charged 
 $50,000. Clarkson N. Potter received $100,000 in 
 the Canandaigua Eailway foreclosure suit. Colonel 
 IngersoU was paid the same amount in the Star Koute 
 case. It is reported that Charles O' Conor received 
 $75,000 in the Jumel will case, and $100,000 in the 
 Parish will case. 
 
 Erskine's income when leader of the English bar 
 never exceeded $60,000. The highest fee he ever re- 
 ceived for a single case was $25,000. Sir James Scar- 
 lett had about the same income. Sergeant Ballantine
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Liviufj ? 155 
 
 received from the government a very large fee for 
 going to Calcutta to try a murder case, but it was 
 mostly consumed in expenses. 
 
 International lawyers are well paid. John W, 
 Foster received $100,000 from the Chinese govern- 
 ment at the time of the Corean difficulty. E. J. Phelps 
 and James C. Carter have also earned large fees. 
 
 Those were halcyon days for lawyers in New York 
 City when the Surrogate could divide a disputed 
 estate among the gentlemen of the bar, leaving the 
 litigants nothing. In the Taylor will case the law- 
 yers got all the property, and the widow had to sell 
 her clothes. In the Hardin will case John K. Porter 
 received about $28,000. George Ticknor Curtis had 
 such a big bill in an India-rubber case that he charged 
 $1,000 for making it out. Many big fees have been 
 received by patent lawyers. In the vulcanite rubber, 
 barbed iron fence, nickel plating, burglar alarm, sew- 
 ing machine, and other patent cases, fortunes were 
 paid to lawyers. In such cases the labors of lawyers 
 are enormous, the responsibility is great, and the 
 pay appropriately large. 
 
 The temptation to a lawyer to take office is hard to 
 resist. Daniel Webster, when a struggling law-stu- 
 dent, was offered a $1,500 clerkship. His father 
 urged him to accept it, but fortunately he declined it, 
 and thus was saved from what has become the ruin 
 of many young men. 
 
 Chauncey Depew says : " The duty of a lawyer to 
 his jn-ofessiou and the State compels him to Ije a 
 politician, but until success is assured he cannot be 
 an office-holder. His training fits him to educate 
 public sentiment, but he cannot enter jjublic life with-
 
 166 What SJiall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 out losing his practice. Many a young man lias gone 
 to the Legislature expecting to find, by the acquaint- 
 ance and reputation it gives, a speedy road to clients 
 and income, and has discovered that he has perma- 
 nently lost both." 
 
 Nearly one-fourth of the members of the House of 
 Commons are lawyers. The United States Congress 
 has an equally large proportion of lawyers. In a re- 
 cent session of the New York Legislature thirty-three 
 out of one hundred and twenty-eight members be- 
 longed to the legal profession.
 
 CHAPTEE XVm. 
 
 THE ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING. 
 
 Practice Makes Perfect— Use of the Voice— Condensed Lan- 
 guage — Wendell Phillips — Skill in Debate— Webster's Mode of 
 Preparation— John Bright and Gambetta— Gesture — Gladstone — 
 Bismarck — Emerson — Matthew Arnold — Don't Be Acrimonious 
 — Reading Manuscript — Persuasiveness. 
 
 To be able to think and talk on one's feet is an in- 
 valuable accomplishment. Certain persons contend 
 that the orator's influence is no longer to be comi^ared 
 with that of the printed page. The achievements of 
 Gladstone, Gambetta, Castelar, Beecher, Wendell 
 Phillips and Lincoln refute this statement. 
 
 The lawyer, clergyman and politician of necessity 
 should be good speakers, yet many of them are la- 
 mentably deficient in the essentials of the art. It is 
 strange, therefore, that public speaking is so little 
 practised nowadays by young Americans. 
 
 While great orators possess special aptitude for 
 public speaking, yet practice and ti-aining are needed 
 to develop even exceptional talent. Demosthenes' 
 struggles to overcome his vocal deficiencies might 
 be capped by a score of modern instances. Daniel 
 Webster was so gawky and timid at Exeter that in 
 spite of every encouragement he was afraid to practise 
 declamation. He said to a young clergyman : " There 
 is no such thing as extemporaneous eloquence.'* 
 Peter Harvey says Webster's speech in reply to
 
 158 What Shall Our Boijs Do for a Living ? 
 
 Hayne was substantially prepared months before its 
 delivery. "If Hayne had tried," Webster said, "to 
 make a speech to fit my notes, he could not have hit 
 it better. No man is inspired by the occasion. I 
 never was." 
 
 Naturally the first thing for a speaker to learn is 
 how to use his voice. 
 
 Dr. A. Riant, in "Hygiene de I'Orateur," gives 
 many useful suggestions touching breathing, intona- 
 tion, attitude, gesture, and what is best for the 
 speaker to do before, after and while speaking, to 
 insure the least physical effort. 
 
 Charles Kings! ey, who stammered badly, gave 
 these sensible suggestions for its cure : " Open your 
 mouth. Take full breaths and plenty of them. Mind 
 your stops. Keep your tongue quiet. Keep your 
 upper lip down, and use your lower lip. Read aloud. 
 Read and speak slow, slow, slow." 
 
 Mr. Osgood, a writer on elocution, thus character- 
 izes the common defects in public speakers; the 
 "throat clutch," the "jaw clinch," the "sullen di'one," 
 the "despondent tone." These are all due to lack of 
 training. Mr. Osgood adds : " The educated man or 
 woman who has and persists in an elocutionary evil, 
 obviously remediable, should suffer the same penalty 
 that follows the employment of gross errors of gram- 
 mar or of rhetoric. " 
 
 A person who wishes to be heard can hardly speak 
 too slowly. Mr. Bright said that nothing had cost him 
 more trouble than to learn to speak slowly. A clear, 
 deliberate utterance of every syllable, with pauses to 
 mark the stops at the end of each sentence, does not 
 produce the effect of tediousness, but the reverse.
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 159 
 
 Henry Ward Beecher spoke very distinctly. I have 
 heard a clergyman i)ut a whole sermon into his pro- 
 nunciation of the word dam-na-tion. 
 
 John Bright remarked that clear and distinct enun- 
 ciation was of great importance, Mr. Bright' s own 
 speeches were an example of this. Gladstone had 
 admirable clearness of pronunciation and modulation. 
 
 A writer in Nature says : " In singing, the musical 
 note is i>redominant ; in speaking, it is secondary and 
 subsidiary to the words, but it still exists. An ap- 
 preciation of this fact is of the greatest value. Many 
 speakers drop their voices with a descending inflec- 
 tion, and from want of musical ear fail to raise them 
 again; others err from excess of noise." 
 
 Here are some simple rules : Know exactly what 
 you intend to saj'. Endeavor to forget youi'self. 
 Consider yourself one of your audience. Be natural 
 and unaffected. 
 
 The annexed letter, which I received from Wendell 
 Phillips, contains valuable advice to young men about 
 public speaking : 
 
 "April, '68. 
 " Deae Sir : — Your note came while I was out West. 
 I hasten to reply now I'm at home. I think practice 
 with all kinds of audiences the best teacher you can 
 have. Think out your subject carefully, read all you 
 can relative thereto, fill your mind, and then talk sim- 
 ply and naturally to an audience. Forget altogether 
 that you are going to make a speech or that you are 
 making one. Absorb yourself into the idea that you 
 are to strike a blow, carry out a purpose, effect an ob- 
 ject, impress an idea, recommend a plan. Then, hav-
 
 160 WJuit Shall Our Boys Do for a Livinrj ? 
 
 ing forgotten yourself, you will be likelier to do your 
 best for your purpose. Study the class of books your 
 mind likes; when you go outside of this rule, study 
 those which give j^ou facts on your chosen subjects, 
 and those which you find most suggestive. Remem- 
 ber to talk up to your audience, not down to it. The 
 commonest audience can relish the best thing you 
 can say, if you know how to say it properly. Your 
 discipline heretofore [as a journalist], if you continue 
 it, is better than college, especially at j^our age. 
 
 " Be simple, be in earnest, and you will not fail to 
 reach the masses, especially if your heart is large 
 enough to receive all truths and all struggles. God 
 speed you. Wendell Phillips. " 
 
 Every speaker should study to express himself 
 in a clear, terse and nervous style. Two words are 
 always better than three, and all qualifying epithets 
 should, so far as possible, be omitted. Webster's 
 speeches and Lincoln's Gettysburg address are good 
 models to follow. It will be found excellent practice 
 to analyze the great masters of style and try to im- 
 prove on their language. There is no better method 
 than to give the pith of a long statement clearly, yet 
 in the fewest possible words. The narrative portions 
 of the Bible are admirable examples of compactness 
 and simplicity. It is rare that a single word can be 
 cut out without loss. Most lawyers are excessively 
 diffuse and wordy. They waste time over trifles, in- 
 stead of emphasizing the vital points of a case and 
 hammering them into the minds of the jurors, as 
 Choate did, by constant yet varied repetition. When 
 a lawyer boasts that he spoke for three days in a eer-
 
 WJiat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 161 
 
 tain case and that the testimony occupied four thou- 
 sand printed pages, one may feel sure that his argu- 
 ments might all have been stated in two hours or 
 possibly less, and the essential facts of the case 
 brought out in a tithe of the time. 
 
 G. W. Smalley summed up Mr. Gladstone's powers 
 as consisting in "lucidity" and "strength of state- 
 ment. " He could state a case better than any man in 
 England. He had great copiousness and fluency, but 
 his manner was labored and his gesture somewhat 
 ungainly and violent. No contemporary Englishman 
 has spoken so well, on such a variety of subjects. 
 He once spoke for an hour on the Budget, and without 
 a word from the Opposition the House of Commons 
 voted the entire eleven million pounds asked. 
 
 Sir Stafford Northcote, who often crossed swords 
 in debate with Gladstone, possessed immense knowl- 
 edge and admirable readiness, and was always listened 
 to with attention. Of him Smalley says : " No facts 
 or arguments suddenly thrown at him seemed to dis- 
 concert him. However weak his own case might 
 seem, his ingenuit}^ could always strengthen it. 
 However powerfully the hostile case had been pre- 
 sented, he never failed to find weak places in it and to 
 break it down by a succession of well-planted criti- 
 cisms, each apparently small, but damaging when 
 taken all together. His fluent grace was only equalled 
 by the unfailing skill with which he shunned danger- 
 ous ground, and put his i)ropositions in a form which 
 made it difficult to contradict them. He had the art 
 of nibbling an argument away, admitting a little in 
 order to evado or overthrow the rest." 
 
 John B. Gough defined eloquence as the art of com- 
 11
 
 1G2 What Shall Our Boys Do foi' a Living ? 
 
 muuicatiug foeling. He warned against the danger 
 of excess of action, in spite of Demosthenes' dictum, 
 and cited Massillon and Wendell Phillips as great 
 orators who used comparatively no gestures. He said 
 the old English divines must have possessed the power 
 of interesting, when they could preach four hours on 
 a stretch. The true orator must forget self. He 
 must transmit light, like a crystal, without suggest- 
 ing a thought of the medium. 
 
 A speaker should never underrate his audience. 
 Parton said: "In lecturing you must talk your best. 
 An angel from heaven would be appreciated by an 
 American audience. " Wendell Phillips said the same 
 thing. Beecher, Phillips Brooks, Curtis and Chapin, 
 all gave their best to their hearers and found them 
 receptive. So did Lincoln. 
 
 The enormous labor which Dickens undei'went to 
 qualif}^ himself to read his own works shows the price 
 of success in this field. Charles F. Adams said : " A 
 real orator is the most artificial product of human 
 education." Speaking of Edwin Burke, another 
 writer says : " Never for a moment did he trust to his 
 genius. See him at the top of his high fame, elabor- 
 ating every speech. He wrote every sentence with 
 the most studious and exhaustive care. He would 
 have twelve different proofs of his 'Reflections on 
 the French Eevolution, ' before he would allow it to 
 go to press, and even then he watched every page 
 with a vigilant eye, as if his very existence depended 
 on faultless accurac}^ of statement and style. " Eobert 
 C. Winthrop tells how Webster prepared one of his 
 great speeches. After an evening spent at a good 
 dinner and receiving visitors he went to bed, leaving
 
 WJiat Shall Our Boys Do for a Livinr/ ? 163 
 
 orders to be called at 2 a.m. Then with freshened 
 mind and body he i^repared his great argument by 
 candle-light. Other men would have staid up all 
 night and been fagged out in consequence. But 
 Webster knew the value of even a brief rest. 
 
 John Bright usually spoke from short notes. Glad- 
 stone refreshed his memory from memoranda of 
 the leading figures and facts he wished to cite. Mr. 
 Chamberlain has four or five pages of heads. Lord 
 Rosebery follows the same method. Lord Derby 
 wrote down every word and committed his speech to 
 memor}'. In one of his letters he says that all his 
 principal speeches cost him two sleepless nights, one 
 in thinking what he would say, and the other in la- 
 menting that he might have said it better. Thiers 
 made the most careful and elaborate preparation. 
 O'Connell and Gambetta spoke always on the inspi- 
 ration of the moment. The iDOwer of Gambetta's elo- 
 quence lay in the utterance of condensed sentences, 
 such as the following : " When in France a citizen is 
 born, a soldier is born at the same time." " There is 
 no social cure, because there is no social question." 
 " I feel myself free to be both a believer in Joan of 
 Arc and a pupil and admirer of Voltaire." "Do not 
 cry out 'Vive Gambetta !' but cry *Vive la Republiciue !' 
 for the young have to grasp the idea, and have the 
 conviction that men are nothing, but that principles 
 are all." "Nbt the sword alone can undo the Gor- 
 dian knot; not power alone the international ques- 
 tion." 
 
 Smooth, flowing, limpid speech becomes tiresome 
 unless relieved by impressive phrases, brilliant figures 
 or appeals to high principle or passion. Such speak-
 
 164 IVIiat S1udl Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 ing may soothe like the murmur of a brook, but it is 
 not impressive. A lady remarked of a certain Ameri- 
 can bishop : " The words seem to flow from his finger 
 ends." G. W. Smalley said of Sir Stafford North- 
 cote : " When the House grew excited at the close of a 
 long party debate, and Sir Stafford rose in the small 
 hours of the morning to wind ujj, in behaK of his 
 party, men felt that the ripple of his sweet voice, the 
 softness of his gentle manner, were not what the occa- 
 sion called for." The trumpet-call is grander than 
 the flute. 
 
 Expression is the most difficult branch to acquire 
 or impart. Delsarte says : " A gesture supplies that 
 which the word leaves out." An actor tamely re- 
 hearsed the closet scene in " Hamlet, " and then asked 
 his instructor how he liked the gestures. "I didn't 
 see any," was the reply. " Didn't see any?" said the 
 actor in astonishment. "No, I saw some motions, 
 but no gestures." Matthew Arnold lectured in a 
 monotonous, singsong tone, with an irritating, rising 
 and falling cadence. His sole gesture was to clasp 
 his hands in front and then wave them backward with 
 a feeble flap. Bismarck had a dull, heavy voice. 
 Every sentence was chopped into pieces of from one 
 to five words, and these were commonly uttered in an 
 explosive manner, with frequent stumbling over, or 
 repetition of, single words. Both hands rested behind 
 him when speaking, except when he occasionally 
 gesticulated with the right, making an unmeaning 
 swing of the hand upward, while the elbow remained 
 at the side. Only two or three times during a speech 
 of nearly two hours did he make any more emphatic 
 gesture. Emerson made no gestures. Sufficient for
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do fofr a Living? 165 
 
 him were the modulations of the voice, and the occa- 
 sional lifting of the head and brightening of the vis- 
 age. Nevertheless, every word was uttered so as to 
 express its fullest force and meaning. No one else 
 could have delivered his lectures so effectively and 
 captivatingly. 
 
 Talma, in his treatise on the art of acting, says : 
 " The gesture, the attitude, the look, should precede 
 the words, as the flash of lightning precedes the 
 thunder." The true orator's movements must appear 
 so spontaneous that they are unnoticed. Insensibly, 
 they will affect his audience. James Kedpath said 
 that Wendell Phillips talked on the platform as if 
 he were speaking in a parlor. He seldom moved 
 more than a foot from the spot where he first stood, 
 and his gestures were as quiet as his elocution. He 
 never raised his voice loudly, although it was easily 
 heard in the largest hall. Horace Greeley once said 
 that he supi)osed no young man ever heard Phillips 
 speak without thinking that he could talk just as well, 
 without any trouble. Other young critics, who have 
 not yet foimd out that it is lightning and not thunder 
 that kills, expressed the wish that Phillips would 
 "just let himself out once" and show what he could 
 do. " I have even heard intelligent men compare him 
 with Garrison and Parker Pillsbury as orators. It 
 was the difference between a stout cudgel in the 
 hands of an honest citizen and a Damascus blade 
 wielded by a master of fence." 
 
 Henry Clay cautioned a young Congressman against 
 making bitter personal attacks upon opponents. 
 "When you go fishing," he said, "you find the best 
 rod gives a little at each joint? It does not snap and
 
 16C TVhat SJiall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 break at every touch, but beuds, and shows its 
 strength only when a heavy weight is put on it. " The 
 3' ouug Congressman said : " I caught his meaning. I 
 had seen him chatting familiarly with the very men 
 whom I was berating. Yet I knew when great inter- 
 ests clashed he was the one man whom they feared. 
 I set myself to learn patience and coolness. " Disraeli 
 had oratorical tact. When he had to discuss the 
 Copyright Bill, a less clever man would have been 
 all cocked and primed. But he was brief and to the 
 point, and complimented the literary ability of the 
 House. He writes: "I sat down with a general 
 cheer." On another occasion he wrote: "I feel how 
 much more I might have done had I had time, but 
 the oi:)portuue is sometimes preferable to the excel- 
 lent. A majority is always better than the best rep- 
 artee." This recalls the remark of Daniel Manning 
 regarding the most ejBfective speech at the Chicago 
 Convention of 1884. It was comprised in one sen- 
 tence: "New York casts her seventy-two votes for 
 Grover Cleveland." When a political syndicate tried 
 to pass a bill to sell the Brooklyn Navy Yard for 
 $200,000, John H. Starin rose and said : " I do not 
 know if it is in order, but I will draw my check for 
 $500,000 for the property." This was his sole speech 
 in Congress. It killed the scheme. An example of 
 effective speaking was Senator Proctor's calm recital 
 of Spanish atrocities in Cuba in 1898, of which ex- 
 President Harrison said : " I do not think there has 
 been made, in any legislative assembly of the world, 
 in fifty 3^ears, a speech that so powerfully affected 
 I)ublic sentiment as that." There was not a lurid 
 adjective in the speech.
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living? 167 
 
 So many public speakers now read from manu- 
 script that there is danger that oratory may become 
 a lost art. No document, however dramaticall}- read, 
 can have the effect of an offhand speech. M. Dou- 
 mic, the French critic, remarks that " reading from a 
 manuscript or memorizing gives to the word some- 
 thing that is cold and without accent." He usually 
 lectures with only a few notes, but after careful i)rep- 
 aration, always striving to keep in touch with his au- 
 dience, "eyes looking into eyes." 
 
 Reading aloud affords excellent practice. The 
 main thing is to breathe properlj-, and to cultivate a 
 simple, natural manner. Elocution, as usually taught, 
 tends to an artificial, stilted and declamatory' style. 
 Hamlet's advice to the players tells all that a 
 beginner needs to know about methods of declama- 
 tion. 
 
 The best i)ractice is for the novice to get up in 
 school or in a literarj' society or club, and simply 
 state facts or discuss some familiar subject, without 
 trying to make a speech, until ho acquires ease and 
 confidence. Any one can talk upon every -da}- affairs. 
 Practice makes perfect. At Packard's Business 
 College in New York it is the custom on Friday 
 mornings to call on the pupils to practise ofl'hand 
 talking on topics of the day. It has had astonish- 
 ingly good results. In like manner, at the Twilight 
 Club dinners, many " dumb orators" have developed 
 ease and facility, by talking on topics which concern 
 their daily affairs. 
 
 If one has something to say, the words will come 
 readily. Gambetta said : " The speech is nothing to 
 me ; the idea I want to put forth and demonstrate is
 
 168 What Shall Our Boys Do fw a Living ? 
 
 all I think of in advance. For tlie remainder I trust 
 to opportunity." In like manner, Daniel Webster 
 criticised his own early orations, because when they 
 were composed he had not learned that true power 
 lies in the idea and not in the expression.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 MEDICINE. 
 
 Numbers in the Profession — Strain of Practice — Fees — Preven- 
 tive Medicine — Only Capable Men in Demand. Dr. J. S. Billings 
 on Study — Large or Small Colleges — The Medical Student — The 
 Country Doctor — Dr. Willard Parker's Advice — Hard Workers 
 — The Physician and Society — Tact and Gravity — Hotel Doctors 
 — Examples of Success — Sir. Andrew Clark a Model Physician. 
 
 Our medical schools turn out annually some three 
 thousand graduates. Many more enter the i^rofession 
 without a diploma. As Turkey has been called the 
 " sick man of Europe," America might be called " the 
 sick man of the Western continent." We have one 
 doctor to 650 people. Great Britain has one to 1,800, 
 France one to 2,300, and the German Empire one to 
 about 2,000, Nevada is blessed with one doctor for 
 every 380 inhabitants, Indiana one for 4G5, and Ken- 
 tucky one for 547. The evils resulting from this super- 
 abundance of physicians are obvious. An American 
 surgeon protests against the haste and speed with 
 which students are allowed to rush through medieal 
 schools, and the disastrous consequences to the public 
 of their ignorance and lack of judgment. Of many 
 patients this epitaph might be written : " Died at the 
 hands of a short-term doctor." 
 
 Medical competition is severe, and lasts from the 
 first to the last day of practice. None but the ener- 
 getic and industrious can expect success. As a medi-
 
 170 What Shall Onr Boijs Do for a Living ? 
 
 cal writer says : " If you have a son wlio is notori- 
 ously slow in intellect, wanting in application, or 
 who prefers pleasure to steady work, as you value 
 his future happiness and your own peace of mind, 
 put him to any profession or business you like save 
 medicine." Chauncey Depew, in an address to medi- 
 cal graduates, advised them to "stick and dig," 
 which is about all that any one can say to the begin- 
 ner. The delay in obtaining practice is often great, 
 and "hope deferred maketh the heart sick." The 
 London Lancet warns young men not to study medi- 
 cine unless they have private resources. Many able 
 men suffer great trials from lack of means to live on, 
 while they are waiting for patients. Conan Doyle in 
 " Eound the Ked Lamp" vividly describes the strug- 
 gles of the young practitioner to get a foothold in an 
 old community. The Lancet remarks that "one 
 reason why the scale of payments for attendance on 
 the sick poor is so low will be found in the number 
 of eager applicants for any vacant post, let the emol- 
 ument be small as it may." Two-thirds of the 
 medical treatment in cities is practically free thi'ough 
 the abuse of the dispensary system. Competition 
 cuts into physicians' incomes sharply. On these 
 accounts the city doctor is at a disadvantage with 
 his country brother. 
 
 The English physician does not hold so high a 
 social position as the American doctor. The latter 
 drives daily and sees a variety of people, which keeps 
 his mind fresh. He can usually earn a fair living, 
 while, if he shows special talent, he may make more 
 than a competence. His duties are not monotonous. 
 On the other hand, his hours are long and irregular.
 
 What Shall Our Boyfi Do for a Living ? 171 
 
 He is never master of his owu time, but by day and 
 night is at the beck and call of the public. A large 
 practice is wearing and many physicians break down 
 under it. Medicine, like law, is a jealous mistress. A 
 certain proportion of physicians fail for want of 
 adaptability; others from lack of energy or from 
 bad habits. In the long run industry wins its way, 
 and is better than special talent. Much depends 
 upon natural aptitude. Manual dexterity is of great 
 value, not only to the surgeon but to the physician. 
 An eminent New York surgeon says : " I can tell by 
 the touch the condition of a bleeding wound, or 
 when using a needle whether the point is passing 
 through a cavity or through flesh." Good address is 
 also of vital importance. A physician should culti- 
 vate good manners, and how to make a pleasant im- 
 pression. For this reason he cannot have too much 
 general culture. 
 
 As certain men and women are endowed by nature 
 with the healing touch, so others are born to charm. 
 It was said of Dr. John W. Francis that his patients 
 were soothed by his brilliant and lively conversation. 
 Dr. Fordj'ce Barker had the same charm of manner. 
 The i^ressure of his hand, the sunshine of his smile 
 and his winning manners made him universally 
 popular. Dr. Gunning S. Bedford was a thorough 
 courtier, genial, alert and soothing. A fellow- 
 practitioner remarked of Dr. Bedford: "He was an 
 ansBsthetic of himself in the confinement chamber." 
 He once astonished his class by saying : " And now, 
 gentlemen, some advice better even than great knowl- 
 edge. Look well to your boots before you answer a 
 call. There must be in them when entering a sick
 
 172 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 chamber where dwells nervousness no creak of 
 leather nor heavy sole, for your silent footfall will be 
 a medicine of itself. Then you must cultivate your 
 voice to soft, melodious accents, and your touch must 
 be like the fall of a rose-leaf. Never whisper to the 
 sick, for it is a funereal sound. Cultivate tact, for 
 it is the open sesame to confidence." 
 
 Macaulay, on the authority of Prince Albert, states 
 that in 1851 there was hardly a physician in Germany 
 who earned $5,000 by his profession. Hence profes- 
 sor's chairs were very acceptable. Yet Brodie and 
 Bright in England each made $50,000. Sir Astley 
 Cooper had $5,000 thrown to him from the window, 
 in a nightcap, by a patient upon whom he had oper- 
 ated. A similar sum was paid to an Arab surgeon 
 by the Khedive of Egj^pt for curing his mother. 
 Sir Charles Peacock, the Queen's accoucheur, paid 
 an income tax one year on $150,000. This is said 
 to be the largest income ever returned by a physician 
 in England. Sir William Gull and Sir James Paget 
 earned from $50,000 to $75,000 a year. When Baron 
 Rothschild was ill at his country-seat both physicians 
 were in daily attendance. Tliey received 100 guineas 
 for each visit. Sir William Paget is said to have 
 received $2,000 for a visit to Ireland. Eadcliffe in 
 the height of his fame earned $35,000 a year; Mead, 
 $25,000; Baillie, $45,000; Sir H. Halford, $55,000; 
 and Sir Benjamin C. Brodie, the year but one before 
 his retirement, $85,000. Radcliffe received $8,000 
 for visiting Lord Albemarle at Namur. Granvill 
 was paid $5,000 and his travelling expenses for 
 a visit to St. Petersburg. Sir William Gull re- 
 ceived $10,000 for two visits to Pau, and $7,500 for a
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 173 
 
 week's aiaj in Perthshire. The fee of fees was that 
 received by Dr. Dinesdale, in 1768, for inoculating 
 the Empress Catherine and her son at St. Petersburg, 
 viz, $60,000 cash, a life pension of $2,500, and a bar- 
 onetcy. Charles Keetley, the senior surgeon in West 
 London Hospital, charged $2,000 for a railway acci- 
 dent case in Franco, and when he sued for the claim 
 a jury gave him $1,750. Valentine Mott testified in 
 court that his income was $600 a day. A throat 
 specialist who secured the patronage of the profes- 
 sional singers is said to have earned $70,000 in one 
 year. The exaggeration about lawyers' and doctors' 
 incomes is largely due to the fact that it is noised 
 about that a man in a certain year made a large sum, 
 which it is assumed forthwith is his regular income. 
 Few lawyers or doctors die rich. 
 
 The highest medical fee on record in America was 
 $100,000, given by Mr. Flagler, of the Standard Oil 
 Company, to Dr. George Shelton for attending his 
 daughter for many months. Dr. McBirney, of New 
 York, is reported to have received $40,000 for attend- 
 ing a patient. Provost Pepper, of the University of 
 Pennsylvania, told a friend that he had earned $60,- 
 000 within nine months, and he received $10,000 for 
 a visit to Erie. The average income of a New York 
 physician under thirty will not exceed $1,500. If a 
 beginner earns $300 the first year he is "doiug as 
 well as could be expected." If he earns $3,000 a 
 year by the time he is forty, he should be content. 
 The highest medical income in New York is al)out 
 $60,000. There are perhaps a hundred men who earn 
 $20,000. 
 
 Dr. Fordyce Barker (quoted to the New York Acad-
 
 174 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 emy of Medicine the saying of Dr. John Ware, of 
 Boston, made about 1846, that the public no longer 
 believed in the medical profession as a body, and that 
 there only remained such personal confidence as in- 
 di^ddual members might secure. "This," he said, 
 " was parth' due to the antagonism developed by the 
 spread of homceopathy, and partly to the doubts which 
 the best physicians feel regarding the certainty of 
 medicine as a science, which has led so many of them 
 to rely less upon drugs for the cure of disease than 
 upon nursing, diet and sanitation." 
 
 Josh Billings remarks in his quaint way that a 
 doctor is a very nice, bland gentleman, who charges 
 you three dollars for telling you to eat less and exer- 
 cise more. This well represents the disparaging 
 opinion which many laymen have of the physician's 
 office. "Why did you not send for me?" said a 
 doctor to a man who had been sick. "Oh, I didn't 
 want to do anything desperate," answered the latter. 
 
 Sir Astley Cooper declared : " The science of medi- 
 cine is founded upon conjecture, and improved by 
 murder." Sir James Johnson said: "I declare as 
 my conscientious conviction, founded upon long obser- 
 vation and experiment, that if there were not a single 
 physician, surgeon, chemist, druggist or drug on the 
 face of the earth, there would be less sickness and less 
 mortality than now prevail." Dr. Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes remarked that " if the whole materia medica 
 could be sunk in the bottom of the sea, it would be 
 all the better for mankind, and all the worse for the 
 fishes." 
 
 The young physician should therefore make up his 
 mind to study the causes of disease. The Medical
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 175 
 
 Record says : " The province of the doctor is not alone 
 that of healer, but of health-officer to the family and 
 the community. He must seek for h^-gienic as well 
 as therapeutic triumphs. ... If the merest minority 
 of medical graduates would devote a share of their 
 time, while awaiting the growth of a paying practice, 
 to the study of preventive medicine, they would un- 
 doubtedly be better prepared for obtaining that prac- 
 tice." 
 
 The recent advances in sanitary science have opened 
 a new field for jDhysicians. The position of Health 
 Officer may not always be well paid, but it brings a 
 man in contact with the public and is a valuable 
 means of advancement. 
 
 Owing to the spread of hygienic knowledge, people 
 have become more careful in regard to their health and 
 are less exposed to many forms of disease. They 
 have also learned how to treat their own simpler ail- 
 ments without calling in a i^hysician. Thousands of 
 families keep their own medicines and use them with- 
 out the'direction of a doctor. On the other hand, the 
 growth of our complex civilization and the i)ressure 
 of living foster many ailments, especially among 
 industrial workers, such as are set forth in Dr. Eich- 
 ardson's "Diseases of Modern Life." The phy- 
 sician will therefore always find a demand for his 
 services. 
 
 The methods employed by Tom Sawj-er to get a 
 start are still practised by physicians, but as a rule 
 hard work and close attention to their duties are 
 the means most generally used. Some get patients 
 through accident, or through social connections, or 
 through other physicians who send them cases which
 
 176 JVhat Shall Our Boys Bo for a Living ? 
 
 they have made a speciality of treating. The medi- 
 cal profession has changed its status. There is no 
 field for shallow men and charlatans. Only those 
 who are capable and will work hard can succeed. 
 The broader the foundation the taller the structure 
 one can rear upon it. But the medical student should 
 not decide too early what specialty he means to fol- 
 low. He had better wait and follow the oi)portuni- 
 ties which circumstances open. English physicians 
 assert that we have too many specialists. A famous 
 doctor, when asked if he made a specialty of the skin, 
 answered: "Yes, and everything inside of it." The 
 general practitioner takes a broader view than the 
 specialist, and therefore should rank higher, though 
 individual taste or chance lead many men to devote 
 themselves to special lines in medicine. 
 
 Many physicians have regretted in mature life, 
 when they lacked the opportunity for study, that thej 
 had been unable in youth, when the mind is most 
 receptive, to ground themselves thoroughly in the 
 knowledge of their profession. Some kinds of knowl- 
 edge are hard to master in later years. 
 
 Dr. J. S. Billings, one of the best equipped and 
 scholarly men in his profession, remarks : " Thirty- 
 three years ago I began the study of medicine, having 
 obtained the degree of Bachelor of Arts after the 
 usual classical course of those days. It so happens 
 that the smattering of Latin and Greek which I ob- 
 tained has been of great use to me, and I may, there- 
 fore, be a prejudiced witness. I had attended lec- 
 tures in physics and chemistry but had done no 
 laboratory work, and I could read easy French and 
 German. Thus equipped I began to read anatomy,
 
 Wliaf Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? Ill 
 
 physiology, and the principles of medicine. Nomi- 
 nally I had a preceptor, but I do not think I saw him 
 six times during the year which followed, for I was 
 teaching school in another State. Nevertheless, he 
 told me what books to read, and I read them. The 
 next thing was to attend the prescribed two courses 
 of lectures in a medical college in Cincinnati. Each 
 course lasted about five months and was precisely the 
 same. There was no laboratory course, and I began 
 to attend clinical lectures the first day of the first 
 course. Oae result of this was that I had to learn 
 chemical manipulation, the practical use of the micro- 
 scope, etc., at a later period, when it was much more 
 difl&cult. In fact, I may say that I have been study- 
 ing ever since to repair the deficiencies in my medi- 
 cal training, and have never been able to catch up." 
 
 Hundreds of other physicians have had a similar 
 experience. 
 
 The facilities for studying medicine in this country 
 are unsurpassed. While foreign travel is advanta- 
 geous, there is no necessity for a student to go abroad 
 to perfect himself. In Continental Europe medicine 
 is studied more as a science than as an art. An emi- 
 nent German said : " Providence created disease that 
 phj'sicians might have something to study." More 
 attention is there given to pathology and morbid anat- 
 omy than to the cure of disease. 
 
 The medical college in the large city has decided 
 advantages over the one situated in the small town, 
 because it attracts the ablest teachers and has the 
 finest hospitals. Smaller institutions may have able 
 professors, but they lack clinical advantages and sub- 
 jects for dissection. Again, in the large citv there 
 12
 
 178 Wliat Sludl Our Boys Do for a Living . 
 
 are always young physicians who will coach students 
 when desired. Many lecture courses need to be sup- 
 plemented by such special instruction, notably on the 
 practical use of the microscope, stethoscope, and other 
 instruments, together with electrical and chemical 
 ai)pliances. It is advantageous for the beginoer, be- 
 fore attending medical lectures, to study for a year in 
 a physician's office, particularly in the office of one 
 who compounds his own drugs. The student thus 
 learns, by contact, the nature and appearance of the 
 different compounds, and prepares himself by prelim- 
 inary study better to understand the lectures he will 
 hear later. 
 
 Dr. Cathell's "The Physician Himself" (Balti- 
 more), which has passed through eight editions, may 
 be commended to all young doctors as full of valuable 
 counsel. 
 
 "New York City gathers medical students from 
 every quarter of the western hemisphere, and here is 
 the best place, perhaps, to study the average specimen. 
 He comes from the country or some small town, 
 where he has been spending the summer with his 
 preceptor. He has picked up quite a number of 
 ideas and has some very positive opinions. He takes 
 a room with board, for which he pays six dollars a 
 week. He matriculates, joins a quiz, and settles 
 down to work, for our American medical student is 
 essentially an industrious fellow. His hard studying 
 is done for the most part during his two winters at 
 the college. But he is not entirely unsocial or non- 
 convivial. He picks up some acquaintances, and 
 takes a chum. There is a gradual accumulation of 
 beer bottles under the bed. A few bones and some
 
 What Slwll Our Boys Do for a Livimj ? 179 
 
 pipes adorn his tables and walls. Although the 
 chemical professor has discoursed upon nicotine, and 
 shown that 'one (or two at most) drops make a cat 
 a ghost, ' he continues to smoke. A permanent odor 
 of tobacco attaches itself to the room. 
 
 "As our student progresses in acquaintances, ho 
 j&nds that the mind really needs intervals of rest and 
 relaxation, a point in mental hygiene which tcikca an 
 especially strong hold uiwn him. By this time he 
 knows the young lad}' of the house very well. She 
 has taken him to church. He has escorted her to the 
 theatre. He horrifies her with tales of the dissecting- 
 room, and with the most harrowing descriptions. 
 She thinks the doctor's life very hard, but sympa- 
 thetically asserts that it is a very noble one. 
 
 " In the lecture room there is occasionallj' an inter- 
 change of missiles between hours, some loud talking, 
 or even a scrimmage. But he finds that to be bois- 
 terous is a habit that is wearing away, and now exists 
 only in the inferior schools. 
 
 " He does not wear fashionable clothes. His sleeve 
 buttons are in the skull-and-crossbones style, with 
 green glass eyes. His cane is grotesquel}' carved. 
 With this he walks up Fifth Avenue on Sundays. 
 He has one or two nice acquaintances, but, on the 
 whole, his appearance in society is confined to the 
 unpretentious boarding-house hop, or more (luiet 
 social gatherings, all terminating invariably in ice- 
 cream and cake. He still likes to bring stories from 
 the college into his general conversation, and is 
 rather proud of the sensations which his descriptions 
 or comments produce. 
 
 "As examinations approach, ho works harder,
 
 180 WJiat SJuill Oil)' Boys Do for a Livhig ? 
 
 smokes more, and drinks just as much. When he 
 has passed the examination, and received his degree, 
 ho is just as likely as not to pack up and go straight 
 home, in a perfectly normal and non-alcoholic condi- 
 tion. 
 
 " Our average student is not a bad fellow or an ex- 
 traordinary fellow. He has no great fondness for 
 study, but he works with enthusiasm and graduates 
 creditably. He settles in the country or in some 
 provincial centre, battles with fortune and disease, 
 against heavy odds, for several years. Finally he 
 becomes a useful and respected member of society, 
 passing from ' the average student ' to something 
 more than an average man." ' 
 
 The young graduate who begins practice in a large 
 city is lost in the crowd. His first patients must be 
 largely among the poor, who can pay little, if amj- 
 thing. He finds it hard to gain a foothold among the 
 well-to-do. Yet many young physicians have won 
 success in New York and other cities, in spite of such 
 obstacles by following the example of a famous doctor 
 who said : " I crept over the backs of the poor into 
 the pockets of the rich." 
 
 The country practitioner has to travel long dis- 
 tances, is paid less than his city brother, and is iso- 
 lated from professional associates. But his opportu- 
 nities for observation and experience are not small, 
 and he gains seK-reliance and readiness in emergen- 
 cies. Ian Maclaren, in his pathetic sketch of the 
 Scotch doctor, describes, in " Beside the Bonnie Brier 
 Bush," the hardships of the country doctor's life. 
 That life, however, has its compensations. Yirchow 
 ■ Medical Record.
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Livhuj ? 181 
 
 built up bis reputation in a remote town. Mayer, 
 whom Tyndall ranked first "as seer and organizer," 
 was all his life a country doctor. Ephraim McDowell 
 first performed the operation of ovariotomy in 1816, 
 in a Kentucky village. Oliver Wendell Holmes de- 
 scribes, with happy skill, the country doctor: "He 
 is self-reliant, self-sacrificing, working a great deal 
 harder for his living than most of those who call 
 themselves the laboring classes. He has the sagacity 
 without which learning is a mere encumbrance, and 
 he has also a fair share of that learning without which 
 sagacity is a traveller with a good horse, who cannot 
 read the directions on the guide-boards." Hundi'eds 
 of such men are leading laborious, useful and honored 
 lives throughout the land. While unknown to fame, 
 and not rich in this world's goods, they are valuable 
 members of the community. 
 
 The counti'y doctor must be plucky, keen of obser- 
 vation, i^rompt, full of resources, self-reliant. His 
 cases may be difficult, yet his resources are small. 
 He may need counsel, and have no one to call in but 
 an ignoramus or a bigot. He may be forced to be 
 pharmacist as well as physician. He may be con- 
 fronted with a complicated surgical case and lack 
 instruments and ai)pliances. Again, his work is seen 
 by all men. He is subject to constant criticism, and 
 cannot shirk responsibility or hide behind subterfuges. 
 On the other hand, " if intelligent and educated, pos- 
 sessing a warm heart and generous sympathies, the 
 country doctor gains respect, esteem and love. He 
 learns to know his people even better than they know 
 themselves. To them he is a friend, comforter and 
 adviser; and he becomas, what is growing rare in
 
 182 What Shall Our Boijs Do for a Livmrj ? 
 
 cities, the family doctor, in whom all confidences 
 meet and rest, and in whom all hopes of human aid 
 are centred in times of trial, sorrow and impending 
 dissolution." 
 
 If the country doctor complains that he has no 
 leisure, neither has the city doctor. Only the great 
 workers have time for work. Every case that comes 
 before him is a clinic, if he will turn it to account. 
 He has but to keep up the scientific habit, and all 
 that he does will have the character and productive- 
 ness of scientific work. If he thinks that he is de- 
 prived of the stimulus of fellowship, he is mistaken. 
 The post-office will keep him in touch with his peers, 
 whatever his rank. 
 
 Dr. George F. Shrady, in an address to medical 
 students at Kingston, laid special stress on the results 
 which can be accomplished by the aid of small things. 
 Some of the greatest discoveries have been made with 
 the simplest apparatus, and the surgeon and the doc- 
 tor, like the engineer, must often perform great feats 
 with the least help. 
 
 Dr. Willard Parker, in an article, " How to Succeed 
 as a Physician," said: "The doctor must love the 
 profession and possess sound common sense. He 
 must use the books, not let the books use him." Men 
 who are walking libraries, and nothing more, may fail 
 utterly in a sick-room. 
 
 "Each patient's disease," says Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes, "has features of its own; there never was 
 and never will be another case in all respects exactly 
 like it. If a doctor has science without common 
 sense, he treats a fever, but not this man's fever. If 
 he has common sense without science, he treats this
 
 What Shall Our Boijs Do for a Livimj ? 183 
 
 man's fever without knowing the general laws that 
 govern all fevers and all vital movements. . . . The 
 men that have science only begin too far back, and 
 before they get as far as the case in hand the patient 
 has very likeh- gone to visit his deceased relatives." 
 
 No profession requires a greater range of study. 
 The treatment of disease involves a study of the laws 
 of hj^giene. 
 
 As to medical ethics, a man should do to others as 
 he would be done by. The doctor must be courteous, 
 cheerful, prompt and kind, but firm ; he must feel a 
 personal interest in his patients and show that he 
 takes their cases to heart. 
 
 Some men get along because they have an easy 
 way and good opportunities of making friends. 
 Some have a great deal of brass and push themselves 
 into success, but it is not a solid success, and will 
 last but a few years. 
 
 What Ruskin says about artists applies equally 
 well to doctors. "You may have known clever men 
 who were indolent, but you never knew a great man 
 who was so. When I liear a j-oung man spoken of 
 as giving promise of high genius, the first (luestion I 
 ask about him is always. Does he work?" Ricord 
 taught English for a living while studying medi- 
 cine, and only slept five hours out of the twenty- 
 four. Nelatou read lying on a board placed between 
 two chairs. When drowsiness overtook him, he fell 
 off his narrow bed, and awoke to fresh struggles with 
 his task. Velpeau, who was the son of a farrier, re- 
 ceived no early education. He studied his own lan- 
 guage, besides Latin, Greek, history, geography, 
 physics, chemistry and botany during his first year of
 
 184 What Shall Our Boys Do fw a Livimj ? 
 
 medical study. A young Japanese student entered 
 the University of Berlin entirely ignorant of German, 
 as of science. In three months he passed an exami- 
 nation conducted in German, and including several 
 branches of medicine. 
 
 Dr. I. Burney Yeo, writing of " Medicine and So- 
 ciety," in the Nineteenth Century, makes many admira- 
 ble suggestions regarding the relation of i:)hysicians 
 to their patients, to the public, and to one another. 
 "No man," he says, "can become a successful prac- 
 titioner who does not add to his technical training a 
 keen insight into human nature." The present ten- 
 dency to extreme specialization interferes with the 
 personal relations between the doctor and his patient. 
 It is impossible to feel the same interest in a frac- 
 tional part of a person as in the whole man. The 
 specialist loses breadth of view and is in danger of 
 being regarded as a mere handicraftsman, or as one 
 skilful in manipulating some special appliance, who 
 is dismissed and forgotten as soon as his work is 
 done. The high fees charged by specialists foster an 
 impression in the public mind that the profession is 
 becoming mercenary. This opinion is strengthened 
 by the prevalent methods of self-advertising. Medi- 
 cal etiquette is often carried too far, and is regarded 
 by laymen as dictatorial and coercive. Common 
 sense, good faith, discretion and gentlemanly feel- 
 ing are the be^ guides to follow in the doctor's rela- 
 tions with society and with one another. Tact, grav- 
 ity, and a calm and even temper are the three 2^(^rsonal 
 qualities of greatest use to a physician. Affirmation 
 is more acceptable to most persons than discrimina- 
 tion. One must at least appear to have self-confi-
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 185 
 
 dence to gain the confidence of others. The physi- 
 cian often has to decide promptly to satisfy the 
 patient or the patient's friends, when he would prefer 
 to deliberate. A certain facility in arriving rapidly 
 at sound conclusions is gained by experience, but 
 tact will enable one to postpone a final judgment, or 
 to avoid expressing it in too positive a form. A ca- 
 pacity for the ready invention of expedients will also 
 prove serviceable. Dr. Weir Mitchell justl^^ com- 
 plains of those patients who " ask instant treatment 
 when we know that time is what we want, either for 
 the study of present symptoms, or to enable the 
 growing disorder to spell itself out for us, as it were, 
 letter by letter, until its nature becomes clear." An 
 English physician was visiting a ver}- sick nobleman. 
 The patient's wife inquired, " WTiat do you think of 
 the baron, Sir X. ?" Folding his arms, as was his 
 wont, and looking fixedly from under his long, over- 
 hanging ej'ebrows into the baroness' eyes, he re- 
 plied very slowly and deliberately-, "Wliat do you 
 think, baroness?" "I think him very ill," was the 
 reply. "So do I," responded Sir X., very solemnly. 
 He then said, "Good-night, baroness," and de- 
 parted, leaving a profound impression, but ^-ithout 
 having given any definitely expressed opinion. 
 
 The hotel physician in a large city lives comforta- 
 bly, makes money, and comes in contact with persons 
 of wealth and prominence, but ho fails to form perma- 
 nent connections with families who will regard him 
 as a friend as well as a ph3'sician, while ho is ajit to 
 become too fond of his ease and so lose interest in his 
 profession. 
 
 The 3'oung physician has to contend with the natii-
 
 180 What Shall Our Bot/s Do for a Living? 
 
 ral projudico against youth and inexperience, which 
 he tries to combat bj growing a beard, wearing spec- 
 tacles, and putting on all the dignity of age that he 
 can assume. But the public sometimes prefers a 
 young man because he is full of enthusiasm, and 
 fresh from the hospitals, with the latest ideas and ex- 
 perience. He throws himself into a case with ardor 
 and his zeal inspires confidence, and is sure to bring 
 practice. I recall one young doctor who said he 
 would rather practise without pay than not practise 
 at all. Such men always succeed. 
 
 Here are some examples of men who have won 
 their way : Dr. Forbes Wilson, the English expert on 
 insanity, arrived in London with a couple of shillings 
 in his pocket. He reported Parliamentary speeches, 
 after which he would work by candle-light in the dis- 
 secting-room, into the early hours. When he died in 
 1874 he was an acknowledged leader in the profes- 
 sion. Dr. Fordyce Barker's father gave him $100 
 and a horse, and told him to start out for himself. 
 He rode until his money was gone. Finding himself 
 in Norwich, Conn., he determined to stay there. A 
 paper which he read on obstetrics, before the State 
 Medical Association, led to his being invited to New 
 York to fill a professor's chair. For a few years he 
 had a hard struggle, but when Bellevue was opened 
 and he was made obstetrical physician his prosperity 
 began. Dr. James B. Wood came from Vermont to 
 New York and took charge of the outdoor branch of 
 Bellevue Hospital. He received no pay, but the 
 privilege of making autopsies upon all who died in 
 the hospital. To this constant practice he attributed 
 much of his skill in surgery. He also introduced
 
 What ShaJl Our Boys Do for a Living ? 187 
 
 bedside instruction, w bicli created great enthusiasm 
 among the students, and gave a new zest to their 
 studies. 
 
 Sir Andrew Clark was a great doctor. " The first 
 practising physician in Great Britain," Mr. Glad- 
 stone called him. His death caused unparalleled 
 feeling among his associates. He was devoted to 
 his profession. He worked on an average sixteen 
 hours a day. He rarely went into society, yet he 
 never seemed in a hurry. He surprised and won the 
 confidence of his patients hy his seeming absorption 
 in their cases. Even as a boy he was singularly pure 
 and noble-minded, and his whole life was free from 
 self-interest. Mr. Gladstone says : " During twenty- 
 five years' intercourse I do not recollect ever to have 
 heard him utter a single word relating to his own 
 convenience, comfort or advantage." His practice 
 was largely among persons of wealth and rank, in- 
 cluding royalty. He left a largo fortune. He was 
 exceedingly generous. He made it a iiile never to 
 request or demand a fee. He had many literary and 
 professional men, including Tennyson and Gladstone, 
 among his patients. He won their aflfection and 
 esteem by his breadth of mind and lofty nature. In 
 short, in his case, the highest professional attain- 
 ments were combined with faith, honor, chivalry, 
 nobility. No better example could be ofi'ered to tlio 
 young physician.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE ENGINEERING PROFESSION. 
 
 Its Antiquity and Honors— Control of Natural Forces— Pay 
 of Engineers— Blunders of Unskilled Men— Qualifications Re- 
 quired — Need of Culture and Literary Training— How to Handle 
 Men— Fitness for Responsibility— School or Shop? 
 
 The engineer is of ancient lineage. From the days 
 of Tubal Cain, tlie first worker in metals, he has been 
 honored by kings and recognized as a public bene- 
 factor. George Smith found the title "Master of 
 Works" in Assyria, 2,600 years back. Among the 
 designations of the god Yulcan were those of " Lord 
 of Canals" and "Establisher of Irrigation Works." 
 Civilization and progress are largely dependent upon 
 the engineer's labors. He builds fleets and railwa3'S, 
 which bind nations together in commercial relations. 
 He yokes the •vsdnds and waterfalls to grind corn or 
 weave cloth. He constructs docks, lighthouses, aque- 
 ducts, reservoirs, canals, sewers, bridges and fortifi- 
 cations. He drains, lights, warms and ventilates 
 buildings. He digs mines; irrigates vast territories ; 
 drains lakes ; lifts whole cities bodily in the air ; and 
 performs feats which make Hercules' labors seem 
 trifling. To quote Sir Frederick Bramwell: "The 
 whole of the material needs of humanity, and many 
 of its intellectual requirements, are either satisfied
 
 What Shall Our' Boys Do for a Living ? 189 
 
 through the labors of the engineer, or are under obli- 
 gations to these labors." 
 
 A prominent public man showed his son the in- 
 scription at Niagara Suspension Bridge, and said: 
 "I would rather see your name upon such a tablet 
 than attached to the highest political office." 
 
 To succeed in this vast field of effort requires trained 
 capacity. Eule-of-thumb methods will not serve. A 
 knowledge of scientific principles is indispensable. 
 One must also love the work, and not be daunted by 
 hardships and disappointments. 
 
 The engineer deals with tides, floods, cyclones and 
 electricity. Charles F. Scott, speaking before an en- 
 gineers' club, said: "Niagara Falls represents six 
 million horse-power. It would take ten times the 
 population of the United States to pump the water 
 back by hand as fast as it flows over the falls." This 
 illustrates the tremendous natural forces with which 
 the engineer deals. He has to guard against the 
 insidious influence of rust, decaj-, damp, wear and 
 tear, and accident. He therefore needs to be far- 
 sighted, cautious, patient and watchful, and to be a 
 constant student of phenomena. 
 
 Untold millions have been wasted on schemes laid 
 out by half-trained or incapable men. Railways badly 
 built or wrongly located; unnecessary tunnels and 
 bridges ; reservoirs and canals, where not enough al- 
 lowance had been made for friction or pressure ; whole 
 districts sickened by badly planned drains ; railway 
 disasters caused by imjjerfectly built bridges or em- 
 bankments — these failures have taught business men 
 and the public the value of skilled engineering talent. 
 
 Few engineers become rich. Professional advice
 
 190 JVhat SJiall Our Boys Do for a LiuiiKj ? 
 
 has only lately been rated at its true value. Young 
 engineers often receive less wages than mechanics. 
 Many municipal engineers are paid miserable salaries. 
 The same is true of engineers emi)loyed by many rail- 
 way and other corporations. 
 
 Where vast moneyed interests are involved expert 
 advice is well paid. In 1884, Captain Eads received 
 $15,000 for a report on the Manchester Ship Canal, 
 which occupied four months' time to prepare. Bald- 
 win Latham was paid $50,000 and expenses for con- 
 sultation relative to the Bombay sewerage system. As 
 the work cost $16,000,000, the fee was small in com- 
 parison to the responsibility. James Mansergh, of 
 England, received $15,000 for a report on the Toronto 
 water supply. Eudolph Hering and J. H. Feurtes, 
 of New York, for their joint services in examining the 
 sanitary condition of Santos, Brazil, were paid $65,- 
 000, about four per cent on the cost of the work 
 planned. The time consumed was about one year. 
 Many of the great engineering feats, like the new 
 Croton Aqueduct and East Kiver Bridge, were per- 
 formed by salaried men. The heads of many rail- 
 ways, however, have princely pay; for example, 
 Presidents Roberts and Thomson of the Pennsylvania 
 Railroad, while President Galloway, of the New York 
 Central, who in 1863 earned $8.33 a month as a boy 
 of twelve in Canada, now receives $50,000 a year as 
 Chauncey Depew's successor. 
 
 W. F. Goodhue states that he received $12,000 for 
 six years' labor in rebuilding a Western railroad, 
 while a lawyer who acted as receiver was paid ten 
 times as much, though the property deteriorated under 
 his management. He adds that it is not a question
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 191 
 
 of natural ability. If engineers were as broadly and 
 liberally educated as lawyers, their chances should 
 be equal. Engineers fail to hold their own because 
 they lack knowledge of human nature, of business 
 methods, and of book-keeping. They are often the 
 slaves of details, and too diffident and timid in man- 
 ner. They do not impress their clients as capable 
 business men, as did Eads and the younger Eoebling. 
 An engineer should be as well versed in business as 
 the contractor or the maker and dealer in materials, 
 with whom he comes in daily contact. 
 
 Civil engineering is not a bonanza. Only the best 
 engineers get fair salaries, and they pay dearly for 
 them. Engineers are as nomadic as Arabs. Thej' 
 cannot half educate their children. Their homes 
 might as well be on wheels. They are sent hither 
 and thither, and endure all manner of hardshii)S. A 
 prominent engineer says : " I once went with a party 
 to locate a branch of the Pacific Railway. We were 
 in the wilderness, away from all comforts, sleeping 
 with mules and horses, and yet 8300 a month was 
 thought exorbitant pay. I met some time ago the 
 engineer who built the Panama Eailroad. He has 
 never known a healthy day since. Aspinwall paid 
 him $5,000 a year on condition that he should aid the 
 young members of the i^rofession. But what is §5,000 
 to a man who is a total wreck?" Notwithstanding 
 this toil and hazard, so long as man wills to subdue 
 the forces of nature, or to alter the face of the earth 
 for his convenience, so long will bravo and skilful men 
 be found to do it. 
 
 In 1893 the American Society of Civil Engineers 
 had 1,700 members ; tho American Institute of Mining
 
 192 JFhat Shall Our Boys I)o for a Living ? 
 
 Engineers, 2,500 members; the American Society 
 of Mechanical Engineers, 1,700 members; and the 
 American Institute of Electrical Engineers, 700 mem- 
 bers; a total of 6,000. The British Institute of Civil 
 Engineers numbers 6,000, and the Verein Deutscher 
 Ingenieure is an ecjuallj large body. 
 
 Many eminent engineers had no systematic train- 
 ing. Watt and Smeaton were instrument makers; 
 Telford was a mason; and George Stevenson an en- 
 gine-driver. They all possessed special aptitude, and 
 were hard students. They spent years of weary work 
 in acquiring what would now be a short and pleasant 
 task. An engineer of great eminence, when speaking 
 to a student of the facilities now afforded for study, 
 said : " With a great sum obtained I this freedom, 
 but you, like St. Paul, were free born." 
 
 The apprentice, who formerly worked from 6 a.m. 
 to 6 P.M., had to grope painfully, in the dark, for 
 knowledge. Old mechanics are shy to impart infor- 
 mation, which they consider part of their stock in 
 trade. Again, much "picked-up" knowledge is not 
 accurate. It is also apt to be confined to special lines 
 of work, instead of covering the whole engineering 
 field and including scientific principles, a knowledge 
 of which is necessary to understand the "why" of 
 everything. Imagine a man trying to master mathe- 
 matics without a teacher. It has been done, but at 
 what waste of time and effort. 
 
 Such accuracy has now been reached that when the 
 tunnel-headings of the new Croton Aqueduct were 
 joined there was a discrepancy in the borings of only 
 five-eighths of an inch. In the Hoosac Tunnel the 
 difference was the same. In the Mont Cenis Tunnel
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 193 
 
 there were three feet of variation, which was consid- 
 ered "almost exact." 
 
 Professor Thurston, of Cornell, says ; " Good mental 
 capacity, strong sense, and a taste for applied science, 
 especially mathematics, afford the best guarantee for 
 success in this field. Practice in free-hand drawing 
 will prove an invaluable \ie\\}; and a knowledge of 
 chemistry, i^hysics, especially heat, light and elec- 
 tricity, will be found useful." He adds: "The bet- 
 ter the man, the better the graduate." He suggests 
 that a young man should master algebra through radi- 
 cal quantities, the fii'st five books of geometry, study 
 American histor}', rhetoric, and exercise himself in 
 writing on familiar subjects. Such a preparation can 
 be had at any good school. 
 
 Full details regarding engineering schools and 
 courses may be obtained from the secretaries of the 
 national engineering societies in New York. 
 
 The demand for a high grade of technical training 
 has kept pace with the supply. In 188G there were 
 only ten engineering graduates from Cornell. In 1892 
 there were ninety. There are now some ninety -four 
 engineering-schools in the country. The graduates 
 of Cornell and Stevens Institute have easily- found em- 
 ployment and been rapidly advanced at the latter 
 institution; a third of the students have had i)laces 
 waiting for them before commencement daj*. The 
 same is true in prosperous years of the graduates of 
 the Schools of Mines and Engineering, Columbia Uni- 
 versity. 
 
 Henry Hackney, a Cornell graduate of the class of 
 '76, received $1,200 the first year, and steadily ad- 
 vanced until he was engaged for three years at $12,000. 
 13
 
 194 IVhat Shall Our Boys Do for a Livincj ? 
 
 Engineer McNulty, wlio had charge of the Brooklj-n 
 end of the East Kiver Bridge, was the youngest man 
 in the force. When refused a position, because only 
 skilled men were wanted, he pluckily offered to work 
 for nothing. The trustees were soon glad to pay him 
 a salary, and steadily increased it. He graduated 
 from this school of experience with credit. 
 
 Lowell says : " Special culture is the gymnastic of 
 the mind, but liberal culture is its healthy exercise in 
 the open air. Train your mental muscles faithfully 
 for the particular service to which j'ou intend to de- 
 velop them in the great workshop of active life, but 
 do not forget to take your constitutional among the 
 classics, no matter in what language. That is the 
 kind of atmosphere to oxygenate the blood and keep 
 the brain wholesome." The relation between techni- 
 cal and general training could hardly be more tersely 
 expressed. 
 
 Eossiter W. Raymond remarks in reference to the 
 value of general culture to the engineer : " Success is 
 asocial matter; it depends upon a man's influence 
 over men. Knowledge of facts and laws in nature will 
 not achieve it. The most thorough metallurgist or 
 engineer needs to be able to make other men recognize 
 his ability. Nay, long before he can acquire thor- 
 oughness he is dependent upon other men for every 
 chance of practice. A liberal education gives power 
 over men; and the technical education, which gives 
 power over matter, will be t^dce as easily gained if it 
 is grounded on the mental discipline and the moral 
 strength of a culture wider than its own." 
 
 G. F. Deacon, an eminent English engineer and 
 President of the Mechanical Section of the British
 
 What Sluill Our Boys Do for a Living ? li)5 
 
 Association, lays special stress upon the value of 
 training in literary expression and of the importance 
 of " tlie power of marshalling facts, and so thinking or 
 speaking or writing of them that each maintains its 
 true significance and value. In the minds of many 
 young engineers a mathematical training undoubtedly 
 has the effect of making it extremel}^ difficult to avoid 
 spending an amount of time upon some issues entirely 
 out of projiortion to their importance; while other 
 issues which do not lend themselves readily to mathe- 
 matical treatment, but which are many times more 
 important, are taken for granted, upon utterly insuffi- 
 cient data, and chiefly because thej^ cannot be treated 
 by any process of calculation." President George F. 
 Swain, of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers, says : 
 " The engineer should make himself first a good en- 
 gineer, and secondly a man of broad and liberal sym- 
 pathies." Not every j'oung engineer need take a col- 
 lege course, but he ought to gain breadth of culture. 
 President Swain thinks the engineering societies 
 should have several grades of membership, and edu- 
 cation should be regarded as equal to very consider- 
 able practical experience. Alexander S. Holley de- 
 plored the lack of high culture and general education 
 among engineers, and declared that both wore essen- 
 tial to success in the profession. The late Professor 
 Cooke, i)rofessor of chemistry at Harvard, in one of 
 his last papers, advocated a broader education for 
 scientific men. He was always a disbeliever in an 
 exclusively scientific education. 
 
 G. F. Deacon sa3S : " It is a matter of general ex- 
 perience among engineers who have closely watched 
 the rising generation, that the most successful men in
 
 196 What Shall Our Boys Do fvr a Living ? 
 
 after-life are not produced exclusively from the rauks 
 of those whose college course has been most success- 
 ful. No doubt, such men have, on the average, been 
 nearer the top than the bottom, but it is an undoubted 
 fact that when we class them according to their earlier 
 successes or failures, we find the most remarkable dis- 
 parities." Professor Hutton, of Columbia Univer- 
 sity, has the same opinion. 
 
 The surest test of a man's education is whether it 
 fits him to accept responsibilities. O. F. Nichols 
 said to the students of the Kensselaer Polytechnic: 
 " It is wonderful how rapidly young graduates develop 
 as resi^onsibility is thrust upon them. No man can 
 be criticised for accepting a position for which he is 
 not fully prepared, but he deserves severest censure 
 if he fails to qualify himself to fill it." "I never 
 built anything of the kind," said a graduate in charge 
 of a most important work, " and I know nothing about 
 it, but I will know all about it before I get through 
 with it. The difiiculties generally come singly, and 
 you have time to meet and master one before another 
 comes. If you want a position, take it. If 30U 
 learned anything at Troy, you learned how to find out 
 what you do not know." 
 
 Foster Crowell, C.E., advised engineering students 
 to learn how to handle men, and to make careful notes 
 of their working capacity, so as to know what can be 
 expected of them, what thej^ cost, and what their ser- 
 vice is worth. 
 
 The man who has dug a trench, felled a tree, or 
 laid a drain-pipe or rail, with his own hands, is bet- 
 ter fitted to direct others than one who has never done 
 such things. When W. E. Worthen was appointed
 
 What Slmll Our Boys Do for a Living ? 197 
 
 engineer of the New York Health Board, he learned 
 to "wipe" a i^lumber's joint — not an easy thing, by 
 the way — so as to comprehend all his duties. One 
 never fully grasps a principle until it has been ai:)plied 
 in practice. Soaking a piece of brick in kerosene and 
 then lighting it like a torch impresses upon the 
 mind, better than any theorizing, the way in which 
 dampness rises in house-walls by cajjillary attrac- 
 tion, just as Professor Doremus' beautiful exi^eri- 
 ment of blowing out a caudle through a foot of sand- 
 stone demonstrates the porosity of houses under 
 wind-pressure. What is wanted is what Holley called 
 "a hand-to-hand" knowledge, acquired systemati- 
 cally and confirmed by investigation. He strongly 
 advised students not to accept second-hand informa- 
 tion, but to ferret out for themselves the facts and 
 their meaning. 
 
 Charles E. Emery, C.E., in an addi*ess before the 
 Stevens Institute, on " How to Succeed," said the great 
 secret is to start right. " If it were possible to double 
 the length of the course of study and have the school 
 in a large manufactory, principles and practice would 
 be systematically combined." But it is essential that 
 a man's early years should be spent in a circle of 
 culture and refinement, so that his manners and bear- 
 ing may become so fixed as not to be aft'ected by con- 
 tact with the rough externals of life. Educated men 
 learn practice more rapidly than others. If waiting 
 for a position, study mechanical operations around 
 you; master every detail and the principles under- 
 lying them. Don't ask too many questions or offer 
 suggestions, lest people think you are conceited and 
 bumjitious. The inspector of a railway asked the
 
 198 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 engineer in charge: "That seems to bo a capable 
 young man; where did you find him?" " Oh, X. sent 
 
 him from College. He was a tearer, I tell you. 
 
 Had to keep him in the shed with an axeman for two 
 days, learning how to make centre stakes. He's 
 done pretty well since then." He probably wished 
 he had not offered to instruct the whole party how to 
 make such stakes ! Another youngster designed an 
 elaborate apparatus to lift an engine off a car, which 
 would have taken days to build, and was mortified to 
 find that the work had been done with an improvised 
 derrick while he was busy at his drawing. 
 
 If engaged in an office or manufactory, adhere 
 closely to the usual practice of the place, without pro- 
 posing new methods, which for special reasons may 
 not be practicable. Learn the use of tools, how to 
 make patterns, and master mechanical appliances 
 and processes. Absorb all that you can, even from 
 inferiors. The wise man "knows what he don't 
 know," and seeks information from every source. 
 To make correct estimates, one must be exact at fig- 
 ures, or serious loss may follow. Do not be carried 
 away by the spirit of invention or meddle with de- 
 vices outside of your special field. Never invent for 
 the sake of invention, but only for a direct purpose. 
 Avoid confidential relations with contractors, and 
 rigidly separate business from sociability. Do not 
 join too many societies. Preserve your health. Men- 
 tal strain without rest means certain break-down. 
 Night-work is not necessarily injurious, but lack of 
 nourishment and of rest cripples the strongest and 
 makes him succumb to lurking diseases. 
 
 Almost alone among professional men, engineers
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 199 
 
 are fitted by training and experience for executive 
 positions. A great engineer may direct an indus- 
 trial army. Thousands of men and millions of mon- 
 ey may be employed in a great railway, while an 
 inter-oceanic canal becomes an affair of world-wide 
 importance. M. Sadi-Carnot, wlio became President 
 of the French Republic, while Minister of Public 
 Works had a staff of 72 chief engineers, 270 ordinary 
 engineers, and 1,000 assistant engineers. 
 
 The United States is perhaps indebted more to its 
 engineers than any other set of men for its marvel- 
 lous development. Yet the engineer has received 
 almost no i)olitical preferment. This is probably duo 
 to the absence of certain qualifications, and with in- 
 creased culture and opportunities we may expect to 
 see more engineers filling such positions as that of 
 Colonel Waring, the Street-Cleaning Commissioner of 
 New York City. 
 
 Engineers are more and more taking up special- 
 ties. There is less opportunity for the free-lance. 
 The all-around engineer is a thing of the past. It 
 is wellnigh impossible for a man to be eminent in 
 every line. He is the employee either of a large cor- 
 poration or of a municipality. 
 
 One great field of the future is municipal engi- 
 neering. There is a growing appreciation in munic- 
 ipal administration of technically trained men, in- 
 stead of i)oiitical camp-followers. The wave of reform 
 which is sweeping over the country with the spread 
 of civil-service rules will create a steady demand for 
 capable men, not only to look after city jMirks, dt>cks, 
 pavements, but also to manage prisons, almshouses, 
 and other public institutions. The extension of good
 
 200 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 roads stimulated by the wheelmen is leading to a 
 demand for a higher grade of officials to construct 
 and maintain roads. Colonel Waring set the example 
 of employing educated young men as foremen and dis- 
 trict superintendents. Professor Chandler gave a 
 preference to School of Mines graduates as health 
 inspectors. 
 
 Whether it is better to enter the school or the shop 
 first is an open question. The subject was fully dis- 
 cussed at a conference of American engineers some 
 years ago. President Holley, of the Institute of Min- 
 ing Engineers, said : " The art must precede the sci- 
 ence. The man must first feel the necessity, and 
 know the directions of a larger knowledge, and then 
 he will master it through and through. Many men 
 have acquired a more useful knowledge of chemistry 
 in the spare evenings of a year than the average 
 graduate has compassed during his whole course." 
 Beginning with theoretical and abstract knowledge 
 is no less an inverted process in the useful arts than 
 in the fine arts. It is like taking a course of Ruskin 
 within brick walls preparatory to opening a studio, 
 and then climbing the mountains to square nature 
 with the books. 
 
 Professor Thurston insisted that the technical- 
 school graduate who enters practical work labors 
 under disadvantages compared with the youth who 
 has had some experience. The former may possess 
 learning, a well-trained mind, and sound judgment, 
 but he lacks knowledge of men and of things, which 
 he can only obtain by personal contact. He cannot 
 manage employees without making unreasonable de- 
 mands upon them or yielding more than is just. He
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 201 
 
 knows nothing of business methods, and is not accus- 
 tomed to hard rubs. 
 
 In " Chordal's Letters" both sides of the (luestion 
 are so hai)inly presented that I make a lengthy cita- 
 tion : " Something must be done with my oldest boy, 
 Joe. He has been knocking around the shop during 
 his idle hours, and has developed a certain amount 
 of original talent. He has never worked in the shop, 
 but has wanted to very much. His originality takes 
 a critical turn as well as a constructive one. He got 
 into the true inwardness of one of my mechanical 
 schemes, and I caught him expressing his opinion 
 of the machine in a way which jGilled me with pride 
 and mortification. Some of his remarks were not 
 very complimentary to the skill and good judgment 
 of the elder Chordal. I had to find my consolation 
 in the critical ability displayed by the young man. 
 Joe's future is a mechanical one. I have never let 
 my investigations into the boy's character take a sug- 
 gestive turn, and for this reason I can speak with 
 some certainty of the real bent of his mind. What 
 I am studying on is how to arrange matters to the 
 best advantage; how to start Joe in the best channel. 
 This is a subject which interests other people with 
 other brilliant Joe's on their hands ; otherwise I would 
 not broach the subject. 
 
 "When I say Joe's future is a mechanical one, 
 what do I mean? Is he to be a master-mechanic of 
 railroads, or is he to have M.E. on the end of his 
 name, and do the scheming and general-tulont busi- 
 ness for largo concerns? Is he to bo interested solely 
 in construction and become a cai)able sui)erint€ndent? 
 Is he to bo a managing proprietor? Or is ho to be-
 
 202 WJiat Slmll Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 como a power to appeal to in matters mechanical, 
 and be the counsellor of all who see fit to come? I 
 don't know which of these specific niches Joe will 
 stand himself in, and, more than that, I don't care. 
 I only know that, whichever way his lines may fall, 
 he will be none the worse for having some direct and 
 intended preparation. By preparation I mean edu- 
 cation, that substantial substructure on which all 
 experience is valuable for being founded. 
 
 "As Joe's mind has taken a mechanical direction, 
 I have been nosing around among the credentials, to 
 wit, the output of our technical schools, and as a re- 
 sult have chosen one. Joe is now in condition to enter 
 any of them, and the question with me is, whether 
 to recommend him to pack up and enter college, or to 
 lay in a stock of overall-stuff and go into the shop. 
 You will agree with me that he must not do both of 
 these things at the same time. Which had better be 
 done first? 
 
 " Suppose he puts on good clothes and goes to col- 
 lege. From the very start he will assume upon the 
 future great position he will take in the world. He 
 will assume that he went to college because he was 
 a superior sort of a Joe, none of your common stuff. 
 He will develop the proper ambition and superiority, 
 and will receive the encouraging smiles of his in- 
 structors. He will study hard, and under the guid- 
 ance of capable and wise instructors will gradually 
 absorb that very knowledge he went after. Some 
 fine day he will return and laj- before me his sheep- 
 skin, and an admirable and realh^ original and excel- 
 lent thesis, and drawings most skilfully executed by 
 his own hands, aided by facilities in the way of rul-
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 203 
 
 ing-macliiues wLicli be may never Lope to see again. 
 I will feel the warmest pride in tliis boy of mine, and 
 in answer to liis inquiries I will probably say, 'Go 
 out and try the world, Joe. ' 
 
 " In about three weeks a young man by the name 
 of Chordal will call on me and eloquently express 
 himself on the unappreciativeness of a bigoted world 
 that don't know what is good for it. Joe will tell me 
 of his conference with Mr. Simpson, who acknowl- 
 edges that his business is falling ofl', on account of 
 a lack of engineering ability in superintending the 
 erection of his work. Oh, yes; Joe feels capable, 
 and fearlessly goes off fdij miles to superintend fif- 
 teen men putting machinery into a big brewery. 
 Men say to Joe, ' What do you want done first?' 
 Joe says, ' I don't know. ' Men say, ' This big pulley 
 came from the shop without being balanced; the 
 shaft runs thirty revolutions; shall Ave let it go?' 
 Joe says, ' I don't know.' Men want to know which 
 of the two kinds of babbitt this box is to be poured 
 with. Joe don't know. The leading man of the gang 
 writes to Simpson that young Chordal is a nice fellow 
 and smart as blazes, but don't know anything. Simp- 
 son recalls his executive ofiicer, and in a fatherly 
 manner advises him to go into a shop and learn the 
 trade, and tells him he will make his mark. Joe, 
 the superior Joe, made of superior stuff, born to lead 
 in his chosen line, trimmed to fit in the best techni- 
 cal schools, author of a thesis on centrifugal gover- 
 nors having valves unalterably related to the 'centri- 
 fugal elements,' this Joe was not born to learn a 
 trade. 
 
 " I make no suggestions to Joe, and bid him gootl-
 
 204 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 by as he starts on another Quixotic expedition. 
 Two brief weeks, and I again take his hand. This 
 hand seems to have grown smaller and not quite so 
 self-important in its grip. I ask after his conquests. 
 He grimly and grittily smiles, and proceeds ; says he 
 went down to Philadelphia, and went to William Sel- 
 lers & Co., whom he had been corresponding with 
 ever since he went to college. They build machine- 
 tools; and at college their machine-tools were held 
 up to him as exponents of perfection, as test-chan- 
 nels for design. He is nicel}' received, and encour- 
 agingly talked to. He is asked if he is willing to 
 spend a few years in the shop. He answers he is 
 not born for a machinist, but for an engineer. If 
 Sellers & Co. can put him on a low round of the 
 engineering ladder in some place, he will be very 
 much obliged; if not, then he will see some other 
 parties he wots of. They appreciate the situation, 
 and with real regard for the young man they own to 
 such a ladder being on the premises ; nay, more, they 
 acknowledge that some of the lower rounds still re- 
 main. Joe is invited to ascend, without any engage- 
 ment which might result in mortifying termination. 
 He reports next morning with a few classical books, 
 and a kit of drawing instruments of the most marvel- 
 lous character. Each individual instrument and piece 
 of instrument fits in a velvet bed, and each time he 
 wants to use something back in the case he must dis- 
 member the whole thing and screw in all adjusting 
 screws. His eight-inch compasses fit in the case 
 when both triangular points are in, a condition in 
 which no man on earth ever uses them. He looks 
 around among the draughtsmen, and thinks that his
 
 What SJiuU Oar Boys Bo for a Living ? 205 
 
 eight-incli compasses cost more than all tlieir instru- 
 ments put together. He wonders liow the}- can do 
 any refined engineering with such tools, and the other 
 draughtsmen look at his kit and wonder if that young 
 man expects to do any quantity of practical work 
 with such tools, in such a case, and they wonder how 
 long it will be before he will have them loose in a 
 cigar-box. He is given a figured pencil-sketch of a 
 device, and is told to follow the figured sizes and 
 form, but to detail it for shop-use. Do no scheming 
 whatever, but draw only. He does so. The draughts- 
 men admire the skilful execution, and the powers that 
 be do the same. The lines are clean-cut, nicely 
 joined, and have extra thickness on the shadow side. 
 His drawing is taken away for an hour and re- 
 turned by his sponsor. It has been in the shop, and 
 Joe expresses his horror at the sacrilege. The sheet 
 is dirty and greasy, and only his fancy shadow-lines 
 can be seen. Joe scorns to ask a question, and sug- 
 gests that he make the drawing over with heavier 
 lines. He does so ; sees a striking resemblance be- 
 tween it and the shop drawings around him, in which 
 he saw little to admire before. His sponsor calls 
 again, and asks if it will be safe to send that drawing 
 to Savannah for pattern-makers and machinists to 
 work from. Joe asks who is going to take it, and is 
 told the mail. Joe says he will write the proper ex- 
 planations, and does so. Twenty-two pages of legal 
 cap to one sheet of detail drawing. Sponsor asks 
 what the legal cap is for. Joe saj's it is to explain 
 the drawing. Sponsor asks what the drawing is 
 for. Joe says it is an aid to the legal cap, and in 
 return is told that drawings are sent away daily with-
 
 206 What Shall Oar Boys Do for a Liv'mrj ? 
 
 out a word of explaDation. It is the duty of detail 
 drawings to explain themselves fully. Joe sees he 
 has much to learn about drawings. He has mastered 
 the art and that is all. He is now instructed to make 
 a drawing of a two-foot i^ullej' , six-inch face, propor- 
 tions to be functionally correct. He goes at it. Re- 
 fers to Rankine and Weisbach and Willis and Fair- 
 bairn, but never to Joe. He is too wise for that. 
 He gets his pulley drawn, and is told to go down in 
 the shop and compare it with a pulley of similar size. 
 He does so and doubts his eyes. The arms of the 
 pulley are about eight times as heavy as the arms of 
 his drawing, and he used five as a factor of safety, 
 and the old pulley has two broken arms. He goes 
 back and figures the whole thing over. He takes the 
 data of strains to his sponsor and asks him to run 
 over them. Same results, showing calculation to be 
 right. Sponsor asks him where he got his strain 
 data from. Joe says from the beltage. Sponsor 
 asks him what broke the old pulley. Joe goes in 
 search of knowledge and finds it broken in casting, 
 and he makes his first memorandum of experience, 
 namel}^ : ' Belt-strains are not the heaviest strains a 
 pulley-arm may be subjected to. ' His sponsor tells 
 him if he would spend a few years in the shop he 
 would learn several things of value. 
 
 " I see Joe again. He tells me confidentially that 
 he is astonished at the number of things he don't 
 know, which he must know before anybody will pay 
 him ten dollars a year for his services. He has spent 
 a year coming to a conclusion, and tells me he will 
 go into my shop. I tell him no; most decidedly 
 not. He must go a hundi'ed miles from me or
 
 What Shall Oiir Boys Do for a Living ? 207 
 
 any one else he can lean on. He can't get any self- 
 reliance out of my place. 
 
 "Joe apprentices himself in a shop, and wisely 
 chooses a bad shop. No reamers, no fancy boring- 
 bars, no twist-drills, no tools big enough for the work, 
 no surfaced-plates, no scraped angle-plates, no system, 
 no nothing. When Joe graduates from this place he 
 will be full of experience indeed, and it is hardly 
 likely that he will be the less appreciative of real 
 facilities when he does get at them. His constant 
 letters will bear constant evidence that he knows the 
 necessity of the step, but feels it a let-down. He 
 can't get into full sympathy with his necessities. He 
 feels out of place, and knows he is not in i)lace. It 
 is mortifying, disagreeable, hard, up-hill work. He 
 holds a college degree, but his soft hands got hard 
 and callous, and big cracks have opened in them, and 
 brass-dust and iron-dust and oil and dirt have got 
 into the cracks, and he always has a rag on some 
 finger. Joe will feel as though he had started wrong 
 in some way. 
 
 " At a late educational gathering, Professor Henkle, 
 of Salem, Ohio, wisel}- stated that 'education is power 
 rather than readiness.' Joe will appreciate this, 
 and will wish the readiness had come first. Joe's 
 post-collegiate shop-life will be a hard one. Now, 
 suppose I don't say college to him ; suppose I let him 
 go into some miserable shop which he will be glad 
 to leave for higher fields. Will not the seeds carefully 
 sown by college professors fall in ground thirsty for 
 it, ground which the old and poor and half-satisfying 
 crops of the shoj) experience only stirred up into 
 sturdy, ambitious receptiveness? Only he who has
 
 208 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 been atbirst upon the barren plains can appreciatively 
 absorb knowledge of certain water-getting processes. 
 Will it not be better to clean the dirty hands than to 
 dirty the clean ones'? 
 
 " Do you know of any young man who went from 
 college to shop, and wishes he had reversed the order 
 of things? Do you know of any young man who 
 went from shop to college and wishes he had reversed 
 the order of things?" 
 
 Professor Morton says, after a youth gets into 
 practical work it is hard to break off and go to col- 
 lege or to a technical school. Usually he cannot af- 
 ford to make the i^ecuniary sacrifice. Yet, the engi- 
 neer of a local gas-company took the course at Stevens 
 Institute while attending to his daily duties, and grad- 
 uated with honor.
 
 CHAPTEK XXI. 
 
 ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS. 
 
 What is Success? — Men with a Grievance— Average Success- 
 Opinions of Notable Men— Model Americans — The Lesson of 
 Failure — Jowett's Opinion — Early Success a Drawback — How 
 Not to Succeed. 
 
 Every young man should strive for comfort and 
 independence. Not every one can draw a prize in 
 the lottery of life. Artemus Ward proposed to or- 
 ganize a regiment in which all would be oflficers. In 
 real life, however, the rank and file are in the major- 
 ity. I would not discourage the ambitious, but I 
 wish to make it evident that wealth and honors can 
 be won only by strenuous effort, combined with abil- 
 ity and physical endurance. While the race is not 
 always to the swift, it is never won by the weak, lazy 
 or stupid. The mass of mankind therefore must be 
 content with the average success. Either they lack 
 capacity to fill the higher places, or energy and am- 
 bition to strive for them. When two men ride a 
 horse, one must ride behind. The majority gradu- 
 ally abandon their earh' ambitions and are content to 
 do their duty in the position in which fortune has 
 placed them. 
 
 Some men bewail their ill luck, and claim that they 
 have not received their just deserts. In the long ruu, 
 however, the mass of mankind, so far as material 
 14
 
 210 JVhat Slwbll Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 comforts are concerned, reap as they have sown, and 
 receive a fair return for their labor. Fortune is 
 fickle. Sorrow, sickness and failure come to the rich 
 as to the poor, " The best-laid schemes o' mice an' 
 men gang aftagley." Therefore it is well to accept 
 the inevitable, and not rail at fate and become that 
 pitiable object, "the man with a grievance." 
 
 Professor Ely, in his " History of the Labor Move- 
 ment," says : " It is unwise, nay, cruel, to assume that 
 every youth has a chance to become rich, famous and 
 powerful. In the nature of things the vast majority 
 of men must serve in the ranks, and only the few can 
 become generals, colonels, or even corporals." The 
 world is made up of Lincoln's "plain people," who, 
 as George Eliot says, are the salt of the earth. They 
 have their full share of happiness. I agree with Pro- 
 fessor Ely that it would be far better if the superior 
 workman, like Felix Holt and John Burns, would 
 stick to their crafts and help their fellows rather than 
 strive for a position among the professional or com- 
 mercial class. On the other hand, no one can succeed 
 in a handicraft who has not an aptitude for mechan- 
 ics. There is no more sense in a boy becoming a 
 shoemaker or stone-mason, simply because his father 
 sat on a bench or handled a trowel, than for the son 
 of the merchant or lawyer to follow blindl}' in his 
 footsteps. 
 
 Bagehot sums up the philosophy of success with 
 his usual acumen : " The prowling faculties will have 
 their way, those who hunger and thirst after riches 
 will have riches, and those who hunger not will 
 not" ; and so all success is largely a matter of will 
 and of striving hard for ^shat one deserves.
 
 TFJiat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 211 
 
 I am not attempting to elaborate a theory of life as 
 a whole, but only one of its material sides. If suc- 
 cess means to be rich and famous, or to have vigor 
 and good looks, then the mass of mankind are not 
 successful. Few men who possess ordinary health 
 and industry fail to earn a living. Thousands and 
 tens of thousands, by prudence and economy, obtain 
 a competence and fill positions of trust and honor. 
 The squire, the deacon, the doctor, the pastor, the 
 local editor, and the mechanic in each community, 
 however small, gain the respect of their neighbors 
 and wield influence not to be despised. These men, 
 who are great in their little world, win recognition by 
 the same qualities which bring success in the larger 
 field. 
 
 To the aspiring youth who is not willing to take 
 second place I would cite Emerson's words: "O 
 discontented man, if there is anything you want, pay 
 the price and take it." To the average beginner, I 
 would add, look around and see what people in gen- 
 eral have achieved and then ask yourself, Do I deserve 
 more? 
 
 An answer to the question. What is average success? 
 is to be found by summarizing the earnings of workers 
 in this country. 
 
 Teachers, clergymen, clerks and bookkeepers earn 
 from $300 to $1,000 a year. The 800,000 railroad em- 
 ployees average $60 a month. The 150,000 Govern- 
 ment employees, excluding heads of departnieuts, re- 
 ceive from $80 to $150 a month. Even in New York 
 few ])rofessioual men earn more than a compet<MK'e. 
 The average income of doctors and dentists is $1,000, 
 and $1,200 to $1,500 that of lawyers. College pro-
 
 212 Wfiat Sludl Oar Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 fessors' salaries average from $1,470 to $2,015, includ- 
 ing those i^aid to si)eciali8t8. Governors of the States 
 on an average receive only $3,000. There vrere 1,600 
 applicants for the position of letter-carrier in Boston, 
 and 2,100 for a place in the Philadelphia Mint. Po- 
 sitions on the New York police force are eagerly 
 sought after. Let a vacancy occur anywhere with a 
 salary of $1,500, and a hundred professional men will 
 strive for it. It is true these may be the younger or 
 less capable men, but it shows how uncertain is their 
 calling. There were 20,933 names on the New York 
 Civil List in 1896. The following were the average 
 salaries: teachers, under $1,000; policemen, $1,200; 
 firemen and postmen, $1,000; health and building 
 inspectors, $1,500; department clerks, $1,200 to 
 $1,500. 
 
 Garfield was fond of repeating : 
 
 " Self -reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, 
 . These three alone join life to sovereign power. " 
 
 The first question put to an applicant for any place 
 is, "Are you trustworthy?" Character is far more 
 important than skill. Moral qualities may not count 
 in the mere drudge, but the shiftless, idle, shirking 
 fellow is not wanted by any one. The Bishop of 
 Manchester said : " Success in life is due mainh' to 
 plodding industry ; and moral qualities count far 
 more than intellectual brilliancy." 
 
 True success in the long run comes from merit. 
 Shams won't endure. Even a patent medicine must 
 have some real value to sell for an}- length of time. 
 Lies don't last. Fidelity, energy and ability alwaj's 
 win. It exasperates me to hear people speak of
 
 What Shall Chir Boys Do for a Living ? 213 
 
 shari)ness and trickery as the only means to success. 
 The trading faculty is excellent in its way, but a good 
 bargain is one that satisfies both buyer and seller. 
 The great merchant scorns petty means, and gains 
 wealth by judgment in planning and by skill in bu}'- 
 ing goods that the public need at a low price, and then 
 selling them at a profit. Archdeacon Hall said : " In 
 bad times the man who goes first to the wall is the 
 man of little brain, of no imagination, and whose un- 
 trained faculties perpetually mortgage the morrow." 
 Franklin said : " The way to wealth is as plain as the 
 way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, 
 industry and frugality ; that is, waste neither time 
 nor money, but make the best use of both." 
 
 Franklin's example points the way to advancement 
 in any calling. People who saw him working early 
 and late, and wheeling his stock of pajjer with his 
 own hands to his shop, had no doubts of his success. 
 P. T. Barnum made a vow not to eat a hot luncheon 
 till he had paid for the American Museum, and this 
 little incident won for him his best backer. " Keep 
 thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee," is still the 
 sure method of success. 
 
 Napoleon said : " Providence is on the side of the 
 heaviest artillery," but to-day the man behind the 
 gun wins the fight. Von Moltke showed that esiirit 
 de corps is a vital element in buttle. It was a favor- 
 ite maxim of Macaulay that no author was ever writ- 
 ten dowTi but by himself, and that success is to be 
 gained b^^ " industrious thought and i)ationt renunci- 
 ation of small desires." Sherman held this conver- 
 sation with Grant at Shiloh : " Well, Grant, we've had 
 the devil's own day, haven't we'?" "Yes," he said,
 
 214 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Liviyig ? 
 
 with a short, sharp puff of his cigar; "lick 'em to- 
 morrow, though," 
 
 A number of men have recentlj' died, who were 
 typical Americans, who won honors without taint or 
 discredit, and who were good citizens in the best 
 sense. I refer to William Windom, Secretary of the 
 Treasury; Anthony W. Drexel and George Coe 
 among business men; Generals Sherman and Joe 
 Johnston, of the army ; the Kev. Drs. Howard Crosby, 
 Furness and Phillips Brooks, in the pulpit; James 
 Eedpath, George W. Childs, and Keppler, the artist, 
 in journalism ; George Houghton and Koswell Smith, 
 the publishers ; Edwin Booth and Lawi'ence Barrett, 
 among actors ; and Gordon Burnham and Bichard T. 
 Hunt, the architects. They all left clean records, 
 and their names may well be submitted to the rising 
 generation as examples in contrast to the Wall Street 
 speculators, railroad wreckers, and rascally politi- 
 cians who have won brief notoriety. 
 
 The true object of life should be something far 
 higher than mere material success. To seek fame 
 and fortune is to possess a low standard of achieve- 
 ment. Every man should strive for pecuniary inde- 
 pendence, but beyond that " there is only accumula- 
 tion," as Chauncey Depew says; "he should then 
 seek to be a good citizen, neighbor and patriot." 
 Theodore Parker said : " The best thing which you 
 can get in life is not money, nor what money alone 
 brings with it. You must work for your manhood 
 as much as for your money, and take as much pains 
 to get it and to keep it, too." 
 
 P. T. Barnum, the world-renowned showman, would 
 be cited by most persons as an example of remark-
 
 WJiat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 215 
 
 able success, yet he met with repeated failures in 
 early life and remarkable catastrophes in later years. 
 Four times he was burned out. Once after he had 
 become rich he lost his entire fortune, and was sad- 
 dled with debts that required years to pay. With 
 characteristic grit and hopefulness he persevered, 
 and turned defeat into victory. When lecturing upon 
 "How to Make Money," he jokingly remarked that 
 the title ought to be "How to Lose Money." His 
 success was largely due to the fact that ho always 
 gave the public the full worth of its money and never 
 humbugged it, except by the dexterity of his adver- 
 tising methods. " Alexandre Dumas said : Very often 
 an unexpected grief or an unmerited misfortune gives 
 to a man an energy and a perseverance which he could 
 never find in happiness. And after such trials a man 
 often becomes superior who would have remained 
 simple and vulgar if he had always been happy. One 
 may expect everything from a man of energy to whom 
 misfortune has given courage and ambition." A dash 
 of adversity quickens the wits, as a stimulant does 
 the blood. Great prosi:>erity is apt to be dulling in 
 its effects. George Macdonald says : " The rich man 
 has a monotonous time with his broad ex]\anse of 
 blue sky. The poor man sees deeper into the blue 
 by reason of the clouds that frame it in for him." 
 When we are pushed, defeated, tormented, wo have 
 a chance to learn something. Josh Billings was 
 past forty-five before he discovered his vocation. He 
 failed throe times as a lecturer before he succeeded. 
 Bill Nye hardly earned his salt at law and journal- 
 ism, when he suddenly jumped into an income up in 
 the thousands. Hawthorne sat in the Old Munse at
 
 216 WJiat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 Concord " a long, long time, waiting i^atieutly for the 
 world to know me." Zola and Taine bore pinching 
 poverty before they gained recognition. Edwin 
 Booth failed utterly in London, though supported by 
 Macready. Victorien Sardou endured poverty and 
 bitter disappointment for years. Abraham Lincoln, 
 in his address to the voters of Sangamon County, 
 asking to be chosen to the Legislature, said, with a 
 pathetic reference to his past struggles : " But if the 
 good people in their wisdom shall see fit to keep me 
 in the background, I have been too familiar with dis- 
 appointments to be ver}^ much chagrined." 
 
 Jowett in early life suffered many privations. His 
 father, "one of the most innocent of men," was not 
 successful. Jowett, therefore, appreciated the value 
 of worldly advancement. " The clever man, devoid of 
 tact," he says, "often remains an eccentric boor. 
 Success is to be won by absolute disinterestedness 
 and a love of knowledge for its own sake. The most 
 important element is personal fitness. There are 
 three kinds of goods, as our friend Aristotle would 
 say — rank, wealth and talent. It seems to me that 
 a man may do well with two of the three. With the 
 last only, life is a painful struggle." Jowett placed 
 a high value upon the discipline of struggle. "I 
 have had experience of uncomfortable and of com- 
 fortable surroundings. When I was uncomfortable, 
 I was perhaps more useful. I believe it to be a very 
 good thing to have had a great row in your life, be- 
 cause, though not quite pleasant at the time, it gives 
 you a position and places you above the world." 
 
 Dr. Richardson, one of the most successful writers 
 and lecturers on hygiene, had his first manuscript, a
 
 WJiat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 217 
 
 gold medal prize essay ou " Diseases of the Foetus 
 in Utero," rejected by a publisher, who thought the 
 title demonstrated that the author could not write 
 anything the world would read. He thereafter culti- 
 vated a popular and untechnical style of writing, which 
 attracted many readers. Matthew Arnold expressed 
 gratitude and surprise at finding his productions ac- 
 cepted by the public. He modestly ascribed his suc- 
 cess to the fact that it had been given to him " to find 
 more things which others might also have discov- 
 ered than that he had seized or invented them by su- 
 perior power and merit," 
 
 Sometimes the best waj- to i)rove a principle or rule 
 of action is to reverse it. To the youth who doubts 
 the value of industry, intelligence, energy, pluck and 
 character in bringing success, I would ofifer these 
 brazen rules : 
 
 HOW NOT TO SUCCEED IN LEFE, 
 
 I will shut my eyes to all noble ideas. I will keep 
 myself in ignorance of all that men have discovered 
 and thought, in science, literature and art. I will 
 cultivate a love of ease and self-indulgence. I will 
 dissipate and foster extravagant habits. I will shirk 
 honest effort, and try to earn the most pay for the 
 least work. I will hate my fellow-men and try al- 
 ways to get the better of them, on the principle that 
 you must " do" them or they will " do" you. I will 
 love money and bow down to the Golden Calf. I will 
 never cherish a lofty ambition or do a generous act. 
 I will associate only with my inferiors and with peo- 
 ple who will drag me down to their level. I will 
 avoid churches, libraries, lectures, concerts and all
 
 218 JVhai Sludl Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 other good agencies. I will never marry, because it 
 costs too much to support a wife and family. I will 
 never vote, because it is a waste of time. I will never 
 stop trying to make money because I want to get rich 
 as fast as I can. In short, I will love only myself, 
 think only of myself, and ever strive to get the better 
 of the other fellow. 
 
 How many young men have practicallj' adopted 
 this creed? In how many cases has it brought suc- 
 cess? 
 
 The coming men who are destined to do the world's 
 work are striving and planning : on the farm, like Gar- 
 field ; or sailing on the Mississippi, like Lincoln and 
 Mark Twain ; in the steerage of the immigrant ship, 
 like John Eoach ; carrying newspapers, like David B. 
 Hill and Charles O'Conor; setting type in the coun- 
 try printing-office, like Horace Greeley and W. D. 
 Howells ; or teaching school, as so many thousands of 
 famous Americans have done. 
 
 Some will fall by the wayside. Some will yield to 
 sickness or to bad habits. Those who succeed will 
 do so by patient, persistent and honest work.
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 BUSINESS. 
 
 Meaning of the Word — Training for Business — Boyish Experi- 
 ments—Andrew Carnegie on Business Success — Foil}- of Specu- 
 lating—High Salaries — Value of Prestige — Methods of Making 
 Money — Foresight — Mastery of Details — Thrift — The Risks of 
 Business — How to Win Promotion — How to Fail in Business. 
 
 Business is a word of broad signii&cance. I am 
 concerned only with its commercial meaning, wliicli 
 includes mercantile pursuits, finance, keeping ac- 
 counts, trade and commerce, mining and manufactur- 
 ing. 
 
 Business gives scope for tlie exercise of the highest 
 faculties ; industry, energy, judgment, and all the best 
 traits of human nature. No one will deny that the 
 business man performs invaluable ser^^.ce to society. 
 
 The prejudice against trade is fast disappearing, 
 even in the Old World. In England the members of 
 a recent Conservative cabinet held sixty-four director- 
 ships in various companies. The question there is, 
 not how to keep out of trade, but how to get into it. 
 President Carnot of the French Republic was a busi- 
 ness man all his days. " Business is not all dollars ; 
 these are but the shell, the kernel lies within, and 
 is to be enjoyed later, as the higher faculties of the 
 business man, so constantly called into play, develop 
 and mature."
 
 220 WJmt Shall Oiir Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 Krupp, the gun-maker, who rules over a dominion, 
 and employs more men in his industrial army than 
 many petty German kings had under their banners, 
 refused the title of Prince of the Empire, and pre- 
 ferred to remain Prince of Steel. There is plenty 
 of romance, as of honors, in business, if we have eyes 
 to see, while the noble benefactions of business men 
 are our national pride. 
 
 Schopenhauer, whose father w^as a merchant, had a 
 special respect for merchants, because, he said, they 
 are more liberal and generous than others. 
 
 Mr. Carnegie says a salaried man is not a business 
 man. Many large corporations, however, are directed 
 by salaried men, from the president down. The 
 Pennsylvania Eaih'oad and the Equitable Insurance 
 Company are colossal business enterprises, yet both 
 are directed by salaried officers, who are responsible 
 only to the stockholders. 
 
 Caleb Garth, in " Middlemarch, " always spoke of 
 business with respect. " It's a fine thing to come to 
 a man when he's seen into the nature of business : to 
 have the chance of getting a bit of the country into 
 good fettle, as they say, and putting men into the 
 right way with their farming, and getting a bit of 
 good contriving and solid building done, that those 
 who are living and those who come after will be the 
 better for. I'd sooner have it than a fortune. I hold 
 it the most honorable work that is." 
 
 And who can help being powerfully moved by the 
 spectacle of the world's army of workers, with ham- 
 mer, saw, spade or drill ; with the clank and clang of 
 machinery, and the wonderful mechanical appliances 
 of the present period? Lowell spoke of London as
 
 WTiat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 221 
 
 "the roaring loom of time." Walt Whitman, or pos- 
 sibly Kipling alone, could fitly describe the vastness 
 and intricacy of modern material i:)rocesses; on the 
 farm, in the mill, at the forge, the loom, the lathe, the 
 press ; amid whirling fly-wheels and shuttles ; digging 
 and delving in mines ; grinding, refining and extracting 
 ores by chemical processes ; driving ships and steamers 
 through ice and fog ; quarrying stone, hewing forests, 
 building roads and bridges, canals, aqueducts; pre- 
 paring food and drink for the millions ; building iron- 
 clads, forts and lighthouses. All these are included 
 in the word business. 
 
 Creating and producing material things, making 
 two blades of grass grow where but one grew before, 
 appeal to the imagination far more than bartering, 
 book-keeping and financiering. These latter, not- 
 withstanding, have their attractions. The methods of 
 banking, exchange, currency, taxation and tariffs 
 deeply concern the whole community, and should be 
 understood by every business man. Let no one fancy 
 for a moment that he can succeed in business without 
 study and observation. Stephen Girard, A. T. Stew- 
 art, Peabody, Wanamaker, Carnegie, Ai-mour and 
 Leiter did not tumble into success by sheer luck, but 
 won their wealth by close study, patient reflection, 
 and hard work. 
 
 The magnitude of the business of the metropolis 
 may be shoAvn by a few figures. In the cb'vgoods 
 district there are $900,000,000 worth of insurable 
 goods, exclusive of buildings, furniture and fixtures. 
 Wanamaker's store contains a stock worth $11,000,- 
 000, and Macy's one of $6,000,000. The goods stored 
 in three or four Imsiuess districts would more than
 
 222 What Shall Our Boys Do fw a Living ? 
 
 pay the national debt. The clothing district repre- 
 sents hundreds of millions. The little jewelry dis- 
 trict is one of the richest areas in the world. Some 
 of the most precious articles, in proportion to bulk, 
 are stored in drug, chemical and perfumery houses. 
 The book-publishing district is stocked with many 
 million dollars' worth of books. Single buildings 
 with their contents, and the land they occupy, are 
 worth more than the assessed value of many a rural 
 county. 
 
 The theory that trade offers the largest returns for 
 the least capacity is exploded. Success in business, 
 as in any other calling, depends on aptitude and 
 training. The merchant or banker must study as 
 hard if not harder than the lawyer or doctor, while he 
 further labors under the disadvantage of having con- 
 stantly to meet new conditions which seem to defy 
 prevision. The country is no longer sparsely settled. 
 Competition cuts abnormal profits out of new enter- 
 prises. To be conspicuously successful in any branch 
 of trade, one needs unusual ability, untiring applica- 
 tion and thorough training. 
 
 Mr. Carnegie extols the college graduate. "All 
 other things being equal between two bright young 
 men, one having a finished education and the other 
 struggling along without a scholastic and scientific 
 training, the former ought to outstrip the latter in 
 the race." The danger is, however, that the broad 
 education of the college man will give him tastes 
 above business, and cause business duties to be irk- 
 some. On the other hand, his less-favored fellow, 
 by the verj^ necessities of the case, becomes a busi- 
 ness specialist, and this is the age of successful spe-
 
 WJicd Shall Our Boys Do for a Livinrj ? 223 
 
 cialization. Mr. Carnegie's ideal of a business man 
 is an all-around man, well grounded in business 
 knowledge, and able to hold a position in the best 
 society. Some ambitious men fail to appreciate the 
 importance of this last qualification. If they would 
 follow Mr. Carnegie's advice, and frankly acknowledge 
 at the end of their college course that thoy are be- 
 ginners in business, they would overcome this ob- 
 jection in very short order. 
 
 Harvey E. Fisk, the New York banker, discussing 
 the value of thorough training to a business man, 
 lays special stress upon the importance of the study 
 of the English language and literature, and of being 
 able to express one's self in pure English. "We 
 think we know our own language intuitivelj^, but only 
 by constant practice and careful study can ease and 
 clearness be acquired. It is a great advantage for 
 any one to be able to draft properly an agreement, or 
 write a good letter, and these gifts will aid the busi- 
 ness no less than the professional man. It is an ad- 
 vantage for a clerk to be able to explain clearly what 
 he knows. Anything that helps to this end is valua- 
 ble. Practice in a debatiug-club may make a man a 
 better salesman." 
 
 Bagehot remarks that " the instinctive habit of ap- 
 plied calculation" is essential to a merchant, as well 
 as extremely useful to a statesman. 
 
 R. Er. Bowker, in " Economics for the People," tells 
 how he learned business methods in early life. 
 " When I was a boy I liked to l)uy and sell, with 
 pins as ' make-believe ' money. Then I began to col- 
 lect stamps. I had a friend whose father used to 
 trade with South America and had stacks of mustv
 
 224 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 old letters with the rare big-number Brazil stamps. 
 Of course he wanted only one of a kind of thio col- 
 lection, and was glad to trade o& others for some of 
 my European stamps. I lived in New York, and 
 there I could get for the big Brazils more stamps 
 than I gave, or could sell them to the dealers for 
 money. Presently I hit on a plan the dealers had 
 not then thought of. I bought small pieces of Eng- 
 lish and French gold, and sent them in letters to 
 postmasters in the colonies, asking them to send the 
 money's worth in unused small stamps. Some of 
 them I never heard from, but the others sent me 
 enough to pay all the losses, and a profit beside, 
 when I sold my stock to the dealers. Then I opened 
 correspondence with a Liverpool stamp dealer and 
 with one in Hamburg, buying United States stamps 
 to send them. I made quite a little money, which I 
 found I could put in the savings-bank so as to get 
 interest, and I got a collection worth a hundred dol- 
 lars, beside learning from postage stamps, as any 
 thinking boy does, a good deal of geography and 
 history." Mr. Bowker is now vice-president of the 
 Edison Company, where he has shown great execu- 
 tive ability. 
 
 At one of the Twilight Club dinners, a number of 
 representative men told how they obtained their first 
 earnings. One man sawed wood, another practised 
 law, another strung tobacco, others raised potatoes, 
 acted as treasurer of a mission fund, worked in a but- 
 ton factory, read to a blind man, built school fires, 
 picked wintergreen, served aboard a ship, ran er- 
 rands, piled up cordwood. A Sun reporter questioned 
 a number of prominent New Yorkers on the same
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living '/ 225 
 
 subject. One man had polished shoes, another had 
 peddled newspai^ers, a third had sold peanuts at a 
 county fair. Joel Erhardt earned his first money by 
 extra duty as a letter carrier on Valentine's Day. 
 Attorney-General Russel, when sixteen, taught school. 
 Elihu Root picked strawberries in Oneida County to 
 get money to buy firecrackers. Henry Clews, at 
 fourteen, earned $5 a week as a clerk. 
 
 Andrew Carnegie, writing on the subject, "How 
 a Young Man Can Succeed," said: "Begin at the be- 
 ginning, but aim high. I would not give a fig for a 
 young man who does not already see himself the 
 partner or the head of some important firm. Many 
 business men of Pittsburg, like myself, began by 
 sweeping out the ofiice, including David McCargo, 
 Superintendent of the Allegheny Valley Railroad, 
 Robert Pitcairn, Superintendent of the Pennsylvania 
 Railroad, and Mr. Moreland, City Attorney. There 
 are three dangers: drinking, speculation, and en- 
 dorsing. There is scarcely an instance of a man who 
 has made a fortune by speculation and kept it. 
 Nothing is more essential than untarnished credit, 
 and nothing kills credit sooner than the knowledge of 
 any bank board that a man engages in speculation. 
 How can a man be credited whose resources may be 
 swept away in one hour by a i)anic?" 
 
 Speculation has ruined thousands. No matter how 
 able the man, speculation will absorb his last dollar. 
 Even Jay Gould made no money on ' the Street. ' The 
 old Commodore used to say to William H. Vander- 
 bilt, ' Billy, the men who take seven per cent inter- 
 est will have all the money in time.' Dolmouico's 
 profits averaged a quarter of a million annualh', yet, 
 15
 
 ''A'Iil6 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Livimj ? 
 
 not content with this, Charles Delmonico dropped 
 $750,000 in Wall Street in two years. 
 
 The third danger is endorsing notes. It appeals 
 to your generous instincts ; therefore, the practice is 
 so dangerous. When a man in debt endorses 
 for another, he risks the money of his own 
 creditors. Never do it unless you have cash means 
 beyond your debts, and never endorse beyond your 
 means. 
 
 " The rising man must do something exceptional, 
 and must attract attention. Your employer must find 
 out that he has not got a mere hireling in his service, 
 but a man who devotes his spare time and constant 
 thought to the business. Our young partners won 
 their spurs by showing that we did not know half as 
 well what was wanted as they did." 
 
 " Here is the prime condition of success : concen- 
 trate your energy, thought and capital exclusively 
 upon the business in which you are engaged. Hav- 
 ing begun in one line, resolve to fight it out on that 
 line, to lead in it. Adopt every improvement, have 
 the best machinery, and know the most about it. 
 Finally, do not be impatient, for, as Emerson saj'S, 
 ' No one can cheat you out of ultimate success but 
 yourself.'" 
 
 Mr. Carnegie, who is a past master on the subject, 
 points out that it is fortunate for poor young men 
 that the sons of rich parents do not always inherit 
 wealth-acquiring faculties. If they did, a few favored 
 families would soon monopolize everything. For- 
 tunes are accumulated and then are scattered, thus 
 giving new men a chance. Mr. Carnegie appreciates 
 the value of failure, and states that the best em-
 
 WJiut Shall Our Boys Do for a Livimj ? 227 
 
 ployees are often men who have not succeeded on 
 their own account. 
 
 "The successful j'oung man is usually not bur- 
 dened with wealth. It is necessary that he make his 
 own way. He has no rich father, or, still more dan- 
 gerous, rich mother, who can, and will, support him 
 in idleness should he prove a failure. He has no 
 life preserver ; he must sink or swim. Those who 
 fail may say that this or that man had great advan- 
 tages, the fates were propitious, conditions favorable. 
 Now there is very little in this. One man lands in 
 the middle of a stream which he tries to jump, and 
 is swept away. Another tries the same feat, and 
 lands upon the other side." 
 
 Leaders in war, iiolitics, and business are few. As 
 the talent for leadership is rare, it is necessarily 
 valuable. It is not simi)ly money that brings suc- 
 cess. Without ability wealth is wasted. 
 
 Men callable of conducting large enterjjrises prefer 
 to be their own employers. It is for this, and not 
 for the amount of work performed, that great com- 
 I)anies gladl}' pay princely salaries to their managers. 
 The buyer for a New York department store has a 
 salary of 816,000, besides an interest in the profits. 
 He has $250,000 laid by. Other men in the same 
 line receive salaries ranging from eight to twelve 
 thousand dollars. These amounts are above the 
 average salaries ; but the best taste and judgmeut and 
 business capacity cannot be purchased for much less. 
 The practice in tlio bigger, newer and more success- 
 ful houses is to allow the buyer to manage the busi- 
 ness as if it were his own. Several big stores have 
 been established by men who learned the business m
 
 228 IVhat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 buyers, and incidentally gained the confidence of 
 wholesale merchants, who furnished them with credit 
 and capital to start for themselves. 
 
 Mr. Carnegie advises the beginner to prefer a busi- 
 ness which is owned by its managers rather than a 
 corporation, directed by salaried agents of a thousand 
 shifting stockholders. It does not matter very much 
 where you enter, but where you come out. Do not 
 be fastidious, take what the gods offer, always keep- 
 ing your eye open for a chance to become interested 
 in a business of your own, and remember that every 
 business can be made successful. Capital is always on 
 the lookout for managing men and directing minds, 
 and the supply is never superabundant. Business 
 requires fresh blood for its existence. 
 
 " Prestige is a great matter. A young man who 
 has the record of doing what he sets out to do will 
 find, year after year, his field of operation extended, 
 and the tasks committed to him greater and greater. 
 On the other hand, the man who has to admit failure, 
 and comes to friends trying to get assistance in order 
 to make a good second start, is in a very bad position 
 indeed." 
 
 Mr. Carnegie believes in sticking to one thing. 
 " Put your eggs in one basket and then watch the 
 basket. A man can thoroughly master only one busi- 
 ness, and only if he be an able man can he do this. 
 I have never yet met the man who fully understood 
 two different kinds of business. You cannot find 
 him any sooner than you can find a man who can 
 think in two languages equally well, and who does 
 not invariably think only in one. Subdivision, spe- 
 cialization, is the order of the day."
 
 What Shall Our Botjs Do for a Living ? 229 
 
 The methods of making money are simple in the 
 abstract. Any one wlio can produce something and 
 can sell it at more than cost will i^rosper. It makes 
 no difference whether it is a necessity or a luxury, 
 as long as there is a demand for it. Food, clothing, 
 furniture, houses, ships, machinery, fuel, jewelry, 
 books, works of art, liquors and cigars, if they can 
 be sold at a profit, will make their owners rich in 
 time. It is the same with skill in any calling. The 
 man who can perform any ser\ice either with his 
 hands or with his brain, which other peojjle will pay 
 for, can make money, provided he can live on less than 
 he earns. The first man in any calling can command 
 his own price. When rival firms start, or when any 
 article can be made more cheai)ly and thus command 
 a wider sale, its selling-price will go down. The 
 maker or dealer will probably make as much money 
 through larger sales, at a lower rate of profit. Pretty 
 soon competition will lead to a falling-oft' in the arti- 
 cle. The material will be adulterated, or the work 
 on it will be " scamped. " The buyer in consequence is 
 swindled. Every salable article is imitated, and the 
 sham may sell as well, or better, than the genuine 
 product. Wages will also be cut down to reduce the 
 cost of production. Furthermore, to promote sales 
 excessive credit will be given, and undue expenses in 
 the shape of rent, advertising and salaries incurred. 
 Large concerns Avith ample capital are able to buy 
 at a lower rate and sell goods at a smaller margin 
 than small firms, and hence the latter are driven to 
 the wall. 
 
 The fact that so few merchants escape bankruptc}' 
 shows the risks and uncei-tainties of business.
 
 230 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 Nevertheless, the man who sticks to and masters his 
 business, does not expand too fast, sells to safe cus- 
 tomers, on a small margin of profit, and on short 
 credit, is just as likely to make money now as at any 
 time. 
 
 The causes of business failures are stated by the 
 commercial agencies to be extravagance in living, 
 cut-throat competition, doing business on credit or 
 with insufficient capital, endorsing other men's notes, 
 speculation, and providential disaster, like fires and 
 floods. Yet thousands of men all over the world have 
 earned a competence by careful and persistent effort, 
 and their example might be followed to-day with 
 good results. It is not chance or luck or accident 
 that makes some succeed where others fail, but 
 shrewdness, prudence and making the best use of op- 
 portunities. 
 
 "There is no secret about it," said Commodore 
 Vanderbilt. " All you have to do is to attend to your 
 business and go ahead, and never tell what you are 
 going to do until you have done it." Asa Packer 
 told an acquaintance : " If I could make money at 
 eighteen, carrying vegetables to market on an old 
 scow, I knew I could get rich in after life if I only 
 had my health." George Law remarked: "There 
 is nothing so easy as making money when you have 
 money to make it with ; the only thing is to see the 
 crisis and take it at its flood." Being further pressed 
 to tell the secret of his own success, he quickly re- 
 sponded: "Determination to work, and working." 
 Rothschild declared: "Never have anything to do 
 with an unlucky man. Be cautious and bold. Make 
 a bargain at once." Theodore Havemeyer studied,
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 231 
 
 at first hand, every process in the refining of sugar. 
 He invented so many improvements that he could 
 sell sixteen liounds of sugar at a j)rofit of only oue 
 cent, and still make a fortune. A. T. Stewart early 
 laid down certain rules, which have since become 
 almost universal. First, he never let a clerk misrep- 
 resent his wares. "Nothing can need a lie." Sec- 
 ond, he stuck to one price, no matter \vhether the 
 goods were sold or not. Third, he required "cash 
 on delivery." In after years he sometimes gave 
 credit. 
 
 " A man has got to do a smashing business nowadays 
 to make a cent," said an old banker, "owing to the 
 competition in financial, commercial and manufac- 
 turing circles. In the old days the expenses of doing 
 business were a trifle compared to the capital now 
 required, and the heads of great houses did not have 
 to slave like laborers to retain their prestige. One 
 frequently hears remarks about the easy times of 
 great financiers and other Wall Street men, but the 
 worriments, the hundreds of sources of trouble and 
 exasperation in their daily lives, are beyond the 
 knowledge of the critics. I say to young men, work, 
 but do not gamble. A great many men have had 
 millions at their command. In every instance they 
 were workers, not gamblers. They made a place 
 for themselves. The Vanderbilts, the Garretts, the 
 Drexels, the Astors have not been drones. If some 
 have failed, it is because these rules of action have not 
 been vigorously followed. Circumstances are not 
 always to blame. ' The fault is not in our stars, but in 
 ourselves that we are underlings.' " Eugeuo Kolloy, 
 the banker, said : " The young men of to-day should
 
 232 WJmt Shall Our Boys Bo for a Living ? 
 
 copy after good, moral men, and follow their line of 
 integrity and unremitting attention to business. 
 They must be honest even in thought." "All the 
 advice in the world," said Abram Hewitt, "won't 
 make a young man rich. I tell my childi'en to tell 
 the truth and work. This, I believe, covers the situ- 
 ation." Eussell Sage considers : " There is one prime 
 requisite — brains. Then a young man must be sav- 
 ing, industrious, patient, respectful and cautious. 
 Above all, he should not speculate. The passion for 
 speculation ruins ten out of every hundred young 
 men. He should have a legitimate business, and 
 stick to it, I have been frequently asked if it were 
 necessary to go West ; I always say. No. Why? Be- 
 cause, if you want to make monej^, stay where there is 
 money. The frontier is not apt to give a man the 
 opportunities that New York furnishes — I mean the 
 sources of information necessary to get wealth. Al- 
 ways be close to people with information. Try and 
 increase your information to keep pace with theirs, 
 and you will profit by the experience. A good many 
 think that a liquor store is the only place to get 
 money, but I have never known a ver}^ rich liquor 
 seller. There are just as many opportunities to gain 
 wealth in New York as there ever were." 
 
 On the other hand, Thomas L. James urges young 
 men to leave the crowded city and go to a smaller 
 place to expand. " The man who has the grit to get 
 out of a big city has generally the staying qualities 
 to make a success in a new field of life. Under no 
 circumstances speculate. As for gaining money by 
 gambling on horse racing, it is easy come and easy 
 go."
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do /w a Living ? 233 
 
 Meiggs, the great South American raih'oad pro- 
 moter, in 1848 took a ship-load of lumber to Cali- 
 fornia and sold it at a profit of $50,000. Foreseeing 
 the growth of San Francisco and the need of lumber 
 for building purjjoses, he hired five hundred men and 
 sent them into the forest. He hauled the logs to the 
 shore, made rafts, and floated them to a wharf in the 
 city, where he had them converted into lumber at a 
 steam sawmill. This foresight and xjluck netted him 
 $500,000 in gold. Another secret of his after success 
 was that in ordering rolling stock, engines, cars, etc., 
 he always wanted "nothing but the very best." 
 
 When the Pennsylvania oil supply began to give 
 out, the Standard Oil Company bought large oil 
 ti'acts in Ohio. The product was found to contain 
 certain impurities. This would have disheartened 
 most men, but Mr. Rockefeller believed that Provi- 
 dence had not stored up a product fitted for human 
 consumption without intending that it should be 
 utilized. 
 
 He determined to adapt the product to the market. 
 He spent a small fortune in constructing refineries. 
 As a result, before the works were finished, his chem- 
 ist was able to refine the oil in a satisfactory manner. 
 If the experiment had failed, Mr. Rockefeller would 
 have been called a fool, but as it succeeded no one 
 could criticise him. 
 
 C. P. Huntington ascribes his success to his mas- 
 tery of details. " When I was a boy in a store, I 
 learned that whenever I saw a one-penny nail on the 
 floor it was my duty to pick it up and not wait until 
 I found a ten-penny nail. The details of business 
 are as important as the great results." Ho tired out
 
 234 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 stenographer after stenographer, and his clerks could 
 never keep up with him. He was at his office at 
 7 : 30, never leaving before 6. Not a detail in connec- 
 tion with his vast interests escaped his personal su- 
 pervision. He wasted no time in dissipation. He 
 went to bed at 9 : 30, and slept eight hours. On the 
 other hand. Commodore Vanderbilt detested details 
 and oyAy gave his mind to large affairs. When asked 
 how he could conduct his extensive business, and yet 
 leave daily at four o'clock to drive, he answered : " It's 
 easy enough. All you want is a box of good cigars 
 and a check-book." When he bought a block of 
 Harlem stock from Mr. Garrison he insisted on seeing 
 the stock piled in a small room in Bowling Green 
 before he would give his check. I was told this story 
 in the very room in which the incident occurred. 
 
 The records of the New York Probate Court show 
 that only one man in four on his death leaves any 
 property. The same condition of affairs prevails 
 elsewhere. The great bulk of savings-bank deposits 
 are held by the few. The Massachusetts Labor 
 Bureau found in ninety savings banks $3,375,379 de- 
 posits in sums under $50, while $12,000,000 were in 
 sums over $300. The latter represented the well- 
 to-do. This shows how few persons save money for 
 a rainy day. It also makes evident the importance of 
 cultivating habits of thrift in early life. 
 
 A wittj^ Englishman remarked in his wife's hear- 
 ing, "I married without a fortune." "But," she re- 
 plied, " you had your magnificent intellect. " "True, 
 my dear, but I could not endow you with that." So 
 it is with all brain-workers. They should therefore 
 insure their lives against the calamities of life, just
 
 WTiat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 235 
 
 as every careful merchant keeps a reserve fund for 
 contingencies, in the shai)e of Government bonds or 
 other negotiable securities. 
 
 The human brain is a most sensitive organ. It 
 works best when free from worry and care. The best 
 antidotes for brain-fag and anxiety is a life insurance 
 policy in a sound company. 
 
 To get the full worth of life insurance, begin young, 
 when premiums are low and it is easy to make pay- 
 ments. Your policy will all the sooner become a 
 security to borrow money on in case of need. Many 
 sagacious men take out policies on their sons' lives 
 before thej' are of age. Very often a little cash in 
 hand may ward off disaster, or enable a man to share 
 in a new venture with great advantages. A life insur- 
 ance policy may serve as security for raising the 
 necessary sum, when no other assets exist. 
 
 Joseph H. Walker, of Worcester, Mass., made a 
 careful study of those who had been representative 
 business men of that locality for half a century. As 
 Worcester is an old city, in a long-settled State, the 
 fluctuations of business were naturally less than in 
 the new cities of the West. Of 156 men prominent in 
 1845, 25 went out of business within five years, 50 in 
 ten years, and 67 in fifteen years. Among leading 
 manufacturers in 1840, 14 failed, and 14 died or re- 
 tired with property. Of the same class in 1845, 41 
 failed, and 30 died or retired with property. Of the 
 same class in 1850, 43 failed, and 60 died or retired 
 with property. These were picked men, and the 
 showing is more favorable on that account. 
 
 Of 15,508 failures reported in 1893, incompetence, 
 inexperience, unwise credits, extravagance, neglect,
 
 236 WJiat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living? 
 
 speculation and fraud caused 6,214, or two-fifths of 
 the whole, while failures of others, competition and 
 disaster were responsible for only 4,100, the remain- 
 ing 5,194, or less than one-third, being due to lack of 
 capital. This total does not include 100,000 concerns 
 which simply dropped out of the race. As about a 
 million firms and individuals were doing business in 
 1893, the disastrous failures were about 1\ per cent, 
 while the other class amounted to one-tenth of the 
 whole. At this rate the failures from all causes 
 would in about nine years amount to 90 per cent of 
 the whole, which seems to support the common as- 
 sertion that less than one-tenth of business men suc- 
 ceed permanently. The year 1891, however, was 
 an exceptional one. During the twelve preceding 
 years the business failures averaged 9,256, while 96,- 
 000 other firms went out of business, or nearly 10 
 per cent of the whole. 
 
 The head of a large brick-making firm remarks on 
 the subject of business failures, particularly among 
 the established firms : " There is probably no field of 
 activity wherein people are so chimerical and fanciful 
 as the business field. The business world is simply 
 teeming with men who start out to attain the impossi- 
 ble — for them. They launch their ventures either 
 without sufficient capital or without experience, and 
 without any conception of those governing principles 
 which, in the long run, control success or failure in 
 trade. Get an insight, for a moment, into the busi- 
 ness of nine concerns out of ten, and you will discover 
 the most loose-jointed management. Little is done 
 in a precise way. System and nicely ordered regula- 
 tions are entirely absent. The concern jogs along
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do fw a Liviuff ? 237 
 
 from day to day like a horse-car off the rails. The 
 slightest strain beyond the ordinary, or the least 
 unexpected mishap, is enough to bring everything to 
 a standstill. Those old concerns that, to everybody's 
 surprise, go under, fail chiefly because they have lost 
 the power to adapt themselves readily to new condi- 
 tions. The}' get in a rut. Every ten years now pro- 
 duce a revolution in trade. In my business, the bulk 
 of sales to-day are of articles which ten years ago 
 were either unknown, or were goods with a doubtful 
 future before them. If we had stuck doggedly or 
 bliudl}' to the old lines, any one of our wide-awake 
 competitors would have crept ahead of us. The 
 novelty of yesterday becomes the staple of to-day, 
 and the staple of yesterday- a drug on the market. 
 One must be watchful, abreast of the times, ready to 
 recognize speedily new instrumentalities of value, and 
 adopt them. To use the boat-builder's phrase, one 
 must not be 'outbuilt.' " 
 
 The Metal Worker cites the opinion of manufac- 
 turers about the difficult}' of getting competent and 
 conscientious subordinates. One employer said: 
 " They will ask permission to go to a ball-game or a 
 boat-race, without considering whether our interests 
 should not be i^aramount to their pleasure. In our 
 entire establishment I do not know of one man who 
 is eligible for promotion in case of the death or retire- 
 ment of one of tjie firm." Another employer re- 
 marks : " I have an average lot of clerks and sales- 
 men, but their chances of succoodiug the present 
 heads of the business are mighty small. Any one of 
 them could secure a place in the firm in five years, 
 without capital, if he wore disposed to work for
 
 238 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 it. It is surprising how few young men look ahead 
 and see the chance of promotion, if they will only 
 earn it," 
 
 Here is an incident which illustrates individual 
 peculiarities. A young man who applied for a clerk- 
 ship was told to give a sample of his handwriting. 
 He at first objected to the penholder, and took one 
 of peculiar form out of his pocket. He then said he 
 was not accustomed to write at a high desk. When 
 asked to add several columns of figures he got rattled 
 because the employer timed him while doing it. He 
 consequently failed to get the place. It was given to 
 another applicant, who made no objections to the 
 examination, but went through it calmly and quietly. 
 When asked the name of his former emplo3'er, he an- 
 swered that he came from a farm and had attended a 
 business college, where daily practice was given in 
 concentration of thought. He added, "I believe I 
 could write on the side of a haystack and figure at 
 an auction." 
 
 The following observations on "How to Fail in 
 Business" were written for The Outlook, by William 
 Whiting, the New England paper manufacturer. 
 They are so valuable that I copy them in full: 
 " When I was a boy I used to think that the store- 
 keepers were about the most comfortably fixed of any 
 class in the community. I always saw them taking 
 in money, and I wondered what they did with it all. 
 What I did not see or think of was the bills they had 
 to pay, and their losses and expenses. My views as 
 a boy illustrate very well the way that every man 
 who is an outsider looks at the business of another. 
 Almost invariably he sees the pleasant side, and that
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 239 
 
 may be no more than a shell of prosperous appear- 
 ances. Only the man inside knows the weak points 
 of his business, and the best business has weak 
 points. It does a firm no good to have these adver- 
 tised, and the men inside simply guard them and 
 keep silent. • 
 
 "Whether you buy out a business or start anew, 
 you wiU find the greatest difficulty in fairly realizing 
 the dangers and contingencies of it beforehand. In 
 ninety-nine cases out of one hundred you will find 
 you have under-estimated expenses. It is easy to 
 figure out a profit as an outsider. It is difficult to 
 realize that profit as an insider. 
 
 " A danger that the j'ounger men, and those who 
 take up a new business, are apt to encounter, lies in 
 their eagerness to branch out, to make improvements, 
 and to abandon the moss-grown methods of their pre- 
 decessors. This all sounds very well, but in practice 
 it too often results in disaster. As an instance, there 
 are the Baring Brothers, an old house of conserva- 
 tive spirit and the greatest supposed stabilit3^ Their 
 failure was the result of the enterprise of new mem- 
 bers of the firm, who found the old ways too slow and 
 narrow. The only safe course in business is to hang 
 on to sure things, to make changes gradually, and 
 only after the most careful consideration. 
 
 " The tendency in our country is to extend one's 
 business too rapidly, to depend too much ou futures, 
 to spread out too thin the capital that is absolutely 
 one's own. We attempt rather more than wo can 
 handle comfortably. It is wise to undertake ouly 
 what we can do well. The English understand this 
 point better thfin we do. Their business talent, as a
 
 240 WJiat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 nation, is remarkable. WTien they get a grip on a 
 good thing, they hang on to it steadfastly, year in and 
 year out. 
 
 " It is astonishing how seductive business is. All 
 classes, experienced and inexperienced, will under- 
 take hopefully the most doubtful ventures. I know 
 a laboring man who, within six months of the time he 
 came to this country as an emigrant, raised seven 
 hundred dollars among his friends, and started a 
 grocery store. He had not an atom of experience, 
 but things looked promising until the expenses began 
 to roll up and his money was spent. Then he got 
 cramped, he could not keep a good stock, customers 
 left him, and he lost all he had. At the other ex- 
 treme, I know of an elderly man who, at the age of 
 seventy, went into a new business and invested his 
 entire fortune of three-quarters of a million dollars. 
 He had competitors who had such natural advantages 
 over him in the placing of their [plants that he was 
 ruined. There is no end of people, both rich and 
 poor, who make these sanguine failures every year. 
 We too readily attempt the management of a business 
 that is new to us, and we too readily invest the 
 profits of our own business in enterprises of which 
 we have no personal knowledge. The man does best 
 in the long run who sticks to his own business, is 
 chary of outside responsibilities and schemes, and 
 invests his surplus that must go outside safely at six 
 per cent. 
 
 " A good deal of trouble could be avoided if men 
 realized that business runs in cycles. For instance, 
 I look upon the next ten years in this way. Almost 
 all manufacturing has been stimulated to over-
 
 What Shall Our Boijs Do fw a Living ? 241 
 
 production. If all the mills ran full time, they would 
 produce a considerable per cent more than could be 
 consumed. Therefore, in the next three years excess 
 of competition and short product will make profits 
 light. By that time the natural increase of demand, 
 coupled with the fact that capital has been deterred 
 by small returns from investing in new mills, will 
 make profits fairly good. Finally, in the last three 
 or four years of the decade profits will be high. 
 Then will come a rush of new mills, over-production, 
 and stagnation again. 
 
 "The mills built at the end of the high-profit 
 period are the ones that have the hardest time. The 
 cost of the plant, and the expenses of starting and 
 making a place in the market for goods there is no 
 call for, bring failure to some, and to others a harass- 
 ing and lifelong burden of debt. 
 
 "It is dangerous for even a well-established con- 
 cern to calculate that the high-profit period will be 
 continuous. The tendency is to reinvest all surplus 
 and not carry enough reserve, and there comes a 
 pinch in the light years, or when some heavy and 
 unforeseen expenditure becomes necessary. 
 
 " Besides all this there is the wear and tear on ma- 
 chinery, and its liability to be superseded by that 
 which is better. The novice who is about to invest 
 in a mill rarely thinks of this item, yet it amounts to 
 five or ten per cent of the original cost of the ma- 
 chinery yearly. Many firms have failed because they 
 did not give proper attention to this point. It is 
 only a question of time when out-of-date machinery 
 alone will swamp a concern. 
 
 "In starting in a business, there is nothing like 
 16
 
 242 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 entering on one that is old and well established, if 
 you can get it at the right price. If it is successful 
 and profitable, it is a good investment even at a hand- 
 some bonus. At the same time, if you have not had 
 wide business experience and a thorough knowledge 
 of the particular field you propose entering, the 
 chances are you will take too rosy a view of it. 
 
 "Trading, to a disinterested outsider, must often 
 have almost the appearance of robbery. The buyer 
 cares little for 'inventory' prices and 'fair estimates.' 
 He will often put in the knife, and scale these down 
 a third or a half, and refuse to talk except on that 
 basis. On the other hand, if the seller has the ad- 
 vantage, he will squeeze the buyer to the same ex- 
 tent. In our present hard times it is the buyer who 
 crowds down prices, and, with the risk he takes, 
 there is need for his severity. The man who is not 
 a sharp buyer courts failure. 
 
 " The younger business men frequently find a pit- 
 fall in business speculation ; that is, they do not study 
 to supply the natural demand simply, but to find 
 large profits in chance changes of prices. Yet I 
 never knew any one smart enough always to buy low 
 and sell high, to carry a large stock over to a high- 
 priced period, and a small stock over to a low-priced 
 period. If they make once they lose twice, and the 
 older men avoid engaging in such transactions. In 
 panics or booms it does not pay to get either scared 
 or excited. 
 
 "The young business man is also too easily in- 
 duced to put his name on notes and bonds, to accom- 
 modate his friends. He can best assure his success by 
 not obligating himself at all. As for his friends, they
 
 WJiat Shall Our Boys Do for « Llviufj / 248 
 
 will, in majority of cases, be better off if they find it 
 difficult to borrow. It is unfortunate for a man to be 
 able to borrow money too easil}'. He does not feel 
 the responsibility lie should, and it slips through his 
 fingers. He not only cripples himself, but the weaker 
 of those who lent him their name. 
 
 " Beside the dangers mentioned that are not apt to 
 be foreseen and discounted by the man going into 
 business, are losses by bad bills, by fii-e or accident, 
 by dishonest help, by sickness, and by personal ex- 
 travagance. There will be some bad bills anyway, 
 and there should always bo some reserve to meet the 
 possibilit}' of these, and of fire and accident. As for 
 dishonesty, there are a thousand ways in which it 
 can creep in. Safety can come only in a thorough 
 knowledge of the business from top to bottom, and a 
 personal overseeing and testing. It is essential, too, 
 that the books be examined occasionally. This ex- 
 amination does not mean suspicion of the help, but 
 is made on the general principle that supposed trust- 
 worthiness has in the past failed, and lightning strikes 
 in unexpected places. 
 
 " Sickness is more serious in a small business than 
 in a large one. A well-organized mauufacturiug con- 
 cern will move along smoothly of its own weight for 
 any moderate length of time. 
 
 " In the matter of personal expenses, the American 
 tendency is to increase them fully as fast as the busi- 
 ness will warrant. Yet the men who are working up 
 to the largest success live more ([uietly than their 
 neighbors who are at present equally iirosperous. A 
 fine house and fine living, and a place in the upper 
 circle of fashionable society, are questionable things
 
 244 py/iat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 for the young business man to aspire to. In reality, 
 a man's success depends largely on his wife. If she 
 is ambitious and showy in her tastes, she will use 
 both her husband's time and money with dangerous 
 freedom. If the wife is economical, and counts the 
 cost in her plans and expenditures, she is a great 
 help. 
 
 " In the use of his free time after business hours, 
 I suppose that what is best is not half the night spent 
 at the club, or in society, but a quiet evening spent 
 at home, and an early hour for retiring ; at least, that 
 method is best, as a rule. It is said that Armour, the 
 wealthy Chicago business man, retires invariably at 
 nine o'clock. No matter what the circumstances are, 
 even if company is present, at that hour he begs to 
 be excused and leaves the room. It is of great ad- 
 vantage for a man to get up with a clear head. He 
 needs to feel well to do his best in business, just as 
 in anything else. 
 
 " As to whether culture has a pecuniary value to a 
 business man, I should say. Yes. Reading and wide 
 knowledge mellow a man's opinion, and he can treat 
 questions that come up more broadlj^ than otherwise. 
 He will look at a proposition more fairly and thor- 
 oughly. 
 
 " The sum of the matter is that a man had far bet- 
 ter make less money than to take too large risks, even 
 in his own business ; and outside ventures should be 
 regarded doubtfully, always. For there is no worry 
 that will kill a man quicker than business worry, and 
 many die of this who have a very different disease 
 set against their names in the news items of the 
 papers. It is easy enough to realize the true value
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 245 
 
 of these things we have been talking over now. The 
 time to think of them, however, is in the good years, 
 when everything booms with the promise of large 
 gains." 
 
 Professional men often assert that if they had de- 
 voted the same time and energy to business which 
 they have given to their profession they would have 
 been better off i)ecuniarily. They forget that special 
 cajjacity is needed to succeed in any occupation and 
 that they may lack business faculty. Furthermore, 
 they compare themselves only with the merchants 
 and manufacturers who have made money, and for- 
 get the hundi'eds of thousands who never rise above 
 subordinate positions, and the legion who have failed 
 in business. 
 
 The great army of clerks, salesmen, book-keepers 
 and accountants receive small pay, and have little 
 chance of advancement. The professional man, if he 
 is shrewd and energetic, continually finds opportu- 
 nities for bettering himself. At the same time he is 
 not tied down to a desk or forced to work in a rut, like 
 many employees. Again, the professional man gains 
 valuable experience, which broadens the mind and 
 fits him for new opportunities, while the clerk too 
 often becomes a mere machine. 
 
 After the panic of 1893, in one week, seven old New 
 York firms, some of them of sixty years' standing, 
 went into liquidation. Dry rot assails business con- 
 cerns as it does old hulks, and new methods and fresh 
 energy are needed to meet new conditions. 
 
 A profession may not be so profitable as some 
 forms of business, but it involves less risk. The 
 professional man may not make a fortime, but on the
 
 240 JVJiat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 other hand he cannot lose one, except by speculation. 
 If he shows ordinary capacity and industry, he at 
 least gains independence, a good social i)osition and 
 a comfortable living. An income of $3,000, which is 
 a fair average for a professional man, is equivalent to 
 three per cent on $100,000. Such a capital in busi- 
 ness should bring in a larger return, yet it often does 
 not, and it may be swept away by a turn of the mar- 
 ket, and leave its possessor bankrupt. Again, few 
 men get rich from legitimate business, but many do 
 from real estate investments, which professional men 
 with equal shrewdness and prudence can make. 
 
 The merchant's stock of goods may deteriorate, the 
 manufacturer's machinery wears out and needs re- 
 I)lacing, profits will be cut down by competition and 
 bad debts, and in other ways the business man's en- 
 tire capital may be depleted. On the other hand, the 
 professional man's skill, which is his chief capital, 
 should increase with growing experience. 
 
 No one should enter a profession hoping to lead an 
 easy life. The lawyer, doctor, clergyman, engineer 
 or architect must work as hard as the merchant or 
 manufacturer, and may have to wait years before 
 he can earn more than his expenses. The lower 
 ranks of all professions are overcrowded. To gain 
 first place one must "toil terribly." Again, no one 
 should select a profession unless he has a liking for 
 it. You must love your work if you expect to suc- 
 ceed in it. It is arrant folly to make a boy stud}^ 
 medicine or law who has no taste for books or love of 
 learning. Neither should a youth enter a profession 
 solely to make money. He must appreciate profes- 
 sional honor and love his work independently of its
 
 What Shall Our Boyi^ Do for a Living ? 247 
 
 pecuniary rewards, or lie will b<' only a time-server 
 and bread-winner. 
 
 Andrew Carnegie ranks a i^rofession above a busi- 
 ness career, because money-making is not the sole 
 object in the former. He considers, however, that 
 greater breadth of mind is produced by business ex- 
 perience than by professional practice. The latter 
 he thinks, strengthens but contracts the mind. On 
 the other hand, the great merchant or manufacturer 
 must have a broad and liberal mind. He must be a 
 judge of men, have the gift of organization, under- 
 stand economical laws and have executive ability. 
 He must know other coimtries as well as his own. 
 "Nothing," says Mr. Carnegie, "of moment can hap- 
 pen which has not its bearing upon his action ; polit- 
 ical complications at Constantinople ; the appearance 
 of the cholera in the East; a mousoon in India; the 
 sui)ply of gold at Cripple Crook ; the appearance of 
 the Colorado beetle ; the fall of a ministry ; the dan- 
 ger of war, or the likelihood of arbitration compelling 
 settlement — nothing can happen in any part of the 
 world which he has not to consider." In reply to 
 this it is sufficient to mention the public sei-vice per- 
 formed by professional men in sliaping legislation, 
 even in dealing with purely commercial <iuestious like 
 the tariff or cuiToucy. Mr. Carnegie is a type of 
 broad-minded, liberal and cultured men, but ho is 
 one in a hundred. Most merchants, manufacturers 
 and even bankers take a narrow view of events in 
 which their individual interests are not at stake. 
 
 Keference has been made in i)rovi()us chai)tor8 to 
 the demand for cajiablo men to fill oxecutive ])oai- 
 tious, and the advantages of business capacity U) a
 
 248 What Shall Our Boys Do /o?* a Liviyig ? 
 
 professional man. This is illustrated by the follow- 
 ing partial record of the graduates of three leading 
 American engineering schools. Of 1,070 graduates 
 from the Eensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy), 
 33 are presidents of corporations, 121 vice-presidents, 
 managers and superintendents, 69 practising engi- 
 neers, 56 professors in colleges. Of 551 graduates of 
 Stevens Institute, 209 are managers and superinten- 
 dents, 54 consulting engineers, 30 professors in col- 
 leges, and 16 heads of corporations. At Cornell the 
 386 graduates of the course in engineering supplied 
 16 heads of comj^anies, 165 engineers in full charge 
 or assistants in public or private work, 66 practising 
 engineers, and 22 college professors. It thus appears 
 that of 2,007 graduates 189 have become practising 
 engineers, 108 college professors, while 560, or over 
 one-fourth, are managing manufacturing' enterprises. 
 This is a very interesting demonstration of the fact 
 that scientifically trained men can develop business 
 capacity.
 
 CHAPTER XXm. 
 
 NEW OPPORTUNITIES. 
 
 Variety of Occupations Available — Hawthorne on Choosing a 
 Profession — Supply Sometbiug that People Want — Practical 
 Advice — Seek New Paths — ^Marvellous Material Development 
 of the Nation — The Producing Field — Changes in Occupations 
 — Census Statistics — Veterinary Science — Electrical Engineer- 
 ing — Telegraphy — Alining — Real Estate— Architecture — For- 
 estry — Farming — Chemistry — Dentistry — Pharmacy — Teaching 
 — Life Insurance — Railway Contracting. 
 
 Bacon advised parents to choose their children's 
 vocation "betimes," when the chiklren are most 
 "flexible," and not to lay too much stress ui)on their 
 apparent disposition, unless the child has some ex- 
 traordinary inclination or aptitude. In that ease, it 
 is not good to cross it. It is generally wise to follow 
 the Latin precept : " Select that course of life which 
 is most advantageous. Habit will soon render it 
 pleasant and easily endured." 
 
 A superintendent of a French school reports that 
 of 100 pupils intended to follow professions, 23 
 preferred business, 14 wanted public positions and 57 
 meant to learn a trade. The preference of American 
 boys is very different. Two-thirds of the jiupils in 
 the New York schools take to business. Tlio jirofos- 
 sious attract a number, while the trades find but little 
 favor in the eyes of either boys or thoir paronts. 
 
 The variety of occupations oiicn to young men of
 
 250 What Shall Oiir Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 the present day is shown by the statistics of 408 
 members of the Harvard class of 1898, of whom 100 in- 
 tended to study law, 29 to study medicine, 45 to teach, 
 14 to become manufacturers, 12 to prepare for the 
 ministry, and 12 to enter journalism. Later 6 be- 
 came insurance and real estate agents, 7 chemists, 
 
 3 brokers, 2 salesmen, 7 merchants, 4 railroad men, 
 
 4 publishers, 13 engineers, 6 bankers, 2 landscape 
 architects, and 2 contractors. Sixteen men continued 
 their studies in the graduate courses, or abroad, and 
 18 chose some form of business. Among the remain- 
 ing members there were a biologist, a superintendent 
 of schools, a commission merchant, 2 draughtsmen, 3 
 writers, a coffee cultivator, an iron founder, a musi- 
 cian, a geologist, an entomologist, a mining expert, a 
 forester, a gas engineer, 3 soldiers, a dentist, a whole- 
 sale grocer, a dealer in live-stock, an actor, an artist, 
 and a missionary. At Yale, out of a class of 300, 
 79 chose law, 22 medicine, 18 teaching, and 9 the 
 ministry. 
 
 Most students do not decide what calling they will 
 select until after entering college. This is advisable. 
 It is better to feel one's way, consult with one's teach- 
 ers, and compare notes with classmates before making 
 a final choice. The first two college years are devoted 
 to general studies, which give breadth and strength. 
 If the student then decides on his future occupation, 
 he can shape later studies in any special direction. 
 
 Hawthorne, when seventeen, wrote to his mother: 
 " I have not yet concluded what profession I shall se- 
 lect. Being a minister is, of course, out of the ques- 
 tion. I should not think that even you could desire 
 me to choose so dull a way of life. Oh, no, mother !
 
 What Shall Oitr Boijs Do Jor a Livwrj ? 251 
 
 I was not bom to vegetate forever in one i)lace, and to 
 live and die as calm and tranquil as a puddle of water. 
 As to lawj-ers, there are so many of tliom already that 
 one-lialf of them (upon a moderate calculation) are in 
 a state of actual starvation. A physician, then, seems 
 to be 'Hobson's choice,' but yet I should not like to 
 live by the diseases and infirmities of my fellow-crea- 
 tures. Oh, that I was rich enough to live without a 
 profession ! What do j'ou think of my becoming an 
 author, and relying for support upon my pen? In- 
 deed, I think the illigibility of my handwriting is 
 very author-like. How proud you would feel to see 
 my works praised by the reviewers as equal to the 
 proudest i)roductions of the scribbling sons of John 
 Bull!" 
 
 In watching the throngs of young and old in the 
 streets, or crowding the trains and ferryboats, on 
 their way to work, I constantly' ask mj'self : " How is 
 it that these men can wear good clothes and live in 
 comfortable homes? Is there any mystery about it? 
 Is it luck or chance?" The simi)le answer is that 
 the vast majority of the world's workers, leaving out 
 of consideration the few drones in the hive of indus- 
 try, gain food and clothing and shelter hy earning 
 them. Look at the shops liuing every street. Is 
 there any question how their owners di'aw customers? 
 They do it by having something to sell that the public 
 want, and presenting it properly to their attention. 
 The same impression is made by studying the news- 
 paper bulletins and bookstands, the theatre-posters, 
 the doctors' and dentists' signs, the huge hotels and 
 churches, which all teach the same lessou, namely, 
 that to earn a living from the public you need to have
 
 252 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 something to give in exchange — food, clothes, luxu- 
 ries, knowledge, news, entertainments, shoes or ser- 
 mons, jewels or gingerbread, potatoes or jjianos, 
 professional advice, or instruction in the arts. On 
 Broadway, as on the Bowery, enterprise, taste and 
 skill in catering to the public bring their sure re- 
 turns. The bootblack or the fruit-peddler succeeds 
 in the same way that the merchant or banker does : 
 by sticking to his business, making friends of his 
 customers, spending less than he earns, and supply- 
 ing what the public wants. 
 
 Let every young man, therefore, dismiss from his 
 mind all thought of getting on in life by any new or 
 original methods, but decide that the beaten path 
 which millions have trodden before him is the surest 
 way to prosperity and reputation. 
 
 Ever}^ past age seems the golden age. It would be 
 laughable, were it not so natural, to hear each genera- 
 tion bewail the departing " great lights" in each pro- 
 fession, and ask in dismay : " Where are their suc- 
 cessors to come from?" But as Scott and his 
 generation gave place to Thackeray, Dickens, Carlyle 
 and Tennyson, so a new crop of geniuses comes, and 
 Stevenson, Barrie, Cable, Howells and Henry James 
 fill the public eye. It is the same in every occupa- 
 tion. When people say there is no opportunity for 
 new men, I point to TJie Ceyitury, rivalling Harper's 
 Monthly, and the rise in turn of Scribner's, The Cos- 
 mo^iolitan, Ilunsey's, and 31cClure's magazines. As 
 the New YorTc Times grew beside the Tribune, and 
 was followed by Mr. Dana's Sun, so The World forced 
 its way to the front. Later the Morning Journal and 
 TJie Press were established. Fuck and Life have ere-
 
 What Shall Our Boys Bo J(yr a Livinrj? 253 
 
 ated fields for themselves, yet there is still room for 
 others. 
 
 Erastus Wyman remarked upon the large sums of 
 money which are handled in small amounts. The 
 four and a half billion cigars yearly smoked in the 
 United States represent, perhaps, a thousand million 
 sales of a few cents each. The penny weighing- 
 machine has a clientele of seventeen million people 
 annuall}'. The automatic machines, which disburse 
 chewing-gum, postage-stamps and a dozen other 
 trifles continually gather their harvests of cents and 
 nickels. The newsdealer, Ijootblack, car conductor, 
 ferryman, dairy-lunch keeper, soda-water dealer, toy 
 and candy seller, fruit-vender, and the small shop- 
 keeper handle man}- millions of pennies and nickels 
 in their daih' transactions, with profits which in the 
 aggregate amount to a large sum. There are innu- 
 merable opportunities of which a man with brains 
 and push can take advantage to build up a little busi- 
 ness of this kind, if he oul^^ keeps his eyes open. 
 
 Most men dwell on the drawbacks rather than on 
 the advantages of their o\vn special pursuit. This 
 only proves that every calling has its undesirable 
 features. There is no easy road to fortune. Every 
 beginner should select the occupation for which ho 
 has an inclination or is best adapted, and then stick 
 to it. 
 
 Goethe remarked that wisdom does not necessarily 
 come with age, and that in certain matters a man may 
 be as likely to perceive rightly at twenty as at sixty. 
 In this ago young blood has an advantage. A prefer- 
 ence is given to youth and freshness in every calling. 
 The crowds one meets earlv and late in the cars, on
 
 254 WJiat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 the ferryboats and streets of every large city are 
 mostly under thirty. Everj^ year a certain number 
 of positions are made vacant by death, removal or 
 other causes. The doors of opportunity are always 
 opening for the wide-awake man. 
 
 Fifty years ago a medical man began to practise 
 before he was twenty. The course of study now 
 occupies four years, in addition to four jears of prep- 
 aration. The best men take a year in the hospitals 
 after graduating. The first two or three years of 
 practice are usually years of waiting. The doctor is 
 more than thirty before he gets fairly to work. The 
 same difficulty is found in other professions. Joseph 
 H. Choate said, at a Harvard dinner: "One of the 
 problems we are considering is, How we can bring our 
 boys earlier into the real business of life? A young 
 man now entering a profession begins when he is 
 twenty-seven or twenty-eight, and if by thirty he is 
 able to support a wife, he has succeeded marvellously. 
 I hope something can be done. But don't break up 
 the classes. Squeeze it out of the preparatory 
 schools. Vacations are too long." 
 
 The main thing is to get something to do, it makes 
 no difference what, and then work and wait till some- 
 thing better offers. A New York Charity Superin- 
 tendent saj's : " Half of the applicants for relief need 
 only to get a start to become self-supporting. The 
 misfortune of many persons is that they do not know 
 how or where to begin." 
 
 Here are two characteristic opinions given to anx- 
 ious parents, who asked their advice about their sons, 
 by two men who have won fortune and honor by hard 
 struggles. The first one said : " Just let these young
 
 WJmt Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 255 
 
 gentlemen help themselves a little. You can afford 
 to give them a good education, and that is all they 
 really need. If you coddle them, and give them the 
 idea that they can always rely upon their fathers, it 
 may, in the end, be a positive injury. Love them 
 and encourage them, but put some 'gimp' into them." 
 The other man's advice was equally practical: "If 
 your sons are healthy and willing to work, they will 
 find enough to do, and if they cannot begin at the 
 top let them begin at the bottom, and very likely they 
 will be all the better for it. I was born close bj- a 
 sawmill, was early left an orphan, christened in a mill- 
 pond, graduated at a log schoolhouse, and, at four- 
 teen fancied I could do anything I turned my hand 
 to and that nothing was impossible, and ever since 
 I have been trying to prove it, and with some success. 
 If I could do nothing better, I would hire myself 
 out to dig potatoes with my fingers, and when I had 
 earned enough to buy a hoe I would dig with it, and 
 so I would climb up." 
 
 The humblest person can make himself indispen- 
 sable. A leading lawyer said : " My office-l>oy is my 
 most valuable employee." A railway president re- 
 marked: "If I had to discharge our whole staff, I 
 would keep my messenger to the last." I know a 
 woman stenographer who has made herself so useful 
 that when she takes her vacation the whole office is 
 upset, and none of her associates can fill her i)lace. 
 
 All natural forces follow the line of least resistance. 
 So in life avoid useless competition, and seek fresh 
 fields and pastures new. On this i)riueiplo Horace 
 Greeley advised young men to "go West," and thou- 
 sands have acted upon it. Better seek the verdant
 
 256 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 prairie-land than try to cultivate worn-out fields in 
 the East. 
 
 In like manner many new callings offer a splendid 
 chance for those who start with the right spirit and 
 with proper equipment. 
 
 It was once my fortune to have to choose between 
 five desirable vacancies. I applied to a railroad presi- 
 dent, a man of wide experience, for counsel. He 
 said : " Take the one which promises the most inde- 
 pendence and the greatest permanency, without re- 
 gard to pay." His advice proved sound, as the open- 
 ings which seemed most brilliant turned out to be 
 unsatisfactory, while the less-promising place proved 
 pleasant and profitable. 
 
 Most men are content to follow the beaten track, 
 others seek new fields and make positions for them- 
 selves. When Seth Low graduated from Columbia 
 College and entered his father's office, he felt as if he 
 was of no special value. A friend advised him to go 
 out among the brokers and get points on the street, 
 instead of sticking in doors. He did so. As a result, 
 in six months he knew more about the business than 
 any one in the firm, so that his judgment on many 
 matters was accepted by his father and acted upon. 
 A friend of mine who had lost his position as book- 
 keeper and who failed to find a similar place started 
 the business of sending cipher cable messages. Later 
 he made a specialty of printing cable-codes. He now 
 makes a comfortable livelihood. 
 
 Tiffany, the jeweller, is a good example of the value 
 of avoiding ruts and striking out new paths in busi- 
 ness. Novelty always attracts attention. The leader 
 makes himself conspicuous in the public eye, and, if
 
 What Slmll Our Boys Do far a Living ? 257 
 
 successful in one thing, every one thinks him iufalliljle, 
 and follows his lead. 
 
 Vanderbilt was quick to abandon steamboats for rail- 
 roads when the time came. Robert Bonner founded 
 his success on novelty in advertising. A. T. Stewart 
 drew trade by selling only for cash, and treating rich 
 and poor alike. He told every salesman to show just 
 as much consideration to customers who entered from 
 Fourth Avenue as to those coming from Broadway. 
 He made it possible for the merest child to buy on 
 equal terms with the millionaire. A lawyer remarked 
 to a friend, on the steps of the Astor House: "It 
 has taken me thirty years to tliscover that I am not 
 fitted for success at the bar, and I am going to give 
 up law and take to mechanics." Within a few years 
 he patented a valuable invention, and sold it for a 
 large sum. In considering law, journalism and medi- 
 cine, I have urged the beginner to stay away from the 
 big cities until he has made his mark in the smaller 
 field. I should also advise young men to avoid the 
 old and crowded occupations and seek the new call- 
 ings, to avoid competition, and to obtain the ad- 
 vantage of being first in a new field. Bacon said : 
 "The young are seldom innovators," yet while 
 the pioneer has to face many trials, when ho is 
 established he has a decided advantage in being a 
 pioneer. 
 
 Ability is always in demand. Tom Scott, when 
 applied to on behalf of a young man, remarked that 
 he had half a dozen well-i)aid i)ositions vacant, but 
 could not find a capable man to fill thorn. E. Bok, 
 discussing "The Young Man in Business," says: 
 " Upon iufiuiry among publishers I heard of no leas 
 17
 
 258 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 than six well-paid oi)ening8 which were waiting for 
 the men to fill them." 
 
 I should never advise any young man to retain a 
 position, however pleasant and profitable, which ties 
 him to a desk or inside of a bank-railing, with no 
 chance for gaining acquaintance or knowledge of the 
 world. Such men end by sticking in a rut, with no 
 increase of pay, until they become mere machines, 
 adding up columns of figures or doing mere routine 
 work. By all means avoid such stagnation. 
 
 The whole problem may be stated in a sentence : 
 Don't look around for opportunities, but take the 
 next step in the direction in which things seem to 
 tend. Either supply an existing want better than any 
 one has done it before, or create a new demand. If 
 you enter the crowded callings, you must meet and 
 surpass able and numerous rivals. If you find a new 
 opening, you avoid pressing competition and have the 
 advantages of a virgin field. 
 
 The world moves. There are no grounds for as- 
 suming that our national growth will cease, or that 
 our industries will not continue to expand and give 
 abundant opportunity and rich rewards to the coming 
 generation. 
 
 Speaker Eeed remarks that we have reached the 
 business era. The Union Pacific receipts for one 
 month ($2,500,000) equalled the total yearly revenue 
 of Queen Elizabeth. The present gross receipts of 
 American railroads, even in dull times, would have 
 supported three hundred kingdoms of the size of 
 Henry VIII.'s. These figures indicate the boundless 
 opportunities afforded by the marvellous material 
 growth of the Union.
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Livimj ? 259 
 
 Within a few years $150,000,000 has been invested 
 in electrical railroads, in addition to the capital em- 
 ployed in other electrical plants. The manufacture 
 of bicycles has grown to vast proportions . The 
 I)alace-car industry built the town of Pullman. 
 These new industries give employment to thousands. 
 The fire insurance interest represents hundreds of 
 millions, and is steadily increasing. Over 800,000 
 men are employed by American railroads, including 
 some 2,000 officers and 7,500 clerks, while miles of 
 new tracks are added yearly. There are over 10,000 
 persons engaged in the express business. The United 
 States Government employees, under civil service 
 rules, numbered 85,000 persons in 1896. Labor-sav- 
 ing de\dces throw men out of work, but indirectly 
 they supply employment to others. American sew- 
 ing-machine companies give work to 10,000 hands. 
 Since the introduction of steam, thousands of men 
 have found occupation in building engines, boilers, 
 rails, cars, bridges, etc. The making of telegraph 
 wires and cables is a large industry. New processes 
 for preparing and packing foods give employment to 
 thousands, and add to every man's earnings by cheaji- 
 ening domestic supplies. Fourteen millions have been 
 embarked in raising California fruits, and 8(iven mil- 
 lions in flower-culture. The last half-century has seen 
 an enormous extension of the American railway system 
 gridironing the Union with iron rails. ^Millions of 
 immigrants from abroad, and from other States, have 
 populated the West, where farms have multiplied and 
 towns and cities have grown up like mushrooms. Tlio 
 New South since the war lias developed its mines and 
 factories to vast proportions.
 
 260 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Liviwj ? 
 
 This is a period of advancing civilization. Wealth 
 is increasing, and with it a love of luxury. Public 
 taste is improving. The best of everything is appre- 
 ciated. Such spectacles as the Horse and Dog shows 
 in New York, or the Bradley-Martin ball, would have 
 been impossible before the war. There is unlimited 
 opportunity to cater to the desires of prosperous 
 Americans by gratifying their taste, comfort and love 
 of ease. It is also an age of specialties and of or- 
 ganization. On the one hand, the huge department- 
 stores gather a host of diverse articles under one 
 roof — dressgoods and groceries, underwear and hard- 
 ware, books and bicycles, furs and furniture, shoes 
 and satins. On the other hand, some men devote 
 their entire attention to making one thing — neckties, 
 picture-frames, lamp-chimneys, pocketbooks, print- 
 er's ink, ice cream. Others make a specialty of 
 dealing in old furniture, rare books, prints, bric-a- 
 brac. No less than $200,000 worth of the Cuban war 
 revenue-stamps were bought by stamp-collectors. 
 There is an ever-increasing number of popular fads, 
 any one of which can be made the basis of a new 
 business. 
 
 It seems to me that the producing field is far wider, 
 and offers more chances to the beginner who has no 
 capital but his hands, than the commercial field. 
 The bridges, aqueducts, tunnels and other great en- 
 terprises now being executed could not have been 
 carried to completion by the men trained before the 
 war. They require a higher class of artisans, and 
 more skilful superintendents than were the men 
 of that day. Executive talent is now in demand. A 
 position as " captain of industry" in the great indus-
 
 What SJmU Our Boys Do for a Livinfj ? 2fil 
 
 trial army should oflfer the highest stimulus to the 
 ambitious American. The success of Andrew Caruegie 
 in America, Brassey and Bessemer in England, 
 and Krupp in Germany should satisfy the most 
 aspiring. Whoever can "make two blades of grass 
 grow where one grew before" is a jiublic benefactor. 
 Men like Pillsbury, in the flour industry ; Pullman, 
 the inventor of the palace car; Cramp, the ship- 
 builder; Fairbanks, the scale-maker; Steinway, the 
 piano-maker, and a host of other like men are far 
 more to be admired and emulated than the sham suc- 
 cesses of the Stock Exchange. 
 
 The following table shows, in a general way, the 
 five principal groups of occupations for men in this 
 country, and also their comparative growth or de- 
 cline from 1870 to 1890. 
 
 Occupation. 1870. 1890. 
 
 Agriculture, fisheries, and miuing 40.29 34.22 
 
 Professional service 1.96 2.60 
 
 Domestic and personal service 9.39 11.06 
 
 Trade and transportation 8. 48 12. 72 
 
 Manufacturing and meclianical industries . . 14.71 16.69 
 
 Total 74.83 77.29 
 
 Agriculture has declined, owing t(j the introduction 
 of farm machinery, which has tended to make hand- 
 work arduous and unprofitable. The professions have 
 gained in numl)ers and i)Opularity. Trade and trans- 
 portation have increased fifty per cent. Manufacture 
 and mechanical industries sliow a fair advance. The 
 greatest increase has been in the higher departments 
 of business, in those occupations which call for skilled 
 la])or. (" Bulletin of Department of Labor," January, 
 1897, p. 410.) The influ.\ of machinery has .sliglitly
 
 262 What Slmll Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 lessened the number of male wood and leather work- 
 ers since 1870. The number of textile workers has 
 remained stationary. There has been a slight de- 
 crease in the number of boatmen, fishermen and 
 sailors ; also among laborers in general. There has 
 been a uniform increase in the number of clothing- 
 makers, locomotive engineers and firemen, food pre- 
 parers, metal-workers, printers, engravers, book- 
 binders, steam-railroad employees, tobacco and cigar 
 factory operatives. Bankers, brokers, merchants and 
 manufacturers have increased slightly, and also pro- 
 fessional men, but agents, collectors and commercial 
 travellers, bookkeepers, clerks and salesmen show a 
 far greater increase, despite the influx of women into 
 commercial life. 
 
 I have compiled from the census reports the follow- 
 ing list of occupations which show a marked increase 
 in numbers engaged therein from 1870 to 1890. This 
 will indicate the tendencies of the time, in connection 
 with this subject, and will guide the beginner in his 
 choice of a calling : 
 
 1870. 1890. 
 
 Builders and Contractors 10,231 49,988 
 
 Publishers of Periodicals and Books 1,577 6,284 
 
 Apiarists 136 1, 773 
 
 Livery -Stable Keepers 8, 504 26, 757 
 
 Actors 2,058 9,728 
 
 Architects 2,017 8, 070 
 
 Artists and Art Teachers 4, 081 22, 496 
 
 Authors 979 6,714 
 
 Chemists and Metallurgists 772 4, 503 
 
 Gardeners, Florists 33, 632 72, 601 
 
 Designers, Draughtsmen, Inventors 1,286 9,391 
 
 Engineers, Surveyors '''. 374 43, 239 
 
 Musicians and Music Teachers 16,010 63, 155
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 263 
 
 ISTO. 1890. 
 
 Theatrical Managers 1, 177 18,055 
 
 Veterinary Surgeons 1, 166 6, 494 
 
 Agents and Collectors 20,316 174,582 
 
 Commercial Travellers 7,262 58,691 
 
 Telegraph and Telephone Operators 8,316 52,214 
 
 Confectioners 8,219 23,251 
 
 Trunk and Pocketbook Makers 2,047 6,279 
 
 Paperhangers 2,490 12,369 
 
 Plumbers, Gas and Steam Fitters 11, 143 56, 607 
 
 Roofers and Slaters 2, 750 7, 043 
 
 Clock and Watch Makers 1 , 779 25, 252 
 
 Electro-platers 2, 756 
 
 Lead and Zinc Workers , 649 4, 616 
 
 Metal-Workers 79 16,694 
 
 Stove and Furnace Makers 1, 543 8, 932 
 
 Wire-Workers 2,796 12,319 
 
 Hosiery-Mill Operatives 3, 653 29, 555 
 
 Silk-Mill Operatives 3,256 34, 855 
 
 Upholsterers 6,111 25,666 
 
 Wood-Workers 10,789 67,360 
 
 Box-Makers 6,080 28,640 
 
 Photographers 7.558 20.040 
 
 Piano and Organ Makers 3,579 15,335 
 
 Potters 5,060 14,928 
 
 Rope and Cordage Makers 2, 675 8. 001 
 
 Telegraph and Telephone Linemen 11,134 
 
 Dairymen and Dairy women 3, 550 17,895 
 
 Lumbermen 17,752 65.866 
 
 Stock-Raisers 15,359 70,729 
 
 Wood-Choppers 8.338 33,697 
 
 Street-Raihvay Employees 5, 103 37,434 
 
 Bleachers, Dyers, and Scourers 4,901 14,210 
 
 Mineral Waters 458 7,230 
 
 Oil-Works Employees 1.747 6.634 
 
 Messenger and Office Boys 8,717 51.355 
 
 Packers. Shippers 5,461 24.916 
 
 Janitors 1.769 21.5.56 
 
 Sextons 1.151 4.0M2 
 
 Watchmen, Policemen, Detectives 13,384 74.629
 
 264 WJiat Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 In this country of almost universal horse-worship, 
 where most persons of any means own a trotter, not 
 to mention the millions of cattle on a thousand hills, 
 there is ample field for the veterinary profession. 
 Thus far it has hardly been suiBBciently appreciated. 
 It will not be long, however, before sensible men will 
 refuse to intrust the care of valuable animals to any 
 but trained veterinarians. It does not take long to 
 master the profession, and young men who are looking 
 about for a calling should ponder its advantages. 
 
 The value of live-stock in the United States is enor- 
 mous. Some of the items are as follows: Horses 
 and mules, 11,149,800; cattle, 27,870,700; sheep, 
 35,935,300; swine, 25,726,800. No other country 
 can make a showing which approaches these figures, 
 and yet no country is so ill provided with veterinary 
 surgeons. In consequence millions of dollars are 
 sacrificed yearly. Hog cholera alone has cost 
 $20,000,000. There is room for hundreds of competent 
 practitioners in this profession. 
 
 The course of study at the New York Veterinary Col- 
 lege requires two years. The expenses are not heavy. 
 A graduate can earn $1,500 the first year, whereas a 
 young physician's income averages only $300. Lead- 
 ing veterinarians have made as high as $20,000 a year. 
 Some complain of the disagreeable features incident 
 to their practice, but that hardly can be avoided. A 
 farmer who would refuse to give more than a dollar 
 for a doctor's visit to his sick wife will cheerfully pay 
 a three-dollar fee to a veterinary surgeon for attending 
 a sick horse. The charge for a visit to a valuable 
 horse or blooded cow is often twenty-five dollars. 
 The profession is only in its infancy. Its standing
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 265 
 
 is uo lower than was dentistry in the early days of 
 that profession. It promises to ecpial that of any 
 jjrofession. It demands skill in diagnosis, because 
 the patient cannot be questioned. The veterinarian 
 should be a man of large scientific attainments, ex- 
 cellent powers of observation, and possess sound 
 judgment. The famous Dr. Koch was a veterinary 
 surgeon in Breslau. 
 
 There is constant demand upon the veterinary col- 
 leges for skilful practitioners, and those who have 
 been sent out thus far have at once stepped into very 
 lucrative practices. 
 
 Civil engineering is not so promising a profession 
 as formerly, because of the decline in railway con- 
 struction. Electrical and municipal engiueeriug offer 
 a better and wider field. In time we may expect to 
 see engineers take up contracting, either in oi)])osition 
 to or in partnership with the practical men who now 
 perform such services. An engineer who can supple- 
 ment scientific skill with executive and business ca- 
 pacity has abundant ox)portunitie8 for honorable and 
 profitable employment. The average engineer's earn- 
 ings are estimated at S2,500. Only forty of the eight 
 hundred graduates from the School of Mines have given 
 up professional pursuits, a far better showing than the 
 record of failures in business. The day has gone by 
 when a corporation can bo mauaged in such a way 
 that, as Tom Scott remarked, " I might make a mist^iko 
 costing the company S3,000,()(M), and nobody would 
 find it out." The highest technical training is now 
 demanded of executive officers. 
 
 Electrical engineering is one of the newest fields. 
 Enormous cai)ital is invested in electric i)lants all
 
 260 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Livinrj ? 
 
 over tlie world. Young men have flocked to the 
 technical schools where instruction is given in electri- 
 cal science. In the United States there are already 
 12,583 miles of electric railways. In Great Britain 
 and its colonies there are only 167 miles. This illus- 
 trates the extent of the business in this country. The 
 American Society of Electric Engineers has 850 mem- 
 bers. Those employed in electrical work throughout 
 the Union number 30,000. Special hands earn from 
 $3 to 15 a day. Numerous graduates from the tech- 
 nical schools receive from $1,000 to $2,500 as labora- 
 tory assistants, while high salaries are paid to execu- 
 tive men. Electrical experts earn $25 a day. Patent 
 experts in this branch of inventions charge double as 
 much. 
 
 Beginners must start at the foot of the ladder, and 
 not expect much pay or promotion until they show 
 practical capacity. Mr. Edison has recently estab- 
 lished a training-school for Ms employees in order to 
 meet the demand for experienced and skilled foremen 
 and master workmen. 
 
 Telegraphy, which gave employment to Edison in 
 his youth, affords a wide field. In 1890 the Western 
 Union had 20,098 offices. In the same year France 
 employed 58,000 i^ersons in the business; Great 
 Britain, 117,989; Germany, 17,454. Vast as is the 
 world's telegraph system, it is not complete. In 
 time no point of commercial importance on the earth's 
 surface will remain unconnected by wire or cable with 
 civilization. A competent telegraph operator should 
 be able to decipher manuscript rapidly and accurately, 
 to send messages intelligently, and to receive and copy 
 them at a fair rate of speed. Quickness is indispen-
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Livhuf ? 207 
 
 sable, but never at the expense of legibility, neatness 
 and accuracy. The Western Uniou pays $20 a mouth 
 to beginners, which may be doubled in a year or two 
 if they are skilled and accurate. Four or five years 
 are required to become proficient. Not more than 
 one operator in ten reaches the higher grades. The 
 chief operators, division superintendents and oflico 
 managers are well paid. Most executive officers be- 
 gan as operators. Promotion is slow unless one has 
 influence. 
 
 During the Civil War expert operators wore i)aid 
 $118 a month. Now $60 is the limit. Women arc 
 paid $40, or even less. 
 
 Many telegraph ojierators are employed in news- 
 paper and business oflices, railways, aud in other 
 places, where they have shorter hours, better pay and 
 more agreeable surroundings than the\' do with the 
 telegraph companies. If in confidential positions, 
 they sometimes receive $75 a month. 
 
 The mineral ])roduct of the United States for 1895 
 was valued at $512,000,000. Some of the items were : 
 Pig iron, $82,000,000; coal, $197,000,000; gold, $47,- 
 000,000; copper, $38,000,000; silver, $32,000,000; 
 lead, $10,000,000; building-stone, $34,(KH),000. In 
 the past fifty years the value of the gold taken from 
 California mines exceeded a billion and one-third dol- 
 lars. A mining expert says: "The progress of tlu' 
 mining industry in recent years has heaw so groat 
 that no man is or can be an expert in all kinds of 
 mining." While there never were so many good 
 specialists in mining as now, there never was huoIi a 
 demand for well-trained s])e('iulists. Mining offers 
 for the right men V)etter chances of success than any
 
 268 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 other business. The success comes quicker than in 
 other industries. What is more important, a com- 
 petent man is certain of steady employment at good 
 wages. 
 
 Real estate development has always given occupa- 
 tion to thousands. A notable feature of recent years 
 has been the creation of summer and winter health- 
 resorts. The Atlantic coast is lined with hotels and 
 cottages. The Adirondacks and Catskills are filled 
 with camps and parks. Florida, California and 
 Colorado abound in winter resorts. Chautauqua, 
 Asbury Park, and Asheville are examples of rapid and 
 prosperous growth. A single example will show the 
 profit in such undertakings. At Lake wood 25,000 
 acres were bought for a dollar an acre. In 1898 
 125,000 was asked for a corner building-lot. George 
 Gould's house there is said to have cost $250,000. 
 There is room for a hundred more health-resorts all 
 over the Union. 
 
 Architecture has made great progress during the 
 past half-century. Formerly most buildings were 
 erected by men who had risen from the ranks, and 
 who started in business without any training. They 
 simply copied conventional plans. This is still the 
 custom in many places, where the average building is 
 erected hy the local carpenter, with a large amount of 
 jig-saw ornamentation and very little else. The 
 enormous yearly losses by fii'e and the wretched 
 sanitary condition of such houses prove their flimsy 
 construction, while their appearance is detrimental to 
 public taste. Large sections of our great cities are 
 covered with houses erected by speculative builders, 
 which have been rented or bought by some of our
 
 What Shall Our Bays Do for a Livinrj ? '2«iO 
 
 best citizens. Gradually there came a demand for 
 more careful and original work. At first this was 
 supplied b}' builders who supplemented their j»racti- 
 cal experience by the study of architecture. Their 
 work is to be seen in such buildings as A. T. Stewart's 
 mansion, and in various commercial buildings and in- 
 stitutions. The public, however, were not sati.sfied 
 with these structures, and required that architects 
 should be able to design artistically as well as to 
 build honestly. Courses of study in architecture 
 have been provided at Columbia University and at 
 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Many 
 of the graduates of these schools have travelled and 
 studied abroad, to observe the best models in Euro- 
 {)eau cities. It is becoming the rule to employ archi- 
 tects to design all houses or buiklings of any i)reten- 
 sion. The result of this demand was seen in the 
 buildings at the World's Fair, and in the recent com- 
 petitions for the Columbia University, the Academy 
 of Design, the Boston Library, and the New York 
 Consolidated Library, besides the countless office- 
 buildings, hotels, municipal and other buildings 
 which have recently been erected. 
 
 D. H. Burnham, in Architcdun- and IhiihUntj, 
 says : " There is a fine field for young architects wlio 
 have the best available training. There were never 
 in the past, and are not now, such oi)i)ortuniti«'s as 
 the future holds in store for men of high worth." 
 
 Forestry has long been pnictised as a profession 
 abroad. In time it will Ix^ made a serious pursuit iu 
 this country. The exaiui)le which George Vauderbilt 
 has set at Biltmore, N. C, and th(^ practical and j.rofit- 
 able results achieved there by Mr. Piuchot, now chief
 
 •270 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 of the United States Forestry Department, have drawn 
 I)ublic attention to the importance of such work. Mr. 
 Vanderbilt's example will surely find imitators among 
 other large property owners, Adirondack clubs and 
 State park officials. 
 
 Landscape architecture has been cultivated in 
 America since the days of A. J. Downing. Addi- 
 tional lustre has been given to it by the labors of 
 Frederick Law Olmsted, Calvert Vaux, Samuel Par- 
 sons and others. It is a very attractive calling, and 
 furnishes opportunity for both the artist and the 
 practical man. It promises to expand steadily, and 
 through the growth of public parks and recreation 
 grounds, and the increased interest shown among 
 cultivated men everywhere, to afford profitable occu- 
 pation for many trained men. 
 
 Eaising flowers has become a distinct business, in 
 which several millions of capital are invested. Sup- 
 plying cut flowers alone gives employment to thou- 
 sands. A florist who has thirty greenhouses near 
 Short Hills, N. J. , says : " Flowers, especially orchids, 
 are as safe an investment as any merchandise." Cut 
 flowers are sent through the mails. When it is stated 
 that $30,000 worth of flowers were used at a New York 
 dinner party, some idea may be formed of their con- 
 sumption. Twenty years ago there were not two- 
 score florists in New York and Brooklyn. Now the 
 number is one hundred and twelve, while the sales 
 have doubled in eight or ten years, with a steadily 
 increasing demand. 
 
 Despite the common belief that farming does not 
 pay, there are abundant chances to make a comfort- 
 able living in agriculture, if men are intelligent and
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 271 
 
 careful, adapt themselves to new methods, aud 
 thoroughly understand their business. There are 
 4,504,641 small farms in the United States, each 
 worth about 82,908. The mortgages do not represent 
 sixteen per cent of the entire valuation. Few city 
 dwellers who work with their hands or fill clerical 
 positions can boast of liomes of ocpial value. Whih^ 
 from 1870 to 1890 our population increased only 62 
 per cent, the number of farms increased 80 i)er cent 
 and the cultivated acres 108 per cent. The dairy- 
 men of New York and Pennsylvania, the fruit-growers 
 of New Jersey and the Hudson River, and the market 
 gardeners of Massachusetts (juietly work their small 
 farms, and make them i)ay. The total dairy i)roduct 
 of the Union is over $400,000,000, and the value of 
 the milch cows $302,000,000. Over $10,000,000 are 
 invested in condensed-milk factories, which give em- 
 ployment to 14,291 persons. The product doubled in 
 ten years, and so did the number of emi>loyees, while 
 the salaries increased fourfold. 
 
 Fish-culture is one of the new and promising in- 
 dustries. There are a score of tish-fanns in New 
 England alone. The most barren land will serve, 
 provided there is good water. Raising trout and 
 other rare fish pays well. 
 
 Planting fruit-trees along roadsides yields an enor- 
 mous revenue abroad. It niiglit 1k> inad(> to pay in 
 this country. 
 
 Agricultural products constitute seventy \m>t cent of 
 American exjxirts and far exceed in amount our (Ex- 
 ports of manufiictured articles. 
 
 The American farmer needs only business tact and 
 technical training to become prosperous. He prtxluccs
 
 272 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 far less to the acre than the European or Asiatic. He 
 allows a large part of his land to be unproductive. He 
 must learn to utilize barren hillsides, sandy wastes, 
 swamps, and roadsides. He must also learn how to 
 sell his products. The prosperous farmer is not the 
 one who holds his butter and his eggs, his corn and 
 his potatoes, his apples and his wheat, until shrink- 
 age or decay covers all possible advantage of delay, 
 and while waste of time and worry cover more. What 
 the farmer wants is tact in marketing, and that is noth- 
 ing more than educated common sense. 
 
 The average time required to study chemistry is 
 four years. Few students take a liberal course, 
 though all should do so. Most graduates are too 
 ambitious, and expect too much. The chief field is 
 metallurgy, mining and assaj'ing. Chemists are also 
 necessary in breweries, oil and sugar refineries, paint, 
 drug and cigarette factories, and gasworks. The 
 American Chemical Society has nine hundred mem- 
 bers, and includes most of the representative men in 
 the profession. There are over two thousand chemists 
 in the United States. Twenty chemists are nov/ em- 
 ployed where one used to be. An income of $3,000 is 
 about the maximum. The cost of fitting up a labora- 
 tory is $400 or $500. 
 
 A number of chemists are attached to boards of 
 health, and analyze milk, water, air and foods. 
 Many of the ablest men, such as Professors Chandler 
 and Remsen, are connected with colleges. These 
 men are often retained as experts in court, and receive 
 large fees, especially in poisoning cases. A few 
 chemists have made money by inventions. The late 
 Professor Casamajor sold his patents to the Have-
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 273 
 
 meyer Sugar CompaDy for $75,000. Chemistry ia 
 taugiit in the physical courses of all large colleges. 
 The best schools are in connection witli Harvard, 
 Yale, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and 
 the School of Mines, Columbia University. 
 
 Nearly all the great manufacturing concerns now 
 employ one or more chemists io analyze raw matt*- 
 rials and to utilize waste products. Other chemists 
 have their owni laboratories. They make tlieir living 
 by analyzing chemical products, acting as experts in 
 lawsuits, giving advice, devising new chemical proc- 
 esses and perfecting old ones. 
 
 The development of the chemical industry has kept 
 pace with scientific enlightenment. Many drugs 
 which were formerly imported are now manufactured 
 in the United States. The annual production of 
 chemicals has doubled in recent years. 
 
 The graduates in chemistry from the School of 
 Mines find little trouble in sc.^curing situations jih as- 
 sistants in mining and manufacturing establishments. 
 The usual pay is SGOO to $1,(MX) i)or annum. If they 
 show ability and executive capacity, there are fair 
 chances for promotion. Comjjlaint is made of the 
 number of German chemists who are willing to work 
 for small pay," but such men, though they may bo 
 careful and accurate, lack the American energy, and 
 seldom rise above subordinate ])ositious. A goo<l 
 chemist, particuhirly if he is competent to be Huiwrin- 
 tendent, may earn as high as $3,0(X), and his iKwitiou 
 will probably be permanent. 
 
 Dentistry has becomes in recent years a j>rofe.MHiou, 
 with numerous training-schools and with practition- 
 ers in every cit}' and town of any size. It is a cou- 
 18
 
 274 What Sludl Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 fining occupation, and therefore not healthful. The 
 successful dentist needs to have manual dexterity. 
 He should also be refined and neat in person. The 
 introduction of new appliances and the help of female 
 assistants have greatly reduced the drudgery of the 
 dentist's work. Outside of the big cities the pay is 
 moderate. In New York many dentists earn large 
 incomes, and have more patients than they can attend 
 to. Skill and social qualities are indispensable. It 
 is only a few years since dentists had no social stand- 
 ing, and were considered charlatans and humbugs. 
 American dentists are unsurpassed. Dr. Evans made 
 a fortune in France because of his social qualities, 
 skill, and the lack of competition from European den- 
 tists. Napoleon III. and most of the crowned heads 
 were among his patients. 
 
 Handsome fortunes have been made in the manu- 
 facture of dental supplies and appliances. This has 
 now become an extensive and flourishing business. 
 
 Pharmacy, like dentistry, has grown within a few 
 years from a minor occupation to dignified one. 
 Hundreds of students graduate every year from the 
 pharmaceutical colleges in New York, Philadelphia 
 and Louisville. Many eminent men have been identi- 
 fied with the business. 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton commenced his career in the back 
 room of an apothecar}^ shop. Sir Humphry Davy 
 was an apothecary's apprentice. Liebig began as an 
 apothecary's boy, at Darmstadt. The electro-mag- 
 netic discoveries of Orsted were commenced in the 
 shop of his father in Denmark, who was a phar- 
 macist. Bequinn, Marggraff, Diesbach, and Scheele, 
 of Sweden, whose scientific researches are famous,
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a IAvukj? 275 
 
 were all apothecaries. Pliarmac}% therefore, retaius 
 a flavor of science. UnfortuDat^ly the business is 
 overdone, and profits have been lessened by compe- 
 tition. The department-stores sell perfumery and 
 drugs. The druggist's hours are long and his work is 
 confining. It is, therefore, a business not io l>e 
 viewed with favor, unless circumstances are 8i)ecially 
 advantageous. 
 
 Nearly every famous American has at some time 
 taught school. Teaching is excellent mental disci- 
 pline. One never knows anything thoroughly un- 
 til he tries to impart it to others. Teaching culti- 
 vates patience, sympathy and persistency. The born 
 teacher puts himself in the learner's i)lace, and sym- 
 pathizes with the latter's point of view and tlifticul- 
 ties. 
 
 Unfortunately teachers are so underpaid that few 
 men adopt it as a permanent occupation, but use it as 
 stepping-stone to something better. Nevertheless, 
 Dr. J. S. Billings says: "If you have the toju-hiiig 
 faculty by all means cultivate it, as it is rare and well 
 paid." The examples of Agassiz and Professor You- 
 mans, on the one hand, and of Presidents Eliot, 
 White, Harris, Adams, Harper and Oilman on the 
 other, indicate the possibilities of success for the 
 broad-minded educator, especially if he has exeentivo 
 ability. Just now there is a great demand for cai>able 
 instructors in every department. 
 
 New York is an educational beehive, filled with 
 students of both sexes, from all parts of th»v world. 
 Thousands of earnest and ambitious men and women 
 come here in search of knowledge, and particularly 
 of advanced training. Barnard College? alone, it is
 
 276 WJiat S^mll Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 said, will draw one thousand advanced scholars. Law, 
 medicine, dentistry, science, pedagogy, elocution, mu- 
 sic, architecture, and the drama, all have their stu- 
 dents. Such institutions as the Training School for 
 Teachers, New York Trade School, the American 
 School of the Dramatic Art, Packard's Business Col- 
 lege, Women's School of Applied Design, are but a few 
 of those that offer special attractions for students of all 
 ages and of both sexes. Well-qualified teachers find 
 little trouble in obtaining good positions. The small 
 compensation given to most of them is chiefly due to 
 the competition of women. 
 
 College professors complain bitterly of their com- 
 pensation. The average salarj' at Columbia is $1,600 
 and at Harvard $1,200, both rich universities. A 
 few men of international reputation receive $2,500 to 
 $3,000, but the maximum is $5,000. No man can 
 support a family comfortably in a large city on the 
 average professor's salary. If he has not private 
 means, he must live in the suburbs, stint himself in 
 books, clothes, social opportunities, or spend on " pot- 
 boiling" work the time and energ}^ which should be 
 given to his college. The " Harvard Book" contains 
 an eloquent description of the trials and small re- 
 wards of college instructors : " Hard-worked, poorly 
 paid, much-tormented martyrs, whose sole solace 
 is contact with youth and freshness, which keeps 
 men young when their comrades have grown 
 old, and keeps them green when the others have 
 dried up." 
 
 The professors in American scientific schools are 
 constantly consulted by business men in relation to 
 practical matters, and, therefore, are broader and
 
 What ShaU Oiir Boys Do for a Livimj ? Til 
 
 more in toucli with the best and latest exi)erieiice 
 thau their English or Continental compeere. 
 
 The word " science" has to some minds a purely 
 abstract meaning. Few i)ersons imagine that it oflfers 
 a means of gaining an honorable and protit^iblo liveli- 
 hood. Yet that such is the case is proved by the ex- 
 amples of Faraday, Tyndall, Professor Henry, not to 
 mention others. Hundreds of such men now till 
 government positions or are connected with learned 
 institutions. They are conti'ibuting to scientific 
 discovery and also to public enlightenment. They 
 are well rewarded for their labors. 
 
 A striking example of the possibilities of men ris- 
 ing from the ranks is seen in the case of railmad 
 builders. While a cheap class of labor is employed, 
 and Italians have replaced Irish and Germans, gocnl 
 foremen are in demand. They earn as higli as $ir)0 
 a month. Many of them have worked up from the 
 shovel. They succeed better thau civil engineers, 
 who do not seem to know how to handle men. Tlie 
 railway contractor of twenty jears ago did his work 
 with the aid of hundreds or thousands of Irishmen, 
 and a sprinkling of Germans and men of other na- 
 tionalities. The railway contractor of to-day om- 
 I)loys Italian labor. It is the custom to sublet all 
 work to small contractors, who nndertako four or live 
 miles of road. The small contractor is, in cllVct, a 
 boss working under the general contractor. The rise 
 of the sub-contractor to the managt'iiiciit of larg*' in- 
 terests is not unusual. Any industrious or s.-iving 
 teamster lays up enough to l)uy a i>air of mules, and 
 is able to get wag<^s for liinisclf and liis st<K'k. Hi.H 
 next steji is t<j buy au(^)ther pair and hire a man to
 
 278 What Sloall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 drive them. By the time he has four or five teams he 
 ceases to drive, and becomes a contractor-teamster. 
 He next apjiears as a sub-contractor, and takes pro- 
 gressively larger and larger contracts, until he finally 
 appears as a general contractor competing for hun- 
 dreds of miles of railroad. After that his work is 
 that of an organizer, the commander of an indus- 
 trial army. He seldom visits the actual scene of 
 operations. Perhaps once a month he rides over the 
 line with his engineer, making a suggestion here, 
 asking a question there, making mental note of large 
 features, but seldom troubling about details. " It is 
 absolutely fascinating work," said a Western contrac- 
 tor, " and I long to be at the front. It opens a lucra- 
 tive field for men of executive talent and honesty, and 
 force of character, though the era of great fortunes 
 made in railway -building is past." 
 
 Some 75,000 persons are employed by American 
 life insurance companies. Large salaries are paid 
 to the executive officers. Agents are paid commis- 
 sions on the business they secure, and earn from 
 $10,000 a year down to 11,000. The agent now re- 
 ceives a commission only on the first premium paid. 
 Obtaining policy holders has become so systematized 
 that it is no longer necessary for solicitors to resort 
 to tricks and devices. Insurance canvassers are 
 usually persons of excellent character. The business 
 requires tact, good address, persistency and knowl- 
 edge of human nature. An insurance agent must un- 
 derstand figures and know how to persuade. It is an 
 eminently respectable occupation. A local agent in a 
 young town may build up a handsome business. 
 Three New York companies have an annual income of
 
 WJiat Shall Our Boi/s Do for a IJvhuj ? 279 
 
 $133,000,000, and their death claims fro«iiioutly 
 amount to a million dollars a da}'. 
 
 The mmiber of men employed by the railways of 
 the United States, on June 30, 1897, was 823,476. 
 Among the number were 30,049 station aKcnts; 
 other station men, 74,569; enginemen, 35,667; fire- 
 men and watchmen, 43,768; telegraph operators and 
 despatchers, 21,452. The aggregate amount of wjiges 
 and salaries paid was $465,601,581. In one year 1 ,693 
 employees were killed, or 1 in 486; and 27,667 were 
 wounded, or 1 in 30, a greater loss than in many 
 pitched battles. The risks to health from long hours 
 and exposure are great. No one should take up this 
 line of work unlesa he has a rugged coustitutiuu.
 
 CHAPTEK XXrV. 
 
 TURNING-POINTS IN LIFE. 
 
 When do Men Come to Maturity ? — Achievements of Youthful 
 Genius — Men who Mature Late — The Twenty-sixth Year — 
 Examples of Success Won at that Age. 
 
 Theee are physical and mental crises in life. Such 
 are the periods when childhood begins and ends, when 
 youth merges into manhood, when the twilight of old 
 age presages the nightfall of death. So also there is 
 a time following the period of preparatory training 
 when achievement begins, and beyond which is suc- 
 cess. It is the hour of action after long reflection, 
 the time when character crystallizes, as by a feather 
 touch, and when the man or woman finds that golden 
 opportunity, which to some comes but once in a whole 
 life. It may best be compared to the ascent of a hill- 
 side. The way is long and hard; the end seems far 
 off. We stumble, fall, slip back, and often despair. 
 Suddenlj^ the last obstacle is surmounted, the summit 
 is gained, and all the grand vista of pleasant valleys 
 and distant peaks bursts into view. 
 
 This period of achievement, this "tide, which, 
 taken at the flood, leads on to fortune," seems to 
 come to most persons about the age of twenty-seven. 
 In certain marked instances of precocious develop- 
 ment, as with Pitt and Hamilton among statesmen; 
 Byron, Keats, Cami^bell and Bryant among poets; 
 Dickens, Macaulay and Kipling among prose writ-
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Livimj ? 281 
 
 ers, the time may be anticipated ; while in the case of 
 others — for example, Daute, Hampden and Cromwell 
 — the clock strikes the hour late in life. 
 
 Disraeli in " Coningsby" says, " Genius when young 
 is divine." Alexander overthrew Darius at twenty- 
 two. Gaston de Foix was only twenty-two when he 
 stood a victor on the plain of Ravenna. Don Juan 
 of Austria won Lepanto at twenty-five. Cortes was 
 little more than thirty when ho invaded Mexico. 
 Maurice of Saxony died at thirty-two. Nelson was a 
 post-captain at twenty-one. Pascal wrote a great 
 book at sixteen. Bolingbroke and Pitt were both 
 ministers before other Englishmen leave oflf cricket. 
 Grotius was in practice at seventeen, and Attorney- 
 General at twenty-four. Sir Isaac Newton was not 
 twenty when he saw the apple fall. Hars'ey discov- 
 ered the circulation of the blood at eighteen. Hart- 
 le.y's great principle was develojjed in an inaugural 
 dissertation at college. Hume wrote his treatise on 
 "Human Nature" while still a young man. Galileo, 
 Liebnitz, and Euler commenced their discoveries 
 quite young. Chatterton wrote all his beautiful 
 things, exhausted all hopes of life, and saw nothing 
 better than death at eighteen. Burns and Byron both 
 died early. Dickens wrote "Pickwick" at twenty- 
 one, and Daudet issued " Contosa Ninon" at twenty- 
 three. James Payn made his bow to the jmblic at 
 twenty-four. Holman Hunt began to exhibit when 
 he was nineteen, and painted tlie "Liglit of tlie 
 World" at twenty-five. Sir Arthur Sullivan was well 
 known as a composer at nineteen. Sir George Al- 
 exander Macfarren produced his first sympliouy at 
 twenty -one.
 
 282 IVJiat Slmll Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 On the other hand, Washington was forty-three 
 and John Adams forty when the American Revolu- 
 tion began. Most of the men prominent in public 
 life at the time of the attack on Fort Sumter, includ- 
 ing Lincoln, Hamlin, Seward, Chase, Cameron, An- 
 drew Johnson, Fessenden, Thaddeus Stevens and 
 Horatio Seymour, were over fifty. 
 
 I have compiled the following data regarding not- 
 able persons, to prove my theory as to the age when 
 opportunity first offers itself. I do not assume that 
 native talent or genius is first revealed at any partic- 
 ular period, but that its possessor usually gains his 
 first public recognition at about his or her twenty- 
 seventh year. At that age the rills of youth have 
 merged into a stream of some volume ; cartilage has 
 hardened into bone; the bud is ready to burst into 
 full flower. 
 
 Milton wrote "Comus" at twenty-seven. Pope 
 translated Homer and Schiller wrote " Don Carlos" 
 at the same age. Dr. Samuel Johnson was doing 
 hack-work for Cave the bookseller and writing his 
 first tragedy at that period of his life. At the same 
 age Addison was travelling on the Continent and 
 gathering materials for "Cato." Berkeley was 
 twenty-six when he published his essay on "Vision." 
 Edmund Burke published his famous " Essay on the 
 Sublime and Beautiful" at twenty-six. Carlyle at 
 twenty-eight commenced contributing his famous crit- 
 ical essays to the Edinhurgh and other reviews. Lord 
 Chatham entered Parliament at twenty-seven, and at 
 once commanded attention. Jonathan Swift was ad- 
 mitted to dean's orders at twenty-six, and presently 
 began writing the "Tale of a Tub." Lord Mansfield
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Liviny ? 283 
 
 at that age was called to the bar, where his emolu- 
 ments were soon so great that he said : " I never 
 knew the difference between al)soluto want and earn- 
 ing an income of £3,000 a j-ear." The Duke of Wel- 
 lington, who at school was a dunce, in youth a fop, 
 at twenty-six was so dissatisfied with army life that 
 he petitioned to be transferred to the civil service. 
 This was refused. Two years later he took a con- 
 spicuous share in the Indian war. This decided his 
 future. Clive captured Arcot against overwhelming 
 odds, at twenty-six, and a year later fought the bat- 
 tle of Plassey, which established English rule in In- 
 dia. Commodore Perry won liis famous victory on 
 Lake Erie in the war of 1812 when he was twent\'- 
 seven, and McDonough was thirt3--one when he de- 
 feated the British on Lake Champlain. James Watt 
 during his twenty-eighth year accidentally received a 
 model of Newcome's steam-engine for repairs, and 
 in consequence pursued the experiments which, a 
 year later, resulted in the cardinal discovery of a sep- 
 arate condensing chamber, the liasis of the motleru 
 steam-engine. Washington at twenty-oight had mar- 
 ried, resigned his colonial command, and retired to liis 
 farm, where he lived until he received the call t«> take 
 command of his country's armies. Canning's brilliant 
 labors in Parliament were recognized in his twonty- 
 seventh year, by his being made Undor-S<vn'tary of 
 State. Richard Cobdeu entered business at twenty- 
 six, and began to acquire the conqM^tenco whii-li en- 
 abled liira afterward to carry through tlio Corn Law 
 Reform. Hugh ^Miller at twenty -six had b(>como a 
 local celebrity. At that ago Napoleon was waiting 
 his opportunity in Paris, which presently camo with
 
 284 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 what Carlyle describes as a "whiff of grape-shot." 
 The same year he was made commander of the army 
 of Italy, married Josephine, and won the battles of 
 Lodi and Arcole. It was just after Lodi that his am- 
 bitious design of conquest was formed. Jeremy Ben- 
 tham issued his first pamphlet on law-reform at twenty- 
 six. Talleyrand was of the same age when he was 
 made general agent of the French clergy, his first 
 distinction. Montalembert issued his first book, 
 "The Life of St. Elizabeth of Hungary," at twenty- 
 six. Blackstone was made a doctor of civil law at 
 twenty-seven, after delivering his first course of pub- 
 lic lectures, the basis of his famous " Commentaries." 
 Kaphael went to Kome in his twenty-sixth year, and 
 there began painting his famous frescoes. Beetho- 
 ven commenced to compose his musical masterpieces 
 at the age of twenty-seven, and Meyerbeer in his 
 twenty-sixth year. Robert Burns published his first 
 poems when twent^^-seven. Byron gave "Childe 
 Harold" to the world in his twenty-sixth year. 
 Browning's " Strafford" appeared in his twenty -sev- 
 enth year, though he had printed j^oems at twenty- 
 three. Mrs. Browning published verses at sixteen, 
 but " Aurora Leigh" did not appear until much later. 
 William CuUen Bryant received public recognition at 
 twenty-seven, by being asked to read a poem before a 
 Greek letter society. George William Curtis pub- 
 lished his "Nile Notes" at twentj^-six, and other 
 books in the succeeding year. Robert Louis Steven- 
 son won his first success when he was twenty-eight. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe at the age of 
 twenty -six were influential members of the Virginia 
 Legislature. Hamilton at twenty -six was in the Con-
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Livxtifj ? 285 
 
 tinental Congress. Johu Raucloli)li was elected to 
 Congress in his twentj'-seventh year. Warren was 
 twenty-seven when he delivered the memorable address 
 on the 5th of March, which aroused the sjjirit of pa- 
 triotism and liberty throughout the country. Fisher 
 Ames, at the same age, excited public attention l)y 
 the ability he displayed in the discussion of ]>ublic 
 questions. Chief-Justice Marshall practised law with 
 great success in his twentj-'Seveuth year, Lewis Cass 
 quitted law at twenty-eight to enter the army, where 
 he rose to the rank of general. Stei)hen A. Douglas 
 at twenty-six was practising law previous to running 
 for the State Senate. Charles Sumner sailed for Eu- 
 rope in his twenty-seventh year to study lit<.^raturo 
 and life abroad. Henry Ward Beecher accei)ted a 
 call to Indianapolis at twenty -six, and l)egau his i)ul- 
 pit labors. Theodore Parker was settled at Roxlniry 
 at twenty-seven. Wendell Phillips was twenty -six 
 when he made his great Lovejoy speech at Fauouil 
 Hall, which decided his future career. General Tay- 
 lor was promoted to a captaincy at twenty -six, and 
 soon after made his mark in the war against Tecuni- 
 seh. Winfield Scott was made a lieutonaut at the 
 same age. Henry Clay began his political lifo at 
 about twenty-nine. Daniel Webster gained distinc- 
 tion at the same age. Jose])h Story, Hamilton Fish, 
 and Senator Edmunds all entered puljlic life at twenty- 
 six, and De Witt Clinton at twenty -eight. Lincoln and 
 Tilden were both admitted to the bar at twcnty-Hevcn. 
 Vesalius at twenty -six was made professor in the 
 University of Paris, and l.>egan his researclies wliich 
 established the science of anatomy. Kichanl Owon 
 at the age of twenty-eight published his " Memoir on
 
 286 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Living ? 
 
 the Pearly Nautilus," which i)laced him in the front 
 rank of scientific men, and which Huxley compared 
 to Cuvier's best work. Asa Gray published his first 
 botanical work at twenty-six, and thereby gave a 
 great impetus to the study of plants in America. 
 Dr. Fordyce Barker scored his first success at twenty- 
 seven, by a paper read before the Connecticut Medi- 
 cal Association, which led to his going to New York. 
 
 Rembrandt was about twenty-six when he jjainted 
 "The Anatomy Lesson," which made him the most 
 famous of Dutch artists. Rosa Bonheur at twenty- 
 seven, by one picture, "Ninernais," placed herself in 
 the front rank of modern painters. At twenty-six 
 Turner was a full Academician. Munkacsy, when 
 twenty-six, won his first triumph and a medal at the 
 Paris Salon, by his picture, " The Last Day of a Man 
 Sentenced to Death." 
 
 Balzac at the same age began his grand scheme of 
 a comprehensive romance embracing the history of 
 society. At twenty-six Thackeray wrote " The Great 
 Hoggarty Diamond," which Frederic Harrison con- 
 siders equal, for style and pathos, to Thackeray's 
 best later work. Freeman, the historian, gained his 
 first honors when he was twenty-six. 
 
 Dr. Jameson says that before Cecil Rhodes left 
 Oxford, when he was about twenty-seven, he had 
 planned his whole South African policy, which was 
 the amalgamation of the diamond mines and the oc- 
 cupation of what is now Rhodesia. 
 
 These examples might be multiplied almost with- 
 out limit, and cases cited of men possessing such great 
 and such varied talent as Martin Luther, Peter the 
 Great, William Penn, William of Orange, Robes-
 
 What Shall Our Boys Do for a Liviwj ? 287 
 
 pierre, Mirabeau, Pestalozzi, Sir Walter RaleiKh, 
 Cardinal Mazarin, Longfellow, Draper the historian, 
 and James Gordon Bennett, to illustrate the fact that, 
 with most persons, the tide comes to a flood at about 
 the period named.
 
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