One way out : $b A middle-class New-Englander emigrates to AmericaBartlett, Frederick Orin
General
One way out : $b A middle-class New-Englander emigrates to America
Bartlett, Frederick Orin
Political fiction; United States -- Social conditions -- 1865-1918 -- Fiction
I went out that very evening and found that the school he attended
taught among other subjects, book keeping and stenography--two things
which appealed to me strongly. But in talking to the principal he
suggested that before I decided I look into the night trade school
which was run in connection with a manual training school. I took his
advice and there I found so many things I wanted that I didn't know
what to choose. I was amazed at the opportunity. A man could learn
here about any trade he cared to take up. Both tools and material
were furnished him. And all this was within ten minutes' walk of the
house. I could still have my early evenings with Ruth and the boy even
on the three nights I would be in school until a quarter past seven,
spend two hours at learning my trade, and get back to the house again
before ten. I don't see how a man could ask for anything better than
this. Even then I wouldn't be away from home as much as I often was in
my old life. There were many dreary stretches towards the end of my
service with the United Woollen when I didn't get home until midnight.
And the only extra pay we salaried men received for that was a
brighter hope for the job ahead. This was always dangled before our
eyes by Morse as a bait when he wished to drive us harder than usual.
I had my choice of a course in carpentry, bricklaying, sheet metal
work, plumbing, electricity, drawing and pattern draughting. The work
covered from one to three years and assured a man at the end of this
time of a position among the skilled workmen who make in wages as much
as many a professional man. Not only this but a man with such training
as this and with ambition could look forward without any great
stretch of the imagination to becoming a foreman in his trade and
eventually winning independence. All this he could accomplish while
earning his daily wages as an apprentice or a common laborer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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