When he becomes a man, he still remains liable for debts for necessaries incurred before he was twenty-one; otherwise

VOID DEBTS.

All debts of a minor, for goods which are not necessaries, are void in law both before and after the age of twenty-one.

Bills given by a minor are legally worthless; and

Contracts entered into by a minor are void; and

A bill or contract entered into by a person who is of age, to pay for goods that were not necessaries supplied to his order when a minor, is as worthless as if it had been given while he was still a minor.

BOYS IN TRADE.

A boy cannot legally incur debts in the way of trade. If he is intrusted with goods on credit in the way of trade, on his own account, he may sell the goods in the way of trade and spend the money with impunity, as he cannot be sued or prosecuted, unless he has expressly represented himself to be of age in order to procure the goods, which brings him under the criminal law; but he is not bound to give warning that he is not twenty-one.

VALUE OF KNOWLEDGE.

Knowledge such as is imparted by these pages is in a great degree essential to a boy's true appreciation of his position, and with the advantage of such knowledge it will generally be his own fault if he does not do well. While the law absolves him from many responsibilities, it becomes all the more important that the boy should not abuse his freedom. The law will not hold him responsible, but all who know him will; and the best thing that a boy can have is a good character, which he should jealously preserve.

Knowledge, of all things, is wealth in prospect for every boy who is wise enough to use it. The common notion is that as soon as a boy has left school he has done learning everything but his own trade. On the contrary, what. is taught at school constitutes only the elements of knowledge, out of which the broader acquisition of knowledge grows, so that, when a boy leaves school, instead of having finished gaining knowledge, he has only just begun. The sorry figures that ignorant people cut in the presence of the better informed should make a boy ashamed of ignorance, and anxious by every means to get out of it, and, besides that personal consideration, there is the assurance that every bit and scrap of knowledge, picked up from observation or books, will tell its tale in the race of life.

Knowledge is the best promoter and sustainer of thrift; for, by knowledge the full advantages of thrift are made clearer. For the details of thrift, there It is worth while to are opportunities of studying them in other pages.

study separately the Incitements of Thrift; the departments of Thrift, as shown in the particulars of Savings' Banks, Friendly Societies, Co-operation, Building Societies, and the results of Thrift as shown in the lives of so many very eminent men whose examples are worthy of the imitation and emulation of every boy.

THRIFT FOR MEN.

COMING OF AGE.

FOR junior clerks, and youths in miscellaneous employments, where apprenticeship is not usually resorted to, arrival at "the full age of twenty-one" is not of very much immediate importance when only viewed from the thrifty side, and the same may be said of apprentices to shopkeepers, where the term rarely exceeds five years, and usually terminates at about twenty or sooner; but In handicrafts requiring considerable training in manual skill or mechanical knowledge only to be obtained by continuous experience, and where apprenticeship consequently extends in most cases to seven years, and rarely expires before the age of twenty-one, arrival at that age is invariably a crisis, and is. in the life of the majority, a very serious one.

As Robin Ruff sung of the wonders that were to come to pass if he ever came into a thousand a year, so there is a natural aptitude in youth to anticipate with glowing anticipations the advantage and independence of becoming a man. For youths who have been thrifty in all things, who have saved some money, and have made good use in other respects of their energies and opportunities, the anticipation may be fully justified. For them there is generally important promotion and advancement, as the spontaneous reward almost inevitably following the career of a young man who can give the best account of himself; but

For the average youth, who has no special ability or remarkable aptitude-of whom there is nothing particular to say, either against him or in his favour— his position at twenty-one is rather dubious, and cannot fail to be a period of considerable anxiety, much greater than the generality of youth foresees. This is so, whether there has been money saved or not, and it is all the worse where there is none.

For the youth who has been careless and thriftless of time and opportunity, as well as money, his twenty-first birthday is likely to be a rude awakening. He is likely to see with a clearness that he never saw before, that time wasted and reputation lost can never be recalled, and that the best intentions for the future can never wholly cover the follies of the past. This is true where nothing very remarkable has occurred, but where the individual has become recognised as deficient in skill, or application, or manners, the case is so much worse, for there is more in manners than the careless eye of inexperienced youth can generally sec, even in careers that are supposed to depend solely

89

upon mechanical considerations. Where anything very special has occurred to the detriment of character, the case is desperate.

"I was apprenticed at Coventry," said an old carpenter, "and when I was eighteen, being six feet high and stout in proportion, I thought I was a man. So I ran away, managed to make my way to Liverpool, and thence to Canada,. where I worked at lumbering for seven years. At the end of that time, having: seen something of the wide world, and having many brothers and sisters, and my mother still living in the old country, I got homesick and returned."

We do not find that his master took the trouble to compel him to serve out the remainder of his time, and so far he escaped one of the consequences of his recklessness, but he could never entirely get over the reputation he had acquired. Not that there was anything against him in other respects, for he was a decent fellow enough upon the whole, and a good workman, but, in various minor ways, the knowledge of what he had done without any grievance to excuse him, caused the cold shoulder to be turned towards him and stood in his way. Having no more than average ability and no genius, he had to toil to the end of his days, the cloud, small as it was, hanging over him till the last.

DRAWBACKS OF BIOGRAPHY.

It is a drawback to the value of biography that it generally has reference to men who have been exceptionally prosperous or distinguished. Such records may be shining lights in the path of many who have previously walked in darkness, inciting and encouraging to like achievements. But, for the great majority of men, such examples can only be mockeries, as it is impossible for all to become equally distinguished, and a considerable approach to great distinction must ever be reserved for the few. It has been said, of course, that what you have to do is to become one of that few, but that is a vain injunction to all but one in a thousand. It were better for the other 999 if there were more records to appeal to of men who have not been exceptionally prosperous or distinguished, but who have led a creditable and tolerably happy life. Such is the very best that the majority can reasonably anticipate, and the ability to secure that moderate amount of success is the best preparation for any remarkable opportunity for great distinction that may arise.

DEFERRED PROSPERITY.

One of the lessons to be learned from the biographies of most successful men is, that they have rarely attained to their conspicuous success until middle age. To that they have had to pass through a state of probation during which the end was but dimly seen, or, in most cases, not seen at all. In almost every instance the distinguishing feature of the man has been his attention to what he had to do from day to day, without reference to any great end.

PATIENT ENDURANCE.

Patience, then, is the cardinal virtue, as distinguished from recklessness or carelessness of temper. Many young men seem to think that disregard of

1

patience, and an exhibition of recklessness is an evidence of manliness. Hence, it is often heard in the workshop, of a man who is patient and considerate, and who has thriven as a consequence of those qualities, that he is a schemer! Of course he is. Who is not? But the Rugged and Tough notion of a schemer is that he is a sneak.

Christopher North, who was not distinguished as an early riser, wrote that he never knew a man who got up earlier than other people, who did not do so for the purpose of taking advantage of his neighbours. Whether he put that in joke or in earnest is not quite clear, but, from whatever point of view it was written, it certainly embodies an idea that is prevalent enough, though not always openly avowed, that devotion to duty and conscientious discharge of it arises out of sinister motives.

Such prejudices of the workshop need to be dismissed. Meanness and sneaking do exist there, and are proper subjects for hatred and contempt, but the man who gets on by sheer patience and attention to business is the most commendable, and is worthy of all imitation.

OUT OF TIME.

One of the best exercises of patience that a young man can adopt is the determination to remain in the same place after an apprenticeship or other similar term is ended. It is too common a feeling that "when my time is up I can go where I like." That is a delusion. The apprentice who is better than the average can forthwith get engaged as a journeyman at the same place in nine cases out of ten. The average apprentice can generally get re-engaged if he really tries for it.

Seven years, to the youthful mind seems a long time, and quite enough, and there is every excuse for desiring a change, but excuses are poor recommendations. A re-engagement, on the contrary, is the very best recommendation that a young man under such circumstances can have, and nothing should deter him from seeking it. No testimonial to character can be equal to it, though the re-engagement be ever so short. Having secured it, as a reference to his character, he may venture to terminate it whenever there is sufficient inducement to do so.

Holiday-making at the end of an apprenticeship is a weakness that should be avoided with firmness, wherever there is the choice. Many a habit of shackling and unfitness for work has sprung from such a holiday, voluntarily taken in the first instance for a short time, involuntarily submitted to for a time sufficient to impair healthy energy.

OUT OF WORK.

This brings us to the rock upon which so many young men strike, that is, being out of work-out of collar-on the loose. In the abstract it might be supposed that such enforced idleness is calculated to make a man take to work with all the more zest afterwards, but experience does not bear out that conclusion. To be out of employment for any length of time, besides being a

direct loss, is worse still in its indirect consequences, being the worst of demoralisers, from which many men never recover.

The risk of being in such a predicament is the greatest and the most fatal to young men about twenty-one or soon afterwards. Clerks, messengers, porters, and others in nondescript employments, come to the knowledge by that time that the hopeful portion of their career is gone by. They find themselves thrust out by the constant pressure of the ever-advancing army of hopeful and thoughtless youth, with the aggravation that each period of seven years or so, is all to the good of the better educated youth and all to the bad of the weary man who has to make way for him. Every year witnesses, in nearly every counting house and office, an accession to the number of boys in proportion to men, and it is a painful fact for the man who is verging upon the status of a senior, whose only chance is to accept a boy's wages, or, in some cases, to put up with less. How many clerks get beyond that? Only a very small proportion, and the only chance for most is to patiently hold on, always watchful of every special opportunity.

For workmen, and clerks, and everybody, the one great object is to avoid being out of work. To a large proportion, that is a contingency that must arrive pretty early in life, and then the object is how to get into work again. Let no one think his case exceptional. There are many temptations to regard it as such, but, whatever the special difficulties may seem to be, it may be relied upon that others have to contend with other difficulties of equal magnitude.

IN TO WORK.

Seeking employment is one of the weariest of all occupations, and for that reason the sooner it is over the better. To succeed in that occupation and to get it quickly over is the greatest problem that many a young man has to solve. Some take to it like fish to water; others go about it with the greatest possible reluctance.

Shyness, of a certain sort, especially amongst working men, is a serious obstacle to getting a place. Press a workman to tell you candidly why he did not do so and so that would probably have been to his advantage, and the odds are he will say "I didn't like to." That is a state of mind that stands in the way of many a man, but it is especially prevalent amongst workmen. Whenever such a state exists it needs complete reformation.

Reticence is another weakness that often follows or accompanies shyness. The man out of work, especially if he has been out long, gets into the habit of shrinking from observation. It is natural but unwise. His true policy is to make himself conspicuous, taking care to be favourably so, as far as circumstances will permit. The man out of work is also prone to be silent, wishing to conceal his condition from all who are not likely to directly give him what he requires. On the contrary, he should never cease to make his case known, not as one of poverty, or as exhibiting a begging spirit, but as one of determination and earnestness. To call upon his friends and acquaintances or to mention his case to strangers, is one of those things that he will pro