Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/298

288 gain, a decent livelihood. The artiſans, who fear creating future rivals in buſineſs, refuſe to take apprentices, but upon conditions of money, maintenance, or the like, which the parents are unable to comply with. Hence the youth are dragged up in ignorance of every gainful art, and obliged to become ſoldiers, or ſervants, or thieves, for a ſubſiſtence. In America, the rapid increaſe of inhabitants takes away that fear of rivalſhip, and artiſans willingly receive apprentices from the hope of profit by their labour, during the remainder of the time ſtipulated, after they ſhall be inſtructed. Hence it is eaſy for poor families to get their children inſtructed; for the artiſans are ſo deſirous of apprentices, that many of them will even give money to the parents, to have boys from ten to fifteen years of age bound apprentices to them, till the age of twenty-one; and many poor parents have, by that means, on their arrival in the country, raiſed money enough to buy land ſufficient to eſtabliſh themſelves, and ta ſubſiſt the reſt of their family by agriculture. Theſe contracts for apprentices are made before a magiſtrate, who regulates the agreement according to reaſon and juſtice; and having in view the formation of a future uſeful citizen, obliges the matter to engage by a written indenture, not only that, during the time of ſervice ſtipulated, the apprentice ſhall be duly provided with meat, drink, apparel, waſhing, and lodging, and at its expiration with a complete new ſuit of clothes, but alſo that he ſhall be taught to read, write, and caſt accounts; and that he ſhall be well inſtructed in the art or profeſſion of his maſter, or ſome other, by which he may afterwards gain a livelihood, and be able in his turn to raiſe a family. A copy of this indenture is given to the apprentice or his friends, and the magiſtrate keeps