"John Willie is rather young to have made a final decision, I think. Let
his youthful aspirations run through the usual stages, liftman, engine-
driver, bus-conductor, sailor, etc. At fifteen or so he will have left
these behind, and for the next few years will probably settle down to the
idea of being nothing in particular, or else a professional cricketer. Then
he will suddenly, for good or evil, make his choice. Neither his blue eyes
nor his fair hair give any clue as to what that choice will be, but I
should let him keep both, as they may be useful to him.
"If he should determine upon a career involving manual work, I should take
steps to have him initiated into the Art and Mystery of Bricklaying. At the
rate we are moving the working-hours would probably be about eight per
week, with approximately eight pounds per day salary, by the time he
arrives at bricklaying maturity.
"It is difficult to say yet whether he would have to graduate in Commerce
before being eligible, but probably it would be necessary, as the best
bricklayers, I'm told, always carry a mortar-board, and there is a sort of
caucus in these plummy professions nowadays that is anxious to keep
outsiders from joining their ranks. But the country needs bricklayers, and
will go on needing them for years. Let John Willie step forward when he is
old enough."
To the mother who asked if I considered that her youngest boy would be well
advised to adopt the Housebreaking profession I wrote:--
"To which part of this profession do you refer? If to the Burgling branch I
would ask, 'Has he the iron nerve, the indomitable will, above all has he
the brain power for this exacting craft? Can he stand the exposure to the
night air, the exposure before an Assize jury, and the rigours of the
Portland stone quarries?' If so, let him take a course of illustrated
lectures at the cinema.
"If you refer to the other branch, the mere pulling down of houses, I say,
'No! A thousand times, no!' He should be taught that there is a crying need
for a constructive, not a destructive policy. Let him adopt one; buy him
drawing-paper and a tee-square at once, and teach him that the noblest work
of creation is (unless it be a bricklayer or builder) an architect. Though
the War is over we must still keep the home fires burning. This implies
chimneys, and chimneys imply houses, and few there be that can plan houses
that will both please the eye and pass the local authorities."
Lady Jubb wrote from Toffley Hall, Blankshire, to say that her elder son
(seventeen) had no ideas for the future beyond becoming Master of the
Barchester when he grew up, but that she was anxious that he should try for
some more lucrative post, official preferred.