The Boy Craftsman

The boy of to-day is ever on the lookout for new ideas which can be adopted for his work and recreation, schemes which are practical and which are thoroughly up-to-date. They must be helpful in suggesting ways of earning money, as well as entertaining, for what boy of the present day does not feel the need of such suggestions to aid him in raising the funds necessary to carry on his work?In none of the books published on boy's handicraft has the question entered into consideration as...
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The boy of to-day is ever on the lookout for new ideas which can be adopted for his work and recreation, schemes which are practical and which are thoroughly up-to-date. They must be helpful in suggesting ways of earning money, as well as entertaining, for what boy of the present day does not feel the need of such suggestions to aid him in raising the funds necessary to carry on his work?In none of the books published on boy's handicraft has the question entered into consideration as to how he is to obtain the means with which to buy such materials and apparatus as the work requires. A boy should not expect to draw upon his father's purse for everything his fancy desires. It is important that he learn to earn his spending money, for in doing so he becomes independent and more careful as to how he invests it. Having had the experience of working, the average boy learns to so appreciate the value of hard-earned money that it is pretty certain he will spend it only for something with which he can earn more or which will prove useful to him in his work and play."The Boy Craftsman" has been undertaken with a view of helping boys with their problems of earning money, as well as furnishing recreative and entertaining work, and to this end the first portion has been devoted to suggestions for the carrying on of a number of small business enterprises, and the second and third parts to outdoor and indoor pastimes for all seasons of the year.In "Profitable Pastimes" a boy will find work that will make easy the matter of earning money with which to buy such materials as he needs to carry out the suggestions offered in the book, while the practical knowledge acquired and the handiness developed in pursuing the several lines of work is certain to be helpful to him in later years.The tools and apparatus used are such as a boy of average ability can procure with a little hustling, and can be purchased singly, or two or three at a time, as his money permits. The materials at hand can be used in thousands of different ways, and in preparing the chapters this has been taken into consideration, these odds and ends being utilized whenever it has been possible to do so.Carpenter work is something with which every boy must familiarize himself to a certain extent in order to do anything in the line of construction, so the fitting up of a workshop and the proper handling of tools have been described in the first two chapters, in view of making it a simple matter to perform the work embodied in the rest of the book.Technical terms and phrases have been eliminated from the text as far as possible, and where it has been deemed necessary to include them, to describe certain operations for which a boy should know the proper terms or expressions, they have generally been explained in the first chapter in which they occur. To simplify the matter of referring to the definitions of these, they have been arranged alphabetically in Chapter XXIX.