Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1867-03-05
From the New York Tribune. |
Aspirations to be Rich.


Aspirations to be Rich.
A youth writes us as foows-and his case is
like that Of so many others, that we treat it
thus publicly, suppressing his name:
Dear Sir am a poor boy. I would like
to get rich. Now what shall I do? I would
like to quit this section. / don't want to re-
main On my fathers farm. Please give me the
best advice you can, and oblige, yours,
''G. G. S..
Answer-The aspiration to be rich-though
BY no means the highest that can impel ca
reer-is, In our view, wholesome and laudable.
The youth who says let me be rich anyhow,
and before all other considerations is very like
ly to bring up in some state prison; but he who
consistently says, Let me first be just, honest,
moral, dlilgent, useful, then rich, is on the
high road. Every boy ought to aspire to be
rich, provided he can be without untaithfulness
to social obligation or to moral principle
But how shall he set about getting rich? We
would concisely say;
l. Firmly resolve never to owe debt. It is
the fundamental mistake of most boys to sup
pose that they can get rich faster OH money
earned by others than on that earned respec-
lively by themselves. If every youth Of eigh-
teen or twenty-five years were to-day offered
$l0 900 for ten years at seven per cent interest,
two thirds OF them would eagerly accept it;
when the probable consequence Is that three
tourths OF them would die bankrupt and pau
pers. Boys do not need money half so much as
they need to know how to earn and save it.
The boy who, at the first year of independence,
has earned and saved one hundred dollars, and
invested or loaned it where it will pay him SIX
or seven per cent. Will almost surely become
rich If he lives; while he who closes his first
year Of responsibility in debt will probably live
and die Ill debt. There is no greater mistake
made by our American youth than that Of choos
ing to pay interest rather than receive it. In
terest devours US while we sleep it absorbs our
profits and aggravates our losses. Let a young
man of twenty five have ST. 900 loaned on bond
and mortgage or invested in public securities,
and he will rarely want money thereafter In
fact, that 81 900 invested at seven per cent.
will OF itself make him rich before he is sixty.
There is no rule more important or wholesome
tor our boys than that which teaches them to
go through lie receiving interest rather than
paying it. Of the torments which lnflict this
mortal sphere, the first rank is held by crime,
the second BY debt.
II. Acquire promptly and thoroughly some
useful calling. Some pursuits are more lucra-
tive, some more respectable, some more agree
able, than others; but chimney sweep is far
better than None at all. No matter how rich
his parents may be, boy should learn a trade
no matter how poor he may be, a boy may learn
some trade if he will. The city is full to-day of
young land old) men, who have been clerks,
book-keepers, porters, &C., &C., yet can find
nothing to do, and are starving because their
foolish parents did not give them trades. A
trade is an estate, and almost always produc-
tive one. A good efficient farm-laborer can
generally find paying work if he does not insist
in looking for it in city where it cannot well
be; while many college graduate famlshes be-
cause nobody wants the only work he knows
skill in some branch Of productive industry.
LII. Resolve not to be a rover. "a rolling
stone gathers no moss, but is constantly thump
ed and knocked, and often shivered to pieces.
If you are honest and Industrious, you must be
constantly making reputation, which. if you re
main In one place, helps you along the road to
fortune. Even hod carrier or street sweeper
who has proved that his promise to appear On
given day and hour and go to work may be
trusted, has property in the confidence thus
created. Ii you cannot find your work where
you now are, migrate; but do it once for ALL
When you have stuck your stake, stand by it.
". Comprehend that there is work almost
everywhere for him who can do it. An Italian
named Bianconi settled in Ireland some sixty
years ago. and got very rich there by gradually
establishing lines OF passenger cOnveyanceS all
over that island. Almost any man would have
said that he who went to Ireland to make his
fortune must be mad. He who knows how,
and will work, can get rich growing potatoes in
New England, though he hasn't a five cent
stamp to begin with There is work that will
pay for million more people on the soil of
Connecticut alone There are millions of un-
productive acres within day ride of this city
that might be bought and rendered largely fruit
ful at a clear profit of hundred dollars or more
per acre. A man in Niles, Michigan. declined
to go gold hunting in the Rocky Mountains be-
cause there WAS more gold in Niles than he
could get hold of. The reason was good one,
and it applies almost everywhere If you can
find nothing to do where you are, it is general
ly because you can do nothing.
V. Realize that he who earns sixpence per
day more than be spends must get rich, while
ne who spends slxpence more than he earns
must become poor. This is very hackneyed
truth !; but we shall never be done needing its
repetition. Hundreds Of thousands are not
only poor but wretched to day. simply because
they fail to comprehend or viii not heed il. We
ostentatious people. We habitually spend too
much on our own stomachs and our neighbors'
eyes. We are continually in hot water, not be-
cause we cannot live in comfort on our means,
but because we persist in spending more than
we need or can afford Our youth sauander in
extra food and drinks, in frolc and dissipation,
which does them harm instead of good, the
means which should be the nest-egg of their
future competence When cares and children
cluster about them, they grumble at their hard
fortune; foregetful that they wasted the years
and means which might and should have saved
them from present and future poverty.