New-York tribune., 1867-02-18
ASPIRATIONS 10 BE RICH.

Dear Sir / am D Door boy would like to get rich.
Now what shall dOl would like TO quit this section
don't want remain my fathers farm. Please give
me the best advice you can, and Obiige, Yours, g. GGs"
! AnSwer.-Thc aspiration to be rlch-though
! by no means the highest that can impel ca
recr-is, in orT view, wholesome and laudaDle.
| The youth who says, "Let me be rich any hor,
" and before all other considerations" Is very
! likely to bring up in some State Prison; but
he who consistently says, Let me first be just,
| honest, moral dligent useful then rch,' Is Oh
| the right road Every boy ought TO aspire to
| be rich provided he can be without unfalthfui-
ness to social obligation or to moral principle.
| But how shall he set about getting rich? e?
We would cOncisely say
| |. Firmly resOIre Rerer 10 ore debt-it is the
! fundamental mistake of most boys to suppose
| that they can get rich faster on money earned
! by others than on that earned respectively by
! themselves. If every youth of Is to % years
were to-day offered $4,000 for ten years at
seven per cent. interest, twO-thirds OF them
would eagerly accept it when the probable
consequence is that three fourths of them would
die bankmpts and paupers. Boys do not need
money half SO much as they need to know how
! to earn and save it. The boy who, at the close
| of his first year of independence, has earned
| and saved 800, and invested or lOaued it where
it will pay him six or seven per cent. will
almost surely become Iich if he lives
while he who closes his first year
| of responsibility in debt, will probably
live and die in debt. There is no greater mis-
| take made by our American youth than that
Of choosing 10 pay interest rather than receive
! it. Interest dcyourS us while We sleep; II
! absOrbs our profits and aggravates ON losses.
! Let a young man ut twenty-five have Sl,OOO
/ loaned on bond and mortgage or invested iii
| public securities, and he will rarely want money
thereafter: i'll fact. that $1,000, invested at seven
per cent, will Of itself make him rich before
| he is sixty There is no rule more important
or wholesome for our boys than that which
teaches them to 20 through life receiving in
| tercst rather than paying it. OF the tormentS
| which afflict this mortal sphere, the first rank
/ is held by Crime; the second by Debt.
II. Icgpre promptly and Thoroughly some use
| Mi cdHiHg.-SOmc pursuits are more lucrative,
! some more respectable, some more agreeable
| than Others; hut a chimney sweeps is far bet |
/ ter than none at all. No matter how rich his
| parents may be. II boy should learn trade
no matter how poor he may be, boy may
/ learn some trade if he will. This City is full
to-day Of young (and old) men who have been
! clerks, book keepers pOrtclS. Ne. Nc, yet can
/ find nothing 10 do, and are starving because
I their foolish parents did not give them trades.
| \ trade is IN estate, and almost always 4 pro
/ ductiye one. \ good. efficient fam-abOrer can
generally find paying work il he does not in
>iSt in looking for II IN a city where II cannot
/ well be; while many a college graduate FAM
! islrs because nobody wants the only work he
/ knows how ~ do. Let nothing prevent your
acquiring skill in some branch of productive !
! industry.
/ Ill. ErsoIrc not 10 be rorcr.-"A A rolling !
stone gathers no moss but is constantly
. thumpcd and knocked, and often shvered 10
| pieces. If you are honest and industrious, you
must be- constantly making reputation, which,
| if Won remain 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 a given day and hour and 90 to work
may he trusted has a property in the contl |
/ dcncc thus created. ii you cannot find your
! work where yOu now are migrate but dO 1t |
once for all. When you have stuck your stake, |
stand by it
". COmprehend Hdf there is Irork almost |
ereryrhere Jor him rLo can do t--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 a million more peoplel on the soil of |
! a ~,
productive acres within days ride of this |
City that might be bought and rendered largely |
fruitful at Il clear profit of 500 or more per |
acre A man in Niles, Mich, declined to go |
gold-hunting in the Rocky Mountains because |
there was more gold in Niles than he could !
get hold of. The reason was n good one, and !
it applies almost everywhere. If you can find |
nothing to do where yOu are, 1t is generally /
because you can do nothing.
T. Rcdli:e that he WhO earns sir-pence per day !
more than he spends must get rich. Whiie he |
WhO spends Sir-pence more than he earns |
must become poOr.-This is 4 very hackneyed |
truth; but we shall never bc done needing lis /
repetition. Hundreds of thousands are not |,
only poor but wrctChed to-day, simply because !
they fail 10 comprehend or will not heed 1t. /
! We Americans are not only an eXtravagant |
but an ostentatious people. We habitually |
spend too much on our own stomachS and our
neighbors' eyes. We are continually i'll hot
water, not because we cannot live in comfort
ON our means but because we persist in spend
ing more than need or can afford. Our
youth squandcr in extra food and drinks in
froc and dissipation, which does them harm
instead of good. the means which should be
the nest egg of their future competence When