The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1867-02-28
From the n. Y. Tribune.
ASPIRATIONS TO BE RICH.


like to get rich. Now what shall / do
L would like to quit this section. don't !
want to remain on my fathers farm
Please give me the best advice you can,
and oblige. Yours, G. G. g"
Ans'cer.-The aspiration to be rich
though by no means the highest that can
impel career,-is, in our view, whole
some and laudable The youth who says,
"Let me be rich any ho,c, sand before all
other considerations" is very likely to
bring up in some State Prison; but he
who consistently says, "Let nae first be
just, "honest, moral, diligent, useful
then rich," is on the right road Every
boy ought to aspire to be rich, provided
he can be without unfaithfulness to social
obligation or to moral principle
But how shall he set about getting rich?
We would concisely say:
L. Firmly resolUe neUcr to o1ce q debt
1t 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 $40 900 for ten years at seven
per cent. interest, two-third of them would
eagerly accept it !; when the probable con-
sequence is that three fourths of them
would die bankrupts 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
500, 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 re-
sponsibility in debt, will probably live
and die in debt. There is no greater mis-
take made by our American youth than
that of choosing to pay interest rather
than receive it. Interest devours u. while
we sleep; it absorbs our profits and aggra-
Yates our lasses. Let young man at TWEEN
ty-fve have 1000 loaned on bond and
mortgage or invested in public securities,
and he will rarely want money thereafter: in
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 go through life receiving
interest rather than paying it. OF the
torments which afflict this mortal sphere,
the first rank is held by Crime the Sc
cond by Debt.
Ii. Acqaire promptly and Thoroughly
some usefuI calEing-Some pursuits are
more lucrative, some more respectable,
some more agreeable, than others, but a
chimney-sweep's is far better than none
at all. No matter low rich his parents
may be, 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, bookkeepers, porters,
&c, &C., yet can find no thing to do, and
are starving because their foolish parents
did not give them trades A trade is an
estate, and almost always productive
one. a good, efficient farm -laborer can
generally find paying work if he hoes not
insist in looking for it in city where it
cannot well be; while many college
graduate famishes because nobody wants
the only work he knows how to do-Let
nothing prevent your acquiring skill in
some branch of productive industry.
III. ReSotpe not to be q rouer.-"A
rolling ''stone gathers no moss" but is
constantly thumped and Knocked, and Of
ten shivered to pieces. If you are honest
and industrious, you must be constantly
making reputation, which, if you remain
in one place, lips 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 90
to work may be trusted, has property in
the confidence thus created. If you can
not 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 aoork
almost eUerychere for him acho can do Il.
Ireland some sixty years ago, end got very
rich there by gradually establishing lines
of passenger conveyances all over that is
land 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 five cent stamp to begin with
There is work that will pay for million
uoIc peopic ou the SUI Vi COHuccticut
alone. There are millions of unproduc-
tive acres within days ride of this City
that might be bought and rendered large
ly fruitful at clear proft 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 good one, and it applies al
most everywhere. If you can find moth
ing to do where you are, it is genearlly
because you can do nothing
Y Realize that he aoho earns sir,penee
per day more than he spends must get
rich, ,ohile he acho spends si.spence more
than he earns must become pOor.-This
is very hackneyed truth !; but we shall
never be done needing its repetition.-