The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-02-21
ASPIRATIONS TO BE RICH.
A Boys Letter to am Editor and the
Answer TheretO--GOOd Advice for
Everybody 10 Follow.

A Boys Letter to AN Editor and tho
Answer TheretO--GOOd Advice for
Everybody 10 Follow.
I.a From the Ne1V York Tribune.
A youth writes us as follows-and his
case is like that of SO many others that
we treat it this publicly, suppressing
his name: ~.
''Dear Sir: 1 am poor boy. would
like to get rich. Now what shall do
1 would like 10 quit this section. /
farm. Please give me the best advice
you can, and obliGe,
AnSVer.-The aspiration to be rich
though by no means the highest that
can impel career-is, in our view,
wholesome and laudable. The youth
who says, "Let me be rich any hoV,
''and before all other considerations"
is very likely to bring uPin the State
prison; but he who consistently saws,
''Let me 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
l. Firmly TeSoLUe neUeT- to olUe a 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 them
selves. II every youth of Is to 25 wears
were to-day offered $40, 600 for ten years
at seven per cent. interest, two-thirds
of them would eagerly acceptit; when
the probable consequence is that three
tourths OF them would die bankrupts
and paupers. Boys do not need money
half so much as they need to know
how to earn it and save it. The boy
who, at the close of the first wear ofin-
dependence, has earned and saved SIOO
and invested or loaned 1t where it will
pay him six or seven per cent, will al
most surely become rich if he lives;
while he who closes his first wear of
responsibility in debt, will probably
live and die in debt. There is no great-
er mistake made by our American
youth than that of choosing to uav in
terest rather than receive il. Interest
devours US while we sleep; it absorbs
our profits and aggravates our losses.
Let ii young man at twenty-five have
81 600 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 be-
fore he is sixty. There is no rule more
important or wholesome for our bows
than that which teaches them to 90
through life receiving interest rather
than paying it. OF the torments which
afhict this mortal sphere, the first rank
is held by Crime; the second by Debt.
2. Acquire promptly and thoroughly
some uSefut cdtLing.-Some pursuits are
more lucrative, some more agreeable.
than othersi but u chimney-sweep's is
far better than none at all. No matter
hFN -i1tr fnTE
should learn a trade; no matter how
poor he may be, boy may learn some
trade If he will. This city is full today
of young land old) men who have been
clerks, book-keepers, porters, dc.. &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 a productive
one. A good, efficient farm-iaborer can
generally find paying work il he does
not insist in looking for it in a city
where it cannot we'll be; while many n
college graduate famishes because no.
body wants the only work he knows
how to do. Let nothing prevent Your
acquiring skill in some branch of pro-
ductive industry
3. ResLoUe not to be a ToUer.-"A roll
ing stone gathers no moss" but is con-
stantly thumped and knocked, and
often shivered to pieces. If you are
nOhcSL anu YOU must Da
constantly making reputation, which,
if you remain in one place, helps YOU
along the road to fortune. Even bod-
carrier or street-sweeper who has prov
ed that.his promise to appear on a given
day and hour and go to work, NAV be
trusted has property in the confidence
thus created. If you cannot find your
work where you now are, migrate; but
do it once for all. When you have
stuck your stake, stand by il -..
4. Comprehend that there is tVork
almost epeJyyheTe for hiDl lVho can do It,
An Italian named Bianconi settled
in Ireland some sixty years ago, and
got very rich there by gradually estab-
fishing lines of passenger conyeyances
all over that island. Almost any man
would have said that he who went to
Ireland to make his fortune must be
mad. BE who knows how, and will
work, can get rich growing potatoes in
New England, though he hasn't q five
cent stamp to begin with. There is
work that will pay for a million more
people on the soil of Connecticut alone,
There are millions of 'unprOductive
acres within a days ride OF this CITY
that might be bought and rendered
largely fruitful at 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 a good
one, and it applies almost everywhere.
If you can find nothing to do where
! you are, it is generally because you
can do nothing. fr-
5. Realize that he iDho earns six-pence
per day more than he spends must 0et
rich, I0lsiLe he ICho spends siz. pence more
than he earns must become pooT.-This is
a very hackneyed truth; but We shall
never be done needing its repetition
Hundreds of thousands are not only
poor but wretched to-day, simply be
cause they fail to comprehend or viii
not heed il. We Americans are not only
an eXtraVagant but an ostentatiou.
people. We habitually spend too mucE
on our own stomachs and our neigh
bors' eyes. We are continually in hot
water, not because We cannot live il
comfort on our means, but because We
persist in spending more than we neeC
or can afford. Our youth squandeT IL
extra food and drinks, in frolic anC
dissipation, which does them harm in
stead of good, the means which SHOULD
be the nest-egg of their future cOmpe
7 tence. When cares and children clns
ter about them, they grumble at thei
hard fortune, forgetful that they waste
the years and the means which nigh
, and should have saved them from pres
-ent and future poverty. ~
I The Pope is reported to have give
his impressions of the heads of th
English liberal party, recently resideu
in Rome, as follows: "Lord Clarendo
I like and understood. Mr.. Gladston
liked but couldn't understand, Th