The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1867-05-16
A Path to Fortune.
BY TIIEoDoRE TILToN.


used to think that Mr.. Greeley wa
ungenerous in advising young men nc
10 seek their fortunes in the great elite:
but in the country districts, particnlarl
as he himself had come from ccuntr
district, and found his fortune in grcs
city. But q winters travel through bot
country and city has convinced me tina
: his oft repeated views on this subjec.
/ and his special earnestness in the advo
! cacy, are abundantly justified by tn
! facts. 80
+. left behind me in New York thous
ands Of young men, struggling hard t.
get footing in the world earning scarce
! ly enough to keep soul and body to
, gether, yet who, if they had the courag,
to conquer new country, might easily
achieve for themselves that moderate
wealth which is always and every where
the best of good fortune.
Every great Americas city. at the pres.
ent moment, is overrun with applicants
for something to do. Chicago, like New
York, is crowded with young men who
have focked to it, like moths to q candle,
only to be devoured by the flame. The
devils chief temptation to a young man
in the West is to prompt him to keep q
store. "Buy a stock Of goods. says the
great adversary. And ofthe multitudes
who listen to the suggestion nearly all
are ensnared. The prospect appears bril-
liant; but the result proves fatal.
1t is not an understatement to say that
the majority of Western farmers succeed
more accurate statement would be, that
with the exception Of a small minority
of Western merchants, all fail; while,
with the exception of a small minority
of Western farmers, all succeed In
view Of these undisguised and warning
facts, it is astonishing to see so many
young men who, on coming from the
East to the West. to begin career,
wreck themselves at the outset of delib-
erately choosing the wrong channel to
success.
l was walking with an experienced
merchant around the market square Of a
Western town, to whom I happened to
put the question, GLOW many of the hun
dred and twenty business firms around
this square do you personally know ?n
8. Il Ky know them all "he -yyenlied. "Haw
ness ?'' s.Only three He then explain
ed that these three were growing rich
that dozen others were earning living;
but that the great majority of the remain
der must sooner or later, one after an
other, drop into bankruptcy
On the contrary, almost every old es
tablished farmer whom met in the West
has told me such tales Us this:-"1 came
here ten Cor perhaps fifteen) years ago,
worth five hunderd dollars, (or perhaps
and now can sell my proper
ry for dozen or twenty thousand dol
lars" Thus it almost seems as if store
were an open gate to failure, and farm
an open road to success.
1t requires an unusual aptitude Of
mind to conduct mercantile business.
This aptitude is possessed by so few that
every beginner ought to take for grant
ed .hat he does not hold the talisman,
until he finds by an unmistakable instinct
that he is really one of the few and for
tunate masters of the knack. l do not
mean to say that the man who can not be
a merchant can be farmer. Mother
Earth is a good judge of men she will
not yield her crops to the thriftless and
the inefficient. But the farmer runs
fewer risks than the merchant The
farmer gives safe credit to God and
Nature; the merchant gives an unsafe
credit to man. The seed time knows
that its promise will be fulfilled by the
harvest; but promissory note of hand
never can know whether its promise is
to be broken or not.
~N