The Daily clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1866-1888, 1867-03-09


writes us as follows-and his case il
ike that Of so many others, that VIC
treat It thus publicly, suppressing bis
name: M s se
"DEAR SIR-I am n poor boy, ]
Would like to get rich. Now what
shall do2 / would like to quit this
Section. / don't want to remain on
L. 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 q career--is, in our
IN view, wholesome and -laudable. The
youth who says ''let me be rich any
how, and before all other considera-
tions," is very likely to bring up in
some State prison; but he who con-
sistently says, "Let me first be just,
honest, moral, diligent, useful, then
rich" is on the high 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:
/. Firmly resolve never to owe
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
eigteen or twenty-five years were
offered $4,000 for ten years at seven
per cent interest, two thirds of them
would eagerly accept it, when the prob
able consequence is, that three tourths
ofthem would die bankrupt and pau
pers Boys do not need money half
$50 much as they need to know how to
earn and save it. The boy, who at
the close of his first year of independ-
ence, has earned and saved one hun
dred 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 in debt.
There is no greater mistake made by
our American youth than that of
choosing to pay interest rather than re.
ceive it. Interest devours us while
we sleep; it abs orbs our profits and
aggravates our losses. Let young
man at twenty-five have $1,000 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 i'm
portant or wholesome for our boys
than that which teachers them to go
through life receiving interest rather
than paying it. OF the torments
which affiict this mortal sphere, the
first rank is held by crime, the second
by debt.
Ii. Acquiring promptly and thor
ougly some useful calling. Some
pursuits are more lucrative, some
more respectable, some more agreea-
BILE. than others; but a chimney
sweeps is far better than none at all.
No matter how rich his parents may be,
boy may learn some trade if he will
The city is full to-day of young (and
old men, who have been clerks, book
Keepers porters, etc, yet can find
nothing to do, and are starving be-
cause their foolish parents did not
give them trades. A trade is an es-
tate, and almost always productive
one. A good efficient farm laborer
can generally lind pay ing work if he
does not insist in looking for it in a
city where it cannot well be while
many college graduate furnishes be-
cause nobody wants the only work he
knows how to do. Let nothing pre-
vent your acquiring skill in some
branch ofproductive industry
III. Resolve not to be q rover.
"a rolling stone gathers no moss"
but is constantly thumped. and knock
ed, and often shivered to pieces. If
you are honest and Industrious, you
must be constantly making reputation,
which, if you remain in one place,
helps you along the road to fortune
Even hod carrier or street sweep
er, who has proved that his promise to /
appear on given day and hour and
go to work, may be trusted, has a
property in the confidence thus Great
ed. 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 it!
". Comprehend that there is work !
almost everywhere for him who can
do it. An italian named Bianeoni
settled in Ireland some sixty years
ago, and got rich there by gradually
establishing lines of passenger convey
ances all over the island. Almost
every man would have said that he
who went to Ireland to make his for ]
tune 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 unproductive acres within
a days ride of this city that might be
bought and rendered largely fruitful
at a profit of hundred dollars or
more per acre. A man in Niles, !
Michigan, 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, at
V. Realize that he who earns six.
pence per day more than he spends
must get rich, while he who spends
sixpence more than he earns, must
become poor. This is a very hack
neyed truth; but we never shall be
done needing its repetition. Hun
dreds of thousands are not only poor
but wretched to-day, simply because
they fail to comprehend or will not
heed it. We Americans are not only
an extrayagant but an ostentatious
people. We habitually spend too
much on our stomachs and our neigh
boris eyes. We are continually in hot
water, not because we cannot live in
r.