Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1867-02-28
ALTERATIONS TO BE RICH.
A Boy's Letter TO an Editor and the AM
swer Thereto--Good Advice for Every
body TO Follow. y ..er .rtI

body TO Follow, f.rr t ..sI
From 0e Netc York Tyf5wne, 100, inst.
iii A youth writes us as follows--and his
case is like that Of somany others that
we treat it thus publicly, suppressing his
name: orr. iN
"DEAR SIN, Tam a poor boy. 1wouid like TO
get rich. Now what shall Tdo7 would like 10
yoa can and obiige give nS Yours 5nf NG.t aay1ce
Answer.-The aspiration to be rich
though by no means The highest that can
impel a career-is, in our view, whole
some and laudable. The youth who
says, " Let me be rich any how, and be-
fore 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, diligent,
useful a,en rich, . is on the right road.
Every boy ought to aspire to be rich, pro-
vided he can be without unfaithf hftilness
to social obligation or to moral principle.
But how shall he act about getting
rich? We would concisely say:
/. Firmly resolUe neDeT to oioe 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 them
selves. If every youth of Is to 25 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 tthree-fourths
of them would die bankrupts and pau
pers. 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 earn
cd 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 responsibility in debt, will prob
ably live and die in debt There is
no greater mistake made by our Ameri-
can youth than that of choosing to pay
interest rather than receive it. Interest
devours uswhile we Sleep it absorbs our
profits and aggravates our losses. Let
young man at twenty-five have 1000
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 before he is sixty
There is no rule more important or whole
some for our boys than that which
teaches them to 20 through life receiving
interest rathert than paying it. OF the tor
ments which affiict this mortal sphere, the
first rank is held by Crime; the second
is Debt.
III. acquire promptly and Horoughly
some useful cdlhng.-Some pursuits are
more lucrative, some more respectable,
some more agreeable, than others but a
chimney sweep'sis rbetter than none at
all. No matter how rich his parents
may be, boy should learn trade no
matter how poor he may be, a 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., 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 productive
one. A good, efficient farnl-laborer can
generally find paying work if he does
not insist in looking for it in a city where
it cannot well be; while many a 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. Resolue not to bed rover" A roll
ing stone gathers no moss, but is con-
stantly thumped and knocked, 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
SNeGItT w llO HAS DIONt tu Iifstb lilS pIoliliSt
! to appear on given day and hour and
go to work may be trusted, has prop
erty in the confidence thus created. II
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! '..''
=. Nv. Comprehend that there is Work
almost epe,ysohere for him t0ho can do e.
An italian named Bianconi settled in
Ireland some sixty years ago, and got
very rich there bygradually establishing
| 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. He
who knows how, and will work, can get
rich growing potatoes i'm New England,
though he has MT five-cent stamp to
begin with. There is work that will pay
for million more people Oh the soil OF
Connecticut alone. There are millions
of unproductive acres within days ride
of this City that might be bought and
rendered largely fruitful at clear profit
of 500 or more per acre. A manin 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 IA good'One, and 1T applies
almost everywhere. If you can find
|
ally because you can do nothing.
Y. Reafze that he dUhO earns sir-penct
per day more than he spends must ge'
rich, Whiie he t0hO spends sir-pence PEI
day more than he earns must become
po0r.-This is very hackneyed truth
but we shall never be done needing its
repetition. Hundreds 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 extravagant but an ostentatious peo'
pie. We habitually spend too much Oh
our own stomachs and our neighbors
eyes. We are continually in hot-water
not because we cannot live in comfort on
our means, but because we persist In
spending more than we need or can al
ford. Our youth squander in extra food
and drinks, In frolie and dissipation
which does them harm instead of good
the means which should be the nest-egl
of their future competence. When care:
and children cluster about them, they
grumble at their hard fortune forgetfu
that they wasted the years and the means
which might and should have savet
them from present and future poverty.
. All these are very trite, homely
truths. All our boys have heard then
again and again; but how many hav'
laid them to heart? Measure u. 1t. 5.
and avarv other youth that each maN