The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1867-03-20
How to Get Rich.

"Dear Sr-I am a poor boy. would
like to get rich. Now what shall do?
would like to quit this section. don't wan
to remain on my fathers farm Please give
me the best advice you can, and obljge, yours
G. G. s."
Answer-The aspiration to be rich-thougl
bv no means the highest that can mpel ca.
reer-is, in our view, wholesome and Iauda-
anyhow, and before all other considerations, -
is very likely to bring up in some State prison;
but he who consistent y 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 with
out unfaithfulncss to social obligations 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 bows to
suppose that they can get rich faster on money
earned by others than on that earned respect
lively by themselves. If every youth of eigh-
teen or twenty-five years were to-day offered
$4,000 for ten years at seven per cent. inter-
est, two-thirds of them would eagerly ac-
cept it, when the probable consequence is,
that three fourths of them would die bankrupt
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 one hundred 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 re-
sponsibity 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 receive it, Inter
est devours us while we sleep; it absorbs our
profits and aggravates our LOSSES Let a Young
man at twenty five have $1,000 loaned on
bond and mortgage, or invested in public Sc
curities, and he will rarely want money there
after; 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 60 through life receiving inter-
est rather than paying it. Ofthe torments
which affiict this mortal sphere, the first rank
is held by crime. the second by debt.
II. Acquiring promptly and thoroughly
some useful calling. Some pursuits are more
lucrative, some more respectable, some more
agreeable, than Others but a chimney sweeps
is far better than none at all. No matter how
rich his parents may be, a boy should learn
trade; no matter how poor he 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
A fpoH an off oil al
ways productive one. A good efficient farm
laborer can generally find paying work if he
does not insist in looking for it in city where
it cannot we'll be; while many a college grad
uate furnishes because nobody wants the only
work he knows how to do Let nothing pre-
vent your acquiring skill in some branch of
productive industry.
Ill. Resolve not TO be rover. GA rolling
stone gathers no MOSS" but is constantly
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 bod carrier or
street sweeper, who has proved that his prom
Use to appear on given day and hour and go
to work, may be trusted, has property in the
confidence thus created Ifyou 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 ltal- |
ian named Bianconi settled in Ireland some
sixty years ago, and got rich there by gradu-
ally 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 fortune must be mad. He who
knows how, and will work. can get rich grow
ing 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 unproductiye acres within days
side of this city that might be bought and rem
dered largely fruitful at profit of hundred
dollars or more per acre. A man in Niles,
Michigan, declined to go 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 almost
everywhere. Ifyou can find nothing to do
where you are, it is generally because you can
do nothing.
'. Realise that he who earns sxpence 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 hackneyed
truth but We shall never be done needing
its repetition. Hundreds of thousands are not /
only poor but wretched today, simply because t
they fail to comprehend or will not heed it. t
We Americans are not only an extravagant {
but an ostentatious people. We habitually |
spend too much on our stomachs and our t
lelghborS' eyes. We are continually in hot I
water, not because we cannot live in comfort
IN our means, but because we persistin spend
ng more than we need or can afford. Cur s
youth squander in extra food and drinks, in r
rofc and dissipation, which does them harm
instead of good, the means which should be
he nest-egg of their future competence. }
W hen cares and children cluster about them,
hey grumble at their hard fortune forgetful
hat they wasted the years and means which 5
night and should have saved them from pres }
mt and future poverty. =
All these are very trite, homely truths. All =
'ur boys have heard them again and again v
'ut how many have laid them to heart? We II
ssure G. G. s., and every other youth, that II