Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1867-10-30

stances: l. 1t was not extensively ad-
vertised at the start, and at least an
nually thereafter, as it should have
been. 2. 1t was never really published,
though it had half a dozen nominal
. publishers in succession; 5. 1t was
sent to subscribers on credit, and a
large share of them never paid for it
and never will, while the cost of collec-
ton from others ate up the proceeds 4;
4. The machinery Of news companies,
news offices, expresses, etc, whereby
literary periodicals are now mainly dis
seminated, did not then exist. I be-
lieve that just such a paper, issued to.
day, properly published and advertised,
would obtain q circulation of one hum
dred thousand in less time than was re-
quired to give The New Yorker less
than a tithe of that aggregate, and
would make money for its owners, in
stead of nearly starving them, as mine
did. l was worth at least 81 500 when
it was started; worked hard and liy-
ed frugally throughout its existence;
subsisted for the first two years on the
profits of our jobbing business; when 1,
deeming it established, dissolved with
my partner, he taking the jobbing busi-
ness and l The New Yorker, which
held its own pretty fairly thenceforth
till the commercial revulsion of 1887
swept over the land, overwhelming it
and me in the general ruin. had mar
ried in 1886 July 5th, deeming myself
worth IS 900, and the master of bust
ness which would thenceforth Weld me
for my labor at least 81 900 per annum;
but, instead of that, or any increase at
all, found myself obliged throughout
1887 to confront a net loss of about
500 per week-my income averaging
500 and my ineYitable expenses 5000.
1t was in vain that / appealed to de-
linquents to pay up; many of them
migrated; some died others were so
considerste as 10 order the paper
stopped, but very few of these paid !;
and | struggled on against q steadily
rising tide of adversely that might have
appalled, a stouter heart Often did |
call on this or that friend with intent
to solicit small loan to meet some de.
msnd that could no longer be post
poned nor eTaded, and, after wasting a
precious hour, leave HIM, utterly un-
able to broach the loathsome topic.
have borrowed $500 of broker late on
Saturday, and paid him S. for the use
of it till Monday morning, when
somehow contrived to return it. Most
gladly would have terminated the
struggle by a surrender; but if l had
failed to pay my notes continually fall
ing due. l must have paid money for
my weekly supply of paper-so that
would have availed me nothing. To
have stopped my journal flor / could
not give it away would have left me in
debt, besides my notes for paper, from
fifty cents to two dollars each, to at
least three thousand subscribers who
had paid in advance; and that is the
worst kind of bankruptcy. If any one
would have taken my business and
debts of my hands, upon my giving
him my note for $1,000, would have
jumped at the chance, and tried TO
work out the debt by setting type. if
nothing better offered. If it be sug-
gested that my whole Indebtedness
was at no time more than $1,000 to 81
600, l have only to say that even
81, 900 of debt is ruin to him who keen
ly feels his obligation to fulfill every
engagement, yet is utterly without the |
means OF SO doing, and VINO finds him
self dragged each week little deeper
into hopeless insolvency. To be hun
CRY, ragged and penniless, is not pleas
ant; but this IS nothing to the horror |
of the bankruptcy. All the wealth Of
the Rothschilds would be poor rec
ompense for five years struggle. with
the consciousness that you had tsken
the money or property of trusting
friends, promising to return or pay for
1t when required, and had betrayed
their confidence through insolvency.
l dwell on this point, for l would de-
ter others from entering that place of
torments. Half the young men in the
country, with many old enough to
know better, would ''go into business
that Is, into debl-to-morrow if they
could. Most poor men are so ignorant
as to envy the merchant or manuf4c-
turer whose life is an ineessant struggle
with pecuI iary difficulties, who is
driven to constant shining" and
whos from month TO month, barely
evades that insolvency which sooner
or later overtakes most most men in
business; so that it has been computed
that but one in twenty of them achieve
a pecuniary success. For my own part
and l speak from sad experience-I
would rather be convict in State
prison, slave in rice swamp, than to
pass through life under the harrow of
debt. Let no young man misjudge
unfortunate, or truly poor, SO
long as he has the full use of his limos
and faculties and is substantially free
from debt. Hunger, cold, rags, hard {
work, contempt, suspicion, unjust re-
proach, are disagreeable; but debt is
worse than them all. And. j
i 1t had pleased God 10 spare either or
all of my sons to be the support and /
;olace of my declining years, the lesson t
which L. should have most earnestly
sought TO impress upon them is, Never J
'un in debit Avoid pecuniary obliga- '
ion as you would pestilence or famine. /
II you have but fifty cents, and can {
get no more for a week, buy a peck of i
,orn, parch it and live on it. rather
han owe any man dollar Of course. G
know that some men must do bust
less that involves risks, and must often I
.iye notes and other obligations, and v
10 not consider him really in debt who I
an lay his hand directly on the means e
II paying at some little sacrifice, all he s
yves; | speak of real dest-that which =
involves risk or sacrifice on the one S
lde, obligation and dependence on the v
'ther-and l say; From all such, let s
very youth humbly pray God to pre-
ierve him evermore t
When a length l stopped the New $
torker, september 20. 1S4I, though o
'oor enough, provided for making C
ood all | owed to its subscribers who Ii
Iad paid in advance, and shut up its v
ooks, whereon were inscribed some
lO,OOO owed me in sums of 81 to SO
ach, by men to whose service | had d
devoted the best years of my K
Ife-years that, though full of labor Fl
nd frugal care, might have been hap.
y, had they not been made wretched
y those mems dishonesty. They took v
ny journal, and probably read it; they
romised to pay for it, and defaulted q
eaVing me 10 pay my psper-maker, il
ype founder, Journeymen, &c., as | v
ould. Ny only roquitsl was sorely
but wholesome lesson. l had v
cen thoroughly burned out, only 81
lving my books, in the great Ann u
rect fire, August 18th, 1885; l was a
urned out again in February, 1915 Il