Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1867-03-08
ASPIRATIONS TO BE RICH.

4 youth writes US as follows-and his
ease is like that Of so many other that we
treat it thus publicly, suppressing his name:
"Dear Sir; am poor boy. would like to
get rich. Now what shah do2 would like to
quit this section. I don't want to remain on my
fathers farm. Please give me the best advice
you can, and oblge. Yours, c. C. s."
dnslcer.-The aspiration to be rich
though By no means the highest that can
impel a career-is, in our view, wholesome
and laudable. The youth who says, Let
me be rich any hoW, 'and before all other
considerations, is very likely to bring
up in some State Prison; but he who con
sistently says, Let me first be just, hon
est, moral, diigent, useful; then rich, is on
the right road Every boy ought to aspire
to be rich, provided he can be without un-
faithfulness to social obligation or to moral
principle
RI. how ehail ilo set about getting rich?
| We would concisely say:
| |. Firmly reS0lUe Rerer 10 ore q deJt--It
! is the fundamental mistake of most boys to
/ suppose that they can get rich faster on
money earned by others than on that earned
/ 1 respectively by themselves, If every youth
/ of Is to 25 years were to day offered $4,000
/ for ten years at seven per cent. interest, two
3 LllAlAS VI NtANtu NQul0 eagerly NCLG pb II,
/ when the probable consequence is that three
/ fourths of them would die bankrupts 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 $780, 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 tc
pay interest rather than receive it. Interest
deyours us while We sleep; it abs0rbs oul
I profits and aggrayates our losses. Let d
young man at twenty FIVE have 81 900 loan
ed on bond and mortgage or invested ir
public securities, and he viii rarely want
money thereafter: in fact, that 81 900, in
vested at seven per cent, will of itself make
him rich before he Is sixty There is nc
rule more important or wholesome for ouI
boys than that which teaches them to &c
through life receiving interest rather thar
paying it. OF the torments which afflict
this mortal sphere, the first rank is held b,
Crime; the second by Debt
1 III. 1cqdre promptly and thoroughly som,
tHetui caHtag.-Some pursuits are more
lucrative, some morerespeetable, some more
agreeable, than others; but chimney
sweep is far better than none at all. Nc
matter how rich his parents may be, bo,
should learn a trade; no matter how poor be
may be, a boy may learn some trade if he
will. This city is full to day of young (anC
oldJ men who have been clerks, bookkeep
ers, porters, &c, &c, yet can find nothing
to do, and are starving because their foolish
parents did not give them trades 4 trade
is an estate, and almost always productive
one A good efficient farm laboror can gen
orally find paying work it he does not insis
IN looking for it in a city where it canno
well be; while many college graduate fam
ishes because nobody wants the only worl
he knows how to do. Let nothing prevent
your acquiring skill in some branch of pro
ductive industry
III. Resofre not 10 be a r0ger.-''A roll
ing stone gathers no moss, but is con
stantly thumped and knocked, and Otter
shivered to pieces. If you are honest and
industrious, you must be constantly making
reputation, which, ifyou remain in one plac
helps you along the road to fortune. Eyel
hod carrier or streetsWeeper who has pro
we'd that his promise to appear on a giver
day and hour and go to work may be trusted
has property in the confidence thus crea