Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1868-12-09

IN which his business drives MIN. IneEe
is difference, also, in the tone and habits
of business communities, there being less
of feverish excitement in Boston and Phil
adelphia than in New York and Chicago.
And the suburbs of some cities, especially y
of Boston, afford an easy and attractive
retreat from the atmosphere of the city,
thus alternating with the fatigues of busl-
ness the repose of a country home. But,
after all, there is little opportunity OF
leisure to one who is under the pressure
of business responsibilities in great city.
That the city affords peculiar opportu-
mites for success in business, and that this
success is sometimes great. rapid, and bril-
liant, are facts that appeal powerfully to
young men who are plodding in the country,
to make trial of city life. With no dis
position to undervalue such success, nor to
detract from its weight as an argument,
we must nevertheless insist upon the cor
responding facts, that all success IS re-
lative, and that instances of rapid and
brilliant success are exceptional; and
while perhaps the majority of successful
merchants in the great cities came origl-
nally, poor and friendless, from country
homes, to push their way in the world,
yet it is not true of the majority OF young
men who forsake country for city lIfe'
that they succeed in business according to
their expectations, or even that they gam
safe and permanent foothOld in the mer-
camille world. In great mercantile COM
munity, the ratio of clerks and book-keep-
ers TO employers and partners is at least
ten to one, and the percentage OF the ten
who rise to be heads of houses Is proper
tionately small.
Persons from the country who succeed
in the hazards of city business usually be-
long to one of two classes,-those who
take with them capital, or a" capacity Tor
influencing trade, which enables them at
once TO form connection with response
BILE house. or those who obtain employment
in a house whose future partnerships are
open to the competition Of merlt,-not be-
ing forestalled by relatives or by capital
lists from without.
Aside from these, there are sometimes
openings By which young men who have
acquired business experience, formed
business acquaintance, and saved from
their earnings modest capital, may enter
into connections of their own choosing, or
start new enterprises with a reasonable
prospect of success. But with the high
rate of rents and of running expenses. in a
large city, and the tendency to the ooncen-
tration of business IN the hands OF few
leading houses, the chances of success for
young men starting independently upon
small means are far from encouraging.
The statistics of business life in the great
.laa;Ial nF tho
Young men who resort to them IN the hope
OF bettering their fortunes remain through
life in dependent and precarious positions,
upon salaries that make 1t impossible
either to marry and bring up family
respectfully, or to accumulate enough from
yearly savings to establish by and by a
business capital. As 4 rule, the chances
are against the success of q young man
who goes to the city to try his fortune
without capital or friends. Not every
Young man is fitted for the competitions
Of city life. and even with the best ad-
vantage, many fail. To be a successful
merchant requires a combination of tact,
energy, shrewdness, caution, enterprise
which few possess the sanguine and the
timid, the plodding and the speculating
are equally deficient in those opposing
qualities which give balance and drive,
GOODNESS and pluck, to the true man O
business Hence a large proportion o
those who attempt the risks of mercantile
life come to disastrous end. We can re
call scores of merchants who, after few
wears of apparent success, have been re
duced by failure to subordinate places up
on moderate salaries And the position 0
clerk in great mercantile house is Otter
as humiiiating as 1t is toilsome. How
much more independent and stable woul,
have been the position of such q man a
, the owner of few acres; how much NOR
=, free from risk and care, how much NOR
real and lasting his success in life. Ii
who stands upon soil that he can call hi
own is sure of subsistence and home b,
iudicious cultivation and wise economy b
can gradually acquire a decent competence
, and feel secure gainst old age. Stringen
: markets, financial revulsions, bushes
panics, may for the moment affect his il
come, but these cannot touch his capita
+ nor shake his security; and at the end 0
twenty years he will find himself better Of
a in respect of provision for advancing Iii
than are the majority Of those who ventur
E into the excitements and risks of trade.
r We here 20 upon the supposition ths
E he who follows farming will put his min
into it. Much that passes under the nam
n of farming is of little profit to the soil {
: its owner. One who contents himself wit
/ being mere digger and ditcher coul
e hardly be worse off By any change. Br
n he who is capable of succeeding in the cit,
by the application of the same talents an
! energy would be sure to succeed in tt
! country, and would have before him
!. higher acreage of prosperity as matte
IS of certainty. In these days of scientif
: agriculture, and of mechanical invention
,s for the relief of manual labor, there is L
4 need that the farmer should be drudg
,s He should rather become the intelligei
:. superintendent Of the working forces
his disposal, directing by his mind whel
once he could only have labored with h
% hands. IF his home is on the broa
70 prairies of the West, he has every ell
a coura cement to skilful cultivation. If
!. is shut up to the rocky soil of New En-:
q land, he may nevertheless learn the prot
=. of /" little farm well titled" by know
6 edge of agricultural chemistry, and a stud
is of the produce best suited to his marke
a The railway helps him to ready mark'
,r for fruits and vegetables brought to earl
,f maturity 1t is of farming as an INTEL
ss gent scientific pursuit that We predi'
,e more satisfactory returns in the course
70 twenty years than can be looked for fro
, the average of business ventures and
!, such farming young men of Intelligent
40 and spirit will find a worthy scope fl