Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-06-03
..sH [From the New York Ledgsr.l
he Poor Before You are Rich.
BY HENRY WARD BEEcHER.


Explain to me, if you can, Mr.. Bon
ner, why it is that so many young peo-
pie are ashamed to have it thought that
they have no money on why tits that
they are ashamed of economy in the
management of slender means, and of
frugality in living. l5Agim ~ r. f5or b,
There is no disgrace in being an acorn
before being an oak. Young people fire.
quently wish that they were grownmen /;
but they are not ashamed otbeing young!
No one is ashamed to have it discovered
that his strength, knowledge and skill
are proportionedt to his years. But these
same persons will blush and suffer
shame, at being supposed not to have
money under circumstances in which all
the sensible world knows that they ought
to have none. 1H'sz 'ssI f0' -6
A young fellow has been put to school
by the rigorous economy of his father
and mother. Only by the very hardest
industry and closest economy can they
sustain him at college. Every single
shilling is important, and like shingles
on the roof, the absence of one makes
the whole house inconvenient. And yet
this lad shall be ashamed to bear his
part in social expenses. He is utterly
unable to say, IL cannot afford it!' 1t
is the harder to say it, / must confess,
because in community of several hun
dred young men, two-thirds of whom
are poor, and the children of poor men,
there is lurking shame of poverty
which radiates into public sentiment and
reflects kind of disrepute upon those
who say, II must deny myself beyond
the barest necessities of life of whatever
costs money" Poverty has enough
trouble without the addition of foolish
and dishonorable sentiments. ..
Who expects young men to have
money to spare? Does not the whole
world know that they are but starting
in life-that as yet they have earned
nothing, and that they inherit no fortune
that they receive but small stipend
and that, if they would be honest they
must practice rigorous economy
Why, then, do young men engage in
pleasure bouts which drain their pockets
dry, and lay them under temptations to
dishonesty for fear people will think that
they have no money! '
Of course folks will think so And
just as much if you are inveigled into
unwise giving, as if you refused A
poor young man ought to be poor until
he has broken the spell of poverty by
industrious enterprise; and he should
rather glory in it, than to be ashamed
of it.
1t is necessary that they should be
frugal; it is not necessary that you
should spend five dollars in taking a
young lady to the opera. 1t is necessary
that one should be honest; it is not nee
essary to attempt to walk in circles of
society that will swallow up the .pitiful
pennies of poverty like quicksand, and
leave only irresistible temptations to
dishonesty. 1t is a good reason for not
joining club, an excursion, riding
party, and still more an extravagant ball,
that "you cannot honestly raise the
Who ought to hold up his
head highest, the young man who quiet
ly says 81 cannot indulge in such ex-
pense," or the fellow who is ashamed to
own poverty, but is not ashamed to steal
the money on which he makes false
I hear good deal of Yankee mean
ness-of the spirit of trade and dicker-
of the stinginess and parsimony Of
northern men. But, while the manner
of showing economy may be unfortunate,
the essential spirit of thirst and economy
is a thousand times nobler than that
freehanded squandering of money which
gives aspurious reputation for generosity
to people who are on the road to bank.
ruptcy, and who have long spent money
not their own with special graceful
ness
Mr.. Bonner, 1 have heard you relate
your earliest experience in a printing
office; your exacting economy; your plain
your. joy in adding twenty dol
lars to your Investments; your industry
in extra hours; your watching advanced
and learning their trade be-
times. In the encouragement of thou
sands of young men, it would be well to
let them see that your success has not
arisen from luck or glittering tricks, but
from the soundest principles of industry,
self denial, and attention to
business.