The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-08-12
4.s,u saa y,i,sst|sIa,


The first and main step toward obtain
Ing q competency Of ten, twenty, or fif-
" thousand dollars, Is the securing OF
one thousand; the chief d1nlciilty In get
ting tleone thousand b IN Ootatning the
first hundred and keeping e. Hackney
cd as this may appear, 1t y = met that Is
ever new, and one that ever media to be
drummed into the ears Of the struggling
millions who work hard and look with
straining vision, bat In vain. for the COM
ing Of Plentiful days. And especially
dos this hOsnelY philosophy Of wealth
need TO be cznphasf1ed 1t the present
time, and Impressed upon the young men
Of this genesati0d, since the prevalent
tendency, now more than ever before. Is
for beginners in married or business life
to adopt such u scale Of personal and
family expenditure a. must render thrift
impossible. The youth Of our time seem
likely to forget that easy circumstances
In middle or mature age are, as rule,
only to be purchased at the cost Of rigid
elf-denial In earlier years. The son and
daughter are ambitious. to begin in life
where their parents left of-in other
words they wish to reap where they have
not sown, or before they have sOwn, and
the result is, lives Of make-shift anxiety
and failure. Most Of those who are real
ly industrious, and yet find themselves
&C the noon Of life with only his daily eff
forts between their families and want,
could have been In more comfortable cir
cumstances, had they early learned the
lesson that the key to competency lies
in the practice Of rigid economy at the
outset Of life. - -
He who does not begin to save when
he commences life for himself will rare
" begins ut all, for where not even the
nucleus of q modest fortune has been
early acquired, family expenses will,
after time, grow as fast as the income,
and the two keep abreast ever afterward
Some of the ways in which even small
sum, actually saved and put aside in ear
ly life, serves as stepping stone to fii-
ture competence, are theses:
The saving gives the young man the
reputation among his neighbOrs and bus
ness associates Of being careful, frugal.
and prosperous. 1t gives him what il
called a good business credit, it is ac-
cepted as an index of his business char
acter, and instead of his being forced to
seek employment, opportunities seek
him. Besides, his little ready capital
enables him to take advantage of bust
ness openings which, if wholly empty
handed, he could not aspire to, 1t ena-
bles him soon to become his own EN-
ployer-a most important consideration
Money begets money. Capital has nat
| ural tendency to increase itself, and a
very little capital in the hands ola judi
ciOus person, and combined with the Ia
Dor Of strong and skillfui hands, is u vast
help. The day laborer or the mechanic
who has n few hundred dollars i'm the
bank, or invested in a good intercst-bear-
| ing security, is capitalist rs well as a
Nottingham, and Is prepared to reaI
the advantages of his double capacity.
But mainly, the saving and keeping
of the first hundred or the first thousand
dollars is the key 90 future success, from
the fact that it builds up business char
acter; it compels the formation of habits
of economy, and fixes them for life; il
puts the young worker on the right road
accustOms him to keeping out of debt
drills him i'm the homely science OF keep
| ing his financial matters snug, and builds
up a granite determination to force cX-
penses below incomc.--N. Z. Homestead