Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1870-07-22
5fliscellamY.
The Secret of Thrift.

Will young men consider the thoughts
in the following article, copied from the
Advances
The first and main step towards OBJ
tanning competency of ten, twenty or
fifty thousand dollars, is the securing Of
one thousand; the chief difficulty in get
ting one thousand is in obtaining the
first hundred, and keepingit. Hackney
ed as this may appear, it is a fact that is
ever new, and one that ever needs to be
drummed into the ears of the struggling
millions who work hard and look with
straining vision, but in vain, forthe COM
ing of plentiful days. And especially
does this homely philosophy of wealth
need to be emphasized at the present
time, and impressed upon the young
men of this generation, since the preva-
lent tendency, now more than ever be-
fore, is for beginners in married or bust
ness life to adopt such a scale Of person
al and family expenditure as must rem
der gain or 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 self-denial in earlier
years. The son and daughters are am
bilious to begin life where their parents
leave off-in other words they wish to
reap where they have not sown, or be-
fore they have sown, and the result is,
lives of make-shift, anxiety and failure.
Most of those who are really industrious
and yet find themselves at the noon of
life with only their daily efforts between
their families and want, could have been
in more comfortable circumstances, had
they 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 common
ces life for himselfwill rarely begin it at
all, for where not even the neucleus of a
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 waysin which even very
small sum, actually saved and put aside
in early life, serves stepping stone to
future competence are these:
The saving giving the young man the
reputation among his neighbors and bus
mess associates of being careful. frugal
and prosperous. 1t gives him what is
called good business credit, it is ac-
cepted an index of his business character
and instead of his being forced to seek
employment, opportunities seek him. Be-
sides, his little ready ca pital enables him
to take advantage of business openings
which, ifwholly empty handed, he could
not aspire to. 1t enables him soon to be-
come his own employers most impor-
tant consideration. Money begets mon
ey. Capital has natural tendency to
increase itself, and very little capital
in the hands Of judicious person, and
combined with the labor of strong and
skillful hands, is vast help. The day
laborer or the mechanic who has a few
hundred dollars in the bank, or invest
ment in good interest bearing security,
is capitalist as well as workingman,
and is prepared to reap the advantages
of his double capacity.
But, mainly, the saving and keeping
of the first hundred or the first thousand
dollars is the key to success, from the
fact that itbuilds up business character
it compels the formation of habits Of
economy, and fixes them for life 4; it puts
the young worker on the right road; &C
customs him to keeping out of debt drill:
him in the homely science of keeping his
financial matters snug, and builds up a
granite determination to force expenses
below the income.