The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1870-08-12
A Lesson for Farmer Boys.

The first and main step toward obtain
ing competency of ten, twenty, or fif-
ty thousand dollars, is the securing Of
one thousand; the chief difficulty in get
ting the one thousand is in obtaining the
first hundred and keeping it. Hackneye
ed as this may appear, it is fact thatv
ever new, and one that ever needs to De
drummcd into the cars of the struggling
millions who work hard and look with
straining vision, but in vain, for the 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 prevalent
tendency, now more than ever before, is
for beginners in married or business life
to adopt such q scale of personal and
family expenditure as must render thrift
impossible. The youth of our time seem
likely to forget that easy circumstances
in middle or mature age are. as n rule.
only to be purchased at the cost of rigid
selt-denial in earlier years. The son and
daughter are ambitious to begin in life
where their parents left O1f-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
~ industrious, and yet find themselves
at 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 q competency lies
in the practice of rigid economy at the
outset of life.
lie who does not begin to save when
lac commences life for himself will rare
ly begins ut all, for where not even the
nucleus of modest fortune has been
early acquired, family expenses will,
after time, grow Us fast as the income,
and the two keep abreast ever aftCrward
Some OF the ways III which even small
sum, actually saved and put aside in ear
ly life, serves as stepping stone to flu
ture competence, are these:
The saving gives the young man the
reputation among his ncighbOrS and bus
ness associates OF being careful, frugal,
and prosperous. 1t gives him what is
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 euDtV-
handed, he could not aspire to, 1t cna-
bleS him soon to become his own en-
plOyeT-a most important consideration.
Money begets money. Capital has a nat
ural tendency to increase itself, and a
very 4lLLAC I'll lSilsll III Tic MINUS OF q luuI-
ciOuS person, and combined with the Ia
Dor of strong and skillfui hands, is a vast
help. The 'lay laborer or the mechanic
who has a few hundred dollars lin the
bank, or invested in Il good interest-bear-
ing security, Is a capitalist rs well as q
wOrking-man, 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 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 /:
drills him in the hOmely science of keep
ing his financial matters snug, and builds
UP q granite determination TO force ex-
penses below mooney. L. Homestead.