The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1871-11-29
Gpsitiils State aollrnat.
WEDNESDAY EvENpG. NOV. 20, 1871.
HOME INTEREST.
Getting On in the World.

Getting On in the World.
Years ago, in city thousand miles
away, we Sometimes heard the talk of a
very thoughtful young man, who has since
climbed to position in which he associates
with the wisest and best in the land. The
requests that have come to us in MANY let
tiers from young men induce us to give
few lines of this column to a discussion of
things fundamentally important to them.
1.-The mischief OF our society,"" this youth
full Daniel would say, 'the danger of our
Republic, Is that young men of energy and
ambition will respect no success but the
power OF WELDING great masses of capital.
lie who gets control of trunk road, of
line OF steamers, of great bank, or of
quantities of valuable land, deals in nate
rial that everybody understands, and his
power is such as everybody can appreciate.
The danger is that influence in quite diff
ferent sphere will be undervalued. The
most important thing for getting start is
to have certain aims. There is as much
real power in well-mastered knowledge as
there is IN well-invested capital-in fact, no
investment is so sure or SO solid as time.
devoted to storing and polishing the INTEL
lcctnral faculties. We have no distinction
by family IN this country that amounts to
anything. The things which American So
clety honors are the control that capital
gives, and the power of control over public
opinion that is conferred by talent. The
man who aspires to the position and infiu-
ence OF q capitalists must choke most of the
finer and rarer parts of our nature. He
must ride through landscapes as beautiful
as Val d'Arno without seeing them if he
scales mountain, it must be not to feast
his eyes upon grandeur that spreads around
him, but to cipher upon the wealth that
may be in the dips and veins under his
feet. The atmosphere of the counting
room acts like choke-damp on literary
taste. SO the young man of ability must
elect. If he would become a Cornelius
Vanderbilt, he must initiate Capt. Kidd in
the old ditty
II sunk my Bible in the sand
ASH sailed, as sailed
sunk my Bible in the sand,
As sailed"
With the Bible he must sink his Shakes
peare and his Milton; he must sink Lord
Bacon and Burke, William Herschel and |
Isaac Newton. All the Drummond lights
on the headlaEds Of the world must ouench |
their radiance for him they so drink the
oxygen in the atmosphere around them as
to leave nothing to feed grosser flame, -
Twenty or thirty thousand dollars is enough
for any one to be worth who does not pro-
pose to use money simply as a lever. With
this he can enjoy position in society, the
culture OF travel, the delights and dignites
OF hospitality. proposal TO myself to
make about that much money in the course
OF my life, and not any more.n
The first thing toward getting on in the
world is getting q start in the world. The
indispensable habit is the habit of investing.
The young workingnan who spends on
saturday all he earned on Friday and half
what he earned on Thursday, will never be
rich. 1t is doubtful whether he will ever
live IN house of his own. He who gives
his spare hours to the lounge in front Of the
grocery, to retailing gossip from dry goods
box, and discussing which man will whip in
a fight, or which horse will win in race,
viii never influence his fellows. The youth
who, with quick step and bright eye, passes
the groups at the tavern door, passes the
circus tent and the minstrels' hall, passes
the oyster-saloon and the beer-shop. the
cigar store and the bowling-aley, the bill
liard-room and the livery stable, and goes
to his book-shelves and the lonely lamp.
has already made start in life he has
formed the most valuable of all habits.
that of putting his spare time into knowl-
edge. There is way that thousands of
young men propose to themselves for get
ting a start. 1t seems hundred times
easier than earning all you can and saving
all your earn. They calculate on marrying
a girl that has some money. Such an one
says, ''the world is too hard an
oyster for me to open-Tll borrow a wo-
mans scissors; it requires too much exer-
ton to raise the wind with any bellows of
my own blowing-Pll depend upon lady's
fan the sun smtes upon my shoulders, so
III fly to the shade of grl's parasol. -
If so sober q paper as the the Weekly TT1- .
bufse ever penetrates to the boudoir of an
heiress, let US whisper in her ear that dang
sers such as these are unworthy alike Of
her fortune and of her love. In this coun-
try, where every able-bodied young man |
may, by q trade easily learned, earn three
lines as much as it requires to keep him.
It is pitiful confession of weakness if be
either whines over the difficulties of begin
ming life himself, or asks a girl to give him
4 start.-N. y. Tribune.