The Cairo bulletin. [volume] (Cairo, Ill.) 1872-1878, 1876-06-13
SAVING.
A Young Clerk Made Rich by
Good Advice.
How Poverty 10 Invoked by spendthrifts.

tFrom the New York Evening Post.l
Ayoung man, a clerk in one of the Wall
street moneyed institutions, applied to one
of our distinguished merchants, who is q
director, and asked him for his influence to
get bis salary raised.
The merchant said to him: Chow much
is your salary now." ".Twelve hundred
dollars" was the answer.
Question.-How much do you save
year? Answer.--Not one dollar: with a
wife and tive children can only Just make
both ends meet.
Q.-What! don'tsav any thing? A.-No
sir; can but inst exist
OIL make it rule to assist no one who
does not save something every year. No
matter how small his pay, something should
be saved. How many cigars do you smoke
and their cost! A. We'll, some three a
day; costing, together, about twenty cents.
Q.-Do you 60 to the theatres, and how
often; and how many persons do you take
times Turing the wIfer:. With my my wife ana
sister, costing, including railroad fare,
say $50.
Q.-Do you drink ardent spirits, wine,
beer, etc.: Al generally take two glasses
of whisky daily, and sometimes glass of
ale with my wife at the gardens in the
evening.
Odd you say You cannot save any
thing? while your unnecessary yearly sx-
penses for cigars, drinks, and amusements
by your own showing, cannot cost less than
s2o0. Until you begin to save, raising your
salary would do you no good. Begin to-day
to save, if only five cents day. Try saw
ing six months and report to me the result
At the. end of the time the young man
brought the merchant his expense-book
showing a clear saving of $104 20. This in.
duced the merchant to take him cordially
by the hand down to the institution, and
urge the president to increase his salary
from 1890 to $1,000. In smother six
months. his savings amounted to almost
$500. The merchant, to this showing, said
to him "Young man, you are now on
the road to wealth and position. 90 down
to my brokers and ask them to buy $40 900
worth OF such and such stocks, and / will
pay for them and give you the profits"
This young man is now worth some $50. 900
all due TO the saving OF the first 500.
The merchant, no doubt, is daily made
happy every time he sees the Institution by
the delightful reflection Of having saved
this man as well as his family.
There are now hundreds of families in
New York who are highly cultivated, that
do not know where their next meal is com.
ing from. Could they have had the advice
Of this old merchant, and followed it, they
would now be in affluence, not beggary.
Only yesterday . highly respectable lady,
with three young daughters, applied for
immediate assistance to buy bread. Her
husband had recently died, after enjoying
salary for some twenty years OF from
$4,000 to $4,000, without having saved any.
thing. The practical result of this case is,
that this lady has for twenty years secured
every luxury within her reach, while l am
indebted for all l now have to the denial of
luxuries for myself and family, and am now
asked to help to support her out of my saw
ings, such as she would not make for her.
0Chs WIN hci piCSShI NlcWS OI economy
she sees how she could have lived on half
his salary. Had she done SO, it would
amount to $4,000, the interest of which
would have made herself and her children
independent tor life. Such cases do not
warmly commend themselves to my charity.
Such people must be taught by natural laws
that they must save OF be liable to starvs.
Another case occurs to me. A young
man, recently married, has put up his car
riage with livery on salary Of 1900
year. One Of three things will soon, pro-
badly, follow. The carriage win be laid
down, or defalcation will come next, and
ruin or beggary follow. All this reminds
me OF the old maxim that nineteen persons
out OF every twenty who are now respect
able would not be 90 II they could get the
means to make themselves otherwise. This
man with his carriage on $4,000, il one Of
the nineteen.