The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1878-03-13
4 WORD TO YOUNG 1IEN-KEEP-
ING ACCOUNTS.

| Do not laugh, young friend; we WISH
simply, to urge upon all young men
whose habits are yet to be fOrmed-nOt
of enterprise, nor of frugality, nor of
temperance, nor industry and thrift; but
the common place, yet important, duty
of keeping careflI accounts. We do not
believe that we will make ourselves OBJ
noxious to truth by asserting without
qualification, that nine -tenths of our
young men are shamelessly ignorant of
regular business matters. The failure
to keep accounts, and the general neg
! lect to resort to the use Of arithmetical
| calculation in the prosecution of our
| business affairs, has had much to do in
bringing about the present painful finan-
cial condition of the South.
Keeping accounts is not performed by
simply entering every dime spent, but of
so balancing receipts and expenditures
that one may know every day precisely
how he stands with the world, and to
speak paradoXically, with himself. Credt
may be helpful in an organized business,
but when young men are just beginning
10 earn a little money it is wise for them
never to owe a cent, not even for a day.
! 1t is better to 90 without hundred
needed things than to be in debt, and
the poorer you are the more tyrannically
oppressive will debt prove to be. a rich
man may venture to go in debt; he has
resources which have only to be collect
ed to meet it. But the poor man in debt
has only his scant earnings, which often
| barely suffice to pay his daily necessi-
| ties, and leave the debt with accumula-
ting interest to goad him to dishonesty.
1t is wise for every young man to refuse
| to incur debt, and to Oblige himself to
keOr clear and minute account of every
cent gained and spent. The habit once
| formed, it will be as easy to be method
| iCal in money matters as to be careless.
| Small as this may seem, 1t will really
exert moral and disciplinary influence
upon ones whole life. 1t is the surest
| foundation of successful business. If
one begins to get on in life, he will have
~ bee Jme so used to method and to a
clear understanding of his affairs, that
I
see every day just the road he is on, and
how far along he is.
1t may seem superfluOus TO exhort bust
ness men, including our farmers, to pur
sue the same course. But, We dare say,
one-half of them keep their accounts in
such manner that they themselves, or
any one of them, could tell, without
much embarrassment, what their real
standing is. The settling of estates, as
we know from experience, is a melan
choly business. All values seem to
shrink; hundreds of things important to
the estate when imperfectly kept are
irrecoverably lost. Many instances have
come to our knowledge of miserable re-
suits following the death of business
men, arising from the want of thorough
account keepers. 1t ought not to be left
4 question of business prudence. 1t is
part of right living to leave ones af-
fairs so that they can be settled without
Misunderstanding or quarrel. No one
has right to bequeath to his heirs, by
negligence, legacy of difficulties 1t is
a part of good preparation for death to
have ones affairs so that no one will be
injured and no one perplexed and bur
dened.
Parents should bring up both boys
and girls to keep accounts. 1t should be
impressed upon them early and late
shat business of any kind can not be safe
ly carried on without minute and accur-
ate record. After habit of accounts is
once formed, system in affairs and meth
OG in accounts become easy. Instead OF
hindering, they facilitate business, econ.
omize time, give clearness to ones
course, prevent complications, enable
one at any moment to know his actual
condition. and keep his matters so il
called by the arch enemy, Death, to
leave them, he can do SO without a liza
bility of tormenting his family or friends
with a wretched tangle of vexations and
disappointments. Some persons may
smile derisively at the Importance we
have given SD common a matter To
such we would remark: ''There is a
foolish corner in the brain even of the
sage"