Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1880-08-26
How New Englanders Save Money

Almost any New Highlander can recall
salary Of three or four hundred dollars,
manage by the help of his wife, to live
respectively and comfortably, educate a
large family for self support and social
usefulness, and lay up something every
year against the rainy day, which comes
in all mems lives. We have wondered
how 1t was done, but we know it was
done, and he died at last the possessor of
nice little property. New England has
been noted for its hard soil and its hard
conditions generally, yet there is no 9th
er spot on the face of the earth that con-
tains so much human comfort in the
square mile. Every man born on New
England soil tries and expects to better
his condition during his lite, and he goes
to work at the beginning with this end
definitely In view. The rich men in New
England are men who began their pros
perity with humble savings. Whatever
their income was they did not use it all.
Twenty-Five or fifty dollars year was
considered quite worth saving and laying
by. These small sums, placed at inter
est, accumulated slowly, but surely,
until the day came at last when it was
capital, to be invested In business with
large profits. A fortune acquired in this
way was cohesive, strong and permanent.
We are quite aware that something Of
grace and lovableness was lost in the
habit of these small economies. Men
grew small quite too often, and pinched
and stingy, by the influence of the habit
of penny savings. This has been brought
against New England as areproach, but
New England has replied with truthful
ness and pride, that no people OF the
country or of the world have been more
benevolent than her own economical
children. She points to the vast sums
she has expended on Christian missions
and to the great public charities whose
monuments crown her hill-tops, and shows
that at the call OF Christianity and hu-
mainly her purse, filled with such palms.
taking sand self-denial, flies open and
empties itself to fill the measure of the
public need. At any rate, we know that
there is not State IN all the west that
has not gone to New England for the
money to build her town, and her rail-
roads. and that if she has ever been lag
gard in her Inequalities, such as she has
practiced have been at her own ex-
pense, and not at that of her creditors.
New England is r1ch--and this, after all,
Is what we are trying to say-notwith-
standing hard soil and an inhospitable
climate. Circumstances were against
her from the beginning, and economy
was what enabled her to conquer circum-
stances, and to lift herself to the COM
handing position of wealth and influence
which she holds to-day. The men who
had an income of $500 year, at the be-
ginning live1 on 5000. The man who
had an income of $500 lived on 300.
Those whose income reached 81 900 lived
on half the sum, and SO on. They
pracriced self denial. They had no great
Opportunities for making money, and
knew that wealth could only come tc
them through saving money. The old
farmer who, when asked what the secret
of his wealth was, replied: "When ] got
cent ket' It," told the whole story Of
New England thrift and comfort. DIR
Holland IL AGgust Scribner.