Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1881-12-21
Economy in Little Things.

Often we fail to take note Of how
much can be accomplished through
the accumulation of pecuniary tri-
tles saved. Wealth comes from
careful savings, more than large
earnings. A little laid up every
year and put at interest soon counts
up. A single deposit even, grows to
handsome proportions. A gentle
man at Taunton, Mass, has shown
us a savings bank book which teach
es lesson to those who despise the
day of small things. A deposit Of
twenty dollars, placed for him by
his grandfather in savings bank al
Newport, Rhode Island, m 1897
and afterwards increased to thirty
dollars, by the addition Of ten dol
lars in 1882 amounted in 1874 to
over four hundred dollars.
Our rising generation should be
reminded that there is no virtue so
easy of practice, and yet so reckless
ly disrcgarded, as economy in little
things.
Steady, small savings grow into in
dependence SO easily that it is more
than wonderful to hear persons who
have power to make them complain
of how hard the world goes with
them. A young fellow with a ten
cent cigar in his mouth-some three
Of which he will smoke in Il day
will unblushingly say he cannot
make both ends meet, any way he
can manage, the while he is putting
off in smoke the very means through
which he could be rich in this
worlds goods.
Samuel Lee, Professor of Hebrew
at the University Of Cambridge,
England, was seventeen years of age
before he conceived the idea of learn
ing foreign language; out Of the
scanty pittance of his weekly earn
ings as carpenter he purchased a
book, and when this was read he ex-
changed it for another, and thus he
advanced in knowledge He had
not even the privilege Of balancing
between reading and relaxation, but
was obIigeS to pass directly from
bodily fatigue to mental eXertion.
During the six years previous to bis
twenty fifth year he omitted none Of
of the hours usually appropriated
to manual labor, and he re.irett~to
rest regularly at ten O'Clock in the
evening; and yet, at the age Of thir-
ty-onc years he had actually learned
seventeen languages!
This illustrates the value of spare
minutes. Many careless people
waste more time every day than is
needed to make them masters of a
science, if well used. Some great
works have been written in intervals
Of ten or fifteen minutes from rcgu-
lar employments.
Any young person who will find
an hour day for reading can easily
acquire large learning. Try what
you can do. Begin now. In after
years you will look back upon the
task as the most pleasant and prof
table you ever performed.
Sir Ashley Cooper had, perhaps,
the largest income ever received by
surgeon in England. 1t amount
ed in some years to about $4,000.
But only through great hardships
did he reach this wonderful success.
When student in the Edinburgh
University, he lived in very mod
est way in a third-story room, at an
expense of about dollar and a hall
a week. The first year after he set
tied in London his whole income
amounted to only twenty-five dol
lars!
We are told that we'll known
American professor once entertained
Prof. Agassiz on a dinner consisting
of potatoes and salt. Three times :
week for many years, this custom
had been kept up, whoever chanced
to be present, and the saving thus
made had been judiciously invested
in books. till the Professor owned
magnificent library.
The late Empress of Germany
was one of the most simply dressed
of women, except on occasions 0
ceremony. Her dry-goods bills ar
said to have been less than those o
the wives Of many merchants. Sh
often drove out in a calico dress
And yet she was very liberal in he
gifts. The Princess Bismarck, fresl
and comely, though nearly seventy
superintends her farm work, goe
about the house with great bunc
of keys at her girdle, watchful {
her family expenditures, and he
house filed with knitted quilts an
such like, the evidence Of her ski
and industry.
| At Ghent, in Belgium, an exper