News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-12-21

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tually coming money in our business"
''Profts ON paper, at best, " answered
d the incorrigible old man. But, my
word for it, if the balance in your favor
is so large, there is mistake in the fig
: ures somewhere. The thing l regard as
simply impossible. You are dashing
ahead at too desperate a speed, my son,
as [ have before declared, and as sure as
any disastrous change in the commercial
world takes place, you viii be hurled sud
denly to destruction.
In anger Harry parted with his father
ON that day. On the next, his bills were
all refused. He called, in surprise, upon
the banker, to ask the reason. There
was stringency in the market, an un-
usual demand for money; j; depositors
were drawing out heavily, and the bank
was restricting its loans. This was the
comfort he received.
He tried to borrow from accommodate
ing neighbors; but everybody had been
cut down or cut off at the bank, and so
everybody was "short A pulse of
fear throbbed suddenly in the heart of
Harry Melville. He looked to his bill
book, and ascertained the amount which
must be paid before four o'clock on the
morrow. The sum reached the uncom-
Portable aggregate of nearly fifteen thou
sand dollars while the bank balance was
below three thousand.
Young Melville considered himself
| great fnancier. His self-confidence
overleaped all possibilities and impossi-
bllltles. But the time of trial and proof
had come now. Credit and confidence
are sensitive things. When banks re-
strict, private discount houses take the
alarm, and the price of money goes up
to ruinous figures. So our young trader
found it. Melville's fnanciering opera
tions on that day were things for after
remembrance he has probably not for
gotten them up to this time. By three
o'clock his bills were all taken, but at a
sacrifice fearful to contemplate.
After glance at his bank book for the |
next day, Melville started for his luxuri-
Gus home to meet his dainty, fashionable
wife, in a state of mind bordering on
despair, for the next days payments
were nearly as heavy. He had seen and |
heard enough during the days financial
experiments to satisfy him that not one
half of the sum could be raised; and so
a vague terror took the place of conceited
self-confidence; and the frightened young
trader, who had come in and gone out
with such an elastic tread and proud
bearing, entered his home with all his
feathers dropping.
So quietly had he come in that his
wife failed to hear the familiar step in
the passage. Wondering at her hus-
basId's long stay beyond the usual hobr,
she came down stairs, under the influence
of a restless feeling. Entering the par
lor, she started in sudden surprise and
alarm, for there, reclining upon a sofa,
was her handsome young husband, his pale
face the image of despair.
"Oh, Harry, you are illp she ex-
claimed, flying across the room, and
dropping down on the floor in front of
him.
81 am ii trouble was his choking
reply,
''Oh, what has happened, Harry? ?"
81 don't know" he answered. 81 am
bewildered. Something has gone wrong
in business. Oh, Florry, L have passed
through a fearful day and there is no
strength left in me"
What change from the bold, business
braggart of the day before But Harry
Melville was a mere dandy in trade
There was no muscle in the man, no re-
served power, no elastic property. He
had grown as balloon grows, and, like
a balloon, collapsed at the first sharp
puncture
What could mere summer blossom
of wife do to help man in such an
Nothing. She could weep,
and wiring her hands, and sob like dis
tressed damsel, but she had no comfort
ing suggestions, no brave words, no hope
full sentiments to offer.
Did our young trader, after period of
cool reflection, take heart again? Did
he go out on the next morning, and nerve
himself for another struggle with the
which had so suddenly closed
around him?
No Busy memory, through the re-
of that day and evening, supplied
him with data enough to complete his
total overthrow as a man of nerve and
action. His boyish partner came to see
him, and tried to re-inspirit him with
brave words. But they were of no avail.
He was panic-stricken by the fearful as
pect of things, and gave up without
struggle On the next day the bills of
the firm were not met. An assignment
followed, and, at the settlement of affairs,
the creditors received dividend of twen-
ty cents ON the dollar.
Just twenty-three years of age was
Harry Melville when he shrlnk back
from his advanced position in the bust
ness and social world, bankrupt, his
name a word of reproach or contempt on
hundreds of lips, and sought a hiding
place with his helpless wife in the house
of his father, whose predictions had been
but too speedily fulfilled. His bark was
shattered by the first storm.
Take the lesson to heart, ye too eager
young men. The story is scarcely an
Old Mr.. Melville was entirely right in
his counsel to his son. A business COM
menced at twenty-one, or even as early
as twenty-five, without experience, is
most certain to result in failure. The
first thing a young man who hopes to
succeed in the world needs to learn is
economy in his personal expenditure.
If, as clerk or shopman, he spends
his entire earnings, and trusts to get into
business by virtue of credit, the chances
of failure are two to one against him.
His habits of mind will tempt him to al
most certain destruction.