Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1884-03-07
Advice to a Young Man.

A young man writes to the Sun as
follows:
Il am book-keeper in a wholesale
house, on salary of $1,000 year,
and have $500 laid up. l want to
make some money, and [ have thought
some of specializing little in wheat or
pork. know several young men in
my position who have made quite lit
tie money specializing, and l have been
tempted to invest several times, but
haye not yet been able to get up
courage to take my $500 out of the
bank and put it in the hands of a COM
mission house. What would YOU ad-
wise me to do? have guessed on the
market several times, and have guessed
right, and if had put my money on
my guesses, would have made con-
siderable. Now, tell me honestly, be-
cause 1 know you have specialized, and
know all about it"
Young man, 90 and look at YOUR
$500, and see if it is there yet. Alb, it
is all safe, is it? Looked sort OF good,
didn't it? Made you feel proud when
YOU saw it, proud that you had earned
it by hard work. Well, If YOU had
twice the amount, won at gambling, or
in wheat speculations, you would not
think half as much of it as you did of
this first $500. You don't ever think
now of spending this money foolishly.
1t represents to you hard work coined
into dollars. If you had accumulat-
ed it without work in speculation,
and 1t came easy, you would be look
ing for q horse that could beat the
crowd on the avenue, in less than
week. You would be spoiled if you ac-
cumulated money easy, and ruined if
you lost your five hundred. You keep
right on keeping books, and keeping
them well, and forget that five hundred,
except to draw the interest regular, or
unless you see a piece of first-claSS
solid property that is offered cheap
But don't you ever put a dollar OF
wheat or pork, expecting TO win, fos
you will lay down your bundle sooner
or later, and wake up with headache.
| This is not the advice of one who ever
specialized dollar, or who ever will
but one who has been watching those
who do speculate for fifteen years. MOI
one in hundred Of them but have lost
Those who have won are no better of,
because they have worn themselves out
watching the market and cursing their
luck. 1t is business that should only
be done by rich men for amusement
the rich can lose and not feel it, though
some OF them kick pretty hard when
they lose. But the poor, those who are
depending on their labor, either OF hands
or brain, should never indulge in an
amusement that makes the rich wish
they were dead. You can take a hun
dred dollars and go to faro bank.
and guess right on the deal, in
your mind, with your hand on your
money in your pocket, and you will
guess right very often. but il you put
your money down, the majority of the
guesses will be against you, and the
commission the bank takes will soon eat
up your hundred dollars. If YOU bet q
dollar on each card. and won half your
bets, and lost the other half, il would
only be a matter of time when the bank
would have all your money, and you
would have the experience. Without
arguing that speculation in options is
anything like faro bank, though many
spectators will tell you it is, the result
will be the same. only the commission
has to be paid on every deal, whether
yoC win or lose. If you make q deal
and win. you pay the gentlemanly COM
mission man his commission. If you
lose on the deal. be is not going TO work
Cor moth NJ, is he? Of course not. The
faro bank only takes commission
when you win. which shows that the
faro banker Is not as good business
man as he ought TO be- If the Sun is
mistaken about commission being
charged on losing deals. it is willing to
be corrected. Any way, young man,
| what you want 10 do is to forget that
there is any chance foryou tn engage in
speculation. for if you go into il, you
viii curse the day that you did. Now,
dom ask any moro questions. but 90 on
posting up those books. -Rsck's Sun.