The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1903-01-22
4 WHAT TSYOUR CIGAR BILL?
Handed Us for Publication by
a Bethel Township Boy.

"How did you keep your boys
from smoklng?" asked a friend.
"I give them examples inarlth-
metic," was the reply.
How this could keep three wide
awake boys from smoking was
an enigma to me until she ex-
planned
During the long winter even.
ings James and Charles and Cor.
nelius were always teasing me to
give them sums TO do. Very fire.
quently I would give them exam.
Piles like this If a man should
smoke three ten.cent cigars day
how many would he smoke in q
year? Or, how long would it take
a man to spend $1,000 for cigars,
if he smoked 2 cigars day?
"They soon figured up how
much the $l09.5 so of the man who
smoked three cigars a day would
gain in ten. years at four per
cent. interest Then they began
to give examples to one another.
Zone day Cornelius asked at
the table: Father, do you know
how much money you have smok-
ed up since / was born?'
"This was rather a hard ques.
tion for his father to answer, but
Cornelius had it all figured out in
this way. His father had once
said in his hearing that he aver
aged about five cigars a day, and
that the best were none too good
for him. AS his father did not
answer, Cornelius went on We'll
1 gave the sum to Charlie last
night and he says you have
smoked up 50, 199.00.' And the
boy was right. Cornelius was 12
years old and in that time at the
rate of five ten-cent cigars a day,
his father had used up that
amount of money smoking.
"Charlie was anxious to tell
what the interest on the money
would amount to at four per
cent, but his father stopped him
saying, MY boy, you have told
me enough. If 1 have spent over
81, 900 for cigars in twelve years,
it is time I stopped He never
smoked a cigar after that.
"As the boys grew older and
got to work they got into the hab-
it of saving up what they called
cigar money, and by the time
they were 81 years old, each boy
had several hundred dollars in
the bank"
1t is needless to say that all
three of the boys are now sue
cessful business men, and that
they do not smoke. They have
had no money except what they
have earned, and they date their
success back to the time when
their mother began to give them
examples on the cigar question.
Early in life James went to Cal
ifornia. At this time this was the
Mecca of all boyish aspirations
as being the place where money
was quickly accumulated. Here
the lad carried the same thrifty
zeal which had characterized him
when he began to save up his
small earnings at home. His hon
esty and strict attention to busi
ness soon opened career for
him, and in less than ten years
he had accumulated thirty thous-
and dollars. Then came a tinan-
cial crisis, and James fortune
vanished in a day. In letter to
his mother soon after, he said
81 am poor man again, moth
er, but l have the same hands
and head to work with, and I am
not discouraged"
Never for a moment did he al.
low his misfortune to daunt him.
"The same hands and head" went
right to work again, and James
was soon mounting the ladder of
success. He gave no thought to
the past and it's failure, but kept
his eyes ever ahead. His pluck
and perseverance won the admi-
ration of all.