The daily democrat. [volume] (Anadarko, Oklahoma) 190?-1908, 1907-04-08
BY MARGARET E. sANosrER.

In the days when mlllionaires In
this country we're not as plentiful as
blackberrics in August, their training
in boyhood was OF the simplest and
severest kind Most of them began In
poverty. The fathers and grandfa.
theirs OF the present holders of great
wealth started on farms or in log
cabins or in little shops, and were
early injured to privation and taught
the value of money by its absence.
They were accustomed to self-denial
and TO rigid economy. Little by lit
tie they saved and with extreme care
they turned over their first earnings
and made their first investments
They knew nothing of the lavish ex-
penditure and splendid luxury that
are matters Of course in the bringing
up of thousands of young people in
our time. The chief virtue TO them
was thrift and the chief vice wasteful.
ness.
Attention has been sharply called
to the difference between past and
present methods Of growing rich, by
the story Of Russell Sage, whose be-
ginnings were so limited and who liv-
ed nearly 80 years without changing
his original point of view. Mr.. Sage
came from Connecticut, and from a
farm From the age of 10 he was
seli-supporting His first wages
amounted to four dollars a month,
and he died leaving an estate various
ly estimated TO be from 500, 900, 900 to
$l5O,0O0,0O0 He always paid his OBJ
legations and was never in debt, but
throughout his life he continued to do
without much that might have made
life beautiful, and he was never
large giver
The multi-millionaires of the future
in America will not have the advan-
tage, If such 1t be, of Spartan simple
ity in boyhood. They are surrounded
by all that makes for ease, from their
cradles. Yet it may be taken for
granted that many of them have pa
rents with common sense and fore
sight, and these parents will not com
init the idiotic folly of running their
sons by allowing them to become
spendthrifts before they reach ma
turity.
Where this cardinal error in train
Ing has been committed as in some
instances it has, the results have been
precisely what might have been ex-
pected. You SOW a seed. You reap
a harvest. You give a youth, crude,
half educated, undisciplined, almost
unlimited control of money, and he
falls into the hands of the unscrupu-
lous and the profigate, and speedily
his downfall is assured.
Not merely is the rich young man
in peril of dissipation and reckless
ness through contact with older men,
who prey upon his inexperience, but
he is at the age to become the victim
of what Solomon called, in the long
ago, by the picturesque name of The
strange woman Listen to the words
Of the sage, who has described a char
acter that has not faded out of mod
ern civilization:
For the lips of a strange woman
drop as an honeycomb, ana her mouth
is smoother than oil.
But her end is bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death; her
steps take hold on hell"
The youth in the university or in
early manhood who has not been
strong enough to resist temptation,
who CANDLES, drinks and has parted
with his birthright of virtue, is all
the worse in his shipwreck If he is
master of thousands or of a million.
he loses his money, which
flows out of his hand as water runs
sieve. Sometimes he
makes a miserable marriage, un-
worthy of his class and his education.
in an excess of jealous
fury he kills a rival and finds himself
behind prison bars. Occasionally he
commits suicide and his memory is
buried in oblivion, while he leaves
broken hearts of tender women TO
grieve over the calamity that casts
its shadow over blighted homes.
These instances are, of course, ex-
ceptional. They are frequent enough
to poiAt a moral and convey a warn
ing,
How shall the men who are to man
age great interests and magnificent