Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1911-05-19
G0OdnOw, Pearson
& Hunt

Went to his ambition. He has pushed
aside, because it was the first step
toward success, every habit and desire
that stood between him and his goal. No
man was ever numbered among the sue
cessful ones unless he was waiting and
prepared for Fortune when she knocked
at his door. She has never yet been
known to wait for any man or boy to
preoare himself for her company.
know of no one habit that so thoroughly
moulds the character of a young man as
the habit of economy. 1t gives him
strength of will. 1t teaches him to look
beyond an action to its final result. 1t
continually reminds him that the pure
sweet, innocent pleasures of life are
almost to be had for the asking, and that
Satan is not only cruel but an expensive
taskmaster.
The reference books of Dun and Brad
street contain detailed reports of the
character, capacity and capital of every
man doing business in the United States.
Statistics show that only about five
in every 100 of these retire from business
successful. These five will almost in
variably be found to have been men who
learned at the school of adversely in their
youth how TO govern their wants and
themselves. The people of this coun-
try and generation, as a whole, are
wofully improvident. The universal de-
>
neighbor but little better. and to make
a fine appearance today seems of vastly
more Importance than to lay up some
thing for a cloudy tomorrow. This very
trait in the great majority opens the
door to the few who are willing to drill
themselves in the school of common
sense The young man who will set his
stakes early as to what he shall save
out of his wages, and who lives up to
this through all temptation, is opening
the gulf between him and his fellows,
and planning a race that will lead to
success. AS the years pass us by with
their cruel object-lessons of IMPROVE
dence, one wonders more and more that
any man can gain his own consent to
spend every dollar of his salary and trust
to luck when misfortunes shall overtake
him. OF course the saving clause in his
mind is that he is sure he is safe from
the rule that governs all other men, and
there is not only no need of his provid-
ing for the future, but the day cannot be
far distant when something is going to
happen to fill his pockets with gold and
keep them filled forever after.
II we look at the earnings realized
from safe investments today we see that
man with salary of $1,000 is equal in
earning capacity to him who has $25, 900
invested in four per cent bonds. If the
bond owner. We're told that interest
would be paid him only while he was
in health, and that when he became per-
manently disabled it would caes alto
gether, what would be thought of him If
he used up the last dollar of his income
each year, making no provision for a
future with its certainty of discontinue
ance? Yet this is just what thousands
upon thousands of salaried men are do
ing every year.
l asked friend who is at the head of
a snug and profitable business why he
had let an old clerk go to another house
Il want men with ambition around me-"
he said Tom was a bright fellow when
he came TO me, and about six years ago
/ told him that when he had saved $1,000
from his salary I would give him an in
terest in the business. | paid him 5000
a year, and he could easily have saved
5000 of that. for he was single and lived
at home. But instead OF saving any,
thing, his-account was generally over
drawn. l do not think he had immoral
habits, but he was extravagant in his
clothes and in his pleasures, mixing with
society that was too expensive for him.
Very few merchants hold out such a
reward to their clerks II they will become
saving, but there are no employers who
do not look with greater favor upon the
men in their force who are known to be
saving and thrifty. There is an old
truism that says; at is not what one
makes. but what one saves, that leads to
riches'' Everybody agrees with this,
ana considers that II applies to all the
world but himself. / have known men
who had an income OF $4,000 year for
twenty years or more. yet who depended
upon the charity OF their friends when
disability finally overlook them, while
many another man on a salary of $50 a
month has paid for his modest home.
given his children a good education, and
put by little cash for his old age.
Every business man stops on January |
OF each year and takes a careful in |
ventory OF his affairs. His books show |
him the expenses OF the year. and II is |
rare indeed where a study OF these does |
not surprise him by showing into what |