Year: 1859




One reason why many men do not sue
4 eeed in business is seldom taken into ac-
count in afterwards determining the causes
! of their failure. 1t is not because they have
been dishonest, or, after long oyerreaching,
find themselves at last, overreached; not
because after many brilliant winnings at the
gaming table, they at last stake all, and lose
all not because after having made a partial
success, they expect greater, and build fine
houses, and buy fine horses, taking the risk of
being able to pay; not because of the old
folly of investing in lottery tickets and
always drawing blanks; not because of in
dulging in the newer and more common
folly of luxurious living on small means,
until they waste their substance in kind of
/ fashionable riotousnessl Nor is it because
the times are SO hard, or trade is SO dull, or
the West is so backward, or the banks so
obStinately refuse to discount poor paper !
1t is simply because hundreds of men, every
year, go into business without sufficient natural
capacity TO carry 10 on successfully.


When a man thinks of becoming a mu-
sician, he first satisfies himself that he has a
natural ear for music When another sets
out to be a lawyer, or a physician, or a
minister, he usually thinks it necessary to
qualify himself for his profession by some
preliminary studies; for we trust that the
time is past when an anxious father, finding
that his son will not make blacksmith, or
a carpenter, or a day-laborer, finally turns
him over to be minister


But scores of men in every large town
and scores upon scores in every large city
| embark in business without any more pre-
yious experience in it or any more actual
| fitness for il, than if man should undertake
to play the violin at the Academy of Music,
who did not know the bass from the tenor,
or the Heroic Symphony y from the tune
of q Windhan


A young clerk, who has been two or three
| years in great counting house, fancies that
\ daring that time he bas learned all that can
I possibly be known. of the business. He ac-
eordingly listens to the ad rice of some ju-
dicious and ambitious friends, retires from
4 good position which yielded him COM
Portable salary, and sets up for himself to
better his fortune. He issues circular to
his business acquaintances, prints an adver-
| tisement in all the newspapers, and thus be-
| gins an independent business career. Now,
how long will so slender a stalk be able to
stand alene We will write its history
| gently and tenderly 1t aourishes perhaps
during the first spring like new grass, it
| willis, and struggles for life during the first
I summer; then, on the first winter day, the
wind passes over it, and it is gone" Such
a man would be graphically described by
his Western creditors as "dead broke


We do not mean TO offer discouragement
te anybody. We do not say that this is a
fault in young men to be hopeful, but rather
that it is a common misfortune to be over
sanguine. For instance, many farmers
boy would rise to wealth if he were to keep
to his fathers farm, instead of hurrying to
! some great city to make his fortune in a
more brilliant style. Many an honest and
| Industrious youth, who might be good
mechanic, prefers to be poor clerk; many
u good clerk insists on being poor third
partner, and many a good third-partner
4 would ruin the firm in one year, If he were
TO be one year at its head. Promotion in
business should be like promotion in an
4 army on the ield---only from merit of ser
vices and evidence of characterl But when
young man possesses himself of vain am
2bitions and strives to jump at once into a
great business and fine store, and fails in
his foolish attempt, he is often likely ever
afterwards to be untitled for anything else
! than succession of just such delusiYe ex-
periments, terminating always in a success
/ ion of just such disastrous results; until he
is finally ruined beyond all hope of earning
/ a livelihood in any honest way. There is
such thing as spoilingssa horseshoe 80 that
| it will not make even nail; and there are
other men besides baeksmiths, who have
been known to do it! v asa ssse.ss


We were some time ago in a large Wes-
tern city, in which it was almost impossible
to find las we were told by a prominent
merchant there) any man oUer t,centy-fpe
gears Of age who tcds not in business for him
self! Now, it is almost needless for us to
say that even in an intelligent and enterpris-
ing Western city, it is not likely that every
man over twenty five years of age is able 30
conduct an independent business on his own
responsibility Nor is it likely that more
/ than one quarter of the whole number thus
engaged for themselves, will ever finally be
successful! .a4.a-sH.t1


We give, therefore, as our advice, that no
man should take upon himself the response
bility of being the chief conductor of large
business who does not at the beginning,
to certain degree, see his way clear to
successi Merely to hope that he will come
out well, is not-enough, he must be able to
give reason for his hope. For, many a
/ man thinks he can throw a stone across the
North RlVer-untll he tfleS- Many a man
attempts to build a tower without counting
the cost, till finally it falls and crushes him ]
And many a man who now thinks of giving
apa good subordinate position in order to
promote himselfint one more independent,
but at the same time more precarious, would
do well to go beforehand among his friends,
and ascertain whether it is the opinion OF
any one else beside himself that he has the
necessary tact, common sease, aud energy
to succeed in what he proposes TO attempt
4 We are very radicaldlm our creed as to what
Constitutes the necessary qualifications for a
successful merchant We hold no less than
three separate aud distinct articles first


honesty-second, industry--third, brains
@ The Post Office.
+ I aThe Providence Journal, whose editor is
Senator of the United States. says the
hope expressed in the following paragraph
from the New York Economist, that the re-
cent failure of the appropriation bill for the
q support of the Post Office may lead to
some other and more economical mode Of
letter communication, will find many SYM