Year: 1874




We like disinterested benevolence. 1t is so
rarely found in this selfish world that when we
find it we feel inclined to stick pin in it, and
examine it with more than ordinary care.-
When we look over the business chances in
the New York dailies and see how many bril-
liant opportunities offered for men of small
capital, and no capital, to make fortune in
few days, we wonder how any man or woman
can remain poor an hour. We have offers
where a man, by inclosing fifty cents to the
extensive firm of "Greenhorn & Co.'s can real
ize, by 'active canvassing,' from twenty five to
fifty dollars day. Some of these benevolent
fortune makers offer still better chances They
don't want money-they want agents, to whom
they will give all the way from two to five
thousand year. How many young men have
grown rich through these brilliant offers the
late census fails to tell us. But the latest, and
the most princely offer, comes in the shape of
a lottery scheme. 1t heads its circulars, $780,
600 for only $50.' When we first read this offer
our brain reeled at the suddenness of the for
tune that was thrust upon us, for only $5O.'-
We felt inclined to take a couple, and give one
to the poor, lust to link our name with the AS
tors and Peabody's of the age. But we lost the
desire to purchase so much for 80 little money
by reading and thinking too much of the
scheme We discovered we were addressed as
q mere fraction of unit, and that unit large
one. The unit purchased the fortune for the
benefit of it's smallest fraction. In plain Eng
lsh, about sixty thousand persons put in $50
each to make one person rich. The odds were
against us. We tried to figure out the ghost OF
a chance, but we abandoned it in despair. We
reduced it to sum in proportion. If we always
lost in matching pennies, where the chances
were equal how much of a chance would we have
to gain the fortune promised for only $780, with
ffty-nine thousand lucky fellows againstus? 20
we have turned our back on the $3.50 900 which
has been offered-to any one who can get it
for the modest sum Of 'only S5O.' Other young
men may be tempted to part with their hard
earned wages atthe instance of this great temp
tation. We advise them to figure up their
chances. If they fail of clear conception by


pencil and paper, let them take 10000 beans,


color one black, throw it among the 5000 in


the barrel shake them thoroughly, and then


try to pick out the black bean with their eyes


shut. If they do not secure it on the first trial


they should avoid all lottery schemes, for they


are not lucky if they should secure it, they


have still greater reason to keep clear, for such


streak of luck would not occur to the same
person more than once in century. fortune
is good thing to have, but the only reliable


way to secure it is to work for it. Follow some


honest calling; be sober and industrious; de-
| munity in which you live; build up your rep


utation by thoroughness of work; and spend
less than you earn. These simple rules will in


wealth you have thus earned will be fruitful of
contentment which springs from honest indus
| try, and the consciousness of having done your
| duty to yourself and mankind.