Art of Money Getting

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P.T. Barnum

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 Art of Money Getting
In the United States, where we have
more land than people, it is not at all
difficult for persons in good health to
make money. In this comparatively
new field there are so many avenues of
success open, so many vocations
which are not crowded, that any
person of either sex who is willing, at
least for the time being, to engage in
any respectable occupation that offers,
may find lucrative employment.

Those who really desire to attain an

independence, have only to set their
minds upon it, and adopt the proper
means, as they do in regard to any
other object which they wish to
accomplish, and the thing is easily
done. But however easy it may be
found to make money, I have no doubt
many of my hearers will agree it is the
most difficult thing in the world to
keep it. The road to wealth is, as Dr.
Franklin truly says, ''as plain as the
road to the mill.'' It consists simply in
expending less than we earn; that
seems to be a very simple problem.
Mr. Micawber, one of those happy cre
ations of the genial Dickens, puts the
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 Art of Money Getting
case in a strong light when he says that
to have annual income of twenty
pounds per annum, and spend twenty
pounds and sixpence, is to be the most
miserable of men; whereas, to have an
income of only twenty pounds, and
spend but nineteen pounds and six
pence is to be the happiest of mortals.
Many of my readers may say, ''we
understand this: this is economy, and
we know economy is wealth; we know
we can't eat our cake and keep it also.''
Yet I beg to say that perhaps more
cases of failure arise from mistakes on
this point than almost any other. The
fact is, many people think they under
stand economy when they really do
not.

True economy is misapprehended, and

people go through life without prop
erly comprehending what that princi
ple is. One says, ''I have an income of
so much, and here is my neighbor who
has the same; yet every year he gets
something ahead and I fall short; why
is it? I know all about economy.'' He
thinks he does, but he does not. There
are men who think that economy con-
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 Art of Money Getting
sists in saving cheese-parings and can
dle-ends, in cutting off two pence from
the laundress' bill and doing all sorts of
little, mean, dirty things. Economy is
not meanness. The misfortune is, also,
that this class of persons let their econ
omy apply in only one direction. They
fancy they are so wonderfully econom
ical in saving a half-penny where they
ought to spend twopence, that they
think they can afford to squander in
other directions. A few years ago,
before kerosene oil was discovered or
thought of, one might stop overnight at
almost any farmer's house in the agri
cultural districts and get a very good
supper, but after supper he might
attempt to read in the sitting-room, and
would find it impossible with the inef
ficient light of one candle. The hostess,
seeing his dilemma, would say: ''It is
rather difficult to read here evenings;
the proverb says 'you must have a ship
at sea in order to be able to burn two
candles at once;' we never have an
extra candle except on extra occa
sions.'' These extra occasions occur,
perhaps, twice a year. In this way the

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 Art of Money Getting
good woman saves five, six, or ten dol
lars in that time: but the information
which might be derived from having
the extra light would, of course, far
outweigh a ton of candles.

But the trouble does not end here.

Feeling that she is so economical in
tallow candies, she thinks she can
afford to go frequently to the village
and spend twenty or thirty dollars for
ribbons and furbelows, many of which
are not necessary. This false connote
may frequently be seen in men of busi
ness, and in those instances it often
runs to writing-paper. You find good
businessmen who save all the old
envelopes and scraps, and would not
tear a new sheet of paper, if they could
avoid it, for the world. This is all very
well; they may in this way save five or
ten dollars a year, but being so eco
nomical (only in note paper), they
think they can afford to waste time; to
have expensive parties, and to drive
their carriages. This is an illustration of
Dr. Franklin's ''saving at the spigot and
wasting at the bung-hole;'' ''penny wise
and pound foolish.'' Punch in speaking

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 Art of Money Getting
of this ''one idea'' class of people says
''they are like the man who bought a
penny herring for his family's dinner
and then hired a coach and four to
take it home.'' I never knew a man to
suc ceed by practising this kind of
econo my.

True economy consists in always mak

ing the income exceed the out-go.
Wear the old clothes a little longer if
necessary; dispense with the new pair
of gloves; mend the old dress: live on
plainer food if need be; so that, under
all circumstances, unless some unfore
seen accident occurs, there will be a
margin in favor of the income. A
penny here, and a dollar there, placed
at interest, goes on accumulating, and
in this way the desired result is
attained. It requires some training, per
haps, to accomplish this economy, but
when once used to it, you will find
there is more satisfaction in rational
saving than in irrational spending.
Here is a recipe which I recommend: I
have found it to work an excellent cure
for extravagance, and especially for
mistaken economy: When you find
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 Art of Money Getting
that you have no surplus at the end of
the year, and yet have a good income,
I advise you to take a few sheets of
paper and form them into a book and
mark down every item of expenditure.
Post it every day or week in two col
umns, one headed ''necessaries'' or
even ''comforts'', and the other headed
''luxuries,'' and you will find that the
latter column will be double, treble,
and frequently ten times greater than
the former. The real comforts of life
cost but a small portion of what most
of us can earn. Dr. Franklin says ''it is
the eyes of others and not our own
eyes which ruin us. If all the world
were blind except myself I should not
care for fine clothes or furniture.'' It is
the fear of what Mrs. Grundy may say
that keeps the noses of many worthy
families to the grindstone. In America
many persons like to repeat ''we are all
free and equal,'' but it is a great mis
take in more senses than one.

That we are born ''free and equal'' is a

glorious truth in one sense, yet we are
not all born equally rich, and we
never shall be. One may say; ''there is
a man
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 Art of Money Getting
who has an income of fifty thousand
dollars per annum, while I have but
one thousand dollars; I knew that fel
low when he was poor like myself;
now he is rich and thinks he is better
than I am; I will show him that I am
as good as he is; I will go and buy a
horse and buggy; no, I cannot do that,
but I will go and hire one and ride this
after noon on the same road that he
does, and thus prove to him that I am
as good as he is."

My friend, you need not take that

trou ble; you can easily prove that you
are ''as good as he is;'' you have only
to behave as well as he does; but you
cannot make anybody believe that you
are rich as he is. Besides, if you put
on these ''airs,'' add waste your time
and spend your money, your poor wife
will be obliged to scrub her fingers off
at home, and buy her tea two ounces
at a time, and everything else in
propor tion, in order that you may
keep up ''appearances,'' and, after all,
deceive nobody. On the other hand,
Mrs. Smith may say that her next-door
neighbor married Johnson for his
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 Art of Money Getting
money, and

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 Art of Money Getting
''everybody says so.'' She has a nice
one-thousand dollar camel's hair
shawl, and she will make Smith get her
an imitation one, and she will sit in a
pew right next to her neighbor in
church, in order to prove that she is her
equal.

My good woman, you will not get

ahead in the world, if your vanity and
envy thus take the lead. In this
country, where we believe the majority
ought to rule, we ignore that principle
in regard to fashion, and let a handful
of people, calling themselves the
aristocracy, run up a false standard of
perfection, and in endeavoring to rise
to that standard, we constantly keep
ourselves poor; all the time digging
away for the sake of outside
appearances. How much wiser to be a
''law unto ourselves'' and say, ''we will
regulate our out-go by our income, and
lay up something for a rainy day.''
People ought to be as sensi ble on the
subject of money-getting as on any
other subject. Like causes pro duces
like effects. You cannot accumu late a
fortune by taking the road that leads to
poverty. It needs no prophet to
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 Art of Money
tell us that those who live fully up to
their means, without any thought of a
reverse in this life, can never attain a
pecuniary independence.

Men and women accustomed to gratify

every whim and caprice, will find it
hard, at first, to cut down their various
unnecessary expenses, and will feel it a
great self-denial to live in a smaller
house than they have been accustomed
to, with less expensive furniture, less
company, less costly clothing, fewer
servants, a less number of balls, par
ties, theater-goings, carriage-ridings,
pleasure excursions, cigar-smokings,
liquor-drinkings, and other extrava
gances; but, after all, if they will try
the plan of laying by a ''nest-egg," or,
in other words, a small sum of money,
at interest or judiciously invested in
land, they will be surprised at the plea
sure to be derived from constantly
adding to their little ''pile," as well as
from all the economical habits which
are engendered by this course.

The old suit of clothes, and the

old bonnet and dress, will answer
for
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 Art of Money
another season; the Croton or spring
water taste better than champagne; a
cold bath and a brisk walk will prove
more exhilarating than a ride in the
finest coach; a social chat, an
evening's reading in the family circle,
or an hour's play of ''hunt the slipper''
and ''blind man's buff'' will be far more
pleasant than a fifty or five hundred
dollar party, when the reflection on the
difference in cost is indulged in by
those who begin to know the pleasures
of saving. Thousands of men are kept
poor, and tens of thousands are made
so after they have acquired quite suffi
cient to support them well through life,
in consequence of laying their plans of
living on too broad a platform. Some
families expend twenty thousand dol
lars per annum, and some much more,
and would scarcely know how to live
on less, while others secure more solid
enjoyment frequently on a twentieth
part of that amount. Prosperity is a
more severe ordeal than adversity,
especially sudden prosperity. ''Easy
come, easy go," is an old and true
proverb. A spirit of pride and vanity,

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 Art of Money
when permitted to have full sway, is
the undying canker-worm which
gnaws the very vitals of a man's
worldly possessions, let them be small
or great, hundreds, or millions. Many
persons, as they begin to prosper,
immediately expand their ideas and
commence expending for luxuries,
until in a short time their expenses
swallow up their income, and they
become ruined in their ridiculous
attempts to keep up appearances, and
make a ''sensation.''

I know a gentleman off ortune who

says, that when he first began to pros
per, his wife would have a new and
elegant sofa. ''That sofa,'' he says,
''cost me thirty thousand dollars!''
When the sofa reached the house, it
was found necessary to get chairs to
match; then side-boards, carpets and
tables ''to correspond'' with them, and
so on through the entire stock of furni
ture; when at last it was found that the
house itself was quite too small and
old-fashioned for the furniture, and a
new one was built to correspond with
the new purchases; ''thus,'' added my

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 Art of Money
friend, ''summing up an outlay of
thirty thousand dollars, caused by that
single sofa, and saddling on me, in the
shape of servants, equipage, and the
neces sary expenses attendant upon
keeping up a fine 'establishment,' a
yearly out lay of eleven thousand
dollars, and a tight pinch at that:
whereas, ten years ago, we lived with
much more real comfort, because with
much less care, on as many hundreds.
The truth is,'' he continued, ''that sofa
would have brought me to inevitable
ha ptcy,
had not a most unexampled title to
prosperity kept me above it, and had I
not checked the natural desire to 'cut a
dash'.''

The foundation of success in life is

good health: that is the substratum for
tune; it is also the basis of happiness. A
person cannot accumulate a fortune
very well when he is sick. He has no
ambition; no incentive; no force. Of
course, there are those who have bad
health and cannot help it: you cannot
expect that such persons can accumu
late wealth, but there are a great many
in poor health who need not be so.
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 Art of Money
If, then, sound health is the foundation
of success and happiness in life, how
important it is that we should study the
laws of health, which is but another
expression for the laws of nature! The
nearer we keep to the laws of nature,
the nearer we are to good health, and
yet how many persons there are who
pay no attention to natural laws, but
absolutely transgress them, even
against their own natural inclination.
We ought to know that the ''sin of
ignorance'' is never winked at in regard
to the violation of nature's laws; their
infraction always brings the penalty. A
child may thrust its finger into the
flames without knowing it will burn,
and so suffers, repentance, even, will
not stop the smart. Many of our ances
tors knew very little about the princi
ple of ventilation. They did not know
much about oxygen, whatever other
''gin'' they might have been acquainted
with; and consequently they built their
houses with little seven-by-nine feet
bedrooms, and these good old pious
Puritans would lock themselves up in
one of these cells, say their prayers and

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 Art of Money
go to bed. In the morning they would
devoutly return thanks for the ''preser
vation of their lives,'' during the night,
and nobody had better reason to be
thankful. Probably some big crack in
the window, or in the door, let in a lit
tle fresh air, and thus saved them.

Many persons knowingly violate the

laws of nature against their better
impulses, for the sake of fashion. For
instance, there is one thing that
nothing living except a vile worm ever
natu rally loved, and that is tobacco;
yet how many persons there are who
deliberately train an unnatural appetite,
and overcome this implanted aversion
for tobacco, to such a degree that they
get to love it. They have got hold of a
poisonous, filthy weed, or rather that
takes a firm hold of them. Here are
married men who run about spitting
tobacco juice on the carpet and floors,
and sometimes even upon their wives
besides. They do not kick their wives
out of doors like drunken men, but
their wives, I have no doubt, often
wish they were outside of the house.
Another perilous feature is that this

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 Art of Money
artificial appetite, like jealousy,
''grows by what it feeds on;'' when you
love that which is unnatural, a stronger
appetite is created for the hurtful thing
than the natural desire for what is
harmless. There is an old proverb
which says that ''habit is second
nature,'' but an artificial habit is
stronger than nature. Take for
instance, an old tobacco-chewer; his
love for the ''quid'' is stronger than his
love for any particular kind off ood.
He can give up roast beef easier than
give up the weed.

Young lads regret that they are not

men; they would like to go to bed boys
and wake up men; and to accomplish
this they copy the bad habits of their
seniors. Little Tommy and Johnny see
their fathers or uncles smoke a pipe,
and they say, ''If I could only do that, I
would be a man too; uncle John has
gone out and left his pipe of tobacco,
let us try it.'' They take a match and
light it, and then puff away. ''We will
learn to smoke; do you like it Johnny?''
That lad dolefully replies: ''Not very
much; it tastes bitter;'' by and by he

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 Art of Money
grows pale, but he persists and he soon
offers up a sacrifice on the altar of
fashion; but the boys stick to it and
persevere until at last they conquer
their natural appetites and become the
victims of acquired tastes.

I speak ''by the book,'' for I have

noticed its effects on myself, having
gone so far as to smoke ten or fifteen
cigars a day; although I have not used
the weed during the last fourteen years,
and never shall again. The more a man
smokes, the more he craves smoking;
the last cigar smoked simply excites
the desire for another, and so on inces
santly.

Take the tobacco-chewer. In the morn

ing, when he gets up, he puts a quid in
his mouth and keeps it there all day,
never taking it out except to exchange
it for a fresh one, or when he is going
to eat; oh! yes, at intervals during the
day and evening, many a chewer takes
out the quid and holds it in his hand
long enough to take a drink, and then
pop it goes back again. This simply
proves that the appetite for rum is even

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 Art of Money
stronger than that for tobacco. When
the tobacco-chewer goes to your coun
try seat and you show him your grap
ery and fruit house, and the beauties of
your garden, when you offer him some
fresh, ripe fruit, and say, ''My friend, I
have got here the most delicious
apples, and pears, and peaches, and
apricots; I have imported them from
Spain, France and Italy-just see those
luscious grapes; there is nothing more
delicious nor more healthy than ripe
fruit, so help yourself; I want to see
you delight yourself with these
things;'' he will roll the dear quid
under his tongue and answer, ''No, I
thank you, I have got tobacco in my
mouth.'' His palate has become narco
tized by the noxious weed, and he has
lost, in a great measure, the delicate
and enviable taste for fruits. This
shows what expensive, useless and
injurious habits men will get into. I
speak from experience. I have smoked
until I trembled like an aspen leaf, the
blood rushed to my head, and I had a
palpitation of the heart which I thought
was heart disease, till I was almost

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 Art of Money
killed with fright. When I consulted
my physician, he said ''break off
tobacco using.'' I was not only
injuring my health and spending a
great deal of money, but I was setting
a bad exam ple. I obeyed his counsel.
No young man in the world ever
looked so beau tiful, as he thought he
did, behind a fifteen cent cigar or a
meerschaum!

These remarks apply with tenfold force

to the use of intoxicating drinks. To
make money, requires a clear brain. A
man has got to see that two and two
make four; he must lay all his plans
with reflection and forethought, and
closely examine all the details and the
ins and outs of business. As no man
can succeed in business unless he has
a brain to enable him to lay his plans,
and reason to guide him in their
execu tion, so, no matter how
bountifully a man may be blessed with
intelligence, if the brain is muddled,
and his judg ment warped by
intoxicating drinks, it is impossible for
him to carry on busi ness successfully.
How many good opportunities have
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 Art of Money
passed, never to return, while a man
was sipping a ''so-

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 Art of Money
cial glass,'' with his friend! How many
foolish bargains have been made
under the influence of the ''nervine,''
which temporarily makes its victim
think he is rich. How many important
chances have been put off until to-
morrow, and then forever, because the
wine cup has thrown the system into a
state of lassi tude, neutralizing the
energies so essential to success in
business. Verily, ''wine is a mocker.''
The use of intoxi cating drinks as a
beverage, is as much an infatuation, as
is the smoking of opium by the
Chinese, and the former is quite as
destructive to the success of the
business man as the latter. It is an
unmitigated evil, utterly indefensible
in the light of philosophy; religion or
good sense. It is the parent of nearly
every other evil in our country.

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 Art of Money

Don't Mistake Your Vocation

The safest plan, and the one most sure

of success for the young man starting
in life, is to select the vocation which
is most congenial to his tastes. Parents
and guardians are often quite too negli
gent in regard to this. It very common
for a father to say, for example: ''I have
five boys. I will make Billy a clergy
man; John a lawyer; Tom a doctor, and
Dick a farmer.'' He then goes into town
and looks about to see what he will do
with Sammy. He returns home and
says ''Sammy, I see watch-making is a
nice genteel business; I think I will
make you a goldsmith.'' He does this,
regardless of Sam's natural inclina
tions, or genius.

We are all, no doubt, born for a wise

purpose. There is as much diversity in
our brains as in our countenances.
Some are born natural mechanics,
while some have great aversion to
machinery. Let a dozen boys of
ten
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 Art of Money
years get together, and you will soon
observe two or three are ''whittling''
out some ingenious device; working
with locks or complicated machinery.
When they were but five years old,
their father could find no toy to please
them like a puzzle. They are natural
mechanics; but the other eight or nine
boys have different aptitudes. I belong
to the latter class; I never had the
slightest love for mechanism; on the
contrary, I have a sort of abhorrence
for complicated machinery. I never
had ingenuity enough to whittle a cider
tap so it would not leak. I never could
make a pen that I could write with, or
understand the principle of a steam
engine. If a man was to take such a
boy as I was, and attempt to make a
watchmaker of him, the boy might,
after an apprenticeship of five or seven
years, be able to take apart and put
together a watch; but all through life
he would be working up hill and seiz
ing every excuse for leaving his work
and idling away his time. Watchmak
ing is repulsive to him.

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 Art of Money
Unless a man enters upon the vocation
intended for him by nature, and best
suited to his peculiar genius, he cannot
succeed. I am glad to believe that the
majority of persons do find their right
vocation. Yet we see many who have
mistaken their calling, from the black
smith up (or down) to the clergyman.
You will see, for instance, that
extraordinary linguist the ''learned
blacksmith,'' who ought to have been a
teacher of languages; and you may
have seen lawyers, doctors and clergy
men who were better fitted by nature
for the anvil or the lapstone.

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 Art of Money

Select the Right Location

After securing the right vocation, you

must be careful to select the proper
location. You may have been cut out
for a hotel keeper, and they say it
requires a genius to ''know how to
keep a hotel.'' You might conduct a
hotel like clock-work, and provide sat
isfactorily for five hundred guests
every day; yet, if you should locate
your house in a small village where
there is no railroad communication or
public travel, the location would be
your ruin. It is equally important that
you do not commence business where
there are already enough to meet all
demands in the same occupation. I
remember a case which illustrates this
subject. When I was in London in
1858, I was passing down Holborn
with an English friend and came to the
''penny shows.'' They had immense
cartoons outside, portraying the won
derful curiosities to be seen ''all for a

24
 Art of Money
penny.'' Being a little in the ''show
line'' myself, I said ''let us go in here.''
We soon found ourselves in the pres
ence of the illustrious showman, and
he proved to be the sharpest man in
that line I had ever met. He told us
some extraordinary stories in reference
to his bearded ladies, his Albinos, and
his Armadillos, which we could hardly
believe, but thought it ''better to
believe it than look after the proof.''
He finally begged to call our attention
to some wax statuary, and showed us
a lot of the dirtiest and filthiest wax
fig ures imaginable. They looked as if
they had not seen water since the Del
uge.

''What is there so wonderful about

your statuary?'' I asked.

''I beg you not to speak so satirically,''

he replied, ''Sir, these are not Madam
Tussaud's wax figures, all covered
with gilt and tinsel and imitation dia
monds, and copied from engravings
and photographs. Mine, sir, were taken
from life. Whenever you look upon
one of those figures, you may consider
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 Art of Money
that you are looking upon the living
individual.''

Glancing casually at them, I saw one

labeled ''Henry VIII,'' and feeling a
little curious upon seeing that it
looked like Calvin Edson, the living
skeleton, I said: ''Do you call that
'Henry the Eighth?''' He replied,
''Certainly; sir; it was taken from life
at Hampton Court, by special order of
his majesty; on such a day.''

He would have given the hour of the

day if I had resisted; I said, ''Every
body knows that 'Henry VIII.' was a
great stout old king, and that figure is
lean and lank; what do you say to
that?''

''Why,'' he replied, ''you would be lean

and lank yourself if you sat there as
long as he has.''

There was no resisting such argu

ments. I said to my English friend,
''Let us go out; do not tell him who I
am; I show the white feather; he beats
me.''

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 Art of Money
He fallowed us to the door, and seeing
the rabble in the street, he called out,
''ladies and gentlemen, I beg to draw
your attention to the respectable char
acter of my visitors,'' pointing to us as
we walked away. I called upon him a
couple of days afterwards; told him
who I was, and said:

''My friend, you are an excellent show

man, but you have selected a bad loca
tion."

He replied, ''This is true, sir; I feel that

all my talents are thrown away; but
what can I do?''

''You can go to America," I replied.

''You can give full play to your facul
ties over there; you will find plenty of
elbowroom in America; I will engage
you for two years; after that you will
be able to go on your own account."

He accepted my offer and remained

two years in my New York Museum.
He then went to New Orleans and car
ried on a traveling show business dur
ing the summer. To-day he is worth

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 Art of Money
sixty thousand dollars, simply because
he selected the right vocation and also
secured the proper location. The old
proverb says, ''Three removes are as
bad as a fire,'' but when a man is in the
fire, it matters but little how soon or
how often he removes.

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 Art of Money

Avoid Debt

Young men starting in life should

avoid running into debt. There is
scarcely anything that drags a person
down like debt. It is a slavish position
to get in, yet we find many a young
man, hardly out of his ''teens,'' running
in debt. He meets a chum and says,
''Look at this: I have got trusted for a
new suit of clothes.'' He seems to look
upon the clothes as so much given to
him; well, it frequently is so, but, if he
succeeds in paying and then gets
trusted again, he is adopting a habit
which will keep him in poverty
through life. Debt robs a man of his
self-respect, and makes him almost
despise himself. Grunting and groan
ing and working for what he has eaten
up or worn out, and now when he is
called upon to pay up, he has nothing
to show for his money; this is properly
termed ''working for a dead horse.'' I
do not speak of merchants buying and

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 Art of Money
selling on credit, or of those who buy
on credit in order to turn the purchase
to a profit. The old Quaker said to his
farmer son, ''John, never get trusted;
but if thee gets trusted for anything, let
it be for 'manure,' because that will
help thee pay it back again.''

Mr. Beecher advised young men to get

in debt if they could to a small amount
in the purchase of land, in the country
districts. ''If a young man,'' he says,
''will only get in debt for some land
and then get married, these two things
will keep him straight, or nothing
will.'' This may be safe to a limited
extent, but getting in debt for what you
eat and drink and wear is to be avoid
ed. Some families have a foolish habit
of getting credit at ''the stores," and
thus frequently purchase many things
which might have been dispensed
with.

It is all very well to say; ''I have got

trusted for sixty days, and if I don't
have the money the creditor will think
nothing about it.'' There is no class of
people in the world, who have such

30
 Art of Money
good memories as creditors. When the
sixty days run out, you will have to
pay. If you do not pay, you will break
your promise, and probably resort to a
falsehood. You may make some
excuse or get in debt elsewhere to pay
it, but that only involves you the
deeper.

A good-looking, lazy young fellow,

was the apprentice boy, Horatio. His
employer said, ''Horatio, did you ever
see a snail?'' ''I-think-I-have,'' he
drawled out. ''You must have met him
then, for I am sure you never overtook
one,'' said the ''boss.'' Your creditor
will meet you or overtake you and say,
''Now, my young friend, you agreed to
pay me; you have not done it, you
must give me your note.'' You give the
note on interest and it commences
working against you; ''it is a dead
horse." The creditor goes to bed at
night and wakes up in the morning bet
ter off than when he retired to bed,
because his interest has increased dur
ing the night, but you grow poorer
while you are sleeping, for the interest
is accumulating against you.

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 Art of Money
Money is in some respects like fire; it
is a very excellent servant but a terrible
master. When you have it mastering
you; when interest is constantly piling
up against you, it will keep you down
in the worst kind of slavery. But let
money work for you, and you have the
most devoted servant in the world. It is
no ''eye-servant.'' There is nothing ani
mate or inanimate that will work so
faithfully as money when placed at
interest, well secured. It works night
and day, and in wet or dry weather.

I was born in the blue-law State of

Connecticut, where the old Puritans
had laws so rigid that it was said, ''they
fined a man for kissing his wife on
Sunday.'' Yet these rich old Puritans
would have thousands of dollars at
interest, and on Saturday night would
be worth a certain amount; on Sunday
they would go to church and perform
all the duties of a Christian. On waking
up on Monday morning, they would
find themselves considerably richer
than the Saturday night previous, sim
ply because their money placed at

32
 Art of Money
interest had worked faithfully for them
all day Sunday, according to law!

Do not let it work against you; if you

do there is no chance for success in life
so far as money is concerned. John
Randolph, the eccentric Virginian,
once exclaimed in Congress, ''Mr.
Speaker, I have discovered the
philoso pher's stone: pay as you go.''
This is, indeed, nearer to the
philosopher's stone than any alchemist
has ever yet arrived.

33
 Art of Money

Persevere

When a man is in the right path, he

must persevere. I speak of this because
there are some persons who are ''born
tired;'' naturally lazy and possessing no
self-reliance and no perseverance. But
they can cultivate these qualities, as
Davy Crockett said:

''This thing remember, when I am

dead: Be sure you are right, then go
ahead."

It is this go-aheaditiveness, this deter

mination not to let the ''horrors'' or the
''blues'' take possession of you, so as to
make you relax your energies in the
struggle for independence, which you
must cultivate.

How many have almost reached the

goal of their ambition, but, losing faith
in themselves, have relaxed their ener
gies, and the golden prize has been lost
forever.

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 Art of Money
It is, no doubt, often true, as
Shake speare says:

''There is a tide in the affairs of men,

Which, taken at the flood, leads on
to fortune.''

If you hesitate, some bolder hand will

stretch out before you and get the
prize. Remember the proverb of
Solomon: ''He becometh poor that
dealeth with a slack hand; but the
hand of the diligent maketh rich.''

Perseverance is sometimes but another

word for self-reliance. Many persons
naturally look on the dark side of life,
and borrow trouble. They are born so.
Then they ask for advice, and they
will be governed by one wind and
blown by another, and cannot rely upon
them selves. Until you can get so that
you can rely upon yourself, you need
not expect to succeed.

I have known men, personally, who

have met with pecuniary reverses, and
absolutely committed suicide, because
they thought they could never over-

35
 Art of Money
come their misfortune. But I have
known others who have met more seri
ous financial difficulties, and have
bridged them over by simple persever
ance, aided by a firm belief that they
were doing justly, and that Providence
would ''overcome evil with good.'' You
will see this illustrated in any sphere of
life.

Take two generals; both understand

military tactics, both educated at West
Point, if you please, both equally gift
ed; yet one, having this principle of
perseverance, and the other lacking it,
the farmer will succeed in his profes
sion, while the latter will fail. One may
hear the cry, ''the enemy are coming,
and they have got cannon.''

''Got cannon?'' says the hesitating

gen eral.

''Yes."

''Then halt every man.''

He wants time to reflect; his hesitation

is his ruin; the enemy passes unmolest-

36
 Art of Money
ed, or overwhelms him; while on the
other hand, the general of pluck, perse
verance and self-reliance, goes into
battle with a will, and, amid the clash
of arms, the booming of cannon, the
shrieks of the wounded, and the moans
of the dying, you will see this man per
severing, going on, cutting and slash
ing his way through with unwavering
determination, inspiring his soldiers to
deeds off ortitude, valor, and triumph.

37
 Art of Money

Whatever You Do, Do It

with All Your Might

Work at it, if necessary, early and late,

in season and out of season, not leav
ing a stone unturned, and never defer
ring for a single hour that which can be
done just as well now. The old proverb
is full of truth and meaning, ''Whatever
is worth doing at all, is worth doing
well.'' Many a man acquires a fortune
by doing his business thoroughly,
while his neighbor remains poor for
life, because he only half does it.
Ambition, energy, industry, persever
ance, are indispensable requisites
for success in business.

Fortune always favors the brave, and

never helps a man who does not help
himself. It won't do to spend your time
like Mr. Micawber, in waiting for
something to ''turn up." To such men
one of two things usually ''turns up:''
the poorhouse or the jail; for idleness

38
 Art of Money
breeds bad habits, and clothes a man
in rags. The poor spendthrift
vagabond says to a rich man:

''I have discovered there is enough

money in the world for all of us, if it
was equally divided; this must be
done, and we shall all be happy
togeth- er.''

''But,'' was the response, ''if everybody

was like you, it would be spent in two
months, and what would you do then?''

''Oh! divide again; keep dividing, of

course!''

I was recently reading in a London

paper an account of a like philosophic
pauper who was kicked out of a
cheap boarding-house because he
could not pay his bill, but he had a
roll of papers sticking out of his coat
pocket, which, upon examination,
proved to be his plan for paying off
the national debt of England without
the aid of a penny.
People have got to do as Cromwell
said: ''not only trust in Providence, but
keep the powder dry.'' Do your part of
39
 Art of Money
the work, or you cannot succeed.
Mahomet, one night, while
encamping in the desert, overheard
one of his fatigued followers remark:
''I will loose my camel, and trust it to
God!'' ''No, no, not so,'' said the
prophet, ''tie thy camel, and trust it to
God!'' Do all you can for yourselves,
and then trust to Providence, or luck,
or whatever you please to call it, for
the rest.

DEPEND UPON YOUR 0 PER-

SONAL EXERTIONS.
The eye of the employer is often worth
more than the hands of a dozen
employees. In the nature of things, an
agent cannot be so faithful to his
employer as to himself. Many who are
employers will call to mind instances
where the best employees have over
looked important points which could
not have escaped their own observa
tion as a proprietor. No man has a
right to expect to succeed in life unless
he understands his business, and
nobody can understand his business
thoroughly unless he learns it by
personal applica tion and experience. A
man may be a manufacturer: he has got
to learn the
Art of Money
40
 Art of Money
many details of his business personal
ly; he will learn something every day,
and he will find he will make mistakes
nearly every day. And these very mis
takes are helps to him in the way of
experiences if he but heeds them. He
will be like the Yankee tin-peddler,
who, having been cheated as to quality
in the purchase of his merchandise,
said: ''All right, there's a little informa
tion to be gained every day; I will
never be cheated in that way again.''
Thus a man buys his experience, and it
is the best kind if not purchased at too
dear a rate.

I hold that every man should, like

Cuvier, the French naturalist, thor
oughly know his business. So profi
cient was he in the study of natural
history, that you might bring to him the
bone, or even a section of a bone of an
animal which he had never seen
described, and, reasoning from analo
gy, he would be able to draw a picture
of the object from which the bone had
been taken. On one occasion his stu
dents attempted to deceive him. They
rolled one of their number in a cow

41
 Art of Money
skin and put him under the professor's
table as a new specimen. When the
philosopher came into the room, some
of the students asked him what animal
it was. Suddenly the animal said ''I am
the devil and I am going to eat you.'' It
was but natural that Cuvier should
desire to classify this creature, and
examining it intently, he said:

''Divided hoof; graminivorous! It can

not be done.''

He knew that an animal with a split

hoof must live upon grass and grain, or
other kind of vegetation, and would
not be inclined to eat flesh, dead or
alive, so he considered himself per
fectly safe. The possession of a perfect
knowledge of your business is an abso
lute necessity in order to insure suc
cess.

Among the maxims of the elder Roth

schild was one, all apparent paradox:
''Be cautious and bold.'' This seems to
be a contradiction in terms, but it is
not, and there is great wisdom in the
maxim. It is, in fact, a condensed
state-
42
 Art of Money
ment of what I have already said. It is
to say; ''you must exercise your cau
tion in laying your plans, but be bold
in carrying them out.'' A man who is
all caution, will never dare to take hold
and be successful; and a man who is
all boldness, is merely reckless, and
must eventually fail. A man may go on
'''change'' and make fifty, or one hun
dred thousand dollars in speculating in
stocks, at a single operation. But if he
has simple boldness without caution, it
is mere chance, and what he gains to
day he will lose to-morrow. You must
have both the caution and the
boldness, to insure success.

The Rothschilds have another maxim:

''Never have anything to do with an
unlucky man or place.'' That is to say,
never have anything to do with a man
or place which never succeeds,
because, although a man may appear to
be honest and intelligent, yet if he tries
this or that thing and always fails, it is
on account of some fault or infirmity
that you may not be able to discover
but nevertheless which must exist.

43
 Art of Money
There is no such thing in the world as
luck. There never was a man who
could go out in the morning and find a
purse full of gold in the street to-day,
and another to-morrow, and so on, day
after day: He may do so once in his
life; but so far as mere luck is con
cerned, he is as liable to lose it as to
find it. ''Like causes produce like
effects.'' If a man adopts the proper
methods to be successful, ''luck'' will
not prevent him. If he does not suc
ceed, there are reasons for it, although,
perhaps, he may not be able to see
them.

44
 Art of Money

Use the Best Tools

Men in engaging employees should be

careful to get the best. Understand, you
cannot have too good tools to work
with, and there is no tool you should
be so particular about as living tools. If
you get a good one, it is better to keep
him, than keep changing. He learns
something every day; and you are ben
efited by the experience he acquires.
He is worth more to you this year than
last, and he is the last man to part with,
provided his habits are good, and he
continues faithful. If, as he gets more
valuable, he demands an exorbitant
increase of salary; on the supposition
that you can't do without him, let him
go. Whenever I have such an employ
ee, I always discharge him; first, to
convince him that his place may be
supplied, and second, because he is
good for nothing if he thinks he is
invaluable and cannot be spared.

45
 Art of Money
But I would keep him, if possible, in
order to profit from the result of his
experience. An important element in
an employee is the brain. You can see
bills up' ''Hands Wanted''' but ''hands''
are not worth a great deal without
''heads.'' Mr. Beecher illustrates this, in
this wise:

An employee offers his services by

saving, ''I have a pair of hands and
one of my fingers thinks.'' ''That is
very good,'' says the employer.
Another man comes along, and says
''he has two fingers that think.'' ''Ah!
that is better.'' But a third calls in and
says that ''all his fingers and thumbs
think.'' That is better still. Finally
another steps in and says, ''I have a
brain that thinks; I think all over; I am
a thinking as well as a working man!''
''You are the man I want,'' says the
delighted employer.

Those men who have brains and expe

rience are therefore the most valuable
and not to be readily parted with; it is
better for them, as well as yourself, to

46
 Art of Money
keep them, at reasonable advances
in their salaries from time to time.

47