| Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-1891), known as P. T. Barnum, was the most
influential American showman of the nineteenth century, and founder of the first
important public museum and creator of the modern three-ring circus. |
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 ill, 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 groaning 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 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
avoided. 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 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 better off than when he
retired to bed, because his interest has increased during the night,
but you grow poorer while you are sleeping, for the interest is
accumulating against you.
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 animate 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,
simply because their money placed at 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 philosopher's
stone: pay as you go." This is, indeed, nearer to the
philosopher's stone than any alchemist has ever yet arrived.
--End--
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