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WHAT THIS BOOK
TEACHES
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 who has an
income of fifty thousand dollars per
annum, while I have but one thousand
dollars; I knew that fellow 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
afternoon 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
trouble; 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
proportion, 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 money, and "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 sensible on the
subject of money-getting as on any
other subject. Like causes
produces like effects. You
cannot accumulate a fortune by
taking the road that leads to
poverty. It needs no prophet to 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,
parties, theater-goings,
carriage-ridings, pleasure
excursions, cigar-smokings, liquor-drinkings,
and other extravagances; 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 pleasure to be derived from
constantly adding to their little
"pile," as well as from all the
economical habits which are
engendered by this course. |
