The Art of Money Getting - P. T. Barnum (top novels TXT) 📗

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.

 

The old suit of clothes, and the old bonnet and dress, will answer for

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

sufficient to support them well through life, in consequence of laying

their plans of living on too broad a platform. Some families expend

twenty thousand dollars 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, 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 of fortune who says, that when he first began to

prosper, 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 furniture; 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

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 necessary expenses attendant upon keeping up a fine ‘establishment,’

a yearly outlay 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 bankruptcy, 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

fortune; 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 accumulate wealth, but there

are a great many in poor health who need not be so.

 

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 ancestors knew very little about the principle 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 go

to bed. In the morning they would devoutly return thanks for the

“preservation 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 little 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 naturally 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 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 of food. 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 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 incessantly.

 

Take the tobacco-chewer. In the morning, 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

stronger than that for tobacco. When the tobacco-chewer goes to your

country seat and you show him your grapery 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 narcotized 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 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 example. I obeyed his counsel. No young

man in the world ever looked so beautiful, 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 execution,

so, no matter how bountifully a man may be blessed with intelligence, if

the brain is muddled, and his judgment warped by intoxicating drinks, it

is impossible for him to carry on business successfully. How many good

opportunities have passed, never to return, while a man was sipping a

“social 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 tomorrow, and then forever, because the wine cup has thrown the

system into a state of lassitude, neutralizing the energies so essential

to success in business. Verily, “wine is a mocker.” The use of

intoxicating 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.

 

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 negligent in

regard to this. It very common for a father to say, for example: “I have

five boys. I will make Billy a clergyman; 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 watchmaking is a nice