"Because it's too hard work; and when you've got money you can get anything else you want."
That is a popular idea among young men, who have made "American" almost synonymous with "money-maker." There seems to be an idea among not only young but old men that if you make money in any way you will be fitted for anything else. In a certain way this is true. For if you can buy anything, you can buy men who know what you do not know, and hire them to do certain things for you that take lifetimes to accomplish. The truth is that if you start now and make up your mind to make money first, you will not be able to do anything but money-making business, and if you fail in this, there will be no other course open to you. This does not mean that a money-making business is an unworthy one; that idea is common among certain classes of short-sighted clergymen; but it does mean that to start out with no idea but choosing a business only with regard to money is wrong, and is likely to turn out to your disadvantage. We have all seen in school, and will see in college, fellows who have large allowances. They certainly can do things which are beyond us. Such men can have a better time because they have money, and they can give their friends a better time. But unless they have other qualities their money is of no advantage; it may quite frequently be a great disadvantage. The point is that a fellow at school must be a good chap. He must have a certain amount of chivalry, of self-respect, of generosity, and good-fellowship. If he has all these, he is a good chap anyway, and sure to be a leader and a friend of all in the school. If he has a lot of money also, and knows how to use it, he is all the better chap. If he has the money and none of the qualities mentioned, his money does him not the least good, and may very likely do him harm. You will find the thing just the same at college, for college is only a little larger school. There are many fellows at college who have money and use it well, but the mere fact that a man has cash in his pocket does not get him on to athletic teams, or into college clubs or societies, or at the head of his class. It helps him on if he's a good chap; it holds him back if he isn't. Then by-and-by, when you get through college, you will find it just the same in businesses of all kinds. Money seems to help a good man along, and seems to be the worst enemy of a bad man. So that to think only of money first, and then of doing fine things with it after it is gained, is putting the cart before the horse. And if you want to be in the Senate, it's the wrong way to go at it to go down to South America and work in a gold-mine for twenty years simply and solely to "raise the cash" for the purpose of buying the votes of a State, even if such a procedure were moral and right, which is unquestionably not the case. Rather make up your mind what you want to do, and then try to make a financial success of it, as well as all other kinds of successes. If it is the hide and leather business, try to make money each year, but try also to make money fairly, to learn the trade thoroughly, and to keep pace with the literature, the politics, the life of your own day. If it is the ministry or law or literature, try to make both ends meet each year, and to make money just the same, but don't forget that all these branches of work require something besides cash to make them successes. In a certain way it is just as wrong to try to believe that money is an evil as it is to let yourself believe that money is the only thing worth having. It is a great and good thing when you have learned how to use it, and a mighty poor thing when it is abused. Decide therefore on what work you will set out, without regard to money, and then try to make a financial as well as an intellectual success of it.
SWIFT VESSELS OF PAST DECADES.
There are but few spots of the ocean's surface that are not traversed by steamships, and possibly no spot into which the tramp steamship has not poked its nose. Years ago this could be claimed for the famous clippers of the United States, but steam has crowded them out of use, and to-day hardly a dozen sail under our flag. The States of Maine and New Hampshire produced many magnificent clippers. The Challenge, the Sea-Witch, the Young America, the Swordfish, the Dreadnought, Queen of Clippers, Witch of the Wave, Spitfire, Witchcraft, and over one hundred others that might be named, carried the American flag triumphantly around the world, and obtained the highest rates of freight even in British ports. The ship Natchez, of New York, 523 tons, though not a clipper, made the passage from Hong-kong (China) to New York in 72 days. She was originally a New Orleans and Havre packet, flat on the floor, to enable her to cross the bar at the mouth of the Mississippi, and had sharp ends. Probably one of the most pathetic endings of a famous clipper-ship is that of the Great Admiral, built in 1869, and owned by the heirs of William F. Weld & Co.; she is now lying idle, and though in excellent order, will probably be dismantled and converted into a coal-barge. She is the only famous clipper left of all the fine fleet of nearly one hundred sail once owned by William T. Weld & Co. The firm, like its shipping, is a thing of the past. The ship Charger, of 1378 tons, built in 1874 by Henry Hastings, though still afloat at last accounts, was not making money for her owner. The splendid ships North American and South American, built by Mr. Hastings, and once prominent in the California trade, were wrecked a few years ago.
Since the disappearance of clippers we have built ships of 3000 and 4000 tons for the Pacific grain trade, and though full modelled, they more than hold their own against all nations. Our Atlantic coasting trade is carried on in huge schooners, ranging from 500 to 1500 tons, with three, four, and five masts. Many of these had centre-boards, but most of the new vessels are built without them.
Although Baltimore has the credit of first applying the term "clippers" to fast vessels, all maritime nations have aimed to excel on the water. The French ships were generally better sailers than the English, and hence, when beaten in naval warfare, often escaped capture. At the battle of St. Vincent, though they defeated more than twenty sail of French and Spaniards, they captured only four, and two of these were taken by Nelson. But whenever the English captured a fast sailing-vessel they copied her lines. Emerson says, "the Frenchman invented the collar, but the Englishman added the shirt."
THE DISADVANTAGES OF PLAGIARISM.
A rather amusing story is told of a certain so-called "popular preacher," the Rev. Dr. D——, whose marvellous powers of eloquence invariably gathered him large audiences. People wondered at his sermons, and proclaimed him an intellectual genius. Now the doctor was a plagiarist who patched up his own exceedingly poor sermons by introducing here and there passages from the sermons of celebrated divines, but the ingenuous way in which he accomplished this prevented discovery. Then, too, his audiences, he calculated, were not students of theology, and therefore not likely to detect his appropriations. But in this he made his mistake, and his exposure took place as follows: