On the Sabbath day; ’twas of no avail.
I told him, ‘No!’
‘If sinners entice thee, consent thou not,’
My Bible said; and so on the spot
I told him, ‘No!’”
LITTLE PENNIES.
A penny may not count for much, but one hundred make a dollar, and a dollar saved is a dollar made. Too many young men of the day imagine they cannot be manly without spending freely what they make. Careful saving and careful spending promote success, for “wilful waste makes woful want.” John Jacob Astor said that the saving of the first thousand dollars cost him the hardest struggle. “It is not,” wrote Philip Armour, “what a man earns but what he saves that makes him rich. I deem it of the highest importance to impress upon every young man the duty of beginning to save from the moment he commences to earn, be it ever so little. A habit so formed in early life will prove of incalculable benefit to him in after years, not only in the amount acquired, but through the exercise of economy in small affairs he will grow in knowledge and fitness for larger duties that may devolve upon him.” “My advice,” said Enoch Pratt, the Baltimore millionaire and founder of the Institute that bears his name, “to a young man just starting in life, is to take good care of your health, shun all bad habits, and save at least $1 out of every $5 you earn and immediately get that $1 out at interest. Few people have any idea of the rapidity with which money at interest grows, and there is no better, safer way to get it out at interest than to buy some small piece of real estate that is improved and pays rent sufficient to yield a surplus that will pay the taxes; the interest on the mortgage you will have to give and something on the principal each year.”
“Know when to spend and when to spare,
And when to buy, and thou shalt ne’er be bare.”