Orison 
 Swett 
 Marden
 
 / 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
 I 
 
 SOUTHERN BRANCH 
 
 .,VERS1TY OF CAUFORNIA 
 
 UlBRARV 
 
 LOS ANGELES, CAUF.
 
 ANDREW CARNEGIE
 
 THRIFT 
 
 BY 
 
 ORISON SWETT HARDEN 
 
 Author of "Character," "Cheerfulness," etc. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS
 
 Copyright, 1918, 
 By THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY
 
 HQ 
 
 TO MY OOOD FRIEND 
 
 JAMES A. NEAL
 
 K TABLE OF CONTEXTS 
 
 PACE 
 
 .1 I. Thrift, the Foundation of All Great- 
 1 
 
 ' NESS 1 
 
 y 
 
 II. A Safeguard for the Future .... 6 
 
 (^V 411. The Man We Trust 14 
 
 J IV. Can You Finance Yourself.'* .... 21 
 
 ^ V. The Art of Saving is the Art of Wise 
 
 ^ Spending 33 
 
 (s^ VI. Sailing Under False Colors .... 41 
 
 VII. The Ruin of Rivalry 49 
 
 VIII. "A Home of My Own" 57 
 
 IX. "He That Soweth Sparingly Shall Reap 
 
 Sparingly" 68 
 
 X. Spendthrifts of Time and Energy . . 78 
 
 XI. The Bank-Book Habit 85
 
 THRIFT 
 
 THRIFT, THE FOUNDATION OF ALL GREATNESS 
 
 The term thrift is not only properly ap- 
 plied to money matters, but to everything in 
 life — the wise use of one's time, the wise use 
 of one's ability, one's energy, and this means 
 prudent living, careful habits of life. Thrift 
 is scientific management of one's self, one's 
 time, one's affairs, one's money, the wisest pos- 
 sible expenditure of what we have of all of 
 life's resources. 
 
 Thrift is the friend of man, a civilization 
 builder. The practice of thrift gives an up- 
 ward tendency to the life of the individual, 
 and to the life of the nation; it sustains and 
 preserves the highest welfare of the race. 
 
 Lord Rosebery, ^vi-iting on Thrift, — said 
 that all great empires that were meant to 
 abide, were thrifty. 
 
 1
 
 2 Thrift 
 
 "Take the Roman Empire, which in some 
 respects, as a centered empire, was the great- 
 est in history," he said; "it lay like an iron 
 clamp upon the face of the world: it was 
 founded on thrift, and when it ceased to he 
 thrifty it degenerated and came to an end. 
 Take the case of Prussia. It began with a 
 little, narrow, strip of sand in the North of 
 Europe — 'all sting,' as some one said, from its 
 shape and the fact that its inhabitants were 
 almost all armed men — and it was nurtured 
 by the thrift of Frederick the Great's father, 
 who prepared a vast treasure and a vast 
 army by an economy which we should call 
 sordid, but which was the weapon by which 
 the greatness of Prussia was founded, and 
 from which the present German Empire 
 has risen. Take the case of France. In my 
 humble belief France is in reality the most 
 frugal of all nations. I am not sure that the 
 French always put their money into the sav- 
 ings banks, and, therefore, they do not figure 
 so well in the proportion of depositors to the 
 nation as some others may do; but, after the 
 disastrous year of 1870, when France was 
 crushed for a time by a foreign enemy and by
 
 Foundation of All Greatness 3 
 
 a money imposition which it seemed almost 
 impossible that any nation could pay, what 
 happened? The stockings of the French peas- 
 antry, in which they had kept their savings for 
 years, were emptied into the chest of the State, 
 and that huge indemnity and that war expense 
 was paid off in a time incredibly short. The 
 other two nations that I have spoken of were 
 made by their thrift, but France was saved by 
 her thrift." 
 
 France, saved by her thrift to save democ- 
 racy! Now it is our opportunity and privi- 
 lege, by her great example to establish, both 
 in the home and in the nation, such thrift that 
 we can bountifully extend our aid to this brave 
 ally, let us, every one of us, gladly do our part 
 to sustain her at this critical period, so that 
 she may be preserved and her future assured 
 as one of the great nations of the world! 
 What is saved now, is saved for that coimtry 
 and for our own, for the war, for the victory 
 of civilization. 
 
 Thrift is not only one of the foundation- 
 stones of a fortune, but also the foundation of 
 much that is excellent in character. It im- 
 proves the quality of the individual. The
 
 4 Thrift 
 
 exercise of thrift has a very healthful reaction 
 upon all the other faculties. Thrift is an in- 
 dication of superiority in many ways. The 
 habit of thrift denotes self-control. It is a 
 proof that a man is not a hopeless victim of 
 his appetites, his weaknesses, but that he is 
 master of himself as well as of his finances. 
 
 We know that a thrifty man will not be 
 slovenly, that he will have a certain amount of 
 system and order; that he will be energetic 
 and industrious, and that he is much more 
 likely to be honest than the thriftless man. 
 
 Thrift is an educator. A thrifty man thinks 
 and plans. He must have a programme. He 
 must have a certain amount of independence. 
 
 If you have cultivated thrift it means that 
 you have demonstrated your ability to control 
 your desires; that you have begun to master 
 yourself, that you are developing some of the 
 grandest human qualities — self-reliance, inde- 
 pendence, prudence, foresight; that you are 
 developing your resourcefulness, inventive- 
 ness. In other words, it indicates that you 
 have a purpose in life, that you are a man. 
 
 "Thrift does not require superior courage, 
 nor superior intellect, nor any superhuman
 
 Foundation ok Aij. Greatness 5 
 
 virtue," says a writer on this subject. "It 
 merely requires common-sense and the power 
 of resisting selfish enjoyments. In fact, 
 thrift is merely common-sense in every-day 
 working action. It needs no fervent resolu- 
 tion, but only a little patient self-denial. 
 Begin is its device! The more the habit of 
 thrift is practiced the easier it becomes and 
 the sooner it compensates the self-denier for 
 the sacrifice which it has imposed."
 
 II 
 
 A SAFEGUARD FOR THE FUTURE 
 
 Herbert Spencer said that the chief dif- 
 ference between the savage and the civihzed 
 man is in the former's lack of foresight. Not- 
 withstanding the hardships of the primitive 
 life, the savage but slowly learns to practice 
 self-denial in order to provide for remote con- 
 tingencies. Given ample provision for to-day 
 he has no anxiety over the uncertainty of to- 
 morrow. 
 
 It is every one's duty to give some thought 
 to the future, to keep in mind a comfortable 
 old age. 
 
 The possession of money in reserve gives 
 an independence which is an encouragement 
 to effort, just as it is a safeguard for the fu- 
 ture. It enables a man to work with more 
 confidence, to look up and not down, to rise 
 superior to his surroundings and not be 
 dragged down by them. 
 
 When we get a little money ahead it arouses 
 enthusiasm to add to it. It is a perpetual 
 suggestion to save. It makes it a little easier 
 
 6
 
 A Safeguard for the Future 7 
 
 to say "No" when inclined to spend foolislily 
 or for things which are really not worth while. 
 His small savings have kept many a young 
 man from falling into temptations which 
 might have crippled or ruined him. 
 
 The little difference between what we earn 
 and what we spend is capital, an asset. Sav- 
 ings suggest to a young couple just establish- 
 ing a home wonderful possibilities. JMoney 
 saved means a better home, more comforts. It 
 means a little more reading matter and better 
 books and periodicals. It means a possible 
 college course later on for the children, and 
 protection for our old age. It means an op- 
 portunity to help others — perhaps our coun- 
 try — when the call comes. It means sound 
 sleep, less worry and less anxiety about the 
 future; it means exemption from the hori-or 
 of horrors, fear of coming to want, anxiety lest 
 those dear to us may suffer for lack of the 
 comforts of life. It may mean the difference 
 between a skillful surgeon or physician and a 
 bungler, in a case of life or death, when sick- 
 ness enters our home. 
 
 I know a very brilliant young man who 
 earned a great deal of money, but who felt
 
 8 Thrift 
 
 such confidence in his continued ability to 
 earn that he recklessly spent every cent as he 
 went along. Suddenly his young wife was 
 taken seriously ill, and in order to save her life 
 he was obliged to get a noted surgeon to per- 
 form a very delicate and dangerous operation. 
 As the surgeon would not operate until he 
 was assured of his fee, the young man was 
 compelled to borrow the necessary sum, which 
 was very large. His wife's life was saved, but 
 her continued illness and the illness of their 
 small children, together with the wear and 
 anxiety, so injured the young man's health, 
 that his earning capacity was impaired for 
 many years. In fact, his career was very seri- 
 ously handicapped, and he and his family suf- 
 fered many privations for lack of ready money 
 to tide them over their difficulties. This young 
 man could easily have saved a thousand dol- 
 lars in a single year before his wife's illness, 
 but he did not think it necessary, and believed 
 in living up to his income as he went along. 
 He took no thought for the future. 
 
 We never can tell when ilhiess, or accident, 
 may impair our earning capacity, or when 
 some unforeseen emergency may make an un-
 
 A Safeguard for the Future 9 
 
 expected call upon us. Tens of thousands of 
 mothers and children have endured all sorts 
 of hardships because the father never laid up 
 any money for an emergency, and when it 
 came there was no savings-bank balance to 
 help them over their time of stress. 
 
 In an address on "The Greater Thrift" 
 delivered before the National Education As- 
 sociation in New York, S. W. Strauss, Presi- 
 dent of the American Society for Thrift, made 
 this statement: "The records of the Surro- 
 gates' Courts show that out of one hundred 
 men who die, three leave estates of $10,000. 
 Fifteen others leave estates from two to ten 
 thousand dollars. Eighty-two of every hun- 
 dred leave no income-producing estates at all. 
 Thus, out of every one hundred widows, only 
 eighteen are left in good or comfortable cir- 
 cumstances. Forty-seven others are obliged 
 to go to work and thirty-five are left in abso- 
 lute want." 
 
 "I have little respect for the man who does 
 not put himself in a position both to provide 
 and retain enough material means to support 
 comfortably those who are dependent upon 
 him," says Colonel Koosevelt. "It is every
 
 10 Thrift 
 
 man's sacred duty to invest a certain percent- 
 age of his earnings for the protection of those 
 depending upon him. It is not so much a 
 question of whether it is a good business in- 
 vestment; it is a duty, a sacred duty, and he 
 will be cruelly unjust to those he loves if he 
 allows them to take a risk which he, person- 
 ally, conscious of strength and power, might 
 be justified himself in taking. Moreover the 
 feeling that those dearest to him are provided 
 for in case of his death, or any misfortune 
 which may come to his business from changed 
 conditions or bad management, must give an 
 immense satisfaction to any man." 
 
 I know of nothing else which quite takes the 
 place of a little ready money in case of need; 
 something which will be a buffer between us 
 and the rough knocks of the world. No one 
 who can possibly afford it should be without 
 such a buffer. 
 
 Unless you are thrifty with your money, 
 with your time, you are not success organized. 
 Of course, there are many fine, lovable people, 
 often geniuses in some direction, who are to- 
 tally lacking in the sense of money values, and 
 spend money, — when they have it — recklessly.
 
 A Safeguard for the Future 11 
 
 But just in so far as tliej' fail to make wise 
 provisions for the morrow, are they ill-hal- 
 anced, and on a par with the primitive savage. 
 
 People who chafe under little privations, 
 who cannot hear to deny themselves anything, 
 but who are led by their impulses, who are 
 not willing at times to forego a little tem- 
 porary pleasure that they may lay aside some- 
 thing for the future, will always be handi- 
 capped. 
 
 How many splendid opportunities we lose 
 in life for the lack of a little ready money, just 
 because we spent everything as w^e went along 
 and laid aside nothing! Get a little money 
 ahead, something in the bank, put your sav- 
 ings in an insurance policy or some other good, 
 solid investment, — there is nothing safer or 
 better to-day than Liberty Bonds — to give 
 protection in case of emergency. 
 
 I know a very brilliant man with remark- 
 able earning capacity, but no saving ability, 
 who lost an opportunity to buy the original 
 Bell telephone stock, before it was watered, for 
 fifty cents a share. The opportunity came to 
 him, but he had to say "No," because he had 
 spent everything as he went along. He has
 
 12 Thrift 
 
 earned a great deal of money, but is always 
 "hard up," and is constantly borrowing from 
 his friends. 
 
 The power of ready money is usually not 
 half appreciated by young men and young 
 women. This is a land of opportunity, and 
 good chances are constantly coming to those 
 who have the ready cash. How often we hear 
 people plead as an excuse for not seizing a 
 rare opportunity for investment, that they had 
 no ready money. There are always plenty of 
 opportunities, if one only has a little reserve 
 laid by. 
 
 Every young person should have foresight 
 and shrewdness enough to protect some of 
 his savings, not only to keep him from any 
 possible want in case of sickness, death, or 
 emergency, but also to enable him to get a 
 start again, provided he should meet unex- 
 pected losses. Without such a reserve he may 
 be handicapped for years, especially if he has 
 a family depending upon him. 
 
 A relatively small amount of ready money 
 has saved many a fortune in a case of panic 
 or emergency. There are times in most 
 people's lives when they must have ready
 
 A Safeguard for the Future 13 
 
 money, and must have it immediately. Per- 
 haps a thousand dollars in cash would make 
 all the difference hetween success and failure, 
 and because they do not have the thousand they 
 fail and often become victims of despair. 
 
 It is very difficult to get a hold again after 
 you have once lost your grip, especially in 
 middle life! Many employers look with dis- 
 trust on gray hairs seeking a livelihood. They 
 think there is something wrong somewhere 
 when a man of years has nothing between 
 himself and want. 
 
 To realize that the best years, the most pro- 
 ductive years of one's life have gone by, leav- 
 ing no protection for old age, is certainly dis- 
 heartening. 
 
 The world looks very different to the man 
 who has something laid aside for an emer- 
 gency, for sickness, or for the comforts of old 
 age, to what it does to the man who has notli- 
 ing ahead. The man who saves is insuring 
 against all sorts of misfortunes which may 
 come to himself and those dear to him in the 
 future. He is building around his home a wall 
 of protection from insults, from unkind treat- 
 ment, from cold selfishness of others.
 
 > 
 
 in 
 
 THE MAN WE TRUST 
 
 Before people will back a man with capi- 
 tal, before bankers will loan him money or 
 jobbers give him credit, they want to know 
 what sort of a man he is. They will inquire 
 into his habits, for they know these will indi- 
 cate his character. 
 
 "Is he stable in his character? Does he save 
 his money? Has he formed habits of thrift? 
 Can his word be relied upon? Has he good 
 business ability? Is he industrious and so- 
 ber?" These are the first questions which a 
 banker will ask in investigating a man who 
 has applied for a loan. The same thing is true 
 of the jobbers of v/hom he asks credit. Busi- 
 ness men know that it is pretty safe to trust 
 a young man who has developed the habit of 
 thrift, who is careful of his time, his health, his 
 savings. 
 
 The quality which increases the confidence 
 of others in a young man and adds tremen- 
 
 14
 
 The Man We Trust 1.3 
 
 dously to his credit is the reputation of sta- 
 bility, of soundness of judgment in business 
 matters. If a man is known to be careless in 
 money matters; if he is not prompt in his pay- 
 ments ; if he is inclined to gamble, and does not 
 have much faculty for holding on to his money, 
 he will have very hard work to get credit or to 
 start in business for himself. 
 
 Every sound business man knows that if a 
 man cannot control himself; if he cannot resist 
 the temptation to spend every bit of his in- 
 come, perhaps more, in unnecessary ways, in 
 foolish indulgences, he cannot be trusted with 
 money. The man who cannot hold on to his 
 money, who spends it rashly, no matter how 
 honest he may be is always an easy dupe of 
 others, who take advantage of him and his 
 gullibility. 
 
 Nothing will do more to help a young man 
 to get credit and gain for him the assistance 
 of successful people than tlie reputation of 
 having the saving habit, — of having something 
 laid by, whether in government bonds, or in a 
 life insurance policy, or in some other invest- 
 ment. Such thrift gives him standing. 
 
 A prominent business man says: "Give me
 
 16 Thrift 
 
 the youth who saves to make the man worth 
 while." 
 
 Every employer knows that the employee 
 who always manages to save something out of 
 his salary, has other sterling qualities, because 
 thrift belongs to a large and most excellent 
 family. 
 
 The man who has a fair salary, but who 
 does not lay up anything, is looked upon with 
 suspicion, either as to his ability or his habits. 
 Level-headed business men always think well 
 of young men who, no matter how little they 
 earn, manage somehow to save part of it. Our 
 savings are a power, not only for the money 
 they represent, but because they are evidences 
 of self-denial, good judgment, thrift. 
 
 The very fact that a young man has the 
 foresight to look ahead, to provide for the 
 future, for others, or against accident, indi- 
 cates that he possesses fine qualities of mind 
 and heart, and that he is a good citizen and 
 neighbor. People have confidence in him. 
 The reputation of being provident and a good 
 citizen means more credit, more capital, more 
 influence. 
 
 Yet there are young people so foolish as to
 
 The Max We Trust 17 
 
 boast of spending everything they can get, and 
 that they are always in debt. And there are 
 thousands of young men receiving good sala- 
 ries — some of them very large — who never 
 think of laying up a dollar. They never see 
 anything in their salaries but a "good time," 
 and they never develop the habit of thrift. 
 You ask them how they are doing, and they 
 will say: "Oh, just getting along," "just mak- 
 ing a living," "just holding my own." 
 
 Just making a bare living is not getting on, 
 and it is not sufficient recommendation. 
 
 Bacon says that a man who would live well 
 within his income ought not to expend more 
 than one-half, and should save the rest. 
 
 I knew a young man w^ho had received a 
 good salary for many years, and who had 
 never saved a dollar, but who always intended 
 to save. Every year he thought he was going 
 to save several hundred dollars at least out of 
 his salary ; but at the end of the year he always 
 found that all of his money was gone. 
 
 One day someone asked him what lie had 
 done with his salary the past year. It set him 
 thinking. Up to that time he liad never kept 
 3,n account of his expenditures; but he sat
 
 18 Thrift 
 
 down and began to figure up his necessary ex- 
 penses, and found that they were not equal to 
 one-quarter of his salary. Three-fourths of 
 all he earned had gone for amusement and 
 trifles. He resolved then and there to save 
 half of his salary, and at once opened an ac- 
 count in a savings bank and deposited what 
 he had. He did not make the fatal mistake, 
 which many make, of waiting until he had a 
 large amount to deposit. 
 
 In a short time this young man was not only 
 surprised to see how easy it was to save when 
 he had a strong motive but he was also sur- 
 prised at the pleasure he had in saving, in 
 watching his account grow, and in planning 
 for a home of his own and to go into business 
 for himself. At the end of the first year he had 
 a splendid balance in the bank, and yet he 
 could not see that he had missed any pleasure 
 Iwhich would have been of real benefit to him. 
 He had cut off habits which were injurious to 
 him, and which only made him hate himself for 
 indulgence in them, and with his increasing 
 self-respect, he had formed the habit of reading 
 and self-improvement. Everj^body who knew 
 him noticed the great change in his appear-
 
 The Man We Trust 19 
 
 ance, and it was not long before he was offered 
 a partnership in a good business. 
 
 "I have often been asked," says a prominent 
 business man, "to define the true secret of suc- 
 cess. It is thrift in all its phases, and espe- 
 cially thrift as applied to saving. Saving is 
 the first great principle of success. It creates 
 independence, it gives a young man standing, 
 fills him with vigor, it stimulates him witli the 
 proper energj^; in fact, it brings to him the 
 best part of any success — happiness and con- 
 tentment." 
 
 No matter how well you are doing in your 
 business or how large a salary you are getting, 
 do not spend it all as you go, for your most 
 effective years do not last very long, and if 
 you spend everything you earn in those years 
 how can you expect comfort and ease in old 
 age? 
 
 Perhaps the great majority of people do 
 their best work and earn their largest amount 
 of money during fifteen or twenty years. 
 Your future comfort and hapi)iness depend 
 on the surplus of your most productive years. 
 Do not risk too much on your prospects for the 
 future. Save to-day. Take no chances with
 
 20 Thrift 
 
 your home. Make a sure thing of it. Never 
 mind the little sacrifices you make to-day. 
 You can afford them for the sake of to- 
 morrow. 
 
 Make a cast-iron rule to lay aside a certain 
 percentage of your earnings every year. No 
 matter how small it may be, or if you have to 
 go without a great many things that you think 
 you need^\put a certain j)ercentage of your 
 earnings where it will be absolutely safe. 
 Thrift Stamps are a safe foundation on which 
 to build your happiness and welfare. You 
 will find there is a great satisfaction not only 
 in seeing your little savings grow, but in 
 knowing that such investment on your part, 
 small as it may be, is helping your country to 
 bear its burdens at a critical time. 
 
 The great majority of people are incapable 
 of doing large things — it would be impossible 
 for them to raise any considerable amount of 
 money at once — but the gi'eat mass of people 
 can put aside a certain amount from their in- 
 comes or salaries and thus provide for the 
 future.
 
 IV 
 
 CAN YOU FINANCE YOURSELF? 
 
 A MOST essential thing for every one to 
 know is how to finance oneself — how to earn 
 and use money. It does not matter how much 
 you know or how educated you are, if you 
 cannot finance or support yourself there is 
 something -vvi-ong in your education and your 
 training; you are deficient, no matter how 
 talented in other respects. 
 
 One of the most pathetic phases of Ameri- 
 can life is that so many people are leading 
 unhappy, wretched lives because in their youth 
 they were not taught how to finance them- 
 selves, or to earn their own living. How many 
 thousands of our yoimg women have been 
 placed at the mercy of chance, because they 
 lacked training in this respect I From child- 
 hood the idea was instilled in them that when 
 they "grew up" they were expected to marry. 
 Whether they ought to marry or not, regard- 
 less of any special talent they might have for 
 
 21
 
 22 Thrift 
 
 business or for a profession, regardless of 
 whether they had a special mission for the 
 world, they were supposed to look out for a 
 husband. It was not considered necessary or 
 desirable that the daughter should have any 
 special training to fit her for a business or in- 
 dependent career. Reared as a dependent 
 creature the girl of the past was a sort of 
 clinging vine, brought up to think that some- 
 one would take care of her, so far as her living 
 was concerned ; that her father would look out 
 for her until she married, and then her hus- 
 band would do the rest. 
 
 Think of the position of a self-respecting 
 girl, with perhaps no desire or opportunity to 
 marry, when she reached maturity and felt that 
 her parents expected her to relieve them of 
 her support yet realized she was perfectly 
 helpless to do so ! She had never been taught 
 to earn her living, what was she to do under 
 such circumstances? She found herself grow- 
 ing older and older, and did not want to 
 marry, yet there seemed nothing else for her 
 to do. 
 
 To those with modern ideas there are plenty 
 of useful careers besides that of matrimony
 
 Can You Finance Yourself? 23 
 
 open to the girl of to-day. The war is pre- 
 senting new and wonderful opportunities to 
 women, and they are developing marvelous 
 resourcefulness, inventiveness, vast ability 
 which they never before dreamed they pos- 
 sessed. This new outlook for woman, with 
 her new independence, her new self-reliance, 
 will give her a chance which she never before 
 had. The educated girl of to-day knows she 
 is under no obligation whatever to marry 
 unless there is a loud, immistakable call in her 
 nature, and of this she should be the judge. 
 
 The fact that they were totally untrained to 
 earn their living; or at best not sufficiently 
 trained to make it possible for them to earn 
 more than a bare subsistence, has had a blight- 
 ing effect on many pronu'sing young lives. 
 
 There are many women to-day who are per- 
 fectly miserable because their whole natures 
 have revolted at the idea of marriage, but 
 they were i:)racticall5^ obliged to leave home, 
 and they believed there was no other door o])cn 
 for them. They had never been trained in any 
 money-making profession that would assure 
 them independence. Is it surprising that such 
 ■>vomen prove inefficient, thriftless wives, and
 
 24 Thrift 
 
 when widowed are incapable of self-support? 
 
 To my mind it is not only cruel, but really 
 a crime, to force a girl, when she is hopelessly 
 inefficient, out into the world to earn her living, 
 or to marry a man who is totally unsuited to 
 make her happy or to be the father of her chil- 
 dren, the head of a family. 
 
 Parents, make your girl self-reliant, so that 
 men will know that she is not dependent upon 
 any one of them for support, that she. is per- 
 fectly capable not only of making a living, but 
 of making a career of distinction, because of 
 her education and expert training in some 
 particular line. INIost girls are just as proud 
 of making a reputation along the lines of their 
 ability as are the men, and they should have 
 the same chance that their brothers have to 
 develop their business possibilities. 
 
 Many a cultured girl has been thro^vn sud- 
 denly on her own resources by the failure or 
 the death of her father, and has found herself 
 wholly incapable of administering his affairs 
 or of earning a living. Many women, when 
 their husbands die suddenly, are left with 
 business responsibilities, wliich they are ut- 
 terly unfit to assume. They are at the mercjyr
 
 Can You Finance Yourself? 25 
 
 of designing lawyers or dishonest business 
 men, who well know that they are mere baljies 
 in their hands, when it comes to important 
 business transactions. 
 
 Business talent is as rare as a talent for 
 mathematics. We find boys and girls turned 
 out of school and college full of theories, and 
 all sorts of knowledge or smatterings of 
 knowledge, but without the ability to protect 
 themselves from human thieves who are try- 
 ing to get something for nothing. Xo girl or 
 boy should be allowed to graduate, especially 
 from any of the higher institutions, without 
 being well grounded in practical business 
 methods. Parents who send their children out 
 in life without seeing that they are well versed 
 in ordinary business principles do them incal- 
 culable injustice. 
 
 Thousands of girls are sent out into the 
 world with what is called finished educations, 
 who cannot even give a proper receipt for 
 money, to say nothing of tlrawing a promis- 
 sory note, a draft or a bill, or understanding 
 the significance and importance of business 
 contracts. One such woman presented a clicck 
 for payment to the paying teller of her bank.
 
 26 Thrift 
 
 He passed it back to her with the request that 
 she be kind enough to indorse it. The lady 
 wrote on the back of the check, "I have done 
 business with this bank for many years, and I 
 believe it to be all right. Mrs. James B. 
 Brown." 
 
 If every child in America had a thorough 
 business training, tens of thousands of pro- 
 moters, longheaded, cunning schemers, who 
 have thriven on the people's ignorance, would 
 be out of an occupation. 
 
 Since, as we have seen in a preceding chap- 
 ter, only eighteen out of every one hundred 
 widows are left independent, forty-seven 
 being obliged to go to work, and the remain- 
 ing thirty-five being left in absolute want, it 
 is clear that every woman, married or single, 
 should know how to support and finance her- 
 self. The necessity for this is made more ap- 
 parent than ever at this critical period of the 
 world's history, when the male element of the 
 family is being called from the home. It is 
 as imperative to train tlie girl to be self-sup- 
 porting as it is to train the boy. 
 
 What pitiable cases we often see of j^'oung 
 wives, sincere and honest, but who had prac-
 
 Can You Finance Yourself? 27 
 
 tically no training in financinp^ themselves or 
 in the handling of money previous to their 
 marriage, who innocently develop extrava- 
 gant habits in dress, and run in debt for luxu- 
 ries! How often we find these young women 
 with moderately salaried husbands ordering 
 expensive dishes in restaurants, riding in taxi- 
 cabs, doing all sorts of things which are not 
 at all in keeping with their husbands' small 
 incomes I 
 
 Not long ago a married woman told me that 
 it had never occurred to her, during the years 
 when her father paid all her bills with checks, 
 that, when she got a home of her own and her 
 income was limited, if she paid one hundred 
 dollars for a dress, she could not afford to buy 
 a fifty dollar hat, as she had been accustomed 
 to do before marriage. She said slie had suf- 
 fered terribly in readjusting herself to her 
 husband's limited income, because of her lack 
 of early training in the use and handling of 
 money. She had been reared with the idea 
 that whenever she wanted anything, her father 
 would pay for it. It was several years befcjre 
 |She could seem to figure out the proper pro- 
 portion for her personal expenditures. She
 
 28 Thrift 
 
 said she had never before realized that if she 
 spent her money for one thing, she could not 
 have it for something else. 
 
 The wise expenditure of money incurring 
 thrifty habits of living is a matter in which 
 every girl should be well trained before she 
 leaves home. I know fathers who seem to 
 think that they save money by not allowing 
 their daughters to handle it. But if a sensible 
 girl has learned the value of each dollar, she 
 will be very much more careful as to how she 
 spends it. 
 
 Most girls are not given an opportunity to 
 handle money until they are mature. Hence, 
 many never learn its real value or how to 
 spend it to the best advantage. They are un- 
 developed in the ways of thrift. During her 
 school days, the fathei* not only pays for the 
 daughter's clothing, but the mother usually de- 
 cides of what the clothing shall consist. In 
 other words, instead of giving the daughter an 
 allowance while she is in school, or not in a 
 position to earn anything to speak of, and 
 teaching her how to use her judgment and 
 cultivate her taste in the selection of whatever 
 she wears, thus developing her self-reliance.
 
 WffH.lv^^-&«^ ' -. ■ / ,^:-i^^-..- 
 
 i;t. 
 
 )ii.(iii- 
 
 ^W'^^-Mji, 
 
 w- 
 
 
 I \ 
 
 From the drawing by Pierre Moraml m i !•• N i . 
 
 Colonel Jolm Jacub Ai>tor. 
 
 JOHN JACOB ASTOR.
 
 CAiN You Finance Yourseli-^ 20 
 
 and makinf^ licr as scli'-depciuk'nt as possible, 
 the average girl is brought up to lean upon 
 her parents in all sueh things, and not being 
 accustomed to handle money of her own, or to 
 keep accounts, she often goes to her own liome 
 with very little practical sense in money mat- 
 ters. Thousands of girls marry in this weak 
 and helpless condition, and a great deal of dis- 
 cord results in the Jionie, oftentimes wrecking 
 it. ITow can a girl who has had practically iif> 
 training in the handling of money, know its 
 Talue, — all at once become a wise financier 
 when she is married? 
 
 When a girl who has been brought up in a 
 very strict home, who has perha])s been over- 
 chaperoned, and over-protected, feels her new- 
 found freedom, her new sense of liberty from 
 restraint, she is naturally led into extravagant 
 expenditures, and is often encouraged ])y an 
 affectionate indulgent husband, who is anxious 
 to do everything he can to please her. 
 
 I know of a pitiable case of tliis kind wliere 
 the wife of a young college professor ran up 
 accounts in department stores, at livery 
 stables, even at florists, without realizing what 
 she was doing. Her new-found liberty, away
 
 30 Thrift 
 
 from the restraints of an exacting, penurious 
 father, meant license to this young wife, and 
 she did not know how careful she would need 
 to be in the spending of her husband's small 
 salary of two thousand dollars. She did not 
 stop to consider that her father would no 
 longer send checks for her purchases, and that 
 two thousand dollars a year did not admit of 
 many theater or opera tickets. Before she 
 knew it, she had run up large accounts and 
 not only embarrassed her husband for several 
 years, but also suffered great humiliation and 
 chagrin herself. 
 
 When the bills began to arrive and the 
 young wife awoke to the full realization of her 
 situation, rather than tell her husband, she 
 pawned her jewelry, some of which were her 
 wedding presents. But the husband found 
 that out, and was not only greatly shocked at 
 the condition of things, but was seriously 
 troubled because of his wife's deception, even 
 though not intentional. 
 
 The world demands that everj^ individual 
 know how to take care of himself, how to be 
 independent, self-reliant, how to finance him- 
 self wisely, how to make the most of his in-
 
 Can You Finance Yourself? 31 
 
 come. There is nothing more important to a 
 human heing than to be able not only to earn 
 his own living, but also to know how to use 
 his money to the best possible advantage, for 
 on this depends his power to make himself in- 
 dependent and consequently to do his best 
 work in the world. 
 
 One of the first steps in financing yourself 
 properly is to keep a personal cash account. 
 This is one of the best educators and teachers 
 of economy and system. If the habit is 
 formed when you are young in years it will 
 never be broken. It will mean a competence 
 in later life when otherwise there may be none. 
 
 Very few young women and girls use busi- 
 ness methods in the handling of their money. 
 Now, financing yourself is one of the first 
 lessons in the science of success. If you can- 
 not finance yourself in a level-headed, wise 
 way, you certainly cannot wisely manage your 
 own affairs or those of another. Unbusiness- 
 like methods, unwise liandling of money will 
 make a bad impression upon your employer, 
 or your husband. If you arc not thrifty in 
 your own affairs, if you arc not businesslike 
 in managing them, others will take it for
 
 32 Thrift 
 
 granted that you will be inefficient in the 
 handling of their affairs. 
 
 However you make your living, whether by 
 the work of your hand or of your brain, in a 
 trade or in a profession, at home or in the 
 shop, whether your income be small or large, 
 you will always be placed at a disadvantage, 
 unless you know how to finance yourself suc- 
 cessfully. This is not to be "close," mean or 
 stingy, but to know how to make the most out 
 of your income ; not to expend the margin you 
 should save in silly extravagances or to make 
 foolish investments. Let your slogan be, as 
 it is with the nation, — "Economy."
 
 THE ART OF SAVING IS THE ART OF WISE 
 SPENDING 
 
 "Economy is not meanness, it is managing." 
 
 'A. FEW years ago our newspapers gave 
 space to a certain rich man who made plenty 
 of money from his own work, as well as the 
 work of others, and his very foolish way of 
 spending it. The published report gave the 
 following telegram from Indianapolis : 
 
 "Frank Fox, of Pittsburgh, stood in the 
 Hotel English drying his face with a $oO bill. 
 He threw the bill to the floor and then pro- 
 duced from a bundle under his arm a handful 
 of fives and fifties. Throwing them on the 
 bar, he said: 'Bartender, give me a drink, 
 quick, or I will buy this hotel and have you 
 fired.' " 
 
 This man's destiny may easily be imagined. 
 His previous history I know nothing about, 
 except that his fortune was amassed by his 
 
 33
 
 34 Thrift 
 
 energy. For him to achieve such wealth a 
 certain amount of economy must have been 
 necessary on his part as well as that of others. 
 But that he never learned the true meaning 
 of thrift is certain, for thrift teaches how to 
 spend as well as how to save. Many people 
 have accumulated money who do not know 
 how to spend it wisely. 
 
 Only a little while ago I heard of a young 
 man who was left a large fortune, and who 
 was so intoxicated with the foolish idea that 
 he was going to be a great financier, that he 
 invested right and left in all sorts of securi- 
 ties. He became so entangled in the schemes 
 of wily promoters, who were quick to discover 
 his gullibility, that, before he knew it, he had 
 run through his entire fortune. Yet he really 
 thought he was making money until the crash 
 came. When he failed, it was found that, 
 in the entire list of his securities there was 
 scarcely anything of real value. There was 
 hardly a security in which any level-headed 
 business man would have risked a dollar. 
 
 Most young men have an ambition to make 
 money. There is a personal pride in it. It 
 touches their vanity. They think there is
 
 Saving is the Art of Wise Spending 35 
 
 something the matter with a young man who 
 cannot make money. The motive is so strong 
 for money-making that they make a strenuous 
 endeavor to get it; but do not make an equal 
 effort to retain it, there being a thousand and 
 one temptations trying to induce them to give 
 it up. 
 
 A self-made millionaire tells me that not 
 one out of a himdred of those who make money 
 in New York can keep it. While this may 
 be exaggerated, we all know that compara- 
 tively few are able to keep what they make. 
 The inducements to part with money are very 
 alluring to those who are not strongly in- 
 trenched in self-control. 
 
 A well-known victim of thriftlessness is 
 the amiable, easy-going, large-hearted, liberal 
 man. He is always ready to pay for the lunch, 
 for the dinner, for the drinks. His bump of 
 generosity is so strongly developed, tliat every- 
 thing goes as fast as he gets it. He cannot 
 seem to hold on to money. 
 
 This type of a man often has the best in- 
 tentions, fine impulses, yet he absolutely ruins 
 those dependent upon hun, as well as himself, 
 by not providing for their future. Almost
 
 36 Thrift 
 
 anyone can get money from htm, if he has 
 any, by asking. If he does not happen to 
 have it, he will often borrow it for his friends. 
 I know a man of this sort, who, but for this 
 one defect, would probably have been a very 
 great success. He has many warm friends; 
 everybody who knows him loves him, yet he 
 has not been able to get capital ahead and his 
 family, those really nearest and dearest to him, 
 are the victims of his prodigality. Such a 
 man might well take a lesson from Goldsmith, 
 who wrote: 
 
 "I had learned from books to be disinter- 
 ested and generous before I was taught from 
 experience the necessity of being prudent 
 .... Often by being, even with my nar- 
 row finances, charitable to excess, I forgot the 
 rules of justice and placed myself in the very 
 situation of the wretch who thanked me for 
 my bounty." And this man, who could refuse 
 no indulgences either to himself or others, ad- 
 monished his brother to teach his son thrift 
 and economy. "Let his poor wandering 
 uncle's example be placed before his eyes." 
 
 Everyone should be taught the value of 
 money and how to spend it wisely. If people
 
 Saving is the Art of Wise Spending 37 
 
 do not acquire this knowledge in youth, they 
 seldom later in life do so. 
 
 There is no one human faculty neglected 
 more by the common people than prudence. 
 Men reach ahead and make money, but after 
 they get it, most of them seem powerless to 
 keep it. It slips through their fingers, in an 
 incredible manner, in all sorts of foolish ways. 
 
 The art of saving is essentially the art of 
 wise spending. Oftentimes what seems like 
 extravagance is the greatest possible economy. 
 There are many families, especially in smaller 
 towns and in the country, who own automobiles 
 but who have no bathtubs in their homes, and 
 consider the latter expensive luxuries. 
 
 We would not discourage people from o^vn- 
 ing automobiles, because they are a precious 
 boon to the American home, bringing relief 
 to the monotonous existence of women and 
 children, and health, variety, and joy to vast 
 midtitudes of people heretofore deprived of 
 these blessings ; but cleanliness is not only next 
 to godliness, it is godliness, and most of us 
 consider a bathtub an important adjunct to 
 cleanliness. It took civilization many centu- 
 ries to arrive at the bathtub as a necessity and
 
 38 Thrift 
 
 luxury. Most of us are finding that the daily- 
 bath is a wonderful health and efficiency pro- 
 moter and life prolonger. 
 
 The great thing in making expenditures is 
 to spend upward, to invest in oneself. Do not 
 be content to wear silks and diamonds on the 
 body, to ride around in your limousine, and to 
 dress the mind in calico and the character in 
 rags. Let self-improvement, self-culture, a 
 healthy mind, a fine personalitj^ be your richest 
 dress. Spend your money and time on things 
 which endure. Spend them in any way that 
 will make you a larger, grander, truer man 
 or woman. There is infinite satisfaction in 
 spending for the higher instead of the lower, 
 in self-investment, in self-improvement. 
 
 Invest in the best things. It is spending 
 upward, living upward, dwelling in honesty, 
 in simplicity, living the life that is worth while, 
 the real life, the sincere life, the genuine life, 
 that will give the greatest satisfaction. 
 
 There are people who have very small in- 
 comes, and yet they spend it in all sorts of 
 foolish ways. They will take their last penny 
 to buy expensive b;iuc-a-brac and articles of 
 dress, which only the well-to-do could afford to
 
 Saving is the Art of Wise Spending 39 
 
 have, and then they suffer for the real neces- 
 saries of Hfe. 
 
 I know a most excellent woman who was 
 brought up in luxury without learning the 
 value of things, and who is now poor. Quite 
 recently she would go to market and buy the 
 greatest variety of eatables for the table, know- 
 ing perfectly well that she would be obliged 
 to go without necessary articles of clothing in 
 order to cover the extravagance. She consid- 
 ers it deplorable not to have a great quantity 
 and a great variety of food on the table. This 
 housekeeper, as well as many others who here- 
 tofore spent recklessly for foodstuffs and lux- 
 uries, are now taking lessons in thrift from 
 our wise Government. 
 
 Most people do not take into consideration 
 the tremendous inducements that are all the 
 time at work trying to get their money away 
 from them. Scores of fancied wants are tug- 
 ging away at the pocketbook all the time, and 
 unless we are well-grounded in the principles 
 of self-control and caution and prudence, un- 
 less we develop good judgment, the money 
 will slip away from us. 
 
 There are multitudes of people to-day in
 
 40 Thrift 
 
 the great failure army, in our poorhouses, or 
 being helped by the charitable associations, 
 who would have been fairly independent to- 
 day had they learned the art of wise spending. 
 "A penny saved instead of a penny properly 
 spent is a penny wasted," we are told. "Why 
 not remember the parable of the talents and 
 learn wisdom from it?"
 
 VI 
 
 SAILING UNDER FALSE COLORS 
 
 Many people who are honest in their busi- 
 ness dealings are dishonest in their social ap- 
 pearances. They wear all sorts of lies, act all 
 sorts of lies, in order to deceive others in re- 
 gard to their rank in society. In cities we 
 often see houses built with just a thin layer 
 of brown-stone front, while the rest is made 
 of old second-hand bricks — anything to fill in 
 with — the type of architecture that has been 
 called Queen Anne in front and Mary Ann 
 in the back. 
 
 We put plate glass in our front windows 
 and display our costlj^ furnishings in the front 
 of the house, but we often find all sorts of 
 cheap, shabby, shoddy things in the rear. Our 
 characters in these days are much like our 
 houses. We put our best selves before the 
 public. We are not genuine through and 
 through. 
 
 41
 
 42 Thrift 
 
 Keeping up false appearances, living a false 
 life, is most demoralizing. Trying to make 
 people think you are better off than you really 
 are acts as a boomerang which strikes back 
 with a fatal rebound. 
 
 A New York woman of high social ambi- 
 tions not long ago lost her home and all her 
 property in her efforts to introduce her daugh- 
 ters into fashionable society. The family could 
 have lived in comfort on their modest income, 
 had not the mother gone far bej^ond their 
 means in her eagerness to force her daughters 
 into the society of those who were socially far 
 above them in the matter of wealth. She spent 
 a great deal of money in giving smart enter- 
 tainments in order to show her girls off to the 
 best advantage. Thousands of dollars were 
 squandered in buying beautiful gowns, hats, 
 laces, and all sorts of expensive finery for them, 
 so that they might shine as brilliantly as other 
 young ladies who had a hundred times their 
 financial means. In an insane attempt to keep 
 up appearances far beyond her income, and 
 to secure, as she hoped, wealthy husbands for 
 her daughters, she became hopelessly entan- 
 gled in debt, and was forced into bankruptcy,
 
 Sailing Under False Colors 43 
 
 Tiiid the daugliters, instead of winnino- the 
 prizes their mother sought, are mortified and 
 chagrined to find themselves now without even 
 a home. 
 
 Mothers in ordinary circumstances often 
 make tremendous efforts to marry their daugli- 
 ters to rich men, little realizing that they are 
 thus making their girls dissatisfied with their 
 humhle surroundings, and leading them to 
 think their modest home a bore, a place to be 
 shunned as much as possible. They little 
 know that this catering to vanity is wliat ruins 
 so many girls and makes selfish, discontented, 
 thriftless wives of them. 
 
 Trying to put up a good front, to keep up 
 appearances which we cannot afford, has cast 
 a gloom of unhappiness and misery over thou- 
 sands of homes which but for envj^ but for 
 silly false jDride, might have been very happy 
 homes. There is more misery and discontent 
 among the many people who occupy boxes 
 and exj^ensive seats at the theater and the 
 opera than among those who cannot afford a 
 seat at all, but stand up in the rear. 
 
 I know of women who enjoy life immensely 
 who cannot afford even the cheapest seats at
 
 44 Thrift 
 
 the opera, but they gladly stand, and return 
 home delighted, radiant with happiness, while 
 one often sees other women, in the most ex- 
 pensive boxes, whose faces are the bulletin 
 boards that show their discontent. 
 
 Would you not rather go to the theater in 
 ordinary clothes and in a street-car than to 
 be fashionably attired, go in a limousine, and 
 sit in a box and worry all the evening because 
 you could not afford it, and wondered how you 
 were going to pay your bills? 
 
 Who can estimate the suffering, the human 
 tragedies that result from this everlasting 
 strain of trying to keep up appearances, of 
 living beyond one's means? There are plenty 
 of people everywhere to-day who do not have 
 enough to eat, and who practice all sorts of 
 pinching economy at home for the sake of 
 keeping up appearances in society. 
 
 What tremendous strides we could make in 
 things that really count w^ere the energ}^ ex- 
 pended in straining to keep up appearances 
 spent in improving ourselves, in genuine self- 
 culture, in man building, in woman building! 
 
 Why should it require so much courage to 
 live the life we can afford, to be genume, true,
 
 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
 
 Sailing Under False Colors 45 
 
 and never to fear what our neighbors think? 
 Even those wlio are wealthy will think more 
 of us for this independence. 
 
 Many peoj^le shorten their lives in over- 
 working, in plodding along without vacations 
 or change, struggling to keep up appearances, 
 to satisfy others' ideas of what they ought to 
 do and ought to have. 
 
 I have watched young people who live this 
 sort of a life, and it is a rare thing that any 
 of them turn out well. Their weakness, the 
 tendency for show, grows upon them, and 
 when they once get a taste of what they call 
 the "good things of life," the luxuries, they 
 develop a dissatisfaction for their humble 
 homes. They immediately think they were 
 born out of their sphere ; that it is a shame for 
 people with a taste for luxuries to be poor. 
 They never think they should put forth any 
 honest efforts to bring about a more prosper- 
 ous condition. 
 
 The fact is, that extravagant liabits are 
 incompatible with the thrift necessary for suc- 
 cess in any career. There must be an under- 
 lying, clean-cut thrift in the nature, a disposi- 
 tion to make the most of everything, and to
 
 46 Thrift 
 
 make every dollar go as far as possible, and 
 to save just as much as possible without pinch- 
 ing in one's comforts or being mean. 
 
 The people v^^ho plunge into extravagance to 
 keep pace with families of the rich overlook 
 the fact that behind every honest fortune lies 
 thrift. If we investigate, we will generally 
 find that the antecedents of these rich people 
 worked hard, lived frugally, practiced econ- 
 omy to lay the f ovmdation of the fortune. 
 
 Our real wants are very simple. We could 
 supply them all by working a very small part 
 of our time ; but it is the things demanded for 
 others' eyes that are so expensive, that cost 
 our life-blood, that sap our energy, that cause 
 the tremendous life strain, the nervous pros- 
 tration, the paralysis, the premature old age. 
 
 Ah! what tyrants others' eyes are! How 
 we wince under their glance! What a rare 
 thing it is to find a person who is large enough 
 and free enough to be really natural. 
 
 How many people live and dress and pose 
 and endure all sorts of inconveniences and 
 slavery just to impress their neighbors! Do 
 what they will, they cannot get away from 
 others' eyes. They have costly draperies at
 
 Sailing Under False Colors 47 
 
 their windows while behind them are filth and 
 disorder and broken-down furniture. 
 
 Most of us are always posing, acting, never 
 quite ourselves. We cannot get rid of the 
 consciousness that others are looking at us 
 and that we must put up a good front. The 
 suit, the hat must be discarded, not because 
 they are badly worn, but because others will 
 think it strange that we do not change them. 
 It is sad to think that even while the world 
 lies bleeding, such frivolity exists! 
 
 Society is demoralized when the people live 
 far beyond their means, when they sail under 
 false colors, many of them cursed by debt, 
 often resorting to methods bordering on crim- 
 inality in order to keep up the miserable de- 
 ceit of appearing richer than they are. 
 
 "The standard of living among the rich has 
 been raised to an excessive degree, and those 
 who would like to be thought rich try to fol- 
 low the lead set by the big financiers and min- 
 ing magnates who are to our day wliat tlie 
 Indian nabobs were to the England of George 
 III," says a writer. "People who live beyond 
 their meam are tempted to speculate, and the 
 bankruptcy records show the inevitable result.
 
 48 Theift 
 
 A course of plain living and high thinking 
 would be good for the morals of society, and 
 good for legitimate trade." 
 
 Why not get down to realities by living the 
 simple life, the natural life, by throwing off 
 masks and being what you seem? This con- 
 stant straining to appear what you are not, 
 this building up a superficial character, keep- 
 ing up a deceitful appearance, will honey- 
 comb the life with fraud and leave nothing 
 but dissatisfaction behind. 
 
 Do not be afraid to decline to do what you 
 cannot afford. Dare to say "No" with em- 
 phasis, to be yourself. Be content to let 
 others make fools of themselves, if they will.
 
 VII 
 
 THE RUIN OF RIVALRY 
 
 Not long ago I heard a New York business 
 man with a small income say: "I have no idea 
 oS taking a back seat when it comes to putting 
 up a good front." He said that his income 
 would not warrant his keeping an automobile, 
 but he was obliged to have one because his 
 neighbors and others had them, and he did not 
 propose to be outdone by them; that he did 
 not want his children humiliated because they 
 could not afford what others had, and so he 
 ran into a debt which has made him a slave 
 for years. 
 
 There are thousands of people striving and 
 struggling in the most imnatural way to get 
 along in New York and other large cities, wlio 
 are desperately unhappy because of the con- 
 trast between their condition and that of those 
 whom they envy. I do not believe there is 
 any place in the world where envy plays such 
 a prominent part as in a great city. 
 
 49
 
 50 Thrift 
 
 So many people seem to think that it is al- 
 most a disgrace not to have what other people 
 whom they know have. If others have an au- 
 tomobile, they must have one, whether they 
 can afford it or not. Daughters of men in 
 narrow circimistances think they must have 
 the same beautiful things to wear as their 
 friends have who may be infinitely better able 
 to afford them. I know young people who say 
 they would rather stay at home than go any- 
 where unless they can dress as others do and 
 go as others go. 
 
 A young man who received twenty dollars a 
 week told me that it cost him fifteen dollars 
 one evening to take a young woman to the 
 opera and to supper afterward. Another 
 young fellow, who only earned eight dollars a 
 week, told me that he frequently spent nearly 
 half that amount in taking a young woman to 
 the theater. Because her other friends could 
 do this, he felt he must. Everywhere we see 
 people in ordinary circumstances aping the 
 rich. 
 
 Many of us are such slaves to this imitation 
 of others that we have no time for friendships, 
 no time for social life, no time for true enjoy-
 
 The Ruin of Rivalry 51 
 
 merit, for doing the things that are really 
 worth while. 
 
 I know a mother who is not very ambitious 
 for herself, and she is not particularly morti- 
 fied or very greatly inconvenienced personally 
 by her poverty, but she is very much dis- 
 tressed and humiliated on her daughter's ac- 
 count. She grieves that her child cannot have 
 what other girls whom she knows have, that 
 she must ride on the street-car or walk when 
 other girls have maids to attend them, and 
 luxurious automobiles to take them wherever 
 they wish to go. 
 
 She says it breaks her heart to think that 
 her attractive daughter has to wear cheap, or- 
 dinary clothing, when other girls not half as 
 attractive or deserving dress in the most ex- 
 travagant manner and wear expensive jewel- 
 ry, and that there is something cruelly wrong 
 with a society which forces her daughter to 
 work in an office all day, instead of living a 
 life of ease, with servants and money at her 
 command. 
 
 This woman has so poisoned her daughter's 
 mind in talking before her in this way, in 
 bringing her up to despise her humble home
 
 52 Thrift 
 
 and surroundings, that the girl does not appre- 
 ciate anything she has. Like her mother, she 
 is always comparing her limited condition with 
 the luxurious state of others. The mother 
 has filled the girl's head full of nonsense about 
 making a supreme effort to marry money, and 
 in this way help to replenish the depleted 
 family treasury. She tells her that no matter 
 how honest or industrious a young man may 
 be, if he has not money, if he cannot support 
 a wife in luxury, she should have nothing to 
 do with him. In her desperate efforts to 
 marry her daughter to somebody with money, 
 I doubt very much whether she would ask 
 any questions about a wealthy suitor's char- 
 acter. 
 
 Instead of being buoyant, cheerful, happy, 
 optimistic, as all youth naturally are, the 
 daughter is cynical, sarcastic about everything, 
 always complaining of her hard lot. She 
 never seems to enjoy an}i;hing she has. It is 
 always cheap and dowdy, never looks right or 
 sets right. Her hat is a "cheap John thing"; 
 she "hates it." 
 
 Happiness is a mental attitude, it is the 
 condition of the mind, not the condition of the
 
 The Ruin of Rivalry .53 
 
 pocketbook, and Nature has made it further 
 impossible for happiness to live in complex, 
 complicated, envious conditions. 
 
 If you are made of the right kind of metal 
 you will not allow other people to destroy 
 your peace of mind or j^our happiness. It is 
 an evidence of weakness if you do; it shows 
 that you have a foolish vanity. 
 
 Gratification, satisfaction of our selfish 
 cravings, only increases our soul hunger. 
 "Desire is as insatiable as its demands are 
 attended to." 
 
 Human beings starve and pinch their lives 
 and stunt their growth by their wrong atti- 
 tude toward life. They kill every joy and 
 blight their happiness by their own envy, jeal- 
 ousy, and false ambition. 
 
 It is not so much our lack of comforts, or 
 of luxuries, as our envy, our selfishness, our 
 false standards that make us imhappy. 
 
 Many of us miss the joys that might be ours 
 by keeping our eyes fixed on those of other 
 people. No one can enjoy his own opportuni- 
 ties for happiness while he is envious of an- 
 other's. We lose a great deal of the joy of 
 living by not cheerfully accepting the small
 
 54 Thrift 
 
 pleasures that come to us every day, instead of 
 longing and wishing for what belongs to 
 others. 
 
 Why not take pleasure in our own modest 
 car, and not long for the luxurious "Twin- Six" 
 that some one else owns? Why let the edge 
 be taken off the enjoyment of our own little 
 home watching the palatial residence of our 
 neighbor? Let us try to get satisfaction out 
 of a trolley ride into the country or a sail on 
 a river steamer, and not envy the man who 
 can enjoy the luxury of his own touring car 
 or yacht. Usually you will find he or some 
 one belonging to him has labored hard for 
 these enjoyments. 
 
 "Many people envy the possessions of the 
 rich," says Samuel Smiles, "but will not pass 
 through the risks, the fatigues, or the dangers 
 of acquiring them. It is related of the Duke 
 of Dantzig that an old comrade, w^hom" he had 
 not seen for many years, called upon him at 
 his hotel in Paris, and seemed amazed at the 
 luxury of his apartments, the richness of his 
 furniture, and the magnificence of his gar- 
 dens. The duke, supposing that he saw in his 
 old comrade's face a feeling of jealousy, said
 
 The Ruin of Rivalry 55 
 
 to him bluntly, 'You may have all that you 
 see before you, on one condition.' 'What is 
 that?' said his friend. 'It is that you will 
 place yourself twenty paces off, and let me 
 fire at you with a musket a hundred times.' 
 'I will certainly not accept your offer at that 
 price.' 'Well,' replied the marshal, 'to gain 
 all that you see before you, I have faced more 
 than a thousand gunshots, fired at not more 
 than ten paces off.' " 
 
 A girl arrested in New York for vagrancy 
 was asked by a magistrate what caused her 
 to drift into that sort of a life. She said: 
 "I wanted to dress like other girls, and I 
 couldn't." 
 
 A New York woman in the ante-bellum 
 days boasted that she spent two liLindred thou- 
 sand dollars a year for dress. She said she 
 had many dresses every year that cost a thou- 
 sand dollars or more, that her shoes cost her 
 fifty dollars a pair, the leather being all im- 
 ported and dyed to match each one of her 
 dresses. She justified this extravagance on 
 the ground that it gave employment to a great 
 many people. 
 
 This woman perhaps never stopped to think
 
 56 Thrift 
 
 of the demoralizing influence of her example 
 upon poor girls. How many are tempted into 
 extravagance which they cannot afford, make 
 slaves of themselves or are tempted into im- 
 moral living in trying to ape people of her 
 type? 
 
 No greater delusion ever crept into a rich 
 woman's head than that wanton extravagance 
 is justified on the ground that it gives em- 
 ployment. Thousands of girls are ruined 
 every year because of the demoralizing influ- 
 ence of just such examples; besides the multi- 
 tudes that are rendered unliappy because they 
 cannot obtain those things. 
 
 'No rich person has a right to set an exam- 
 ple which will demoralize others. Our rights 
 to extravagance cease when they injure others. 
 No woman has a right to flaunt her riches in 
 the faces of poor girls, who are made miser- 
 able by her foolish, extravagant example.
 
 VIII 
 
 'a home of my own" 
 
 In the heart of the average young person 
 lies the desire to possess a home of his o\vn. 
 Unfortunately, most people fail to see the 
 obstacles that lie in the way of their achieving 
 this worthy desire. "A home of my o^vnl" 
 Around this cluster many sweet dreams of 
 fireside joys, but we start wrong in our quest. 
 
 With small salaries and limited incomes, 
 how often young men spend extravagantly in 
 their courting days! In their youthful ardor 
 they send the object of their devotion expen- 
 sive bonbons, costly flowers in winter, and 
 other luxuries out of season; and, without re- 
 gard to expense, hire automobiles for theater 
 and opera when lower-priced vehicles would 
 answer. All of these things keep back the 
 young man who wants to establisli a liome of 
 his own. He is not starting right. It gives 
 a wrong impression to his future wife. Ex- 
 
 57
 
 58 Thrift 
 
 pensive bonbons and flowers and costly amuse- 
 ments will not make a sensible girl think any 
 more of you, my friend; she will often think 
 less of you, especially if she knows, or even 
 suspects, that you can't afford the outlay. It 
 does not bespeak a level head, good judgment, 
 sound financial -wisdom on your part. 
 
 I have often heard girls say that they were 
 sorry their men friends spent so much money 
 on them, because they knew that they could 
 not afford it ; but they did not like to say this 
 to them. Some years ago I knew a young 
 man, earning u salary of about twelve dollars 
 a week, who would buy expensive roses for a 
 young woman he admired, and go without his 
 lunches in order to save for them. I have 
 known him, when the object of his devotion 
 was traveling, to telegraph to a distant city to 
 a florist to deliver flowers at her hotel ! Not- 
 withstanding this foolish expenditure, he failed 
 to make the impression upon the young 
 woman that he thought he would make. She 
 found that he was not well-balanced, and, 
 after he had expended a great deal of money 
 and seriously embarrassed himself financially 
 trying to win her, she refused to marry him.
 
 "A Home of My Own" 50 
 
 If lie had been more sensible in his courtship 
 he might have been successful, but the young 
 woman knew he could not afford the extrava- 
 gant things he did and she lost faith in him. 
 
 The temptations to spend on every hand 
 are so alluring that it is very difficult for a 
 young man of ordinary self-control to resist 
 them and save his money. It is very easy, 
 especially in a large city, with all its allure- 
 ments, to spend one's loose change for cigars, 
 for drinks, theater tickets, dinners at expen- 
 sive restaurants and hotels, and all sorts of in- 
 dulgences. These are the things that go far 
 to prevent the accumulation of that first thou- 
 sand dollars which is so important in the 
 foundation for all one's future success and 
 happiness. 
 
 If you really want to make your dreams 
 come true you will enter into a compact with 
 yourself to save a certain amount every week 
 out of your salary. 
 
 It is a gi-eat thing always to have some ob- 
 ject in view. No better one could be found 
 than that of helping your country by invest- 
 ing all you can in War Certificates and Thrift 
 Stamps. Forego the luxuries and extrava-
 
 6a Thrift 
 
 gances of former days and show your patriot- 
 ism in this way. Thus you may be able to 
 establish not only habits of thrift and econ- 
 omy, but to bring into reality that home you 
 have been visualizing. 
 
 A little money in reserve is a great encour- 
 ager, a perpetual stimulus to ambition. The 
 consciousness that we are getting on in the 
 world, that we are laying the foundation for 
 the home of our dreams, is a tremendous mo- 
 tive which marvelously increases our courage, 
 our ability, our efficiency. 
 
 Thrift is the beginning of success. It puts 
 a foundation under your air castle. It builds 
 that "home of my own" to which every 
 healthy, ambitious young fellow looks forward 
 as the culmination of his hopes. 
 
 Who can ever estimate what the saving for 
 a home has done for people! This glorious 
 vision has held vast multitudes of men and 
 women to their task, kept them from yielding 
 to a thousand tempting calls bidding for their 
 money. 
 
 Learning how to hold on to money without 
 being mean or stingy with it is a great art. 
 Anything which will induce the habit of sav-
 
 "A Home of My Own'' 61 
 
 ing in this extravagant nation is a blessing. 
 The whole tendency is toward a wicked waste 
 of money, shameful extravagance in living and 
 in social life. No matter how small your in- 
 come, make it above the line of your expenses, 
 and without being penurious keep as far with- 
 in this boundary-line as possible. 
 
 Only recently I heard a young man boast- 
 ing that he got a big salary, but he had never 
 laid up a cent in his life, and that often at the 
 end of the week he was behind and had to 
 borrow money. Now, think of a young man 
 boasting of this, and j^et expecting to get on 
 in the world, to own a home of his own, to 
 stand for something in his conmiunity, to be 
 a man of importance among his fellows! 
 
 Most people are entirely too confident 
 about their financial safety. They do not ex- 
 pect the emergencies of illness, of accident, of 
 business, of change of location, losses which 
 war brings, for example, and which panics and 
 fires cause. How many thousands of people 
 to-day are eating the bitter fruit of poverty, 
 grinding penury, are homeless, moneyless, 
 who, if they had but put a little money in the 
 savings bank during tlieir productive years
 
 62 Thrift 
 
 would have had a good home, comforts, and 
 contentment ! 
 
 On every hand we see people going through 
 life with stooping shoulders, drawn features, 
 slaves of a mortgage or other debts which are 
 sapping the life out of them, making them 
 prematurely old, when they should be in the 
 very prime of life. You can always see the 
 mortgage looking out of the ugly wrinkles 
 which it has made in their faces. Had they 
 sought thrift as their companion through life, 
 how different would have been their lot. 
 
 Is there anything more pathetic to see than 
 so many men and women who have reached 
 middle life or later with no home or money, 
 nothing saved for a rainy day, not only with- 
 out prospects, but many of them without oc- 
 cupations? Parents are often to blame for 
 much of this unfortunate condition, because 
 they did not early inculcate into their chil- 
 dren the principles of economy, did not estab- 
 lish in their early careers the habit of thrift. 
 
 When you are fifty or more, my young 
 friend, the dollar will look very different to 
 you than it does now, when the years are few, 
 the future full of promise, and you feel so
 
 "A Home of ISIy Own" 63 
 
 confident of great achievements. As you ap- 
 proach middle life your money possessions will 
 take on new values. 
 
 A man cannot respect himself when he is 
 letting slip through his fingers the dollars 
 which he knows ought to be saved. Oh, the 
 sorrow, the suffering inflicted, in tens of 
 thousands of hearts, by men who realize too 
 late that they have lost or squandered money 
 enough to have provided a home or started 
 them in business, to have given them inde- 
 pendence, to have provided for their old age! 
 
 On every hand, we see people who have 
 never been able to get ahead in the world 
 simply because they were not willing to make 
 early sacrifices, or to bear hardships or priva- 
 tions in order to make good investments for 
 the future. They could not restrain their de- 
 sires, they must have a good time, they must 
 buy what they wanted, even if they had to run 
 into debt for it. 
 
 It would be impossible to estimate the tre- 
 mendous benefit which savings banks and in- 
 surance companies have conferred upon man- 
 kind. In tens of thousands of very humble 
 homes we find the light of hope and cheer, a
 
 64 Thrift 
 
 sense of security because there are insurance 
 policies there. The history of many a life in- 
 surance policy, how it has saved the home 
 from the mortgage, has enabled business men 
 to start again after their property was lost or 
 their business swept away by panic, would 
 read like a romance. 
 
 A life insurance policy has often made all 
 the difference between home and no home, 
 food and no food ! It has saved multitudes of 
 men from the humiliation of utter failure, and 
 spared many families the shame of being 
 turned out of their home. 
 
 Someone has said that it is not the high 
 cost of living, but the eost of living high, that 
 cripples so many lives and compels great abil- 
 ity to put up with the returns of mediocrity. 
 Many people who are now poor, without 
 homes, living from hasd to mouth, have earned 
 enough to have made them independent if 
 they had used good sense in guarding their 
 earnings. 
 
 I know of no other habit quite like that of 
 the early formed habit of thrift; not the 
 stingy, squeezing, holding-on habit, but the 
 habit of wise living and spending, the wise
 
 "A Home or ISIy Own" 65 
 
 administration of our money and our domestic 
 affairs. A provident wife can establish such 
 a system of household thrift that, combined 
 with her husband's efforts, the family budget 
 will take on remarkably large proportions 
 and, within a short time, the possession of a 
 home of their own may become an established 
 fact. 
 
 In criticism of our American housewives it 
 has been said over and over again that a 
 French housewife would feed a family on what 
 an average family throws away. Years ago, 
 a great economist, Edward Atkinson, said 
 that in the United States the waste from bad 
 cooking alone was over a thousand million 
 dollars a year. And our wastefulness and 
 extravagance have gone on increasing in every 
 direction. 
 
 The poor would be shocked if they were told 
 that they were more extravagant than the 
 well-to-do. Yet it is even so. The average 
 poor woman in America, for instance, rarely 
 knows how to buy food for the family econom- 
 ically. She does not, like the French woman, 
 know how to buy the inexpensive cuts of meat 
 and cook them so that they will be as palatable
 
 66 Thrift 
 
 and nutritious as the more expensive ones. 
 Nor does she know how to economize in other 
 equally important details. 
 
 Since America entered the war, both our 
 men of wealth and our housekeepers have been 
 learning lessons in economy. Mr. Hoover and 
 his army of assistants at the Food Department 
 in Washington and all over this country are 
 showing the necessity of economizing in every 
 possible way, and instructing people in all 
 ranks how to do it. Housewives are being 
 taught food values and how to cook in the 
 best and most economical way; inexpensive 
 but nutritious menus are suggested, and thus 
 women are shown how to make a good meal 
 out of leftovers that formerly went into the 
 garbage pail. 
 
 Women of all classes are especially cau- 
 tioned in regard to the saving of food. They 
 are asked to save every bit of meat, every 
 crust of bread, stale or otherwise, even the 
 crumbs ; and not to pare potatoes, but to cook 
 them with their jackets on. People are also 
 advised to wear their old clothing as much as 
 possible, instead of purchasing new, for we 
 are told that our practice of economy will
 
 "A Home of My Own" G7 
 
 help win the war. Never before in the history 
 of the world has the subject of economy and 
 the necessity for thrift been so universally em- 
 phasized as to-day. Never before in this coun- 
 try has the word economy been so persist- 
 ently dinned into our ears through the press, 
 through posters, through the pulpit, through 
 pamphlets, through lectures — in every possi- 
 ble way. 
 
 Are you learning that great lesson of the 
 hour?
 
 IX 
 
 "he that SOWETH sparingly SH.VLL REAP 
 
 sparingly'* 
 
 Many as are the maxims which urge the 
 practice of economy, those which warn against 
 false economy are almost equally numerous. 
 
 Solomon said: "There is that scattereth and 
 yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth 
 more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." 
 "Saving at the spigot and wasting at the 
 bunghole," "Spoiling the ship to save a cent's 
 worth of tar," and many another homely say- 
 ing, reflect the common-sense view of forms of 
 false economies which tend to loss instead of 
 gain. 
 
 There are people who waste much more in- 
 valuable time in trying to save a little, by 
 picayune methods, than the things saved are 
 worth. I know a business man who makes his 
 employees, as a matter of principle, save the 
 string from packages, even if to save it takes 
 twice as much time as the string is worth. 
 
 68
 
 "He That Soweth SparixCxLy" 09 
 
 This man, also, in trying to save electricity, 
 keeps his place of business so dark and dingy 
 that he loses custom. He does not realize that 
 a good light is the best kind of advertisement. 
 
 In trying to economize in petty ways thou- 
 sands of men fail to do the bigger things pos- 
 sible for them. They develop a sort of mania 
 for saving, for small economies, without real- 
 izing it, or how they are in danger of starving 
 their minds and stranghng their growth to- 
 ward larger things. 
 
 You cannot afford to economize at the ex- 
 pense of mental strength, at the expense of 
 efficiency. These are your stock in trade — 
 the machinery and apparatus out of which 
 you must carve your destiny. Do not tamper 
 with your creative, productive ability. Keep 
 up your standards at all hazards. This will 
 enable you to produce to the maximum of your 
 possibilities, for it keeps you in good health 
 and in a condition to enjoy the largest, com- 
 pletest happiness. 
 
 Nothing surprises a yoimg man more than 
 the wonderful working of this law: "For who- 
 soever hath, to him shall be given, and he 
 shall have more abundance."
 
 70 Thrift 
 
 What a wonderful power there is in this 
 law of increase. There is everything in hold- 
 ing the right view of econonij^ investing wise- 
 ly, in keejDing the mind upon plenty, carrying 
 the abundance-thought instead of the limited, 
 narrow, false economy thought. 
 
 "He that soweth sparingly shall reap spar- 
 ingly" is just as true of the business man as 
 of the farmer. Wise economy often means a 
 very liberal expenditure. 
 
 I once knew a man who, in removing an old 
 building to make way for a new one, left part 
 of the old foundation, because he thought he 
 thus could save several hundred dollars. The 
 new building was several stories higher than 
 the old one, but only a few weeks after it was 
 completed it began to crack badly, and before 
 any occupant moved in the Avhole structure 
 collapsed. Everywhere in all lines of human 
 endeavor we see the fatal effects of trying to 
 save on foundations. 
 
 The youth in the past who pinched on his 
 education, who did not think it worth while to 
 prepare for very much of a career because he 
 did not think he was going to be very much of 
 a man; the youth who picked out the easy
 
 "He That Sowetii Spahingly" 71 
 
 problems in school and skipped the hard ones, 
 who slid along the lines of least resistance, 
 who bragged that he got the best of his 
 teacher in school by slighting his lessons, 
 shirking, by cribbing in his examinations; the 
 youth who was not willing to pay the price, 
 not willing to sacrifice his desire for a good 
 time in order to improve himself, has been 
 heard from. He has been floundering along 
 in his career, handicajDped by his ignorance, 
 held back by his lack of preparation. The 
 great failure army is filled with human wrecks 
 whose superstructure went down because of 
 their superficial, faulty foundation. 
 
 I know a man who has always worked like 
 a slave. He went into business for himself 
 early in life, but has been imder a perpetual 
 handicap because in his youth he had thought 
 it was foolish to waste so much time in laying 
 an educational foundation and quit the gram- 
 mar school before he was half through, and 
 started out for himself. Because of his lim- 
 ited knowledge, his narrow, pinched founda- 
 tion, he has always been placed at a great dis- 
 advantage with his competitors, who thought 
 it worth while to be well informed and to lay
 
 12 Thrift 
 
 broad, deep foundations. The result has 
 been that his whole life has been marred, and 
 he never has accomplished anything like what 
 he might have accomplished but for this great 
 lack. He never dreamed that the skipped 
 problems way back in his boyhood, the neg- 
 lected tasks, would reappear in his mature 
 manhood, like Banquo's ghost, to mar both his 
 success and his happiness. So during his later 
 years this man has been trying to do very 
 painfully and very imperfectly what he could 
 have done so easily way back in his youth. 
 The result of all this has been a limited ca- 
 reer. The man has failed several times be- 
 cause he chose a career which was not in keep- 
 ing with his lack of early training. 
 
 If he had not tried to save on his founda- 
 tion, if he had been liberally prepared for the 
 career which he chose, and had not had to 
 spend such a large part of his life in trying 
 to overcome his handicap, his lack, to strength- 
 en his foundation after the superstructure was 
 built, he would have had time to do the things 
 which make for a broad, liberal manhood, and 
 have become a man of some importance, a 
 man who would have carried weight in his
 
 "He That Sowetii Sparingly" 73 
 
 community. As it is, his life has been so 
 starved and pinched that he has never passed 
 for very much of a man. 
 
 How many parents in their eagerness to in- 
 crease the family income deprive their children 
 of a college or university education and rush 
 them into business half prepared to meet op- 
 portunities for advancement that later come 
 to them I They cannot send the bey or girl to 
 school or college because "the rainy day" is a 
 sort of specter which rises at every feast, 
 whenever they try to get some enjoyment or 
 satisfaction out of the present. They are al- 
 ways saving for some future time; always 
 postponing things till next year, and this 
 "next year" never comes. 
 
 How many of us economize in our friend- ( 
 ships by neglecting them; economize in our 
 social life, pleading with ourselves that we 
 cannot afford to take the time for visiting and 
 receiving visits! We economize on our vaca- 
 tions, until we are obliged to take long, en- 
 forced rests from the arduous duties of our 
 business or profession, because the machinery 
 of our bodies, so delicately and wonderfully
 
 74 Thrift 
 
 made, has become so worn it is in danger of 
 snapping at some vital point ! 
 
 Many people live in such constant terror 
 of "that terrible rainy day" that they do not 
 enjoy the present. They deny themselves this 
 and they cannot afford that; they postpone 
 their real living; they just exist to-day, ex- 
 pecting really to live and enjoy themselves 
 to-morrow. If they go away on a little vaca- 
 tion, or if they travel at all, they do it in a 
 way which destroys most of the advantages 
 they would otherwise get from it. They are 
 afraid of spending a penny for anything but 
 their actual fare and the barest necessaries. 
 
 I know of a New York business man who 
 before the war traveled abroad and went to 
 many interesting points, but he w^as too stingy 
 to go into historic homes or buildings where 
 any admission was charged. For example, he 
 visited the homes of very famous characters, 
 in different countries, homes w^hich are re- 
 garded as shrines by thousands of intelligent 
 people who liave visited these countries, but 
 he never entered them because he would not 
 pay the price of admission. He said that he 
 had seen the outside of the buildings, and that
 
 "He That Soweth Sparingly" 75 
 
 was enough. The result is that, though he has 
 traveled considerably, he cannot talk interest- 
 ingly, or even intelligently, about any place 
 he has visited. 
 
 I have known people of means traveling 
 abroad who were too stingy to buy Baedekers 
 or other guide-books, and who would never 
 think of hiring a guide to show them about, 
 even in the most historic places. Does it not 
 seem strange that peojDle will spend so much 
 money for traveling and then be too parsi- 
 monious to pay a little extra money to see the 
 very things they had gone so far to see? 
 
 Sometimes liberality, which would seem to 
 a smaller man extravagance, is the best kind 
 of economy. Friendly help, inspiration, cul- 
 tured acquaintances, are never too dearly 
 bought at any price one can afford to pay. 
 Everything must be measured by the end in 
 view, the general result to be obtained. 
 
 It is not a question of whether a man can 
 afford to pay ten or fifteen dollars for a seat 
 at a banquet table considered by itself. He 
 may pay fifteen dollars for his dinner, but he 
 may get a hundred dollars' worth of inspira- 
 tion from association with distinguished guests.
 
 76 Thrift 
 
 Such occasions are often a great stimulus to 
 the ambition. They bring one in contact with 
 persons of broader culture and wider experi- 
 ence, and it is wise expenditure to avail our- 
 selves of everything within our reach which 
 makes for culture and breadth of vision. 
 
 How much better it would be if you can 
 possibly afford it to go where the leaders in 
 your specialty lunch or dine, than to patron- 
 ize a place where the atmosphere is not con- 
 genial to you ! This opportunity for acquaint- 
 ance and friendly relations with men of re- 
 finement would be worth very much more to 
 you than the few cents or even the dollars you 
 save by going to a cheaper place. 
 
 Of course, I would not advise anyone to 
 commercialize his ability, or to try to sell his 
 brains by wire-pulling methods, but I do ad- 
 vise those who are struggling to get on to 
 form the acquaintance of those who can in- 
 spire and help them. It is a tremendous stim- 
 ulus to one's ambition to come in close con- 
 tact with thrifty, energetic people who are 
 successful in one's own line of endeavor. We 
 are more likely to do better ourselves, to bring 
 out our full resources, when we associate with
 
 KWOOD & UNOeRWOOl 
 
 JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER
 
 "He That Soweth Sparingly" 77 
 
 them. To make the acquaintance of such 
 people and know them is one of the most 
 profitable investments a young person can 
 make. 
 
 If one is after the largest, completest possi- 
 ble manhood, well-rounded, full-orbed, broad, 
 then he will regard any expenditure to this 
 end as the best kind of a paying investment, 
 and he will not be held back by a false sense 
 of economy or deceptive notions of extrava- 
 gance. 
 
 Stuffing the pocketbook and starving the 
 mind is pretty poor business, and is always 
 an indication of a narrow outlook on life, a 
 morbid view of things, a pinched mentality. 
 The world is full of rich peojDle who talk about 
 leading the simple life when they mean the 
 stingy life.
 
 X 
 
 SPENDTHRIFTS OF TIME AND ENERGY 
 
 The wise economist is the one who saves 
 his time, who regards every moment as pre- 
 cious capital which he cannot afford to throw 
 away, who regards his energy as a divine gift, 
 too sacred to be foolishly expended. 
 
 The world is full of people who are plod- 
 ding along in mediocrity who have enough 
 ability to do something worth while if they 
 would only get rid of the side issues, the non- 
 essentials which eat up their time and sap 
 their energy. 
 
 He who would make the most possible of 
 his life must early learn to stop all leaks of 
 power. The wasting of opportunities, time, 
 and vital forces, constitutes the great tragedy 
 of human life. It is the principal cause of 
 imhappiness and failure. JNIany a man who is 
 economical to stinginess in money matters, 
 squanders with fearful prodigality his physi- 
 cal, mental, and moral energy and his time. 
 He scorns a vacation, considering it a fright- 
 
 78
 
 Spendthrifts of Time and Energy 79 
 
 ful waste of precious hours, loses needed sleep 
 in working late at night at his desk, and is 
 indifferent to regularity in eating. Such men 
 pay the penalty in lowered vitality and a 
 shortened business career. 
 
 INIany busy people are shameful wasters of 
 time and energ}^, simply because they do the 
 lower things when higher ones are possible. 
 They read a poor book when they might read 
 a better one ; they squander time with ordinary, 
 purposeless companions when better ones are 
 possible ; they waste tune in half-doing things, 
 in botching, bungling and blundering, in do- 
 ing things "just for now," doing things over 
 and over, because they were not done right 
 the first time. 
 
 I know a business man who is ambitious to 
 do great things, but who gets so clogged up 
 with details that he cannot seem to get out 
 from under them. He tries to hurry with his 
 woi-k, but the little everlasting details con- 
 stantly jump up and get away with such a 
 large part of his time and energy that the 
 day's work is always disappointing, and he 
 leaves his office at night very unliappy. A 
 confused mind is an ineffective mind.
 
 80 Thrift 
 
 The confused, excited mind is not only in- 
 efficient, but is likely to do some very foolish 
 things. To guard against this, it is important 
 to keep your mentality calm and balanced. 
 
 The next time things press you so hard on 
 every hand that you do not know which way 
 to turn, stop and take an inventory of the 
 tasks to be done, and you will find that your 
 confused mind, which is rapidly exhausting 
 your vitality, is largely due to the fact that 
 you are mentally trying to do many things at 
 the same time. In other words, the sense of 
 mental pressure is caused by the constant an- 
 ticipation of the tasks ahead of you. Now, 
 when you know you can only attend to one 
 thing at a time, why not shut out everything 
 else until you are through with that one, and 
 then take the next, and so on to the end, with- 
 out attempting to do these things over and 
 over again by anticipation? 
 
 If we could only learn thus to concentrate 
 the mind intensely upon the things we are 
 doing and shut out everything else until its 
 turn came, we would never have that sense of 
 confusion and pressure which so interferes 
 with efficiency and happiness.
 
 Spendthrifts of Time and Energy 81 
 
 There was in process of building, in Eng- 
 land, a clock in an edifice in which many 
 lawyers had their offices, and there was often 
 a large congregation of them in the lobby and 
 corridors. 
 
 The clockmaker sent one of his men for a 
 motto to put under the mammoth clock. The 
 messenger asked the first man he met, who, 
 not loiowing what the boy meant, said: "Be- 
 gone about your business!" 
 
 The clockmaker received the motto, as the 
 messenger delivered it, with surprise; but 
 after thinking a moment, decided to use it. 
 It served as a quiet reminder to loungers, as 
 it ticked off the minutes that were as fleeting 
 as the sun's rays. 
 
 The men who accomplish- things, who do 
 big things in a big way, protect their execu- 
 tive ability by all sorts of safeguards. Many 
 men keep secretaries as a sort of buffer to 
 protect themselves from people who steal 
 their time. 
 
 We may not begrudge our time to people 
 who have claims upon us, or who give us some 
 compensating advantage, or to those who need 
 our assistance; but it is exasperating to be
 
 82 Thrift 
 
 obliged to sit for half an hour or an hour 
 and listen to some irrelevant matter which 
 does not interest us, just because we do not 
 want to appear rude. 
 
 It is not alone in the busy office that we find 
 these spendthrifts of time and energy; they 
 are just as frequently seen in our homes. The 
 housewife, while in the midst of her domestic 
 duties, is called to the telephone to listen to a 
 garrulous neighbor's latest gossip, or in re- 
 sponse to the door-bell a friendly visitor ap- 
 pears with long-drawn-out tale of domestic 
 tribulations. 
 
 Some women are always dropping in to chat 
 with the busy woman who is trying her best 
 to get a little time for the things worth while. 
 These idle, purposeless women sit and chat 
 and chat until the opportunity for doing what 
 the ambitious, energetic woman longed to do 
 has gone by. If such people only realized the 
 preciousness of time, the great value of a 
 single day, they would not let it slip through 
 their fingers so lightly or treat it so flippantly. 
 
 "There can be no thrift or ultimate suc- 
 cess where hour is not fastened to hour and 
 moment woven into moment in the great
 
 Spendthrifts of Time and Energy 83 
 
 pattern of life," says a writer on "Life's 
 Waste." 
 
 "The waste of time is life's greatest blunder 
 and most destructive force. In the fragments 
 is an abundance of opportunity. Oh, how 
 ruinous waste has shattered the hopes and am- 
 bitions of men ! It has been the author of de- 
 spair and even death to the best in life. The 
 greatest discovery of young life is the value of 
 time. . . . The value which a man places 
 upon the moments of to-day is the author of 
 all good in every to-morrow." 
 
 Think of the possibilities that live in a single 
 day! Think of what it would mean to some- 
 one, somewhere, — to the producer of great 
 masterpieces in art and science! 
 
 When you start out in the morning just 
 try to picture to yourself the wonderful value 
 of that day. Just think what j^ou would make 
 of it if you knew you would never have an- 
 other — ^what every minute would mean to you I 
 How you would crowd values into it! Every 
 second would be precious. 
 
 "There are moments," says Dean Alford, 
 "which are worth more than years. We can- 
 not help it. There is no proportion between
 
 84 Thrift 
 
 spaces of time in importance or in value. A 
 stray, unthought-of five minutes may contain 
 the event of a life. And this all-important 
 moment — who can tell when it will be upon 
 us?" 
 
 Every day is a precious gift from the Cre- 
 ator — fresh, beautiful, filled with magnificent 
 possibilities. Don't squander it in useless 
 motions and wasted energies; don't idle it 
 away; don't watch the clock and wish it away. 
 Don't throw it away ; don't waste it ; don't kiU 
 it; for your future lives in it.
 
 XI 
 
 THE BANK-BOOK HABIT 
 
 "Sow an Act and you reap a Habit, 
 Sow a Hal)it and you reap a Character, 
 Sow a Character and you reap a Destiny." 
 
 When the Board of Education of New 
 York Citj'^ decided to run penny banks in tlie 
 public schools to encourage the pupils in 
 thrift, Vice-President Greene said: "The 
 Board of Education wants to make the pupils 
 thrifty as well as wise. It wants to remove 
 inducements to extravagance and to encour- 
 age them to take care of their pennies until 
 their savings have reached an amount that 
 will enable them to open individual accounts 
 with the banks. At present their few pennies 
 do not enable them to do this." 
 
 Thus thousands of young people were given 
 an opportunity, and were encouraged to form 
 the bank-book habit, which has since enabled 
 many of them to invest in Liberty Bonds, and 
 in this way they are helping their country as 
 well as themselves. 
 
 We must not overlook the physical basis of 
 85
 
 86 ThhiI'T 
 
 habit. It is very difficult to do things we have 
 not formed a habit of doing. The nerves con- 
 trolling the muscles are dependent upon the 
 brain and respond to its reactions, learn its 
 habits, and do automatically whatever the 
 brain has formed a habit of doing. 
 
 If we have formed careless, spendthrift 
 habits, habits which drag us in the opposite 
 direction from that we wish to go, we must 
 put out an enormous amount of energy to 
 fight against their grip; for habit is second 
 nature and gets as strong a hold upon us as 
 our original temperamental tendencies. We 
 are placed at the tremendous disadvantage of 
 trying to form new tracks for thought, new 
 highways for habit, at the same time that we 
 are trying to obliterate the deep furrows which 
 a thousand repetitions have already made in 
 the brain and nerve centers. 
 
 For all practical purposes, habit for a mid- 
 dle-aged person is fate, it is almost hoj^elessly 
 certain that what has been done every day for 
 twenty years will be repeated thereafter. We 
 imagine that we can break a bad habit at any 
 time, but it usually takes just about twice as 
 long to break a habit as it did to make it.
 
 The Bank-Book Habit 87 
 
 When Rip Van Winkle said "I won't count 
 this time," he gave voice to a very common 
 delusion. But though it was easy for him to 
 say that he would not "count" this lapse or 
 that into his old habit, the cells of the brain 
 "counted" it; as Prof. James said, every nerve 
 and fiber in his organism were counting it. 
 Down deep in his nervous centers there was a 
 call for alcoholic stimulant so loud, so insist- 
 ent that Rip Van Winkle was practically 
 powerless to resist it. Every cent he had and 
 some that he did not have went for drink. It 
 is the same with the spendthrift habit. It is 
 one of the hardest to break and one of the 
 most ruinous to fall into. On the other hand, 
 the bank-book habit is one of the best friends 
 a boy or girl, a young man or young woman, 
 can make. 
 
 Every child should be started in life with 
 a bank account, however small, and something 
 should be constantly added to this sum, no 
 matter how little, if for no other reason than 
 to implant in his mind the idea of saving, and 
 the larger idea of thrift. A child should grow 
 up with the idea that it is absolutely necessary 
 to his self-respect, his safety, to have a little
 
 88 Thrift 
 
 money between himself and want, something 
 which will stand as a protection, a buffer, be- 
 tween himself and the demanding world in 
 case of necessity. 
 
 "There is a real exhilaration in a bank ac- 
 count, even if it is not a large one," says the 
 Rev. Dr. C. H. Parkhurst. "A young fellow 
 recently had a certain amount, not a large sum, 
 put to his credit in a savings bank. It made 
 an epoch in his history, and when six months 
 later his passbook was written up and showed 
 an interest accumulation of five dollars and 
 twenty-two cents it straightened him up to 
 three inches above the ordinary height, and he 
 declared that he felt as though he belonged to 
 the capitalistic class and was moving among 
 the high moneyed circles." 
 
 The moment a young man begins to save 
 systematically and appreciates the true value 
 of money he necessarily becomes a larger man. 
 He takes broader views of life. He begins to 
 have a better opinion of himself. Trust takes 
 the place of doubt, his savings are the actual 
 demonstration that he has not only the ability 
 to earn, but also to keep his money, and, as
 
 The Bank-Book Habit 80 
 
 has been said before, it takes greater wisdom 
 to hold on to money tlian to make it. 
 
 Thousands of men luive blessed the day that 
 they opened a savings-bank account with the 
 resolution to deposit regularly, for it brought 
 a new motive into their lives. It developed 
 in them the habit of thrift. It taught them 
 many a lesson of improved business methods, 
 improved judgment, because of enforced thrift 
 and economy, which are so dependent upon 
 system and order. 
 
 The knowledge that he has been able to 
 save has given many a youth more confidence 
 in himself. It has made him a better em- 
 ployee, and he will undertake greater respon- 
 sibilities because of it. 
 
 All this means that his earning power is 
 largely increased. 
 
 It is the "man with the savings-bank habit 
 who seldom gets laid off; he's the one who can 
 get along without you, but you cannot get 
 along without him." 
 
 Nothing makes a business man so absolutely 
 independent as ready cash. 
 
 The very reputation of always having a 
 good bank balance shows a clear head, good
 
 90 Thrift 
 
 business judgment. It is a great thing to 
 make your signature stand for something — 
 never to have your credit questioned — to have 
 everybody say you are good pay and quick 
 pay. 
 
 A schoolboy who was asked to state the 
 greatest event of the year said that it was the 
 fact that he had saved fifty dollars. From 
 one point of view, he was not so wide of the 
 mark. The first fifty dollars he saves is really 
 one of the most unportant things in one's life. 
 
 There is an infinite meaning in little sav- 
 ings. They are the germs of a greater for- 
 tune. Many people would be surprised at 
 the vast accumulations made in a lifetime by 
 the continual and persistent saving of petty- 
 accounts which they despised. The tendency 
 of money judiciously invested is to multiply — 
 the more you get the faster it accumulates, 
 just like the small boy's snowball, the more he 
 rolls it in the snow, the larger it grows. 
 
 A few hundred dollars or a thousand in a 
 savings bank has often made all the difference 
 between success and failure. I know of a con- 
 cern which has estimated assets of one hundred 
 and fifty thousand dollars, yet it was forced
 
 The Bank-13ook Habit 91 
 
 to the wall for the lack of five thousand dol- 
 lars ready cash. 
 
 A bank of any standing must have a sur- 
 plus. Every young man of standing should 
 have a surplus of savings, no matter how small. 
 Start it. Keep adding to it. 
 
 The youth who is careless of his change, 
 who thinks that a nickel or a dime or a quar- 
 ter has very little to do with a fortune, is 
 forming a habit that may cripple him for life. 
 
 Most people, especially young people, do 
 not appreciate the value of small savings. 
 They think that if they had a large amount 
 it would pay to put it in the bank, or to make 
 this or that investment, but that they could 
 not do much with a small amount. The re- 
 sult is they keep their small savings about 
 them, and this is a constant temptation to 
 spend, for there are always scores of ways of 
 getting rid of loose change. It is very slip- 
 pery. 
 
 I was quite impressed recently by a remark 
 of a young man, who said that he had been 
 carrying his money loosely in his pocket for 
 several years, and he had found that it slipped 
 away so fast, for all sorts of things which he
 
 92 Thrift 
 
 might have gotten along witliout, tliat he tried 
 the experiment of carrying all his money in a 
 purse. The result is that he finds it much 
 easier to save, because he says he has time to 
 think before he gets his money out of his purse, 
 and he often decides not to buy what he would 
 have bought had his change been so handy that 
 he could put his hand on it in an instant. 
 
 The saving habit is a character builder, be- 
 cause if we are willing to make the sacrifice 
 or to practice the self-control, to forego the 
 passing pleasures for something more per- 
 manent, we are making it more and more cer- 
 tain that we shall not throw away on foolish, 
 frivolous things these savings, which have cost 
 us so much.
 
 58 01 
 
 36 9419 
 
 UC SOUTHERN RFGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 imiirmii iiiiiiiHiiii iiiM II mil iiiij I III nil III 
 AA 001 027 937 o 
 
 NfVERSITVo. CALIFORNIA 
 LI3RARY 
 
 LOS ANGELES. CALIF