GIFT OF Irving M. Scott GIFT HOW TO MAKE MONEY, AND HOW TO KEEP IT t By THOMAS A. DA VIES, A THOR OF COSMOGONY, OR MYSTERIES OF CREATION, AND ANSWER TO HUGH MILLER AND GEOLOGISTS. < NEW YORK: G. W. Carleton & Co., 499 Broadway. LONDON: S. LOW, SON & CO. MDCCCLXVIII. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by THOMAS A. DAVIES, in the Clerk's Office of theDistridt Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. GIFT The New York Printing Company, 8i, 83, and 85 Centre Street, N t ew York. H F03 &e CONTENTS. FAGB CHAPTER I. First Step in Money-making and Saving, . . .11 CHAPTER II. What is a Fortune, and what an Independence ? . 16 CHAPTER III. Fountains of Wealth, 22 CHAPTER IV. Labor and its Representative money, . . . . 32 CHAPTER V. The Seeds of Fortunes, . . ... . . .58 CHAPTER VI. How to make Money, 81 CHAPTER VII. Manual Labor, 108 CHAPTER VIII. Apprentices, 118 CHAPTER IX. Clerks, ' . .129 CHAPTER X. Farming and Growing, 139 M712450 x Contents. FAGB CHAPTER XI. Mechanical Business, 152 CHAPTER XII. Retail Merchandising, 174 CHAPTER XIII. Manufacturing Business, . . ' 182 CHAPTER XIV. Wholesale Merchandising, 191 CHAPTER XV. Brokerage and Commission, . 201 CHAPTER XVI. Intellectual Labor. Lawyers, 209 CHAPTER XVII. Intellectual Labor. Physicians, 219 CHAPTER XVIII. Intellectual Labor. Professional Salaried Persons, 225 CHAPTER XIX. Investments, 234 CHAPTER XX. How Money is lost, . 245 CHAPTER XXI. Earnings and Savings, 254 CHAPTER XXII. Banking and Insurance, 273 CHAPTER XXIII. Life Insurance, 288 How to Make Money. CHAPTER I. FIRST STEP IN MONEY-MAKING AND SAVING. Can I make money ? Will I ? Yes, and more. Tenure of a dollar or of property. Why is my money mine ? Good government sure tenure by law. Watch politicians. Property in danger. See to your political principles. Rights of citizens invaded. Stand from under. Analogy. How to secure rights. Sheriff. Posse-Comitatus. State troops. United States troops. All the States. Millions of men. Success or downfall of govern- ment. Read Constitution and laws. Read on or stop. Reader, if you have a dollar, or work for one, you are interested in the contents of this book. You have look- ed at the title, and it excites your cupidity if it does not please your fancy. But you say to yourself Will it teach me how to make money ? If the directions are followed, it will. Will it show me how to keep it ? It will. It will do more than that it will show you how to make money with money. We have much knowledge which we do not use to advantage, and you may not apply the principles here laid down ; if so, you will probably be no better off by its reading. By what tenure do you hold the dollar or property you have, or get that which is your due ? Nine-tenths of persons, and possibly a larger proportion, never 12 How to make Mo7iey. heard this idea suggested. In other words, why is not your property mine ? Simply because we have a gov- ernment, a social compact ; and one of the laws of that government is, that what belongs to you is your own, and not some other person's. This is the fundamental law, the practice and usage of all people. Then comes the direct: question to every one Are you interested in having what is your own ? The reply is certain. I am. Then you are directly interested in preserving the gov- ernment and observing the laws, which alone can secure you in these rights, and also in maintaining the rights of others in like manner. For you Cannot expect to be maintained in yours unless you extend to others the same protection. The moment, then, that one knows that what he has or what he can get depends upon equal laws and equal j ustice to all, and that the titles of property rest solely upon the law, such person has made one step forward on the long road, in not only making money, but in keeping the title to it when made. You cannot do better, then, than watch your politicians (who gene- rally have no money), and see that they enact such laws as are proper, and that they do not pass your money or hard earnings into their own pockets or those of their friends. It is the opinion of many that there is a little too much of this thing done in the country about these times. You may always know, then, when the title of your property is in danger, or when your own rights are in danger, from these signs. When you see unequal laws passed, or see one or any number of citizens deprived of legal rights, you may wisely conclude your turn will come next You may wisely conclude, too, that when How to make Money. 13 one legal right of a citizen of a State is taken from him, the next step may be to deprive you of your right of tenure to property. These are the first evidences of decay in the strength of your government, and probably of its final dissolution and downfall. As a mere money-making and money-saving means, a steady, just government, with laws well observed by all, even if no higher motive existed, is the first great idea. You may always look for the reverse in the actions of those who have nothing to lose and everything to gain. If, then, you wish to be well grounded in the principles of money-making and money-saving, inform yourself of your political position, and canvass carefully the effect of your political action. Know what principles you are advo- cating by your vote whether they will tend to disturb or steady the monetary affairs of the State or country, or whether they are for the good of the whole. One principle is certain in this country that when sections undertake to manage other sections which have the right to manage themselves and their own affairs, look out and stand from under ; trouble is in the wind and future. Look to your dollars, your securities, and to your lives. As much as men can do in bodies-politic is to manage themselves and their own affairs well, and let other people's business alone. No more can one body-politic do this successfully or satisfactorily, than one firm can interfere with and manage the affairs of. another, without disturbance, trouble, and disaster. That every reader may understand how important a government and laws are in making money and keeping it, it will only be necessary to cite the process by which individual property rights are maintained in this country. Suppose a property right is invaded, what is the course 14 How to make Money. of the party to gain redress ? The individual applies to the legal tribunals to adjudicate the case ; and upon a hearing, it is decided favorably, if you please. The next step is to place in the hands of the sheriff the order of the court, and he proceeds to collect the amount, and if the execution is satisfied, well ; but if not, and force is resorted to, to prevent the execution, and the sheriff alone is unable to overcome it, he calls out his posse-comitatus that is, a number of citizens who will aid him in securing the injured parties' rights. If this should not be suffi- cient, ne calls upon the Governor of the State to turn out the State troops ; and if tfrese are not sufficient still, the Governor calls upon the President for United States troops ; and if they, too, are not sufficiently powerful, the President calls upon the Governors of the various States until force enough is obtained amounting, it may be, in this country to many millions of men to maintain the rights of this one individual. If the government suc- ceeds well, then, the government stands ; if it fails, in all probability another would be established upon its ruins. But the individual would lose his rights, whatever they might be. This shows the magnitude of the individual's right, and the importance to all concerned that such right should be respected by legislators and all citizens without such appeal ; and that such appeal may result in the total destruction of the right and the government also, besides an untold los of life and property to a large class not in any way at fault in the matter. Every one, then, who wishes to make money and keep it by a secure tenure, should read the Constitution of the United States and the laws of his own State, and there- by inform himself of his duty as a citizen, this being the How to make Money. 15 first principle of self-interest ; and then see to it that you do this duty faithfully. If not, the reader had better stop where he is, and save himself the trouble of making money to be lost by his own neglect. If otherwise, read on, and act according! y. 1 6 How to make Money. CHAPTER ili WHAT IS A FORTUNE, AND WHAT AN INDEPENDENCE ? Unanswerable question. Halo. Increases as we approach. Plea- sures of a fortune. Hope. Anticipations. Hoarding stigma- tized. Make a show. No money. Obscurity. Poverty Question which. Spend or make. Fear to fall. False posi- tion. Lavish expenditures. Approved. Moral and political duty. Independence. What. Live without labor. Fixed amount. All can gain independence. Labor respectable. All labor. No meanness or penuriousness. Proper economy. Trouble. Debt. Not happy. Money at interest. Re- spectable. Contentment. You your owner. Not mortgaged. No slave. Not ashamed to spend, not ashamed to make. The answer to the question, What is a fortune ? never has been, and probably never will be answered. For what may be a fortune for one is of little account in the mil- lions of another. The nearest definition that can be given to this undefmable amount is, that it is a halo of a mysterious sum of money which recedes, increasing as we approach. It is almost, if not altogether, a universal ambition to acquire a fortune by those who have intelli- gence enough to understand, or experience enough to know, the pleasures which are supposed to surround its possession. There are peculiar qualities of the human mind brought into action in the pursuit and possession of wealth. The simple acquisition of money to some is a substantial, realized pleasure; while with others the simple possession gives in like manner a heartfelt satis- faction. Then there are those who take no special plea- sure in the acquisition, but theirs consists in hope How to make Money. iy and anticipation of what they will derive in its posses- sion or in the spending of it ; while there are still others who make to enjoy the fruits, and do enjoy them by a liberal expenditure in the higher and nobler deeds of the liberal man of fortune and luxurious ease. Nor can there be found among men a nobler senti- ment than stimulates him who labors to acquire means to spend in contributing comfort to those whose mis- judgment or misfortunes have placed them in the back- ground of poverty and want. Let such noble men live and enjoy while they dispense ; the people should be proud of such examples, and their own consciences will be their own reward. But what more despicable or degraded than the condition of those who have a fortune, and are' shrivelled up in penuriousness, meanness, and simple money-hoarding ! Such simply hold the means of con- tributing pleasure and comfort to the deserving, without either enjoying what they possess themselves or deriv- ing any benefit from the various ways of munificence. The largest class of those who make, or desire to make a fortune, have but one idea and that is, to be able to make all the external appearance and show of a man of fortune. Display is the great object, and hence many endeavor to put on the exuviae of a fortune, and expend while they do not possess the means. This is too lamen- tably the case nowadays ; and the result is, that all the substance that would, if saved, in time make a fortune, is squandered in the gratification of a pride only due to him who has accomplished the object. Nor do such individuals gain more than the merited contempt of creditors and sensible people ; they generally fail in the end, and sink in after life into obscurity and poverty. It then becomes a solid question for individuals to 1 8 How to make Money. maturely consider, while on the road to fortune, whether they will spend their own or the substance of others whether they will live as their means warrant, or assume what they really are not ? The world generally is not deceived by such appearances, though it may be in some peculiar instances. What real pleasure can there be to live at an altitude in life where there is no foundation to support, and fear of a downfall is for ever haunting the imagination ? Such people vainly imagine that they are like the ostrich, who hides his head and conceives his huge, ugly body is in like manner obscured. Re- spectability does not depend upon false tokens ; still, many are satisfied with such a style of life, as the counterfeiter is with his occupation so long as he is not detected in his false position. Those who possess fortunes in reality are frequently blamed for lavish expenditure, and what is called a waste of money. The more spent of individual fortune, the better for the community at large for the trades, and for the laboring classes. Nothing is more commendable than 'judicious expenditure by those who have the for- tunes producing incomes. There is a large class, however, who wish to spend as fast as they acquire money. To those, the only object will be to find out how to make it the fastest, that they may have the larger ability to gratify their fancies.' There is a plausibility of argument which may satisfy this class of individuals, found in the fact that they get the gratification by an immediate enjoy- ment, which delay might cut short in death ; or the loss of money after the trouble of accumulating it. But these are short-sighted views ; for all persons owe it to themselves and those dependent upon them to save of their means for accident or misfortune. 7/ is a moral How to make Money. 19 and political duty to make themselves and their dependants independent of public or private charity ; for if they do not, they spend that which does not aclually belong to them. .To make oneself independent should be the first great aim of life. Then what is an independence ? The answer to this question is plain ; being such an amount of money, safely invested, as will produce an income equal to the necessaries of life. In other words, to be able to live without labor. If one could always be sure to be able to save even something, or enough to keep him from falling a charge either upon public or private charity, there would be no need of an independence. But, as all know, such cannot be guaranteed to any one. While the fortune, then, is an indefinable amount, the independence is a fixed sum dependent upon the price of necessaries, and the country in which it is required. In some latitudes this amount is very small, while in others it is no immaterial sum. It may be assumed that the interest of five thousand dollars invested at six per cent, would accomplish this object. If, then, the desires and wants are no more, then the individual has an inde- pendence, and a fortune too. But the ever-living desire of gain, even when this sum is obtained, will spur on its possessor to further accumulation as a general rule. If, however, he has others dependent upon him for support who cannot earn themselves, he must have as many independencies as there are individuals to support. There is no able-bodied person, of sound mind, who cannot in this country gain an independence from labor. For all he has to do is to lay aside of what he re- ceives, all that is not required for the necessaries of life ; and by looking at the tables at the back of this book he will find that small earnings per day will soon 20 Hozv to make Money. mount up to this standard, and even more. Penurious- ness or meanness is not recommended ; but on the con- trary, will prevent one making the most money with his opportunities. A just and proper economy is the true line, and any one can determine this for himself. No one feels so happy as when he is pursuing a legitimate business, is out of debt, and has some money at interest. From that moment he lives in a new world, is more re- spected, has more substantial friends, and wields a greater influence among his peers. Not only that, but his very independence of circumstances makes his services in any department of life more valuable, and he can command more money for them, and can hence accumulate faster. But let one be behindhand, or in debt, or in trouble, or on the anxious seat as to how he will make ends meet to support himself and his family he is in the power of any one who has any transactions with him. He be- comes the suppliant for everything ; and cannot, from the nature of things, get as much for what he gives as though the reverse were the case. An independence, then, should be the first thing aimed at, either by male or female ; and every nerve and sinew should be strained, and every expenditure scrutinized, till this end shall have been attained. Self-denial should be exercised in everything, remembering always that such a course is not only re- spectable, but in the end will make you more friends, and more happiness from the beginning to the end of life. You are, then, your own always, and never mortgaged to others, which is a mild term for being the slave of another. The object being here to explain simply what a fortune and an independence are, the manner in which they can be acquired will be explained hereafter. The independence, although it may free you from fur- How to make Money. 21 ther labor to make money by it, does not free you of labor altogether. The little mercantile business required to be carried on. to purchase your supplies and attend to the home comforts, is still to be done. If that be to spend three hundred dollars per annum, this is, then, the amount of your mercantile business. Every dollar you spend requires two to make the expenditure the seller and the purchaser. The man of fortune, who spends his three thousand dollars, has in this way ten times as much labor to perform as he who spends his three hundred dol- lars ; and the man who spends ' his thirty thousand dol- lars, does one hundred times as much as the one who spends three hundred dollars. From this it will be seen that every calling in life has its labor ; and even the man of fortune is not free from it ; for in addition to that of the expenditure, he has also to see to his investments, to the collection of his income, and such-like ; so that all have labor of some kind or another to perform, and hence we conclude that labor is respectable, and none need be ashamed to labor who would not be ashamed to be seen spending a dollar. Only those who have no money, and do not know the process by which it is attained, look down upon honest labor. The laborer stands higher in the scale of usefulness than they, if they have no accumulated labor (money) to compare with him. So that none need hesitate, who want money, to work wherever they can gain employment ; and if they can carry with them knowledge and superior acquire- ments, their services will be more valuable, but not a whit more respectable, on the great scale of political economy. Bearing this steadily in mind, and profiting by it, you have laid a good foundation for success in acquiring an .ndependence or a fortune. 22 How to make Money. * CHAPTER III. FOUNTAINS OF WEALTH. Fountains of wealth open to all. Beacon-lights Wealth the great struggle. The ups and downs. Not explainable. Founda- tions of value. Machinery of life. Questions. How to make services valuable. Example. Result. Same wages most valu- able. Most money. Best labor cheapest. Mechanical labor compared. Best makes most money. Promotion by care. Servant girls. Best make most. Small fortunes. Salesmen compared. Interest. Pleasant manners. Attention to busi- ness. Advancement. Best makes $131,950. Poorest makes nothing. Springs that feed the fountain. Great secret. Wealth in value of services. In this country, the fountains of wealth are open to all. Few avail themselves of the opportunity presented to accumulate a fortune, while every one of able body and sound mind can make himself independent of labor, if not achieve a fortune in time. As far as history, either sacred or profane, leads us back over the toiling masses of mankind, the struggles for wealth stand as beacon- lights above their efforts of every other kind. Within these labyrinths, and at every stand-point of the historian, the eternal desire for gain shows itself in almost every motive, and has nerved to acticm almost every toiling hand. These struggles spring from necessities implant- ed in man's very existence ; and however high-born or depressed in the scale of life an individual may be, his nature demands sustenance, and whether he labors for it himself or not, some one must fulfil the necessity and till the ground for his sake. How to make Money. 23 Labor, then, is the living fountain of wealth, from out 0*" whose depths flow the alimental and luxurious streams of life. As the Maker of all things has moulded one particle of water like another, so too, by nature, is one laborer like another. Each may take different positions iii life, first up, then below, changing positions at every moment of time, fulfilling laws which are inexplicable by the deepest philosophy. To-day may see one basking in the upper-jeweldom of sunshine ; to-morrow, sunk in deep-down recesses where the smiles of plenty, or the cheering rays of luxury never reach. To-day may see the bubble of circumstance quickly convey one from beneath, and bear him above for a time upon its spar- kling glitter ; to-morrow, memory serves to tell his his-