Lincoln's Advice.—Good for All.
THE following letter was written many years ago by Abraham Lincoln to his half-brother. It is worthy the careful attention of all young men, and in fact of all:— DEAR JOHNSTON: Your request for $80 I do not think it best to comply with just now. At the various times that I have helped you a little you have said to me, "We can get along very well, now," but in a short time I find you in the same difficulty again. Now, this can only happen by some defect in your conduct. What the defect is I think I know. You are not lazy, and still you are an idler. I doubt whether, since I saw you, you have done a good whole day's work in any one day. You do not very much dislike to work, and still you do not work much, merely because it does not seem to you that you could get much for it. This habit of uselessly wasting your time is the whole difficulty, and it is vastly important to you, and still more to your children, that you should break this habit. It is more important to them, because they have longer to live, and can keep out of an idle habit before they are in it easier than they can get out after they are in. You are now in need of some ready money, and what I propose is that you shall go to work, "tooth and nail," for somebody who will give you money for it. Let father and your boys have charge of things at home—prepare for a crop and make the crop—and you go to work for the best money wages, or in discharge of any debt you owe that you can get. And to secure you a fair reward for your labor I now promise you that every dollar you will, between now and the 1st of May, get for your labor, either in money or on your own indebtedness, I will give you one other dollar. By this, if you hire yourself at $10 a month, from me you will get $10 more, making $20 a month for your work. In this I do not mean that you shall go off to St. Louis, or to the lead mines, or to the gold mines in California, but I mean for you to go at it for the best wages you can get close to home—in Coles County. Now, if you do this you will soon be out of debt, and what is better, you will have a habit that will keep you from getting in debt again. But if I should now clear you out, next year you will be just as deep in as ever. You say you would almost give your place in Heaven for $70 or $80. Then you value your place in Heaven very cheap, for I am sure you can, with the offer I made you, get the $70 or $80 with four or five months' work. You say if I will furnish you the money you will deed me the land, and, if you don't pay the money back, you will deliver possession. Nonsense! If you cannot now live with land, how will you then live without it? You have always been kind to me, and I do not now mean to be unkind to you. On the contrary, if you will but follow my advice you will find it worth more than eighty times $80 to you. Affectionately, your brother,
A. LINCOLN.