Industry, Economy, Success.
WITHOUT industry and economy there is no success. These are required on the farm, in the shop and the professions, if one would achieve success and produce capital. Without economy industry is profitless work, and without industry there is nothing to economize. The two, like prayers and alms, go well together, and should never be separated. It sometimes happens—as, for instance, in the present depressed condition of trade—that the most industrious are without employment; but this is the exception to the rule, for generally speaking, where there is a will there is a way, and where industry is impatient for work something turns up.343The industrious man will work for half a loaf rather than be idle. There are men who, because they cannot get a secretaryship at three thousand five hundred dollars a year, or a consulship from the government, will remain idle year after year, ever waiting for something to turn up. There is plenty for them to do, but the work is beneath them; so they open borrowing accounts with acquaintances, which are closed temporarily by fresh loans from others. In this way considerable capital is procured, and if the account be managed with tact, it runs for a season. There are plenty of such proud loafers everywhere. They are not confined to New York, but are found in every state in the Union, and in every nation of the world. The corresponding class among the bees are instantly killed and hauled away from the hive. What is the reason that often there is so much trouble in the family? It arises frequently from the shameful fact that so many members are drones, producing nothing. We have too many idle consumers in too many families. The divine declaration is that "if any would not work neither should he eat;" and it is one of those laws which sooner or later assert their force. It is right that the idle and wasteful man should get among the swine and feel the pinch of hunger. That very often brings him to his senses, when he returns to his father's house and again enjoys the good things which industry and correct living always guarantee. Why is it that so many families, which were once in comfortable circumstances, are now without food or clothes? The answer is near; for ten and twenty years they did daily violence to the laws of economy. In their prosperous time they made no provision for the rainy day of adversity, nor were they ever troubled about their poorer neighbors who, through sickness or misfortune, were unable to get on; they never gave them a helping hand. In this wreck family industry was not at fault, for the parents worked early and late, but the fruits of that industry were used up as fast as produced. Pride levied heavy taxes, and the duty and pleasure of economy were unknown. In the course of twenty-five years the members of the family wasted tens of thousands of dollars on drinks, cigars and enfeebling luxuries. They are reminded now that their condition is the effect of an unalterable law, which takes from the fools and gives to the wise. That is an ill-regulated family in which every member is not daily employed at something useful. The butterfly is, in the end, ashes.—N. Y. Witness.