The Independent Press

Making haste to be rich.

Numberless are the annoyances and frequent the disasters which beset the man who is in haste to be rich; yet those who are confined to the slower process of accumulating wealth, cannot be reconciled to see their neighbors apparently thriving so much more rapidly than themselves. A man embarked in a vast business, and who has, to all outward observations been prospering famously, suddenly fails, goes down with a financial crash, which causes a mighty sensation, at least amongst his creditors.-- But the discontented mechanic or farmer shake his head, and says, 'Ah, never mind. he has failed to make money. I warrant you.' He will not believe that so much glitter could exist where there was no gold, that so much apparent solidity should be but an unsubstantial bubble. after all, and sighing still for the riches that he is sure could be won in haste, he envies the mercantile speculator even in his misfortunes. His own humble shop or small farm is too contracted a sphere for his operations, and he would willingly exchange a competence earned, as it must be, by steady toil, for the chance of quickly heaping up treasure, even though the chance is doubtful so doubtful that nine out of ten such experiments results in disaster and ruin. Few and far between are the instances of acquiring a solid fortune by any speedy process, and of those few, the result often is that the same spirit of making haste to be rich, which was successful in the first instance, in the very next venture leads to overwhelming disappointments and irretrievable ruin. Much better is it for those who are doing well enough to let well enough alone, and be content with smaller gains, if they can avoid the feverish anxiety and the exhausting strain that always attend upon the process of making haste to be rich.

--Boston Bee.