limits of an ordinary life, to a handsome aggregate; but rapid accumulation in this way can only be attained when money reproduces itself through the agency of compound interest. The wonderful ratio of increase effected by this means, can only be understood by those who have experienced it though a glimmering of the reality may be obtained by a glance at the following familiar table, interest being calculated at six per cent.:

"The most notable instance that now occurs to me of remarkable success attained through attention to the prompt investment of small sums, is afforded in the annals of Abraham Shriver, of Frederick County, Maryland. With no other resources than a salary of $1,400 a year as judge of a court of inferior jurisdiction, and a small farm of fourteen acres, he succeeded in keeping his personal expenses. within the receipts from his farm, which he cultivated like a garden; and by promptly investing his salary every quarterday-sometimes borrowing for the purpose of anticipating or securing an investment promptly at the time-he accumulated an estate of $150,000. Among the records of Savings Banks, which perform a most useful purpose in collecting and rendering available the dribblets of wealth, no doubt there are many other remarkable instances. In Massachusetts, the deposits in Savings Banks amount to over $23,000,000.

"3. Another element of economy, essential to the accumulation of capital, is protection against great losses by

carefully providing against small ones. The importance of this principle is thus illustrated by M. Say, a political economist:

'Being in the country, I had an example of one of those small losses which a family is exposed to through negligence. From the want of a latch of small value, the wicket of a barn yard, looking to the field, was left open. Every one who went through, drew the door to; but having no means to fasten it, it re-opened. One day a fine pig got out, and ran into the woods, and immediately all the world was after it. The gardener, the cook, dairy-maid, all ran to recover the swine. The gardener got sight of him first, and jumped over a ditch to stop him, he sprained his ankle, and was confined a fortnight to the house. The cook, on her return, found all the linen she had left to dry by the fire, burned; and the dairy-maid, having ran off before she tied the cows, one of them broke the leg of a colt in the stable. The gardener's lost time was worth twenty crowns, valuing his pains at nothing. The linen burned and the colt spoiled were worth as much more. Here is a loss of forty crowns, and much pain and trouble, vexation and inconvenience, for the want of a latch, which would have cost three pence; and the loss, through careless neglect, falls on a family little able to support it.'

"Proceeding now to inquire how to labor with profit, we remark first, that capital is a general term for the accumulated stock of former labor. Its father is labor, and its mother economy. Ties of consanguinity, however, it was long ago discovered, are no preventive against unseemly contention. It is an old proverb, 'When two men ride on one horse, one must ride behind,' but it is not always easy to decide the question of precedence between them. In primitive and unsettled states of society, labor is more powerful than capital. In pruning the luxuriance of na

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ture, and subjugating it to man's uses, the capitalist shrinks into insignificance beside the man of the strong arm and the sharp axe. But as soon as population approaches density, capital vaults into the saddle, and labor must ride. on the crupper. In society, as at present developed, especially in the old world, a man who has nothing but ordinary unskilled labor to offer in the market, finds that,

"To beg, or to borrow, or to get one's own—

'Tis the very worst world that ever was known.'

"Wages would seem to be regulated by the cost of the things supposed to be necessary to support life; and he who would save a portion of his earnings, must reduce his expenditures for living to a very low standard. Nevertheless, there are many well authenticated instances of men who, even in the old world, accumulated some capital from the proceeds of day labor, and eventually became wealthy. How much may be accomplished by an indomitable will — a resolute determination to overcome all obstacles-Foster has illustrated in his "Essay on Decision of Character." He refers to a young man who, having expended a large fortune in prodigality, sat down on the brow of an eminence overlooking what were lately his estates, and there resolved that all these estates should be his again.

"He had formed his plan, too, which he instantly began to execute. He walked hastily forward, determined to seize the very first opportunity, of however humble a kind, to gain any money, though it were never so despicable a trifle, and resolved absolutely not to spend, if he could help it, a farthing of whatever he might obtain. The first thing that drew his attention was a heap of coals, shot out of a cart on a pavement before a house. He offered himself to shovel or wheel them into the place where they were to be laid, and was employed. He received a few pence for

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the labor; and then, in pursuance of the saving part of his plan, requested some small gratuity of meat and drink, which was given him. He then looked out for the next thing that might chance to offer, and went with indefatigable industry through a succession of servile employments, in different places, of longer and shorter duration, still scrupulously avoiding, as far as possible, the expense of a penny. He promptly seized every opportunity which could advance his design, without regarding the meanness of occupation or appearance. By this method he had gained, after a considerable time, money enough to purchase, in order to sell again, a few cattle, of which he had taken pains to understand the value. He speedily but cautiously turned his first gains into second advantages; retained, without a. single deviation, his extreme parsimony, and thus advanced, by degrees, into larger transactions and incipient wealth. I did not hear, or have forgotten, the continued course of his life; but the final result was, that he more than recovered his lost possessions, and died an old miser, worth £60,000.'

"In the United States, similar instances of moderate fortunes acquired through persevering industry, and acquired, too, without the sin of covetousness, are so numerous, that a volume would hardly contain them. A leading builder, in New York city, now entitled to a place in the book of the 'Rich Men,' was, some years ago, a bricklayer's laborer, at one dollar per day. He states that out of this sum he always contrived to save fifty cents per day, and laid by $180 the first year. The senior members of many a staunch firm commenced their connection with mercantile life by sweeping out the store in which their fortunes were afterwards acquired. But, notwithstanding the many cheering exceptions to the rule, it is nevertheless true, that ordinary unskilled labor can, at best, make but slow progress toward the accumulation of capital.

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Secondly. The rewards of labor and the facility for the acquisition of capital are increased by the possession of some peculiar knowledge or skill. A man's pecuniary value may be said to augment in exact proportion to the amount of his effective intelligence, superadded to ordinary physical power. The demand for educated labor in progressive countries so far exceeds the supply, that it may, to a certain extent, dictate its rewards. Men, animals, and machines, are everywhere working fruitlessly, or unprofitably, for want of suitable persons to direct their movements; enterprises of the first magnitude languish for want of competent managers; and regions, where nature has been most bounteous in her gifts, are yet comparatively a wilderness, because the arts and mechanism of civilization have not been introduced. The soil of Uruguay, for instance, would produce wheat and Indian corn abundantly and luxuriantly; but its adaptation for the growth of these cereals is rendered comparatively worthless by the absence of suitable mills to grind the products. The sugar-cane of the Southern States, and especially in the Tropics, is wasted immensely, for want of the proper machines and the requisite skill to extract all the sugar from the juice. There are dies in the Indies rarer than the cochineal; fibrous plants more valuable than any flax or hemp; substances more oleaginous than linseed; but they are unappreciated, because the educated mechanism has not as yet prepared them for the world's markets. A quick brain and a ready hand constitute a man Fortune's master. Even women, limited as their opportunities are for gaining a livelihood, independently of being a helpmate to man, wonderfully enlarge the scope of their powers when they combine administrative and manipulative skill. As managers of work-rooms, superintendents, etc., women are especially in demand; and, if qualified, can readily earn from $6 to $12 per week.