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The Art of Money Getting by P. T. Barnum

Introduction In the United States, where we have more land

than people, it is not at all difficult for persons in good health to make money. In this

comparatively new field there are so many avenues of success open, so many vocations

which are not crowded, that any person of either sex who is willing, at least for the

time being, to engage in any respectable occupation that offers, may find lucrative employment.

Those who really desire to attain an independence, have only to set their minds upon it, and

adopt the proper means, as they do in regard to any other object which they wish to accomplish,

and the thing is easily done. But however easy it may be found to make money, I have

no doubt many of my hearers will agree it is the most difficult thing in the world to

keep it. The road to wealth is, as Dr. Franklin truly says, "as plain as the road to the mill."

It consists simply in expending less than we earn; that seems to be a very simple problem.

Mr. Micawber, one of those happy creations of the genial Dickens, puts the case in a

strong light when he says that to have annual income of twenty pounds per annum, and spend

twenty pounds and sixpence, is to be the most miserable of men; whereas, to have an income

of only twenty pounds, and spend but nineteen pounds and sixpence is to be the happiest

of mortals. Many of my readers may say, "we understand this: this is economy, and we know

economy is wealth; we know we can't eat our cake and keep it also." Yet I beg to say that

perhaps more cases of failure arise from mistakes on this point than almost any other. The fact

is, many people think they understand economy when they really do not.

True economy is misapprehended, and people go through life without properly comprehending

what that principle is. One says, "I have an income of so much, and here is my neighbor

who has the same; yet every year he gets something ahead and I fall short; why is it? I know

all about economy." He thinks he does, but he does not. There are men who think that

economy consists in saving cheese-parings and candle-ends, in cutting off two pence

from the laundress' bill and doing all sorts of little, mean, dirty things. Economy is

not meanness. The misfortune is, also, that this class of persons let their economy apply

in only one direction. They fancy they are so wonderfully economical in saving a half-penny

where they ought to spend twopence, that they think they can afford to squander in other

directions. A few years ago, before kerosene oil was discovered or thought of, one might

stop overnight at almost any farmer's house in the agricultural districts and get a very

good supper, but after supper he might attempt to read in the sitting-room, and would find

it impossible with the inefficient light of one candle. The hostess, seeing his dilemma,

would say: "It is rather difficult to read here evenings; the proverb says 'you must

have a ship at sea in order to be able to burn two candles at once;' we never have an

extra candle except on extra occasions." These extra occasions occur, perhaps, twice a year.

In this way the good woman saves five, six, or ten dollars in that time: but the information

which might be derived from having the extra light would, of course, far outweigh a ton

of candles. But the trouble does not end here. Feeling

that she is so economical in tallow candies, she thinks she can afford to go frequently

to the village and spend twenty or thirty dollars for ribbons and furbelows, many of

which are not necessary. This false connote may frequently be seen in men of business,

and in those instances it often runs to writing-paper. You find good businessmen who save all the

old envelopes and scraps, and would not tear a new sheet of paper, if they could avoid

it, for the world. This is all very well; they may in this way save five or ten dollars

a year, but being so economical (only in note paper), they think they can afford to waste

time; to have expensive parties, and to drive their carriages. This is an illustration of

Dr. Franklin's "saving at the spigot and wasting at the bung-hole;" "penny wise and pound foolish."

Punch in speaking of this "one idea" class of people says "they are like the man who

bought a penny herring for his family's dinner and then hired a coach and four to take it

home." I never knew a man to succeed by practising this kind of economy.

True economy consists in always making the income exceed the out-go. Wear the old clothes

a little longer if necessary; dispense with the new pair of gloves; mend the old dress:

live on plainer food if need be; so that, under all circumstances, unless some unforeseen

accident occurs, there will be a margin in favor of the income. A penny here, and a dollar

there, placed at interest, goes on accumulating, and in this way the desired result is attained.

It requires some training, perhaps, to accomplish this economy, but when once used to it, you

will find there is more satisfaction in rational saving than in irrational spending. Here is

a recipe which I recommend: I have found it to work an excellent cure for extravagance,

and especially for mistaken economy: When you find that you have no surplus at the end

of the year, and yet have a good income, I advise you to take a few sheets of paper and

form them into a book and mark down every item of expenditure. Post it every day or

week in two columns, one headed "necessaries" or even "comforts", and the other headed "luxuries,"

and you will find that the latter column will be double, treble, and frequently ten times

greater than the former. The real comforts of life cost but a small portion of what most

of us can earn. Dr. Franklin says "it is the eyes of others and not our own eyes which

ruin us. If all the world were blind except myself I should not care for fine clothes

or furniture." It is the fear of what Mrs. Grundy may say that keeps the noses of many

worthy families to the grindstone. In America many persons like to repeat "we are all free

and equal," but it is a great mistake in more senses than one.

That we are born "free and equal" is a glorious truth in one sense, yet we are not all born

equally rich, and we never shall be. One may say; "there is a man who has an income of

fifty thousand dollars per annum, while I have but one thousand dollars; I knew that

fellow when he was poor like myself; now he is rich and thinks he is better than I am;

I will show him that I am as good as he is; I will go and buy a horse and buggy; no, I

cannot do that, but I will go and hire one and ride this afternoon on the same road that

he does, and thus prove to him that I am as good as he is."

My friend, you need not take that trouble; you can easily prove that you are "as good

as he is;" you have only to behave as well as he does; but you cannot make anybody believe

that you are rich as he is. Besides, if you put on these "airs," add waste your time and

spend your money, your poor wife will be obliged to scrub her fingers off at home, and buy

her tea two ounces at a time, and everything else in proportion, in order that you may

keep up "appearances," and, after all, deceive nobody. On the other hand, Mrs. Smith may

say that her next-door neighbor married Johnson for his money, and "everybody says so." She

has a nice one-thousand dollar camel's hair shawl, and she will make Smith get her an

imitation one, and she will sit in a pew right next to her neighbor in church, in order to

prove that she is her equal. My good woman, you will not get ahead in the

world, if your vanity and envy thus take the lead. In this country, where we believe the

majority ought to rule, we ignore that principle in regard to fashion, and let a handful of

people, calling themselves the aristocracy, run up a false standard of perfection, and

in endeavoring to rise to that standard, we constantly keep ourselves poor; all the time

digging away for the sake of outside appearances. How much wiser to be a "law unto ourselves"

and say, "we will regulate our out-go by our income, and lay up something for a rainy day."

People ought to be as sensible on the subject of money-getting as on any other subject.

Like causes produces like effects. You cannot accumulate a fortune by taking the road that

leads to poverty. It needs no prophet to tell us that those who live fully up to their means,

without any thought of a reverse in this life, can never attain a pecuniary independence.

Men and women accustomed to gratify every whim and caprice, will find it hard, at first,

to cut down their various unnecessary expenses, and will feel it a great self-denial to live

in a smaller house than they have been accustomed to, with less expensive furniture, less company,

less costly clothing, fewer servants, a less number of balls, parties, theater-goings,

carriage-ridings, pleasure excursions, cigar-smokings, liquor-drinkings, and other extravagances;

but, after all, if they will try the plan of laying by a "nest-egg," or, in other words,

a small sum of money, at interest or judiciously invested in land, they will be surprised at

the pleasure to be derived from constantly adding to their little "pile," as well as

from all the economical habits which are engendered by this course.

The old suit of clothes, and the old bonnet and dress, will answer for another season;

the Croton or spring water taste better than champagne; a cold bath and a brisk walk will

prove more exhilarating than a ride in the finest coach; a social chat, an evening's

reading in the family circle, or an hour's play of "hunt the slipper" and "blind man's

buff" will be far more pleasant than a fifty or five hundred dollar party, when the reflection

on the difference in cost is indulged in by those who begin to know the pleasures of saving.

Thousands of men are kept poor, and tens of thousands are made so after they have acquired

quite sufficient to support them well through life, in consequence of laying their plans

of living on too broad a platform. Some families expend twenty thousand dollars per annum,

and some much more, and would scarcely know how to live on less, while others secure more

solid enjoyment frequently on a twentieth part of that amount. Prosperity is a more

severe ordeal than adversity, especially sudden prosperity. "Easy come, easy go," is an old

and true proverb. A spirit of pride and vanity, when permitted to have full sway, is the undying

canker-worm which gnaws the very vitals of a man's worldly possessions, let them be small

or great, hundreds, or millions. Many persons, as they begin to prosper, immediately expand

their ideas and commence expending for luxuries, until in a short time their expenses swallow

up their income, and they become ruined in their ridiculous attempts to keep up appearances,

and make a "sensation." I know a gentleman of fortune who says, that

when he first began to prosper, his wife would have a new and elegant sofa. "That sofa,"

he says, "cost me thirty thousand dollars!" When the sofa reached the house, it was found

necessary to get chairs to match; then side-boards, carpets and tables "to correspond" with them,

and so on through the entire stock of furniture; when at last it was found that the house itself

was quite too small and old-fashioned for the furniture, and a new one was built to

correspond with the new purchases; "thus," added my friend, "summing up an outlay of

thirty thousand dollars, caused by that single sofa, and saddling on me, in the shape of

servants, equipage, and the necessary expenses attendant upon keeping up a fine 'establishment,'

a yearly outlay of eleven thousand dollars, and a tight pinch at that: whereas, ten years

ago, we lived with much more real comfort, because with much less care, on as many hundreds.

The truth is," he continued, "that sofa would have brought me to inevitable bankruptcy,

had not a most unexampled title to prosperity kept me above it, and had I not checked the

natural desire to 'cut a dash'." The foundation of success in life is good

health: that is the substratum fortune; it is also the basis of happiness. A person cannot

accumulate a fortune very well when he is sick. He has no ambition; no incentive; no

force. Of course, there are those who have bad health and cannot help it: you cannot

expect that such persons can accumulate wealth, but there are a great many in poor health

who need not be so. If, then, sound health is the foundation of

success and happiness in life, how important it is that we should study the laws of health,

which is but another expression for the laws of nature! The nearer we keep to the laws

of nature, the nearer we are to good health, and yet how many persons there are who pay

no attention to natural laws, but absolutely transgress them, even against their own natural

inclination. We ought to know that the "sin of ignorance" is never winked at in regard

to the violation of nature's laws; their infraction always brings the penalty. A child may thrust

its finger into the flames without knowing it will burn, and so suffers, repentance,

even, will not stop the smart. Many of our ancestors knew very little about the principle

of ventilation. They did not know much about oxygen, whatever other "gin" they might have

been acquainted with; and consequently they built their houses with little seven-by-nine

feet bedrooms, and these good old pious Puritans would lock themselves up in one of these cells,

say their prayers and go to bed. In the morning they would devoutly return thanks for the

"preservation of their lives," during the night, and nobody had better reason to be

thankful. Probably some big crack in the window, or in the door, let in a little fresh air,

and thus saved them. Many persons knowingly violate the laws of

nature against their better impulses, for the sake of fashion. For instance, there is

one thing that nothing living except a vile worm ever naturally loved, and that is tobacco;

yet how many persons there are who deliberately train an unnatural appetite, and overcome

this implanted aversion for tobacco, to such a degree that they get to love it. They have

got hold of a poisonous, filthy weed, or rather that takes a firm hold of them. Here are married

men who run about spitting tobacco juice on the carpet and floors, and sometimes even