14 WHAT I KNOW OF FARMING. 



my outfit for a campaign against adverse fortune was 

 decidedly better than the average ; yet ten long years 

 elapsed before it was settled that I could remain here 

 and make any decided headway. Meantime, I drank 

 no liquors, used no tobacco, attended no balls or other 

 expensive entertainments, worked hard and long 

 whenever I could find work to do, lost less than a 

 month altogether by sickness, and did very little in 

 the way of helping others. I judge that quite as 

 many did worse than I as did better ; and that, of 

 the young lawyers and doctors who try to establish 

 themselves here in their professions, quite as many 

 earn less as earn more than their bare board during 

 the' first ten years of their struggle. 



John Jacob Astor, near the close of a long, dili- 

 gent, prosperous career, wherein he amassed a large 

 fortune, is said to have remarked that, if he were to 

 begin life again, and had to choose between making 

 his first thousand dollars with nothing to start on, or 

 with that thousand making all that he had actually 

 accumulated, he would deem the latter the easier 

 task. Depend upon it, young men, it is and must be 

 hard work to earn honestly your first thousand dol- 

 lars. The burglar, the forger, the blackleg (whether 

 he play with cards, with dice, or with stocks), may 

 seem to have a quick and easy way of making a 

 thousand dollars; but whoever makes that sum hon- 

 estly, with nothing but his own capacities and ener- 

 gies as capital, does a very good five-years' work, and 

 may deem himself fortunate if he finishes it so soon. 



