Penny Club-Mr. Morson and Sam Stone. 9 PENNY CLUB. To the Editor of the Cottager's Monthly Visitor. MR. EDITOR, I HAVE lately given the children of our village the stuffs, flannels, fustians, &c. for which they had subscribed since last February; and I certainly am not sorry that I established this little penny club. Some of the mothers who had several children, carried off a fine bundle of winter clothing, and all seemed pleased with the plan. The number of subscribers was instantly raised, from forty-three to fifty-six; and, if I calculate aright, (adding twopence to every shilling), and their children bring regularly their penny a week, we shall have fourteen pounds' worth of goods to distribute in this little place, against another Christmas. Small sums saved, soon amount to large sums: small sums spent are not much noticed at the time, but often lead in the end to great distress. Your constant reader, MR. MORSON AND SAM STONE; OR, ONE SHILLING A DAY. SAM STONE is a poor old man, who lives in a shabby cottage in a village, where Mr. Morson has a good house, and lives in much comfort, and has a thriving family around him, and is considered to be a man who has collected together a respectable sort of fortune. Mr. Morson is very good to Sam Stone, and often affords him a little help; but when Sam gets sixpence or a shilling he is too apt to carry it to the alehouse, and then he will fall into such talk as the people in such places are apt to get into, and will often grumble at those who are better off than themselves, and think very hard that some should be rich, and others poor: and Sam at times can hardly help grumbling that Mr. it 66 Morson should have all so comfortable about him; for, Sam says, I remember him when we were both boys together, and we worked at the same place together, and he had no more wages than I had; and now, to be sure, he lives in a house of his own, and is, as one may say, a kind of a gentleman; whilst I am a poor creature, and am obliged to go cringing to the parish for help. I am sure it is a great shame, and things ought not to be so. I can't think what right he has to be a gentleman, whilst I am a poor man.' says, Now I happen to have just heard Sam Stone's history, from a friend who lives in the country near to Sam, and knows him well; and I shall give my friend's statement in his own words.-"We have a man here who wonders why he is poor. He when he was in work, to be sure he used to go to the alehouse, but that he only spent just a shilling a day there, and that, he thinks, was not much; but there are seven days in the week, yes, seven; for Sunday is a drinking day with such men; and there are fifty-two weeks in a year. This man, therefore, spent eighteen pounds in a year, and this he did for fifty years. Therefore, if he had put this money into a box, instead of spending it at the alehouse, he would now have had nine hundred pounds." Now Mr. Morson never went to the alehouse, and therefore he saved his nine hundred pounds. But then he was too wise to keep it in a box; he put it out to interest; and, if any of our readers will calculate how much eighteen pounds a year, put out to interest, will come to, and eighteen pounds added to it every year, with the compound interest upon the whole, they will not wonder how Mr. Morson came to be a gentleman, any more than they will wonder why Stone is a poor V. man. THREE SHILLINGS A DAY. I CANNOT put in a clearer view the immense sums which may be wasted by carelessness, and consequently Three Shillings a Day. 11 saved by prudence, than by giving the particulars of another case, as sent by the same friend who gave us the reasons for Sam Stone's poverty." Were I to tell you of another man, who, when his trade was flourishing, spent three shillings a day in drink, you would hardly believe me. This, if continued for fifty years, as in the case of Stone, would amount to more than two thousand seven hundred pounds, without calculating interest. And now the parish supports both these men." An excellent little work has lately come out, called the "Rights of Industry," written by the author of the "Results of Machinery." We are not able, at present, to find room for such an extract as we could wish, and, therefore, only refer to an example there given, of the large sums that may be raised by patient and persevering industry, and the large sums that may be spent by carelessness and waste. The author quotes his instance from Foster's Essays. A man inherited a large estate, and went on in a rapid course of extravagance, till he got rid of every shilling of it. He wandered one day in a state bordering on despair, till he sat down on the top of a hill, which overlooked those fertile fields which were once his own. He remained fixed in thought for a number of hours; at the end of which he sprang from the ground with a vehement exulting emotion. He had formed a resolution that all these estates should be his own again; and he immediately set to work to recover them. He did not expect, as many foolish people do, that there would be some turn of fortune, some good luck, as it is called, to help him; but he set about his work in the way which, he felt assured, would gain him his point. He did not expect to get his lands again by the favour of the present possessor, or by going to law against him, or by robbing him of his property; but he resolved to get his estate again through the same means by which he had lost it. But he had now no capital, nothing saved; and the first thing needful to enable a man to make profitable exchanges, and to get rich, is to get some capital. He, therefore, determined to waste not a moment, but to take the very first job that he could meet with, however disagreeable, and however low were the wages; and he determined, however little he earned, to save something out of it. The first thing that drew his attention was a heap of coals shot out of a cart on the pavement before a house. He offered himself to shovel or wheel them into the place where they were to be laid, and was employed: for this he got a "few pence," and "a small gratuity of meat and drink." When, by his savings, he got together more capital, he could then turn his labour and his gains to a more profitable account. He gained, after a considerable time, money enough to purchase a few cattle, and sell them again. He continued his perseverance, and spent as little as possible, till he was enabled to engage in larger transactions. He went on till he 66 more than recovered his lost estate, and died an inveterate miser worth sixty thousand pounds." Now, I do not wish to teach any of my readers to be misers-for the "love of money" often leads to greater sin than the "want of it;" but the above example shews how it is that some men get rich and others poor; and that the poor man will always continue poor who wastes his time in grumbling, and would rather not work at all than take a job which is not quite to his mind, or which does not bring such wages as he thinks he deserves. I do not wish, either, to lead my cottage readers to aim at getting great fortunes by their savings; because, perhaps, they would be less happy if they had them than they are at present. But, when we see what may be done by those who are resolutely bent upon one thing, we see that a man's condition depends pretty much upon his giving his mind in earnest to what he thinks worth aiming at. A man will waste day after day, and shilling after shilling, joining with idle companions, and thinking, perhaps, that Parliament will contrive something for his good; that some laws may be made, or some unmade, which shall help him on and make him prosperous. Whilst the man who knows that no laws or regulations can make an idle man prosperous, will, (whilst others are expecting good from what cannot profit them,) by good management, have arrived at that prosperity which others will talk much about, but never gain. Some people talk of pulling down capital, and think, that, by thus destroying property, the poor will be benefited. Now the very contrary is the truth. If there were no capital, there would be nobody to employ the poor. It is labour that first makes capital, and then the capital acquired sets to work other labour, and thus more capital is produced; and thus, in a civilized country, numbers are at work who would all have starved if nobody had accumulated capital to employ them. The man who shovelled in the coals could not have got that job if the owner of the coals had had no capital to pay him with. If there were no people of property to pay for labour, and thus set it in motion, we should soon go back again to that savage state in which this country formerly was, and in which every country is, before knowledge and industry have produced the means of civilization, and improved, to a surprising degree, the condition of all its inhabitants. V. FRUGAL LIVING. To the Editor of the Cottager's Monthly Visitor. SIR, ONE consequence of the disturbed state of a country is, that trade suffers grievously; for people feel no security in the employment of their capital, which secure employment is the only means of a man's money being of any use to himself or to those about |