JACOB JONES was clerk in a commission store at a salary of five hundred
dollars a year. He was just twenty-two, and had been receiving his
salary for two years. Jacob had no one to care for but himself; but,
somehow or other, it happened that he did not lay up any money, but,
instead, usually had from fifty to one hundred dollars standing against
him on the books of his tailors.
"How much money have you laid by, Jacob?" said, one day, the merchant
who employed him. This question came upon Jacob rather suddenly; and
coming from the source that it did was not an agreeable one--for the
merchant was a very careful and economical man.
"I haven't laid by any thing yet," replied Jacob, with a slight air of
embarrassment.
"You haven't!" said the merchant, in surprise. "Why, what have you done
with your money?"
"I've spent it, somehow or other."
"It must have been somehow or other. I should think, or somehow else,"
returned the employer, half seriously, and half playfully. "But really,
Jacob, you are a very thoughtless young man to waste your money."
"I don't think I _waste_ my money," said Jacob.
"What, then, have you done with it?" asked the merchant.
"It costs me the whole amount of my salary to live."
The merchant shook his head.
"Then you live extravagantly for a young man of your age and condition.
How much do you pay for boarding?"
"Four dollars a week."
"Too much by from fifty cents to a dollar. But even paying that sum,
four more dollars per week ought to meet fully all your other expenses,
and leave you what would amount to nearly one hundred dollars per annum
to lay by. I saved nearly two hundred dollars a year on a salary no
larger than you receive."
"I should like very much to know how you did it. I can't save a cent;
in fact, I hardly ever have ten dollars in my pocket."
"Where does your money go, Jacob? In what way do you spend a hundred
dollars a year more than is necessary?"
"It is spent, I know; and that is pretty much all I can tell about it,"
replied Jacob.
"You can certainly tell by your private account-book."
"I don't keep any private account, sir."
"You don't?" in surprise.
"No, sir. What's the use? My salary is five hundred dollars a year, and
wouldn't be any more nor less if I kept an account of every half cent
of it."
"Humph!"
The merchant said no more. His mind was made up about his clerk. The
fact that he spent five hundred dollars a year, and kept no private
account, was enough for him.
"He'll never be any good to himself nor anybody else. Spend his whole
salary--humph! Keep no private account--humph!"
This was the opinion held of Jacob Jones by his employer from that day.
The reason why he had inquired as to how much money he had saved was
this. He had a nephew, a poor young man, who, like Jacob, was a clerk,
and showed a good deal of ability for business. His salary was rather
more than what Jacob received, and, like Jacob, he spent it all; but
not on himself. He supported, mainly, his mother and a younger brother
and sister. A good chance for a small, but safe beginning, was seen by
the uncle, which would require only about a thousand dollars as an
investment. In his opinion it would be just the thing for Jacob and the
nephew. Supposing that Jacob had four or five hundred dollars laid by,
it was his intention, if he approved of the thing, to furnish his
nephew with a like sum, in order to join him and to enter into
business. But the acknowledgment of Jacob that he had not saved a
dollar, and that he kept no private account, settled the matter in the
merchant's mind, as far as he was concerned.
About a month afterward, Jacob met his employer's nephew, who said,
"I am going into business."
"You are?"
"Yes."
"What are you going to do?"
"Open a commission store."
"Ah! Can you get any good consignments?"
"I am to have the agency for a new mill, which has just commenced
operations, besides consignments of goods from several small concerns
at the East."
"You will have to make advances."
"To no great extent. My uncle has secured the agency of the new mill
here without any advance being required, and eight hundred or a
thousand dollars will be as much as I shall need to secure as many
goods as I can sell from the other establishments of which I speak."
"But where will the eight hundred or a thousand dollars come from?"
"My uncle has placed a thousand dollars at my disposal. Indeed, the
whole thing is the result of his recommendation."
"Your uncle! You are a lucky dog. I wish I had a rich uncle. But there
is no such good fortune for me."
This was the conclusion of Jacob Jones, who made himself quite unhappy
for some weeks, brooding over the matter. He never once dreamed of the
real cause of his not having had an equal share in his young friend's
good fortune. He had not the most distant idea that his employer felt
nearly as much regard for him as for his nephew, and would have
promoted his interests as quickly, if he had felt justified in doing so.
"It's my luck, I suppose," was the final conclusion of his mind; "and
it's no use to cry about it. Anyhow, it isn't every man with a rich
uncle, and a thousand dollars advanced, who succeeds in business, nor
every man who starts without capital that is unsuccessful. I understand
as much about business as the old man's nephew, any day; and can get
consignments as well as he can."
Three or four months after this, Jacob notified the merchant that he
was going to start for himself, and asked his interest as far as he
could give it, without interfering with his own business. His employer
did not speak very encouragingly about the matter, which offended Jacob.
"He's afraid I'll injure his nephew," said he to himself. "But he
needn't be uneasy--the world is wide enough for us all, the old hunks!"
Jacob borrowed a couple of hundred dollars, took a store at five
hundred dollars a year rent, and employed a clerk and porter. He then
sent his circulars to a number of manufactories at the East, announcing
the fact of his having opened a new commission house, and soliciting
consignments. His next move was, to leave his boarding-house, where he
had been paying four dollars a week, and take lodgings at a hotel at
seven dollars a week.
Notwithstanding Jacob went regularly to the post-office twice every
day, few letters came to hand, and but few of them contained bills of
lading and invoices. The result of the first year's business was an
income from commission on sales of seven hundred dollars. Against this
were the items of one thousand dollars for personal expenses, five
hundred dollars for store-rent, seven hundred dollars for clerk and
porter, and for petty and contingent expenses two hundred dollars;
leaving the uncomfortable deficit of seventeen hundred dollars, which
stood against him in the form of bills payable for sales effected, and
small notes of accommodation borrowed from his friends.
The result of the first year's business of his old employer's nephew
was very different. The gross profits were three thousand dollars, and
the expenses as follows: personal expense, seven hundred dollars--just
what the young man's salary had previously been, and out of which he
supported his mother and her family--store rent, three hundred dollars;
porter, two hundred and fifty; petty expenses, one hundred dollars--in
all thirteen hundred and fifty dollars, leaving a net profit of sixteen
hundred and fifty dollars. It will be seen that he did not go to the
expense of a clerk during the first year. He preferred working a little
harder, and keeping his own books, by which an important saving was
effected.
At the end of the second year, notwithstanding Jacob Jones's business
more than doubled itself, he was compelled to wind up, and found
himself twenty-five hundred dollars worse than nothing. Several of his
unpaid bills to eastern houses were placed in suit, and as he lived in
a state where imprisonment for debt still existed, he was compelled to
go through the forms required by the insolvent laws, to keep clear of
durance vile.
At the very period when he was driven under by adverse gales, his young
friend, who had gone into business about the same time, found himself
under the necessity of employing a clerk. He offered Jones a salary of
four hundred dollars, the most he believed himself yet justified in
paying. This was accepted, and Jacob found himself once more standing
upon _terra firma_, although the portion upon which his feet rested was
very small; still it was _terra firma_--and that was something.
The real causes of his ill success never for a moment occurred to the
mind of Jacob. He considered himself an "unlucky dog."
"Every thing that some people touch turns into money," he would
sometimes say. "But I was not born under a lucky star."
Instead of rigidly bringing down his expenses, as he ought to have
done, to four hundred dollars, if he had to live in a garret and cook
his own food, Jacob went back to his old boarding-house, and paid four
dollars a week. All his other expenses required at least eight dollars
more to meet them. He was perfectly aware that he was living beyond his
income--the exact excess he did not stop to ascertain--but he expected
an increase of salary before long, as a matter of course, either in his
present situation or in a new one. But no increase took place for two
years, and then he was between three and four hundred dollars in debt
to tailors, boot-makers, his landlady, and to sundry friends, to whom
he applied for small sums of money in cases of emergency.
One day, about this time, two men were conversing together quite
earnestly, as they walked leisurely along one of the principal streets
of the city where Jacob resided. One was past the prime of life, and
the other about twenty-two. They were father and son, and the subject
of conversation related to the wish of the latter to enter into
business. The father did not think the young man was possessed of
sufficient knowledge of business or experience, and was, therefore,
desirous of associating some one with him who could make up these
deficiencies. If he could find just the person that pleased him, he was
ready to advance capital and credit to an amount somewhere within the
neighbourhood of twenty thousand dollars. For some months he had been
thinking of Jacob, who was a first-rate salesman, had a good address,
and was believed by him to possess business habits eminently conducive
to success. The fact that he had once failed was something of a
drawback in his mind, but he had asked Jacob the reason of his
ill-success, which was so plausibly explained, that he considered the
young man as simply unfortunate in not having capital, and nothing else.
"I think Mr. Jones just the right man for you," said the father, as
they walked along.
"I don't know of any one with whom I had rather form a business
connection. He is a man of good address, business habits, and, as far
as I know, good principles."
"Suppose you mention the subject to him this afternoon."
This was agreed to. The two men then entered the shop of a fashionable
tailor, for the purpose of ordering some clothes. While there, a man
having the appearance of a collector came in, and drew the tailor
aside. The conversation was brief but earnest, and concluded by the
tailor's saying, so loud that he could be heard by all who were
standing near,
"It's no use to waste your time with him any longer. Just hand over the
account to Simpson, and let him take care of it."
The collector turned away, and the tailor came back to his customers.
"It is too bad," said he, "the way some of these young fellows do serve
us. I have now several thousand dollars on my books against clerks who
receive salaries large enough to support them handsomely, and I can't
collect a dollar of it. There is Jacob Jones, whose account I have just
ordered to be placed in the hands of a lawyer, he owes me nearly two
hundred dollars, and I can't get a cent out of him. I call him little
better than a scamp."
The father and son exchanged glances of significance, but said nothing.
The fate of Jacob Jones was sealed.
"If that is the case," said the father, as they stepped into the
street, "the less we have to do with him the better."
To this the son assented. Another more prudent young man was selected,
whose fortune was made.
When Jacob received Lawyer Simpson's note, threatening a suit if the
tailor's bill was not paid, he was greatly disturbed.
"Am I not the most unfortunate man in the world?" said he to himself,
by way of consolation. "After having paid him so much money, to be
served like this. It is too bad. But this is the way of the world. Let
a poor devil once get a little under the weather, every one must have a
kick at him."
In this dilemma poor Jacob had to call upon the tailor, and beg him for
further time. This was humiliating, especially as the tailor was
considerably out of humour, and disposed to be hard with him. A threat
to apply for the benefit of the insolvent law again, if a suit was
pressed to an issue, finally induced the tailor to waive legal
proceedings for the present, and Jacob had the immediate terrors of the
law taken from before his eyes.
This event set Jacob to thinking and calculating, which he had never
before deemed necessary in his private affairs. The result did not make
him feel any happier. To his astonishment, he ascertained that he owed
more than the whole of his next year's salary would pay, while that was
not in itself sufficient to meet his current expenses.
For some weeks after this discovery of the real state of his affairs,
Jacob was very unhappy. He applied for an increase of salary, and
obtained one hundred dollars per annum. This was something, which was
about all that could be said. If he could live on four hundred dollars
a year, which he had never yet been able to do, the addition to his
salary would not pay his tailor's bill within two years; and what was
he to do with boot-maker, landlady, and others?
It happened about this time that a clerk in the bank where his old
employer was director died. His salary was one thousand dollars. For
the vacant place Jacob made immediate application, and was so fortunate
as to secure it.
Under other circumstances, Jacob would have refused a salary of fifteen
hundred dollars in a bank against five hundred in a counting-room, and
for the reason that a bank-clerk has little or no hope beyond his
salary all his life, while a counting-house clerk, if he have any
aptness for trade, stands a fair chance of getting into business sooner
or later, and making his fortune as a merchant. But a debt of four
hundred dollars hanging over his head was an argument in favour of a
clerkship in the bank, at a salary of a thousand dollars a year, not to
be resisted.
"I'll keep it until I get even with the world again," he consoled
himself by saying, "and then I'll go back into a counting-room. I've an
ambition above being a bank-clerk all my life."
Painful experience had made Jacob a little wiser.
For the first time in his life he commenced keeping an account of his
personal expenses. This acted as a salutary check upon his bad habit of
spending money for every little thing that happened to strike his
fancy, and enabled him to clear off his whole debt within the first
year. Unwisely, however, he had, during this time, promised to pay some
old debts, from which the law had released him. The persons holding
these claims, finding him in the receipt of a higher salary, made an
appeal to his honour, which, like an honest but imprudent man, he
responded to by a promise of payment as soon as it was in his power.
But little time elapsed after these promises were made before he found
himself in the hands of constables and magistrates, and was only saved
from imprisonment by getting friends to go his bail for six and nine
months. In order to secure them, he had to give an order in advance for
his salary. To get these burdens off his shoulders, it took twelve
months longer, and then he was nearly thirty years of age.
"Thirty years old!" said he to himself on his thirtieth birth-day. "Can
it be possible? Long before this I ought to have been doing a
flourishing business, and here I am, nothing but a bank-clerk, with the
prospect of never rising a step higher as long as I live. I don't know
how it is that some people get along so well in the world. I'm sure I
am as industrious, and can do business as well as any man; but here I
am still at the point from which I started twenty years ago. I can't
understand it. I'm afraid there's more in luck than I'm willing to
believe."
From this time Jacob set himself to work to obtain a situation in some
store or counting-room, and finally, after looking about for nearly a
year, was fortunate enough to obtain a good place, as bookkeeper and
salesman, with a wholesale grocer and commission merchant. Seven
hundred dollars was to be his salary. His friends called him a fool for
giving up an easy place at one thousand dollars a year, for a hard one
at seven hundred. But the act was a much wiser one than many others of
his life.
Instead of saving money during the third year of his receipt of one
thousand dollars, he spent the whole of his salary, without paying off
a single old debt. His private account-keeping had continued through a
year and a half. After that it was abandoned. Had it been continued, it
might have saved him three or four hundred dollars, which were now all
gone, and nothing to show for them. Poor Jacob! Experience did not make
him much wiser.
Two years passed, and at least half a dozen young men, here and there
around our friend Jacob, went into business, either as partners in some
old houses or under the auspices of relatives or interested friends.
But there appeared no opening for him.
He did not know, that, many times during that period, he had been the
subject of conversation between parties, one or both of which were
looking out for a man, of thorough business qualifications, against
which capital would be placed; nor the fact, that either his first
failure, his improvidence, or something else personal to himself, had
caused him to be set aside for some other one not near so capable.
He was lamenting his ill-luck one day, when a young man with whom he
was very well acquainted, and who was clerk in a neighbouring store,
called in and said he wanted to have some talk with him about a matter
of interest to both.
"First of all, Mr. Jones," said the young man, after they were alone,
"how much capital could you raise by a strong effort?"
"I am sure I don't know," replied Jacob, not in a very cheerful tone.
"I never was lucky in having friends ready to assist me."
"Well! perhaps there will be no need of that. You have had a good
salary for four or five years; how much have you saved? Enough,
probably, to answer every purpose--that is, if you are willing to join
me in taking advantage of one of the best openings for business that
has offered for a long time. I have a thousand dollars in the Savings
Bank. You have as much, or more, I presume?"
"I am sorry to say I have not," was poor Jacob's reply, in a desponding
voice. "I was unfortunate in business some years ago, and my old debts
have drained away from me every dollar I could earn."
"Indeed! that is unfortunate. I was in hopes you could furnish a
thousand dollars."
"I might borrow it, perhaps, if the chance is a very good one."
"Well, if you could do that, it would be as well, I suppose," returned
the young man. "But you must see about it immediately. If you cannot
join me at once, I must find one who will, for the chance is too good
to be lost."
Jacob got a full statement of the business proposed, its nature and
prospects, and then laid the matter before the three merchants with
whom he had at different times lived in the capacity of clerk, and
begged them to advance him the required capital. The subject was taken
up by them and seriously considered. They all liked Jacob, and felt
willing to promote his interests, but had little or no confidence in
his ultimate success, on account of his want of economy in personal
matters. It was very justly remarked by one of them, that this want of
economy, and judicious use of money in personal matters, would go with
him in business, and mar all his prospects. Still, as they had great
confidence in the other man, they agreed to advance, jointly, the sum
needed.
In the mean time, the young man who had made the proposition to Jacob,
when he learned that he had once failed in business, was still in debt,
and liable to have claims pushed against him, (this he inferred from
Jacob's having stretched the truth, by saying that his old debts
drained away from him every dollar, when the fact was he was freed from
them by the provisions of the insolvent law of the State,) came to the
conclusion that a business connection with him was a thing to be
avoided rather than sought after. He accordingly turned his thoughts in
another quarter, and when Jones called to inform him that he had raised
the capital needed, he was coolly told that it was too late, he having
an hour before closed a partnership arrangement with another person,
under the belief that Jones could not advance the money required.
This was a bitter disappointment, and soured the mind of Jacob against
his fellow man, and against the fates also, which he alleged were all
combined against him. His own share in the matter was a thing undreamed
of. He believed himself far better qualified for business than the one
who had been preferred before him, and he had the thousand dollars to
advance. It must be his luck that was against him, nothing else; he
could come to no other conclusion. Other people could get along in the
world, but he couldn't. That was the great mystery of his life.
For two years Jacob had been waiting to get married. He had not wished
to take this step before entering into business, and having a fair
prospect before him. But years were creeping on him apace, and the fair
object of his affections seemed weary of delay.
"It's no use to wait any longer," said he, after this dashing of his
cup to the earth. "Luck is against me. I shall never be any thing but a
poor devil of a clerk. If Clara is willing to share my humble lot, we
might as well be married first as last."
Clara was not unwilling, and Jacob Jones entered into the estate
connubial, and took upon him the cares of a family, with a salary of
seven hundred dollars a year, to sustain the new order of things.
Instead of taking cheap boarding, or renting a couple of rooms, and
commencing housekeeping in a small way, Jacob saw but one course before
him, and that was to rent a genteel house, go in debt for genteel
furniture, and keep two servants. Two years were the longest that he
could bear up under this state of things, when he was sold out by the
sheriff, and forced "to go through the mill again," as taking the
benefit of the insolvent law was facetiously called in the State where
he resided.
"Poor fellow! he has a hard time of it. I wonder why it is that he gets
along so badly. He is an industrious man and regular in his habits. It
is strange. But some men seem born to ill-luck."
So said some of his pitying friends. Others understood the matter
better.
Ten years have passed, and Jacob is still a clerk, but not in a store.
Hopeless of getting into business, he applied for a vacancy that
occurred in an insurance company, and received the appointment, which
he still holds at a salary of twelve hundred dollars a year. After
being sold out three times by the sheriff, and having the deep
mortification of seeing her husband brought down to the humiliating
necessity of applying as often for the benefit of the insolvent law,
Mrs. Jones took affairs, by consent of her husband, into her own hands,
and managed them with such prudence and economy, that, notwithstanding
they have five children, the expenses, all told, are not over eight
hundred dollars a year, and half of the surplus, four hundred dollars,
is appropriated to the liquidation of debts contracted since their
marriage, and the other half deposited in the Savings Bank, as a fund
for the education of their children in the higher branches, when they
reach a more advanced age.
To this day it is a matter of wonder to Jacob Jones why he could never
get along in the world like some people; and he has come to the settled
conviction that it is his "luck."