_Do Not Be a Spendthrift_ The man who squanders his hard earned money is an enemy to himself. By squandering money is meant expending it for something you do not need and which is of no value, use, or merit. “A penny saved is a penny earned” is a well known saying, also “Take care of the pence and the pounds will take care of themselves.” Don’t imagine it looks big when a young man is with his companions and throws his money right and left. Does he gain their respect? Never. They look upon him as a fool and while they are willing to take advantage of his “liberality,” it will always be noticed that they never reciprocate. They are wiser than he. It is not necessary to be a miser either, for that is the other extreme and equally as reprehensible. No man should live on crusts and hoard away his money for some public administrator to find and spend in fees when he is dead. Neither can a man waste his money and expect to have any left for the rainy day that always comes to every mortal. Such a man says when he is too old to earn money, and is kicked about from pillar to post without friends or companions: “If I had only saved my money when I was young, I might be a rich man now.” That is quite true, but you wasted your money and you have reached the end of your chapter in life. What do you want money for anyway? You can live on bread and water. There is a great question in this idea. We have needs; we have rights to be observed, to marry, to be decent, to live in healthy places, raise a family and educate them. All these things make a man, an American citizen, and if you throw away the money to make you these things, then you can not become any of them. In that case you are—nothing. Do you aspire to be a nonentity? DON’T BE A KICKER OR A KNOCKER If a man keeps on complaining about things in general and particular, he will soon be thrown out of decent society. Grievances and troubles come to every man in this world, and every man knows it without constantly repeating it. He has his own troubles, and does not care to be saddled with yours. This is a good old earth if you would take off your blue spectacles and look at it with your own eyes. Some men are so dissatisfied with things that there is no pleasing them, but if you attempt to take from them the things that do not satisfy or please, they set up a roar. When there is a wrong to be righted, some right to be protected, it is well enough to complain, but there are numerous persons who go about complaining all the time. When it is not one thing it is another. These persons are given the name of “kickers,” and when they keep it up they are deemed “chronic kickers.” It is sometimes impossible to pass these people by, lest a really suffering brother human be denied help. But they become known, and should be avoided for the sake of one’s peace of mind.