he is born lucky, that everything he touches turns into gold. Now if he
forgets that his economical habits, his rectitude of conduct and a
personal attention to a business which he understood, caused his success
in life, he will listen to the siren voices. He says:

"I will put in twenty thousand dollars. I have been lucky, and my good
luck will soon bring me back sixty thousand dollars."

A few days elapse and it is discovered he must put in ten thousand
dollars more: soon after he is told "it is all right," but certain
matters not foreseen, require an advance of twenty thousand dollars
more, which will bring him a rich harvest; but before the time comes
around to realize, the bubble bursts, he loses all he is possessed of,
and then he learns what he ought to have known at the first, that
however successful a man may be in his own business, if he turns from
that and engages ill a business which he don't understand, he is like
Samson when shorn of his locks his strength has departed, and he becomes
like other men.

If a man has plenty of money, he ought to invest something in everything
that appears to promise success, and that will probably benefit mankind;
but let the sums thus invested be moderate in amount, and never let a
man foolishly jeopardize a fortune that he has earned in a legitimate
way, by investing it in things in which he has had no experience.

DON'T INDORSE WITHOUT SECURITY

I hold that no man ought ever to indorse a note or become security, for
any man, be it his father or brother, to a greater extent than he can
afford to lose and care nothing about, without taking good security.