A dime a day would build up a serviceable library.

A dime a day would pay for a week's vacation in summer.

A dime a day would buy a twenty-five cent gift for one hundred and forty-six poor children at Christmas.

A dime a day would pay your fare, second class, to Europe and back in three years.

A dime a day would start you on the road to building a house through a savings and loan association.

A dime a day would buy you in three years a share of Pennsylvania Railroad stock paying six per cent. a year, or a share of United States Steel preferred stock paying seven per cent. a year.

A dime a day, at live per cent. interest would bring you twenty dollars a year interest in ten years, forty dollars a year in sixteen years and sixty dollars a year in twenty-one years.

Perhaps your wages are small; but are you getting the most advantage out of them? Are you wasting money on liquor, tobacco, candy, gum, soda, unnecessary clothes and vain amusements? You know, do you not, that except with the very poor, the necessities and comforts of life consume a relatively small part of one's income? Fundamental expenses are relatively few. The outside incidentals are what eat up surplus earnings.

Have the strength of character of George M. Pullman, who, in speaking of his early struggles, once said:

"I had my sleeping car in mind for many years. I wanted to build the car and made up my mind that to succeed in my life's dream, it was necessary to have some money and a good deal of it. I began by eliminating a number of things to which I had grown accustomed. Cigars were among them. I had been in the habit of paying five cents apiece for my cigars. I gave them up and many other things too. The total did not amount to much, but the habit was valuable, for I learned I could do without many other things that before that time I thought were absolutely essential to my well-being."

Most young men "blow in" money on unreal and trifling wants because their companions do it. It is said we are the product of our environment, but there is no reason why we can't change a few of our friends.

"In the department of the factory where I worked," said one young man, "there was a young fellow - a congenial boy - who roomed in the same part of the city as myself. He was of the sort that 'blew' everything he made. I liked the boy, but not his profligate ways. In the environment of his company, I was perpetually being embarrassed into spending money foolishly. I knew I ought to have another environment, but hardly knew how to create it. Finally, I discovered another boy about my own age, an industrious lad who saved his money and found diversion in his books and camera. By working overtime, I got to walk home with him and we were soon acquainted. I could have a splendid time with this fellow without spending a cent."

Traveling men are often tired at night and discouraged with their strange, unhomelike surroundings. But they can, if they will, cultivate the habit of reading and study, and the friendship of good books. On the other hand, it is easy to fall into the habit of spending every evening at cheap shows.

"In entering a strange city," said one thoughtful traveling man, "I have found that the places one frequents most are the ones he grows to like best. Coming from work fatigued and wanting diversion, I could spend an evening at the public library or some downtown amusements. If I went down-town, the next evening the strongest draw would be for the same place. If I went to the library, it would have the strongest appeal and seem the most homelike on the second evening. Therefore, it is my practise to make books and the library my chief pleasure resorts. They give one knowledge, quiet rest, and cost no money. At the other amusements, one must mingle with questionable characters, his time is squandered, he returns to his room little refreshed and has spent considerable money.

"Nothing is more stimulating to the youth who is striving than the biographies of men who have struggled and achieved. I have returned from work fatigued, exhausted, disgusted - in that state when one is just ready to give up and let the whole thing go - and found a single page of struggles and disappointments in some man's biography a tonic that brought back my spirit and determination."

Of course every man is not of a studious bent. It would be a great pity if we were all bookworms. But there is no danger of that, and there are plenty of other wholesome amusements which are not expensive in the long run. If a young man figured out the yearly cost in money of moving-picture shows, he probably would find that the money would more than pay for a Y. M. C. A. or athletic club subscription, and that the healthy nature of the Y. M. C. A. work and the sociability of that institution would make the latter a far better investment, both of his money and of his time.

Bruce Barton, a well-known magazine editor, tells this story: "I attended the funeral of a 'good fellow' recently. He had always 'lived up to his income.' When the company for which he worked was reorganized ten years ago, the president said to him: 'Have you a thousand dollars?'

"A thousand dollars put into that business ten years ago would be earning a competence for his widow to-day. But the 'good fellow' didn't have it: he had never learned to save.

And now we are raising a fund to buy his daughter a piano, so that she can give music lessons.

"I came away from the funeral with another man whose salary had never been as large as the 'good fellow's.' We rode in his automobile.

"'Do you know how I paid for this automobile?' he asked. 'Out of the dividends that, came to me last year from my savings. When I was getting eighteen dollars a week, my wife took two of it every week and put it into the savings-bank, where we couldn't touch it. When I was raised to twenty-five, she raised the savings fund to five a week; and so on. I'm forty-seven years old now. I've never had a big salary, as you know; but I could retire tomorrow, if I wanted to, and have more than thirty dollars a week in dividends from the money I've saved. I tell you, I don't know anything that makes a man face the world with so much confidence as the knowledge that he has made himself independent of it.'

"There you have them side by side - the 'good fellow' and the 'wise fellow.' All of us belong in one class or the other. Which class are you in?

" 'If you want to know whether you are going to be a success or a failure in life,' says James J. Hill, 'you can easily find out. The test is simple and infallible. Are you able to save money? If not, drop out. You will lose. You may not think it, but you will lose as sure as you live. The seed of success is not in you.'"