CHAPTER VII. AN ENGLISHMAN'S CASTLE. WE may take for granted that you will begin housekeeping for yourself. There is something wrong somewhere when a young man of thirty, who has no relations dependent upon him, cannot afford to get married. There is room enough in the old country for us all, if we only display energy and tact. But if the time ever comes when there is no work for willing workers, it would be well for you to consider the openings which new countries offer. Emigration is a cure for many evils, if only it be undertaken under proper conditions. Incapacity will succeed no better in Australia than here. Idleness will bring a man to poverty in any country. Every information should be gathered from disinterested sources before the final plunge is made. The cost should be counted. Not the least part of this cost is the separation from friends and relatives which is involved. If you cannot face this, be content with a little and remain in the old country. Above all, take a sober view of the prospects which emigration offers. Do not be deluded by grand advertisements. Do not suppose that you will make a rapid fortune, or, in fact, that you will make a fortune at all. Many have been bitterly disappointed, and have had reason to lament the change which they made. Remember that there are always speculators ready to ease you of your savings with large promises. They will deal liberally with you in words, if only you will entrust them with your coin. A determination to work with your hands in this, or in any country to which you may go, is your only security against failure and poverty. An Englishman's castle is one that is built by the Englishman himself. Ownership and privacy are essential to the comfort and happiness of home. Do not set up house till you can afford to occupy the whole of it. It is an uncomfortable thing for a young married couple to be in furnished or unfurnished apartments. They are never really alone; they have to share the joys and cares of housekeeping with others; and a thousand little annoyances often arise on both sides. Here then we see the nced of thrift. Many make a great mistake because they begin by taking a house larger than they can afford. So they have to take in a lodger to eke out their income. It would have been far better if they had begun life in a smaller house, which they could have had all to themselves. They would then, from the very beginning, have had a sense of ownership and of comfort. It is a good thing, too, to try and buy the house which you occupy. I write here for those of slender means. I know little or nothing about good and bad investments, except what the newspapers tell everybody. But I see clearly that many young men have learned to save a part of their earnings by trying to purchase a small bit of house property. For this purpose, few better things could be used than a sound building society. A sound one! Some of these societies indulge in reckless speculation, or in unjustifiable extravagance. The day of reckoning arrives, and they come to grief. A little careful inquiry will generally enable the cautious to avoid these. But when all is said, there will remain a goodly number of such societies in which it will be both safe and profitable to invest. Such companies enable the young man to put aside what he would pay in rent in the form of savings; and in the course of a few years the house, which in the meanwhile the society holds as security, will be handed over to him. Many persons |