Is there a sadder picture than that of a promising young man of great ability, conscious of power which he has no opportunity to use to advantage, and mocked by an ambition which he cannot satisfy, because he is hopelessly in debt or so bound by other self-forged chains that he cannot extricate himself? Instead of being a king and dominating his environment, he is a slave to his entanglement, or is dogged for years by creditors.

Keep yourself free. Keep clear from complications of all kinds that may possibly compromise your manhood, your womanhood. An entanglement, whatever its nature, is imprisonment, no less terrible because it is voluntary. If your brain is intact, your mind unburdened, your hands and all your faculties free, you can do great things even with small money capital, or, perhaps, even without any. But when you are ground under the heel of debt and are not at liberty to act of your own accord, but are pushed hither and thither by those to whom you are under obligations or with whom you have formed entangling alliances, you cannot accomplish much. You are a bondman, not a free man.

There are hundreds of men today, in middle life or older, working in ordinary positions who are as able, or abler, than the men who employ them, but who were so anxious to "get rich quick" that they fall an easy prey to smooth, long-headed promoters. They got so entangled in wildcat schemes and plausible speculations that they have never been able to free themselves. Good, honest men and women in this country are struggling with superhuman efforts under loads which almost crush them, and are barely getting a living, who could do wonders if they were only free. But every avenue of opportunity seems closed to them because they are not in a position to seize whatever chance may offer, — are not free to work it out. Everything they do is done at great disadvantage. They have to employ personal work and sheer force to accomplish what a little planning would do if they had not lost their money in some foolish investment, or were not so tied up by mortgages and debts that they are practically business prisoners. They cannot go where they would, but where they must. They are pushed instead of pushing; forced instead of forcing. They do not choose; iron circumstances compel them.

I know one of these victims who earns five hundred dollars a month, but for years half of his salary has gone for what businessmen call "paying for a dead horse." When quite a young man he made a foolish investment, in which he not only lost every dollar he laid up, but also gave notes for a large amount, which fall due every three months. He cannot get free from these notes without going into bankruptcy, which he is too honorable to do, and so his whole life has been handicapped. He is now fifty years old, with several sons and daughters, whom he has not been able to educate as he was ambitious to do. The comfort and happiness of his family, as well as his own peace of mind, have been ruined by this ghost-debt which will not down. He has lived all these years in constant fear that he might be sick, or that something might happen to him, and that his wife and children might suffer in consequence.

The result of all this is not only a disappointed ambition, but the man has also lost his hopeful disposition, his buoyancy, and natural optimism, and has become sour and pessimistic. His monotonous life of compulsory service, of slavery to a foolish transaction, entered into without investigation, way back in his young manhood, has crushed all the spirit out of him. He has practically given up the thought of ever doing anything more than make a bare living for himself and his family. Existence has become a mere joyless drudgery because in a weak moment he mortgaged his whole future.

What freedom or power has a man for a creative, productive career under such conditions as these? Shut up in the prison of debt, bound hand and foot by entanglements from which, perhaps, he can never get release, how can he work out his life plan? How can he realize his aspirations?

Struggling just for something to eat and something to wear, while forced to give up most of one's earnings for past errors, is not life. It is not freedom. It is slavery. It is slow strangulation.

The mania for getting rich — the mad, false idea that we must have money — has played worse havoc among ambitious people than war or pestilence. A member of the Chicago Board of Trade says that the men and women of this country contribute a hundred million dollars a year to the sharpers who promise to make them rich quick. They work the same old scheme of a confidential letter and shrewd baiting, until the victim parts with his money. Thousands are plodding along in poverty and deprivation, chagrined and humiliated because they have not been able to get up in the world or to realize their ambitious, for the reason that they succumbed to the scheme of some smooth promoter, who hypnotized them into the belief that they could make a great deal very quickly out of a very little.

The great fever of trying to make one dollar earn five dollars is growing more and more contagious. We see even women secretly going into brokers' offices and “bucket shops” investing everything they have in all sorts of schemes, drawing their deposits out of the banks, sometimes pawning their jewelry, — even their engagement rings, — and borrowing, hoping to make a lot of money before their husbands or families find it out and then to surprise them with the results; but in most cases what they invest is hopelessly lost.

Thousands of young Americans are so tied up by financial or other entanglements, even before they get fairly started in their life-work, that they can only transmute a tithe of their real ability or their splendid energies into that which will count in their lives. A large part of it is lost on the way up, as the energy of the coal is nearly all lost before it reaches the electric bulb.

Don't tie yourself or your money up. Don't risk all your savings in any scheme, no matter how much it may promise. Don't invest your hard-earned money in anything without first making a thorough and searching investigation. Do not be misled by those who tell you that it is "now or never," and that, if you wait, you are liable to lose the best thing that ever came to you. Make up your mind that if you lose your money, you will not lose your head, and that you will not invest in anything until you thoroughly understand all about it. There are plenty of good things waiting. If you miss one, there are hundreds of others. People will tell you that the opportunity will go by and you will lose a great chance to make money if you do not act promptly. But take your time, and investigate. Make it a cast-iron rule never to invest in any enterprise until you have gone to the very bottom of it, and, if it is hot so sound that level-headed men will put money in it, do not touch it. The habit of investigating before you embark in any business will be a happiness-protector, a fortune-protector, and an ambition-protector as well.

Young people often get involved with questionable characters, and, before they are aware of it, their reputations become smirched. They do not choose their friends with discretion, or they compromise themselves socially, politically, or in a business way, innocently, perhaps, but with the same result. Before they realize how it has happened, either their characters have received a stain which will not wash out, or they find themselves in an unfortunate, embarrassing position.

Look out for your record, young man and young woman. Keep it clean and yourself unentangled. As you value freedom, the boon of a clean reputation, and an unobstructed passage in your upward climb, do not tie yourself up, — financially, socially, morally, or in any other way. Keep yourself clear of crippling obligations of all kinds, so that you can act with freedom and with untrammeled faculties. Keep your manhood, your, womanhood, and independence so that you can always look the world squarely in the face. Do not put yourself in a position where you must apologize or cringe or bow your head or crawl before anybody.

A little ability with freedom and a persistent determination is better than genius so tied up that it cannot act. A productive, effective mind must be untrammeled. What is the use of having a giant's intellect if you bind your faculties in such a way that you must do a pygmy's work, the work of mediocrity? Keep your freedom at all costs.