D'ye ken hoo many pleas for siller I get each and every day o' ma life?
I could be handin' it out frae morn till nicht! The folk that come tae me that I've ne'er clapped een upon! The total strangers who think they've nowt to do but ask me for what they want! Men will ask me to lend them siller to set themselves up in business.

Lassies tell me in a letter they can be gettin' married if I'll but gie them siller to buy a trousseau with.

Parents ask me to lend them the money to educate their sons and send them to college.
And, noo, I'll be asking you--why should they come tae me?
Because I'm before the public--because they think they know I ha' the siller?
Do they nae think I've friends and relatives o' my ain that ha' the first call upon me?
Wad they, had they the chance, help every stranger that came tae them and asked?
Hoo comes it folk can lose their self-respect sae?
There's folk, I've seen them a' ma life, who put sae muckle effort into trying to get something for nowt that they ha' no time or leisure to work.

They're aye sae busy writin' begging letters or working it aroond sae as to get to see a man or a woman they ken has mair siller than he or she needs that they ha' nae the time to mak' any effort by their ain selves.

Wad they but put half the cleverness into honest toil that they do into writin' me a letter or speerin' a tale o' was to wring my heart, they could earn a' the siller they micht need for themselves.
In ma time I've helped many a yin.