Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1849-10-13
ABSURD CALCULATIONS.

Every now and then, at regular inter-
vals, we come, in the papers, upon an
elaborate table, stating and making known
to us the immense sum we might realize
by foregoing cigars and tobacco, or mint
juleps, or something else in the sinai! ex-
pendi;urc line; in other words, We are
tod if we should lay by sixpence day
and put it out at interest for forty years,
we might come into possession at about
the time we were sixty or seventy years
old of some twenty or thirty thousand
dollars. This is certainly very agreeu-
ble prospect for enterprising young men;
but it has one or two little drawbacks
worth noticing. In the first place. the
the little problem we refer 10 requires
successful solution that the sixpence
aforesaid should be invested at compound
interest. Now, we are not acquainted
with any bank, broker, or other corpora
ton o. gentleman in the money business
who has made arrangement to take sums
ofthat amount on deposit. five could iind
stock jo5bcr of an extraordinary imugina
ito little hard up for drink, we
might perhaps persuade him to accepta a
loan of that Size; but how it is TO be effec-
ted in the ordinuy course of dealing we
are not sufficiently familiar with the mar
ket to see just at tie present time. In
tie second place, the tables in question
SO accurately p' epared, go upon the inge-
rious suprosiiion that man is especially
constructed fora sixpenny saving ma.
chine, and that the qualification Of his
natural functions is an idle and foolish
and idle pervcrsion of the original design.
To save sixpeuce a day it is taken for
grant is the .ole end and purpose Of his
icing, If he had been formed Of wood
or cast iron or sheet tin, like child's
money box, this would BE- an exceedingly
plausible theory; but as lie happens to
have heart, pulse, q tongue, and two
or three other lively appliances, he is very
apt to forget the necessity of laying by
sixpence day and clappng an cxtin-
guisher on all his frailies and enioyments,
while the investment is accumulationg at
compound interest in some imaginary
and impossible bank.
Were we disposed to deal further with
our profound and far seeing table-ma-
kers, we should humbly suggest that
most men would like to have little re-
turn for their economy some time this
side of seventy, when we would suppose,
according to the Psslmist's computation,
that promissory personal notes drawn
upon this world are very likely to run
out To have twenty thousand dollars
Just when you don't want it is neither
mercantile nor religious, nor say even
common senSe; it isn't good husbandry nei
ther for the present nor the next world.
Thrift is very well in its way; without
economy ofsome kind or otherno man
can make sure of days peace or happi-
ness, but vague and impracticahlc propo-
si'i1ns for saving, like those oft-repeated
calculations of the newspapers, are likely
to bring discredit on everything in the
name of economy. BY presenting impos-
Sible and unbusincss like statements they
discourage the young from the verv
idea of prudence, and drive them abroad
into still freer indulgence in the very
expenses they are meant to warn them
from. Figures. as great philosopher
once said, do sometimes make awful blun
ders.-Merchonts Ledger.
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