The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1850-02-16
Living and Means.
DY HORACE GREELEY.

One Of the most mschieyous phrases
in which rotten Morality, radically
false and vicious Public Sentiment, dis
gulse themselves. Is that which charac.
terlzes certain individuals as destitute of
financial capacity. A 'Ekind, aniabIr,
generous, good sort Of man." $50 runs
the varnish, "but utterly unqualified Tor
the management Of his own fnancrs"-
ia mere child in everything relating
to money! sc. &c. meaning that with
an income of $500 year, he persisted
in spending 81, 200, or with an income
of $4,000 to $4,000, he regularly spent
five to eight thousand, according to:his
ability to run in debt or the creduIitv
Of others in trusting him.
The victims Of this :mlnoralitv-debt-
or as well as cred,or-are entitled TO
more faithful dealing at the hands of
those not directly affected by the misd.,-
meanors Of The former. Ii is the duty OF
the community to rebuke ard repress
these prrnicious crosses making the
truth heard and felt that inordnatc ex-
penditure is knavcry and crime. No
man has a moral right thus to lavish on
his own appriltcs money which he has
not earned and does not really need. If
Public Opinion were sound on this sub
ject--it man living beyond his means
when his means were commensurate
with his real needs, were sub lected to
the apprehension he deservcs-the evil
would be Instantly checked and ultimate
" eradcatcd.
The world is fall Of people who can't
imagine why they don't prosper like
their nrlghbors, when the real obstacle
is not in banks and tariffs. in bad public
policy and hard times, but in their own
extravaganza and needless ostentaton.
The young mechanic and clerk marries
and takes house, which he proceed. to
furnish twice as extensively as he can
af1ord, and then his wife, instead of ta-
king hold to hel him earn livelihood
by doing her own work, must have a
hired servant TO help consume his earn
ings. Ten years alterward you will find
him struggling on under a double load of
debts and children, wondering why the
luck was always against him, while his
friends regret his unhappy destitu,on of
financial ability. Had they from the
first been frank and honest, he need not
have been SO unlucky.
Through every grade of society this
vice OF inordinate expenditure insinuates
itself The single man hired OUT in
the country at ten to fifteen dollars per
month, who contrivcs to dissolve his
earnings in frolics and fine clothes: the
clerk who has three 10 FIVE hundred dol
lars year and mets down twenty to fif-'
~ oft in liquor and cegars, are paral-
leled fly the young merchant who fills a
spacious house with costly furniture,
gives dinners and drives fast horse on
the strength of the profits he expects to
realize when his goods are all sold and
his notes all paid. Let man have a ge-
Mus for spending and whether his income
is dollar day or dollar a minute, it
is equally certain to prove inadequate
If dining, wining, and party giving wont
help HIM through with it, building, gam
ing and specializing will be sure to. The
bottomess pocket will never fill, no n at
ter how bounteous the stream pouring
into 1.-THE man who (belng singIe)
does not save money on six dollars per
week, will not be apt to on sixty, and
ne who does not lay up something in
his first year of independent exertion,
will be, pretty likely to wear poor man S
hair in his grave.