Smyrna times., 1856-10-08
"Penny Wise and Pound Foolish"

Economy and thrift are essential to success
in life, but when either become exaggerated,
they defeat their own ends Everybody has
seen people so sharp, as the phrase goes, that
they overreach themselves. All are familiar
with examples in which ga penny wise and
pound foolish" policy has led to ruin, instead
of TO prosperity.
When we find merchant too eager to make
profits and always taking advantage, wherever
he can, of the ignorance OF his customers, we
say to ourselves that, sooner or later, he will
be found ont,will acquire reputation for cheat
ing, and will consequently lose his patronage.
When we see hetei keeper stinting his table
in fifty little things, in order to increase his
earnings, we know that he will finally wear out
the patience of the public, and be deserted for
some honester and wise landlord. When we
hear of political party sacrificing portion of
its integrity for the sake of an available candi-
date, or making unjustiiabe concessions to
short-sighted expediency, we repeat to our
selves that the old adage. "peny wise and
pound foolish" applies also to the greater con-
Germs of life, and that political parties, nay,
communities and nations, quite as much as in
dividuals, fall into the plunder which it con-
demns.
| There:is such thing as being "penny wise
and pound foolish " in ethics likewise. When
a man loses sight of the great ends of exist
ence, and lives for the sensual qualification OF
the moment only, he invariably sacrifices his
moral development, and generally makes ship
wreck of health and happiness. When we ig-
more our duties, whether public or private, for
the sake of temporary ease or supposed personal
advantage, we sow the seeds of that which will
grow up, at some future day, to scatter thorns
and nettles in our path for no man can VIC ate
a great and eternal law, whether material or
moral, without the outraged law avenging It.
self upon him at last. When we take narrCw
views of our relations to our family, our friends,
or to society, the result is sooner or later, an
isolation, that bears exact proportion to our ne
glect of those around us. When, instead o
standing up boldly for the right, we shirk the
responsibility, the penalty will inevitably be ex
acted at some future day, and generally wher
we are least prepared for it; and this, whethe
it be ingrattude to one who has befriended u;
or base and selfish refusal to serve our coun
try in her hour of need. 1t is always "penn,
wise and pound foolish +" to betray or abandon
justice.
Nations have often shortened their career
diminished their glory, or weakened their re
sources, by "penny wise and pound foolish
policy. When Spain deserted the culuvato
of the soil and the pursuit of the mechanic art
lured by the gold of America, she gave up fo
y tune and permanent prosperity for the posse
e sion of heeting wealth and power. vile
9 England permitted Italy to fall back, in 164
70 under the heel of the Austrian; when she o
lowed Hungary to be crushed by Russia, 81
~ only put off to a worse time crisis which
~ was inevitable she should meet, and one
which she has already been compelled not on
= to meet, but to pass through with diminsht
4 glory. When Russia pounced on Turkey, thr'
. years ago, because too impatient to wait d
~ ripening process of destiny, she reaped defe
where she had expected victory, lost the pri
81 she had aimed at, and seriously weakened
resources. Our own country furnishes mo
~ than one example of "penny wise and pou
10 foolish policy in the past. and threatens to
u' ford additional illustrations of it in the futu
as if not almost immediately. If we all woU
II consider more, whether as business men, as
HV cal and moral beings, as citizens, what is tr
nU wisdom, and sacrifice less to our own selfshn'
,'' or to temporary expediency, there would SC
cease to be cause for regretting "penny W
80 and pound foolish" errors. 49,. ~