The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1865-01-14
PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
Endorsing for Friends.


Now comes the danger. You will not incur
debt for yourself, but you have a friend. Phillip.
,our friend, your familiar, the man you ike best
and see the most Of. says To you, Simon, be my
security-yOur name to this bill" Heaven for
bid that / shoald cry out to Simon. : Phillip
means % cheat thee-beware -" But address
70 Simon this observation " Phillip asks thee-to
guarantee that three, six or twelve months hence
ne will pay TO another man, say 10 DlonySius' Sd
many pounds sterling" Here your first duty as
an honest man is not 70 Phillip, but 70 Dlony-
sius. Suppose some accident happen-one OF
those accidents which, however impossible 1t may
seem 10 your Phillip, constantly happen 70 the
PhilIipes of other Simons who draw bills on the
bank Of Futurity suppose that the smut or the
rain spoil the crops on which Phillip relies, or
the caTgoes he expects from Marseilles, California,
Utopia, 90 down to the bottOmles5 -
sius must come upon you Can you pay To Do
nvsius what you pledge yourself TO pay 70 him
in spite OF those accidents? lie thinks those
accidents not only possible, but probable, or he
would not require your surety, nor charge twenty
Per cent. for his loan; and, therefore, since he
clearly doubts Phillip. his real trust Is in you.
Do you merit the trust Can YOU pay the money
If Phillip cannot? and, allowing that you can
pay the money, are your other obligations ~ life
such as to warrant that sacrifice to friendship?
Ii you cannot pay, or If you owe IL 70 others
more sacred than Phillip himself-Owe it to your
parents. your plighted bride or welded wife, or
the children to whom, what, before their birth,
was your fortune, has become tine trust-InOney for
their provision, not 70 hazard for Phillip that for
which. If lost, not you alone, but others must
sufer-then.d do not common duty and common
honesty forbid you to say, Il am surety 10
Phillip for that which belongs not 10 Phillip but
- Chance to fulfll?'
am the last man 70 say, q" Do not help your
friend" if YOU honorably can. If we have
money, we manage it i'll when we cannot help a
friend at q pinch. But the plain fact Is this
Phillip wants money. Can you give it, at what
ever stint to yourself, i'll justice to others? If
you can, and you value Phillip more than the
money, give the money. and there is an end Of
1t but If you cannot give the money, don't sign
the bill. Do not become what, in rude truth,
you do become-a Enaye and a liar-if YOU guar
antee to do what you know you cannot do,
should the guarantee be exacted. He is generous
who gives he who lends may be generous also
but only on one condition.. viz that he can afford
TO give what he can afford to lend. OF the two,
therefore, it is safer, friendlier, cheaper, in the
long run, to give than to lend. Give, and you
may keep your friend if you lose your money
lend, and the chances are that you lose your
friend if ever you get back your money. But if
you do lend, let it be with the full conviction
that the loan is a gift. and count II among the
rarest favOrs of Providence if YOU are ever re-
paid Lend to Phillip on the understanding
- This is a loan if you can ever repay me. |
shall, however, make this provision against the
chance of a quarrel between us, that if you can
not repay me it stands as a gift"
And whatever YOU lend, let it be your money, /
and not your name. Money you may get again,
and, if not, You may ~cOntrive TO do without it;
name once lost you cannot get again, and. if you
can eontrive to do without it, you had better
never have been born. With honor, poverty is Il
Noble without honor, wealth is a Pauper. Is
1T not so? Every young man not corrupted says
- yes" 1t is only some wretched old cynic. no
drop of warm blood in his veins, who SAYS, - Life
Is a boon without honor
But if a broker knock at your door, and show
a bill with your name as a promise TO pay,
and the bill be dishonored, pray, what becomes
Of your name?
My name!" falters Simon Il am but a
to Phillip"
Phillip has bolted!'
Pay the bill, Simon, or goodbye to yonr honor {.
Pardon my prolixiry earnestness is apt to he
garrul0us. I'm! ] have lived and known life.
And, alas! what careers bright in promise | have
close in Jail or in exile A.! what talents, pro-
in their blossom. die off without coming to
what virtues the manifest rot into vices
the meanest, which when one cried III amazvment,
- How account for 50 dolefui an end to 50 fair a
commencement - solve their whole mystery ii
this Simon never recovered his first fatal
error; put his name to a bill by which Phillip
to pay so and 50 in three months