The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1868-11-11
[From the Southern Home Journal. ]
Savings.

TIE duty of economy cannot be too often
or.carnestly urged OF those who have any
fund of wages or incolise from which savings
can be made. 1t is not only because .'means .
give man status, as we'll as power among
his fellows, but because those smcans" are
necessary to his independence, and to his
well-beins and happiness as an intelligent
member Of society. He who has no fund Of
savings on which to fall back, in event of loss
Of employment, and consequently loss of week
y wages. is worse off in many respects than a
slave he is dependent on the charity of his
neighbors; he has to beg from strangers; and
is driven to the pettiest and most miserable
shifts to live; or he is sent to the aims house
with his wife and family, whore he is support
cd by tax levied on the working and earn
ing part Of the community. No free-minded
man can think Of either Of these methods Of
support without shudder; and, ifhe is wise,
he will make haste to adopt the only way of
avoiding each and all Of them, which is, to
store up, in the days Of lis health and strength;
sufficient fund Of savings to keep him in his
old age; to maintain him during sickness, or
periods of loss of work and to support his
wife aud children in event Of his death.
One of the most important means of secu-
ring Independence by the accumulation of
small savings, is that presented by savings
banks. Insurance and benefit societies are
simply expedients to provide against the cas-
ualities Of sickness and death but savings
banks, while they enable working men to eff
feet the same objects, do more than this-they
furnish the means Of laying by store Of saw.
ings, which may be made available at any
time. For instance, a workman falls out Of
employment, or servant out Of place. II
the workman or the servant have been in the
practice OF consuming all that they earned
during the time Of their employment, which
is by far too often the case; if they have
been living from hand to mouth, and have
laid by nothing on which to subsist now that
they are thrown upon their own resources,
their case is about the most pitiable that the
humane mind can imagine. They are desti-
tute; the workman's wife and children go
without bread; they are turned out of their
home, or are kept there by the charity of
their neighbors; and as for the poor servant
girl, her fate may become sad indeed.
But if the workman or the servant has
saved something, either at home or in the saw
ings' bank, then they are enabled to break
their fall they obtain at least breathing
time, and they can take leisure to look about
them before hastily engaging themselves to
another master or mistress. Fifty dollars to
many may appear very small sum yet, to
workman, it may be passport to indie
pendence It will enable him to remove to
locality where there is demand for his la
Dor, Or to improve himself by going to see
better modes of handicraft and the clever,
well informed will invariably be preferred to
one who is the reverse With ffty
dollars, the workman may get to any city in
the United States where his labor is in re-
quest whereas, without it, he is virtually
rooted to his native spot, like limpet to the
rock. If he is married man with family
fifty dollars will save his home from wreckage.
and the dear household from restitution. in
event of his falling out of work and most
probably it will keep the wolf from the door
until better times come round. Fifty dol
lars would be the salvation Of many servant
girl, give her time to recruit her health, per-
haps wasted by hard work, and enable her to
look about her tor suitable place, instead of
rushing into the first that offered And if
fifty dollars be good, then hundred dollars
are exactly twice as valuable in all these re
spects.
We do not value money for its own sake,
and we should be the last to encourage mi
serly desire to hoard amongst any class but
We cannot help recognizing in money, as SO
clety is at present constituted, the means of
comfort, the means of maintaining an honest
independence We would therefore recon
mend every young man and every young wo-
man to begin life by learning to save; to
lay up for the future a certain portion of
every weeks earnings, be it little or much
to avoid consuming every week or every year
the earnings of that week or year; and we
counsel them to do this, as they would avoid
the horrors of dependence, restitution, and
beggary. Wewould have the men and woman
OF every class to be able to help themselves
to rely upon their own resources-their own
savings, for it is a true saying, that "a penny
in the purse is better than a friend at court"
The first penny saved is step in the world
The fact Of its being saved and laid by indi-
Gates selfdcnial, forethought, prudence, wis
dom. 1t is the beginning Of independence
it is the germ Of future happiness; it is an
illustration of self help, in its humbest form
it is true; but if you ':help yourselves then
it is said, that "heaven will help you"
Many persons will not begin to save, be-
cause the sum they have to begin with is Sc
small. Never mind BE it only penny, be-
gin at once put it by-do not touch it. You
will add another to it in time and by sub
sequent additions, pennies will grow into dol
lars. The saving of even penny will be
gin the habit, and the adding of other pen
MES to it will educate that habit, until the
habit Of economy becomes confirmed, and the
indulgence of it becomes necessary to person
al happiness. It is no argument against
economy to say that it may be abused, and
even Christians have burnt each other; but
is that any sufficient reason why we should
refuse to be religious? But, granting that
may produce misers insome cases we
would ask, is it not worth running even that
risk, if, by the habit Of saving we can avoid
beggary, crime, and wretchedness for the
multitude
The Norfolk Convention.
Sketches of its Members.