Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1868-07-07
CONSCIENCE IN MONEY MAT
TERS

CONSCIENCE IN MONEY NAT
TIERS.
All persons are more or less entrusted
with the management Of property.
either rs capital or income. A few may
be rich, and live on their capital. The
remainder produce IN increase or in
come, upon which they live. There is
no other land on the face of the globe
where capital is so equally diffused, or
the means of acquiring an increase are
so various, as our own. As many Of
our greatest temptations approach
through forms Of luxury, and many Of
the greatest crimes originate in extrav-
agance, so many of our highest virtues
exhibit themselves in a proper use Of
our pecuniary a There is a wide
spread but most injurious idea that con-
science has but little to do with money
matters. Debt, extravaganza and luxu-
ry on the one hand, or and
over-reaching on the other, may 60
on year after year, and faint the
whole moral atmosphere, but not until
some outbreaking result occurs does
society seem to discover that steadily
the foundations of oil moral and religious
character are being sapped in thou
sands of instances.
The most obvious duty concerned in
the acquisition Of property is that it be
acquired honestly and honorably. The
tradesman who gives false weight or
measure or inferior goods, the specula-
tor who gives little or no value to his
customer, or q worthless title to prop
erty he pretends to sell, and all who en-
courage practices at variance with hon
esty and honor, not only injure the par
ty on whom they Immediately impose,
but also the whole community for
truth, honesty and fairness are the
foundations Of commercial probity. All
that destroys OF cripples confidence
must intellectually injure that credit and
trust, without which commerce could
not live. There are many things which
human law may not reach, but which
the great law Of conscience will con-
denim. Industry is another important
element in the acquisition of property.
No human being, in health, and in the
possession of mature powers, has a right
to enjoy the blessings of life without
returning some equivalent to society,
in labor performed by body, or intellect,
or both. The possession of wealth
gives no exemption from this duty, but
rather gives rise to new and more seri-
Gus responsibilities. The truly consci-
eutious man will ever be found in the
steady path Of industry, aiming to en-
ploy all his powers in the best and most
faithful discharge Of his own special
business. His industry will DO coupled
with a moderation that will make him
prefer the sure results Of patient labor
to speculations in which a few gain by
trickery, while the many lose by folly.
And in the distribution, no less than
in the acquisition of means, are men re-
spousible. Extravaganza is q compare
tive term, and n person cannot lay
down rules for another's expenditures,
but each knows sufficient for his own
guidance, and for his condemnation, il
he fall into extravaganza. 1t is a sin
not confined to either sex, or to any age;
it belongs alike to rich and poor. All
superHuitiss in dress, e~quipage, amuse-
ments, pleasures of the table, or in pre-
serving appearances, that tend to pro-
duce anxiety about the means Of paying
for them, are in themselves extraya.
gauces that should always be avoided.
Especially should all unnecessary debt
for personal expenses be avoided. No
one has q right to live into the future
by obtaining credit for expenses that he
is now unable to meet. On the other
hand, the opposite vice Of meanness is
no less reprehensible. The pinching of
the poor to v q dollar may deprive
them of health, happiness and peace,
and the passion for saving and unjust
accumulation will ever prove the source
Of unknown sorrow. These two faults
tend singularly to produce each other.
George III was q Of the most narrow
minded and penurious Of men, while
his son, George Nv, was perhaps the
most e~Itravagant prince that the Court
Of London ever produced. The true
method of laying out means judiciously
Is to beware Of a love of luxury on the
one hand, and Of an undue penurious-
ness on the other, feeling assured that
either excess will in some way work out
fearful consequences.