Wyoming democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Wyoming Co., Pa.) 1867-1940, 1868-02-05
BIGGARS AND BORROWERS.
BIZ HORACE GREELEY,


sive, protracted experience has led me to
the conclusion that nine-tenths Of those
who solicit loans OF strangers or casual &C.
quaintances are thriftless vagabonds who
will never be better off than at present, or
scoundrels who would never pay if they
were able. In scores, if not hundreds OF
cases, have been importuned to lend
from ST up to $40, to help a stranger who
had come to the city on ,some errand or
other, had here fallen among thieves, who
are far more abundant here than they ev-
er were on the road from Jerusalem to
Jericho), been made drunk, and plundered
of his last cent, and who asked only enough
to take him home, when the money would
be surely and promptly returned. Some
times, | have lent the sum required; in
other cases, / have refused it; but can
not remember single instance in which
the promise to repay was made good. |
recollect case wherein capable, intel
ligent New England mechanic, on his way
from an Eastern city to work two hundred
miles up the Erie Railroad, borrowed of
me the means of saving bis children from
famine on the way, promising to pay il out
of bis first months wages which he took
care never to do. This case differs from
many others only in that the swindler was
clearly of better class than that from
which the great army Of borrowers is so
steadily and bountifully recruited.
In one instance: young man came
with the usual request, and was asked to
state his case. "I am a clerk from New
Hampshire" he began, Sand have been
for three years employed in Georgia. At
length, severe sickness Frustrated me;
lost my place my money was exhausted ;
and here am |, with my wife, without a
cent; and | want TO borrow enough to take
me home to my fathers house, when will
surely repay it" "Stranger," was the re
sponse, you evidently cannot stay here,
and | must help you to get away but why
say anything about paying me9 You
know, and know you will never pay a
cent" My visitor protested and remon-
strated; but | convinced, if | did not cot.-
vert him Don't you see" rejoined,
"that you cannot have been three years q
clerk in a leading mercantile house in Geor-
gia without making the acquaintance of
merchants doing business in this city p
Now, if you were a person likely to paw.
you would apply to and obtain help from
those mereI.---.~ "'4o'Ii yVu n"Uw, 'nVt ~
liz au utter stranger" lie did not ad-
nit the force Of my demonstration but Of
course the sequel proved it correct.
| consider 1t all but an axiom that he
who asks a stranger to lend him money
will never pay it; yet | have known an
exception. Once, when | was exceedingly
poor aud needy, in season of commeIc cial
revuIsion or panic" | opened letter
from Utica and found therein So, which
the writer asked me to receive in satisfaction
of loan of that sum which | Lad made
him-a needy stranger-on an occasion
which he recalled to my remembrance
Perplexed by so unusual message and es-
pecially by receiving it at such time,
when every one was seeking to borrow
no one condescending to pay-I scanned
the letter more closely, and at length
achieved solution Of the problem The
writer WAS patient 10 the State Lunatic
Asylum.
A gushing youth once wrote me to this
effect:
DEAR SIR: Among your literary
treasures you have doubtless preserved
several autographs of our country's late
lamented poet, Edgar A. Poe. If so, and
you can spare one, please enclose it to me,
and receive the thanks of yours, truly" 2.
responded as follows:
DEAR SIR Among my literary treas
ures there happens to be exactly one auto
graph Of our country's late lamented poet,
Edgar A. Poe. 1t is his note of hand for
$50, with my endorsement across the back.
1t cost me just $50 IS (inc udiog protest.,
and you may have it for half that amount.
Yours, respectfully"
That autograph, | regret TO say. re-
mains on my hands, and is still for sale at
the original price, despite the lapse of time
and the depreciation Of our currency. +
once received letter from an utter
stranger, living two hundred miles away,
asking me to lend him a large sum on a
mortgage of his farm, and closing thus:
"P. S.-My religious views are radical
ly antagonist to yours but know no
member of my own church of whom |
could so readily, and with such confidence,
ask snch favor, as Of you.''
This postscript impelIed me, instead of
dropping the letter quietly into the waste
basket, as usual, and turning to the next
business in order, to answer him as fol-
lows: ... .
"SIR: | have neither the money you
ask for, nor the inclination to lend it on the
security you proffer. And your p. S.
prompts the suggestion that whenever I
shall be moved to seek favors of the mem
bers of some other church rather than OF
that to which | have hitherto adhered,
| shall make haste to join that other
church 3D."
thrust have said nothing calculated to
stay the hand or chill the spirit of heaven
born Charity. The world is toll of needy,
suffering ones, who richly deserve compass
sion; not to speak of the vaerauts, who,
though undeserving, must not be allowed
to starve or freeze. | was struck with the
response of man last from St. Louis, who