The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1872-08-18
11nnlng in Debt.

Every body knoWe the great pressure
which has existed OF late for money. and
body who has long standing accounts to
oettfe the fret Of the year, remembers but
too we'll the pressure ut that period, when
bills and claims and payrents of various
kinds never fail to present themselves in
long arrsy-all Of which have to DO sent or
arranged, paid or put OF, according to tho
sbility or disposition Of tho debtor. MANY
an aching heart ct that time beat under the
outward appearance Of enjoyment, while
the phantoaas of unpaid bills ioomed
through al the money making and season.
ed with bitterness the nost delicate morsel.
longer 10 debt than he has meszs to pay.
There 10 nothing that makes q man, IL he
has moral feeling, more contemptible in his
own eyes than owing money when he can
NOT pay IL. He feels that he IL in false
position; that instead Of ranking with the
take his poaition with the meanest classes,
for he Is walking about under false eolors
In other peoples clothes, feeding surrepti-
tiousIy from other peoples tables, living
in houses, lodging, and using furniture
that do not belong to him, and that IL he
were to act like an honest man and pay,
for what he has, he must dress less, eat
piainer food, aud dwell in back streets; he
would then DO far moro respectable man
than the scamp who wilfully incurs debts
which ut the time he knows he cannot pay.
Many an honest man is brought into untold
embarrassment By an extravaganza aud
thoughtless family. and by the pernicious
system of long credit given by retail mer-
chants. It is absurd for retailers to open
accounts with customers at o longer credit
than they can obtain themselves. Yet this
is done in this country to q frightful extent,
and it accounts more readily than any
thing else will do, for the perpetual state
Of embarrassment in which small traders
are involved. They give too much and
too long credit, and they in many cases in
duce wives and daughters to run up bills
that would not have been thought of, but
for the bland tones of the merchant, assur-
ing them that sit will be an right, pay at
your convenience, ETC." We have known
instances where goods have been ordered
to be sent homo with the bill, to be paid
for on their delivery at the house, and they
have been left without the carrier waiting
to receive tue money; a method used to
induce the customer to open an account.
That many q woman has involved herself
la trouble and her husband ia debt, FOR
listening to tho solicitation of dealers to
"get whatsoever she may want and not
trouble herself about settling at present.
is feet, and in nine cases out of ten
where this class Of merchants hose by the
wives and daughters, they are themselves
to blame, having urged them on to run up
bills far beyond the ability of the fathers
or husbands to pay. An account once
opened is not likely to be soon closed ; it
is so easy to find immediate want for
Thousand things that would not suggest
themselves if the money had to be paid at
the time of purchasing, and thus the ac- !
count swells into a sum Of such magnitude
that when the bill is presented, at the end
of six months or year, the family stand
aghast at tue enormity Of the figures.
Then commences the dunHIng, tina putting
of, the thousand and one excuses, harS6