The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1873-07-24
Frugality And Extravaganza.
BY THE REV. A. W. THOROLD, A. NJ.


Among the practical lessons which care
full parent will constantly inculcate on hi
children, and the pithy msxums that will b
failing from his lips, almost without hi
knowing them, none can be more importan
in their nature, more incessant in their in
fuence, or more permanent in their result
than those which bear upon money. 1t i
easy to make too much Of it, and it is possible
to make too little. Where the one aim o
the head ofa family is plainly seen to b.
rich, and the constant burden of his talk il
on the power and Importance of money, hi
children will inevitably be trained for then
fathers Mammon-worship, and the air o.
filthy lucre they daily breathe will insensibly
impregnate their moral character. If, or
the other hand they see money treated as Q
matter of utter in difference if before theil
eyes, day by day, expenses are incurred
without means to meet them, and the last
question ever asked about anything is what
it will cost, there will be tendency in the
other direction to impair quickness of the
moral sense in money matters generally,
habituaI self-indulgence will seem to be the
natural order of things, and to wish for any
thing will mean instantly to try to procure
it. No doubt in many Epersons there are
what may be called hereditary ideas about
money some are born frugal, others ex-
travagant; and be the circumstances of life
what they may, the original bias will assert
itself from the nursery to the grave. But
great deal may be done by carefully educa-
ting children in the true value Of money as
means to an end.
Every one has some weak point about
money, and almost every one is extravagant
in some things and penurious in others. A
noble nature is noble with money. 1t is just
what one would have expected of gallant
King Amadeus, that he should insist on re-
storing the Escurial out of his own purse
Small-natured people are small with their
money, and to get sixpence out of them is
like drawing double tooth. Wasteful peo-
pie are often stingy for this is their only
way of recouping themselves for their i'm
providence. Stingy people are often waste
full, just because they are stingy. A stitch
in time saves nine. Timidity often defeats
its own pupose Rome in the end had to
pay as much for the three remaining hooks
of the Sibyl as would have bought the six
others and o little courage in buying is
sometimes the truest seshapys i is>an in;
es'FeS SsTim. that hs M fSas katcE5 snrssy.
ship is sure" But it does not need inspira-
ton to see that no one should consent to be
trutee for others who is not prepared to take
tue necessary trouble, or who is not qualified
by the proper experience for fairly doing his
best. Money committed to us for a partlc-
ular purpose should, in the absence of dis
crctionary power, be strictly spent on it, or
fresh instructions procured. With certain
persons it is necessary precaution, not only
to indicate the way in which your money IS
to be expended, but to take care that it gets
there Some people have deep crack run
ningfrom head to foot through their moral
nature. If you send them money for a
child's schooling, it is spent on silk gown
or the check that you intended to fill their
coa-celar is as likely as not to go For a
trinket. Where some people make their
money 90 much farther than others DO, 1t is
not necessarily because they are so much
more clever, but because they give their
minds to it, and feel it duty, as well as a
pleasure, to make the most of it. IL IS at
mast arrays those erho hacc least money rho
iad,tye themselves most, and those ,cho hacc
most indul1e themselves lcast Do you doubt
it the reason is clear. When you have
something to lose, it is matter of Importance
not to lose it. If you have nothing to lose,
to plunge little deeper under water can
hurt no one but the unfortunate tradesman
who gives you credit In solemn truth, there
can be no kind of doubt that excessive expendi.
ture of living is one of the great vices ol
the time and it would be well for all of us
if the power of the pulpit were more frequent.
ly and vigorously exercised in storniy dis
countenancing the selfish thoughtlessness
that buys what it cannot pay for, and III
stigmatizing a. deliberate and persevcrlng
extravaganza by its proper name of fraud.
Yet carefulness about money has its own
dangers. When an APOSTLE wrote to the
Church Of God, 'Let your conversation be
without covetousness and Hebrew prophe
ages before him sternly denounced the ther
growing habit of adding house to house anc
field to field, it was because then, as much a
now, every virtue has tendency to deterlo
rate into corresponding gvicc; and fto vast
money is a fault, to love it is SIN
Now it is much easier to come t.
love it than some Of us may suppose. TO be
always worrying about small expenses, o.
regretting past losses, or talking about prices
or even comparing to, closely and anxiousl,
one years account with another, will secret
| ly, but inevitably, mildcw the spirit with
kind of sordid earthlness. To give ava,
will become harder, for we shall soon fanc,
we cannot afford it; and what at first wa