National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1874-05-30
Keeping up appearances.

The great curse of the A mcricall
people at the present day is the
prevalence of sacrificing enjoyment,
comfort and even reputation, for
the purpose of excepting up appear
ances." Because our neighbor has
fine turnout we must have one,
even if we lack both time and in
clipation to use it; because some of
our friends go to the pIountains and
watering places for u month or two
during the season, and spend a
thousand dollars or more, we must
go, though we can i'll afford the eX-
pense and our business will suffer
during our absence; because our
acquaintance so dressed in "fine
linen" every day, we must do so ;
though our business being different
frcm theirs may require our pur-
chasing three suits to their one.
Such seems to be the way many pro.
fessiOnal and business men reason.
The results are life of care and
worry becoming deeper and deeper
in debt; the breaking of home ties,
and bringing discord and discOn-
tent into the home circle, and final
ly, in too many cases, or the apprO-
priation OF money belonging to 9th
ers, followed by imprisonment or
flight and disgrace. Scores of such
instances are chronicled by the pub
lie press each week, and still more
"hushed up" by parents or friends
without coming to tue knowledge
of the public.
An article which appeared in the
Manchester Mirror few days ago
contains 50 much real common sense
in so small space, that we copy it,
as follows:
Among all the passions upon
which human hopes are wrecked, and
by which human happiness is des-
troyed, the passion for putting on
style is at once the least eXcusable
and most dangerous. 1t has come
to be the bane Of our day the prima-
ry cause gilmore disappointment,mis.
cry and ruin, than avarice, revenge,
jealousry and all the other evil
promptings which are generally
credited with sending men to perdi-
ton. Run over the list of default
ers, embezzelers and thieves, study
the suicides and murders even, and
YOU will be struck by the number
whose downfall can be traced to
spending two dollars when they had
earned but one, in order to put on
sly lie. Men don't generally steal
money to buy bread, or even to
put in the savings bank, but to
pander to the low ambition for wear
as good cloth as their neighbors.
It is the nobby-dressed, jewelled
gentleman who abuses his trust and
robs his employer it is the gorge
ously bedecked and stylish female
that walks the streets as a courte.
san.
A young man of moderate abili-
ties, and his daily earnings only for
an income, is ambitious to drive as
good team, to carry as heavy a
watch, to load his wife with as rich
silks and keep his children in as
elegant a house as his wealthy |
neighbor. He does it, and the in
evitable result is the arrest and i'm
prisOnment. He ruins himself and
his family in a mad chase after
shadow, and we consign him to
prison, everybody wondering why
a man with no fragrant vices, well
brought up, and with we'll dressed
and respectable family could ever
have fallen so as to become a thief.
1t is sad certainly; it is strange be-
You'd question, but is it, when seri
Ously considered, altogether mex
plicable?
Take our churches, and how many
of them represent more style than
godliness more debt than devotion.
How many of them are there
pointing to Heaven over a gilded
pavement, the very foundations of
which are borrowed How many Of
them are spending money which
they don't own for star singers, for
popular preachers, for stain ed glass
and towering steeples
The CENTENNIAL. The mana