The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1875-03-23

ACROSS mat line nave gone "a mulClIuOe
that no man can number
We judge Of what VIC ought to have
by what other people have. If they
have sumptuous table, and fine resi-
dence, and gay turnout, and exquisite
apparel, and brilliant surrounding. we
must have them, irrespective Of our ca
pacity to stand the expense. We throw
ourselves down in despair because other
people have seal-skin coat, and we have
an ordinary one; because others have
diamonds, and we have garnets; because
other have Administer, and we have Brus
sells; because others have lambrequins,
and we have plain curtains. What
others have we mean to have anyhow.
So there are families hardly able to pay
their rent, and in debt to every merchant
in the neighborhood, who sport apparel
inapt for their circumstances, and run so
near the shore that the first misfortune
in business or the first hesiegement of
sickness losses them into paupe1ism.
There are thousands Of families moving
from neighborhood to neighborhood,
staying long enough in each one to ex-
haust all their Capacity to get trusted.
They move away because the druggists
will give them no more medicine, and the
butchers will afford them no meat, and
the bakers will give them no more bread,
and the grocers will furnish them with
no more sugar until they pay up. Then
they suddenly find out that the neighbour
hood is unhealthy,and they hire cartman
whom they never pay, to take them to a
part Of the city where all the druggists
and butchers and bakers and groccrs will
be glad to see them come in, and sending
to them the best rounds of beef. and the
best Of everything, until the slight suspi
cion comes into their brain that all the
pay they will ever get from their custo-
mer is the honor Of his society. There
are about five thousand such thieves in
Brooklyn. You see call it by plain
name, because when man buys thing
that he does not expect to pay for he is
thief.
There arc circumstances where men
cannot meet their obligations. 1t is as
honest for some men to fail as it is for
other men to succeed. They do their best
and through the misfortunes of life they
are thrown. and they cannot pay Their
debts. That is one thing; hut when you
20 and purchase an article for which you
know there is no probability of your ever
making recompense,
YOU ARE A VILLAIN!
Why don you save the time of the mer-
chant and the expense of an accountant
for HING Why don't you so down some
day to his store, and when no one is
looking, shoulder the ham and the spare.
rib,and in modest silence take them along
xro,,1 rFh,+ would h
for now you get not only the merchants
goods, but you get his time, and you
rouse up his expectations. If you must
steal, steal so it will be the least possible
damage to the trader. John Randolph
arose in the American Senate, land stretch.
ing himself up to full height, cried out
with a shrill voice: MIR. Chairman, l
have found the philosophers stone that
turns everything into gold: Pay as you
60
My friends, society has to be recon.
structed on this subject. You have no
right to ride in carriage when you owe
the wheeiright who furnished the landau,
and the horse dealer who provided the
blooded span. and the harness-maker who
caparisoned the gay steeds, and the livery
man who furnished the stabling, and the
driver who sits with rosetted hat on your
coach. box. am glad to see you ride.
The finer your horses and the better your
carriage the better it pleases me. But if
you are in debt for the equipage, and
hopelessly in debt, get down and walk
like the rest of us! 1t is we'll to under
stand that it is not the absolute neceessi-
ties that we We find it so hard to meet,
but the fictitious wants. God promises
US shelter, but not palace; and raj
ment, but not chinchilla; and food, but
not canvas. back duck. As long as we have
enough to meet the positive necessities of
life, we ought to be content until we can
afford the superauities. AS soon as you
see man deliberately consent that his
outgo shall exceed his income, you may
know he has started on the broad road
to bankruptcy and moral ruin. The
young man who came from the oil-wells
in Pennsylvania, having gained sudden
fortune Of two millions of dollars, and
then ran through the whole Of it in less
than two years, illustrated on large
scale what some Of you, my hearers, are
doing OH small scale.
This wholesale extravaganza accounts
for a great deal of depression in national
finances. Aggregates arc made up Of
units, and so long as one-half Of the peo-
pie Of this country are in debt to the
other half, you cannot have a healthy
financial condition. The national re-
sources are drawn off, not only for useless
extravaganccs, but for those that are
positively pernicious. The theatres Of
New York cost that city every year two
millions of dollars. We spend in this
country ninety.fve millions of dollars
every year for cigars and tobacco. In the
Tinted Statoc We axnend annually one