The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1878-04-17
FAMILY LIFE.
What IngersOn Thinks About It

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1t is pity that Col. Robert 6.
Ingersoll has not confined himself to
saying pithy and sensible things like
the following, taken from enc of his
lectures delivered before he tried to
out-Paine Paine in scurrilous abuse
of Christ aud Christianity:
Idespise a stingy man. don't see
how it is possible for man to die
worth fifty millions ofdollars. or ten
millions of dollars, in city full of
want, when he meets almost every
day the withered hand of beggary
and the white lips of famine. How a
man can withstand all that, and hold
in the clutch of his hand twenty or
thirty millions OF dollars, is past my
comprehension. do not see how he
can do it. / should not think he
could do it any more than he could
keep pile of lumber when hundreds
and thousands we're drowning in the
sea. l should not think he could do
it. Do you know l have known men
who would trust their wives with
their heart aud honor, but not with
their pocketbook; not with dollar.
When see man of that kind, I al
ways think he knows which of these
articles is the most valuable. Think
Of making your wife beggar! Think
of her having to ask you every day
for dollar, or for two dollars, or for
fifty cents "What did you do with
that dollar l gave you last week p
Think of having wife that is afraid
of you! What kind OF children do
you expect to have with beggar and
a coward for their mother? Oh, /
tell you. you have got but dollar
in the world, and You have got to
spend it. spend it like a king; spend
it as Though it were dry leaf, an
you the owner of unbounded forests /!
That's the way to spend it. I had
rather be beggar and spend my last
dollar like a king, than be king and
spend my money like beggar. If
it's got to go, let it go! Get the best
you can for your family-try to look
as we'll as you can yourself. When
you used to go counting how nice you
looked All, yeur eye was bright,
your step was light, and you just put
on the very best look you could. Do
you know that it is insufferable ego
Lism in you to suppose that woman
is going to love you always looking
as bad as you can! Think of it! Any
woman on earth will be true to you
forever when you do your level best.
Some people tell me, "Your doctrine
about loving. and wives, and all that,
is splendid for the rich, but it won't
do for the poor" 1 tell you there is,
on the averge, more love in the
houses of the peOr than in the palaces
of the rich; and the meanest hut
with love in it is fit for the gods, and
a palace without love is a den only
fit for wild beasts. That's my doc
trine You cant be so poor but that
you can help somebody. Good ma
ture is the cheapest commodity in
the world; and love is the only thing
that will pay ten per cent. to borrow.
er and lender beth. Don't tell me
that you have got to be richl We
have all false standard of greatness
in the United States. We think here
that for man to be great he must be
notorious; he must be extremely
wealthy, or his name must be be-
tween the lips of rumor. 1t is all
nonsense! 1t is not necessary to be
rich to be great, or to be powerful to
be happy and the happy man is the
successful man. Happiness is the
legal tender of the soul. Joy is
wealth.