The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1878-02-15
THE MORTGAGE SKELETON.

The Kansas FIrn,er contains some
BOD advice to farmers, as follows
Before you mortgage the homestead
think twice. The speculation contem
plated may seem tempting; it may
promise an almost certain large return
but 90 slow on placing your homestead
which shelters the wife and little ones
III the hands OF another for the hope OF
gaining few extra dollars in trade,
or the purchase of more land. Watch
the friend and neighbor who has done
this thing, expecting to meet the prIn-
cipal and interest with the returns OF
certain crops that did not yield as he
counted on see him with his haggard,
care worn face, forcing faint smile to
meet YOUR friendly salutation. II you
could look through the walls ami watch
the sleepless man Us he vairly tries TO
shut out the trouble of all overdue
mortgage: if you could see the worry
and anxious study. after the specula-
tions failed upon which the mortgage
had been based if you could see the
troubles these visions OF homeless little
ones bring; if YOU could thoroughly
realize that not one time in twenty are
these mortgages anything else than
curse to man, day and night, you
would let the new machinery, the adj
Joining one hundred and sixty ceres,
the new improvements, remain until
they could be paid for without q
mortgage 1t all looks bright and fair
before the mortgage is made, and it
seems almost impossible to see single
reason against placing the mortgage
ON the farm, when it is so slight com
pared with the value of the farm. The
future returns are to be counted on
with so much certainty, and then the
one, two, and three years time, what
ever it may be, for its payment, looks
to be long way off-so far indeed,
that there is confidence that the
amount can be made up, it is thought,
from half dozen sources.
After the loan is made, time rushes
along with increased speed, and there
arises difficulties in securing even the
annual interest and taxes that were not
contemplated. AS the time draws
near for the payment of the principal,
everything seems tC cOnspire to make
the payment impossible Every body
wants every dollar due them nobody
pays who owes, the bottom falls out
OF the markets, down goes the price of
land, and everything else he has to
sell. Instead of paying the principal,
a renewal is asked for, and property
is often sacrificed to meet even the in
..
strength given to worry.
This is not all that comes with a
mortgage Neighbors and friends be-
gin to shake their Leads wisely, like
owls, and talk over the affairs and
credit and character of the mortIaged
man, aud although his integrity and
honesty may be without blemish, his
failure to pay brings him under a
cloud, and his every act. is liable to
misconstruction. Improvements which
were to advance the interests of the
neighborhood become, in the changed
and altered circumstances of the man.
foolish and dishonest speculations, in
the light of his failure. Acquaintances
who would have applauded had he
succeeded, sneer with contempt at n
failure that may have almost reached
the door of success. The small mort
gage of $500 o: 81 900 has often been,
at the end OF five years, with its accu-
mulatcd interest, taxes, and consequent
losses, the load which has sunk the
farm and the farmer and so broken
him in health, enterprise, and spirit
that he went to his premature grave a
poor man, giving to his family only
the Inheritance of broken, embittcred
life. What is true Of mortgages on
farms is equally 50 in all other busi-
ness callings, with this difference, that
the numbpr of failures and mortgaged
men are largely increased. All over
the land this curse and dreaded skele-
ton of debt finds a place in three
fOurths of all our homes. We say to
our readers, who ale largely farmers,
il there is no mortgage on the home
stead, keep it free.