Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-11-19
borrowing and borrowers.

In almost every community there
are TO be found those who depend
upon borrowing for daily maintenance.
They do not borrow everything, but
they are not careful to keep themselves
so well supplied with the necessaries and
conveniences of life that they do not
need to borrow to make up their def
ciencies. The borrowing woman gets
out of flour, and sends to her neighbor
for quart or two; her sugar fails, and
she borrows some until she can buy
this act extends to every namable pos
session; scissors, flat-irons, thread, nee
dies, ink, pens, stamps, note-paper,
books, furniture, horses, carriages,
bread, butter, tea, sugar, cloth, wood,
the use of machinery.
Many good people, interpreting the
letter of the law rather than its spirit
"From him that would borrow of thee
turn not thou away''-feel in duty
bound TO lend whenever called on and
whatever called for. But, as when Civ
ing in charity we are careful that our
aims are worthily bestowed, so that we
do not, in giving, increase pauperism,
so in lending we should take care that
by "obliging" the borrower we do not
confirm him in his vicious habit. We
read 4" He that will not work neither
shall he eat" and in applying this to
professional tramps and refusing TO give
at their asking, we feel that we are act
ing rightly and for the interest of society.
The habitual borrower is in the nature
of tramp; he proposes to live on the
forethought of others, and like the
tramp he ought to be suppressed as a
common nuisance.
Even when the borrower pays, which is
by no means to be depended on, heis sell
dom careful to return IN quantity or quail
ity what he receives. So we'll is this un-
derstood by some discerning people that
they keep on hand goods of an inferior
order to lend to those who persistently
borrow, and in this they illustrate the
saying that "the children of this world
are wiser in their generation than the
children of light If lending really did
any good to such people, the case would
be different, but lending only whets
their appetite for further tavors and con-
firms them in the habitual neglect of
forethought as TO their own supplies. 1t
is difficult TO see how the habitual bor-
rover differs essentially from the thief.
He takes your time in getting for him
what he asks for and in putting it away
when returned; he wears out your
books, your tools, and often breaks
them and dulls them and makesno COM
pensOtion for the injury they sustain (;
he consumes your strength and en-
thusiam in aoceding TO his requests, and
he often causes you to waste enough
mental force to do a days work in pure
vexation at being so annoyed; for all
which you get back absolutely nothing.
We know a kind hearted family great
part Of whose time was occupied by
their neighbors in lending and receiving
back what was lent. The good wife
finally refused to learn to use the sew
ing machine her husband provided, be-
cause she said all her neighbOrs would
come in TO get her to do little stitch
ing for them. These worthy people
really thought they were doing good by
being so obliging. They would have
done vastly more good by refusing to
lend 10 those who were as well able TO
buy as they were. AS an illustration of
the spirit Of habitual borrowers we give
this; Years ago we lent a table for
which we had no use to a neighbor, and
when we needed it and intimated this
to her, she coolly replied, sit could be
sent for at any tirne," and we actually
had TO send for it and have it repaired
before we could use it.
If there is one class of borrowers more
vexatious than another it is that class
who spend their little surplus in per-
sonal luxuries and borrow of their neigh.
bors the small necessaries of life. There
are women who will buy ribbons and
laces and perfumes and cosmetics and
keep their wOrk-boxes so ill.furnished
that they are always borrowing pins,
needles, tapes, dress lining, buttons,
bread. There are men who smoke fine