The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1881-02-24
A Short Discourse on Dead Beats.

Behold the dead beats. They toll not,
neither do they pay their grocery bills.
yet ] gay unto you that Solomon In all
his glory was not arrayed like dead
beats wife, a. she appears at church
in the loveliest bonnet of the season,
seated by the side of her husband, who
like Jeshuron of old, has waxed fat be-
fore the Lord, and they sit in the upper
seats in the synagogue. Now, breth-
ren, be not deceived concerning these
dead beats. They are not all low-bred,
lewd fellows, that hang around corner
groceries and saloons. Many of them
are well-learned and Of pleasing ad-
dress; they wear good clothes, and talk
politics, theology, business, and on
finance are they Oft times eloquent and
windy. Now, herein are we deceived,
for they have the knack of talking and
appearing like men, but when you trust
them too much but not wisely, they
discover to you their trne iuwardness,
which enables you to trace their dis
tinctive characteristics back to Bene-
dict Arnold, and on even to Judas
Iscariot, and you are satisfied that they
are their lineal descendants, and curse
to all classes of industry and legitimate
business. They are to be found i'm all
the walks Of society, from the pulpit to
gutter; from the snob to the tramp.
The respectably-cultured professional
dead beat commences at first by paying
cash for all his purchases; he tells you
how prompt he is to pay his debts; that
he does not owe any man q dollar and
that he never allows himself to owe any
one man for any length of time; in the
meantime (and mean time IL Is for the
one tn 1t trusts Lim) he fails To get his
wages on q certain Saturday night, or
he has had unusual expenses-sickness,
perhaps-and he would be under great
obligations If you could let little
balance run over till the next week.
And your sympathy and goodness Of
heart prompts you to favor him. The
next week he pays you. and your con-
fidence is strengthened. Then comes
. series Of manipulations and excuses; !;
1t may be he is expecting back pension
which has failed to come, or his rent
was due and took his surplus funds, or
he had unexpected visitors, or sickness,
or some other plausible excuse by
which you are Induced to extend credit
from week to week, until, at last, your
suspicious are aroused and you make
vigorous efforts to persuade your Gus
toner to settle; but you awaken to a
consciousness that you have been
beaten. Your objection to giving
further credit gives mortal offence. 1t
10 downright insult to question his
integrity, and you are toll. with the
added emphasis of long list Of cuss
words, that they will pay when they
get ready, and that II you get the money
before they do you can let them know.
He unceremoniously consigns you to q
climate here 1t Is said to be q few
degrees warmer than summer all the
year around, and taking his leave,
shakes the dust or his feet for a tcsti-
mony against you, and with an air of
injured innocence, bestows his patron
age upon some one who is destined to
be victim No. at no distant day, pre-
facing his acquaintance by telling how
badly he has been used, paying cash, as
before, until confidence Is secured, then
jumping again until he swings around
the entire business circle, by which time
he finds it convenient to emigrate to
fresh fields, leaving unpaid rents, gro
Gerry bills, shoe makers bills, dry goods
bulls, and all sorts Of bills by which he
will be held in everlasting remem-
brance. The Scripture says that pleas.
ed God to make man only a little lower
than the angels, but dead beat has
outdone his Creator all hollow, and
made himself SO low that I am unable
to find language to do justice to the
subject. give 1t up. suppose these
dead beats sustain about the same re-
lation to society as do cancers, fevers,
cholera, measles and whooping cough
to the human organization, and about
the same relations morally as do flies,
lice, and bugs to the animal creation.
A war Of determination ought to be
commenced against them at once, for
there is no use In talking about reform.
ing them. II q thief is caught he can
be punished by the infiic;ion of the
penalty of the law upon him. The dead
beat has not manhood enough even to
steal and give . chance to give him his
iust deserts believe it is the duty of
business men to make common cause