New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-01-01
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TILE DERTS OE 1881.

in Office.
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THE DEBTS or 1881.
The pretty sentimentalism futtering over
the country this morning of New Years
cards, and calls and greetings. Is very well
in its way but after all and under all, as
every one of us knows, this is the day OF dllns.
The fiend of the yellow envelope is abroad III
the land. Young people and lovers may IND
sweet prophecies in the voice of the new
conner that rode post-haste across the waste
last night, but to us who are older all he has
to say is, Can you pay upP"
The man among us who has no bills to pay
to-day is a white elephant in the herd, sacred
in virtue. Salaried men form so large pro-
portion of every community, and the credit
system so broadly underlies all trade, that it is
well-nigh impossible to carry on household
OF q business on a strictly cash basis. 1t Is
much more difficult for a respectable man
to escape credit than to get it in city. From
his doctor to his butcher everybody has In
sisted upon trusting him during 1880 and now
they all pOunce on him together, demanding
payment
OF course we believe every reader OF HE
TRIBUNE will pay up if he can (the preacher
always has faith in the honesty of his cOngre-
CATION, or why should they have chosen him
as their oracle p. or if he cannot pay he will
resolve during the humiatlons and misenes
of the next month never to run up another
BILL We dismiss him to his virtue or his re-
morse with the brief reminder that there are
debts which be must pay during the coming
year which money will not cover. 1t Is not
enough that he il not an actual dead-head
and scalawag; that, as he joys along III the
crowd, he does not fitch from this man his
house. or from another his clothes or coal or
cigars without paying any equivalent therefor.
He owes to each man in the crOWd-hrst,
elbow room. Because be has acquired IA GER
tain amount of money or notoriety, or what
he chooses to consider social rank, he has no
right to wrap these bulky impcdimcnta about
him, like the waddcd amor of Chinaman, to
obstruct the highway and thrust unhampered
and probably better men into the gutter. He
mag have the blood of the Towards
and million in his pocket, and
his black nciShbOr not penny; but
opinions, tastes, the chances Of sovereignty,
share of the world. in short, belong just as
much to one as the other. You have no right
to swaggcr along the road, saying. u am
richer or rcddcr blOoded or better bred than
"thcse Others" And in just as much rs you
do it, whoever you are, Won make yourself
public nuisance. Neither have you any more
right to thrust your miseries or dC fcCts into
view. a certain amount of wholesome cheer
fulness belongs to the public just as do the
sunshine and pure air, and man owes it to
his neighbors to keep his mental and physi-
NJ a. eifrht ha tn
his drains clean. Tie men Of genius
or the members of a family who pcIpc;ualIy
are laying bare Their mental sores are in the
same category as the btsgar who uncOyers
his deformty in the roads tie. For the same
reason you owe not only decent respect but
courtesy to your fcllow-travellers. II a kind
word and CHEEKY smile will help your wife
or friend or servant to carry her load more
easily, and God furnished yOu with u mouth
and voice to give them, 1t is Il debt due from
you to thcm-nOt a favor. Every man, in
short, owes his quota toward making the world
pleasanter aud warmer, and the sour, prumpish
fellow who cmlls the air with his spite and
sarcasm is only Il bad debtor lodging pay
mcnt of his dues.
Something also you owe TO yourself this
New Years morning. Self-respect when you
have that you will not be afraid of being
patrOnized or trodden upon you will DO
neither snobbIshly scrve nor conceited in
manner; no matter what yOur birth OF sta
ton, when you look upon your fellow-men
only as brothers whom you can probably help
upon their way, you will escape vulgarity
and gain real good breeding. You owe it TO
yourself, too, to keep yourself clean, not only
in body, but in soul. You started out in the
beginning temperate, chaste, kindly, just as
you were healthy in flesh What right have
you to make of this creature within you n
drunken, malicious, pest-breeding thing in
the world, any more than you would have to
fill your body with contagious diseasesf
The more VIC think of 1t the more Oppres-
sve becomes the aggregate of debt we owe,
which must be paid on every day and hour of
the New Year to ourselves and to our neigh
bors. Ii we do not pay it we all know well
enough the mean, shabby consciousness of
Sinking, of deficiency and incurable disease
with which We shall creep along But whether
We shall pay it or not, or, if we do, Who it is
that can help Us meet our obligations in n
manly, hearty. honorable fashion, is for each
one of lis to find out for himself TO-DAY.
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OFFER NO TEMPTATION
In many of the best houses of this city Phladel-