The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1882-07-27


families hardly able to pay their rent,
and in debt to every merchant in the
neighbOrhOC d, who sport apparel inapt
| for their circumstances, and run 80 near
the shore that the first misfortune in
business or the first besiegment of sick
ness tOsses them into pauperism. There
are thousands of families moving from
neighbOrhOOd to neighbOrhOOd, staying
] long enough in each one to exhaust all
their capacity to get trusted. They ymove
| away because the druggists will give
them no more medicine, and the butch
ers will afford them no more meat, and
the bakers will give them no more bread,
and the grOcers will furnish them with
no more sugar until they pay up. Then
they suddenly find out that the neigh
bOrhOOd is unhealthy, and they hire a
carman, whom they never pay, to take
them to part of the city where all the
| druggists and butchers and bakers and
| grOceTs will be glad to see them come in.
and sending to them the best rounds of
beef and the best coffee, and the best of
every thing, until the slight suspicion
comes into their brain that all the pay
they will ever get from their customer
| is the honor of his society. There are
about five thousand such thieves in
Brooklyn. l call it by plain name, be-
cause when man buys thing he does
not expect to pay for, he is thief.
There are circumstances when men
cannot meet their obligations. 1t is as
honest for some men to fail as it is for
| other men to succeed. They do their
best, and through the misfOrtunes of
life they are thrown, and they cannot
pay their debts. That is one thing, but
when we go and purchase an article for
which you know there is no probability
OF your ever making payment, you are a
thief.
Why don't you save the time of the
merchant and the expense of an account
ant for him? Why don't you go down
some day to his store, and, when no one
is looking, shoulder the ham and the
spare rib, and in modest silence take
them along with you? That would be a
lesser crime, for now you get not only
the merchants goods, but you get his
time and you rouse up his expectations.
If you must steal, steal so it will be the
least damage to the trader. John Ran
dOlph arose in the American Senate, and,
stretching himself up to full height,
cried out with shrill voice. "Mr. Chair
man, | have found the philosophers
stone that turns every thing into gold
pay as you CO."
My friends, society has to be recon-
stTucted on the subject. You have no
right to ride in carriage when you owe
the wheelwright who furnished the
landau, and the horse dealer who pro-
vided the horses, and the harness maker
who caparisOned the gay steeds, and the
liveryman who furnished the stabling,
and the driver who sits with rOsetted hat
on your cOach-bOx. am glad to see you
ride. The finer your horses and the bet
ter your carriage the better it pleases
me, But if you are in debt for the
equipage, and hOpelessly in debt, get
down and walk, like the rest of US. 1t
is well to understand that it is not like
the absolute necessities that we find it
so hard to meet, but the fictitious wants.
God promises US shelter, but not a pal
ace; and raiment, but not chinchilla; and
food, but not canvas-back duck. As long
as we have enough to meet the positive
necessities of life we ought to be content
until we can afford the superfluities. As
soon as you see a man deliberately con-
sent his OutgO shall exceed his income
you may know that he has started on
the broad road to bankruptcy and moral
ruin. The man who came from the oil
wells in Pennsylvania, having gained a
sudden fortune of $2,00O,OO0, and then
ran through it in less than two years,
illustrated on large scale what some
are doing on small scale.
This wholesale extravaganza accounts
for great deal of depression in national
finances. Aggregates are made up of
units, and so long as one-half of the
people of this country are in debt to the
other half you cannot have a healthy
financial condition. The national re-
sources are drawn OFF, not only for use
less extravagances but for those that are
positively perniciOus. We spend in this
country $95,OOO,O0O every year for cigars
and tobacco. In the United States we
expend annually 81 ,4S3, 100000 for rum.
The widespread extravaganza also ac-
counts for much of the crime. 1t is the
source of many abScOndings, bankrupt
cies, defalcatiOns and knaveries. The
store on Broadway and the Office in Wall
street are swamped by the residence on
father has his craft capsiZed because he
carries too much sail of point lace and
Autille guipure. That is what springs
leak in the merchants mOney-till, and
pulls down the Trust Companies, and
cracks the pistol of the suicides, and
halts this nation on its high career of
prosperity. l arraign this monster of
extravaganza in the sight of all the peO-
pie, and ask you to pelt it with your
se0rn and denOunce 1t with your anath-
ema.
The widespread extravaganza also ac-
counts for much of the pauperism in
the country. Who are the individuals
and the families thrown on our chari-
ty? Who has sinned against them so
that they sufferP 1t is often the case
that their parents or grandparents had
all luXuries, lived every thing up, more
than lived every thing up, and they died
leaving their families in want. The
grandparents of these beggars supped
on Burgundy and wOOdcOck. There are
great many families who have every
luxury in life, yet expend every dollar
that comes in, and, perhaps, few dol
lars more, not even taking the common
Christian prudence of having their lives
insured. While they live all is well,
but when they die their children are
pitched into the street. tell you a man
has no right to die under such circum-
stances. 1t is grand larceny, even his
death. If a man has been Industrious
and economical, and has not farthing
to leave his children as he goes away
from them, he has a right to put them
in the hands of the Father of the father
less, and know they will be cared for;
but if you, with every comfort in life,
are lavish and imprOyident, and then
depart this life leaving your children to
be hurled into pauperism, you deserve
fg.l l.