The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1884-09-04
Extra7acance IS Theft.

Every man before God and OF
his knees must judge what is ex
travagance. When one goes int
expenditures beyond his means, ht
is extravagant. When one buys
anything he cannot pay for, he is
extravagant. There are families in
all our cities who can scarcely pay
their rent, and who owe all the
merchants in the neighborhood, and
yet have an apparel unfit for their
circumstances and are all the time
sailing so near shore that business
misfortune or an attack of sickness
prepares them for paupersism. 1t is
well known that there are thous-
ands of families in our great cities
who stay in neighborhood until
they have exhausted all their capac-
ity to get trusted. They stay in
the neighborhood until the drug
eists will let them have no more
medicines, and the butchers will
give them no more meat, and the
bakers will give them no more
bread, and the groceryman will give
them no more sugar. Then they
find the region unhealthy, and they
hire a carman, whom they never
pay, to take them to some new
quarters where the merchants, the
druggists, the butchers, the bekers
and grocerymen come around and
give them the best rounds of beef
and the best sugars and the best
merchandise of all sorts until they
find out that the only compensation
they are gong to get is the acquain-
tance of their patrons. If a man
buys anything he does not mean to
pay for, he is a thief. OF course,
sometimes men are flung of misfor-
tune and they cannot pay. l know
men who are just as honest in hav
ing failed as other men are honest
in succeeding. 1 suppose there is
scarcely a man who has gone
through life that there have been
some times when he has been so
flung of misfortune he could not
meet his obligations. But all that
l put aside. There are a multitude
of people who buy that which they
never intend to pay for, for which
there is no reasonable expectation
they will ever be able TO pay. Now,
why not save the merchants as much |
as you can? Why not go some day |
to his store and when nobody Is
looking just shoulder the ham or
the spare-rib and in modest silence
steal awayP That would be less
because in the other way
you take not only the mans goods,
but you take the time of the mer
chant and the time of his account
ant, and you take the time of the
who brought you the
goods. Now, if you must steal, steal
in way to do ss little damage to
the trader as possible. John Ran
dolph arose in the American senate
when a question of national fiDance
was being discussed, and stretching
to his full height, in shrill
voice, cried out: ''Mr. Chairman,
have discovered the philosophers |
stone which turns everything into
gold; Pay as you gop Society /
has got to be reconstructed on this
subject, or these times of panic and
will never end. You
have have no right to ride in a car
riage for which you are hopelessly
in debt to the wheelright who fur
nished the landau and to the horse
dealer who provided the blooded
span and to the harness-maker who
che gay steeds and to
he livery-man who has provided
,he stabling and to the driver who,
With rosetted hat, sits on the coach
,ox. The finer the carriage the
,etter 1 like it; the quicker the
lorses you have the better / like it;
,ut if you are hopelesslv in debt
or them, get down and walk like
he rest of as. 1t is not the abso
ute necessities of life which send c
eople into dishonesties and fling I
hem into misfortunes. 1t is almost
lways the superfuities. God has
romised us house, but not a pal
ce; raiment, but not chinchilla; S
bod, but not canvas-back duck
'r. Talmage, in Frank Leslie's Sun :
ay Magazine for September.