The Indianapolis sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1880-1904, 1885-02-01

~eslthy and fashionable classes have lit.
lie occasion 10 travel abroad for pleasure
and To enrich other countries by their
expenditure, while the opulent Of all
lands In both hemispheres make Paris
their headquarters for purposes of re-
taxation, dissipation and pleasure, lavish
ing in that capital their gold with an un-
sparing hand.
Our own philosopher, Franklin, who
preached gospel of thrift in his max
inns, which are as honely as those OF the
ploughman's poet, Hesiod, doubtless
drew part of his inspiration from
French sources.
Even in this country, with Its sparse
population scattered over a continent,
and with its unparalleled opportunities
for all to acquire competency, If not
opulence, thrift il not to be despised or
dispensed with as a needless virtue in
the midst of so much plenty For
wicked waste makes woful want, here as
elsewhere. The race here is on fire, a.
an English observer SAYS, with the allur
ing prospect of wealth for all. But the
slow and sure methods of accumulation
are at discount, and everybody wants
to vault into fortune at a bound.
Hence the country is always populous
with failures, and is strown, like a beach
after a storm, with financial wrecks.
"Poor Richards Almanac" as a code
Of economical ethics and guide to pros
perity, is not much consulted In these
days. Expensiveness is trait of com.
mercial and industrial nations living in
cold climates. The people of New Eng
land, before they became industrial and
commercial, were most frugal people
Small things properly husbanded. un-
erringly lead to great things. If New
England is opulent and luxurious to-day,
il is because of the thrift of the New
England of other days We Americans
of to-day, for obvious reasons, not only
have not the thrift of our ancestors, but
we are far behind Europeans of what
ever nationality in that respect.
Our southern people were in other
days unthrifty, and rather prided them
selves on the fact, scorniDg the inventive
and gainful disposition of the Yankee
But the southerner of to-day Is beginning
to be changed man from him of the
antebellum period, who regarded it as
unbecomiDg gentleman to contribute
anything to the patent ofhce.
CARLYLE alludes to the fact that the
ancient Romans, before they were distin-
guished as conquerors, were a thrifty
people, labOrious husbandmen. Thrift,
he says, is quality held in no esteem,
and is generally regarded as mean; it is
certainly mean enough and Objectionable
for its interfering with all manner OF in
tercourse between man and man. But
thrift well understood includes in itself
the best virtues that man can have In
the world it teaches him self-denial, to
postpone the present to the future, to
calculate his means and regulate his ac-
items accordingly; thus understood, it in
cludes all that man can do in his voca-
ton; even in its worst state, it indicates
great people.
1t is natural enough for Scotchman
to eulogize thrift, which is an indigenous
trait of his race, and the ladder by which
his countrymen so frequently climb to
affluence, both at home and abroad. The
profuse man, who is above considerations
of dollars and cents, unless he has the re-
sources of QG9sus, and even if he has,
generally cons to grief. People praise
him, as Timdh's parasites praised him,
as long as his purse shows no signs of
haccidity and collapse. But, when the
bottom dollar is reached, the lavish
mans benefciaries and boon-companions
are found calling attention to the fact
that they had said all along that their
friend Timon must ultimately go to the
bow-wows 1t is wonderful with what
resignation the parasites of prOdigality
zoe II finally reduced tn the husks of
penitence and poverty. Meantime cur
rent civilization has devised and is de-
vising, all sorts of schemes and institu-
tiens for promotiong thrift among the
masses of people.