West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1888-09-14
ABOUT MONEY.


hold it no longer. 1t was written
by Mrs. Dina Mullock Claik and is
worth reading once, twice, nay three
times.
have lately been re-reading,
with unabated admiration, that won
derful novel, Thaekeray's Newcomes,
and, closing it, was struck by the fact
that the key note of the book is
money-its use and abuse, the want
of it, the craving for it, the careless
ness or contempt OF it. From the
outset. when the Newcome family
originated by allying itself to a
wealthy widow, to the last chapter,
when Ethel uses Lady Kews boards
to repay the not quite imaginary
wrong done by her uncle to the
"Campaigner'-m is at the
core of everything, the root of all
evil, the source ofall good. Ethel's
pititul voluntary slavery to her
worldly old grandmother, her own
sacrifice of Give, and that of Lady
Clara to her brother Barnes-in fact,
the general victimization of good
people by bad, which is the heading
motif of the story, all originate in
money. Nay, the dear old Colonel
himself, with his childish careless
ness and culpable ignorance in the
matter of L. S. d., is, in spite of his
virtues, really the cause Of half the
misery of the book. He allows Mm
self to be fleeced by his contenipti-
BILE brotIIer-in-law; he helps, not
honest folks only, but these lovable
prodigals, f. Bayham and Jack Bel
size; he tries to win Ethel for Give
by pecuniary chicanery which no
honest SON ought ever to have ac-
cepted, and no true hearted girl have
been influenced by; and finally, in
the affair of the Bundelcund Bank,
he recklessly uses not only his own
but other peoples money, whose
ruin he most assuredly causes by
his innocent idiocy just as much as
il he had been the greatest swindler
alive. Yet he is exalted into a he
ro; we weep over him, and never
think of condemning him; and L
shall be considered the most hard
hearted wretch alive if | dare to say
that would not have had Colonel
Newcome as father, uncle, husband,
or confidential friend, for the world!
And why 4? Because he was def
cient in the one point, the pivot up
on which society turns-the right
use and conscientious appreciation
of money.
In this he is not alone. 1t may
seem another piece of heresy to pro
mulgate, but very few men know
how properly to use money, They
can earn it, lavish it, hoard it, waste
it; but to deal with it wisely, as a
means to an end, and also as ga
cred trust, to be made the best of
for others as well as themselves, is
an education difficult ofacquirement
by the masculine mind, so difficult,
that one is led to doubt whether
they were meant to acquire it at all,
and whether in the just distribution
of duties between the sexes it was
not intended that the man should
earn, the woman keep-he accumu-
late, and she expend; especially as
most women have by nature quail
ity in which men are often fatally
deiicient-"the infinite capacity for
taking trouble"
The nobler sex 'can't be bother
ed" with minutie. What is a pal
try five pounds to me ?" / have
heard said in excuse of its quite un
necessary expenditure, when every
day have to deal with hundreds
and thousands" Or, ''Whv keep
daily accounts ? My clerks do thst.
For me, l just put two or three
pounds in my pocket, spend them
till they are all gone-and then put
in two or three more" l appeal to
the candid masculine mind, if this
is not the ordinary way of thinking,
at least of those to whom fate has
kindly given the "two or three
pounds" always in pocket, without
need to beg, borrow or steal
But this paper is no criticism of
the opposite sex; l only wish to say
few words to my own, on sub
iect which, especially at the present
time concerns them most nearly
the subject of money.
Unsentimental, unheroic, some
will say unchristian, as it may
sound, our right or wrong use OF
money is the utmost test of charac-
ter, as well as the root of happiness
or misery. throughout our whole
lives. And this secret lies not SO
much with men as with women. In
stead of striving to make ourselves
their rivals, would it not be wiser to
educate ourselves into being their
helpmates not merely a wives, but
as daughters, sisters, every relation
in which capable woman csn help
man, and an incapable one bring
him to ruin ? especially on that par