Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1890-05-29

. LIZ
withcrcd, the God of day goes down
upon the drcary scene, aud, in short,
you are forever fioored, as l am"
i This is a concise statement of an
everlasting truth which cannot be
too diligently needed. A disregard
of it, like the disregard of any other
law of nature, is sure to be punished,
though the punishment is not al
ways distributed as it ought to be to
satisfy our ideas of Justice. If
when the profits of a business dimin-
lsh, those who arc conducting it can
not nerve themselves to leduco their
personal expenditure in a cores
ponding degree, they must neccssa-
rily eat into their capital and when
this process once begins it must inevi-
tably end in ruin.
One of the drawbacks of the
democratic constitution Of our socie
ty is that very few of our citizens
are content to let their imm ediate
acquaintanccs surpass them in their
style of living. A man with a thou
sand dollars year does not, indeed,
expect to live like man with five
thousand, nor the man with five
thousand, like one with hun
drcd thousand. But the thousand
dollar man is under constant
strain to emulate his fifteen hundred
dollar ncighbor, and the five thou
sand dollar man the one with six or
seven thonsand, and so on all the
way up the social scale. Between
each grade Of income and the ono
next above it there is perpetual
rivalry, stimulating excessive ex-
penditure. In older countries where
rank and position are fixed by the
accident of birth, this rivalry is un-
known. People, as the catcchism
cnjoins, learn to do their duty in
that state of life unto which it has
pleased God to call them, and only
in exceptional cases do they try to
raise themselves above it. Here,
where everything is fluid and plastic,
and where men can start with moth
ing at Is or 20 to become million
aires ut 40 or so, no such stagnation
Is possible. "Onward and upward"
is every ones motto, and while it is
Il good one for the advancement of
the country i'll wealth and material
prosperity, it leads to n struggle,
not SO much for existence MS for DO
sition, in which great numbers sue
cumb.
We were talking over this subject
in the Eoccnc club one afternoon
and when | advanced the views
have presented above | was
gratlficd to find not only that they
commanded general assent, but
that they were even regarded as be-
ing too moderately expressed. Per-
haps it was because my friends, as
well as myself, belong to IN earlier
epoch, and cannot easily bring our
selves to look at things with modern
eyes, but we all agreed that facility
in getting money and credit, q
want Of personal knowledge of mems
circumstances, and especially the
prevailing tendency to extravaganza
in living, are the main causes of
bankruptcies.
AS most of us, too, were crusty
old bachelors, we went on and de-
clarcd that the women Of the day
are principally to blame for this
state Of affairs, though, Of course,
we were candid enough to admit
that the men ought not to allow
themA elves to be ruled by the women
as they do. I do not know much
about the matter myself personally,
but, from what hear and read, the
style OF living which prevails in this
city is perilous in the extreme to
business solvcncy, and it results
mainly from the efforts of women to
surpass, or, at least, to equal one
another in luxury and display. Lux
ury, rs | said a few weeks AGO.
speaking of the New Years ball, is
a potent force in developing wealth,
but, like all forces, it must be con-
trollcd or it will do mischief. Be
cause Mrs. Astor has splendid dia-
monds, Mrs. Vanderbilt mapnifi-
cent house, and Mrs. Whitney
beautiful ballroom, or because some
dozen or more other women i'm So
cIcty are able, like them, to indulge
IN iinc houses and dresses, wear
brilliant jewels, and give sumptu-
Gus entertainments, it by no means
follows that all their less fortunate
acquaintance need strive to do tho
so TNh,,, Il