The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-11-23
MORALS IN HARD TIMES.

with which a man spends his money
usually represents the difficulty with
which he has won it; that is why rich
mems sons are apt to be lavish-the dol
lars they fling away represent no mem
cries OF anxious toll, priyation and self
denial; that is why bandit is always
generous with his guineas-they represent
no toll or pains beyond the effrontery
necessary to steal purse on the highway
or the skill that bursts a bank vault from
the outside-any dishonest fool can break
bank vault if he is custodian of its keys.
Swindiers as a rule are extravagant- for
they win not by honest, laborious indus
try, but by the immoral employment of
their wits to cozen honest industry out of
Its legitimate accumulations; and, going
up higher in the scale, men who win
times, are free in their habits and expendi-
lures, for the same reason that rich boys,
bandits and swindlers are lavish-the
money came easy and will go quick.
Flush times are times of monetary ex-
travagance, times of animal indulgence,
vices. Hard times always show a great
improvement in public morals in this re-
spect. No man, short of drunkard, but
will do less drinking and gambling when
he tolls hard for his dollar than when his
dollar falls into his lap with little or no
effort on his part, when he gathers it as
easily as he could blackberry from bush
on woodland road. In very many senses
the French cynic was right when he said
that "the average man is generally about
as wicked as he can afford to be-" and in
hard times many natures rule their spirits
down to frugality and temperance, because
they are too honest to steal dollar too
manly to play sucker when they cannot
afford to pay any longer for the convivi-
atty in which they have been tempted by
flush times to indulge.
The number of marriages in England
has always huctuated with the price of
corn, and so the number of an honest
mans Injuries fiuctuates with the price of
his labor. The amount of ale and ardent
spirits in Great Britain falls off enor-
mously in hard times and as regularly
rises with good times, which brings US
back to our first conclusion, that from the
broadcast point of view men are about as
wicked as they think they can afford to be.
Mr.. Goschen, the financial minister of
Lord Salisbury's administration, in his ex-
position of his budget to the house of COM
mons once SAID that the increased prosper
ity of the past year explained the great in
crease in the consumption of alcoholic
drinks. In England for fifty years past
statistics have shown that in good years
people drank freely, while in hard times
the sales of drink fell off immensely. The
same is true of the United States. During
the plethora of cheap money during the
civil war and after the war up to
the panic of 1873, our consumption
of malt liquors and ardent spirits
was enormous compared with the con-
sumption of those years that stood for ex-
ceptional ''hard times" This does not
mean probably that there were any more
drunkards in the good years than during
"hard times" but it means that in "hard
times" all prudent people cut down their
luxuries, and get down closer to the bed
rock of the necessities of life both in diet
and dress. When money comes slow and
hard man of sense. remembering how
much work it represents, is slow to let it
go for things he can do without,
but when money comes in fast
and is easily won it is loosely held, and is
expended for Injuries, because the man
thinks he can afford TO ''treat" himself
and his family. The rich man, the man of
moderate competence, and the wage
worker all reduce expenses, and the sale
of Injuries falls off greatly in bad years.
In all the Injuries of life, expensive cloth
ing, costly cigars, theater and opera
tickets, high priced food, there are
probably the same increase and decrease
in good and bad years that are noted in the
consumption of malt liquors, wines and
ardent spirits.
Furthermore, "hard times" are always
conspicuous for the multiplication of re-
ligious revivals, temperance meetings, etc.
When business is dull, times are hard and
money is scarce. the enforced economy and
austerity of living turns the "sick devil of
society" into a monk, but when times are
good and money plenty 1.-The sick devil"
hastens to fling his monks cowl
and cassock out of the window;
his penitential mood departs with
biithe business and he throws his
garb of mourning he has been wearing for
"spilt milk" at the head of the fugitive
shape of departing poverty. The statis-
tics of temperance and religious revivals
show that these movements flourish in
"hard times" and fade out in good times.
Many so-called years of reform" do not
stand for any serious, deep-seated moral
movement; they represent nothing more
than the economic prudence or necessity
which persuades man whose income is
cut down sharply TO retrench by scaling
down his list of Injuries. The
fluctuations in the consumption
of alcoholic drinks are therefore rather
deceptive when comparison Is made be-
tween year Of prosperity and year of
commercial ana industrial depression. In
a broad sense high sentiment has less 10
do with the conduct and behavior of
human society than self-interest. The
best and wisest man perhaps may be said
to behave neither better nor worse than,
in a large sense. he thinks he can afford 10.
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Ex-president Cleveland has written a