Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1891-07-21
OV ERDRAWN ACCOUNTS.
Old Father Time as the Cashier of
a Great Bank

Old Time sat as cashier behind the
window of a bank where all men must
do business. A long line of custom
ers, too vast to count, came, each with
his check in hand, to the wicket for his
cash. / stood and watched the scene
for hours, till it came my own turn to
place my check under Father Times
gray and ancient scrutiny.
A well-dressed man, with confident
air, with a hard, resolute face and yet
lips bitten as If with pain, threw in
his check.
Your account is overdrawn," said
Time. II told your friend so yesterday
who presented n check of yours"
what? That's why came myself.
Overdrawn! Il should have twenty
years here yet to draw ony' exclaimed
with every word.
asked Cashier Time.
why, only flfty-fve. And three
'score-years- and-ten is the deposit to be-
gin with
"See," said Time, thrusting a great
book under the poor mans eyes. Sin
1854 you, being then nineteen years of
y
next year, and the next, and the next
you drew three years in one. You
squandered them in dissipation. You
drank them up. AS Cleopatra, the
Egyptian queen, dissolved pearls in a
glass of wine and drank the costliest
banquet cup that opulent vanity had
ever seen, so you drank up the years
between nineteen and twenty-three
You threw away days and nights as a
king in old times threw coin to the
rabble. When by the calendar you
were aged twenty-five by my strict and
accurate books you were thirty-fve, and
beginning to grow old"
very WE'LL" began the trembling
figure in reply, "but I reorganized
after that Ten years lost, then re-
formed"
"True. But in 1874 you drew days
and months very fast again. For the
sake of being rich you squandered
strength like a spendthrift. You
crowded three weeksinto one for long
while In ten years you lived out
twenty; did the work of twenty, the
worry, the fighting, the litigation, the
travel, the greedy sins of twenty years.
You have gotten your wealth. You
have gained the whole world and lost
your life. Whether you have lost your
soul or not is not for me to say. God
knows that. This bank does no bust
ness IN eternity. The account is over
drawn sir. Step aside, old man of fifty
five, customers are waiting"
And while 1 looked the servants of
the bank came in-Death, Dust and
Forgetfulness-and carried him out.
Then came a haggard wretch whose
name Endorsed upon the back of a check
read, "a. Suicide" He faltered on:
81 suppose this check is worthless.
There is not another day for me-"
ION the contrary, there are yet forty
years, that you can draw against; hap
Ply, useful years, spent for mans good
and Gods praise"
II doubt it. There must be some
mistake"
mot So What shall do with these
years If you will not take them2 Nc
other man can use them; yet thousands
would be glad of them, begging So pitt
fully. And there are so rNany thou.
sands of unclaimed years, led ur
within my vaultsl They shall be added
to eternity again when 1, Old Time, &c
out of business. Yet eternity Is NO
richer for them. Take your years and
be happy in them as God intended"
But the foolish heart declined; and
saw the three servants come in anc
carry him out as they had Old Avarice
before.
Then I saw tremendous checks paiC
out to Malice, Revenge, Jealousy
Evil Imaginations, Bad Thoughts, Dis
content. Old Time could not help speak
ing his warning, and though it wa
none of his business, he said:
Gentlemen, nothing draws sucl
heavy drafts on a mans deposits O
years of health and strength as I'm
wholesome thoughts. They are NOR,
expensive than unwholesome deeds i
possible. Look out that you do no
overdraw your accounts"
Then l saw a young man at the win
dow. Time asked:
''How will you have it, sir9 In larg
bills or small2"
I'm large, if you please. Let me iv
year in a day. A year of pleasur
crowded into one wild day! The goo,
things of forty must be had and use'
up at twenty. I cannot wait"
And Old Time smiled with a sardoni
curl of the lip as he observed how tn
young fool was making the same mis-
take that the old fool a few steps be
fore had made. But the check wa
cashed in the big bills.
saw, too, as stood there, how mel
overdrew their accounts of Good Rep
utation. A man may. it seems, bull
up a reputation by long and faithful
years which will withstand goo
many blunders; he may check agains
it with careful words and thoughtlcs
deeds for some time before that store