Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1891-07-23
OV ERDRAWN ACCOUNTS.
Old Father Time as the Cashier of
a Great Bank.

us CHECK III ndnui 10 the wicket Tor MS
cash. 1 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 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 a check of yours"
what? That's why came myself
Overdrawn! I should have twenty
years here yet to draw on!' exclaimed
the excited gentleman, growing pale
with every word.
GLOW old do you reckon yourself?"
asked Cashier Time
"Why, only fifty-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. I'm
1854 you, being then nineteen years of
age, drew three years in one. The
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 twcnty-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-five, and
beginning to grow old"
Very WELL" 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 weeks into 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 l looked the servants of
the bank came in-Death, Dust and
Forgetfulness-andc carried him out.
Then came a haggard wretch whose
name indorsed upon the back of check
read, "a. Suicide" lie faltered on:
81 suppose this check is worthless.
There is not another day for me-"
"On the contrary, there are yet forty
years, that you can draw against; hap
py, useful years. spent for mans good
and Gods praise"
81 doubt it. There must be some
mistake"
mot so. What shall do with these
years If yoa will not take them? No
other man can use them; yet thousands
would be glad of them, begging So pitt
fully. And there are so many thou
sands of unclaimed years, filed up
within my vaults! They shall be added
to eternity again wheR I. Old Time, 60
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 and
carry him out as they had Old Avarice
before,
Then l saw tremendous checks paid
out to Malice, Revenge, Jealousy,
Evil Imaginations, Bad Thoughts, Dis
content. Old Time could not help speak
ing his warning, and though it was
none of his business, he said:
Gentlemen, nothing draws such |
heavy drafts on a mans deposits of |
years OF health and strength as I'M
wholesome thoughts They are more
than 'unwholesome deeds if
possible. Look out that you do not
overdraw your accounts"
Then I saw young man at the win
dow. Time asked:
How will you have it, sir? In large
bills or small?"
In large, if you please. Let me live
4 year in a day. A year of pleasure
into one wild day! The good
things of forty must be had and used
up at twenty. I cannot wait"
And Old Time smiled with a sardonic
,url of the lip as he observed how the
roung fool was making the same mis-
AXE that the old fool a few steps be-
lore had made. But the check was
,ashed in the big bills.
l saw, too, as I stood there, how men
,verdrew their accounts of Good Rep
ltation. A man may, it seems, build
Up a reputation by long and faithful
Tears which will Withstand a good
many blunders; he may check against
{ with careful words and thoughtless
leeds for some time before that stored
rood reputation is wasted On the
whole, the etter part of the community
would rather believe good of one Of
heir foremost fellow-citizens than
vii, it is not pleasant to hear a scan
Ial aired before the faces of their chill
Iren; not pleasant TO see an old friend
all; and many people are so related so
iallv and commercially with this man
# a leading position that his ruin would
nfict a loss on them Hence they |
Ieep his account good at the bank over
which Time presides; they do it by
EXCUSES, lending their countenance to
spendthrift and hope for
= = II