Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1891-10-07
What to Do with the Money.

red fuGur0. CrOpS are aDunuhut duu
gil sell at high price, they say, and this
give unwonted prosperity to all classes
II the people. Those who work for wages
will have better pay and more employment,
the manufacturers will sell their goods,
leaving them no stock to hold over, and
everybody will have a surplus cash in his
pocket. Hard times have gone by; trade
will be active; nothing will be stagnant;
stocks and bonds will go up with rush;
the winter of discomfort will be turned into
a summer of rejoicing, and only the incura-
BILE cynic and the incorrigible grumbler will
remain unhappy or discontinued.
We have not drawn this picture ou1-
selves; it is simple copy Of the highly.col-
ored sketch that is on almost every easel
The path of prosperity has been cleared of
stumbling. blocks and the clumsiest plodder
may reach the goal of his desires. We
have not held this up to view to suggest
that it is overdrawn or painted in too vivid
tints. We admit, for the moment, that it
is not imaginative, and that all of it is
sober verify certain to be realized by those
who base their hopes upon it. There is
one thing still to be considered and that is
the use which should be made of the golden
harvest. Suppose that the farmer, whose
purse has been somewhat lean for many
months, fluids his income increased and his
pocket full of cash; what will he do with
it? We have heard discussions already on
this theme. Cne said he would "pick up a
little more land" Another declared that
he would Improve his place." A third
had planned to dress up his family and
buy new wagon. A fourth would use the
extra cash fer an excursion to the Pacific
coast. And yet all were in debt, and three
out of the four owed back interest on a
farm mortgage.
The first use which any one who has felt
the sting of poverty should make of a pros
porous year is to apply the money to free
himself from the burden of debt. We
know the temptation to further procrasti-
nation. We have heard the honest COMES
sion of one who had been some time in ar
rears that settling the old score was .tlike
paying for dead horse" But honesty de
mands it, and it is the only true philos-
allow all the fresh income, lay by in the
place littlenest-egg in a savings bank
come other good investment. To-mor.
aow may not ssbe as this day or much more
abundant which is what the siren OF
pleasure always sings when the lap is full
and the sky ID unclouded. The first
savings are prophesy and a pledge Of
future thrift. 1t has been the open con
fession OF every man who has acquired @
fortune that the first little savings were
y hardest trial of the whole career.
Ne two steps on the road to perpetual
h ty are thus distinctly marked. The
ss q as dollar in his hand that is not
IN his own. He owes 1t to some one
vi u the payment is due. But appetite calls
it's qualification, and there is something
ne would like to have which the dollar will
buy, and he has not the courage which
honesty demands. So he gratifes himself
and lets the debtor wait. Or he owes nc
debt, and has the dollar in possession
Thrift says clay it by for wet day, or as
the beginning of new estate" But the
temptation to indulgence is strong, and he
has not the sturdy self-denial to say "no''
to the besetment, and he spends it foI
something he could have done without
Fortunes are not so much 'tmade'' rs
saved" There is not wage-earner in
the country who does lot waste enough to
keep him out of better circumstances. We
dare any one who denies this, to give an
account of months outlay. A grumbler
who was always bernoaning his sad con.
"a. dition was honest enough to do this at our
suggestion, and he found that out of an
average income of $40 month, he had
absolutely wasted or spent for that which
was not necessary more than one quarter
of it. He might have been just as well
cared for, and at the end of the year had
over hundred dollars in the savings bank.
This is not designed alone, or chiefly, for
the man who works by the day and lives in
a tenement house. There is even more
thoughtless disregard of the secret of thrift
in what are called the "better classes" than
among the very poor. False pride and
self-indulgence are the besetting sins that
sv, make go many lives seem hardly worth the
sng. The man of good family and very
s,ectable connections who recently sad
s ed wide circle of friends in Brooklyn
~ he exposure of his defalcations, might
Z nave been saved from the crime but for his
desire to live beyond his means both for the
show and the self-gratifeation. He had a
salary of So, 500 a year, and he spent twice
as much, stealing the rest from his en-
ployers. He wished to maintain certain
state, he enjoyed himself at his club and
this could not be done on So, 500 year.
There are hosts of people who do not
steal, some because they have no oppor-
tunity, and others because they would not
if they could, who yet yield to the same
temptations and sacrifice their peace of
mind for the sake Of keeping up an appear
ance of style which their income will not
warrant They are harassed With unpaid
bills, Or they are shut out from opportuni-
ties of usefulness or they are pinched and
dwarfed in body and mind at the demands
of an unreasonable and unrewardirg pride.
They cannot quite make both ends meet;
they get more and more behind every year,
and they never have dollar laid by for
sickness or other emergency, because they
will live beyond their means. Pride and
self indulgence have so many slaves that
are kept always under the lash, when a
heroic effort would restore them to freedom
and self-respeot. There is nothing worth
having in this world that can be gained
without self-denial, but the first step to in
dependence is refusal to lay any offerings
on the shrine Of that false divinity 80 many
worship. A man who sacrifices to false
pride loses his respect for himself and gains
nothing by it from the world.-New York
Journal of Commerce.
LOVES YOUNG DREAM.
Loves young dream was very bright